The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 17, 1932, Page 4

~ 13th St, New York € Published by the Comprodally Publishing Co, Inc, daily except Sunday, at 50 Bast City. N. Y. Telephone ALgonquin 4-7956. Cable Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 60 East 13th Street, New York, N, Y. “DAIWORK.” ‘Dail Yorker’ Party U.S.A. By mail everywhere: One year, of Manhattan and. Broum, New York City. ~ BUBBCRIPTION RATES: % Foreign: siz months, $3; two months, $1: exeéptiig Borouens one year, $8; siz montha, $4.50. WHY DOES NOT THE PARTY TAKE LEAD. ERSHIP?...IS LENIN ONLY A PICTURE HERE, AND HIS TEACHINGS, WELL... ONLY A BEAUTIFUL THEORY?” A Lette letter from a worker in a territory the most highly concentrated ind ons in the United States, whi h, confirms in the cleaest m with nt industrial Plenum in one df the most the npor' Fourteenth ar ied and | followed by ma hows in the mos 2 which formalism, rianism—lack of solid per 8 bonds with ¥ mper and actually s:cp the growth of our Par It shows how compelled by the unbearat ‘ced upon them by the three-year cris to the Communist Party for leadership. Tt shows how—and why—all too often they to find it Above all it shows the great opportunities which lie at the very door of the Party organiza- tions—and which they fail to take because of the deep-rooted formalism and sectarianism have caused a sort of dry rot in far too Party organizations. Independently of the Party orgar his territory this worker has arrive 2et concl: n, he has seen that the or- zation and leadership of the struggles of the remployed now is a central task of our Party in the which the Communist International long pointed out. ‘This worker is quite right in pointing out the huge and impermissible discrepancy between the hundreds of thousands of is population in his district—and the small size of the Party. ‘The causes for this are to be found in the attitude toward the working class and its prob- Jems and struggles which has made our Party, (notwithstanding the militant struggles it has led) still “a Party for instead of a Party of the masses. THE LETTER June 3, 1932 Bear Comretes: , I don’t know you, I don’t know your address even, but am using the Finnish Werkers’ Fed- eration as a medium for sending you this letter. As you are well aware, the situation in this country is getting desperate. Masses are get- ting ready to open revolt, unemployment, werry and in many cases open starvation is driving them to that point. But, Hh MASSES LACK LEADERSHIP. It was a fashion of the Social Democratic Party tens of years azo, and still is, to make a revolution e | tent, vr trom a Non-Party in theory, and behind closed doors. The Com- munist Party seems to follow, to a great ex- the footsteps of the aforesaid party, as far, at least, as this locality, the Wyoming Valley, which includes Wilkes-Barre, Pa., is | concerned, In this locality there are between 300,000 and | and 350,000 people. And to the Communist Party only 200 people belong! Why? | When a person goes to sleep he is still living alright. But he is not doing anything—he is just sleeping. That's what the Communist Party local organization is doing here. It is a grave accusation, I know, but I will herewith prove the same,-then you may use your own judgment. I have tried for a long time to know where the Communist Party headquarters are in this region. Several weeks ago a Finnish comrade took me there. Nobody’ was in, although it was 10 a.m, I called there again the next day at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. was the secretary and organizer. I had a long talk with the organizer. I gave him my opin- ion as to what should be done here, and it was —and still is—TO ORGANIZE THE UNEM- PLOYED, which the Communist Party here has failed to do. This is a golden opportunity for the Communist Party, if it only realizes this fact. Well, the comrade seemed to be lukewarm to my proposition, I told him one organizer is not enough here, we need hundreds of them and I'm willing to be one, and I teld him T would like to join the Communist Party. He told me that there are some other comrades in my city and that he is going to organize a nucleus here, and he promised to come to see me some day. However, as I am out of work, have been all this year and almost all of last year and a goodly part of the year 1930, you don’t blame me if I’m a bit impatient, and even desperate? T can’t spend my time idling any longer. I have to do something! And the only some- thing there is to do is to talk to other unfor- tunates. And one can meet them anywhere now. I have talked to a good many of them and to different nationalities. A Finnish comrade gave me three copies of the “Noon Hour Talk” pamphlet. I distributed them with the request to pass them to somebody else after it was read, I called again at the headquarters, -I told the comrade what I had done. He said it was alright. He gave me three additional “Noon Hour Talk” pamphlets, besides a couple of dozen leaflets of a coming mass meéting in Luzerne, Pa., where delegates were to Be elected to go to the National Communist Party Con- vention in Chicago, (This was @ couple of This time there Worker weeks ago.) I distributed the leaflets and the booklets and had long talks with different in- dividuals. Within a week I took the names and addresses of five different persons, three of them prospective members of the Com- munist Party, who were ready to join and also ready to subscribe to the Daily Worker. I took all these names to the headquarters. As nobody was in, { wrote a note and dropped in through tne hole in the door. I urged them to go after these persons and finish the work I had started. Afterward I saw some of these men and asked if anybody had come to see them, Every time the answer was in the nega- tive. I felt like a salesman might feel who was selling bad stock and had apprehended them. I have tried several times to get into the headquarters, before noon, afternoon, early and late, and nobody was ever in, Make your own conclusions. The unemployed here are ready to be or- ganized, ready to do anything. We only lack the leader. As they themselves say, is Lenin only a picture here and his teachings only— well—a beautiful theory? Why not strike when the iron is hot? Capitalists fear nothing more now than that the unemployed be organized. Why does not the Communist Party take the leadership. aN. We are of the opinion that the formalism and sectarianism and absolute disregard of the possibilitics of struggle disclosed in the above letter are not the monopoly of the particular Party organization referred to. It is our opinion, and the reports and discussion of the Four- teenth Plenum of the Central Committee con_ firm this, that an examination of practically every district and section of Party districts, will disclose similar conditions of lost opportunities and failure to utilize and develop the growing initiative of non-Party workers. We urge all leading comrades and committees to study this letter, to apply its searching criti- cisms to their own work—and to secure from large numbers of non-Party workers in their re- spective districts similar frank and detailed criti- cisms, to take these criticisms with-the utmost seriousness and make them available-to the en- tire Party organization. An din this way in- crease the tempo in the carrying out of the Fourteenth Plenum decisions, We welcome the letter of this worker and urge workers everywhere to send in letters to the Daily Worker telling what they think of our Party on the basis of their own experiences and to make, without hesitation, suggestions for aid- ing our Party to put into life, without delay, in this period of war preparations and ever-sharp- ening attacks upon the entire American working class, the decisions of the Fourteenth Plenum, Toward Revolution DISC ary Mass Work USSION, OF : THE 14TH PLENUM. WHAT’S WRONG WITH US? In the “Directives on the Main Points for Working Out a Resolution on the New York District,” we find the following paragraph: “What is true of the whole Party is EVEN MORE true of the New York District. Al- though some successes have been achieved (recruiting, trade union work, a few shop nuclei and groups), NO ESSENTIAL CHANGE has occured in the content of the district mass work since the 13th Plenum.” * IN many of the reports of the District Commit- tee we often hear that our Party in New York and for that matter everywhere else, has changed considerably due to the tremendous (fluctuation in membership. The majority of our members have been in the Party only a short ;time. It seems to me that when we are anal- yzing our weakness in mass work, such as un- employment, trade union, etc., tnat the above (is an important factor. Can we expect to carry on mass work successfully with a membership | which is young and inexperienced? My answer iis YES, provided, however, that we teach this jmembership how to work. (I hope that the {comrades will understand that by teaching the \new members how to carry on work, I do not 'refer to book learning only.) New Members Enthusiastic In Their Work ‘The District Resolution speaks of the sterility jef the work in the units, of the isolation of the shop nuclei, etc. This is correct. A good deal -of it is due to the fact that our members, many jof them, do not know the Party, do not under- stand how the Party functions, and many are mot even familiar with the structure of the Par- ty. In one of the units I found that out of 18 present at the unit meeting 15 were new re- cruits, being in the Party from two to five _months. ‘These were the members who had to ‘gerve on the unit buro, not knowing what the ‘unit buro is to do. These comrades were also \assigned to carry on unemploymert work in the \Meighborhood, building block committees, and, ‘Jas some of them expressed, did not know the ‘meaning of a block committee. It is therefore no mystery why we do not succeed in our work as we should. The com- Trades are willing to work, many of them are ‘enthusiastically tackling the job, but the results fre disappointing. It is quite natural that un- der such circumstances there develops a for- ,malistic approach to problems, that there is no (tendency to develop initiative in the units, that ithe units are waiting for directives from the |sections or district and develop a kind of inertia. District Committee must realize that the political training of our members is one of the ‘major tasks. med; we must utilize all avenues in this work ¢ Workers School should become the impor- tant instrument in this work. Political Training In Shop Work The poor registration for the courses in Shop lei Problems and Methods of Shop Work is that our comrades do not, realize ~tance-of these-courses. The. comrades, It is a task which cannot be post- | By A. MARKOFF however, cannot be blamed. The District must bear the responsibility. hese things should not be left to voluntary choice; the District should handle this as one of the primary tasks of the Party and the sections in assigning members for the courses should consider this a Party task equal to any of the tasks in the Party. The units | should ask for a report from the comrade at- tending the course. This however is not all. We are living in a period when things change with lightning rap- idity. New problems arise daily; the Party must and does react, but the members are bewildered, they do not understand what is taking place, why the Party issued such and such a slogan, etc. Our members are the agitators of our Party in the shops, factories, mills, etc. They must un- derstand the Party line, they’ must’ understand the Party principles, they must understand the elements of Leninism; without at least the ele- mentary knowledge they cannot and will not succeed in the work. Systematic Training should be made an integral part of our activities, conferences should be held from time to time, perhaps on a section scale, where leading mem- bers of the District and Central committees ex- MORE MACH. | ik the drive to cut labor costs coal operators, in addition to cutting wages, have been buying more mechanical loading macines. The total number of such machines used in speeding up bituminous workers is given by the U. S. Bureau of Mines as follows: 1930 1931 Mobile loading machines scrapers and duckbills., 835 Pit and car loaders....., 2,876 Hand-loaded conveyors .. 146 150 ‘The tonnage of deep-mined coal loaded by machine (or hand-loaded on a conveyor) in 1931 rose 13 per cent, while, at the same time, the total bituminous output in 1931 fell 19 per cent below the 1930 figure. Tilinois is far in the lead in tonnage mechan- ically loaded, but Illinois has not yet overtaken Wyoming in the percentage of total state out- put which is mechanically loaded. In every im- portant coal state except West Virginia and Virginia, the percentage mechanically loaded was higher in 1931 than ever before. Carrying the comparison back,ta-1920-we-tind the follow- ing figures: ‘ os In addition to the systematic training, which | 471586000 An 1034 plain questions of policy with reference to war, important issues of the election campaign, etc. Those of us who had to do with the Speakers’ Conferences which took place every Saturday, will admit that with all the shortcomings it has served to enlighten many of our members with regard to major problems such as war, unem- ployment, the Negro question, etc. Here again we must criticize several of our leading comrades very sharply for not appearing at the confer- ences when they were scheduled and to which they previously consented. Such attitude on the part of leading members tends to demoralize the members, who begin to develop a cynical attitude towards any undertaking by the Party where a leading comrade is involved. Giving leadership to the membership must be done not. only through articles in the press, or directives or resolutions, but also to come down to the membership when necessary and enlighten them on many of the problems, Closer personal contact with the members, ef- ficient training of our members, clarification of policies and problems will help to destroy form- alism, will develop effective agitators for the Party. Theory and practice will go hand in hand in a true Leninist way and the Party will progress rapidly and surely. MINES REPLACE MINE WORKERS Percentage of coal loaded by macbine or hand- loaded on conveyor 1931 1929 Wyoming .....cecceeeee. 55 45 Illinois . 51 30 Montana 46 a Indiana 26 18 Utah ... 26 18 Alabama 19 5 Pennsylvania (bituminous) 9 3 OhIO ...escccceeeeseseeeee 6 less than 1 Kentucky cecccccccecesene 2 1 West Virginia and Virginia 2 2 United States* ....... 13 7 *Machines are reported as loading less than one per cent of the output in Washington, Ark: ansas, Colorado, Tennessee, Misso':«/ Maryland, New Mexico, Iowa, Okl---e#l4, North Dakota and North Caroline ual tonnage loaded by ma« chines (or Hand-loade@ on conveyor) has risen from 97,862,000 tons of bituminous: in-1929. to ; AN ENEMY IN THE CAMP Close-ups on Kalinin --the Soviet Workers’ President By MYRA PAGE Our Correspondent in the Soviet Union ALT couldn't get over it. The day after the banquet given in honor of the May First delegations of foreign workers in the Kremlin by the Society of Old Bolsheviks” (veterans; of the 1905 arid 1917 revolutions), this Seattle sea- man kept mulling it Ove “Look here, this Kalinin. Say, this kind of president is sure a new one on me. Did you notice him last night, for all his specks and grey hairs bobbing around and enjoying himself like a kid mixing with us foreign work- ers. When he came to our table I started to get up, but he gave me a good shove back, quick like that, and took a chair along- side. Then he began S on asking me about KALININ things in Seattle. He knew about our general strike in ’21. And he sure talked plain and sensible about things over here. Nothing big cheese or up-stage about HIM. He’s a regular fellow—an ordinary worker, like you or me, and a president to boot. Just wait till I tell the boys back home!” Legs straddled, arms swing- ing, he heaved a lusty breath. “To be frank with you, I was a bit leery of these Bolshies before I came over. You know all the tales going about. Now I find out it’s guys like Ka- linin and those others we've met that the papers and labor skates are calling bureaucrats and dic- tators! Just wait till I tell the boys back home!” But these traits of Kalinin which had struck Walt so much, over here in the Soviet Union are simply taken for granted. Working class simplicity, daily comradely contact with the masses, learning from them, as well as marked ability to analyze and direct—-what other char- acteristics, a Russian worker, rather amazed, would ask you, would you expect to find in a Soviet leader? * ¢ NCE, while we were sitting in the meeting of the Soviet All-Union Congress my Russian companion pointed toward Kalinin, who was presiding over the sessions. “Do you know the last time I saw him?” he chuckled. “Seeing him now, so engrossed in his government work, you'd never guess it. It was last summer, when I ran across him sitting on a Moscow curbing payjng an animated discussion with some peasant wo- men about the price of eggs, and how things were going in their village. Such things are a habit with him. It is one way he manages to keep so close to the people, and why they et toward him the way they do.” Kalinin—Both Worker and Peasant When Michael Kalinin in 1919 was nominated for the post of President of the Central Exec- utive Committee of the All-Union Congress, the highest governmental office in the Soviet Union, Lenin pointed out that in Kalinin the first workers’ and peasants’ republic: found its true president. For in Kalinin were united the pea- sant of Tver with the metal worker of Lenin- grad. In living form he expressed the lasting unity, on which the Soviet power is based be- tween the city workers and the toiling country- side. Year after year the working masses, through their elected representatives, have re-affirmed their earlier choice, by keeping Michael Kalinin at his post. “He's the man for the job,” they say. ‘They know and trust him, as one of ‘their * For yy degedos he labored alongside-them in’ thé’ fields and leter fitvthe shons. He helped’ organize strikes, carried on undergtduhd Tevo- lutionary work, end was one of those sentenced to exile in Siberia. During the Civil War days, Kalinin, like Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders, who were grappling eighteen hours a day with economic, political + |. “anid, military problems of consolidating the work-\- ee Oe ee ee ae own. And they feel he knows and trusts them, | IN an article in the fascist Japanese newspaper in Tokyo, “Nichon,” Kamaizi, who is described by the editors as’ “‘an expert on the Russian question,” urges the Japanese Government to proceed with its plaris for armed intervention against the Soviet Union with the argument that none of the other imperialist powers “really raises any objects to Japan's policy in Siberia.” Kamaizi brazenly voices the criminal aims of Japanese fascist-militarist circles for the seizure of Siberia, His article was captioned “Japan- ese-American or Japanese-Soviet War.” The main idea of the article is as follows: America, which formerly was a teacher of Japan at the. beginning of the Meidsi epoch, in the second half of the 19th century, became the» rival of Japan in' the Far East, and since the Peace of Portsmouth has exerted all possible pressure on Japan, especially at the Washing- ton Conference and at the London Conference, as well as by passing a law restricting Japanese emigration, As a result of this there increased in strength a tendency in influential Japanese circles which is in favor of accelerating war with America, the more so as after 1935 the po- sition of Japan in relation to America will be much more disadvantageous. Kamaizi rejects this standpoint, as in his opinion, in the event of a Japanese-American war, there can come about “collaboration be- tween the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union in China.”. Even if Japan fights America alone— writes the author—there can be no hope of vic- tory (as even the defeat of the United States fleet would not be accompanied by an econo- mic victory) although “the U.S.A., owing to the intervening Pacific Ocean, could not inflict a final defeat on Japan.” For Division of Loot in China Kamaizi points out that the Chinese market is the chief, cause of the antagonism between the U.S.A. and Japan. Therefore it is neces- sary to strive for a compromise “by dividing the Chinese market between the U.S.A. and Japan.” “This task,” declares the author, “is not an easy one. But it is to be solved if one takes into account the existence of the antagonisms between the United States and England and also the sentiments of the American cotton planters, who do not want’ to lose the Japanese market.” The situation is quite different as regards a war between Japan and the Soviet Union, con- tinues the author. There can exist no friend- ship between Japan and the Soviet Union, “as their ideals are diametrically opposed. Japan is a monarchy which strives for the peaceful co- existence and respect of the mutual interests of the peoples of the world. The Soviet Union,.on the other hand, is a Republic, which is strivihg for disorder, civil war and revolution and wishes to subjugate the whole world.” Calls for Seizure of Siberia ‘ Public opinion in Japan, says Kamaizi, is con- centrated at present on Manchuria and Mon- golia. But there can be no talk of “establishing a paradise in Manchuria before the Soviet question is solved.” According to Kamaizi, the solution of the Manchurian-Mongolian problem Sdepends upon the solution. of the~ iberian pro- iarapatires sys aiag sy ce S| ae es talking with men in the trenches often more hungry and ragged’ than Washington's soldiers at Valley Forge, until village laborers, miners and machinists felt new strength flowing through their exhausted, but dogged ranks. So Kalinin came to have friends in Villages and workshops throughout the length’ and breadth of the country; When something wasn’t going right in a village, or help was. needed, ‘the’peasants, remembering their friend would decide; “We'll just:80, up to. Moscow and tell Michael Kalinin about this. He'll help us to 825 matters straight.” ‘They have travelled from far and near, bring- ing their problems and demands. Thus a cus- tom grew up which today is a regular feature of Kalinin’s work. Twice every ten days he de- Aye et tabays Heese ah ar eee jai, advice or aid, in solving: their baer the consolidation of. bec hiznehtrian " the indererd-nce of Sitheria.” THE PROVOKERS OF WAR IN THE FAR EAST About Kamaizi, Japan’s “Expert on Russia” blem. E “The Manchurian State must solve the Sibe- rian problem, otherwise it will be threatened from the Siberian frontier.- On the Chinese Eastern Railway there still exists & danger which State. One must not be deceived by the friend ly speeches of the Soviet goyernment. The so- lution of the Siberian problem means “support ing the Siberian people, which has settled in the district East of Lake Baikal, by achieving its independence and laying down the principle of the oper ~r in Siberia for the whole world.” “Japar continues Kamaizi, “is terribly afraid of the public opinion of the U.S.A., Enz- land and other Powers. None of them really raises any objection to Japan's policy in Sibe- ria. Japan helptd the people of Manchuria to achieve its indevendence. The C.P.S.U. is the enemy of the whole werld. One nesd nat the-a- fore be afraid that anwhody will neatest avatmat { The ranntmiag | bordering en the Soviet Wien, writes Kamaiat, ' are prenarine the anti-Soviet bloc. Jap. so | writes the Tokyo arch-reeetionsry, br elahor. ating its plans secures itself, when tt hes on inderendent Siberia, “commlete econnmic inde- pendence from the rest of the world.” “With the existence of an independent Man’ churia, Mongolia and Siberia. Japan hes nothing to fear even if it should be attacked by ae whole world.” \ From the territorv_traversed bv the sel line from Ussulisk alone it is possible to obtain ' 30 million koku of rice a year. Eastern Siberia has gold, iron, timber, fish, coal and fruitful soil in abundance. If Japan obtains Siberia it will’ be able to forget unemployment and economic crisis forever. The independence of Siberia) means that Japan kills not two, but five birds with one stone. In Japan, continues Kamaizi, there 1s much talk of fascism, but no fascism will help Japan. There is only one means which will help Japan, and that is: to open the doors to Siberia. Now is the best time in order to carry out this pro- gram. We must not miss a moment which may mever come again. In conclusion, declares Kamaizi, the outrage in Shanghai was carried out by a “Korean, & puppet of the C.P.S.U.”; and he insinuates that a number of outrages on the ‘Chinese Eastern railway was the “handiwork of Russian Commue nists.” Are the Japanese authorities, explains Kamaiazl, really undecided to adopt decisive measures in connection with the outrage of April 12th out of fear of the power of the Red Army? The sooner this program against the Soviet Union is carried through the better—that is the conclude ing note of this exceedingly insolent and proe vocative article written by a corrupt press hack. of the insane adyenturist circles of Japanese ime perialism. va : ‘ June Issue of “The Communist” CONTENTS ; 1, The Imperialist Offensive and the Fourteenth, Plenum of the Central Committee. 2 The Struggle for the Majority of the Working Class and Our Mass Work. By O. Kuusinen 3. Some Elementary Phases of the Work In the Reformist Trade Unions. By Wm. Z. Foster. . 4. Fascism, Social Democxacy and a By W. Knorin. ’ 4% Lessons of Two Recent Strikes. In’ the” Light of the £.C.C.I. Reso'ution en “Leesoas of Strike Struggles In U.S.A.” By Jack Stachel. 6. The War Offensive—Tithtening the Capital- ist, Dictatorship In the United States, By Bill Dunne. 7. The Second pel binetele 3 Plan. By Molssaye » Jd. Olgin...» 8. Marxism and the National Problem. By 4, / ‘ i} 4 nee