The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 14, 1932, Page 4

i i] } J Peblished by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., daily except Sunday, at 58 E. Telephone ALgonquin 4 13th St., New York City, N. ¥ Address and mail checks #0 the Daily Worker. By mail everywhere: One year, excepting Borough of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City & months, $5 Canada: One year, $9: SUBSCRIPTION RATES: six months, $3.30 56, Cable 13th St “DAIWORK.” New York, N. ¥, months. $2; 1 month. Foreign and 3 _months, 33 We Demagogy on “Liberals” and “Reactionaries” RECENT Federated press release from Washington fur- nishes important information regarding the at tude of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor towards Rooseyelt’s cabinet concretely that the words “progressive” and “reactionary al’ as applied by the A alist parties are used only for the or “liber various leaders of the capi purpose of fooling workers The dispatch relates that the ‘leaders of the A. F. appointments. It also reveals of L. bureaucracy to of L. are alarmed by reports from Warm Springs that President-elect Roose- yelt is surrounded by Federated press corr i John W. Davis have be of Virginia, the trade union for ng of the Secretary of Labor iscredited and reactionary up of liberals such as Tom W politicians, ete.” ‘The Owen Young, Baker y nated, and the cabinet is ish of Montana and Carter Glass ill be easily satisfied with the nam- Walsh would be popular with labor men as head of the Department of Justice.” Glass is a southern Bourbon based on no! he Treasury system on the question of how to on the toiling population. ng more substantial than his differencs Ogden Mills and officials of the for liberalism is with Secretary of Federal Reserve banking put more of the burden of the crisis and his reputation Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana is the author of the infamous Espionage Act passed by Under this act there was set up a directed especially against workers. ions, under this act during the The some 38 states—passed during and national espionage act. the Wilson administration during the war. ‘vide in scope and ts, raids, convic- spy Tho stem natior long prison sentences and deportations of workers were carried war and as late as 1920, state sedition and criminal syndicalism laws—now in force in after the war were all based on the Proof of the essential anti-working class character of the espionage act and its state offspring is that not a single German spy was convicted under these laws during the war period—only mil- itant and revolutionary workers and their leaders, and war objectors were the victims Walsh the author of the espionage act is the “liberal” that “would be popular with labor men as the head of the Department of Justice”. Of his qualifications for this post as head of Wall Street's chief or- ganization of spies and agent-provocateurs there'can be no question. His record speaks for itself. Waish’s record as a “liberal” is based upon his alleged support of public regulation of hydro-electric companies and his activities in the Teapot Dome oil scandal in behalf of the senate investigating commit- tee. ist moral and legal virtues He is a very Galahad in the pursuit of offenders against the capital- they are competitors of the Standard Oil Company and its various subsidiaries. Walsh is a creature of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and the Montana Power Company—the latter one of the outstanding hydro- electric monopolies—both of them giant children of Standard Oil. Sena- tors Walsh and Wheeler, and Bruce Kremer, national Democratic com- mitteeman, all from Montana, a province of Standard Oil ruled by Mon- tana Power and Anaconda, were three members of the total of six which composed the Roosevelt board of A. Mitchell Palmer of mass raid strategy at the Chicago convention. and deportation fame was a fourth. ‘This also sheds some additional light on the pretensions of the presi- dent-elect to be for “the people” against “the water power interests”, for “the forgotten man, ete.” HE dispatch itself bears witness to the role of the Musteite “left wing” of the A. F. of L. and the Federated Press as the purveyor of the vici- ous demagogy of the labor bureaucracy new administration headed by Roose in connection with Wall Street’s It. This administration has the special role of carrying through the sharper offensive of the capitalists against the working class under the guise of representing “the will of the majority” and of maintaining the fiction of a change in government by replacing one Wall Street party with another. It has the special task of organizing the war preparations in this period of growing imperialist antagonisms. The A. F. of L. bureaucracy plays an important part in this scheme. Its vicious drivel about liberals, progressives and reactionaries is part of the stage play designed to keep the masses, in the fourth year of the crisis, harnessed by hope to the chariot of decaying capitalism. Whether it be Walsh or some other capit alist party attorney at the head of the Department of Justice, this piece of machinery and the rest of the government apparatus under the Roosevelt administra- tion, with the aid of the A. F. of sition, the Musteites, will continue to be used against the working class y and the revolutionary section of the especially those in heavy industr’ L. bureaucracy and their loyal oppo- American workers headed by the Communist Party. The Roosevelt administration will usher in no era of “liberalism”, Reaction veiled by demagogy—thi It is spot, explain and expose every of its hangers-on of the A. F, of the utmost importance aneuver of Roosevelt of L. bureaucracy and the social fascists the Roosevelt line that our press be on the alert to “liberalism”, those of the Muste stripe. The supp reulation of the Daily Worker is one of the most effective methods o ying through these exposures scale te exposures based on indisputable facts, coupled with the and deeds, publican to democratic party and peace and liberty. Such exposures and struggles hat are developing and the bitterly hostile atti- t the Roosevelt admir ill destroy more rapidly the illus ration will express in words ns that a change from re- administration will bring prosperity, bring ever larger masses to support of the revolutionary Conymunist way out of the crisis—the overthrow of capitalism and Farmers’ Government. S$ government and the organization of a Workers’ and Boss Press Silent on Printers’ Fight — A ypical example of suppression of labor news is the complete silence of the capitalisp press on the struggle now raging in all newspaper composing rooms against wage cuts and against the introduction of the ggered shift system. ® have the workers in the printing going on typesetters. among the Only in the columns of THE DAILY WORKER industry been able to learn what is Stories from the Daily have been cut out and posted on the bulletin boards in the mechanical departments of the newspapers. Already the workers in four newspapers have taken action against the award of a bosses’ diana, who is the arbitrator, personal one J. N. Saulter of Indianapolis. In- friend of of the International Typographical Union. Charles P. Howard, president That the union officials, in- ternational and jocal, are doing everything in their power to help the publishers put over the drive against the printers is shown by the action of the notorious James Dahm, who draws a salary as organizer for “Big Six’, Although the rules of the union distinctly specify that officials shall intervene in a dispute only at the request of the member. ship, this Dahm went to the composing room of the New York Times at the request of the bosses and threatened and tried to bulldoze the priv*‘crs into abandoning the fight against the stagger shift system. But the game of Dahm did not work. organization in the composing rooms) the Times printers and pledged are the Daily News, the Morning . ‘Already three other chapels (the have approved the action of themselves to similar action. They Telegraph and the Racing Form, . . THERE is evidence that the rank and file are preparing to set up their own .maehinery for handling the. struggle and will exclude the reactionary officials. In such a situation there is the possibility of a strike in one shop that will rapidly spread and stop the publication of the bapitdlist press in’ Nei York. ' Yet,’ in face of this, not one of the capitalist. papers mentions the latest phases of the struggle. 'They all published detailed reports of the decision of the arbitrator, and the treacherous the officials would accept. it ements of Austin Hewson president of “Big Six” that but they are silent on the growing revolt of the rank and file against the decision and against the trade union bureaucrats If the out on sirike they in a short time winters set up their own rank and file leadership and go can set aside the wage cutting and stagger system One advantage is that now is the biggest advertis- ing period of the year—the pre-holiday rush—and the printers should recognize that now js the time to strike a blow publishers to retreay f 4 that will compel the ‘The Lessons of | | always wanted to be in your union, DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 193% Shop Strikes Led byNTWU MARTHA STONE (Organizer, N.T.W.U., Paterson) HE National Textile Workers Union has conducted eleven shop strikes in Paterson, N. J., in the past few weeks. The lessons of these shop strikes are important for the whoie textile industr, The strikes in most cases took place after some preparation on the part of the union. Union mem- bers reported to the office that conditions were bad, the workers wanted to struggle and that we should “do something about it Meetings of the day and night shifts were held where strike ac- tion was decided upon. This is quite significant, as the union or- ganization is still too loose, strikes taking place, members of the union involved and in many cases the union does not find out until it is all over. UNION WORK IMPROVED Examination of these eleven shop strikes shows decided improvement in the character of the work of the union. In one shop four workers who belonged to the Associated were won over to the National ‘Textile Workers Union. This was accomplished because the approa to these workefs was that they were “our workers”. We convinced them that we had one thing main- ly in mind and that is the winning of the strike. After taking a friend. ly attitude we were able to win over a few to our union. In another shop there were two weavers who belonged to the Associated of whom one was also a member of the S.L.P. As a result of the shop strike, this worker became a mem- ber of the Labor Sports Union, as he was mostly interested in sports, and not fully ready to become a member of the revolutionary union. We found that in these shop strikes, where we do not take a hostile attitude to the workers who are unorganized, or members of the Associated Silk Workers Union, that we were abie to neutralize some elements and win others over. Above all, there was no fric- tion between our members and those in the AF.L, 8 . Tt result of all these shop strikes, and the winning of the majority of strikes did not bring many new members into our union. The reason for this must be care- fully examined. Firstly, the mem- bers of the union and in some in- stances, the organizers of the Union hesitated in raising this question before the workers in the shop. In the Cohen shop, through the proper wotk of a union mem- ber the shop was almost 100 per cent organized in the union, and organization with dues payments in the shop exists to this day. This was accomplished because it came from inside the shop, and the workers did not look at it as some “outsider, who came to build the union”, One woman told me, “I but did not know how to go about it. Only when Mr. L. passed the application card to my loom, did I know that now I could be in your union.” such workers in the city. Finally, one of the obstacles that the union still has to face in its recruiting is’ the doubt and hesi_ tancy that still exists large numbers of workers. In some of these shops, even after the workers through our leadership won the strike, the workers were still skeptical, critical of us, and wanted to see what the “rest of the workers in the city would do”. This hesitancy and doubt in the minds of many workers can only be overcome when the union will ruthlessly cgrrect its mistake made during the last strike, and show | that it has gained from those ex- periences and will not repeat the same mistakes. The union must prove that it is developing an in- ner and independent trade union life, establishment of trade union democracy, paying special atten- tion to the development of local forces. WHAT STRIKES TAUGHT The work around the shops taught the union a few lessons in the winning of demands without a strike. In one shop the workers in the night shift were working 10 hours. The workers gathered in front of the shop one day and de- cided that the next night they would guit after eight hours work. They did this, leaving the boss dumbfounded as he did not know just what their plans were. The workers maintained the eight hours. In another shop the work- ers used to come in to work at 6:30 in the morning, They decided to start at 7 a.m. instead. The same procedure was followed and the boss had to give in. Methods of work, new methods of struggle can be gotten right from the ranks of the workers. Every worker in Pat- erson has experience in struggle. Only through close personal con- tact can we profit by the experi- ence of these -workers and apply many new methods in our work, At the present time, the N.T.W.U. is faced with growing struggles. The eleven shop strikes reflect the sentiment for struggle, and the possibility to win demands today. The need of the hour is uuity. The workers must be united and upon the N.T.W.U, falls this tremendous task. The union must place itself at the head of the movement amongst the workers, taking ad- vantage of the conditions at pres- ent, and on the broadest possible . basis, Conduct struggle. . ie development of shop strikes, establishing of the united front in these shops, working with the workers in the A.F.L. is the task before us. The N.T.W.U. has the best opportunity to build it- self today Since the stoppage called by the Associated, the work- ers have become more disgusted with their open betrayal, with the policy of dividing the struggle by dividing the weavers from, other workers in the shop. The N.T.W.U. ‘There are hundreds of | amongst | FULL STEAM AHEAD AGAINST PAY CUTS! —By Burch Capitalist JOURNALISM Is Capitalist PROPAGANDA By VERN SMITH. HE capitalist press pretends to impartial reporting of the news, just as the capitalist government of the United States pretends to democracy. The reason is the same in both cases: it is cheaper, as long as it can be done, to fool the work- er into submitting to exploitation than it is to club or shoot him in. to submission. Great crises, war or revolution, or even large scale demonstrations, like the National Hunger March cause capitalist governments to drop the mask and show their naked force. RECORDS REVEAL METHOD. i} Similar crises do not cause the | Newspapers to admit they are only propaganda house organs of capi- talism, but sometimes cause suffi- cient disturbance as to leave re~ cords that prove what they really are. The Russian revolution was | such a cri and the three vol- umes of U. 8. state department papers recently published contain | records that prove the U. S. | government regarded newspapers both bere and abroad as its weapons in imperialist war— weapons used against both Rus- sian and American workers. ent aly. « | JN June, 1917, a special mission | 4 from President Wilson went to | Russia, It was headed by Elihu | Root. Its purpose was to keep | millions of Russian workers and | farmers bleeding and dying on the | Eastern front, for no gain to them- for the profit of imperial- selves, merely Russian and American ists and their allies. | THE CABLE TO LANSING. Root’s first important cable from Petrograd (now Leningrad) to Lansing, Secretary of State. in Washington outlines fully the method and purpose of capitalist propaganda. He says (June 17, | 1917): “We think the people of Rus- sia, particularly the soldiers, are going to decide whether Russia stays in the war and we have got to get at them in some way. Communications to the govern- ment do not reach the real dif. ficulty. The mission (Root and his crowd—V. S.) is taking steps for the immediate distribution of information which will cost about $100,000. “At least $5,000,000 could be expended to the greatest advan- tage in this way. That would be less than the cost of maintain- ing five American regiments and the chance of keeping 5,000,000 Russians in the field against Germany is worth many. times five regiments. It will mean a supply of NEWSPAPERS, print- ing and distribution of posters, leaflets and. pamphlets, employ- ment of numerous lecturers and’ moving pictures to go about the front, This work to be done with the approval of Russian government and NOT TO BE CONDUCTED IN THE NAME OF THE UNITED STATES, We particularly recommend the es- tablishment upon the Russian front of ¥.M.C.A, stations, They afford opportunities for access to the minds of the soldiers.” Here you have cold blooded, sta- tistics In the art of using, among other agencies, the press, with the hand that pulls the strings care_ fully hidden. And that hand is the U. S. government, oe T° be sure that is using the press of another country. But would a ruling class be less likely to use the press of its own country? Of course not, and in the state de- partment publication is proof of that, too. On February 8, 1918, American Ambassador Francis, in Petrograd, cabled Lansing: “Have Lenin, Trotsky accepted German | | has made some headway but great- er speed is necessary and at the same time that the union recruits workers who up till now were not with us, so it must systematically establish the union as an inde- pendent factor functioning sys- tematically, and involving the rank and file into the making and car- absolutely reliable evidence ‘that . oo Now Published Reveal Methods Workers Who Testified | U.S. Gov’ Records money from June to October.” Tite next day, Francis trans- mitted the forged; Sisson Docu- ments, in complete form, by cy- pher cablegram to the Department of State in Washington. Francis says in his cablegram that he and Sisson worked out the message, together. It is now generally ad- mitted, has been admitted even by the U. S. government that the Sisson documents were forgeries. ‘They purported to show that the German Kaiser was financing the Bolshevik revolution. The docu- ments were nécéssary to provide a propaganda basis, an excuse, for sending American troops to in.. vade Soviet Russia — an excuse that would convince American ‘workers. Lansing did not for a moment raise the question of possible forg- ery, or ask for any proof. On February 18, he cabled Francis: “I have read these documents with great interest and trust that you will make every effort to ob- tain further evidence not only of German intrigue with Bolsheviki but also with members of former governments particularly Sturmer. Department agrees with you that the case must be complete before publication can be even considered. Department is not inclined to think publication at this time de- sirable.” LANSING GIVES HIM A HAND. Lansing then gives Francis some hints on ‘prepars#ton of further “proof,” says that one unamed man mentioned in the documents is probably Von Igle, a German in America, and asks for photographs, such as could be used in making “cuts,” (pictures) for the news- papers. No further proof was forthcom- ing, at least none is mentioned in the state department records, but the forged documents were splash. ed over the front pages of every newspaper in America! Pa ee 'TILL another case is that of the | handling of president Wilson’s propaganda speeches to the Rus- sians.“ President Wilson’s message of May 22, 1917, was sent in cypher to Francis before it was published in America, and Francis, with the ministers of the provisional gov- ernment in Russia (the capitalist government ruling after the over- throw of the Czar and before the At Hearings Fired At | Rockefeller’s Mines | By ANNA ROCHESTER ORE light has been thrown on the Rockefeller methods in Col- orado, in connection with the Col- orado Fuel and Iron Co’s disregard Industrial Commission's pro- it against a wage-cut. -Every miner who testified at the 1931 hearings at Crested Butte and Trinidad has been dropped. A fund for “relief” of destitute, jobless miners is maintained by contributions of 25 cents a month from every employee. Workers earning less than $10 a month and ‘Trinidad that after 35 years of con- tinuous service with the company, he is in debi at the company store and unable to care for himself with- out charity, He has been forced to drop most of his life insurance. He owns neither home nor automobile and has only scant furnishings in the house he occupies. cepa of state coal mine in- spect law was opposed by Rockefeller interests and death bs 4n Colorado mines is still far He ‘ i Bolshevik revolution) edited the Message for Russian consumption, Francis telling Lansing that the minister for foreign affairs “sug- gested that the President's com- munication omit the words, ‘war has begun to go against Germany’, as the minister of war wishes to have argument to solidify and in. spire army that Germany's suc- cess is threatening if not immi- ment, which President's expres- sion tended to gounteract.” CAPITALIST PROPAGANDA, NOT NEWS. Days later, June 6, Francis and Lansing were still plotting for wide publication of the President's ap- peal to the Russian workers to continue fighting Germany: Fran_ cis cabled that the United Press representative in Petrograd, “says president's message is available in New York and only awaits re- lease for publication, and I have so informed Foreign Office” (the Russian capitalist government's foreign office—vV, S.), n arrangements were made to publish it in the Sunday papers which have the latgest publica- tion, Francis wiring Lansing June 7, that: “Minister of Foreign Af- fairs informs me president's mes- sage will be given out Saturday evening, printed in morning pap. ers, June 10.” The point is, this message of the President was capitalist pro- Paganda, not news, and not re- garded as news either by the capitalist press of America or Russia. In both cases the “news” was held up, concealed from the werld, by a general plot i2 which the newspapers took part, and it was amended, even by cable, and sprung on the world at what was regarded as the psychological moment, es ay im r the light of this history, some of the rabid provocation in the capitalist press against the Hun- ger Marchers in Washington be- comes easy to understand It+»was not accidental, it was support for @ program of machine gun fire on the Hunger Marchers, a program which was only defeated by the clear headedness of the marchers and their iron self discipline There is no reason for doubt, in the light of what history shows of the work- ing of the government, that ba Plicit orders for just this sort of propaganda went. to the news- papers from the U. S. government, executive committee of the capi- talist class in America. And these ordtrs give a line. Tt. will not be necessary for every little strike or new situation ta Tequire special new orders from Washington, The editors will know what to do. . * TWO DEFENSE METHODS. Against this menace of the hired liars of the press the workers have two methods of defense. Some. times they can make their strug- gle so impressive, so well known to so many people, as to limit the scope of the liars, and force some measure of the truth from them, But this is the lesser weapon, and always -an unreliable weapon. The best weapon of the workers in this case is their own press, of which the most important organ here is The Daily Worker. To take the National Hunger March again for an example, the “Daily” Was able to act as a source of cor- rect information to all workers who read it, and also to some extent as @ mobilizing force, a means of passing out the word for the latest tactics decided on in the struggle. It was effective in both these it did not know either what ex- actly was going on, or what ex- actly to do about it, b Be “Daily” is now in the begin- ning of a campaign to enlarge its scope of usefuiness, by increas. ing its circulation, by a subserip- tion drive. Tt is the duty of every worker to help. Get subscriptions! Get a special order of the January 7 special edition, the anniversary edition of the founding of the Daily Worker, Send in greetings from biped Nabaoihepeiya for pub- “in by January 1” ¥ i ‘ 4 By SAM DON. 'HE circulation ot The Commu- nist, has more than doubled for the past year. For the first time since its existence it appeared each month of the year, This is a sign of growth, but by no means a sat- isfactory one. The Communist should give a po- litical answer and analysis to the main problems of the mass work of the Party. In this respect we note in the 1932 Communist an im- provement over the previous year. One of the most important prob- Jems facing the Party is the under- standing and mastering of strike strategy on the basis of a correct application of the united front pol- jey. Practically all the important strikes which took place in the past year have been discussed and analyzed in The Communist. Dur- ing the year twelve articles on trade union questions and strike strategy appeared in The Communist. Out, of these twelve, two were docu- ments, one article written by Com- rade Kuusinen, and the others were written by comrades who are lead- ing the trade union work of the Party and who have participated in the various strike struggles. IMPROVEMENT NOTED previous ycar is the number of ar- ticles on unemployment. Seven ar- ticles on unemployment appeared, all of them written by comrades in the United States. The articles on unempicyment dealt with the prac- | tical questions of the unemployed | movement as well as with some of the broader theoretical, political problems connected with our work among the unemployed. In our anti-war Party suffers from inability of con- cretely applying the Leninist teach- ings on war. Our Communist must means of popularizing and clar- ifying Lenin’s teachings on war, particularly in applying them in the fight against American imperial- ism. While quite a number of ar- war, The Communist did not suffi- ciently popularize the teachings of Lenin, particularly in its applica- tion to our fight against American appeared on the war question, nine of thern were written by American comrades. We also reprinted a num- ber of articles by Lenin on the war question, The 1933 issues of The Cemmunist must mak> a definie improvement in the respect of theo- retical and political clarification of the war. question. per . bw theoretical weaknesses and immaturity of our Party are re- flecied in the difficulties of under- standing and applying the Leninist teachings on the national question with reference to the Negio ques- tion. A number of articles appear- ed in The Communist helping in this respect, but by no means suf- ficient. We also had a number of articles on the farmers question. With respect to the struggles of the farmers, more theoretical clarifica- tion is necessary on our leadership among the farmers. All articles on the Negro and farmers questions were written by American com- rades. The Communist carried a number of articles by Lenin and Stalin on the national question. The present “little” and officially “undeclared” wars in South Am- erica reflecting the growth of an- tagonisms between Great Britain and the United States, emphasize the importance of acquainting the Party and the revolutionary workers with the struggles in Lati America, In this respect there an improvement in the 1932 Com- munist over the previous years, | LACK ARTICLES | ON SOCIAL-FASCISM. One of the greatest shortcomings of the 1932 issues of The Commu- nist is the lack of articles clarify- ing theoretically and programma- tieally our fight against social-fas- cism in all its forms and shades particularly as applied to the United States. While the question of our fight against social fascism ran through the various articles, particularly on the trade union question, unemployment and war, we did not have many special ar- ticles on social fascism which would give a broader and deeper insight on our fight against social fascism, The Communist carried a num- ber of articles on the economic sit- uation in the country. These, how- ever, were too statistical and des- criptive without sufficient theoretic- al analysis which should serve both in popularizing Marxism-Leninism and applying it to the specific Am- erican conditions. The few articles, however, which appeared exposing the talk of planning should be quite useful in establishing some of the basic principles of Marxism- Leninism and applying them to our conditions in the United States, The Communist must become the important weapon, in training the Party membership in the basic prin- ciples of Marxism-Leninism. More theoretical articles should appear in The Communist, While it is correct to follow the policy of tak- ing up the concrete problems of strike strategy, unemployment, war, the Negro and farmers question and explain them from the theoretical aspect, it is also necessary to have more generalized, theoretical ar- ticles which would enable the com- rades to get a better insight into the practical problems of mass work and in the development of the mass , Policies of the Party. The Commu- nist must really skillfully combine the treatment of current and press- ing problems of mass policies of the Party wtih broader theoretical questions, HE) theoretical interest of the Party membership will grow to the extent that we take up the con- crete problems of mass work, Then A notable improvement over the | activities our | become one of the most important. ticles xppeared on the question of | imperialism. About thirteen articles | Some Urgent Needs on the Theoretical Front Twelve Months of “The Communist” jations in the mass work of the Party, we will broaden out the theo- retical front of the Party and the theoretical interest of the Party membership, Only in such a man- ner can we guard ourselves against the tendency of turning the invalu- able weapon of Marxist-Leninist theories into a bookwormish, schol- astic speculation. At the same time we must sharply fight against the slightest manifestation of the un- derestimation of the importance of theory and its application in the fight for the mass policies of the Party, This must be the guiding spirit of The Communist. With the growing decay of capi- talism and the deepening of the present crisis, we also see the grow- ing decay of its culture and theo- ries. Monopoly capital in its des- perate struggle for the capitalist way out of the crisis and disrupt- ing the ranks of the working class, intensifies the spreading of chau- i fascist ideologies. We must carry on the sharpest fight against the influences of alien bourgeois ideologies in the ranks of the work- ing class and the Party. The ideo- logical authority of capitalism -is shaking considerably. Capitalism cannot as in the olden days so easily openly permeate the ranks of the working class with its ideo- logy. It therefore resorts to its representatives within the ranks of the working class to carry over its ideologies. Thus we see the emer- gence of various “Marxists” who openly revise Marxism and attempt, to reconcile Marxism with the vari- ous expressions of bourgeois ideol- ogy. A serious weakness of The Communist in the past year was that it did not carry on a fight against such revisionists. The Mod- ern Quarterly must be thoroughly exposed as the bearer of bourgeois ideology in the ranks of the work= ing class. An uncomprising struggle must be carried on against the “Marxi: of the Modern Quar- terly, against the open plagarist and perverter of Marxism, Calverton, against the renegade Will Herberg and his theories of American excep- tionalism and the distortion of the reyolutionary heritage of the Am- erican, working class, against the scholastic and absolute revisionism of Sidney Hook. (The fight against the Modern Quarterly must be con- crete, without lumping together its contributors) 3 | WEAKNESS IN THEORETICAL ACTIVITIES % ‘The leading theoretical articles on Marxism-Leninism. which appeared in the Communist were largely translations either from Russian or German. This reflects the weak- ness of our own theoretical activi-+ ties. The application of Marxism< Leninism to the study of American history, American economics, is a virgin field. Because of its his- torical development the history of the American labor movement has been the monopoly of bourgeois historians, like Commons, and others. The American Revolution, Ae Civil War and Reconstruction Period the rise of American cap- italism are chapters in American history which haye hardly been touched from a Marxist-Leninist viewpoint. Theoretical activities on this front will help tremendously in an understanding of the specific and peculiar features in our struggle for the winning of the majority of the working class, A deeper Marx- jan-Leninist insight in the history of the American working class will be an invaluable aid in our present day fight against sectarianism. The 1933 issues of The Communist should serve to initiate and organ- ize studies in the application of Marxism-Leninism to American history and our present day prob- N the theoretical front in the Spirit of Stalin’s letter in the struggle against rotten liberalism, not the slightest concessions in any shape or form should be tolerated, The various deviations which arise in our mass policidS and activities have their roots and influence in alien ideologies. Basic theoretical articles will help greatly in our fight against opportuntism in all its forms, A serious weaknes of the last year's Communist is the irreg> ular appearance of book reviews. Through our book review section We can expose the various ideologies of the ruling class and their Marx- jan revisionists. The book review section must also serye as a means of popularizing our own publica- tions. This should be definitely, corrected, : Steps have already been taken to improve the Communist along the lines discussed. ies While some improvements have been made in the direction of sim- plifying the language and metho¢ of presentation of the articles pearing in The Communist, m1 is, to be desired yet. te DISTRIBUTION VITAL oe ‘The circulation of The Comma- nist, as we said at the outset, is tion is essential. of The Communist can easily increased if the Party members will be mobilized politically for the vat= jous phases of the mass work of the Party. The Communist should not taken up as a separate little but related to the concrete in considering any Party's mass work should also refer to the Communist, popularize it among the membership and organ= ize its distribution. + cry of the need for politicializing our work, raising the theoretical level, ete, Tt is high time that those yery comrades who so path i and despairingly speak should 9t least make use our a FS, ed eGR | | | | |