The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 18, 1933, Page 3

_— - mands. (miners’ strike, unemployed, Negro farmers); the period being Lh ILY WORKER, REVOLUTIONAR ‘HE Eighth Convention of the Party sums up three and a half years of the application to conditions of class struggle in the United States of the line of the Communist International laid down by the Sixth World Congress. The period between the 6th and 7th conventions of our Party had been a period of struggle for the line of the Sixth World Congress in the ©.P.U.S.A, This prolonged and stubborn struggle for the line of the Sixth World Congress (recognition of the third period of post-war crisis of capitalism; which has brought the end of relative capitalist stabiliza- tion and the present moment of transition to a new round of wars and Tevolutions; the necessity to transform the Communist Party into a mass party of the American workers capable of “preparing the working class and the exploited masses, in the course of economic and political struggles, for the impending fight for power, for the dictatorship of the proletariat”’) ‘was part of the international struggle for cleansing the various Commu- nist Parties of the Communist International of the right and “left” op- portunist ideology and the degenerate elements who were its bearers, which arose in the period of relative capitalist stabilization. The Sixth World Congress, held in July, 1928, at the height of capi- talist “prosperity” when production in the main capitalist countries had arisen. above pre-war levels, was able clearly to foresee the development of the economic crisis, developing the analysis already made by Stalin at the 15th Congress of the C.P.S.U, (December, 1927) in which he had de-~ clared. that: “Out of the partial stabilization of capitalism there grows a still acuter crisis—the growing crisis destroys the stabilization—these are the dialectics of the development of capitalism in the present historical monient.” The Leninist decisions of the Sixth World Congress, orientating the sections of the Communist International toward higher and sharper forms of struggle and leadership of the masses against the imperialist bourgeoisie, brought an inevitable clash with the rotten Trotzkyist ele- Ments and with the open opportunists still remaining within all of the Communist Parties. The inevitable expcsure and expulsion of the counter- revolutionary group of Trotzkyists (Cannon and his lieutenants) in the United States resulted in the strengthening of the Party and was a necessary precondition to the defeat and isolation of the open opportunists. The American exponents of the right wing opposition brought for- ward a particularly crude example of the right wing position in their theories of American exceptionalism and of the Hooverian age corre- sponding to the Victorian age of British imperialism. The struggle against this opportunist theory came to a head in the Address of the Communist International to the C.P.U.S.A. (May, 1929) in which the general line was concretized for the United States in the following remarkable paragraph: “With a distinctness unprecedented in history, American capitalism is exhibiting now the effects of the inexorable laws of capitalist devel- epment, the laws of decline and downfall of capitalist society, The gen- eral erisis of capitalism is growing more rapidly than it may seem at first glance. Phe crisis will shake also the foundations of American im- perialism.” The necessity and the sharpness of the struggle in the Party can best be understood in light of the remarks of Comrade Stalin in his speech of May 6, 1929: “I think the moment is not far off when a revolutionary crisis will deyelop in America. And when a revolutionary crisis develops in Amer- ica that will be the beginning of the end of world capitalism as a whole. It is essential that the American Communist Party should be capable of meeting that historical moment fully prepared, of assuming leadership of the impending class struggle in America.” . * ° HE acceptance by the C.P.U.S.A. of the Address of the C.I., and the en- tance of the Party into wide mass struggles in the winter of 1929-30 (nation-wide unemployment demonstrations March 6, .1930), followed by the 7th Convention of the Party which took place one year after the Ad- dress (June, 1930), finally marked the liquidation of the long-standing factional era in the Party, consolidated the Party on the line of the Sixth ‘World Congress, brought the Party on to the road toward holshevization, to the first steps in preparing it for the independent leadership of mass struggles. As a result of the application of this line by the Party, the unem-: ployed movement developed from a mere beginning, characterized chiefly by agitational efforts and half-spontaneous street demonstrations around general demands, into an organized movement nationwide in character. ‘This period also marked serious beginnings of independent leadership ot strike struggles by the red unions (miners, textile, automobile, etc.); the decline in our position in the reformist unions, which accompanied the advent of the red unions, gave way. to-the first successes-in-renewing-and! extending the work in the reformist unions on the basis of the policy of independent leadership in struggles. The- work among the Negro masses in this period passed from the field of sectarian propaganda to the field of actual struggle, with the first inauguration and leadership by the Party of a mass struggle against the oppression of the Negro people (Scottsboro, Tallapoosa); the drawing of Negro masses into the struggles of the working class for economic de- characterized by the deepening and further clarifying of the Party's po- litical line on the Negro question. ‘The Party work among the farmers has passed to the higher plane of ‘active participation and leadership in the struggles of the farmers, in the initiation of a whole series of local struggles which have in some cases spread to wide mass movements and have formed the beginnings of con- tact with the revolutionary workers’ movement; and the carrying through of the.Farmers National Relief Conference, which opened a new period of the agrarian movement. ‘Nevertheless, despite these successful beginnings, the Party is still hampered in the development of its mass work by the persistence of deep- rooted sectarian tendencies which are not yet eliminated. ' ™. Deepening of the Crisis and the Offensive of the Bourgeoisie; Conditions of the Working Class a sharpening of the general crisis of capitalism is proceeding with enormous strides which are carrying this crisis to a new stage... \” (12th Plenum Thesis.) In the United States there is a continuous decline in all economic activity, production I¢vels, despite seasonal movements, showing a steady downward trend.fhe agrarian crisis continues to develop bringing in its wake a stream of foreclosures and evictions of the farmers from their lands. Foreign trade has declined to 1913 levels and is still moving down- ward. There is a deepening of the financial crisis accompanied by a rapid increase in bankruptcies, the failure of hundreds of banks with the whole- sale artificial saving of favored private business institutions with the aid of billions of government funds (R.F.C.—Dawes ninety million dollars, Pomerene million dollars, etc.), accomplished by means of deep-going credit inflation and the beginnings of currency inflation--a policy of the nationalization of the losses resulting from the crisis. A gov- ernment financial crisis includes the almost complete bankruy of nu- merous cities (Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleve- land, New York, etc.) and the failure of the various states and the federal government to balance their budget. : At the same time the activity of the masses themselves, undergoing a deep revolutionizing process in resisting the efforts of the bourgeojsie to place the burden of the crisis upon the toiling masses—this revolu- tionary. upsurge of the masses itself becomes the most important active torce in the ending of capitalist stabilization. “The fierce struggle the imperialists are waging for markets and colonies, the tariff wars and the race for armaments have already led to the immediate danger of an imperialist world war.” (12th Plenum Thesis.) ‘We are already witnessing the first battles in the impending world war in all of which the United States is playing a leading role. China in the form of its support of the Nanking in to crush the Chinese Red Army and overthrow the Chinese Soviets; at the same time the United States imperialists “striving to provoke war between Japan and the Soviet Union in that, by weakening both Japan and the U.S.S.R. it may strengthen own position in the Pacific.” In Latin America, where the main in the imperialist camp—between Great Britain and States—are being fought out, American imperialism is playing an role, i : . . . the United States the sharpest offensive is being waged against the toiling masses through wage-cuts in all industries and work, which have together forced the earnings of the masses per cent of precrisis levels, while dividends still stand at 160 per compared with 1926. Unemployment has increased until now sixteen lions are totally unemployed. Part-time work as a result of Hoover’s ger Plan and the share-the-work movement has become almost universal, with less than 15 per cent of the workers having full time jobs. The recent period has seen a general cutting in relief payments by the cities, a falling off in charity collections and charity relief, and a failure of the states and federal government to supply funds to meet the increasing needs of the masses after four years of most severe crisis. All of these factors are bringing about a tendency toward equalization process among the masses, narrowing the economic basis for the formerly powerful labor aristocracy. ‘There is now an absence of factors which would indicate an im- provement in the situation; the perspectives are clearly for a further deep- FE YORK SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1933 Page Three Resolution of the 16th Central Committee Plenum---From the Seventh to Eighth Convention of C.F. U.S.A. ening of the crisis, for a sharpening of all the class antagonisms, and for a sharpening of all the world imperialist contradictions in which American imperialism is most deeply enmeshed. This leads to the matur- ing of the conditions for broad mass stru~'»s against hunger and against the war policies of the American bourgeoisie. The end of capitalist stabilization has to be judged, not alone from the unprecedented absolute decline in capitalist production, but also by the change in the relation of forces as between capitalism and the sociailst world. The struggle is determined by this relation of forces. The Soviet Union, which has completely established itself in the posl- tions of socialism through the successful completion of the first Five- Year Plan, and which is advancing through the second Five-Year Plan to the establishment of a classless society; has already attained an ex- tremely high relative importance for the revolutionary proletarian state in juxtaposition with the capitalist states. The enormous building of so- cialist industry and the collectivization of agriculture has brought that economic independence, which guarantees the continued economic ad- vance of the Soviet Union under all world conditions. The influence of the U.S.SR. with the toiling masses of the capitalist countries and of the colonial world, as the basis and stronghold of the world socialist revo- lution, has greatly increased. ox ‘The unprecedented advance of the revolutionary stronghold of world tevolution is one of the most decisive forces in relation to the end of capi- talist stabilization, vit. Increasing Will of the Masses to Struggle and Beginnings of Revo- lutionary Upsurge The increasing, unbearable misery and the disillusionment which grows with the deepening of the crisis and which becomes more conscious with every action of the Communist Party among the masses of workers, farmers, ex-servicemen and Negroes, is pushing the masses forward to ever sharper class battles of the employed and unemployed workers, to sharper and unprecedented forms of struggle by the Negro masses of the Black Belt and of the white farmers of the Middle West, new and un- heard of militancy of mixed elements of workers, ruined farmers and bankrupted petty bourgeoisie in the ex-servicemen’s movement, as well as ferment and even clashes with the police on the part of the students and intellectuals. ‘The growth of the strike movement has spread beyond its former main ground in the coal fields and in light and medium industry, and has reached the point of beginning preliminary fights in the steel and metal industries (Warren, Crucible Steel, Ford plant of New Jersey, Briggs auto of Detroit, ete.) which inevitably are the forerunners of a gigantic strug- gle in the basic steel and metal plants of the United States; new strata of workers including women and youth have entered into the strike move- ments (High Point, Binghamton, Colorado, Trenton, South River, etc.); there is a growth of strikes of workers organized in reformist unions (Ulinois miners, building trades, etc.); a large number of successful strikes in light industry (fur, painters, doll workers, etc.) which are led by the red unions. The strikes of the miners continued throughout this period in the forefront of the strike movement with struggles in practically every mining field, are marked by a new rise of militancy, the development of new fighting forms, growing unity of the employed and unemployed and the rise of new worker cadres in the struggles, . ° . Tt struggles for social insurance and unemployment relief have sharp- ened and widened out to more nearly nationwide breadth. Fights for immediate relief and agatnst evictions have been successful in securing Telief and stopping the cutting down of relief to large sections of the un- employed (Chicago, St. Louis, New York, Birmingham); in preventinc evic- tions (Detroit, Norfolk, etc.). The national hunger marches of 1931 and 1932 were tremendous demonstrations which showed the growth of the movement and its support by increasing numbers of employed, although the relative weakness of this support remains a grave danger. The mem- bers of reformist unemployed organizations (“Citizens Leagues,” “Work- ers’ Committees on Unemployment," etc.) have, despite the wishes of their leaders, been drawn into united front actions with the unemployed councils in the fight for concrete relief demands (Chicago, etc.). The fight for unemployment relief and social insurance has now begun to win the support of considerable sections of AFL. workers (endorsement of Unemployment Relief Bill by 800 locals of AF.L., Cincinnati Conference, endorsement of hunger march by A-F.L. locals, and by P.M.A.). Partial struggles are increasing inside of factories despite the system | of espionage and terrorization, despite mass unemployment and despite the absence of any but the barest beginnings of organization. In a num- ber of cases, especially in lighter industries, partial struggles have been successfully developed into strikes The growing resistance of the masses in the form of the opposition movement within the AFL. and other reformist unions, directed also against the bureacracy, is expressed in strikes over the heads of the bureaucrats and in the participation of the AF.L. workers and locals in | the fight for unemployment insurance and relief, in the ousting of bu- reaucrats and their replacement by Communists and other revolutionary workers in a large number of locals. . . . A NEW page of history, sharply expressing the deep agrarian crisis inter- woven with the general economic crisis, has suddenly appeared in the rapidly developing struggles of the farmers, over the heads of opportu- nist leaders of farm organizations, in militant. direct mass action against evictions, foreclosures and high taxes, and against the low monopoly prices paid for their products—a wide mass movement which is objectively revo- lutionary. The extremely militant struggles of Negro small farmers, ten- ants, share croppers and small land-holding farmers in the South against legal expropriation of their crops, implements, live stock and land, evok- ing at the same time the beginnings of solidarity of the poor white farm- ers of the South with the Negro tenants and share croppers, is a guar- antee of the universal breadth and depth of this objectively revolutionary upsurge of farmers, of the revolutionary nature of the national liberation struggle of the Black Belt, and of the interconnection of these movements with the revolutionary upsurge of the working class. The successful united front Farmers National Relief Conference showed a beginning of con- sciousness of the poor farmers (Negro and white) that only through mass struggles independent of capitalist parties can they defend their interests and that their alliance with the proletariat is a pre-condition for successful struggle. The smouldering volcano of national liberation struggle that under- es the capitalist system as a result of the brutal mass enslavement of the Negro people was, as though “accidentally,” exposed by the vigorous mass response of the Negro masses to the Scottsboro campaign—a cam- paign which immediately gave birth to a nationwide wave of mass re- sistance to the increasing lynch terror, as well as to a sudden movement of mass participation of Negro workers in the general struggles of the working class (miners’ strikes, unemployed movements in Chicago, Cleve- land, St. Louis, Birmingham, etc.) and an unprecedented participation of the Negro masses in hunger marches and anti-eviction struggles. The revo- lutionary ferment among the Negro poor farmers, first coming to light at Camp Hill, Alabama, has continued in Tallapoosa County, is stpreading to surrounding territories, evoking support by impoverished white farmers, and is already securing material successes against legal expropriation for debts. The enthusiastic support of a considerable mass of Negroes to Communist election struggle was more truly indicated in the mass around the election issues than by the actual vote counted, be- wholesale disfranchisement. The increased participation of Negro the general struggles of the masses has brought fresh and mili- ting Festi into these battles and has raised the entire struggle 8 i n inspired by the activities of the unemployed councils tn the ger march, and also stimulated even by the miscarried effort Cox to transform the “marching” phenomenon into a fascist an objectively revolutionary wave of activity swept through of the ex-servicemen, taking the form of the historic Bonus . The catastrophic nature of the economic crisis and y for sudden explosions as the forerunners of revolutionary development, was shown in a startling light in the surrounding of the overnment ee, 25,000 Sees bind veterans; the action of the loover government firing upon these veterans opened a new page of revolutionary history for the American masses. The growing mass radicalization 1s expressed in an increasingly higher form by the greater readiness of large sections of the toiling masses for militant participation in struggles and demonstrations against imperialist war; it is further in the increasing inroads of revolutionary views of struggle against war as against petty bourgeois pacifism among theintelligentsia and students. The drawing of substantial sections of students and intellectuals into the struggles of the proletariat against the growing misery, has stimulated @ movement against reaction in the cultural institutions. The radicalization of the masses, and the bringing of this radicaliza- tion to a higher plane of consciousness, is shown in the enormously in- creased sympathy upport for the Soviet Union, not alone in the working class, but gripping ever larger sections of intellectuals and pro- fessional elements. ; Evidence of deep-going radicalization is shown further in the more = e Qe & nae constant stru_gle of native and foreign born workers against deportations and the fight of large sections of white workers for Negro rights. The growth of revolutionization of the masses is partty indicated in the increase of the Communist vote in the last elections (according to of- ficial figures, more than double) despite wholesale fraud and vote steal- ing already admitted and even exposed by the capitalists themselves in New York (in four election districts, six-sevenths of the C. P. vote was stolen), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, etc., and despite the wholesale dis- franchisement of Negro voters, young workers and foreign born, and especially the wholesale disfranchisement of great masses of unemployed through the poll tax and through the denial of the right to vote to those receiving unemployment relief (Pennsylvania, Maine)—precisely among those masses of workers most greatly influenced and benefited by the Communist Party campaigns. While the overwhelming defeat of the Hoover government bythe arch-demagogue Roosevelt (who held out promises of unemployment and farm “relief”), indicates a discontent and desire for change on the part of the masses, the fact that the revo- lutionary upsurge was not reflected in a conscious vote against capi- talism reflects not only the fact that the masses are still weighed down by illusions and prejudices, but also the weakness of the revolutionary party of the proletariat, its present continued sectarian isolation, which is accentuated by the persistence of “left” opportunist underestimation of revolutionary mass election campaigns and the failure to see the insep- arableness of these campaigns from the action of the masses in struggle for everyday economic needs. Iv. Bourgeois Dictatorship, Demagogy and Developing Fascism The capitalist dictatorship of the United States attempts to meet its growing difficulties of deeper economic crisis and growing resistance of the toiling masses, both by means of resort to demagogy and a definite movement toward the fascization of the state. Behind the smokescreen of demagogy the capitalist dictatorship is seeking to compensate for its narrowing and weakening hold upon the support of the masses through a process of “simplification” of the state machine, concentration of power in the higher organs, integration of the state apparatus with the per- sonnel of monopoly capital, de facto “national concentration” of Re- publican and Democratic leading groups to handle the main questions of the day, the reconstruction of the military apparatus and its redistribu- tion through the coal mining and industrial centers of the population to meet the possibilities of “civil disturbances,” the quiet disbanding of Negro regiments and the discontinuation of recruiting of Negro soldiers as “un- reliable,” increase of military and police appropriations in the midst of economy campaigns directed mainly against social expenditures. As organized agencies among the masses of this effort to strengthen the narrowing base of bourgeois class rule there have sprung up such organizations as the Khaki Shirts (Waters), Black Shirts (in the South), Blue Shirts (Father Cox), as well as the revival of the older organiza- tions (Ku Klux Klan, American Legion, etc.), all! making particular ap- peals to backward groups of American masses but with extreme difficulty in holding these masses after organizing them; under the extreme pressure of poverty and misery not only individual members but even whole local organizations of Khaki Shirts, Blue Shirts and the American Legion join with the workers in unemployed or bonus demonstrations under the lead- ership of the Communists, The sharply increasing activity of the masses is calling forth at- tempts of the bourgeoisie by extra-legal violence, by lynching, by “frame- up” trials covered with legal form, etc., and at the same time by new methods of utilizing and supporting (through the press and by new po- lice assistance) the social-fascist (Socialist Party) political party, the national reformist leaders (N.A.A.C.P., similar groups in Hawaii, the Phil- ippines, etc.) and even spurious groups of renegade “Communists,” to strengthen the widening gap between itself and the masses. Evoked as | & bourgeois reaction against the great popularity of the success of the Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union, as well as a reaction to the generally growing radicalization of the masses, is a sharply increasing growth of lascist ideology stimulated among intellectual circles; with -w-revival of the most reactionary forms of idealism and religion, curiously interwoven with a cult of “dictatorship,” “strong man,” and bourgeois cynicism in regard to the forms of bourgeois “democracy.” The “evils of capitalism” are to be “cured” by projects of “planned economy” (Hoover Committee on Social Trends), “Buy American” (Hearst), a “new deal” for the “for- gotten man” (Roosevelt), and by the new seven-day wonder of bourgeois demagogy. “Technocracy,” which proposes to remedy the evils of capitai- ism by means of a dictatorship of “techn'cal men” and by substituting for the “price m” a “new” means of exchange based on units of mechanical ene v. Role of Social Fascism Social fascism is, in the present period, the main social support of the capitalist dictatorship in the U.S.A. as in all capitalist countries. A cer- tain division of labor is made between the Socialist Party, the American Federation of Labor bureaucracy, the bureaucracy of the Railroad Broth- erhoods and the “left” social-fascist Musteites. A particular role in the division of labor is assigned to the new sects of spurious “Communists” (renegades) whose services to the capitalist press are highly appreciated, furnishing the “factual” basis for regular stories of Communist division and disunity, to discourage the workers from joining the revolutionary movement. The N.A.A.C.P. leadership (now in close fraternity with both the Socialist Party bureaucracy and the Lovestone renegades) plays the most disgraceful part in aiding the American white bourgeoisie in legal and extra-legal suppression and murder directed against the struggles of the Negro masses (the “‘Suffeites" also playing a similar but smaller role), The various social-fascist sects (Socialist Labor Party, Proletarian Party, ete.) perform their own roles in blocking the passage of the proletarian masses from the camp of unconscious support of capitalism to the path of revolutionary action. Social-fascism prepares the way for open fascist reaction among workers who are faced with the need to struggle against the capitalist offensive; social-fascism heads their struggles in order to behead them, employs “labor” and “socialist” phrases in order to con- FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER! FOR THE Y WAY OUT OF THE CRISIS! fuse the minds of the workers and to prevent their turning to revolution- | ary methods of struggle under revolutionary leadership: above all, social- fascism tries to break the resistance of the workers to the developing im- perialist war and intervention against the Soviet Union. But social-fascism today, at the end of capitalist stabilization, when every struggle for the elementary needs of the masses brings these masses into conflict with the very foundations of existence of capitalism, is compelled more and more flagrantly to appear before the workers as the recognizable agency of the employers. The everyday struggle for the life necessities of the working class plays an ever bigger role and be- comes decisive in the fight to undermine the Socialist Party and trade union bureaucracy. The AF.L. which, even during the period of “prosperity” had de- clined in numbers, has lost a large section of its membership during the | present period of the crisis. The A.F.L. bureaucracy is now attempting through “left” manoeuvers, to disrupt the growing unity and to divert the struggles of the masses, is making itself the best assistant of the capital- ists in their offensive against the living standards of the workers at home and in their imperialist foreign policy. The latest convention of the AFL, represented such a “left” manoeuver on a gvand scale, with such demagogic gestures as the proposals for the 30-hour week without reduc- tion in pay and for unemployment insurance on a state basis to be paid by the employers. Intended only to disrupt the strike movement, to help the introdu-tion of the “Stagger Plan” and to make inevitable the most drastic cuts in wages, as well as to stop the growing movement for | federal unemployment insurance, these proposals of the A.F.L. bureau- cracy are really the same schemes put forward by the Democratic Party and Gerard Swope, leaving out of consideration the whole mass of the present sixteen million unemployed and allowing only for a very limited form of so-called “insurance” on a paternalistic basis through the various capitalist enterprises, William Green speaks against “the dole” (unem- ployment insurance) and supports the Black Bill (legalization of Hoover's Stagger Plan and Teagle’s share-the-work plan), * * * ‘The Socialist Party and the Musteites fully suppo:t the AFL. bu- Teaucracy against the masses. To cover the “left” manoeuver of the AFL. bureaucracy, the Socialist Party leaders already speak of “the revolution in the A. F. L.” and attempt to present the whole strike-breaking program of the AF.L, bureaucracy as a militant program of struggle for the masses. The Musteites, though feigning to be an “opposition” within the A-F.L., are everywhere attempting to strengthen the hold of the AFL, bureaucrats upon the masses; they even build “new unions” in the effort to block the masses from freeing themselves from the reformist influence. The Musteites attempted to block the leftward movement of the masses toward the Communist Party in the past election through their slogan “For a Labor Party,” and came to the rescue of the Socialist Party bu- reaucracy by calling upon the masses to support “one of” the “working class parties” while at the same time making the most vicious attack against the Communist Party and aiding the Thomas campaign. In Europe the crisis and the revolutionary upsurge under the condi- tions of the leadership of the Communist Party have already resulted this general truth mechanically to the United States, Here we still wit~ It wou however, to apply r t the same time the AF.L., which is declining in membership, is more and more taking up social-fascist phraseology in its attempt to fulfill-its role in the in- terests of the bourgeoisie. This does not mean the inevitable growth of social-fascism in the United States, and especially must we conduct a sharp struggle against all tendencies to look upon the going over of masses from the open capitalist parties to social-fas s a step in revolu- tionization of the masses. The narrower economic basis of the labor aristocracy creates favorable objective situation for the speedy liquida- tion of the influence of social-fascism, and the winning of the masses to the Communist Party. At the same time, we must guara against the underestimation of the danger of social-fas as shown iu the tendency to belittle the S. P. electoral vote in Nov r. In this situation it is more than Communist Party to direct the r aim to isolate the social-fascist 1 these masses into struggle aga in a decline of social-fascism. ategic necessity of the against social-fascism, with the ‘acy from the s and to lead is capitalist class. The present ob- jective situation, the narrowing of the base of the hitherto privileged and bribed sections of the w g class, furnishes a favorable basis for the weakening of the influence of social-reform: their isolation, and the winning of the working class to the support of the Communist Party, The decisive question here is the subjective factor, the role and activity of the Communist Party. The instruments for accomplishing this aim are the application of the tactics of the united front from below to draw the great masses of workers of the social-fascist parties and trade unions i amon action with the r rk needs under the p of the Communist Party, together with the ruthless exposure of social-f, ist bureaucracy, always sharps ly distinguishing between this bureaucracy and the mass of the workers and even the lower “actives” of the Socialist Party and the reformist unions. It is in the struggle for everyday, partial demands in the first place for the most elementary economic needs of the workers—and through the raising of such struggle to a hi r plane-—that the isolation of the social-fascist bureaucracy can be a mplished, r thi 's for their immediate VIL Role of the Party in Mass Struggles and Lessons from These Struggles The examination of the most important experiences of the Party in organizing and leading mass struggles must be made in the light of the fundamental tasks of the Party as laid down in the resolutions of the 14th Central Committee Plenum and in the 12th Plenum of the E.C.CI., which are briefly summarized as follows: (1) to direct the basic strategic blows against social-democracy, to win the masses away from it, to iso- late it from the masses; (2) to win over the majority of the proletariat and the poor farmers, to train them in a series of fights and to convert them into our political army; (3) to organize our Party into a mass party on the basis of bo! vik inner party democracy, founded on iron discipline, into a revolutionary sta S political army; (4) to en- large, strengthen and renew our Party general staff. Although in a number of cases the resistance of the masses to the capitalist offensive was inspired and org: ed by the Party (unemployed struggles, miners strikes, Colorado beet workers, needle trades, growth of opposition in reformist unions, the Bouus March, fight against Negra’na- tional oppression and for Negro rights, the farmers’ fights against. évic- tions, etc.) the increasing mass resistance is still predominantly spon- taneous. The Party has not succeeded in leading the majority of the workers whose standards of living are vitally attacked nor even those great masses of strategically placed pro! is under the sharpest..and most flagrant attacks which reduce them to mass starvation (steel work» ers, auto workers, railroad workers, etc.) into any sort of resistanct,ex- cepting relatively small struggles (Flint, Michigan}; Warren, Ohio), and only lately in the more serious auto workers strike movement. “The chief cause of the insufficient development of economic striig= gles is the still unsatis‘actory application of the line of independent leadership of economic struggles, on the basis of the united front from below, in the underestimation of partial struggles, in the weak contacts with the masses in the factories and among the unemployed, in the weakening of the positions in the reformist trade unions, in the inability to expose the manoeuvers of the reformist trade union bureaucrats, in the capitulation to the reformist trade union bureaucrats openly or con- cealed by ‘left’ phrases.” Conjusion about and underestimation of the fight for immediate partial demands, together with un-Leninist conceptions and practices in the work of building the red unions and fractions within the reformist unions, as well as unemployed councils (e.g., flouting of proletarian -de- mocracy, sectarian distrust of new proletarian cadres, sectarian concep™ tions of the united front, fear to approach workers under reformist leader~ ship) have characterized and heavily damaged the Party’s mass work. * 2 * fatalist “leftist” attitude of hopelessness in regard to the capacity of the workers under Party leadership actually to wrest out of the hands of the bourgeoisie immediate material concessions has greatly retarded the mass work, the growth of influence of the Party and the independent leadership of struggles. In those cases where we succeeded in winning even small fractions of material demands for the workers (unemployed, some unions in light industry), the movement advanced organizationally and Jed to broader struggles, even despite our failure to sufficiently popu- larize such victories. In other cases, where we did not even win the slightest material gains but nevertheless showed to the workers a sincere and consistent, determined struggle for their everyday material needs, the confidence of the workers in such cases was retained by the red unions, It is not always possible to present the workers with a picture of “victory” and with “sure” material gains from a struggle; but it is absolutely neces= sary that struggles under the revolutionary leadership must demonstrate to the workers that it is possible under this leadership at least at times to win material concessions and that always the most serious and con- sistent struggle is made for these material needs of everyday life. The red trade unions have not succeeded in transforming themselves into mass organizations (an imperative task which was emphasized by the 7th Convention and again at the XIV C.C. Plenum), despite the fact that these unions have led some of the most important struggles (mining, textile), In a number of cases the red unions have even for a time lost their former position (East Ohio) because of the persistence of the most inexcusable opportunist errors, e.g., refusal to lead struggles, neglect and even contempt for proletarian democracy, blindness to the enormous bilities and need of drawing in new cadres from the ranks of the s, and the resultant inability to consolidate the prestige of the unions and unemployed councils into actual organization. The most dangerous “left” opportunism is exhibited in a lack of understanding that the red unions must function for the working class, not alone in highly dramatic moments of struggle, but also for small necessities, in- cluding the “petiiest” services of information, legai advice, defense against petty personal persecutions, ete. The Party has in theory, and to some extent in practice, decisively rejected the rank opportunist theory (developed by the Trotskyist and openly right opportunist renegades) that it is “impossible to win strikes during the economic crisis and mass unemployment.” A number of vie~ tories in basic industries (Warren steel, Point Gorda seamen, Briggs auto) and in lighter industries (needle, shoe, doll workers, etc.) have ad-~ ded in America to the world experience (Poland, Germany, Ozechos Slovakia) which shows that in this moment of deepening radicalization, the moment of transition to a new round of revolutionary struggles, it is not only possible to win economic struggles, but that such victories are increasingly frequent and of rising importance, In the strikes of the miners, textile wor conducted by the revolutionary unions, experie as elsewhere: “...that the Communist Parties and the revolutionary trade union organizations have achieved successes in the leadership of economic strug- gles of the proletariat in those cases when they have CONSISTENTLY applied the tactics of the united front from below at all stages of the struggle, when they have PROMPTLY put forward demands and slogans of the strike intelligible to the MASSES, when they have organized them on the basis of broad proletarian democracy, drawn all sections of the fighting workers into the leadership of the strike, and when they have DECISIVELY EXPOSED the manoeuvers of the reformist trade union bureaucrats and the “confiding” conciliatory attitude towards them,” Where the red unions have shown insufficient leadership of strike struggles and even the loss of leadership of developing. strike movements, this has been due to a lack of perspective for Struggle, an ignorance of the mood of the masses because a lack of contacts in the shops and in the reformist unions and a very serious underestimation of the im= portance of independent leadership. This was shown in the Eastern Ohio miners strike and in the recent situation arising out of the wage-cut in the Ford Plant at Detroit (lack of perspective for struggle through ignorance of the mood of the masses), and in the Southern Illinois coal fields (failure to orientate on the basis of independent leadership), eer aera A LIGHT attitude towards preparations for struggles (strikes,unemploy- ment and bonus demonstrations and marches) has seriously injured both the effectiveness of struggles and the consolidation of ground gained in struggle. This lightness is expressed both in the dangerous tendency to minimize strike preparations (a long-standing weakness which has seriously undermined the position of the Party with the masses and also in an opportunist tendency to offer an existing lack of preparation as an excuse for hesitation, vacillation and reluctance boldly to take the lead- ership of the developing spontaneous strikes and other mass movemenia. and needle (fur) workers nce has shown in America (CONTINUED ON PAGE 4) : ‘ 4