The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 12, 1933, Page 4

Ae DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 1933 JOIN YOUR PARTY, THE COMM By EARL BROWDER. is approaching its 14th | On this occasion the | should participate | UR Party anniversary whole members in a review of ot st development, | and get anding of | the great g of the} emergence and growth | of the Comm: This is aj necessity of al kind. We nee for the big tasks n D out of the Struggles of i —and out the Socia which went Internation: of imp: URTEEN emerged. no dency” within but a revolutiona its own revolutionary help of the world mover Communist International w born only a few months bef Party. is of | inner- | stabilizing the This period ng off of the of mastering t Uaraist-Leninist party consolidat. party's nolitical closed with the thr burdens of the Tr and of the right-wing e renegades under Lovestone. The Op Letter of the Comm st Interna- tional to our Pariy, of 1929, closed the period of inner s solidation, and opened Since 1929 ot and concolid: Phases of its life. still has ps of Bol- | the mem- | Jevery Party ©! every Party fraction. | EARL BROWDER organized attention that now marks this field of work. It must be made the business of every Party unit, Committee and Buro, On the 14th Anniversary of the Party, we must take up a more seri- ous study of our history, precisely der to give especial stimulus to : RECRUITING AND TO o> WORKER CIRCULATION. Let these two questions be placed t on the order of business of every up of Party members every time What the Fourteenth Party Anniversary Means | capable of | workingclass to the revolutionary way, | out of the crisis. of million masses. | in a planned way, set ourselves to the | | be stated concretely from day to day; | | from jof the Party in terms of small, de- they come together. Let every ques- tion of our daily life be taken up in connection with these two basic tasks, in a planned and systematic way, in the manner of serious revolutionists, of Bolsheviks. Only a strong Bolshevik party, is leading the American. Our party is still much too small, much too weak, to meet the tremendous events which are maturing in America, which will begin to break out on a mass stale with the breakdown of the Roosevelt “New Deal” and the disillusionment We must, therefore, consciously and task of strengthening our Party. | The Open Letter clearly leads the’| way for the entire Party. ‘The tasks of the Open Letter must | week to week, for each unit finite tasks. Chief among these daily tasks are these two noints of PARTY RECRUITING and DAILY WORKER CIRCULATION, LET US MAKE A REAL CON- CENTRATION OF OUR EFFORTS TO DOUBLE THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE PARTY IN THE FEW MONTHS BEFORE AND AFTER THE FOURTEENTH ANNIVER- SARY. AND LET US ALSO DOUBLE AND TRIPLE THE CIRCULATION OF THE DAILY WORKER. These things can be easily done with a little Bolshevik determination, with a little “of the spirit of the Party of Lenin and Stalin. That will be a worthy manner of celebrating our 14th Anniversary. Join the Communist Party EAST 12TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. ¥. | ‘Our | World Leadership By WM. FOSTER. | "HE Comunist Party of the United States, in line with its program of | class struggle, unites with the re- | volutionary workers of the world. It is the American section of the Com- munist International. The Commun- ist International carries out a united revolutionary policy on a world scale. with the necessary adaptations for the special conditions in the various countries. The Communist International is a disciplined world party, only such @ party can defeat world imperial- ism. Its leading party, by virtue of its great revolutionary experience, is the Communist Party of the Soviet Gnion. In its general work it ap- plies the priniciples of democratic eentralism, even as its affiliated par- ties do in their respective countries. ‘That is, the policies of the Interna- tional are worked out jointly with the several parties and then applied in the usual disciplined Communist way. Charges of the Matthew Woll brand that those parties “take or- ders from Moscow” are ridiculous. The united world revolutionary po- licy of the Communist International differs fundamentally from that of the Socialist Secdbnd International, whose autonomous sections follow the WM. Z. FOSTER policies of their respective saves bourgeoisie. It is only with the foregoing Com: munist principles and program of class struggle that the workers can defeat the efforts of the capitalists to find a way out of the crisis through more unemployment, wage-cuts, and thass starvation, more Fascist ter- rorism and the unleashing of devas- tating war. Under the leadership of the Com- munist Party and following out its class struggle policy, the workers can defend their interests here and now since 1929 | | (these constit 15,000 out of a | | total of 20. 00 ), if th will begin | | i E ilable mate- | | ASRS 1 sFhaeticonsiiek Sa ateec eens eeeumarts of our Party. | of our Party, | | and the entire situation in the coun- try and in the world, combine to! |orry STATE Plece on our or t of business today | | AGE the most urgent task of carrying the! Party program to the broad and winning them to our Two features of this » mc important at the moment than ¢ others, must be evecialy, empha- , sized. These ¢ MEMBERS, and I ING ITS CIRCUL Without bringing into the Party new thousands and tens of thousands o Members, it will be impossible to meet our duties. Thousands of work- @fs;are already anxious to join us; but they don’t know how, and we do not help ‘them. The first task is te bring into the Party every honest sympathizer and follower, and then to follow that up with systematic re- eruiting on a planned basis, at the Concentration points of Party work. | Equally important is the multipli- | cation of the circulation of THE DAILY WORKER. This can no longer ye left to the spontaneous and un- | and they will ultimately traverse ful’ the revolutionary way out of {~ crisis by overthrowing capitalism and establishing a Soviet system. (From Comrade Foster's hook Page Four NIST PARTY! | scttomey ro PN NNO ag ANTE RaQ Whew ance dy, AReCIbOND y | rw] and suggestions is perhaps the healthiest sign of a revitalization of Party work. It is imperative that this spirit continue. It appears to me that the primary} task of the Daily Worker is distribu- tion on a wider scale. It must be brought to a far greater portion of the masses. A campaign for in- creased circulation must be initiated on an unprecedented scale. Have unemployed comrades enter working class sections and sell copies person- ally. Similarly, it would be valuable | to hold street corner meetings nightly | in as many places as possible. These can be utilized not only for the pur- pose of bringing current political and | economic issues directly to the work- ers, but also for the purpose of sell- ing copies of “The Worker” at the conclusion of these meetings. As far as the Daily Worker itself is concerned, I believe you are quite right in relentlessly and consistently exposing the tactics employed by the fathers of the “New Deal.” One small suggestion—it might be a gocd idea to give more daily news of events of importance in the basic industries, | reports of the progress made by Com- munist Party unions, etc. It would “Toward Soviet America,” published in 1932.) be of undoubted value to the Daily Worker to receive more contributions Letters from Our Readers Your willingness to receive criticism ‘The Daily Worker is making good advances in getting closer to the workers and presenting revolution- ary issues in mass terms. But we all know that there is still lots of | dead matter; dull, formal treat-| ment; slowness to react sharply and | imaginatively to every turn and de- | velopment of the situation and its significafice for the workers. These are the weaknesses we all need to| fight. | All comrades, all sympathizers, all | readers of the Daily Worker should | combine to help the editorial board. We need more letters from the big industrial centers, letters with aj revolutionary proletarian swing, let- | ters that will demand with fierce | | insistence. | More kick. More life! More fight! | And in plain terms that every work- | er can understand. With all the en- emies of the workers . + confi- dence and belief in the revolution! | Let every line and item breath | revolutionary enthusiasm. Mobilize | the readers for co-operation. A. WILLIAMS. from Michael Gold, Joseph Freeman and others of the New Masses. Congratulations on your plan to en- large the Daily Worker. i READER. ‘Recruiting of New Members A Major Field of Work By C. E. RUTHENBERG Editorial Note: The following ex- cerpts from an article written by comrade C. E, Ruthenberg, in De- cember, 1926, is timely in connec- tion with our Party Anniversary. One of the central tasks in cele- brating the 14th Anniversary of C. E, RUTHENBERG Roosevelt, Bankers and Professors Discuss “Purchasing Power” Can’t Raise Purchasing Power of 90 Per Cent} of Population, Says National City Bank, 4 Overlooking Main Obstacles | By H. G. 'VERY time he tells the workers that he is going to “raise purchasing power,” and in- crease employment. All the economists of the leading bankers are discussing this hooey. They tell how impossible it is to raise |the purchasing power of the masses. | Other economic mouthpieces of the big exploiters admit that Roo: | program is designed to raise tt profits and to reduce wages, not to |raise purchasing power. The National City Bank Bulletin for August discusses the question of pur- chasing power. It points out that 10 per cent of the population (those who absorb the profits produced by the workers) live on the fat of the land. The other 90 per cent, the toiling masses, are on the verge of starva- tion. They ask if it is possible to raise the living standard of the 90 per cent to that of the 10 per cent, They answer: “The only obstacle to raising the average living standard of the 90 per cent to the present average level of the 10 per cent is that at present it is impossible to produce the increased quantities of all the goods that would be required.” They conveniently forget that the 10 per cent, those who own the means of production, the social wealth, live as they do because the 90 per cent starve. The poverty of the many is the source of the wealth of the few. The obstacle is not the supposition that “it is impossible to produce the increased quantities of all the goods that would be required.” The main obstacle is the ten per cent them- selves, Capitalism slowed down pro- duction when thousands were still starving. Its very stoppage of pro- duction (because profits were drop- ) | Capitalism does “raise the standarg not} produce to of | living.” Capitalism goes even further. Be-| cause it has produced more than it can sell at a profit, regardless of the} facts that the masses starve, it reo ceeds to destroy not produce, With 350,000,000 bushels of wheat in| | the graneries and millions of bales of cotten in stock, Roosevelt deliberately orders wholesale destruction of wheat and cotton. Is it a question of abil- we ity to produce more? Capitalism never has ant can use its productive machinery. to full capacity. So long as productiort does not throw millions of profits into the pockets of the 10 per cent, the majority of the 90 per cent must starve. As a sidelight on this question we learn the ‘nllowin~ Brot Harold F. Clark of Columbia Uni- versity: “There is no excuse for unem-~ nayar fen | not overpopulated. tists ployment. The United States is The country is capable of supporting easily some 50,000,000 more people. Yet -under the present chaotic system we would have just as much un- employment with half of our pop- Roosevelt sticks his| ping) caused more 1r‘sery and un-|. ulation.” mouth near a radio microphone | employment. This is somewhat at variance with the economic wiseacres of the Na- tional City Bank. They all get them- selves entangled in hopless confu- sion in trying to explain to the workers why millions starve in the midst of plenty. ee RROFESSOR CLARK touches on a poin o> cher by K in 1867 in his masterly work on capitalist society, “Capital.” At that time the theories of a certain Mal- thus were very popular, as they still are in some quarters. Malthus said Starvation is the lot of humanity and always will be. Why? Because .population grows faster than the means of supplying life, food, cloth- {ing, etc. Marx smashed this argu- ‘ment to bits, showing that capital- ism has its own laws of overpopula- tion. He said it is true that every me asl VE .| time there is a crisis in capitalism there is relative overpopulation — that is more people exist than is needed by capitalism. There are not more people than can be fed. There are more people than the capital- can put to work profitabiv. .) Therefore they, as well as those Who do work starve. Overpopiletion }is not due to the shortage of food Not at all.| or because of the scarcity of goods of any kind. It is not due to the fact that too many people exist in relation to the available food and other means of life (as Prof. Clark in 1933 testifies). But it is due to the fact that capitalism cannot con- tinue production at a, profit, and renders 17,000,000 superfluous on the basis of capitalist relations — the ownership of the means of produc- q-z | solve this contradiction of the anar- | not live except by selling its labor power to the bosses. When Professor Clark speak about “the present chaotic system” he means the anarchy of production. Stating the problem correctly lays) the basis for its solution. So long as capitalism exists this anarchy will exist. In fact, it will grow worse. | Capitalism as it grows, as long as, it lives, produces a relative surplus | population that is doomed to starva- | tion and can prevent greater starva- | tion only by struggle. Only the overthrow of capitalist relations, the overtiirow of the capitalist state | power as a preliminary to wiping out the class basis of capivelism, can chy of capitalism producing wealth | for the 10 per cent and misery and | starvation for the 90 per cent. 6 ae situation Roosevelt can never solve, as Prof. Clark indicates, even if he shoots half the popula- tion. Neither can he solve it by talking about increased purchasing power. He can talk about increas- ing purchasing power, but his inten- tions, policies and actions work to the contrary—to reduce wages and increase unemployment. Proof? Here is some from a very | authoritative capitalist source, the Annalist, foremost economic organ of Wall Street. In its July 28th issue we read the following: “The new deal proposes to set | prices which will absorb not only the rise in the direct costs of all production but will also assure producers of a profit. Prices con- strued as ‘fair,’ in the sense con- templated by the various indus- tries, will put a premium on ef- forts to lower cost of production for the sake of much larger pro- fits.” Before we go further, let’s analyze this. Under the new deal the bosses will increase prices, in order to make tion by the capitalist class, and the jexistance of a proletariat who can- @ profit. But they will not be satis- What Over population Means Under Canitaiied: Bankers’ Sheet Admits Profits to Go Up But Wages and Employment Down “much larger profits.” To attain this they will lower costs of production. Costs of production in the very first | instance refer to wages—the greatest | single item in the cost of produc- tion. In short, to make much larger profits they will lower wages. * * HE same article goes further and shows how this lowering of costs pred under the new deal, wv lead t ater unsmployment. “This will be done by investing | more capital in order to increase the | of | Droductiviiy of labor and may very well result in new and revolutionary technical developments.” Translated into the language of the shops, the New Deal in prac- tice, as the bosses’ organ says, will mean to increase speed-up, getting less workers to do the same amount of work done; increasing the use of machinery, with “new and re- volutionary technical developments” driving more workers permanently out of the factories without, at the same time, affecting production. So, when listening to Roosevelt's fied with mere profit but want lessons on economics, remember what is going on in the bowls of in- dustry. Production cosis (mainly wages) being lowered. Speed-up in- with “revolutionary” ma- replacing labor, leading to an intensificdtion of the cause of capitalist crisis. For the worker the result will be increased unem- ployment, lowered purchasing power. The ultimate result will be the in- tensification of the crisis, as every ‘effort capitalism makes to get out of the crisis, increases its anta- gonism. Tlie ultimate cause of ca- Pitalist crisis, the poverty of the masses, is increased. “Their p0iitical and intellectual bankruptcy,” wrote Engels, in “So- cialism Utopian and Scientific,” “is scarcely any longer a secret to the bourgeoisie themselves.” Capitalism is foundering in its own contradictions. Engels points out that to do away with these contradictions, to end the misery which capitalism increases: “The proletariat siezes political power and turns the means of production into state property.” The proletariat, through the dic- tatorship of the proletariat, becomes the ruling class. Then, as Engels, points out: “Secialized production upon a predetermined plan becomes henceforth possible. The develop- ment of production makes the existence of different classes of. society thenceforth an anachron- ism (a historical inconsistency). The political nithority of the state dies out. Man, at last the master of his own ferm of social, organ- ization, becomes at the same time lord over Nature, his own master —tfree.” among the ” MasSsSe€s. comrades, new and old today, to march fore ward to BUILD THE PARTY. s 8 e@ recruiting of new members te broaden and strengthen the party organization, becomes one of its ma- jor fields of work. The Party must crystallize into organization strength the influence which it has won among the workers. Our Party has never taken full advantage of its work among the masses to win new members. There still exists among the members of the Party some remnants of the psychology of the days when the Party was obliged in order to live” to exist as'‘an und: tion. The members of our Party are hésitant~ about approaching the workers with whom they come in contact and who are sympathetic to the work of the Party in order to bring them into the Party. There are no persistent and systematic ef- forts to recruit new members. If the whole membership of our Party were to throw itself into the work of winning new members, with the same enthusiasm and energetic work which has been developed in some of the Party campaigns, we could quickly double the member- ship of the reorganized Party. With double the membership the Party could go forward to greater achievements in the extension of its influence. and in mobilizing the working masses for struggle. The same attitude which is mani- “|fested in regard to the recruiting of new members showed itself in the reorganization of the Party. Many members who were in the Party before the reérganization were lost to the Party because of the mechanical attitude manifested toward these members in the re- organization. In place of considering each work- er who had advanced far enough to become a member of the Party precious material for the hee 4 lightly dropped from the mem! ship rolls because they did Horr mediately take the necessary steps to affiliate with the shop and ‘street nuclei, In many instances even the lists containing the names of these members have ot been kept. Both the attitude within the Party toward the recruiting of new.mem- bers and“that manifested in the re- organization of the Party consti- tute a grave danger in relation to the building of a more powerful Party, We may have the most correct program’'and the best policies and tactics im carrying on our work, but if we do not couple with these the recruiting of the best elements among the workers who support our Party, our work will not be permanent and we are not taking “The Party cannot be the leader of the working class unless it keeps the closest contact with the non-Party masses, unless there is an alliance between the Party and non-Party masses, unless the masses accept the Party leadership, unless the Party possesses both moral and political authority -Stalin the fullest advantage of our op- portunities,