The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 16, 1934, Page 6

Page Six Daily <QWorker MEVTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY ULS.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERMATIONAL? “America’s Only Working Class Daily Newspaper” FOUNDED 1924 PUBLISHED DAILY, EXCEPT SUNDAY, BY THE COMPRODAILY PUBLISHING CO., INC., 50 E. 13th Street, New York, N. Y. Telephone: ALgonquin 4 - 7 Subscription Rates: cept. M Bronx MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1934 The Present Situation on The Auto Strike Front 4 hae auto strike wave is higher. powerfully, steadily, before it by ment, by the cunning National Aut of the government, the billionaire auto porations, and the corrupt, sell-out officials of the A. F. of L. leadership. The latest reports bring the news the work- Pp. ers of the Seaman Body ejected for the second time the cra proposals of company bosses and the Roosevelt agent, Richard Byrd, that would trick them back to work with the bait of some ht concessions. They stuck to their demand for ® 20 per cent increase, union recognition, and the firing of all strike-breakers. This means that strike-breaking efforts of Roo: velt, the employers, aided by the A.'F. of L. lead- ership have thus far failed. This means that the auto workers are learning how to see through the rosy promises of these three forces that are com- bined to break the back of the auto workers strug- gles. This means that the auto workers are learning to penetrate through the smooth talk of these three to the reactiona: ike-breaking heart Roosevelt's st ‘ing “peace pact” s breaking down under the blows of the mination of the 's to fight for better wages and for the union, the A. F. of L. leadership, the Roosevelt government and the ns, subtle, schemes to Faced his obvious auto wor recognition of the th together ae stab the to ¢ are trying new workers in the back. Every day of delay tends to weaken the stra- tegic advantage of the auto workers, Now is the peak of production. Soon the auto employers will be on the stringer side as far as time is concerned. Now is the time for the auto workers to strike a and to force them away from the inde- t unions This Roosevelt ag: ment can be charac as the compar of the A. F. of L on the other hand, the AFLization of the company But this tack did not work. The present kes are ample proof of that HEN ened he Motor Products ‘ike i to become a mass strike. threat- The A. F. of L. leadership, which was against the strie having taken place over their heads, pre- tended to lead the strike in order to break it. Last Sunday over 1,000 workers overwhelmingly defeated the proposals of the Auto Labor Board just as the workers‘in Wisconsin did. Then President Roosevelt and General Johnson sent their agents, the infamous Ed McGrady to Detroit, with the charge to at all costs break the ke. On Monday, without notice to the strikers, A. F. L. leaders selected a small group of ‘Ss and more trusted people. McGrady came to speak to them in the name of the President and succeeded, at a meeting of 250 out of 5,600 involved in the strike and lock-out, to put through a motion that the workers accept the agreement, which, different from the previous agreement pro- posed the day before, made it appear that they gave some further concessions to the workers. The workers were called back to work Tuesday. Matthew Smith, head of the M. E. 8. A. did everything possible to help the employers and the A. F. L. leaders bring the Motor Products workers back to work, urging its followers in the Motor Products to accept the settlement on the ground that since the A. F. L. workers have acted they must do the same thing. The threat of a big strike movement in Detroit, with the ultimatum given by the M. E. S. A. to the tool and die job shops, stili remained. Smith therefore used every possible maneuver to have the issues compromised to avoid the strike. But the pressure of the rank and file, which was strong enough in the first place to force the ultimatum to the employers, proved itself to be streng enough to prevent Smith's calling off of the strike, and the workers are now on strike, with the possibility that this tool and die strike may again give impetus to the developing of big strikes in Detroit. * . HE present situation in the auto front points to rising strike struggles against the unbear- able exploitation of the Wall Street auto corpora- tions. All present developments, the constantly flaring strike actions, the sentiment of the men, points to a desire of the workers for unity, for uniting their forces into one powerful fighting organization. But this can be achieved only by isolating and defeating not only the corrupt, veteran strike- breakers of the A. F. L. leadership, but also such leaders as Matthew Smith, who speaks in radical phrases while he serves the Government and the employers. (It is significant that Smith is a member of the Detroit Regional Board of the N. R. A) " Now is the time for the auto workers to strike their best blow against their enemy. It is the powerful blow against the billion-dollar Wall Street corporations, Now is the time the blow would hurt these profit-swollen exploiters the most. That is why the central purpose L. fakers is to delay, delay, if they cannot stop it altogether. parley with the auto worke! ves. Then the auto coi ive against the workers. HE strike leadership has appeared mi recent auto developments, this ringing the dang Union and the Mechanics Fi dominate the field, the A. F. of gathered thousands of wo! to scheme and manoeuvi growth of the independent t With the They appealed to Roosevelt. with his “peace agreement” termed course in social engineering.” the leg: Two Open Letters--- By SAM DON Article II. eee have been two open letters. These letters are two milestones in the history of our Party. In 1928-29 our Party was torn by a raging, unprincipled fac-; tional struggle. The Lovestone- Trotskyites were singing hosannas} to the almighty power of American capitalism. The Party leadership was dominated by the opportunist, now renegade, Lovestone group.| This opportunist leadership chimed in with the Hoover prosperity | chorus. It denied the then ap- proaching world economic crisis so clearly outlined by the 6th World Congress of the Communist Inter- national and by Comrade Stalin. It | developed the theory of exceptional- ism, which coincided with the bour- | geois social-fascist theories that American capitalism was exempt | from the growing world crisis of | capitalism. It denied the growing} revolutionary perspectives in ithe| United States. With its theory of exceptionalism it also exempted the U. S. from the danger of social-fascism. With its opportunist theory of exceptional- | ism it denied the social-fascist role | of the A. F, of L. leadership and | opposed the need of developing in-! dependent leadership of the Com- | munist Party in the economic strug- | gles. It opposed the development of | revolutionary opposition work within | our Party problems of Bolshevik Pf delay the auto strike, | Now the policy of | the Roosevelt government and the A. F. of L. is to | s until the slack season | rations will take the | | | -breaking treachery of the A. F. of L. glaringly that the Auto Workers ucational Society would | into its 9 stop the organizations. Roosevelt replied In reality, it meant ization of the company union, the enforce- ment of compulsory arbitration, and the increased use of open force to break the struggles of the F. L. and M. E. of the A. F. of wing that the over the heads of that the left wi and packed mee! in the rising struggles who are being workers, who, i seniority face th layoffs; and the L,, which had | nks, began | ruggles and the fight for er basic questions a real victory. carried forward by him ‘a new policy of the Communists, of the Auto Workers Union, and the left wing opposition in the A. . A. to drive developments for- | ward in the direction of developing strike strug- gles to the widest possible areas and the greatest number of workers, based upon the rank and file demands of the workers themselves. It was largely through the work of the left Motor Products strike took place | f the leaders. It is true, of course, ing was not yet strong enough to prevent the maneuvers of the last minute picked ting at which the Motor Products strike was settled. Among the importent issues before the work- ers now are the questions of the Negro workers, discriminated against; the youth in the raising of the question of he danger of being the victims in women workers, the A. F. L, lead- ership having agreed to a decision limiting the hiring of women workers, rather than to conduct qual pay for equal work. These must be fought out as essential to The auto strike struggles must be : Proper methods of work can bring a real victory for the auto workers. NOTES ON AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE EIGHTH NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE COMMUNIST jean working class; it was the fact that the base of the Party rested primarily upon the foreign born sec- tions of the American working class, which isolated it from the stirring political life of the country. Bo le IN 1929 our Party received an open letter from the Communist In- ternational. It was this open let- ter which rallied the whole Party against umprincipled factionalism, | which cleansed our Party of the Lovestone-Trotskyite renegade ele- | ments. It was this open letter which put a death blow to the theories of exceptionalism. It opened up broad revolutionary perspectives for our Party as the basis for the de- velopment of our Party into a mass Communist Party. As against the Lovestone theories of American exceptionalism, the Open Letter of the CI. rid our Party of these American bourgeois theorists. It contained the ringing statement that: “With a distinctness unprece- dented in history, American cap- italism is exhibiting now the ef- fects of the inexorable laws of capitalist development, the laws of decline and downfall of ecapi- talist society. The general crisis of capitalism is growing more rapid- | ly than it may seem at first glance. The crisis will shape also | the foundations of the power of American imperialism.” This Open Letter raised before the A. F. of L., the building of in-| mass work. It said: dependent militant unions, all uni- fied into one revolutionary trade | union movement. What was the source of the fac- tional fight which sapped the) strength of our Party for many, years? It was its isolation from_ she decisive sections of the Amer-| e “The Communist Party must concentrate its attention on the most imzortant questions of the revolutionary struggle of the pro- letariat in America—on the ques- tion pf unemployment, the strug- gle for social insurance, wages, working hours, work in the ex- DAILY WORKER, N. J. Youth Groups Call Conference To Fight War, Fascism State- Wide. Meeting Is Endorsed by Labor, | Liberal Leaders NEWARK. — The Northern New| Jersey Youth Federation, a newly | formed body of youth organizations | from churches, schools, colleges, | fraternal and political organiza | is calling a state wide conference} against war and Fascism. The con-} ference is to take place at College, 40 Rector St. at 2 p, m.,| Sunday, May 6th. | The Youth Federation calls upon | all its fellows to elect delegates to} a broad conference where effective | steps will be taken in the struggle against war. Among its affiliated | organizations are the Washington; Club of the Y. M. H. A, Social Problems Clubs and International Relations Clubs from several high cols and colleges in the north- ern part of the state, Youth Peace organizations, Young Circle League, Young Communist League, and Jack London Clubs. The call is endorsed by prominent jliberals and labor leaders among {whom are Dr. Frank L. Kingdon, Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church of East Orange, Roger M. Yancey, Attorney, N. A. A.C. P., Anthony | Anterio, Pres. Blue Bird Dye Shop local, A. F. of L. (Paterson) David Minoff, Y. M. H. A. leader of Pater- }son, Julius Shiskind, Pres. Ruigers University Liberal Club, Lillian | Salzman, Dana College Liberal Club, |E. H. Zabriskie, Prof. of History,| | Dana College, and Charles L. Dore-| |mus, Scoutmaster, Troop No. 112,| | Boys Scouts of Barnegat. Chi. Professionals ‘Adopt Manifesto ‘Against Fascism Pass Resolution at Meet for the Release of All Class War Prisoners CHICAGO, April 15—A manifesto for outright struggle against world | fascism, and specifically fascist ten- dencies in the U. S. and Chicago. | was adopted by 100 professionals at a meeting Wednesday in the Medical | Arts Building. The Professional } Groups Against Fascism called the meeting. | | An executive committee of 18 was | jelected and instructed to work out | |a definite plan of immediate action | jagainst fascism. A resolution was | |passed demanding the release of | |Thaelmann, Torgler and all class | war prisoners in Germany and Aus- | | | tria, | Anna Schultz greeted the meeting |in the name of the American League | | Against War and Fascism. | The organization is composed of | | doctors, dentists, lawyers, nurses, | lengineers and journalists. | | Edward Ohrenstein, a member of | the Socialist Party, was elected | chairman. The groups headquerters | May Day parade and demonstra-' May are at the Lincoln Center, 700 Oak- | tions plans of the committee, and| United demonstration, wood Boulevard. ‘Spartacus Youth Club | Calls Meet Against War | NEW YORK. — The Spartacus Greek Youth Club has issued & cail| to all young workess and students | of the West side downtown clubs | and organizations to meet in a con-/| ference against war and fascism, Tuesday, April 17, 8 p. m. at t Spartacus Club, 269 W. 25th St. | A United Front Anti-War com- OFF THE EARTH! Sg 2 718 Delegates Ps Viitied F ront May Day Meet - Keep Pro Demand Mayo NEW YORK. ringing defiance of his continued attacks upon the United Front May Day demon: tion against War and Fascism w hurled at Mayor LaGuardia by 718 delegates representing over 600 unions, organizations and branciies | with a membership of more than 100,000 workers at the final United Front May Day Conference held in Webster Hall Saturday. After agreeing, through a com- mittee which the Mayor himself ap- pointed to represent him on the question of the arrangements for Union Square on May First, that the United Front demonstration would enter the Square at 2:30, LaGuardia is again trying to change the hours, in an attempt to as- sign the early morning hours to the revolutionary workers. Under this} plan the workers would have to be} out of the Square by noon. The! May Day parade would be disrupted. | With many delegates pledging the workers in their industries to} q. “Down Tools” on May Day, and the | conference calling on all New York | workers to pour into the streets this | May Day in a mighty united front | demonstration, the conference adopted by acclamation the follow- ing resolution: “We will not stand for any fur- ther attempts at bull-dozing and -dallying. We sneak now. We | will march into Union Square as agreed upon at 2.30 on May the First. We go on record and serve notice to La Guardia and his | favorite sons, the Socialist Party | leadership, that the United Front H demonstration wiil march into | Union Square at 2.30 sharp and | not later.” | Conference Votes for Preliminary | Rallies April 28 Louis Weinstock of the A. F. of L.| Painters Union was elected chair-| man of the conference, which heard the report of Carl Brodsky, chair-| man of the United Front May Day| Arrangements Committee on the a series of preliminary | demonstrations thrcughout the city on Saturday, April 28, The conference received pledges of militant support from delezates from hundreds of organizations, in- | cluding Workmen Circle branches; | Cc. W. A. workers, Amalgamated Food Workers, Taxi Cab Union, mittee will be formed at this tim in addition to preparing for future activities tor the mob’ tion of a young w::kers and stujeats in tie} struggle against was ani fascisra. I | Conference NEW YORK, MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1934 by Burck | | | | | | John Reed Club, League of Struggle for Negro Rights branches, Inter- naticnal Labor Defense branches, ete. A delegate from the National) Students League pledged the thou-} sands of New York students who took part in last Friday’s one-hour strike against War and Fascism to carry the fight into the May Day demonstration, marching with the} revoluitonary workers. Needle Trades Workers to “Down Tools” Koretz of the Needle Trades) Workers’ Industrial Union declared | that the entire newly organized bath robe section of 1,500 workers | will declare a sioppage of work on May Day, as will the custom tail- ors, 2,000 strong, and other sections | of the union. The Needle Trades | Union wil! have six brass bands in the line of march, as well as two} Opposition | rass bands for tk | Gzou2s in the rezormist unions. | Geizen of the C, | A, workers | a 10,000 white-collar workers will march behind the banner of| the United Fron: Against War and; Fascism. | Communist Party Calls All Work- | ers Out On May Day George Siskind, of ihe Commu- | nh anu a member of the| Uniicd Front May Day Arrange- ments Committee, gave a short resume of Conditions confront- | ing the w Zz class this May Day, stressing the necessity of united) struggle for Negro and white work- ers, native and foreign born, against unemployment, wage cuis for the employed, mass firing of C. W. A.| workers, firetrap tenement condi- | tions menacing the lives of workers | and their children, increasing fas- ist aitacks on the toiling popula- ion and preparations for a new World War. The Communist Party, he de- clared, called upon the United F-ont to bring out all the workers for all their demands this First. Only through one eutting th everything that has kept sing class divided, can the| workers build their unity and beat back the growing fascist attacks ond war vlens, he declared. Tells cf Socialist Party Rejection | of Pozhting United Front i ng to ihe various invitations | Sosis'ict Party leaders to| d front demonstration, d out that the Socialist! refused to recognize one | d May Day demonstration. | hey fermed a united front with the | renezedes and expciied elements from the Communist Party, and, ms | i Poi ssrt mise | Mouncing the torture of Ernst |fore the Cuban Consulate in this on Union Sq. with the aid of LaGuardia, are now trying to keep the revolutionary workers out of Union Square. | Included among the 718 delegates | were 38 from independent unions, | five from A. F. of L. unions, 112) groups of the A. F. of L,, three from | Workmen Circle branches, seven| from the Workers’ Committee of Unemployed, two from the Ameri- can Workers’ Party, three from the} Jewish Workers’ Party, and 84 from | 12 industrial unions. | Delegation to Take Demands to LaGuardia The conference adopted resolu- sions denouncing LaGuardia’s econ- omy program and agreement with the bankers, demanding special ap- propriations for immediate relief, for rehiring of C. W. A. workers, for slum clearance and erection _of fireproof dwellings for workers, for the passage of the Unemployment and Social Insurance Bill (H. R.| 7598), and for the election of a dele- gation to take these demands to City Hall. Resolutions were adopted de- | Thaelmann, German Communist leader, and of the Scottsboro boys, demanding the release of Thaei- mann and the tens ot thousands | of revolutionary workers in the Nazi prisons and concentration | camps, the release of the Scotts- bore boys, Tom Mooney and other class-war prisoners in the United States. Another resolution expressed the solidarity of the workers of New| York with the heroic struggles of | the Cuban workers and peasants, | and called for a demonstration be- | city at 12 o'clock noon on Friday, | April 20. The conference instructed the | May Day Committee to issue a special manifes‘o, directed especially to the A. F. of L. and Socialist calling for the forging of | a mighty united. front against war and fascism and for defense of the Soviet Union, the land of Socialism. | Amonz the masses of the people, we Communists are but drors in the ecean, and we can- not rule unless we give acenrate expression te the folk conscious- ness. herwise the Communist Party will not be able to lead the proletariat, the proletariat will not be able to lead the masses, | ard the whole machine will fall | to piecos—Lenin at the Eleventh Party Congress. | Doumergue cabinet. : Hunger 20 Sirikers Near Death in Cuba Cuban Troops Fire on Protest Demonstration, in Havana i HAVANA, April 15—Troops at into a demonstration of workers and students today protesting the treatment of political prisoners by the Mendicta-Wall Street regime, Central Victcria workers and peasants yesterday refused to stop production of suger after the grinding quota had been filled, re sisting the lay-off plans of the sugar bosses. The workers threaten to seize the plant if their wag are net ferthceming. * NEW YORK. — Twenty political” prisoners in. Castillo Princine, Ha- vana, Cuba, on hunger strike for 130 hours, are dying, according to a cable received here by the Interna- tional Labor Defense from the De- fensa Obrera Internacional, sister organization in Cuba, Saturday. One hundred and fifty prisoners are on hunger strike in various Cu- ban prisons, the cable | states, Seventy of them in Castillo Principe had been on strike 130 hours at 5 p. m. Saturday. A cable of protest, demanding the release of these and the 5,000 more political prisoners held in Cuban jails without trial, was sent to President Mendieta by William L, Patterson, National Secretary of the I. L. D., who simultaneously sent jfrom shops, 46 from opposition out a call to all sympathetic to the struggles of the Cuban toilers, to support this strike with cabled pro- tests. Berlin Worker Protest at Nazis Victim’s Funeral Workers Heroically Defy Nazi Ban On Demonstration BERLIN, April 15.—In heroic de- fiance of a Nazi ban, over 3,000 workers last Monday attended the funeral of Marum, Socialist deputy, who was murdered by the Nazis in the concentration camp at Kielau, The police had forbidden the pub- lication of the hour of the funeral | of Marum, whose murder they de- | scribed as “suicide,” The police, afraid to attack the immense demonstration, photo- | graphed the funeral procession with the aim of identifying fhe workers... } who participated. 4 Civil Employees i Many French Cities Protest Wage Cuts PARIS. April 15. — Protesting against the government’s drastic economy measures, simultaneous cemonstrations were staged today in Paris and 120 provincial towns by many thousand civil service’ workers. The demonstrations are against the five to ten per cent wage cuts emong the 720,000 civil service work- ers and the firing of 80,000 men under the adopted measure by the i Tomorrow short strikes, in mili- tant protest against this measure, will be called in Paris and other cities. Two Milestones in the Histo ry of Our Party PARTY OF THE U. S. A. | isting trade unions, work for the | erganization of new unions, strug- gle against reformism and struggle | against the war danger.” The Seventh Convention of our Party held in 1930, on the basis of the Open Letter of the C, I. unified our Party, purged its ranks of the remnants of the Lovestone-Trotsky- | ite renegade elements and _ their theories. This laid the basis of the development of the mass work of |the Party, although the past weighed heavily upon our Party. | However, it found it difficult to rally |all of its forces for Bolshevik mass | work. It found it difficult to apply |in practice the line of the C. I. in building a mass Communist Party in the U. S. A. * . | WHAT was it in the past of our Party which made it so difficult for us to make the turn towards) | Teal mass work, as called for time |and again by the C. I.? What was |the source of the isolation of our |Party from the decisive sections of (the American proletariat? The | Open Letter of the C. I. in 1929 gave jus that answer when it told the |Party that “The Workers Commun- vist Party of America has been for | many years an organization of with the political life of the coun- | try.” It is true that the Seventh | Convention of our Party held in | 1930 unified our ranks but the Party | found it difficult to break its isola- | tion from the American masses. This is the central problem that our |Party has been facing since the | Seventh Convention. | While the crisis became sharper | \from year to year, and radicaliza- | tion of the masses has been in- lereasing, the Party did not keep | pace with the revolutionary advance in the country. The Party, not only ‘did not keep pace with the rapid ‘development of the objective condi- ( |foreign workers not much connected | | tions, but in some respects remained | | even. stationary, Did the 7th Convention help us in the development of mass work, has |the Party carried on and increased \its mass work following the 7th | Convention? Of course it has. But | |it was not mass work of a basic character which would root the |Party among the decisive sections jot the American proietariat. | Ne et HIGH point in the struggle of | | our Party to carry the line of} | the C. I. was the Open Letter ad-| | dressed to the entire membership | adopted by the Extraordinary Na- | tional Party Conference held July | 7 to 10, 1933. What was the/ | central point in this Open Letter? | carry out our own resolutions and the resolutions of the C. I, in | order that the Party should de- velop into a mass revolutionary proletarian Pariy. It placed before the Party as an imperative task to “make a rapid turn of the Party to revolutionary mass work among the decisive see- tions of the American industrial | proletariat,” Wherein lies the strength of our eighth convention held just a week ago? Wherein lies the guarantee that this convention will strengthen the mass work of the Party? Pre- cisely in the fact that for the first time since our seventh convention, the Party had begun to carry out | the policy of concentration and of | developing work “among the de- _cisive sections of the American in- | dustrial proletariat.” This 8th Convention registered the important fact that for the first time in the history of our Party |the majority of the delegates came |from sections of the working class to be found in the decisive industries |of the country; that the Party ‘ceased to be primarily “an organi- | that the Open Letter of the Extra- | | That we must once and for all| zation of foreign workers not much connected with the poeliticai life of | ‘the country.” (The C. I. Open Let- | ter of 1929.) It is these delesates | who live in closest contact with the native sections of the American pro- letariat in the decisive industries that show the tremendous influence ordinary Pazty Conference exerted upon the life and work of the Party. What the Party faticd to real- ize—what already was demanded | ef us in the Opn Letter of the C. I. in 1929, that is, breaking our iseletion frem the native sections of the American proletariat, the Sth Convention ef our Party, as a result of the Open Letier adopt- ed at the Extrrordinary Corfer- ence, was able to record the fact | that our Party is beginning to | travel the road leading towards a revolutionary mass Party of the - American pro'etariat. HEREIN LIES THE REAL SIGNIFI- CANCE OF OUR LAST CON- VENTION, ‘ Was our Party at its last ex- traordinary conference adopted the Open Letter, the capitalist press and the social fascist press clapped their hands in glee. They wrote editorials that “Communists admit failure.” These editorial scribblers who laughed too soon, considered our Open Letter as a “confession of failure.” Of course, they who repre- sent a dying class, based on hiding the truth, based on the greatest dis- crepency between words and deeds, could not but fail to understand that the Open Letter, full of Bol- shevik self-criticism, was not a con- \fession of sins, but the greatest weapon in the hands of our Party. It is because our Party made the first baby steps in mastering the art | of Leninist Bolshevik self-criticism that we were able at the 8th Con- have made since the adoption of the Open Letter. To our enemies who laughed too scon we can say in the words of Lenin written in 1904, “Our ad- versaries, the enemies cf the Marxists, are overjoyed at our dis- ransions. They will naturally make the most of certain passages in my pamphlet where I referred to our Party, and will try to exploit these admissions for their own purposes. The Russian Marxists have been in the firing line so leony thot they will disregard such vin pricks, They will. in spite of them, go on with the work of self-criticism. They wiil con- tinue unsparingly to expose their own weaknesses, which will inevi- tably disappear as the working class movement gathers strength.” And in spite of the joy, of our enomies, our Party went. on “with the work of self-criticism,” as it has done at the 8th Convention and will continue to do so. But the progress that we have made must not lull us into a sense of self-satisfaction. This would be disasterous. The progress we have made, which justly makes us feel enthusiastic about. the future of our Party, must only serve to em- phasize the tremendous possibilities in store for our Party, and the great neglected opportunities. Can we already say that we have realized the goal set by the open Letter? Can we say that our C. P. is one which is already “closely bound up with the devisive strata of the workers”? Of course not. What we can say is that we have found the key to the decisive sec- tions of the American working class, that is, through concentration, through the policy of the united | headway in carrying out the line of the mistakes and shortcomings of | cism to a mass Communist Party. ah ee IN listening to the reports of the delegates, one thought was upper- most in one’s mind, that above all what is really necessary in making the 13th Plenum of the E.C.CL., is} concrete leadership. A leadership that will unify the work of the Party, give it daily concrete guid- ance, and feel responsible for every phase of the mass work of the Party. Can we say that our Party, which | | was particularly guilty of adopting | | good resolutions but failing to carry | | them out, has aiready overcome this | disease? By no means can we say | that. The problem of decisively making | the turn demanded of us by the C.I.| is the problem of carrying out the resolutions and decisions that we have pledged ourselves to realize. Comrade Stalin in ‘his report to the 17th Party Congress warned the Bolshevik Party of the Soviet Union which has achieved victories of world historic significance against. abandoning the weapon of self- criticism, against lulling itself in self-satisfaction. How much more must our Party heed this warning, a Party which is just now only be- ginning to develop Bolsifevik mass work! Upon what depends the success of our work following the convention? It is in acquiring the art of Bol- shevik methods of work as very clearly outlined by Comrade Stalin in his historic report to the 17th Party Congress when he said: “After the correct line has been given, after a correct solution of the problem has been found, suc- cess depends on the manner in which the work is organized, on the organization of the struggle for the application of the line of front, through shop work, through ‘vention to speak of the progress we « relentless struggle against social fas- the Party, on the proper selection fillment of the decisions of the leading organs. Without this, the correct line of the Party and the correct solutions are in danger of being severely damaged. More than that, after the correct polit- ical line has been given, the or- ganizational work decides every- thing, including the fate of the Political line itself, ie., its success or failure.” It is particularly for our Party which is so weak in checking up on decisions, that is so weak in its or- ) ganizational work that we must ab- sorb all that is meant in the re- marks of Comrade Stalin, that “the organizational work decides every- thing.” And not until we will learn “fear- lessiy to reveal shortcomings,” as Stalin teaches us, will we “raise the quality of. our work to a great height.” | Seif-criticism, responsibility for the carrying out of decisions, this is what our Party must learn in order to carry out the decisions of eur 8th Convention, the decisions fo the 13th Pienum of the E.C.C.I. A new Central Committee was elected. It is composed of those wha have in the past period been en- gaged in the mass work of the Party, who are connected with the native, decisive sections of the American proletariat, who have shown in prac- tice that they understand and work. for the carrying out of the line of the C.I. Such a Central Committee will guarantee that the successful beginnings made by the Party in basic mass work will lead towards the realization of the main purpose of all the work of the Party, ie., the winning of the majority of the American working class, The unanimity with which our new Central Committee was elected reflects the confidence of the entire Party behind its new Central Com, econ OTA | | | of workers, on supervising the ful- mittee