The daily worker. [volume], January 03, 1925, Magazine Supplement, Page 4, Image 8

About The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
The Discussion on Party Tasks
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM A RANK
AND FILER FOR MAJORITY THESIS
By ETHEL SHOR
WHAT did Lenin say about slog
ans? He said thai slogans are to
be used only to mobilize large masses
of workers, or call them to action —
not simply slogan for slogan’s sake.
The minority fail to prove that there
is a demand for a labor party apart
and distinct from the LaPollette move
ment, and when they cannot prove
that, on what argument do they fall
back —they say "if there is no sen
timent for a farmer-labor party we
must create one; we must build a
farmer-labor party”'—and they quote
the C. I’s instructions to the British
Communist Party that they should
join the British labor party.
. We advocated a labor party for the
past two and one half years not be
cause we thought the labor party to
be a necessary, preliminary step for
the workers, but because such senti
ment existed, and it was our duty to
participate in that movement of the
workers. This is the reason the C. I.
instructed the British Communists to
seek admission in the British labor
party. The comrades have yet to
prove that the labor party is an in
evitable step the workers will have to
go through.
The comrades of the minority say
"the labor party will disillusion the
workers the sooner.” Yes, but must
we build such an instrument? Accord
ing to this, we should propagate and
fight for WAR for surely war disullus
ions the workers more than any num
ber of labor parties.
The minority says "No, we will not
build a farmer-labor party now, but
simply advocate it, talk about it, pleas
antly and nicely” but what do their
articles read (Askenuzie, Dec. 17) —
"we will propagate for one actively,
make it the center of our campaigns,
unemployment, union activities, etc.
Make it the MAJOR» issue around
which will center all our party activ
ities.”
Consistency—that is one of the Jew
els the minority does not posses.
The minority makes the labor party
the only means of political action for
the workers. I would like to ask the
minority since when are strikes, es
pecially those which bring the work-
MINORITY DID NOT
PROVE THEIR CASE
(Conitnued from page 3)
dead issues such as the one, "For a
labor party.” We can not afford to
waste our energy and hard earned
money for the organization of bogus
farmer-labor parties just in order to
give activity and exitement to some
of our good comrades of the minority
who have otherwise nothing to do
with their time. Instead of this let
us make a real effort to build our
Workers (Communist) Party. Let us
raise the real live slogans that will
put our party in the forefront as the
leader of, and fighter for, the inter
ests of the working masses. Let us
build the united front of the rank and
file on the slogans of unemployment,
child labor, organization of the unor
ganized, recognition of Soviet Russia,
opposition to class collaboration on
the port of the trade union bureau
cracy, ete., etc.
Great numbers of American work
ers are ready to listen to us and as we
develop these campaigns, still greater
masses will rally around our slogans
and by carrying on a militant fight
for them we will gain the leadership
of these masses and finally achieve
the goal of making the Workers (Com
munist) Party the mass Communist
Party of the American working class
and thus lead them into the revol
utionary class straggle for the final
battle to capture all power far the
workers.
ers into the direct conflict with the
capitalist state (injunctions, etc.),
not political struggles. Truly, they
are the “Marxists”!!
The minority asks us how and
where have the conditions changed.
The subjective conditions have chan
ged and they admit that in their
thesis when they admit the “tempor
ary” strength of LaFollette. Two years
ago the sentiment of the masses was
not clear, not crystalized, either for a
revolutionary mass class farmer-labor
party, mass class farmer-labor party,
class farmer labor party, simply farm
er-labor party, or the LaFollette move
ment. Their interest in political ac
tion was aroused by the fact of the
coming elections, bringing their cus
tomary illusion of a change being
brought by the ballot Now this sen
timent is crystalized, has its haven
in the LaFollete movement. The mas
ses have not yet been disillusioned by
LaFollette. Whether the disillusion
ment stream will turn into a farmer
labor party movement is yet a ques
tion. We will then consider it. But
if that will be, the turn it will take is
yet questionable. Yes, we must be
the vanguard of the proletariat, but let
us use reason and sense. Know where
and how to apply it. We have
only a certain amount of party en
ergy and funds and must use them to
the very best advantage. Not shout
ing for shouting’s sake. Let us not
make the words “vanguard of the pro
letariat” a fetish to be applied hit or
miss. Otherwise, we should at all
times in little local strikes, elections,
etc. preach only the dictatorship and
the Soviets. This is running ahead
still further.
Comrade Siminoff renders a huge
cry (December 17) —a pre-LaFollet
te man came to him with the ter
rible plaint—he (the LaFollette
man) is disgusted with LaFollette,
only a labor party will smash the
capitalist machine. Surely, if I were
Comrade Simonoff, I would know
what to answer. When a person
speaks of smashing the capitalist
machine, he is material for the
Workers Party and does not have
to go thru another disillusionment
and get disgusted with all political
parties.
The comrades want a mass Com
munist Party. So do I. All agree on
this point. But what is the quicker
and more effective means. For ex
ample—in the United Council of Work
ing Class Women after working and
organizing (and contributing) collec
tions for the Paterson strikers, is it
better to take one person aside and
whisper, "shy, shy—l am also a Com
munist, I also help the Paterson
strikes,” or the Workers Party as an
organization helped the Paterson
strikes? We have no desire to be
modest violets.
As to Comrade Lore, If anyone has
added prestige to Comrade Lore It
has been the minorty. What did the
C. I. say? Kick him out or fight ideo
logically? The C. I. said—fight him
ideologically. ... The way the min
ority have fought Comrade Lore,
however, and the issues they have
fought him on have made him ap
pear as a martyr before the com
rades. Talk to the rank and filers,
and what do they say. “Yes, I ad
mit Comrade Lore is wrong on many
things, but he is being persecuted,
attacked In petty and forced sltua.
tlons. He has been treated unfair*
ly.” The fight should be waged
ideologically, take the wind out off
Lore’s sails, by making him admit
his mistakes thereby breaking his
false prestige.
Comrade Jakira and the comrades of
the minority say; "We. the Marxists!!
therefore, we are right!!!" To me,
merely a rank and filer, the test of
a Communist is not one who has
only "studied” Marx and can recite
him by rote, but one who participates
ILLUSIONS OR REALITY?
By JACK PROKOP,
Eastern Organizer Czecho-Slovak
Federation.
AFTER both sides, the majority
and the minority of the C. E. C.
had presented their arguments as to
the chief tasks, timely slogans, and
Immediate necessary operations, let
us examine the nature of the tasks,
the timeliness of the slogans, and the
necessity of their operations. As
Communists, we must deal in this
examination only with facts, real
things, that is, objective and subjec-.
tive conditions, which alone serve as
the determining factors in analysis of
a situation. Thus objectively examin-:
ing, we find that:
1. The federated farmer-labor
party was a forcible amputation from
the "teal trend toward a third party”
and therefore dissolved under the
breath of LaFollette.
2. The majority of the C. E. C.
has been seduced by the minority to
exaggerate and misrepresent the
strength of the F. L. movement be
fore the membership of the W. P.
3. Besides the "trend for a third
party” there is among the farmers
neither a tendency to oppose its or
ganization or under rate its effective
ness, nor the much sought tendency
for a farmer-labor party, all mythical
proofs to the contrary having been
exaporated under the x-rays of Fos
ter's and Manley’s illumination.
4. The trend to organization and
growth of the third party is insured
by the actions of the C. P. P. A., and
all its affiliated organizations of craft
and industrial unions, as well as the
debris from the F. L. and co-operative
movements of the farmers, whom La-
Follette alone is able to "stick to
gether” and lead, altho to disillusion
ment.
6. When in the past year or two,
two million bankrupt farmers left
and dispersed in the cities and indus
trial centers, it was not a proof of an
impending crisis and revolt and re
orientation of the farmers’ political
conception and policy (outside the
trend for a third party) but on the
contrary, it was a proof of an un
paralelled elasticity of the capitalist
system in the U. S. A. and its enorm
ous capacity to absorb (temporarily
at least) the victim of its exploitation
and dump them in other spheres . . .
disarmed. Disarmed, because they
ceased to be a factor in the farmers’
movement the moment they emigrat
ed into the cities. The possibilities
for the bankrupt farmers to earn their
living in the cities, and further, the
alleviation (altho small) which the
remaining farmers felt thru the dis
appearence of 2,000,000 competitor,
rather dampened than intensified the
(imaginary) revolutionary tendency
of the farmers, jA. the same time re
storing to a great extent . . . faith
in Institutions of existing order, re
storing faith in their improvement,
by the policies of LaFollette and his
program for the third party.
Altho it would be folly, for Com
munists, who base their calculations
of directives and policies on funda
mental laws of history, economics,
politics and sociology . . . to be
lieve that capitalists will stop the
expropriation of farmers, and their
forcible emigration into cities, or to
believe in the much blazened Foolidge
or Coolidge prosperity, unless a mar
ket is found on the moon, Venus or
Mars, the fact remains that, during
this period of artificial prosperity ac
companied by the "election shock”
and its resulting confusion among the
farmers (and workers), and before
the effects of "the crisis to come” can
be appreciably felt, a slogan . . .
"for a farmer-labor party” wonld be
in the struggles of the workers, leads
them in accordance with the theory of
Marx. He should be one who can
shape policies in line with Marxian
truth. Otherwise, we should invite
Hillqult in America and Kautsky in
Germany to lead us, for surely they
have "studied” Marx, perhaps much
more than some of the minority.
4
like a cry in the wilderness, without
any effect.
Throwing aside all past mistakes
of the majority, out of which the mi
nority wants to draw capital for its
"superior mistakes” we come to the
Recapitulation.
There being no Immediate tendency
or demand for a farmer-labor party,
among the farmers or industrial work
ers . . . but there being “a poli
tical orphanage of the LaFollette
clique” Concrete organizations (C. P.
P. A.) and tendencies for the crea
tion of a third party. . 4 . ‘. the slo
gan for a farmer-labor party is neither
timely nor necessary, but rather In
jurious, constituting nothing but a
waste of valuable energy, and the
chief task of the party logically must
be the strengthening and expansion
of the party in all Its units and all Its
institutions, thru education of Its
membership and sympathizers, thru
propaganda and organization in the
shops, unions, fraternal organizations,
etc., of the workers and farmers, in
order to prove there our ability “to
lead” our willingness to work. The
ability to lead is not proven by the
creation of untimely slogans, imagin
ary parties, or by the changes of
names of parties or other Imitations
of the labor fakers, not even by ef
forts of faking the fakers by "superior
imitations” or conferences with them,
as our great Napoleons from the mi
nority imagine. Ots the contrary. The
ability to lead will be demonstrated
only and solely in the "real fighting
units of the working class” such as
the shops, factories, mines, union lo
cals, international unions, fraternal
organizations unemployed councils,
etc., in their daily struggle for work,
wages, control of locals, unions, fight
for their political affiliations and rep
resentation, etc., etc., and the muster
ing out and Incorporation of ripe ele
ments into the Workers Party.
Only this sort of “ability to lead"
and not the “Napoleonic ability” of
the minority that dwelleth high In
the clouds, and enable us to fight ex
clusively the prospective third party
and gradually destroy the illusions
created in the minds of the farmers
and workers about improving institu
tions of capitalist order and deriving
benefit from it. Only this sort of
ability to lead will rectify the psy
chology of the poor, mislead farmers
and workers, and bring them into the
fold of the only "one proletarian
class party” in the U. S. A. —the
Workers Party.
The insignificant nucleus, which the
minority pretends we have, will serve
the purpose equally, and group itself
around and be directed by a week
ly “Farmers’ Critical Review” edited
by us, and given away if necessary.
It will still cost us less than all the
proposed empty maneuvers and save
us from the reputation of "very un
stable policies.” The C. I. reversed
the slogan on time, and wisely so.
In the U. S. A. the development of
political consciousness of the masses
is marching thru the third party. The
heterogeneous element composing it,
the adversity of their various inter
ests. is the best guarantee for a re
division and reclassification of its ele
ments. Then our harvest will begin
in full measure. As soon as our cam
paign-predictions of crisis will begin
to materialize we will repeat (what
we should have said): "After Cool
idge—the deluge!” and quit LaFoV
lette’s farcical deceptive banner; Join
the class-party with sickle and ham
mer.
The Walden
Book Shop
307 Plymouth Court
(Between State and Dearborn
Just South of Jackson)
CHICAGO