Semi-Monthly Organ of the Opposition Group in the Workers (Communist) Party o f Am erica

* * Partyf«h®uM study calmly and with the ««ate« objectivity, 8 m the substance o i the diffteences of T H E epibten, and then the de^opment e l the *ru*gles within the Party. Neither the one nor the Other can be done unless the documents o i b o * sides are pubUdied. H e who takes somebody’s word fo r it is a hopeless idiot, who can be disposed of with a simple gesture of the hand ’’— Lenin MILITANT VOL, n., No. 4. NEW YORK, N. Y„ FEBRUARY 15, 1929. PRICE 5 CENTS Platform of the Communist Opposition Addressed to the Sixth National Convention of the Workers (Communist) Party By JAMES P. CANNON, ARNE SWABECK, MARTIN ABERN and MAX SHACHTMAN

spheres of influence on the other, is the resort to the Chinese Revolution, the British General Strike, The Position of the imperialist war. In sharpening the contradictions the Indonesian uprising and the Vienna events, between the productive forces of world eeonomy not to mention the millions of unemployed. The Russian Revolution and national state barriers, imperialism evoked estimate1 of stabilization given at the Sixth World the last war and is preparing the next. This does Congress is so eclectic that it permits of varying The present position of the Russian Revolution not exclude, within the period of the decline of interpretations. and its Marxist'Leninist foundation is the dominat­ capitalism, the possibility of a partial economic re­ ing factor in the world movement that must dc- vival or even the development of productive Revision of Leninism termine the course o f every Communist and rev­ forces. Lenin at the Second Congress of the Com­ olutionary worker. It overshadows all other ques­ munist International rightly pointed out that there tions. A n examination of its present status and was “ no absolutely hopeless situation.” The state and the Crisis in the an analysis of the conditions of its development of preparedness of the proletariat to wage a rev­ are prerequisites to the solution of all other main olutionary struggle for power is a determining Comintern problems of the strategy and tactics of the revolu­ factor in the destruction of capitalism. Thanks tionary movement. Just as the fevolutionary Com­ to the treachery of the reformist social democracy, Upon this essentially erroneous estimate was munist movement all over the world was moulded to the strategic though temporary post-war con­ based the theory of the possibility of the complete and hardened in estimating the significance of the cessions of the bourgeoisie, and to the weakness construction of a socialist society in one country, events of 1914-1917, marked by the collapse of or bad leadership of the Communist Parties, the (Russia), a theory entirely alien to the teachings the Second international and the rise of the Bol­ bourgeoisie has been able to achieve the present of Marx, Engels and Lenin, and directly contrary shevik Revolution, so world Bolshevism, its main­ relative stabilization of capitalism. to every principle of revolutionary international­ tenance and growth, is conditioned upon the But this estimate of the current stabilization d if­ ism. Integrally combined with this reactionary estimation of the course of events in the Soviet fers radically from that implied in the Stalinist, “ theory” is the idea that a self-sufficing national Union and the Communist International in the revisionist “ theory” of socialism in one country, economy can be maintained if only the danger of period of the last four to five years. A ll other that is, a stabilization for decades, for a whole imperialist military intervention is warded off. questions are subordinated to this and flow from it. epoch. This conception, which is an approach to That this inevitably leads to opportunism before The collapse of the Russian Revolution as the the social democratic view of capitalism as organ­ the world bourgeoisie, (particularly before the dictatorship of the proletariat would signify the ically stabilized, found expression in the resolution United States which is the basic counter-revolu­ retardation for decades of the revolutionary move­ of the 14th Congress of the Communist Party of tionary force in the world today), is shown in the ment in Europe and America and the uprisings the Soviet Union on Stalin’s political report, which signing of the Kellogg Pact by the Soviet Union of the colonial peoples, whose main point of sup­ declared that “ in the domain of international rela­ and the notorious Litvinov proposals. That it port today is the victory of the Russian October. tions, it is quite clear the period of ‘respite’ is leads to abandonment of all that Lenin taught on A collapse would he followed by an unequalled transforming itself into a veritable epoch.” Later, the revolutionary struggle against war and the role reign of reaction throughout the world and would the resolution of the Enlarged Executive of the of the labor bureaucracy is shown in the capitula­ entail a restoration of world imperialist rule with­ C. I. of July 1927, spoke without restrictions of the tion of the Russian Trade Unions in the Anglo- out precedent in the last two or three decades. technical, economic and political stabilization of Russian Committee. That it leads to the subordi­ Our primary concern is therefore with the fate of capitalism. History’s answer to this estimate was nation of the Communist Party to the national the Russian Revolution which directly affects the fate of all the Communist Parties. The defense of the Russian Revolution against external attacks Lovestone Gangsters Stage Riot at New York Meeting and internal dangers1 is therefore the first and fore­ most task of all Communists and every conscious worker. W e are defenders of the Russian Revo­ to Protest Against the Deportation of L. D . Trotsky lution since 1917. There is no break in the con­ An audience of over 600 workers assembled at a mass c.ccd under such conditions and declared the meeting ad­ tinuity of our position for our present fight is meeting to protest the banishment of Trotsky from the jo u rn e d . directly connected with and follows from- our Soviet Union were given a concrete illustration of Stalin­ The gangster methods of the Lovcstone (notion created whole previous line. ist “ arguments” against , the organizer of the Red Arm y strong resentment among the workers who do not grant The attitude of official optimism and light- when a gang of hoodlums, who were armed with these fakers the “ right" or preventing them from attending black-jacks and brass knuckles and other weapons of the labor meetings and listening to a working class viewpoint. minded equanimity which finds that all is as it “ideological campaign” started a riot in which a number A number of Party and League members who were at the should be, without inquiry as to the actual facts of comrades were seriously injured and which finally cul­ meeting, declared their definite support of the Opposition and the basic trends of development,— and seeks to minated in the break-up of the meeting after the arrival in the future. prohibit such inquiry—is the worst kind of “ sup­ of 100 policemen and dicks from the Industrial Squad, Another meeting will shortly be organized, and be held port” that can be given the revolution. This atti­ the Bomb Squad and various other detachments. The under the protection of a workers' guard sufficient to meeting was held at the Labor Temple on Tuesday, Feb­ defend it from a repetition of the gangsterism that was tude is actually one of criminal neglect and results ruary 26, by the Communist Opposition. displayed. in disarming the proletariat before its enemies and The first riot occurred when a gang of 75 packed the Other Meetings of the Opposition deluding it before difficulties. To base oneself lobby of the hall and tried to force entrance without The public activities of the Opposition in its struggle only on faith and precedent is to drug oneself paying admission, headed tby Kalfides, a paid official of for the preservation of the Communist movement, have into impotence. Communists must give conscious the Party demanded free admission on the ground that been developed in a number of public meetings this and understanding help. he was “an unemployed worker.” A group of our com­ month. A successful meeting was held in Toronto on The origin of the present crisis in the Soviet rades successfully prevented this mass invasion, during Feb. 12. with comrade Maurice Spector as the speaker, which sharp scuffling took place and our comrade Frank at which 500 were present. The Canadian Party, which Union lies in the contradiction between the exist­ Basky was severely beaten by brass knuckles hidden un­ is now in a free speech fight of its own, did not find ence of a Soviet regime in a country with a pre­ der gloves and black-jacks wielded by the Stalinites. His it expedient to attempt to break up the meeting despite dominantly peasant economy, and the pressure of face was a swollen, bleeding mass and he had to be given previous threats. the capitalist encirclement. This crisis has been emergency treatment. A rousing meeting was held in Boston on Feb. 15 sharpened and aggravated by the false policies of The second riot began when the hoodlums, who had with an audience of 300 workers, with comrade James the leadership. These policies are rooted, further, come in by finally paying admission, commenced to howl P Cannon as speaker. His lecture was received with great and boo and to sing that “The International”— presum­ enthusiasm and resulted in strong consolidation of the in the overestimation by the present leadership of ably as a result of the introduction of Fascist tactics in Opposition Group and a number of hew definite sup­ the duration and depth of the temporary stabili­ the labor movement— will finally “be the human race.” porters among the Party members. zation of capitalism which began alter the defeat This was continued for a period of nearly an hour, in­ Another well-attended meeting was held in New Haven of the German and Bulgarian proletariat in 1923. terspersed by numerous fights throughout the hall. Com­ on February 22, with comrade Max Shachtman speaking. Our entire epoch is one of capitalism in disso­ rade B. Silva, a prominent militant in the Italian revolu­ No interference was made by the Stalinites who had al­ lution, of imperialist-wars and of the socialist revo­ tionary movement and a stalwart fighter on the picket ready experienced sad results previously with Fascist line in many labor battles, was slugged by a dozen who tactics. lution of the proletariat. Imperialism is the final surrounded him and comrade Harry Stone was slashed Arne Swaibeck spoke at a meeting in St. Louis on stage of capitalism, of the domination of finance- in the face with a knife. Both comrades had to get phy­ February 23, at winch comrade George Voyzey, presi­ capital,1 monopolies and international trusts, of the sician's treatment. A number of the hoodlums also car­ dent of the Illinois District of tbe National Miners Union, division and redivision of the world among the im­ ried away souvenirs of the struggle. acted as chairman. A well-organized workers guard was perialist powers, wherein the only method of “ rem­ These tactics, as was counted upon by the organizers on hand and there was no attempt to interefere. of the riot, inevitably brought the police invasion and Meetings are already being scheduled for the following edying” the disproportion between productive resulted in disruption of the meeting. Comrade Abern, month. Comrade Cannon is billed to speak in Philadel­ development and capital accumulation on the one the chairman, demanded that the police leave the hall, phia on March 17th, and comrade Swabcck will speak hand and the division of markets, colonies and and when they refused, declared that we would not pro- before the Chicago Karl Marx Club on March 21st. MILITANT February 1?, 1929. Page î THE

and the endorsement by the Socialist Party of the bourgeoisie and the abandonment of Leninism in the rending of these Parties by violent factional Kellogg pact, etc., etc.) . To complete the picture the national and colonial questions is shown by the struggles that are reflections of the internal strug­ are the innumerable conferences that help delude catastrophic course followed by the Comintern in gle in the C.P.S.U. The expulsion of the Leninist the workers and develop pacifist illusions among the Chinese Revolution. That it leads to the Opposition in all countries was achieved. The them: Locarno and Kellogg pacts, “ disarmament” conversion of the Communist Parties into pacifist revisionist theories behind the opportunist line of proposals, and the like. instruments of defense, instead of instruments for Stalinism (socialism in one country, etc., etc.) organising the armed insurrection in their own flowered to full bloom. The existence of the Soviet Union with a pro­ country primarily, is shown by the petty-bourgeois letarian dictatorship supported by the foreign trade anti-cruiser petition campaign of the German Party. monopoly, bars the way to a “ free market” for The Smoke-screen of capitalism of one-sixth of the globe. This intensi­ A ll these lines of policy are consciously or un- fies the antagonisms of the whole of the imperialist 'consciously based on the need of preventing m il­ powers against the U.S.S.R. and the tendencies itary intervention against the Soviet Union so that “Trotskyism” towards the formation of an anti-Soviet bloc for an isolated socialist construction can be completed To conceal the essence of its Right wing devia­ intervention, v/hich has so far been retarded by the there. The net result of this opportunist concep­ tions and bureaucratic misdeeds, the Stalin regime mutual rivalries of the imperialist powers and their tion and course is the increasing danger of im­ invented the myth of “Trotskyism” which it rep­ perialist war against the Soviet Union, for revision­ desire for a more “ favorable” moment of internal resents as the real danger to Leninism. Trotsky’s difficulties of the Soviet Union, and through fear ism here as everywhere brings neither revolution differences of political line with Lenin were liquid­ of the revolutionary action of the masses at home. nor reform. ated in 1917, on L. D. Trotsky’s acceptance of the The opportunist policies of the Stalin regime have The growing war danger comes at a time when A p ril Theses of Lenin and his entrance into the weakened the international position of the Soviet the crisis in Russia is reaching a sharp point. The Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party on the Union. The by no means unavoidable defeats of departure from the proletarian revolutionary path, basis of his agreement with the tenets of Bol­ the Chinese Revolution and the great British coincident with the beginning of the fight to cut shevism. But even those pre-revolutionary differ­ strikes have enhanced the confidence of the bour­ the Leninist Opposition led by L. D. Trotsky from ences were never as great as the differences of the geoisie and weakened the power of resistance of the Party, has reached a stage where the enemy Stalin-Bucharin regime now with the principles of the workers. The best defense of the Soviet classes have grown to an alarming extent and Leninism. Differences between Lenin and Trotsky Union is the building of the revolutionary capac­ exert a tremendous pressure upon the Party and after 1917 rose out of the efforts of the two leaders ities of the Communist Parties. The fear of an State apparatus. From Bucharin’s: “ Peasants, en­ of the Revolution to solve concrete problems on insurrection at home, led by the Communist Party, rich yourselves” and the theory that the Kulak the basis of the same theoretical program, and is the greatest restraining influence upon the bour­ would grow into socialism, it has been a short step were never so great as the differences between geoisie against intervention. to the present situation where the exploiting ele­ the present ruling faction and Lenin. The Oppo­ The events of the past two years have made it ments in the village (the Kulaks) have stepped sition w ill fight against the falsification of the his­ necessary to restate the Leninist viewpoint on the forth into the arena with confidence, boldness and tory of the Party and the Revolution for factional revolutionary struggle against imperialist war. The arrogance to demand increased concessions • and ends, which has assumed such monstrous propor­ policy of the Stalin regime has, in theory and political rights. From the brutal campaign to sup­ tions in the demagogic campaign against L. D. practise, forsaken this line. It has set up a con­ press Party democracy in the fight against the Trotsky .in whom we recognize Lenin’s chief col­ ception of some “ super-historical” recipe to be Leninist Opposition it has been a short step to laborator in the leadership of the Russian Revolu­ used in fighting the war danger. The fight against the consolidation of a bureaucratic apparatus tion and today the foremost representative of Len­ the war danger and intervention in the U.S.S.R. through which the new bourgeoisie exerts its ever- inism in the world. has been “ abstracted” from the general revolution­ increasing pressure. Never before have the Ku­ The Opposition is not conducting a war for ary struggle of the proletariat. Considerations of laks, the Nepmen; the bureaucrats been so strong, “Trotskyism” ; such a political tendency does not a “ diplomatic nature,” for “ Soviet State reasons,” so imperious in their demands, so threatening in exist. It is fighting for the principles of Leninism. “ for special circumstances” have been advanced to their progress. The policy of the Stalin regime, In the Soviet Union, under the rain of calumny replace the basic and permanent considerations of which is based less and less on a class foundation, and repression, the Leninist Opposition led by its general revolutionary policy, instead of the one and more and more on a bureaucratic agglomera­ inspiring leader comrade Trotsky has fought per-1 being an indivisible part of the other. This was true tion, is undermining the positions of the proletarian sistently against all forms of revisionism and op­ in the Stalin-Bucharin policy in the Anglo-Russian dictatorship and permitting the rapid advancement portunism and for Bolshevism. The Opposition Committee, where they capitulated before Purcell- of the classes alien to the proletariat whose pro­ has sounded the alarm against the Thermidorian Hicks-Citrine and Co., because the latter would gram is the break-down of the foreign trade mon­ danger and proposed a correct policy to combat it allegedly prevent Chamberlain and Baldwin from opoly, the recognition of the czarist debts, entrance in favor of the further socialist devolpment of the conducting their imperialist intervention policy. into the League of Nations, unlimited concessions country—in the period of retarded world revolu­ Reformist methods here also produced catastrophe to international capital—particularly a rapproche­ tion—through a correct policy of the distribution results. It was true in the policy followed in the ment with American imperialism—the moderation of the national income, through taxation of the Chinese Revolution, where the revolutionary of the pace of industrialization, penetration of the Ncpmaii and the Kulak to accelerate the process movement was sacrificed by the Stalin-Bucharin cooperatives and the Soviets, and the attainment of of industrialization and to improve the conditions line for the sake of maintaining alliances with the the suffrage hitherto reserved to the toiling masses. of the workers, through credits and other cooper­ “ anti-imperialist” generals of the Chiang Kai-Shek, This is the program and the danger of Thermidor. ative ass'stance to the poor peasantry, through, a Feng Yu Hsiang stripe. It remains true today in It is the restoration of capitalism, in the beginning, correct price policy, and so forth. The Leninist the non-Leninist policy pursued in the so-called probably, still under the present social forms. Opposition is organizing the workers for the de­ League Against Imperialism, where uncritical com­ The line of the present Stalin regime in this fense of the Russian Revolution on two fronts of binations are made from above with petty-bour­ situation is a zig-zag between capitulation in deeds essentially the same enemy: against imperialist in­ geois, reformist, and nationalist elements who are to the Right and temporary jumps to the Left, tervention from without and against the danger of in many instances neither more nor less than the that is, one step forward and two steps backward. Thermidor from within. Such a real defense, bell-wethers of imperialism. It is true in the case The Leninist Opposition on the contrary has based on a correct class policy, can be accomplished . of the Soviet Union’s signing of the Kellogg Pact been fighting tooth and nail against this imminent only if the deep-going reforms proposed by the without denouncing it as a cover behind which the danger to the Revolution. It has unfurled the Opposition are adopted and an end is made to the imperialists are preparing the imperialist war and banner of Leninism and stood by it in the face of splitting of the Communist Party and the imprison­ the anti-Soviet intervention. This opportunist line an unprecedented campaign of slander and persecu­ ment and exile of thousands of the best Bolshe­ only adds to the illusions of the masses, and dis­ tion. In the struggle against the Opposition and viks. The leadership which organized the defense arms them before their enemies. away from the line of Bolshevism, the present reg­ of the Soviet Union under the direction of Lenin The only road for the revolutionary struggle ime has by its very nature been compelled to re­ is still best able to carry it out today. against war is that indicated by the teachings of sort to the bureaucratization of the Communist Lenin on the question, in his writings during the International, for under normal conditions of W ar Danger and the last war so admirably summarized in his Theses ot Party democracy and free discussion, such cari­ Instructions to Our Delegation to the Hague Con­ catures as are now offered the revolutionary wor­ ference. The Communists must relentlessly com­ kers in the name of Leninism, would be categorical­ Defense of U.S.S.R. bat all pacifist illusions among the workers, point ly rejected by the members of the International. out to them the inevitability of imperialist war, To maintain its unprincipled domination, the pres­ The problem of the defense of the Soviet Union and the victory of October is inseparably bound up teach and train them that it can only be overcome ent regime has therefore resorted to the suppression by the socialist revolution of the proletariat. W e of discussion, the expulsion of Communists, to w ith the struggle against the danger of war. The inevitability of imperialist war inherent in the must show that there are no “ exceptional circum­ violence, to arrests, imprisonment, exile and de­ stances” to justify an opportunist or capitulationist portation. In the name of Bolshevization, a cam­ basic contradictions of capitalist society is not re­ policy in which the interests of one section of the paign has been carried on particularly since the moved by the temporary and partial current stabil­ Fifth Congress of the Comintern, which has as its ization. Indeed, the war danger proceeds from net result the elimination of all elements who the innate contradictions of the stabilization pro­ questioned the opportunist course of the Comin­ cess, that is, contradictions and antagonisms of tern. It has abolished Party democracy and re­ capitalist imperialism which have again grown THE MILITANT placed it by control from above by irresponsible, acute by reason of the world struggle for markets. Published twice a month by the Opposition Group in the Workers (Communist) Party of America appointed functionaries. Bureaucratic command W hat we are witnessing in the present period is an and decree have been substituted for ideological intensified, feverish armaments and militarization Address all mail to: P. O. Box 120, Madison Square discussion and leadership. The mechanical re­ race preparatory to the actual outbreak of war. Station, New York, N. Y. Publishers address at 340 East 19th Street, New York, organization of Party leaderships solely on the Combined with this is the customary accompani­ ment of imperialist jockeying for positions, forma­ N. Y. — Telephone: Gramercy 3411. basis of their unhesitating readiness to endorse Subscription rate: $1.00 per year. Foreign, $1.50 tion of alliances and breaking of others, and dip­ whatever is done by the Stalinist regime and to 5c per copy Bundle rates, 3c per copy. ¡condemn whatever is done by the Leninist Oppo­ lomatic jugglery. In this pre-war period, the im­ sition is a daily occurence. The influence and perialists in their respective countries have the Editor Associate Editors open or semi-concealed support of the social demo­ Martin Abern strength of the most important Communist Parties James P. Cannon Max Shachtman have been reduced to an alarming extent (Ger­ crats and the labor bureaucracy (armaments pro­ Maurice Spector many, Czechoslovakia, France, England, United gram of the German S.D.P.; Boncour’s militariza­ States, etc., etc.); It has brought about the devel­ tion plan in France; Henderson, MacDonald and V O L . I I . ______F E B R U A R Y 15, 1929,______N o . 4, Co. in England; the American Federation of La­ opment in the leading Parties of the Comintern Entered as second-class mail matter November 28, 1928, at tb$ of Right wing or Centrist leadership and line and bor’s open pro-imperialist, pro-militarist position post office at New York, N . Y., under the act pf MaFch 3, 1879. February 1?, 1929. T H E MILITANT Page » proletariat result in sacrificing those of the pro­ A most bitter competition for markets is becom­ process w ill change the co-relation of -forces in letariat as a whole. ing sharper in every corner of the world, primarily the United States m favor of the revolutionary The impending war situation makes the Amer­ between the United States and Britain. There proletariat, by undermining the base of the Ameri­ ican Communists particularly responsible and their has even developed the movement to raise the al­ can labor aristocracy. tasks especially great and difficult. This is espe­ ready tremendously high tariff walls of the United Meanwhile, the internal contradictions of Amer­ cially so since the present situation is characterised States in the coming session of Congress. ican imperialism, bound up with its world econ­ by a world struggle essentially between American It is not necessary nor it is correct-to view the omic interdependence, are maturing a severe crisis and Bi-itish imperialism. The antagonisms be­ United States as “ about to reach the apex of its which is fore-shadowed by the current partial in ­ tween these two powers become sharper and more growth” in order to see and understand the matur­ dustrial depression. The present situation, which intense every day, and may lead to the actual out­ ing crisis in the country. American imperialism, by is only the harbinger of this coming crisis, has break of military operations at a least expected the very fact that it is developing in a different already brought to a high level the process of moment. period from that of the rise of Great Britain—the rationalization and attack upon the standards of the period of war and revolution, and national and working class that is causing it to move progres­ colonial uprisings— is therefore doomed to a much sively away from its previous inertia into a period The Role of American more rapid tempo of the development of its in­ of struggles. The realization of the crisis which'- ternal and international contradictions than was will intensify the process of rationalization, un­ Imperialism England. And this is true precisely because of the employment, and lead to severer attacks on the phenomenally rapid expansion it has experienced living standards of the workers, w ill result in an Every estimate of the present situation must in the past decade. even broader basis for the radicalization of the .proceed from the fact that the world center of American workers and their entry into struggle.; economic gravity has shifted to the United States. The Present Economic This process of radicalization is taking place now.. American imperialism now levies tribute from I t is a process which must be analyzed not only practically all the capitalist countries of the world. in comparison w ith the Leftward movement of the This development, which has risen to its height in Situation and the European workers, but chiefly in comparison with' the period after the world war, has bound up the the historical backwardness of the American wor­ fate of American imperialism with the economy Working-class king class. Upon this development is conditioned of the whole world in an inextricable form. No the coming period of struggles of the American workers and the necessity for the revolutionary analysis of its future economic course, internally The present economic situation in the United Party to understand it and prepare itself properly as well as externally, can be made without a con­ States is characterized by the following features: sideration of its international nosition. for it. The contraction of the world market by the stab­ The effect of America’s direct intervention in ilization of European capitalism and the decrease European affairs after the war was the temporary, in the rate of the rise of American exports. The Results of the Elections partial stabilization of European capitalism. This sharpening of the competition in the East and in stabilization occurred in direct connection with the Latin America between the United States and the The results of the recent presidential elections defeat of the 'German proletariat in 1923 and re­ European powers (England, Germany, etc.) were nothing but a barometer, and a weak, inac­ sulted in the consolidation of social democracy for curate, distorted barometer, of the developments The tremendous concentration of industry and the time. In turn it enabled the United States to and perspective outlined above. The victory of the intensification of rationalization, whereby tech­ avoid the convulsions that would have affected it the Republican Party and its candidate, Hoover, nical progress has outstripped the expansion of the inevitably in the event of the development of the signified the still growing power—accompanied: home market. There is a. growing disproportion revolutionary wave in Europe. though it is by sharpening contradictions— of between the rate of expansion of productive cap­ The United States has expanded its productive American capitalism, and the grip of the main acity and the rate of growth of production and capacity which has brought about a further con­ Party of the bourgeoisie on the masses. This consumption. The opening up of the South to traction of markets for European capitalism and power was sufficient for the Republicans to break industrialization on a higher technical level, in­ consequently a contraction of the European market through the “ solid South” for the first time since stead of creating a “New Ruhr” (Lovestone) only itself. The post-war chaos of Europe has made it the C ivil W ar, aided by those irresistible economic brings with it new contradictions. The newly- impossible for the debtors of that continent to forces which have been undermining the social- proletarianized population of the South will not present a sufficiently consolidated united front to political basis of the traditional Democratic Party develop an addition to the home market to absorb which they are inclined. The very strength and for the past decades. expansion of American imperialism has laid the sufficiently the growth of production, and the The election as a whole, .however, makes - it im ­ foundation for the most violent struggles in Europe hopes placed in the “ new South” will further be possible for anyone to speak unconditionally of “ a and in the colonial countries. The European partially offset by the intensification of the coal conservative landslide” or “ a victory for reaction” powers must fight among themselves for a larger and textile crises in the North. of “ a defeat for Smith.” The vote for Smith by ration in world economy, and against the United The home market has been further contracted by no means represented entirely a vote of satisfaction States for the same reason. The pacifist effect the creation of a standing army of unemployed with the present state of-affairs. The nature of which American intervention had upon the Euro­ workers numbering several millions. Although the Smith vote disputes this-. In the first pilace he pean situation in the beginning is now being trans­ the index figure for production of big industry has received such a tremendous- vote as has rarely be­ formed by the processes of development into a risen from 146 in 1919 to 171 in 1927 (1914 fore been received even by the'winning candidate, revolutionizing effect. American imperialism is equals 100), the index for workers employed in which does not contribute at all to the theory of now beginning to look for a solution of its own ap­ big industry has fallen from 129 in 1919 to 114 the “ destruction” of the Democratic Party. His proaching internal convulsions at the expense of in 1927 (1914 equals 100); although population vote, furthermore, was composed largely of wor­ Europe, and primarily of Germany, and increased growth for the same years was from 106 to 120 kers in the big industrial centers where he made exploitation and imperialist raids on Latin America respectively. In addition, there -has been an in­ tremendous gains, and of the hard-pressed petty- and China. flux into the ranks of the unemployed of declassed bourgeoisie and farmers. The present Experts’ Conference on the Dawes farmers. The agricultural production index figure Millions of workers saw in Smith, his record Plan is becoming a focal point of this contradiction. for 1918-1919 was 132 (1900 equals 100) and rose and his program, a possibility of change from the The report of the Reparations Agent in Germany to 148 in 1924. Active participants in agricul­ rule of finance capital, the eight-year -orgy of cor­ of 1928, which, contrary to the 1927 report, gave ture fell in the same period from 106 to 100, al­ ruption, reaction and imperialist policy of the Re­ an optimistic analysis of the situation, was made though the agricultural population grew—also in publican wing of capitalism. Votes which would w ith an eye to “ solving” the conflict between rep­ the same period—from 112 to 115. These figures otherwise have been cast for the socialist and even arations payments and the Allied debt to the further indicate that although in certain specific the Communist Parties went this time to Smith on United States by increased pressure on Germany. and by no means general cases real wages have the basis of the popular American belief that “ he The proposal to issue bonds, protected by lien on increased, the wages of the American working has a good chance to get in.” It is entirely true the German railways, to cover the Dawes payments class, and therefore their purchasing power, has that the workers who cast their votes for Smith —and by payments of reparations to the Allies on the whole decreased. This tendency is being were deluded and betrayed, that Smith in actuality enable the latter to pay their debts to America— accelerated by the growing series of wage cuts. is as much the instrument of imperialism as will only lead to the multiplication of difficulties. American capitalism has been unable to over­ Hoover. But hundreds of thousands if not millions For the United States to carry even one-half of come the serious depressions in agriculture and in of workers did not vote for him as an instrument such a bond issue, involving something like two the coal, oil, textile, lumber, shipping and .other of reaction and an opponent of change. Smith,, billion dollars for its share, would mean that the industries, nor w ill it be able to prevent the com­ with his hypocritical “ friendship for labor,” his important banks of this country would add almost ing decline in iron and steel and automobile in­ “ pro-labor” record and program, succeeded in de­ twentyrper cent to their present holdings in invest­ dustries. ceiving his working class support, into voting for ments And in government and other securities. An The rapid increase in brokerage loans, in face him as an “ opponent” of the current reaction. absorption of such an amount by the American of an average trading volume of more than five The vote against Hoover expressed to a certain banks which, according to the “ Magazine of W all million shares a day, presages the beginning of extent the growing radicalization of the masses Street,” are “ today water-logged w ith securities the end of the “ bull” market, far more profound on an American scale, and with parliamentary lim­ which they never ought to have bought at all” than the price fall of June 1928. The fact that itations. Political developments have lagged his­ would result “at this critical moment of our fin­ rates for stock-market loans had to be doubled torically behind economic developments. Proceed­ ancial-history” in bank inflation. and quadrupled has caused the more realistic of ing from the fundamental viewpoint of the histor­ The inability of the “ Experts” to solve the rep­ the bourgeois economists to be very cautious in ical backwardness of the American workers it is arations and debts problems in a satisfactory man­ their predictions for the coming year. apparent that the anti-Hoover vote was a political, ner is an earnest of the developing position of the The fate of American imperialism, we repeat, that is, an insufficient, a distorted, an even reac­ United States with regard to Europe. is now bound up with its dependence on world tionary, expression of the radicalizing processes A t the same time, in the desperate struggle of economy. Conversely, the situation in Europe is taking place in the economic life of the American the European powers to maintain their heads above directly linked with the development of American working class. In the present period, a Leftward the wave of American world domination they have national economy. The United States w ill seek to drift of the workers in Europe will express itself, even succeeded to a partial extent in regaining their use Europe as a shield to take the blows of its for example, in a desertion from the social demo­ position in world production. . As between the own difficulties. This will in turn create such cracy and a growth of the power and influence periods of 1920-1924 and 1927, the share of Europe situations in Europe, above all in Germany, where, of the Communists. In the United States, such a in world production of anthracite, iron, steel and with proper revolutionary leadership, a new wave d rift assumes much more moderate and backward the consumption of cotton has increased an average of proletarian revolt will be initiated, or the rela­ forms. of 9.22 percent, while the share of the United tions between England and America w ill come to Neither does our analysis signify that the elec­ States has decreased an average of 7.55 percent. the breaking point. This rapidly materializing tions were the best available barometer of' the Page 4 THE M ItITANT February If, 19zy

radicalination of the workers. On the contrary, labor bureaucx-ats of the A.F. of L. and the unaf­ influence of these groups at present is weak, but it was one of the. poorest. The indications of the filiated unions of the same type are the direct the growth of discontent of the workers and their radicalization process, which is bound to be acceb bearers of this ideology in the working class and mood for struggle w ill give them the possibility erated in tempo in the coming period, are to be must be fought as such. The labor bureaucracy of the expanding it on a wide scale. The Com­ found chiefly in the daily economic life and strug­ is a part of the capitalist rationalisation and war munists must unmask them and make their decep­ gles of the workers of this country. They are to machine— its “ labor” wing. De Leon's classic tion clear to the workers. Otherwise there is great be found in the movement for the formation of definition x>f the reactionary labor leaders as “ labor danger of them gaining the leadership of workers the new industrial unions, in the growing discon­ lieutenants of the capitalist class” holds doubly movements and strangling them. tent of the workers even in the old A.F. of L. good today. The distinctive features of these labor The main reservoir of labor militancy is tire unions, and the growing mood for struggle that is leaders in comparison to the social-reformist lead­ masses of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in partly exemplified by the increasing participation ers of Europe consists in the fact that they are the unorganized, basic industries. The full horror in strikes. outspoken de-fenders of the whole capitalist regime of the capitalist rationalization falls directly upon and all of its institutions, without “ socialistic” pre­ Relative to the possibilities, the Communist them, and the attacks of the capitalists in the Party made a poor showing in the elections, which tense or class struggle phraseology. Their pro­ present depression and coming crises strike them cannot be explained away solely on the basis of gram is a program of stark reaction. They repu­ first and hardest. The Party must turn its face the disfranchisement of foreign-born workers and diate the class struggle in words as well as deeds. to these unorganized masses, put itself at the head Negroes. In the 1924 elections the Party was on They oppose any kind of independent political of their struggles and lead in the work of organ­ the ballot in 14 states and received 33,361 votes. action. They support the whole military program izing them into new industrial unions. This his­ The vote for. the Party in the same 14 states in of American imperialism and will indubitably be toric task must be accomplished in the fire of strug­ the 1928 elections was only 31,128, that is, a de­ a powerful ally of the capitalists in lining up the gle against the capitalists and their state power as cline of 2,233 votes. For the same 14 states we workers for the coming war and demoralising the well as against their agents in the labor movement, received .001146 of the total votes cast in 1924; struggle against it. They decline affiliation with the reactionary bureaucracy of the A. F. of L., the in 1928, we received only .000846 of the total vote the reformist Amsterdam International. They op­ Socialist Party and allied groups of social-reformist cast in the country. Thus we lost in those states pose even the mildest proposal for social legisla­ elements. In this protracted struggle on all fronts tion and reform, and sharply differentiate them­ Xthe most important ones, too, like New York, extending over a period of years the decisive break selves from all of its advocates. The condemna­ Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana, Mas­ of the workers with the ideology of capitalism will sachusetts, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc.,) absolutely, tion of the Brookwood Labor College at the last convention illustrates this attitude. be effected and the genuine class movement of in number of votes received, and relatively to the the workers will be built. total vote cast. Our total vote in 1928 in all the This bureaucracy is the chief influence against 34 states where we were on the ballot was 45,710, the class movement within the workers’ ranks— an -increase over 1924 not at all commensurate the strongest, the best organized and the repre­ Trade Union Policy w ith the fact that in this election we were on the sentative of the most reactionary program. The ballot in 20 additional states, that is, more than specific nature of the American labor bureaucracy A correct policy on the trade union question and twice a? many as in 1924. —its present source of strength— also makes it the its consistent execution by a sound Communist This alarming showing cannot be explained, more vulnerable in the period of growing radical- leadership are decisive for the expansion of the either, by the “ Smith sweep” for there was a ization. The very first steps of the workers to­ Party as the leader of the struggling masses. More­ “ La Follette sweep” in 1924. It cannot be ex­ wards a class movement can be taken only in over, the tactics of the Left W ing, lead by the plained by the terrorism of the bourgeoisie or direct struggle against them. The relentless and Party, a dynamic force of gigantic importance, wall vote-stealing; that condition also existed in 1924. irreconciliable fight against the A.F. of L. leader­ be one of the most vital determining factors in In addition, it must be remembered that in the ship, based on a correct analysis of its specific role the future course and development of the trade period between the two presidential elections, the as the outspoken bearer of capitalist ideology, is a union movement. Party had more opportunities for growth, popular­ prerequisite for effective work in developing the The narrowing base of the A. F. of L. and the ity and influence than ever before. It led a num­ struggle of the workers, increasing their class un­ increasingly reactionary conduct and policy of its ber of the most significant strikes and mass move­ derstanding and leading them to the fight for leadership raise before the Party and the Left ments; Passaic, the miners, New Bedford, the broader political aims. Wing the problem of organizing the unorganized Sacco-Vanzetti agitation, and so forth and so on. The indiscriminate lumping together of all the workers in the basic industries, primarily the un­ The real explanation for our failure is in the fact various forms and methods of deluding the workers skilled and half-skilled, who are becoming radical­ that the Stabilization of the Party, here as else­ and holding back their class development, and the ized and ready for struggle. It is the task of the where, lias had terrific results. The Party has elements that represent them, (capitalist welfare Party and the Left Wing to, lead in the work of been corrupted and weakened by factionalism and schemes, A.F. of L. program, La Folletteism, liberal organizing these masses into new industrial opportunism, finding its chief source in the Love- churchmen, liberals and progressives, Republican unions. The center of gravity in our trades, Stone-Pepper leadership supported by the Comin­ and Democratic Parties, bourgeois economists' and union work belongs in this sphere. This has been tern. It has brought about a steady decrease in efficiency experts, etc.) under one head, as is the indicated by the whole situation for some time and Party membership, factional distrust, irresponsibil­ current policy enunciated in the theses of the two the long delay of the Party in shaping its course ity and dilletantism, and has weakened the Party factions, is profoundly erroneous. It glosses over in this direction, due to the resistance of the leader­ in the class struggle in every instance. It is the the distinctive features and specific role of each ship, has already had extremely harmful conse­ greatest obstacle in the crystallisation and growth and consequently makes impossible an estimate of quences. of the Communist movement in this country. their relative importance at the moment and the The history of the Party has been abo the his­ There is no other basic explanation for our par­ formulation of the most effective tactics of strug­ tory of continuous struggles for the correct line liamentary decline and can be no other. gle against them in the trade union question. Isolation from the W e deal here only w ith main lines, and omit the The Socialist Party has progressively degenerated masses and their struggles was the price paid by repetition of such points as the opportunist and since the expulsion of the Communist Left W ing the Party for its false trade union policy in its corrupt parliamentary methods of the Lovestone- in 1919, and in great labor struggles of recent earlier years. The trade union program adopted Pepper clique, the buying of signatures and elec­ years, particularly in the needle trades, became the in 1920 which called for a “ boycott” of the A. F. tors, the false conception of the Labor Party and open ally of the employers and the A.F of L. of L. and support of the I.W.W. was only cor­ its role in the election, the failure to act with sure­ bureaucracy. It appealed for votes in the last rected after a stubborn and protracted struggle ness and speed in selecting our candidates and election campaign on the basis of petty-bourgeois conducted by the main nucleus of the present Op­ putting our ticket into the field, the factionalism liberalism. The union struggles as well as the position. It was not until the Unity Convention rampant throughout the campaign, and so forth. election campaign showed its influence to be in of June 1921 that a realistic program, steering the ,We have dealt extensively with these features of decline. In view of its tradition and its phraseo­ Party into the trade unions and outlining the plan the election in other documents, notably “ The logy, however, its potentialities as an influence for the formation of a broad Left Wing was fin­ Right Danger in the American Party” and articles against the class movement of the workers are very ally adopted. The entrance into the Party of a in the press. great. The Communists must fight the Socialist number of experienced trade unionists was facil­ Party on all fronts in the most direct and irrecon­ itated by this decision and this in turn gave a great ciliable manner. A correct estimate of its position impetus to its practical execution. Isolation gave Struggle for a Class and function is necessary for this. The Socialist way to a speedy penetration of the Party into the Party is not dead and its possibilities for a new trade union struggle, to the wide expansion of the Movement of the growth in a period of growing radicalization of Trade Union Educational League as a bona-fide the workers will be greatly strengthened by false movement of the Left W ing and to the appearance tactics of the Communists. The Socialist Party of the Party as an important factor in the Labor American Workers fights on the side of imperialism against the wor­ Party movement. kers in its own way, but it is wrong to describe it The rich results of this policy adopted at the Due to the strong position of American capital­ as an organic and indistinguishable part of the 1921 convention were in themselves an irrefutable ism, which has enabled it to bribe large sections A. F. of L. machine. It is true it w ill always form proof of its correctness. It was not executed, o f the workers and to provide a higher general a united front with the latter against any serious however, without one-sidedness and distortions. standard of living than that of the other capitalist movement of the workers but there is an important In reacting against the basically false policy of the countries, die_ American workers, from a class difference in function and division of labor be­ 1920 convention which called for the “ destruction” standpoint, are in a primitive stage of development. tween them. of the A. F. of L., the Party went to another ex­ The American workers are not class conscious, The function of the A. F. of L. bureaucrats is treme and developed an A. F. of L. fetishism. they have not yet developed even the concepts of to stifle all progressive tendencies in the working 'Dual unionism” became a bogey—and practically social reformism or independent political action class and to defend capitalist institutions' as they all independent unions and movements were la­ and, on the whole, are permeated through and are. The function of the Socialist Party and of beled as such. This very terminology graphically through with the ideology of capitalism These the related social-reformists is to exploit these pro­ illustrates the great concessions to the labor reac­ incontestable facts are the starting point of the gressive tendencies under more or less “ radical” tionaries implicit in the one-sided policy, for it is Communist approach and indicate our fundamental phraseology and to divert them into hamless re­ their language. “Dual unionism” is their time­ task: to struggle for the creation of a class move­ formist channels' which avoid a real collision either worn epithet for all revolting groups of militants. ment of the American workers, for the develop­ with capitalism as such or the A. F. of L. bureau­ This fetishism blinded the Party to its tasks and ment of class consciousness, and to lead them to­ crats. The new “ campaign” of the Socialist “ New duties in the unorganized fields and narrowed its ward revolutionary concepts in struggle. Leader” against the Civic Federation policies of base of operations too much to the organized, more The fight for a class movement of the American W oll and the “ Progressive Manifesto” of the “ La­ or less skilled workers. It was a factor in the de­ workers is in the first place a fight against the bor Age” group, are highly significant expressions lay of the Party shaping its course towards the capitalist ideology which dominates them. The of this specific role of these social-reformists. The unorganized and shifting its center of gravity February H , 1929 THE MILITANT Page T there-—a course made imperative by the changing The attempt to classify the entire membership The chief danger to the progress of the Party circumstances. of the A. F. of L. unions as aristocrats of labor, in its trade union work is the opportunist leader This shift of emphasis to the formation of new immune from class struggle agitation, which is im­ ship of the Party. Constantly oscillating between unions of the. unorganized has been accepted in plied, and even partly stated, in the new Theories,” conservative passivity before the A. F. of L. and words after a long and stubborn struggle of the is likewise false. Deep currents of discontent, full adventurous plunges in the formation of new Opposition for this line. But the work has not of potentialities for futre struggles, already exist unions without adequate preparations in ad­ yet begun in earnest. The practice of the Party in the old unions and they w ill increase in the com­ vance, regarding the workers as objects for man leadership in this field is marked more by sporadic ing period. The recent manifesto of the pseudo- euvering rather than as class brothers in arms, spurts and spectacular stunts than by planful, sys- progressive group" of the “ Labor Age” is primarily dabbling with mass movements in diletante fash tematic and deliberate work. Moreover, the turn a reflection of this discontent in the ranks of the ion, and permeating all the trade union work with of the emphasis to new unions of the unorganized, unions which the reformists seek to divert into corrupt and poisonous factionalism, the Lovestone- which ought to be indissolubly bound up in one harmless channels. The apperance of the new Pepper leadership has already proved itself ten comprehensive policy with the intensified work in movement, even in a nebulous form, with pseudo- times over to be a positive barrier in the path of the old unions is ■ already being interpreted and progressives at its head, is a sign of the abdication the Party and the Left W ing and a weight in the applied one-sidedly. of the Communists and the Left W ing who in re­ scale against the proletariat. Its potentialities for The work in the old unions has been virtually cent years have led these movements. It is- a harm in the impending struggles, with all their abandoned. This fact is clearly revealed in the al­ warning that continued neglect of the struggle in vast- difficulties and possibilities, are enormous. most complete disappearance of the Party repre­ the old unions clears the road for the reformist The Lovestone-Pepper leadership rejected the sentatives from trade.union gatherings. Still worse, stultification of potentially revolutionary move­ proposal of the Opposition in May 1927 to begin the leaders of the factions are competing with each ments w ithin them. preparations for the mobilization of the Left W ing other in the elaboration of “theories” which pre­ The Party must clarify its tactics on the trade in the United Mine Workers through a National clude the idea of serious work in the old unions in union question without delay. The organization Conference and followed a do-nothing policy the future. of the unorganized, into new unions, the foremost month after month while the strike was being cut The factions are outdoing each other in irresponsi­ and basic task, must go hand in hand with intensi­ to pieces by the Operators and the Lewis machine. ble striving to be “ Left" in this burning question. fied work in the old unions, including those which It was not until April 1928, after the strike was a These theories and practises are a menace to the exist alongside of new unions, and a revival of the year old and had already spent its force, that a Party and threaten to put it off the track again. discarded united front tactics. The Party must National Conference was finally held. It resisted penetrate every movement of opposition and re­ It is time to sound a warning and begin a de­ the course toward a new miners’ union and did volt against the bureaucracy, forming united fronts termined struggle against them. The building of nothing to begin organization work in the unorgan­ with all honest progressive workers, exposing the the new unions and the work in the old unions ized fields. (Conservative passivity, fear of the particularly deceptive and dangerous role of must be carried on together and not the one set labor fakers, lack of faith in the masses.) Then pseudo-“ Left” and pseudo-progressive leaders, and up against the other. struggling against them for the leadership of the it plunged into the calling of the strike in the The role of the A. F. of L. leadership as the opposition movements. unorganized fields in April 1928 without the slight­ est preliminary organization. (Adventurism and ir­ outspoken agents of American imperialism in peace, In 192s the present Opposition conducted a responsibility.).; Ip sabotaged and delayed the in war preparations and in war does not a all struggle against the narrowing of the T.U.E.L. into obliterate the fact of three million members in its a purely Communist body with a Communist pro­ proper organization of relief work for months out affiliated unions. The new ‘ theories are at­ gram and for broadening it into a united front of internal Party factional considerations. It ex­ tempting to rationalize the A. F. of L. out of organization. This was one of the most progres­ cluded and discriminated against the most qualified existence as a federation of unions and to arbitra­ sive struggles in the history of the Party. The re­ and authoritative leaders of the miners' movement rily preclude the possibility of its future expansion vival of the Left W ing in the Miners Union and in the formation of the leading bodies of the new and growth in an organizational sense. The un­ the subsequent leadership of the Party in a great union. It pushed aside real organizers of the wor­ relenting struggle against the labor agents of im ­ miners mass movement were the result of the kers and flooded the coal fields w ith incompetent perialism in general and an unceasing exposure of change in course brought about by this struggle. faction agents. It reduced the Party fraction at their role as a bulwark against the working class That basically correct line must he restated and the convention of the new union to a fiction and resistance to war is an obvious necessity. The insisted on in view of the departures that have decided all questions in advance through a small struggle against them for the organization and lead­ been made from it recently. steering committee of the C.E.C. selected on a ership of the unorganized workers is the main The T.U.E.L. which, thanks to false policies, faction basis and comprising a majority without aspect of the fight. But the matter does not end has degenerated into a mere shadow oi the Party experience or authority in trade union work. there. existing on paper, with little or no organization (Criminal factionalism, callous disregard of the The workers organized in the A. F. of L. unions or life of its own, must be revived as a bona-fide basic interests qf the movement.) The Lovestone- have an enormous strategic importance. W e must united front organization of the Party and non- Pepper leadership lost interest in and virtually fight the bureaucrats for influence over )hem from Party militants in the unions, the organizing center withdrew support from the new union at the most within, no matter how. ard.ous the task, no matter of the new unions and the co-ordinating medium critical time immediately after the convention. It how severe the persecution and discrimination between the new unions and the Left W ing in made no serious attempt to provide the necessary- against us. The abandonment of this struggle the old. The actual participation of influential financial help for the necessary organization work. now taking place under cover of - high-sounding non-Party workers in the activities of the T.U.E.L. Even funds which properly belonged to this work “radicalism” will only prevent the crystallization and in its leading committees is one of the absolute were diverted. The Lewis machine was thus of an insurgent movement within the old unions prerequisites for this proper functioning of the given the opportunity to entrench itself again and free the hands of the bureaucrats for more T.U.E.L. on a genuine basis of broad organiza­ through lack of real competition from organizers effective sabotage of the organization of new tion. And this holds good w ith a hundred fold of the new union. (Dilletantism and irresponsi­ unions, for these two. processes are bound together. emphasis in regard to the new unions which are bility.) The net result w ill be to strengthen the effective­ being formed. The leading role of the Party in The same methods have marked the course of ness of the A. F. o f L. bureaucracy as a part of the new unions and in the Left W ing of the old the capitalist war machine. unions is necessary for their development into the Party leadership in other trade union fields. The decline of the A. F. of L. in membership higher forms of struggle. But the construction of The formation of the new union in the needle and influence during recent years in an incontest­ the leading staff of these movements on a narrow trades was unduly delayed while opportunities able fact. But it still represents a powerful force, Party basis with mechanical forms of Party control, were lost and the Right W ing advanced. Here a both in an organizational and ideological sense, above all mechanical faction control, which is the bloc of crass opportunists is maintained in lead­ on the side of reaction. And its further expansion growing practice under the present Party regime, ership while the Left W ing of genuine Communists irv-a period of growing mass struggles and serious are fatal to the growth and development of these is suppressed. In the textile industry a policy of work by the Left Wing in the building of new movements. passivity before the old unions was followed by unions, particularly in the event of war, is by no In the work of forming new unions of the un­ the sudden formation of a national textile union means excluded. The assertions to the contrary, organized workers, no less than in its work in the prematurely, without sufficient preparation and conjured up to support the new “ theories,” are A. F. of L., the Party must revive and apply the without an adequate base in local organizations. purely arbitrary. united front tactic. Maintaining always its inde­ These evil methods, repeated systematically, are The obvious fact that the big employers under pendence and freedom of critcism, the Party must accumulating into a crushing weight upon the “normal” conditions prefer their own company form alliances with groups and organizations w ill­ Party and the Left W ing, and leading to failure unions to the most conservative trade unions and ing to co-operate with us on a minimum class- and collapse at the time when the possibilities are fight militantly to destroy the latter is not struggle program and win the non-Party militants greatest and the demands heaviest. They directly over to the platform of Communism by degrees in of itself sufficient ground for such a contention. threaten to discredit the idea of new unions, to the course of joint struggle. A n approach to The whole rationalization process with its unbear­ demoralize the workers and destroy the prestige revolutionary syndicalist workers in the spirit of able and increasing exploitation drives the workers of the Party for years to come. The Bolshevik to revolt and to the endeavor to form class organ­ Lenin is especially necessary. struggle to organize the workers cannot be sepa­ izations. The coming period w ill see such strug­ The Party must strive to establish its decisive rated from the struggle to reorganize the leader­ gles on a large scale. Under such conditions it is influence and leadership in these united front ship of the Party on a proletarian Communist not only possible but even probable that em­ struggles by its initiative, superior tactics and con­ basis. ployers, who reject the conservative trade unions scientious persevering work. These methods must now, would accept them as an alternative to new replace the growing tendency toward exclusive­ unions under militant leadership and would even ness and mechanical, monopolistic Party control collaborate with the bureaucrats in their formation. which only result in the narrowing down of the Ready Now=— ===== Such a possible perspective in no way “ removes base of the new movements and organizations, in THE DRAFT PROGRAM OF THE the base” for the building of new industrial unions their degeneration into impotent cliques, in their COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL of the unorganized workers as the main task of the isolation and defeat. Under the present conditions By L. D . TR O TS K Y Party. On the contrary it makes the energetic exe­ and relation of forces, the Party cannot put forth W ith an Introduction by James P. Cannon THIRTY-FIVE CENTS PER COPY cution of this task all the more imperative. The the demand for arbitrary and mechanical control In lots of 5 or more 25 cents per Copy greater the progress the Party makes w ith this without endangering the developing movements Order now from work, combining it with increased activity in the and blocking its own approach to the awakening T H E MILITANT old unions, the stronger w ill be the barriers against non-Party masses. The leadership of the Com­ Box 120, Madison Square Station the betrayals of the coming revolts by the A. F. of munists, which is alone able to steer the new move­ New York, N. Y. A . machine. ments on a correct course, must be won in struggle. T H E MILITANT February IT, 1929. P,iae 6

tapped. W hat is needed is a recognition of the E.C.C.I., after it had twice been decisively rejected The Perspective of a importance of this work, a correct policy in it and by the Party membership. Again in 1927 a cable serious attention to it. from the E.C.C.I. prohibited a majority in the It must be the main task of the Party in this Central Committee (the bloc of Cannon-Wein- Labor Party field to mobilize the white workers to fight for stone-Foster groups) from exercising their right the rights of the Negro masses to full social, econ­ to reorganize the Polcom and elect Party officers; The perspective of coming mass struggles in- omic and political equality and to unite with them thus safeguarding the Love'stone control. The wives the question of developing these struggles in their struggles. N ot an attitude of liberal patern­ “ Supplementary Decision” cabled to the Party later in a political direction and unifying them in a alism, but an attitude of comradely support in a in 1927 called upon the Party to support the Love- centralised form. The movement for a Labor common battle, w ill give an impetus to the move­ stone group after the E.C.C.I. had been compelled P.uty is today at low ebb as a result primarily of ment of struggle and resistance among the Negroes to reject its main line. the passivity of the workers and the decline in and will pave the way for the expansion of Party Further help in mobilizing the Party for the movements of struggle in the past period. The influence among them. The prganization of the Lovestone faction was given a little later by cable? coming period of developing economic struggles Negro masses for struggle goes hand in hand with hypocritically protesting against the “ factionalism” w ill very probably be reflected in tendencies to- the" mobilization of the white workers for the de­ of the Opposition while ignoring and condoning ward the revival of the Labor Party movement. fense of the Negroes against persecution and dis­ the most criminal and corrupt factional practices It is not reasonable to expect that the masses crimination. of the Lovestone group. Ewert, present leader of the American workers, who are still tied ideo- A prerequisite for this is the persistent struggle of the “conciliators” group in the German P, rty, logically and politically to the bourgeois Parties, against race prejudice (white chauvinism) which in his capacity as representative of the C.I. to our will come over to the Communist Party politically is sedulously cultivated by the ruling class and Party in 1927, helped the Lovestone faction to at one step in a period not immediately revolution' dominates large sections of the white workers. It gerrymander and steal the Party Convention in ary. A ll past experience, and particularly the re' is even reflected in certain sections of the Party. Tammany fashion. The secretarial decision of the cent experiences in the mining, textile and needle This can be rooted out only by a broad ideological E.C.C.I. after the Sixth W orld Congress in 1928 trades industries, where the workers who supported campaign explaining the reactionary, anti-working ignored all the big political questions and simply Communist leadership in strikes did not vote for class origin, nature and result of the bourgeois declared the contentions that the Lovestone leader­ the Communist ticket, do not sustain such expect' “ theories” of “ white supremacy,” and utilizing ship follows a right wing line (which were proven ations. The perspective of a Labor Party, as a every concrete instance in this sense. Such a cam­ to the hilt in the Opposition document on “ The primary step in the political devolpment of the paign has not yet even been begun in our Party Right Danger in the American Party” ) to be un­ American workers, adopted by the Party in 1922 press. The attempt to deal with the question by founded and thus again indicated its political sup­ after a sharp struggle in the Party and at the purely mechanical methods is false. port of this faction. Fourth Congress of the Communist International, The Negro question is also a national question, By all these means, by political pressure, by direct bolds good, today, although the forms and methods and the Party must raise the slogan of the right organizational interference, by abusing the con- of its realisation w ill be somewhat different than of self-determination for the Negroes. The effec­ confidence of the Party members in the Com­ those indicated at that time. tiveness of this slogan is enhanced by the fact that munist International, by tricks and machinations, there are scores of contiguous counties in the South It is therefore necessary to keep this perspective the Centrist leadership of the C.P.S.U. and the where the Negro population is in the majority, and of a Labor Party before the eyes of the Party and Comintern has strengthened and supported its the working class. W e speak here not for the it is there that they suffer the most violent perse­ American counterpart and entrenched its control immediate formation of such a Party and surely cution and discrimination. This slogan will be in the American Party not-for the adventurism and opportunism that has the means especially of penetrating these Negro This Stalinization of the, Party has reduced the characterized this work in the past, particularly masses in the South and of mobilizing them for dues-paying membership from 16,32? in 192? in the organization of fake Labor Parties that had revolutionary struggle. The Party must at the (Convention report January-June) to 7,277 in 1928 no genuine mass basis. The Labor Party must same time decisively reject the false slogan of a (Financial reports January-August), in a three- have a mass basis and must arise out of struggle “ Negro Soviet Republic in the South” at this time, year period which offered abundant possibilities and be formed in the process of struggle. To this raised by Pepper. This theory is still being propa­ for the Party to grow. It has brought about a end. the propaganda slogan must be really revived, gated in the Party press and in official Party liter­ particularly heavy loss of native American and and as soon as if has found roots in the masses and ature despite its rejection even at the Sixth Con­ trade union elements, reducing the proportion of their experiences in the struggle, it must become gress of the Comintern. such elements in the Party, always far too small, and agitational, and finally an action slogan. The work among the Negro masses must from to insignificance. Party democracy does not exist. The Labor Party must not be an enlarged shadow the very beginning be based on leadership by the There is far less freedom of expression in the of the Communist Party. It must have a mass Negro proletariat and not by the Negro petty- Party today, working under legal conditions and basis, else it w ill be a caricature. It must permit bourgeoisie. The Party’s orientation in the past during a pre-convention discussion period, than the freedom of action, independence and criticism has been based more on the latter thanjhe former. there was normally in the underground, illegal of the revolutionary elements within it. It must Only through the domination by the Negro prol­ Party. Bureaucratization has become a cancer eat­ not have an exaggerated importance attributed to etariat in the movement w ill the Party be able to ing out the Party life. The class composition of it as the “ leader” of the working class to libera' advance the work of organizing the Negro peas­ the Party has deteriorated and the main sections t.ion, and so on, for no illusions about its role can ants, tenant farmers, share croppers, etc., in the of the Party leadership, its decisive upper strata, he permitted except at the expense of the revolu­ South in an effective and revolutionary sense. are predominantly petty-bourgeois. Permanent tionary interests of the working class. It must factionalism rages in the Party year in and year not he based on individual membership. The Stal inization o f the out and absorbs its main energies. The whole The organization of two classes in one Party,— course of disruption and disintegration is being a Farmer-Labor Party—must be rejected in princi­ crowned now by the wholesale expulsion of the ple in favor of the separate organization of the American Party Opposition—proletarian Communists, founders of workers, and the formation of a political alliance The departure of the Communist Party of the the Party and its most loyal, reliable and tested with the poor farmers under the leadership of the Soviet Union from the line of Lenin has been re­ militants. former. The opportunist errors of Party comrades flected in the Communist International and all of in the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota and other its sections. The Stalinization of the Comintern, states flowed inevitably from, and were secondary, which is the evil fru it of the demagogic and un­ Self-Criticism to the basically false policy of a two-class Party, scrupulous struggle of the Stalin-Bucharin revision­ pursued by the Party leadership, in which farmer The “ self-cristicism” of the ruling faction con­ ists against the Bolshevik Opposition led by T rot­ and worker are ostensibly on an “ equal basis,” but sists in making tardy admissions of the least sig­ sky is represented by opportunist politics and a where in reality the petty bourgeois ideology of nificant of the errors they committed, without bureaucratic internal regime in the Comintern and the former actually dominates. indicating any connection between them, or the The struggle for a Labor Party, as part of the in the Parties. Stalinization has brought about an basis upon which they arose. The important and struggle for the development of a class movement enormous and absolutely unprecedented bureau­ more dangerous mistakes committed by them are of the American workers, requires an intransigeant cratization in the apparatus. “ admitted” only under the most severe pressure, fight against the A. F. of L. leadership and the The weaknesses of the Communist International and even then, in most cases, they are falsely Socialist Party who represent obstacles to this and its National sections and the faction struggles ascribed to the opponents of the very errors. The development. The main base of the future Labor which undermine them flow directly from the nature of the errors, the reasons and responsibility Party will be the new industrial unions formed in faction struggle in the Russian Communist Party. for them, are never established. The result is that the coming struggles against the employers, the Stalinization carries schism and disintegration into they are either repeated in the same form, or else government and the labor fakers and reformists. all the Parties. This is the main source of the evils they are repeated in an inverted form caused by The Left W ing, organized in the old unions, w ill in our Party. A recognition of this fact is the only ¿responsible swings to the opposite extreme. also play a very important part. The radicalizing key to the understanding of our Party problems A genuine Leninist self-criticism is a primary effect of these struggles and the circumstances and the organization of a Communist fight to solve prerequisite for the establishment of clarity, the which give rise to them w ill create the conditions them. The struggle for the regeneration of our raising of the ideological level of the Party and for the formation of the Labor Party and for the Party, for the correction of its policies and the the elimination of the distrust and cynicism caused effective participation of the Communists and their formation of a proletarian-Communist leadership, by its absence. Instead of self-criticism, the Party independent struggle for leadership of the masses. is an international fight. A ll atteihpts to wage leadership has instituted a regime of diplomacy, this fight on purely national grounds, within the concealment, distortion, and self-praise. Its own Work Among Negroes framework of Stalinist “ legality,” are unprincipled “ achievements” are paraded and exaggerated in and futile. the most revolting shopkeeper’s manner. A blank The Party as a whole has always greatly under­ The direct responsibility of the Stalinist faction check of immunity from any error or crime is an estimated the tremendous importance of revolu­ for the Lovestone-Pepper regime in our Party and automatic premium to any of its faction supporters. tionary work among the Negro masses. The Amer­ all its corrupting consequences is clearly demon­ In this poisonous atmosphere the disparity be­ ican Negroes are destined to play a great role in strated by the facts of Party history in recent tween words and deeds grows greater every day. the coming revolution. The Negro proletariat of years. Resolutions, theses and motions are made primarily the North, and the great mass of Negro peasantry This leadership was established in the Party in ' for the record and not to be carried out. They in the South form a tremendous reservoir of rev­ 192“) by cable of the E.C.C.I. plus the jesuitical remain on paper in the Party archives to be pointed olutionary force, which has hitherto remained un­ machinations of Gusscy, the representative of the to only to justify this or that action, after the February 15, 1929. THE MILITANT Paru- 7

fact. They are carried out only insofar as they the education of the Party membership on its present Opposition was in the forefront from the are in harmony with the temporary, opportunist meaning and significance are made all the more very beginning, received powerful support from, interests of the leadership. The absolute impos­ necessary by the confusion that prevails on the the Communist International, particularly in 1921 sibility of making the deed conform with the word whole question of Party government, of forms of and 1922. The new course of the Party, ¡m in the present situation lies in the fact that any working class organization, of centralization and emergence from the underground, its adoption of correction of Party line or improvement of its discipline. This confusion is fostered by the mon­ a realistic trade union policy and its participation condition can be made only in the sharpest strug­ strous distortions of Lenin’s teachings disseminated in the Labor Party movement, were the result of gle against the present Party leadership. Since by the Party leadership and is the direct result of this struggle. The recruitment of native workers the present leadership is exclusively interested in them. and active trade unionists began, and, particularly its self-preservation at all costs, the word remains The present leaders and “ teachers” of the Party under the leadership established at the 192 2 C on­ a hollow, farcical gesture. distort and misapply these conceptions. They tot­ vention, developed progressively. ally neglect to take up this burning problem at all The disruption of the leadership and the altera­ Party Democracy in their respective faction theses. They substitute tion of the course, of the Party in 192 5 halted th is the idea of discipline in the formal mechanical developm ent, and the past three years has seen a The absence of any genuine self-criticism in the sense for the Leninist doctrine of democratic cen­ retrogression. The proportion of native workers tralism. Our Party which ought to be the cham­ Party goes hand in hand'with the growing bureau­ in the Party and its decisive leadership today is pion of Workers’ Democracy throughout the en­ cratisation of the leadership and functionary staff insignificant and the recruiting power of the Party of the Party, its deproletarianization, and the in­ tire labor movement is making the very word among these elements has greatly declined. Even taboo. A ll democracy is indiscriminately labelled creasing lack of workers’ democracy in the ranks. in great mass struggles like that of the miners’, the bourgeois democracy. Party democracy, of course, The wholesale expulsion of proletarian fighters Party is unable to gain, and still less to keep, any does not exclude but presupposes centralization goes hand in hand with the steady recruitment of considerable number of new members of this type. and discipline. It is just the bureaucratic distortions all kinds of dubious petty-bourgeois careerist and It remains primarily a Party of foreign-born wor­ and mechanical conceptions of discipline which half-baked intellectual elements. The class com­ kers w ith its decisive w o rkin g class membership give rise to syndicalist prejudices in this respect. position of the Party, particularly in the New narrowing more and more to the needle trades. The Party must make an end of this situation by York district where almost half of the Party mem­ This state of affairs, bound up with the problem struggle against the leadership that fosters and ex­ bership is concentrated, has been seriously affected of Party policy and leadership, is fatal for the presses it. The first step is to break down the by this process in recent years and has had a direct gro w th o f the P arty as a factor in the class struggle disruptive expulsion policy and to reinstate the ex­ expression in the opportunist policies of the Party in America. pelled Communists with the right to express their and the strengthening of the opportunist elements It is necessary to state these facts openly and views in' the Party by normal means. The policy generally. fearlessly and to insist on a change of course in of administrative gagging, suppression and terror­ In the upper circles of the Party, in the Party the most resolute manner. The new course for the. ism must be overthrown. The worker Communist apparatus, this increased proportion of non-prole­ Americanization of the Party in the Communist must be able to feel at home in his own Party. He tarians is enormously expanded. Under the Love- sense must be adopted. Conscious, deliberate ami stone regime these elements are appearing: more must have the right and feel the freedom to open systematic efforts must be made in all class strug­ and more on all sides as . Party representatives, his mouth and say what he thinks without being gle activities by every member of the Party u> officials, managers, directors, teachers, supervisors. called intd the office of some petty official or attract native workers into the Party and into iis Coming to these positions without sufficient pre­ other, like a recalcitrant workingman in a fac­ leadership in all of its spheres. The selection of requisites, they bring with them the detestable tory, and threatened w ith discipline. A ll talk of Party representatives, the methods of approach, careerist attributes of insolence, arrogance and Party democracy in the face of suppression on all and so on, must be decisively influenced by this pride of office, antagonizing and alienating the sides and the wholesale expulsion of comrades for aim. There must be a simplification and popular­ worker elements and thrusting them aside. their views is a swindle. ization of propaganda and agitational work. Fat- Accompanying this is the alarming growth of greater attention to simple, modest tasks of a move­ the tendency to replace in various positions those' Americanization in the ment in its elementary stage of development. comrades who have built and worked in the Party Greater responsibility and concentration on mam since its formation with those who have only re­ Bolshevist Sense struggles and activities, and less sensation-monger- cently joined the movement from the Socialist mg, less pretentiousness, bombast, exaggeration, fake campaigns an,cl “ high politics.” Use of lan­ Party, the Zionist movement, liberals, etc., etc. As a result primarily of historical conditions the guage comprehensible to the American wofko .r The Party must examine these questions in American Communist movement was from the and more related to their traditions. direct! connection with the struggle against the beginning predominatly a movement of foreign- Right danger and the opportunist leaders who are born workers, whose revolutionary and socialist The problem is to unite the inspiration of the its bearer. It is necessary at once to take a com­ traditions had a European background. Their Russian revolution, which is and has been the plete registration of the Party membership with passage to Communism was fundamentally a re­ strongest influence in the revolutionary wing oi the object of precisely determining its class com­ action to events in Europe, above all the Russian the American labor movement, with a realistic ap­ position. A reorganization of the Party apparatus proletarian revolution, and this reaction was not proach to the specific tasks of the American Com­ from top to bottom, up to and including the Cen­ closely connected with the class struggle in the munists. Thri now applies especially to the de­ tral Executive Committee, placing the overwhelm­ United States. In its formative years the Party fenders of the Russian Opposition which is the ing majority of the positions in the hands of stood aloof to a very large extent from the great- representative of the victory of the Russian Ocio evperienced and tested Party workers of prole­ mass struggles of that time—the steel strike, the her. Tins unity will be the means of permeating tarian origin, must be effected at once. In this general strike of the miners, and so on, and did not the American workers with the spirit of Interna­ connection, the Party must reject categorically the recruit its forces from them. The Left wing in the tionalism while/strengthening and developing the gross mockery of proletarianization which the Socialist Party and the Communist Party into Communist influence in the class struggle m- Lovestone-Pepper group is carrying out. It con­ which it evolved were dominated by foreign lan­ America. sists of the formal addition to certain Party com­ guage Federations. The “ American” leaders, for The efforts made in the past to pervert the. mittees of unknown comrades who are never in ­ the most part, were the “ English expression” of revolutionary essence of this program to adapt the tended to function in the committees except to this movement. Party to its specific tasks have only served to serve as proletarian window-dressing behind which This anomalous situation imparted to the early justify the present composition of the Party and the opportunists and petty-bourgeois careerists can movement an unrealistic and extremely sectarian the laxness in improving it, but have in no sens-, work with greater security. For- the next period, character and caused deep internal contradictions invalidated the correctness ot our proposals which until a proletarian stabilization has been achieved and struggles. The long struggle against Federa­ arc as vital today as ever, if not more so. in the Party and its apparatus, the Party mem­ tion domination and the Federation form of organ­ bership must be closed entirely to non-proletanan ization, although formally an organization question, elements. Even then their admittance into the The Party, the Groups was fundamentally a political struggle for the Party must be strictly supervised. Americanization of the movement. It was closely A n analysis of the number of comrades employed and our Perspectives in the apparatus (in the Party national and district bound up with the struggle against sectarianism: for a realistic trade union policy, for “ legal” activ­ offices, in the Party press and their administra­ ities and a legal Party, for the Labor Party and for The Party today is in the throes of a factional tion, in the large number of auxiliary organiza­ crisis which has raged continuosly since 192 2. tions, in the numerous ' cooperative institutions, the predominance of American workers in the leadership. This factional struggle, which the E.C.C.I. fre­ etc., etc.,) will reveal the striking fact that the quently declared "has no basis in principle” is the Party has a staff of paid functionaries and technical This character of the Party and its leadership product of the Stabilization of the Party and the workers equal to more than 10 per cent, of the in the formative years militated against its effective imposition upon it from above of an artificial and Party membership who are not employed in in­ participation in the class struggle and greatly weak­ incompetent leadership. A t bottom this struggle, dustry or in agriculture. This bureaucratic crust ened its recruiting power among the American which numerous “ unanimous” resolutions could nor is smothering the Party. revolutionary workers. The I.W .W . movement of stop and which broke out afresh after each pro­ The fight for the Party is a fight against the that time which was a great reservoir for Com­ clamation of “ unity,” has been a conflict between systematic opportunist policy of the leadership and munism and a large part of the natural base for the proletarian and the petty-bourgeois tendencies. the bureaucratic regime with which it fortifies an American Communist movement was not at­ As a result of the failure to understand the itself against control and correction from below. tracted, and the anti-Communist strategy of the struggle in the Communist Party of the Soviet This internal regime is tied up with the external reactionary anarcho-syndicalist leaders was greatly Union which is the main source of the factional opportunistic line and is an expression of it. A facilitated. The Party failed likewise, for these situation in our Party, the proletarian tendency has serious struggle for a correction of the opportunist reasons, to recruit thousands of revolutionary- made numerous mistakes and has not always been external policy which weakens the Party and con­ minded American Workers in the Socialist Party able to formulate the issues clearly, since this sequently the class before their enemies is impos­ and in the Left W ing of the trade unions. could be done only with an international orienta­ sible without the most determined, stubborn and The violent internal struggles were called forth tion and perspective. relentless fight for Party democracy. Party demo­ by the contradictions between the composition, The ruling faction in the Party on the other, cracy is the means whereby the policy of the Party tactics and leadership ot the Party and the condi­ hand was strengthened by its international con can be corrected and its leadership reorganized on a tions for its existence and effective functionaing nection with the Stalin-Bucharin regime and re proletarian-Communist basis. in the class struggle. The struggle of a minority ceived direct and continuous support from it. Thr The raising of the issue of Party democracy and to overcome these contradictions, in which the Loveston-Pcpper taction is an American replica ot February 1?, ,1,929. Page 8 T H E MILITANT

the international faction which is undermining the to find a “ legal” expression for its opposition to opportunism and bureaucratic corruption which Comintern and weakening the position of the So­ the Lovestone-Pepper regime. These proletarian are undermining them. The struggle against these viet Union. This faction of Lovestone-Pepper is elements who have not yet developed the full im­ deadly perils takes precedence oyer all others. The a combination of the old ultra-'Left” and “ Goose plications of the struggle and do not yet under­ struggle facing the Communist vanguard in all caucus” elements of the underground Party (who stand its international character have mobilized Parties today is the struggle to preserve the Com­ fought the formation of the legal Party) and the around the Foster-Bittelman faction. The leaders munist movement. This is the historic mission of Centrist leaders of the “Workers Council” group of this faction exploit these proletarian tendencies the Opposition on arf international scale. The task (who fought the underground Communist Party). for picayune factional aims and the struggle for of the Opposition is to fight with all its power The Lovestone-Pepper group of intellectuals bah organizational positions. They thus play the part against the opportunist and bureaucratic degenera­ anced between them, “ reconciled” their differences of a shield for the opportunist-adventurers who tion of the Party, without slipping onto the side­ and shifted the leadership of the combination to control the Party. Their role is to restrain and track of sectarian isolation. This requires first of the petty bourgeois, intellectual and careerist ele­ confuse the proletarian tendency; to muddle up the all firmness of principle and a realistic line of ments. This faction was patched together for the issues and hold back the struggle into channels tactics based on fundamental principles. purpose of securing and holding “ power” in the prescribed by the international Stalin regime; to This, the actual line of the Opposition, is per­ Party at all costs and under all circumstances. It prevent an understanding of the great world ques­ fectly clear to the Social Democrats as well as to has no roots or traditions in the working class and tions which are bound up with the conflict be­ those elements w ithin the Party who stand far­ no firm or definite line of policy. Its course is an tween the proletarian and the petty bourgeois ten­ thest to the right. The whole Centrist group of opportunist-adventurist shifting from day to day dencies in our Party. the Workers’ Council which joined the Party as according to factional and inner-Party exigency This faction of inner-Party opportunists, lack­ late as 1922, the opportunist trade union leaders to which its external policies are always subord­ ing firm principle, has a deep internal conflict be­ in the needle trades, the entire bureaucracy of the inated. In the struggle against the Opposition tween the impulse for struggle against the Party Finnish section—all these have unanimously and Communists the Party leadership has already re­ regime, which comes from below, and the mood enthusiastically denounced the Opposition. Those sorted to methods of a pronounced fascist character for capitulation in the top circles, and is constantly elements of the Finnish section in New York and (gansterism, burglary). staggering back and forth between them. Their Massachusetts who have come into conflict with The personal records of the leaders of this fac­ frequent and contradictory “ statements” and the Party regime, on questions of the Finnish tion are so malodorous as to render them absolutely “ declarations” reflect this antagonism from which movement, have likewise rejected the platform of ineligible for leading positions in a Communist the faction cannot escape and which it cannot re­ the Opposition. A ll these facts are known. Party which must gain and hold the confidence of concile. Their difficulties grow from day to day The attempt of the Party leadership in its state­ the workers to such a large extent through its and a collapse of the faction, foreshadowed by the ment in the Daily W orker of Feb. 15, to make the leaders. Pepper, the Moscow representative of the Foster-Bittelman split, is by no means improbable Opposition responsible for alleged combinations faction, was a social patriot during the war, a war at the Party Convention. w ith reactionary and anti-Party elements against correspondent of the Austro-Hungarian empire. An attempt to continue the faction struggle after the Party (“The American Trotskyists, the ren­ Prior to the Hungarian Soviet Republic he was a the convention will bring new blows from the egade Cannon group, have now formed openly an Minister in the bourgeois government who arrested Communist International and organizational per­ alliance in the Finnish co-operatives with the fas­ Communists, denounced them as ‘Left counter-rev­ secution. The leading circles of the faction, cists, with the white guardist followers of Manner- olutionaries” and advocated mass terror against strongly bureaucratized, stand in deadly fear of heim, the bloodhound of the Finnish proletariat, them. Lovestone, while a member of the Central this and they are preparing to capitulate and w ith­ w ith the fakers of the salvation army and with the Executive Committee of the Party in 1920, testified draw their thesis that the Lovestone-Pepper leader­ social democrats gathered around the Raavaij for the State of New York in the trial of Harry ship constitutes the Right W ing and the main dan­ against the Workers (Communist) Party of W initsky, securing thereby the dismissal of two ger to the Party. On the other hand the prolet­ America” ) is a deliberate slander worthy only of indictments against himself while comrade W init- arian supporters of the faction demand a continua­ the school which invented the infamous tale about sky went to prison. W olfe ran away from the tion of the struggle and w ill revolt against a capit­ the “ Wrangel officer" and the Russian Opposition. Party during the Palmer raids in 1919 and disap­ ulation, and move closer to the Opposition which A ll tendencies to break away from the Party to peared for two years. A fte r the Bridgman raid in fights on a principle line. the right, to moderate the struggle against the 1922 he again deserted the Party and went to The “ politics” of the faction leaders consists of Socialist Party or to form an indiscriminate com­ Mexico against Party instructions, returning in the search for an expedient formula to reconcile bination of opportunist and anti-Party elements 192 5. Wicks made a renegade speech before a this conflict. But the whole situation excludes and against the Party have nothiny in common with body of business men in Gary, Indiana, in the prohibits such a reconciliation. In any case, fur­ our views or aims. Our line is a principle line. winter of 1920, during the height of the terror ther splits and disintegration of the faction which We fight as a detachment of the International against the Communists, as a "reformed red” and has based itself on temporary expediency are inev­ Leninist Opposition for the regeneration of the “ exposer” of the Communist movement and the itable. Communist movement in the struggle against steel strike. Olgin fought the Russian Revolution The Opposition is a nucleus of Communists who opportunism from without as well as from within and the Communists in the columns of the yellow have participated in the founding of the Party and the Party. W hile excluded from the Party we Jewish Daily Forward. M inor attacked Lenin and who have played a decisive and progressive part carry on our revolutionary work in the class strug­ the Bolshevik Revolution in the capitalist press. in all the work and struggles of the Party since its gle on the basis of our platform. Ti'a.ehtenberg, Engdahl and Kruse fought on the inception. Most of them were active in the revol­ The Stalin-Bucharin regime converts the faction side of Berger and H illquit against the Communists utionary movement for years before the Party was struggle into a game of be-fuddling the Party mem­ during the split of 1919 and for two years after­ organized. They constitute a group of comrades bership and pulling wires in Moscow. The Op­ ward. A t the Socialist Party convention in 1921 who have worked together on a common line for position in the American Party, uniting with the Kruse protested against and branded as a “ lie” the a longer time than any group that ever existed in line of the Russian Opposition, breaks through accusation that he wanted to join the Communist the Party. this disgraceful and corrupting game. It brings International without reservations. Kruse expelled The present Opposition was in the forefront of clarity into the Party struggle and gives the prol­ Communists from the Socialist Party and the the Party struggles against underground sectarian­ etarian tendency a firm guiding line. It elevates Young People’s Socialist League—and is expelling ism. It formulated and fought in the front ranks the struggle to an International principle basis, some of the same comrades from the Party in the for the correct trade union policy, for the legal gives it a revolutionary content and begins the edu­ Chicago District today. Party and for the Labor Party. Four of the ex­ cation of the Party in struggle for Leninist funda­ Almost the entire editorial staff of the Frei- pelled Communists— Cannon, Swabeck, Abern and mentals on the great world questions of the period. heit was trained in the school of the Forward and Edwards— were delegates to the Fourth Congress of Our fight as a part of the International Opposi­ the reactionary Zionist press and conducted there the Communist International and lead the success­ tion for the Leninist line on a world scale is at the the same kind of a campaign against the Commun­ ful fight there on these questions after a pro­ same time a fight to preserve the Communist move­ ist Party which they now conduct against the Op­ tracted struggle in the Party. They were the first ment in America arid to build it into a working position. A n examination of the records of many to take up the fight against the Federated Farmer- class power able to fu lfill its great historic mission. of’ the lower and district functionaries of the pres­ Labor Party and the adventurous politics connected The present Opposition fought for the Russian ent regime w ill reveal similar facts. The Love- with it in 1923. They were the organizers of the stone-Pepper faction leaders are a distinct type of Revolution since 1917 and for the Communist In ­ revolt against the Pepper regime and the movement ternational since the first' day its banner was raised. adventurers in the movement. These are the peo­ which began then to form the proletarian tendency ple who expel and calumniate us. Our fight today is a continuation on the same line into a group. The present Opposition lead the and for the same basic principles. The Foster-Bittelman group represents a section fight in 1925 against the narrow base of our trade We raise before the Party convention the ques­ of the forces organised in the beginning of the union work and thereby helped the Party to again tion of restoring the Party membership of the ex­ struggle in 1923 which signalised the crystallisa­ break its isolation and get the miners’ mass move­ tion of the proletarian tendency. It is now divid­ pelled comrades of the Opposition on the basis of ment under way. The Opposition as at present the foregoing statement of aims and views. W e ing itself into two parts— the Foster wing and the constituted has worked together as a unit for a also propose to the Convention that it take a stand Bittelman wing— and this process w ill go deeper consistent line of policy which has been in the for the re-establishment of the U nity of the Com­ as a result of the contradictions in its position. Its main correct and works today along the same line. munist International by calling for the rc-instate- attempt to struggle against the ruling faction on The decisive role of the present Opposition in ment of the Russian and International Opposition, purely “ national questions” while supporting the the historic struggle against underground sectarian­ and for the immediate cessation of those measures regime in the International which this faction rep­ ism and trade union “ Leftism” is in no way con­ which especially undermine the Party and the resents, renders its whole position untenable. tradictory to our present stand. We see no more Proletarian Dictatorship and strengthen the en­ Lack of principle, characterlessness, intellectual virtue in “ Left” radicalism now than we saw then emies of the working class—the arrests, exile and and political cowardice on the part of the Foster- and we offer no ultra-“ Left” panaceas to the Party. banishment of the Russian Opposition. Bittelman group of “ leaders,” so clearly and so dis­ Our main fight now is on another front because gustingly revealed in the whole pre-convention the circumstances have placed the danger of Cen­ and “ anti-Trotsky” campaign, are the manifesta­ trism and Opportunism in the foreground (alt­ NOTE tions and the result of their contradictory and im­ hough sectarianism, particularly on the trade union The sections of our Platform dealing with the Party possible position. and Labor Party questions, is by no means liquid­ Organization, the Agrarian Questions and the Young The support these leaders have received in the ated.) W orker’s League, which are not included here on ac­ count of lack of space, will appear in the next issue pre-convention struggle represents in the main the The present struggle in our Party and in the of The Militant. effort of the proletarian tendency within the Party entire International is before all a struggle against [Contribute to the Fund for a WEEKLY MILITANT}