Conference of the Opposition Communists Formation of the Communist League of America (Opposition) ^to the open. Karnestness Earnestness without without diplomacy diplomacy The National Conference of the °PP?sltl?,? characterized the discussions and put upon the By James P. Cannon decisons finally arrived at the stamp of real conviction. The final results of the discus­ cidentals. None of them received wages or per sion showed a complete unanimity and solid­ diem. arity of the entire Conference on all the mam The entire Conference was thus earned questions, and the Opposition Communists face through with an unrivalled maximum of eco­ the heavy tasks before them as a firmly-united of Th°e Ata».. nomy. This revolutionary capacity for hard­ body. , , p ro S n S its M l solidarity «M* * ' ship triumphed over the handicap of the meag­ The agenda of the Conference was as tol- and International Opposition under er financial resources of the Oppostion, which lows chin of Trotsky and undertook the task oi 0 1 works without subsidies of any kind, and made 1. The Situation in Russia. —Reporter Com­ S 't L i n / ASeican Communists tod,ytnd our National Conference possible. For a move­ rade Shachtman. . outside the Communist Party of the Unitea ment less vital and less confident of its future, 2. The Crisis in the Communist International- States on the Platform of the Opposition. A the circumstances would have completely pro­ Reporter comrade Spector. constitution for the Communist hibited such a National gathering. 3. The American Situation and the Tasks of adopted embodying the prmc.ple of democratm The sessions of the Conference were con the Opposition Communists—Reporter centralization as laid down in the theses oi tne ducted throughout with a business-like effic­ comrade Cannon. Second Congress of the Communist Interna­ iency and precision in sharp contrast to the de­ 4. Trade Union Questions—Reporter comrade tional A National Committe of seven mem­ sultory, dragged-out and time-wasting affairs Swabeck. . bers was elected to direct the work of the or­ which have become the rule in recent years 5. The Organization of the Communist Oppo- ganization. The following constitute the under the regime of “ petty bourgeois politician- ition—Reporter comrade Abern. National Committee: James P Cannon Maur- dom” . Being firm ly united on mair lines of 6. Youth Q ue stion s— Reporter comrade G lo t- ice Spector, Martin Abern, Max Shachtman, principle and free from the factional intrigue zcr. Arne Swabeck, Carl Skolund and Albert Glot- which arises from the lack of it, there was no 7. Press and Literature publication program— zer. Membership cards are to be issued and need for the Conference sessions to be held up Reporter comrade Shachtman. the monthly dues rate was fixed at 50 cents and delayed for the deliberations of rival cau­ A ll the reports were expositions and ela­ with an initiation fee of the same amount. 1 h cuses. It began promptly on time the first day borations of the various sections of the Plat­ chartering of local branches w ill begin at once. and conducted all the following sessions pre­ form which represents the settled view of the For the time being Canadian braches w ill be cisely according to schedule. Oppositionists on all the important questions directly affiliated and will function as a part The Conference was marked by a freedom confronting the American Movement. The nat­ of the single organization. of discussion on all questions which enabled ure of these tasks has not changed since the The Communist League w ill carry on a pro­ all points of view to be brought fully^nd fairly Platform was drafted for submission to the gram of independent activities in the class before the body. Collective judgement, not cau­ Convention of the Party a few months ago struggle and w ill also continue to work as a cus manipulation, was the aim sought and and, consequently, the Conference saw no ne­ achieved. ■'Conflicting opinions which arose cessity for the writing of a, new one. After faction within the Party. over secondary questions were brought out in- The Conference consisted of 31 delegates the discussion on all the main reports had been with voting rights and 17 alternate delegate» concluded the Platform was adopted by una­ with voice but nq vote. Twelve cities were nimous vote. Editorial revision and reform­ represented as follows; ulation of some sections were made in order Delegates Alternates Opposition Progress to express the decision of the Conference to New York 5 j, pass over from the stage of . a purely internal Philadelphia 2 1 in Minneapolis Vote faction of the party to a National Organization also conducting independent activities and re­ Cleveland 1 ^ G. R. Hedlund, candidate for mayor of the Communist O p­ cruiting non-party communists, without alter­ Detroit - |r position, now the Communist League of America (Opposition), Youngstown ■ “ recWed a vote of 896 to 827 for the Communist Party candi­ ing the line of the document. The Youth sect­ date in the mayoralty election campaign held in Minneapolis, ion of the Platform was also rewritten to deal Chicago J Minn., on May 13th. The Communist Opposition and Party St. Louis 3 1 more comprehensively and concretely with the candidates were the only ones running on a labor ticket; all problems of the Communist Youth. Kansas City } “ others were out ond out supporters of the capitalist class. Springfield. 111. - ® The Minneapolis Opposition group campaigned for comrade Hed- The Conference adopted resolutions on the Minneapolis ? 5 lund on the platform of the International Opposition led by Class War prisoners of America, on the im­ St. Paul 2 0 comrade Trotsky and espoused the fundamental principles of prisoned and exiled Bolshevik-Leninists of the the Communist movement and the Comintern founded by Soviet Union, and messages of greetings to Toronto, Canada 2 1 Lenin. (The local platform of the Minneapolis Opposition was printed in the previous issue of The M ilitant.) In seven of comrade Trotsky and to comrade Malkin. the thirteen wards, comrade Hedlund (a railroad Worker, ex­ The report and discussion on the trade union Total 31 ^ pelled by the Stalin bureaucrats for supporting the Opposition question were a prominent feature of the Con­ Groups in a numbe of other cities which platform) defeated the Party candidate. Meetings were held ference. A constructive line of Communist throughout the campaign and special leaflets were distributed were unable for financial reasons to send de­ among the workers, as well as The Militant. policy on this question, restating fundamental legates sent greetings and pledges of support. The Minneapolis Opposition unquestionably commands leader­ conceptions derived from American and world A letter from comrade Trotsky was read to ship over the majority of the revolutionary and Communist experience and sharply opposing the present the conference amid great enthusiasm. L i ­ workers of Minneapolis. Their steadast allegiance to the prin­ false line of the Party, was unanimously de­ ciples of revolutionary Communism and their fight on behalf ters were also read from comrade Malkin in of the workers in the daily battles in the shops, trade unions, manded. The policy outlined in our Platform Comstock Prison, from the Opposition groups etc., has won them that support by the class conscious work­ on the Trade Union Question, as concretely, in France, Czechoslovakia and other coun­ ing men and women. It is the Minneapolis Opposition comrades elaborated in a number of articles in The M i­ tries. who built and gave prestige to the Comunist Party there. And litant and in the report of comrade Swabeck, it is the healthy tradition of the Party built by our comrades The conference was permeated through and before their expulsion which enabled the candidate of the Party was supported by all the delegates. The dis- through with the pioneer spirit of self sac­ bureaucrats to receive even the votes he did. Despite slander cusssion on this point was enriched by the rifice and determination in the struggle fob by the Party officialdom and the advantage of the Party in speeches of comrades from all parts of the principle. The delegates were almost entirely running “on ’l’*the official ticket, with its *— greater...... resources,...... press,. country and from Canada who have years of the Opposition candidate received the greater vote. The Minn­ workers who came direct from their jobs. A eapolis elections testify to the firmness and determination of experience in the trade union struggle behind large percentage of them beat their way to the the Communist Opposition to hold aloft the banner of Com­ them. The “ new line” of the Party, outlined Conference; others came crowded together in munism under the leadership of the greatest living teacher in the preparation for the T. U. E. L. Confer­ battered automobiles borrowed for the oc­ of Bolshevism, Leon Trotsky. The Minneapolis comrades in­ ence and in its recent activity, was refuted and tend to conduct a sticker campaign for comrade Hedlund in casion ; three or four only paid bus fare and one the general elections on June 10th. AU class conscious and condemmed on theoretical and practical delegate rode a train—on a railroad worker’s revolutionary workers in Minneapolis are urged to write in the grounds. pass. Lodgings for the out-of-town delegates name of C. R. Hedlund on the ballot then. The Minneapolis It was clear to all that the future activity of were provided at the homes of Chicago com­ comrades by their work are putting a spoke in splitting tactics the Opposition is indissolubly bound up with of the Stalin bureaucrats and are working for the unity of the rades and sympathizers. Many of the delega­ Communist movement and the development of a revolutionary its organization.form and, consequently, great tes paid their own exepnses for meals and in- working class movement. CONTINUED ON PAGE EIGHT Page 2 1 HE Mit, I T A N T June 1, ¡»29 Tasks of the A m erican Opposition A Letter From Comrade Trotsky To the American Bolshevik-Leninists may catch the vanguard of the American pro­ moned by cable from Moscow, or anywhere (The Opposition) letariat unprepared, as was the case in Ger­ else, without the masses ever noticing it. Such Editors of “The Militant” many in 1923, in England in 1926, and in China leadership means bankruptcy guaranteed in ad­ in 1925 to 1927. We must not for a minute Dear friends: vance. We must steer our course on the I follow your journal with great interest and lose sight of the fact that the might of Amer­ young proletarian who desires to know and to am delighted with its fighting spirit. The his­ ican capitalism rests more and more upon a struggle, and is capable of enthusiasm and self- tory of the origin of the American Opposition foundation of world economy with its contra­ sacrifice. From such people we must attract is itself highly characteristic and instructive. dictions and crises, military and revolutionary. and educate the genuine cadres of the Party After five years of struggle against The Rus­ This means that a' social crisis in the United and the proletariat. sian Opposition, it required a journey of mem­ States may arrive a good deal sooner than Every member of the Opposition organiza­ bers of the Central Committee of the American many think, and have a feverish development tion should be obliged to have under his guid­ Party, and even of its Political Bureau, to a from the beginning. Hence the conclusion: ance several ybung workers, boys from 14 to Congress in Moscow in order for the first time It is necessary to prepare. 15 up, to remain in continual contact with to find out what so called “ Trotskyism” is. As far as I can judge, your official Com­ them, help them in their self-education, train This single fact is an annihilating indictment munist Party inherited no few characteristics them in the questions of scientific socialism, from the old socialist party. That became against the regime of Party police rule and and systematically introduce them to the re­ posonous falsification. Lovestone and Pepper clear to me at the time when Pepper succeed­ volutionary-politics of the proletarian van­ ed in dragging the American Communist Party did not create this regime but they are its staff guard. The Oppositionist who is himself in­ officers. I convicted Lovestone of a foul ideol­ into the scandalous adventure with the Party adequately prepared for such work should of LaFollette. This low-grade policy of par­ ogical falsification (see my book “ Europe and hand over the young proletaians recruited by America.” ) Under a fairly normal regime that liamentary opportunism was disguised with him to rpbre developed and experienced com­ “ revolutionary” chatter to the effect that the alone would have been enough to bury a man social revolution w ill be achieved in the United rades. Those who are afraid of rough work we don’t want. The calling of a revolutioary 'for a long time, if not for good, or at least to States not by the proletariat but by the ruined make him confess and repent. But under the fanners. When Pepper expounded this theory Bolshevik imposes obligations.. The first of present regime, to reenforce their positions, the these obligations is to struggle for the prole­ Lovestone need only stubbornly repeat the fal­ to me upon his return from the United States I tarian youth, to clear a road to its most op­ though that I had to do with a curious case of sifications that have been exposed. They do individual aberration. Only with some effort pressed and neglected strata. They stand this with utter shamelessness, imitating their first under our banner. I realized that this is a whole system, and that present teachers, or rather their administrative the American Communist Party bad been dragg­ The trade union bureaucrats, like the bureau­ bosses. The spirit of the Lovestones and Pep­ ed into this system. Then it became clear to crats of false Communism, live in the atmo­ pers is fundamentally opposed to the spirit of me that this small Party cannot develop with­ sphere of aristocratic prejudices of the upper the proletarian revolution. That descipline out deep inner crises, which w ill guarantee it strata of the workers. It w ill be tragedy if towards which we strive — and we strive to­ against Pepperism and other evil diseases. I the Oppositionists are infected even in the wards an iron discipline — can be founded cannot call them infantile diseases. On the slightest degree with these qualities. We only upon conscjouly.won convictions which contrary, these are senile diseases,diseases of must not only reject and condemn -these pre­ have entered into the flesh and blood. bureaucratic sterility and revolutionary im­ judices; we must burn them out of our con­ I haven t had an opportunity of close con­ potence. sciousness to the last trace. We musf find the tact with the other ruling elements of the Am­ That is why I suspect that the Communist roal to the most deprived, to the darkest strata erican Communist Party—except, to be sure, Party has taken over many of the qualities of of the proletariat, beginning with the Negro, Foster. The latter always seemed to me made the socialist party, which in spite of its youth whom capitalist society has converted into a of more trustworthy material than Lovestone struck me with features of decrepitude. For Pariah, and who must learn to see in us his and Pepper. In Foster’s criticisms of the offi­ the majority of those socialists—I have in view revolutionary brothers. And this depends cial leadership of the Party there was always the governing strata—their socialism is a side- wholly upon our energy and devotion to the much that was true and acute. But as far as issue, a second-class occupation accomodated work. I understand him, Foster is an .empiricist. He to their leisure hours. These gentlemen con­ I see from comrade Cannon’s letter that you does not want to, or is not able to, carry his secrate six days of the week to their liberal or intend to give the Opposition a more organ­ thinking through to the end, and make upon commercial professions, rounding out their ized form. I can only welcome that news. the foundation of his criticisms the necessary properties not without success, and on the It wholly follows the line of the views ex­ generalization. For that reason it has never seventh day they consent to occupy themselves pounded above. In the work which you are been clear to me in what direction Foster’s with the saving of their souls. In a book of doing well-formed organization is necessary. criticism is pushing him : to the left or to the my memoirs I have tried to outline this type The absence of clear organizational relations right Stalinism in it, becomes the content of their whole life and national there lies a definite group of ideas and order by this contraband route to move toward activity. There is nothing more disgusting principles, conclusions from the whole struggle the leadership of the American Party. In re­ and dangerous in revolutionary activity than of the world proletariat. That group of ideal volutionary politics the game of hide-and-seek petty-bourgeois dilletantism, conservative, ego­ we, the Opposition, represent. We w ill de­ never yet gave serious results. W ithout a tistical, self-loving and incapable of sacrifice in fend it against the monstrous mistakes and vio­ general principle position upon the fundament­ the name of a great idea. The advanced work­ lations of the 5th and 6th Congresses and ag­ al questions of the world revolution, and first ers must firmly adopt one simple but invariable ainst the usurping apparatus of the Centrists, of all ©a the question of socialism in a single rule: Those leaders or candidates for leader­ who upon one flank are wholly going over into country, you cannot have permanent and ser­ ship who are, in peaceful, every day times, in­ the ranks of the Thermidorians. It is too ious revolutionary victories. You can only capable of sacrificing their time, their strength, clear to any Marxist that, in spite of the en­ have bureaucratic successes, such as Stalin has. their means, to the -cause of Communism, will ormous material resources of the Stanilist ap­ But these temporary successes are paid for by oftenest of all in a revolutionary period be­ paratus, the present governing faction of the the defeat of the proletariat and by the fall­ come direct traitors, or turn up in the camp of Comintern is politically and theoretically al­ ing apant of the Comintern. I do not think those who wait to see on which side the victory ready dead. Tire banner of Marx and Lenin that Foster w ill achieve even those second class lies. I f elements of this kind stand at the is in the hands of the Opposition. I do not aims which he is pursuing, for the Lovestones head of the Party, they will indubitably ruin doubt that the American division of the Bol­ and Peppers are much better fitted to carry it when the great test comes. And no better, sheviks w ill occupy a worthy place under that through a policy of bureaucratic centrism, hav­ are those brainless bureaucrats who simply banner. ing no real character, and being ready in hire out to the Comintern as they would to a W ith hearty Opposition greetings, twenty-four hours to put through any zig­ notary, and obediently adapt themselves to L. TROTSKY. zag whatever according to the administrative each new boss. Constantinople. necessities of the Stalinist staff. Of course the Opposition—that is the Bol- The work to be achieved by the American shevik-Lenmists—may have their traveling Opposition has international-historic signifi­ companions, who, without giving themselves THE MILITANT cance, for in the last historic analysis all the wholly to the revolution, offer this or that ser­ Published twice a month by the Communist League o f America problems of our planet w ill be decided upon vice to the cause of Communism. I f would of (Opposition) American soil. There is much in favor of the course be wrong not to make use of them. They Address nil mail to: t . O . Sex 136, Madison Square Station, idea that from the standpoint of revolutionary can make a significant contribution to thie New York, N. Y. Publisher’« address at 332 East ISch Staaet, New York, N . Y . order, Europe and the la s t stand ahead of the work. But traveling companions, even the Subscription rate: $ 1.00 per year, Foreign, |1.50 United States. But a course of events is pos­ most honest and serious, ought to make no pre­ 5c. per copy Jhmdtc rates, 3c. per copy. sible in which this order might be broken in tence to leadership. The leaders must be ArsociaSr Editor» favor «4 the proletariat of the United States. bound in all th$ir daily work w ith those they Editor Mat*» Ahern James P. Cannon M ax Shacrtmass Morever, even if you assume that America lead. Their work must proceed before the ______Mastrioe Spector which now shakes the whole world will be eyes of the mass, no matter how small that VOL. 11______JU N E 1, 1929______No. 10 shaken last of ail, the danger remains that a mass may be at the given moment. I wouldn’t Entered as second-class mail matter November 28, 1928, at revolutionary situation in the United States give a cent for a leadership which can be sum­ the Post offiffice at N . Y „ N .Y . under the act of March 3, 1879 T H E MILITANT tm 1 June 1, 1929 cing them now in order to save their own skins, it is quite obvious that the unanimous “en­ dorsements” of the decision are a cover for a The Party is ‘United’ Again! diplomatic factional game on the part of others. Juliet Poyntz, who always discovers the short­ comings of her leaders the minute they lose Latest ‘Open Address' o f the E C C I their power, explains this in a special letter to the Daily Worker. And John Otis, in an “ Open The latest decision of the Executive Com­ credited and vulnerable persons and putting Letter” to the Party members and to '“ the mittee of the Communist International, which figureheads in their places. This is the role as­ members of the National Miners’ Union ex­ characterizes the leadership which it had im­ signed to Foster; that of bond salesman—-so plains that Pat Toohey, the National Secreta­ posed on the Party as representative of _ petty to speak—of the old regime under a new name. ry of the Union, is still working in behalf of bourgeois politiciandom” who practice rotten The second consideration for the pious dis­ Lovestone. The organization of a factional diplomacy” and “ unprincipled manoeuvering, avowal of Lovestone and Pepper was the de­ struggle against the C. I. decision and the new and who are infected with “ Opportunism and veloping factional struggle in the- Russian leadership it creates is proceeding with full ‘right deviations,” is only a belated acknow­ Party between the Stalin Centrists and the speed. The latest “ liquidation” of factional­ ledgement of-truths established long ago. The Bucharin-Rykof Right Wing. The ruling fac- ism and “ unification” of the Party, like the proclamation of these well known facts, which tion of the Russian Party and the C.I., since the others, w ill only result in a fiercer factional anyone could -have learned from reading The death of Lenin has been a bloc between the war. Miltant, or from the most casual study of the Right and Center against the Left. The nat­ Deprived of further support of the Stalin party in recent years, has no mor importance ure of this bloc was explained long ago in the machine and thus freed from the necessity of in itself than a new discovery of America by Platform of the Russian Opposition and its col­ adapting themselves to its “ left” manoeuvres, a Twentieth Century Columbus. The signifi­ lapse was foretold. The break-up of the Right- Lovestone and Co. w ill undoubtedly develop cance of the decision of the Centrist apparatus Center bloc is proceeding now with break-neck their struggle on a Right Platform and endea­ of the Comintern lies rather in the reasons speed, as everybody but the Party member vyho vor to connect themselves with the Right which motivated it. It is there that the Amer­ relies on the Party press for information Wing on a International scale. Thev will ican Communists must look for an understand­ knows. Lovestone and Pepper were caught quickly take issue with the insane “ left” pro­ ing of its meaning. Otherwise they w ill not in this quicksand. Their closest relations had gram of the Party on the trade union question vet see the way out of the morass of factional been with Bucharin and, being much closer and w ill wage war on the “ new line” on all deception and unprincipled manoeuvering of in their ideology to progressive liberalism than fronts. The question whether this fight will which the miserable Lovestones and Peppers to.Leninism, their instincts were to support break out into the open in the immediate fu­ were' only the American agents. the Right tendency. Thus they shared the ture or remain concealed for a periou of pre­ opportunist view of the world situation and the paration depends merely on tactical consider­ The Lovestcme-Pepper leadership of the prospects of the American movement officially Party was an artificial and unnatural one and ations, The struggle is already beginning and expounded by Bucharin at the Sixth Congress. indications are that it w ill break into the open it never could have controlled the Party by This is not to say that Lovestone and Pepper its own means. The Stalin regime in the Com­ in the near future. It w ill result in a new split were bound by any scruples of “ loyalty” to in the Party. intern was directly and fully responsible for principles or persons. The object of these this factional excresence which paralyzed the political hi-jackers above all was to keep Party The Duty of the Opposition Parti- and dishonored it before the working power on any basis—right, left or center, or class. Its whole career has been that of petty This struggle w ill bring the great principle what have you? questions, which are rending the International, bourgeois adventurism and its character has Their “ mistake” consisted in their failure been thoroughly and completely exposed time deeper into the Party ranks and w ill help to to guess quickly enough the way the wind clarify the issues between the Right Wing, Sta­ and time again before the Executive Committee was blowing in the Russian Party and they of the Communist International. But each lin Centrism and the Leninist Opposition. The new exposure, accompanied by indisputable did not “ repudiate” Bucharin in time. For Party w ill be shaken to its foundation again. this they got the axe and the American pro­ proof of the incalculable harm it was bringing The Party members, wearied of factionalism upon the Party, was only the signal for reen- letariat was notified by cablegram of a change and seeking to solve everything by shutting force'd support for these shoddy fakers from in its leadership. Their sad fate is a warning their eyes and raising their hands, w ill con­ the Stalinist appartus which saw in them its to all who aspire to leading positions under the front factionalism more rampant than before. Ameiican replica. Why, then, do these two- Stalin regime to guess quickly and guess right. Many of them w ill begin to think seriously by-four charlatans atl of a sudden get the boot ? The Mew Leadership over the situation and to search for a prin­ Does it mean a new course and a new regime ciple explanation of the factional fever that in thé Party. Only the most Credulous politi­ Does the decision mean that the Party is now racks the party. cal infants can cherish this illusion. The de­ to be handed over to the Foster-Bittelman faction? Nothing of the sort, The banish­ The extent to which the situation is clari­ cision itself is a factional manoeuvre to de­ fied and a new proletarian nucleus in the party ceive the awakening proletarian wing of the ment of Bittelman (Alas! Poor Aleck!) should be sufficient to dispel this idea. The object is educated and consolidated on principle lines Party and find a temporary way out of diffi­ depends t a very large extent upon the act­ culties by those mechanical methods which is to graft Foster and similars onto the pre­ sent ruling faction, getting rid of a few of the ivity of the Opposition which has been exclu­ characterize the present leadership of the Inter­ ded from the Party. The “ Enlightenment na Conal. most discredited leaders who had become “ ex­ cess baggage” and squeezing out those with Campaign” announced by the Party apparatus, any strength to maintain a position of their which preaches salvation by simple mecha­ The Motive of the Decision own. The “ new leadership” thus created w ill nical measures backed by administrative pow­ Its ostensible removal of the leadership of be without a trace of independence or ability to er and subsidy, must be countered by a real “ petty bourgeois politiciandom” was motivat­ stand on its own feet. The collapse of this campaign of education on Leninist fundamen­ tals, explaining the inter-relation of the pro­ ed by internal factional considerations. It was synthetic leadership is inevitable.. the exigencies of the struggle against “ Trotsky­ Leadership cannot be made to order. This blems of the American Party, the crisis in its leadership and its degenerated factionalism ism” hi the first place which made necessary is written in the ghastly experience of our a new front and a make-believe change in own party and that of others since Stalinist with great world issues at stake in the strug­ gle between the International Opposition, the America. The rise of the American section .machinations took the place of Leninist guid­ of the International Opposition brought the ance and direction in the International. Lead­ Centrists and the Right W ing which is al­ fight against the petty bourgeois leadership of ers who get their authority by appointment ready leaving the proletarian path. the Party out of the: “ factional underworld” have none. Cablegram leadership is not The Opposition, having stood up and deve­ where it had been smothered for years into the worth the price of the cablegram. A ll these loped under the first seven months of its open open before the whole party and the sinpathiz- artificial combinations, patched together arbi­ struggle, having consolidated its forces at the ing workers, and exposed its inter-relation with trarily and imposed from above only serve to National Conference and having established the ruling faction in the Russian Party and the discredit the party before the workers and un­ closer bonds with the world movement of the Communist International. The Lovestone- dermine faith in Communist leadership in gen­ Bolshevik vanguard has been given a great Pepper regime, the product of intrigue and eral. opportunity for further development and ex­ manipulation and mechanical intervention from Servility and hypocrisy are the by-products pansion by the new exhibition of Centrist bank­ above, could not stand up in such a fight. These of bureaucratism. These odious traits, alien ruptcy. Intransigeant struggle for Lenin­ characterless adventurers could survive only to a proletarian movement, are glaringly re­ ist principle is our watchword. We are con­ in the “ inside game” of degenerated factional­ vealed in the flood of “ endorsements” of the C. fident that every Oppositionist w ill do his duty. ism. In the open struggle involving principle I. decision by the very functionaries who are questions they were merely targets which drew denounced by it. Those who were closest to the concentrated fire of the Opposition to the Lovestone and Pepper and bound up with them International regime which they represented in all their practices casually plead guilty to and symbolized. crimes which merit expulsion from the workers THE CAPITULATORS A letter written from Constantinople» The proletarian revolt against them grew movement and then try to pass off this cynic­ ism as a virtue of “self criticism.” The Com­ to a Russian Oppositionist comrade, deal­ steadily in this Open struggle and took two munist worker who puts confidence in them ing with the news of the capitulation of forms1: first, the open adhesion to the Opposi­ is doomed to more disappointments. Proletar­ Preobrazhensky, Radek and others, w rit­ tion on the part of the most advanced and con­ ten by comrade scious elements; second, the consolidation of ian leadership must have moral as- well as po­ a “ legal" Opposition within the Party destined, litical prerequisites. TROTSKY by the logic of the struggle, to move toward Another Factional Wa. us. The decision of the Stalin Executive was W ill Appear in the Next Issue While many of the former lackeys of Love­ designed to counteract these processes by set­ stone and Pepper are quite “ sincere” in renoua- ting tip a new “ front,” discarding the most dis- Pago 4 T H K M IL 1 T A N T June 1, 1929 sssssasasÊaasamsa What the T.U.E.L. Conference Should Do The national conference of the Trade Union condition for building and strengthening the out as much as charges being preferred, a trial Educational League scheduled for Cleveland trade union movement is the defeat and over­ being held or notification given the victim— on June 1st has been postponed for three throw of the present ultra-reactionary control­ solely because of political differences in the months to August 31st. The reason for the ling bureaucracy and the establishment of a Party. The T. U. E. L. call appeals for demo­ postponement is a cable of instructions recei­ militant fighting leadership. The main stra­ cracy in the trade unions, and correctly so. ved from Losovsky, general secretary ot the tegy to accomplish this is by united front move­ But it w ill not have a scrap of valué and arouse Red International of Labor Unions (Profin- ments ’ between a well organized left wing no faith in the masses if it begins this.fight by tern) which says in substance:— and the progressive group, carrying with them abolishing democracy in the T.U.E.L. The The preparations and response to the confer­ the masses of the organized workers, and put­ removals of comrades Swabeck, Hedlund and ence thus far are unsatisfactory. The Pro- ting through such fundamental propositions as Skoglund from the T.U.E.L., and the attempt fintern is tired of fake journalistic successes the organization of the unorganized, the form­ to wangle George Voyzey out of his position and achievements which have no genuine con­ ation of a labor party, etc. In such combi­ in the National Miners Union of Illinois must tent. Either the conference is to represent nations the progressives w ill often waver and be condemned out of hand. This kind of work broad masses of workers that can form a real fail, and it w ill always fall to the left wing to only delivers weapons to the reactionary trade basis for a new center of the left wing—which be the determined driving force, but these union fakers who seek to justify their expul­ is not the case thus far—or else no new center movements constitute the correct strategy at sion of militants from the unions by pointing should be built at all. this stage of the American labor movement.” to the Stalinites who expel Communist Oppo­ This is a timely warning to which others William Z. Foster, “ Misleaders of Labor,” sitionists from left wing organizations. These of equal and greater importance must be ad­ pages 311-312. (Our emphasis.) are not the methods of the class conscious left ded. The delay gives the Communists and This was correct 18 months ago when it was wing movement. They are the methods of the left wing militants additional time to re­ written and remains correct today. Mere also, “ petty-bourgeois politiciandom” existing in thé flect upon the tasks confronting the move­ its validity remains unchanged despite the fact Party. The left wing has had enough of Lewi- ment and act with sober consideration. What­ that the Progressive group just organized has sism and Sigmanism. ever action is taken at Cleveland must be taken a number of S. P. fakers in it, despite the fact The intolerance of the Stalinites to all cri­ without self-delusion or deception of the work­ that Foster is singing in a different tone today ticism except that which they are forced to ers who follow the left wing. Mistakes made because of the change in his factional relation­ swallow by force pump in Moscow only at so critical period as the present w ill sure­ ships with the Comintern and Profintern, de­ makes it all the more necessary for the serious ly have such serious consequences as may re­ spite the invention of the Bucharinist “ third workers in the movement to turn their atten­ tard the development of the left wing for a (or is it now the fourth?) period.” tion to these problems. In coming issues of long time to come. The conference must sharply condemn the the Militant we w ill yet return to the question The conference must state definitely that it actions of the Stabilités in control of the T. U. of the T.U.E.L., conference and deal with other is a center of the left wing whose aim- is to E. L. who have expelled members of the Com­ phases that have not been thoroughly treated. unite the whole labor movement on the basis munist Opposition from the organization with- —M.S, of a militant class policy, a center of the new unions formed up to now with the left wing minorities in the old unions. The center must not be set up as a national trade union federa­ BITTELMAN ON THE CROSS tion that parallels the A. F. of L. and the con­ A Hard Luck Story servative independent unions. The implicat­ ions contained in all the articles of the Stalin- Before he set out upon his great expedition, American Party tried more earnestly or with Alexander settled the affairs of Macedon, over ite leaders in this country are that Cleveland wibch he appointed Antipater as viceroy, with greater devotion to become a little Stalin than w ill see the formation of another De Leonist twelve thousand foot, and near the same num­ he. He read the speeches and articles of the Socialist Trades and' Labor Alliance under ber of horse. He also enquired into the do­ Master in Pravda and Izvestia with the fas­ Communist control. It is true that none of mestic affairs o f his friends, giving to one an cination of a rabbit snared by a cobra. When estate in land, to another a village, to a th ird these writers state this precisely and avoid the the revenues of a lown, to a fo u rth the to ll of an Stalin called “ Trotskyism” a right danger, question as to precisely what is to happen at harbour. As all the revenues o f his demesnes Bittelman shouted in chorus that it was an Cleveland like a cat avoids a bowl of hot por­ were already employed, and exhausted by his do­ ultra-right menace. When Stalin did a flop ridge. But the militants must reject this per­ nations, Perdiccàs said to him , ‘M y lord, w hat and called it a left danger, Brtteteran (who was nicious custom of confronting its supporters is it you reserve fo r yourself}, Mexander re­ plied, 'Hope.’ ” — DR. GOLDSMITH, GRE­ the first one in the States to get a copy of .with accomplished facts without discussion or CIAN HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST Pravda) yelled hoarsely that it was an ultra­ enlightment. STATE TO THE DEATH OF ALEXEANDER left danger. When Stalin found that there The conference must resist the growing ten­ THE GREAT, VOL. II. was a growing differentiation among the Rus­ dency to give up the reactionary unions as a The difference between Alexander the Great sian peasantry, Bittelman immediately dis­ bad job, to withdraw the militants from them and Alexander the Bittleman is simple. The covered the American Kulak and all but pro­ on the slightest pretext and set up brand new former, who ivept because he had no more posed the establishment of Collective Farms “ class unions” which are perfection itself and worlds to conquer, reached his Apex only after for all Minnesota farmers having only two have only the slight defect that they are sects the then known w’orld lay at his feet. The form­ tractors and Soviet Farms for the expatriated without mass following. This is no abstract er not only reached his Apex but even passed farmers in camps controlled by the Party, with warning. Meetings and conventions of the beyond it into decline before he had conquer­ the hope that socialism might be built in Camp reactionary unions in the last year or two have ed as much as a single American cruiser. Such Nitgidaiget. seen an almost absolute minimum of left wing is the conclusipn one must draw from the mean And when Stalin signed the Kellogg Pact as representation. fate doled out to Bittelman by the latest, brand a piece of “ realistic Bolshevik diplomacy” The conference must put the banner of “ Uni­ new Open “ Address” of the Executive Com­ Bittelman thought that he too w-ould become a ty of the Trade Union Movement” in the front mittee of the Comintern. And every impart­ high-powered statesman and at least demand ranks of the left wing. The movement has ial observer w ill perforce admit that the treat­ from the Ameircan government that it build been shifted off the rails of correct class po­ ment meted out to Bittelman is decidely shab­ “ no more cruisers.” Poor Bittelman thought licy to such an extent in recent times that it. by and more than a little insincere. that this slogan was the genuine McCoy and very virtuously refuses to have anything to We have come upon sad days indeed when came straight from the horse’s mouth. Hadn’t do with anyone or anything that does not ac­ the German Party carried on a big national cept every tenet of the Communist or left wing the E.C.C.L, (read: Stalin) presumes to de­ nounce anyone in the Comintern for “ petty- campaign against the building of the German program. The left wing must be the first Cruiser “ A ” ? to propose and fight for unification of the bourgeois politiciandom.” Has not the whole ranks of the trade union movement on a min­ course and-career of Stalin and company in Why, then, in the face of all these obvious imum program of action. The fact that the the recent history of the International been facts should Bittelman get such a raw deal? corrupt union bureaucrats do not want such that of unprincipled combination, chicane, in­ It is true that he was somewhat factional, but a unification does not invalidate this plan in triqué and back-stairs diplomacy? Why who among his colleagues is ready to cast the the least; it merely helps to increase the num­ should the same dish be called sauce for the first stone? It is rumored that even Stalin ber of workers who turn away from the in­ Russian goose and apple ?sauce for the Ameri­ carries on a bit of factional fighting in his fluence of the fakers and follow the leadership can gander? And we can hardly believe our spare moments. The answer to this puzzle of the left wing. eyes when we read that Stalin, the hero of the does not lie in an examination of the Third The conference must reject the spurious Menshevik adventures with Chiang Kaishek Period, or the relations between Inner and Out­ “ leftism” and sectarianism characterized by the and Feng Yu-Hsiang, the companion-in-arms er Contradictions. It is much more simple. prevalent attitude towards the progressives. of Purcell, Hicks, Citrine, Cook et. al., the part­ ner for years of Bucharin-Tomsky-Rykov, the Stalin is putting the various Parties of the “ The developement of such broad progressive Comintern through the process of dumping the oppositional movements is vital in the strug­ room-mate of the Peppers, the Neumanns, thé Thaelmanns, the Semards, the Smerals, the most obviously discredited fakers who no long­ gle against the labor reactionaries and the em­ er have even an inch of standing in the move­ Rafeses, the Murphys, the Lovestones and the ployers. Every forward surging current, ment : the Peppers and Lovestones of the every difference in the ranks of the bureaucra­ rest of the riff-raff and bobtail of the move­ ment for the past years—that this same Stalin world; and he is trying to put in their place cy, should be utilized to organize, temporar­ those whose veneer has not yet been entirely il y or permanently, such opposition move­ should dare to speak indignantly about Bittel- man’s opportunism ! scraped off. In the United States his choice is ments ...... the left wing, organized in and William Z. (“Win-the-war-Bill”) Foster with around the T. U. E. L., make joint movements What right has the Master to scold his pupil Wobbling W ill Weistone to furnish the heavy with the progressive, "rot1 ns upon the 1 a.-'.'s of for trvilli'- to «tow u>in his image? We will theoretical guns. W ith such a newly manu- fikflientary ana burnmg issues .... A oasm say in Bittelman's defense that no one in the CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE t>gt $ TH E M U I T AN_T_ gases Stalinism in the Canadian Communist Party years ago, the older Smith who heads the Canada affords yet another iUustrauon of the Labor Defense is a Methodist parson in holy fact that under the best of all possible Cohi'«- By Maurice Spector orders. Alderman Kolysnik of Winnipeg, the tern regimes, nothing is changed—-there is party’s.only “ parliamentary representative” is only one unprincipled faction fight the more. bership was informed, could not indulge in the a successful businessman. Wallace, the "co- The Canadian Party, within the living memory "luxury of discussion” or of groupings. “ Trot­ lyumist” of the Worker, who describes the of mankind, has always been what Zinoviev skyism” was v ariously defined as a Right writer as an “ intellectual” and a “ deserter” is in his palmy days would have called a mono­ Wing deviation, a Left W ing deviation, a pet­ a university graduate, a practicing Churchman, lithic” party, Having barely survned the ty-bourgeois deviation, an anti-middle peasant who impartially disposes publicity to the cap­ “ Bolshevising” measures of the Flith C^ ' deviation and finally a counter-revolutionary italistic parties at election time for a consider­ gress of the G. I. (1924), the sections of the anti-Soviet plot. ation. Limitations of space prevent us from Comintern are now revelling in the consolida­ W ith the expulsion of the comrades of the enlarging this list of stone-throwing denizens ting” effects of the Sixth Congress, on the Opposition it might be expected that all or- of; glass houses. heels ofva which, ,v faction------fights y . and expulsion itrinal sin had been uprooted, and henceforth epidemics have broken out.in he■ Soyi b . ^ forever only bliss and the oldest Old-Bob The condition of the Canadian Party is at Germany, Czecho-Slovakia, the United States; shevism would prevail. But alas, the expul­ low ebb and unprincipled faction fighting will and even Canada at the periphery has not esca­ sions were the prelude to the outbreak of the not improve matters. It w ill only confuse the ped punishment. The>Canadian Party whose present prize-fight in the ranks of the stalin- real issues and further poison an already em­ portion in the Comintern hitherto has been the ized officialdom, who have also initiated a fake poisoned atmosphere. The present leader­ fate of “ those wretched souls” Dante sings a- discussion to divert the membership from con­ ship has proven incapable of organizing any bout, who “ lived without praise or blame -—“as tamination by dangerous thoughts. resistance to the expulsions from trade unions achieved the dignity of those other elect whose and trade councils, has failed to counter the conventions are mysteriously postponed in de­ Already before the Sixth Congress discon­ disintegration of the Canadian Labor i arty ference to cablegrams from “ Moscow . Mean­ tent was beginning to manifest itself among with other forms of the political united front. while the air is thick with theses, counter­ the younger elements, with the organization The TU E L exists on paper only. The organ­ theses and mutual accusations of opportunism conservatism and political inertia of the party ization of the unorganized has proceeded by and “ dishonest political intrigue” . Isn’t this secretary, J. Macdonald. In the December fits and starts. The Dress-makers Union is the “ Third Period” ? Plenum of the American Central Committee, a shadow. The automobile organization camp­ It is only a few months since the Canadian Lovestone attempted to saddle responsibility aign in which the Buck faction were active “ Trotskyites” scandalously put forward the de­ for the leadership of the Canadian Party on the in the shape of an irresponsible adventurer mand for a sincere discussion of the funda­ pre?ent writer (“ the leader of the Canadian who became Secretary of the Union, is estima­ mental problems raised by the Russian Op­ Communist Party, unfortunately, used to be ted by the Macdonal faction to amount to a position and the crisis in the International. an ex-comrade by the name of Spector”—The ‘row of beans” . The officialdom has proved The best attended membership meetings in Communist Jan.-feo.Jan.-Feb. 1929). v*ox Not mere mo- organize any resistance to the po- party history attested to the interest of the desty but the interests of historic truth, how- Tree speech and the Free- rank^ and file in the issues at stake. But m their ever, and the fact of the actual balance of forces g chPConference, in wihch the Macdonald fear, the party officialdom countered with in the Canadian CE.C., compel me to disclaim P . were active, is described by the other bureaucratic’ v repression to stifle this interest this honor. J. P. Cannon was as little the was ulu“ a fiasco. VVC1C The Labor Defence has failed Party under the while their machine worked overtime to lull leader of th United States to organize any nation-wide mass drive for the the membership with a “ broad ideological cam­ regime of Jay Lovestone. Macdonald’s base release of A. Vaara, che Finnish party editor paign” of bulls and encyclicals, threats and was a tacit but none the less effective majority in jail for “ sedition” . The membership ot the rich slander. A Party of Action, the mem- bloc of the Finnish and Ukrainian sections, party is declining, the English-speaking sec­ who regarded everything with an eye on their tion is down practically to zero. The bulk of porperty interests, plus opportunist elements the membership is Finnish and it is held in like Buck, F. Custance, Shoesmith, Moriarty, CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE the Communist party by compulsion. The factured 1 eadership—“ beneath this corduroy the peerless M. Buhay, the ’umble proletarian Finnish Organization of Canada is a social and shirt'there beats an honest proletarian heart, Roberts, etc. Macdonald himself is the limited cultural society but every member is also com­ s ir!”—in prospect, it is obviously necessary to type of trade union-I.L.F..er with the most pelled automatically to take out a card in the give the Lovestones, Peppers and Gitlows the er equipment of Marxism imaginable in a party Party or be blacklisted or expelled. It is a works. And to satisfy the ruling faction for leader. He has consistently been a barnacle unique basis for a communist party. The on the ship in every situation the party could the slaughter of their erstwhile leaders, they Ukrainian membership claims to influence the were thrown the bones of Bittelman. A heavy have utilized to its advantage by bold initiative Ukrainian Labor Temple Association, but in In the current discussion, he is correctly sacrifice, it is true, but apparently an unavoid­ the course of the “ Free-Speech” fight in To­ able one. Our throat thickens when we think enough accused of being a “ Right Danger” , of ronto the Temple refused to place its hall at of how Foster, who was only yesterday” an failing to read the economic postion, of cover­ the disposal of a demonstration on the plea humble worker in the vineyard of comrade ing-up the tail-end role of the party in the Osh- that it would endanger their financial invest­ awa Strike and. many other things. Bittelman,” must today take the scepter of ment. power without the presence of his faithful Bor­ But who are his accusers of the “ Left?” Our odin, almost never-failing Colonel House, and enthusiasm suffers a slump when we recog­ There is no need to minimize the objective think tearfully how he, Foster, who was only nize the bland countenace of our old-time ac­ difficulties in the path of building up the com­ yesterday denounced publicly by Bittelman as quaintance Tim Buck of the Foster caucus. He munist movement, the defeats in the big mi­ one who “ liquidates everything connected with has become the big chief of the discontented ners struggles, the “ prosperity” and the demo­ Communism” today sits with the mighty while younger group that had begun to crystallize cratic illusions connected with it, etc. The his best friend and severest critic must eke out before the last Congress, and which lacked the Communist Opposition does not pretend that a miserable existenc^in Russian exih. courage in the test to face the fact that the Central Committees can shake mass parties As for Alexander himself, he has damned Macdonalds, the Peppers, the Lovestones, out of their sleeves in six months. But there little consolation, but he has some. As he Thaelmanns, Fosters are all either part and are also considerable opportunities for the de­ travels the cold wastelands of the Buriat-Mon- parcel or aspirants of the Stalin regime. A ll velopment of the Communist party under cur­ golian Soviet Republic or shifts to fabled Sa­ they envisage is the perspective of a long- rent conditions which embrace rationalization, markand to lecture the Uzbecks on the Apex of drawn out see-saw struggle between the ins bitter exploitation and low wages for masses American imperialism, he can reflect that all and outs, garnished with cablegrams and “ sup­ of the unskilled, organization of the unorgan­ is not yet lost, that there may yet be a Fourth plementary decisions” , plenipotentiaries and ized, and so on. But the pre-requisite for a Period, and that Time is a great healer. Let Open Letters. Under the incompetent direct­ conscious militant party is a correct regime. him bear in mind the solacing words which the ion of Buck, his opportunist personal united The Communist International is a product of Spanish philosopher, Unamuno, reports were fronts, the TUEL, has become an empty the Russian revolution. The regime in the inscribed on a tombstone of the Mallona ceme­ shell and the trade union work of the party Comintern and its sections is determined by tery in his native town of Bilbao: came to a stand-still. A supporter of Mac­ the regime in the Russian Party. Under the donald writes “ the director of the Industrial Stalin regime in the Comintern, the rank and “ Aunque estamos cn polvo convertidos, MEn T i, Senor, nuestra esperanza fia, Department, Comrade Buck enumerates in the file of the parties are not being educated but "Que tornaremos a vivir vestidos Trade Union Thesis about twenty-five failures, drilled into mechanical obedience in a barracks. “ Con la carne y la piel que not cubria.” most of them having to do with his own de­ The leaders of the national sections are trained Which can be literally translated by Bittel­ partment (F. Peel, “The Worker April 13th” ) to bureaucratic submissiveness and not to cri­ man and repeated to Stalin as follows: The Buck faction’s “ ideological leader” is a tical and independent revolutionary thought half-baked Bachelor of Arts recently gradu­ and judgement. They rule the member­ “ Though we are become dust, ated from the Stalin Academy misnamed the ship by demagogy and Lenin held that de- “ In thee, Q Lord, our hope confides, "That we shall live again clad “ Lenin School” , who less than two years ago mogogs were the worst enemies of the work­ "In the flesh and shin that once covered us.“ was still of the OBU and SP of C persuasion ing class. The function of the Opposition and had to be bribed with a secretarial post w ill be to rouse to revolutionary consciousness In the meantime let him wait, with the to enter the Young Communist League.- that section of the membership which is not patience of all faithful believers in the inevit­ actuated simply by primitive Russian patriot­ able coming of the Resurrection. Personally, Incidentally, the revolutionary records of some of the other “ old bolsheviks” who de­ ism or sterilized against revolutionary thought we feel sorry for the exiled Aleck and we fully by their property interests. intend to drop a salty tear into the next bowl nounce L. D. Trotsky as a “ menshevik” make of Russian Borsht our straitened circumstances edifying reading. One Halpern who vocifer­ allow us to order. ously edits a party organ was a Zionist three READ AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE MILITANT TigeG T H E MILITANT June i, ijfi'J The Draft Program of the Comintern

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS ISSUE That the organizational form of a Soviet can be The Soviet appears mostly and primari­ A Criticism of of gigantic importance, this is irrefutable, pro­ ly in connection with strikes which have the per­ vided, however, that it reflects a correct political spectives of revolutionary development, but are in line and in proper time. It can, on the other the given moment limited merely to economic Fundamentals hand be of no less negative importance if it is con­ verted into a fiction, a talisman, a bagatelle. The demands. The masses must feel and understand By L. D. Trotsky creation at the very last moment of German So­ while in-action that the Soviet is THEIR organi­ viets in the Autumn of 1923 would have added zation, that it marshalls the forces for a struggle cy on the part of the Communist Party, would nothing politically, it would only have Caused or­ for resistance, for self-defense and for an offensive. ganizational confusion.- What happened in Canton They can feel and understand this not on a one have no doubt been much more successfully occu­ pied by Soviets. is even- still worse. The Soviet which was created day experiment and in general not through one in a hurry to perform the ritual was merely a mas­ act, but on the experience of several weeks, months The acuteness of the situation had at the time querade for the adventurist putsch. That is why and perhaps years, with intermissions or without. reached its highest degree. It was clear that to we found out after it was all over that the Canton Therefore, only an epigonian bureaucratic leader­ lose further time would mean definitely to miss the Soviet was just one of those old Chinese dragons ship can restrain the rising and mutinous masses revolutionary situation. The uprising was finally —simply drawn on paper. The policy of wire-pull­ from the creation of Soviets in conditions when put on the agenda with very little time left. To ing and paper dragons is not our policy. We were the country is passing through big and revolution­ advance the slogan of Soviets under such con­ against the improvizing t>f Soviets by telegraph ary upheavals and when the working class and ditions would have been the greatest doctrinarism in Germany in September 1923. We were for the the poqr peasants have before them the prospect conceivable. The Soviet is not a talisman which creation of Soviets in China in 1926. We were of capturing power, even if only in one of the later has the power to save everything. In the situa­ against masquerade Soviets in Canton in 1927. phases and even if that prospect can be appre­ tion such as had then developed the creation of There is nothing contradictory in that. In that ciated in the given phase only by a small minori­ Soviets in a hurry would only have duplicated the we see a deep integral understanding of the dy­ ty. That was always our conception of the Soviets. factory committees. It would have become neces­ namics of the revolutionary movement and its or­ We valued the Soviet as that broad and flexible sary to deprive the latter of their revolutionary ganizational forms. organizational form which is understood by the functions and to pass them over to the newly The question of the role and significance of the masses who have just awakened in their very first created Soviets which would have been absolutely Soviets which has been distorted and confused and phase of revolutionary action and which is capable without any activity. And when? In conditions overshadowed by the theory and practice of recent of uniting the working class in its entirety, re­ when each day counted. This would have meant years, has not been illuminated in the least in the gardless as to how large a section of it has in the to substitute for revolutionary action a vicious and draft program. given phase already grown to the point of under­ most harmful game in organizational gew-gaw. C O N T IN U E D IN N E X T ISSUE standing the tasks of capturing power. Is any further documentary evidence necessary? Here, for instance, is what Lenin wrote about till my ribs grf caved in. and l howl "Peccavi, peccavl, the Soviets in the epoch of the first revolution: M ax Comes Clean I have sinned" u n til m y throat burns. . . i tear whole “The R. S. D. L. P."— that was then the name of pv'ces o f flesh out o f m y body. I throw myself to the patty— “has never refused to utilise at M O ­ the lions and beg them to bite chunkt out of m y bleed­ ing frame. MENTS OF GREATER OR SMALLER REVO­ "My breath it corrupt, my dayt are extinct, the LUTIONARY UNREST certain non-party organisa­ gravet are ready fo r me . . . M y dayt are past, ’ ’The tru th is, confidentially speaking, that I have to go tions such as Soviets of workers’ deputies for the m y purposes are broken o ff, even the thoughts through this rigorous treatment—and do even more— to strengthening of the influence of the Social Demo^ of my heart .../// wait, the grave is mine keep m y post as leader o f the Party and show'the bays crats on the working class and the consolidation of house. I have made m y bed in the darkness. in the ranks that if it’s self-criticism they want, Vm the Social, Democratic labor movement". (Volume I have said to corruption, Thou art my father', the lad who can give it to them in two daily shifts to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my o f twelve hours each. It's a hard job, and I scant all 15, page ZtT. (Our emphasis].). sister. And where is now my hope? as for my and sundry to cooperate w ith me in chanting an in ­ One coulcf cite such quotations from Lenin with­ hope, who shall see it? They shall go down fested body. to the bars of the p it, when our rest together out number. So come along, fellows! Take a few cracks A t me! is the dust /'—THE BOOK OF JOB, CHAP.XViL In contradistinction to this the epigones have Punch me in the nose. Sock me in the teeth. BBat me V e Have no special objections to any one of the Fatty in the jaw. Bite o ff m y ear. H it me in the solar converted the Soviets into a parading organiza­ bureaucrats going to Canossa in bare feet, following the ‘'open plexus. Throw stones at me and cover me w ith grime. tional uniform which the Party puts on the pro­ address" of the Comintern. We don’t protest even when a hun- Step violently on my toes. Kick my well-bruised hot. letariat on the eve of the capture of power. But ble sinner wallops himself on the hind quarters from time to time tom w ith hob-nailed boots. 1 take all comers and pro. here we find that Soviets cannot be improvised in as he drags his calloused belly along the ground. But the way mise no resistance. Lay it on th ick! in which it is being, done by Max Bedacht in the Daily Worker, Well, ure too arc for wlf-criticism, but we are agaionst self- 24 hours, by order, with the direct object of an is i bit too much for the most hardened stomach and should flagellation. It would have been better for Bedacht to p'ay armed insurrection. Such experiments must un­ be suppressed by the authorities as an obscene public display the role not of a Job and Jeremiah rolled into one, but a naive, avoidably become of a fictitious character and the of masochistic self-flagellation inclined to arouse lewd and lasciv- coy and sad Gretchen who wistfully regrets her seduction by absence of" the most necessary conditions for the ious tendencies in the youth and in general present a menace Don Juan Lovestone or Bertraw D . Faust. The role of a fragile to law and Order. Between groans, Bedacht manages to Gretchen might be a somewhat difficult one for Max, but he capture of power be masqueraded by the external gasp: would at least be‘more amusing and certainly less painful. Ceremonial of the Soviet system. That is what “ Whenever and wherever a consciousness of this mon­ happened in Canton where the Soviet Was simply strous reality dawned upon us, we put our Party con­ science to sleep w ith a soothing argument of identity appointed to perform the ritual. That is where of group and Party interest in our case. the epigonian formulation of the question leads to. “ SPutred on by my facthnally corrupt logic, l have THE EXPELLED In the polemics on the Chinese events the Op­ there helped to embody in document after document, position was accused o f the following alleged cry­ in speech after speech, the monstrous idea that the Co­ We print here the names of an additional number of com­ mintern plans to break up our Party because it is de­ ing contradiction. Whereas at the beginning of rades who have been expelled from the Party in Canada or termined to break up *my* faction the United States by the Stalinist bureaucrats. Despite the 1926 the Opposition advanced the slogan of “ The feeling gradually grew in me that to put my will attempts of the opportunists to conceal their corrupt course Soviets for China, its representatives spoke against against the will of my World Party is a presumption by fake "unity” maneuvres and unprincipled combinations of the slogan of Soviets for Germany in the Autumn not growing out of revolutionary, but out of'petty bour­ Party officials at the top, workers in the Party continue to of 1923. On no other point perhaps has scholastic geois logic. read and study the position of the Communist Opposition and “ The source of our error certainly was petty bourgeois take a »tand on the principle questions raised by it. The political thought been expressed so glaringly as on opportunism. Wat the Comintern justified in con- names of the comrades recently expelled are as follows: this. Yes, we demanded for China a TIMELY demming us for our unprincipled factionalism, and is GUELPH, ONTARIO (Canada) start for the creation of Soviets as INDEPEND­ the conscious eradication o f this factionalism a necessary ENT organizations of workers and peasants, ON prerequisite for the preparation of the Party for Us ALBERT J. FARLEY serious tasks in tb it period? O f course it is. CHICAGO THE BASIS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY UN­ “ Thus the corruption of our own logic, wrought by six REST. The chief significance of the Soviets was years o f factional strife led us to a systematic negation DAN POLLIN A. BORNSTEIN to be that of SETTING «UP THE WORKERS o f every im portant decision of the C. I. Can we hope FANNIE MINUK ROBERT CARVER to free ourselves from this corruption i f we do not, H. P. CLAUSEN JOSEPH R. BOOTH AND PEASANTS AGAINST THE KUOMlN- first o f all recognize .‘‘s existence and acknowledge the JOSEPH GODDISS TANG BOURGEOISIE an«J its Left Kuomintang justice of the C. 1. criticisms? agency. The slogan of Soviets in China first of irA rejection of the critichim . . . would transform the DETROIT all meant the break-up of the suicidal, shameful cu lp rit fro m a Communist into petty bourgeois oppor­ H A R R Y HOFF tunism, a petty bourgeois politician and a rotten diplo­ “ Alliance of Four Classes” and the withdrawal m at." BOSTON of the Communist Party from the Kuomintang. SAM FRIEDMAN The center of gravity consequently lay not in Translated from Bedachian into American, th ir means: "W h a t a scoundrel 1 have been! For six y*ars Vve been We are further informed that a group of comrade, in Mont­ vague organizational forms, but in a class political most unholy scamp and wastrel. Tere was nothing real, Canada, have been expelled by the Stalinist, for support­ line. too d irty fo r me. U p to the very last minute l sinned ing the Opposition. Their names will be published later. In the Autumn of 1923 in Germany it was a like a rake. I never went to mass or confessional. 1 corrupted the Party and was myself as corrupt as they question of organizational form only. As a re­ come. / was a petty bourgeois politician; 1 was a righ t MASS MEETING IN BOSTON sult of the extreme passivity, backwardness, and winger; l committed deviations with sinful glee; t chort­ tardiness of the leadership of the Comintern and led gaHy at every new crime of m y buddies, Loverstone BOSTON.-—Max Shachtman, member of the national com* the Communist Party of Germany, the mo­ and G itlow and me. In general, J was a pretty low mittee of (he Communist league of America (Opposition) wiH do«. speak here on Friday, June 21, 1929, at 7:30 p. m., at 6Z ment for a timely call for the organiza­ "iu t now, comrade! tad brethren, I've ieett the light. Chambers Street, on the program of the Communist Opposi­ tion of Soviets was missed and the factory O h, how I ’ve tent the lig h t! A nd praise the Lard, tion and the work of the recently concluded national eonfereneftr committees had occupied in the labor movement of I am atoning for my tins! 1 wear a hair shlri next to All workers are invited to attend and bring their friend- Germany by the Autumn of 19? 3 the nlace which, m y tender shin. I have shaved my head dean. 1 Ticket; are obtainable at Shapiro’s Book Store, 7 Beach Street, sleep on barbed wire mattresses. Vm going to fast Boston* The .meetmg » held under the auspices of the Boston provided there bad been a correct and daring poli- t&nger that Terence Mc.Swlney. Vm beating my breast Communist League. (Opposition). T H E MILITANT lune 1, 1929 Page 7

hammer down the wages of the workers, to increase their hours, despite the fact that the The Building Trades Situation profits are the largest ever. The conscious rank and file in the building-trades must en­ A sharp decline in building totals for the for such works through taxation. But the deavor more systematically and patiently than first quarter of 1929 in the metropolitan area practical result -usually is that capital is mere­ ever to draw the mass of the building trades of New York and the 37 states east of the ly shifted from other capital investments, in­ workers to fight for a program to include Rocky Mountains is reported by Thomas S. dustries and manufacture, and other groups among other points, the following: A six hour Holden, vice-president of the F. W. Dodge feel the sharp whip of unemployment. Under day and a five day week, with no reduction in Corporation. This, is a report of the building such conditions, capital often holds off from wages. Amalgamation of the building trades condition committee of the New York Building going industries or does not develop new en­ into one industrial union to effect a stronger Congress and constitutes a survey of building terprises. fighting front against the bosses; establish­ construction for the periods of the first three The building trades workers yet retain ment of unemployment insurance to be paid months of 1928 and 1929. The comparative these illusions and many more, and pride by the employers and the government and ad­ figures are $254,933,000 for the 1929 quarter themselves as aristocrats of labor. But if they ministered by local trade union committees and $378,280,800 for the 1928 quarter. w ill not learn from other workers in America elected by the membership ; And, then, the While the fakers of the building trades and ot*her countries, they w ill nevertheless membership must begin to think in terms of unions say everything is yet “ jake in the have to concern themselves with growing prob­ struggle as a working class against the cap­ building industry, building is on the increase, italist class in a struggle for political power. unemployment is nominal, etc., the cold figures lems arising out of their industry. The build­ ing trade employers are certain to attempt to M. A. of this report show something else. Building totals declined for the period given a total of 33% for the New York Metropolitan area and a decline of 15% is noted for the 37 states. This in fact means a decline of such proportions Fight for Mooney and Billings for the entire United States, since 91% of Recent months have seen exposure piled on serve to weaken the movement. It was these building in the United States is carried on in exposure of all the sordid details of the frame- same “ respectable gentlemen” who split the these Eastern states. up which sent Tom Mooney and Warren K. Sacco-Vanzetti movement, who turned back to Reasons for Decline Billings to the Penitentiary for Life terms. their own class when the working class began To an extent this decline for the first quarter From the perjury of the notorious “ cattleman” to move into the streets and demand the lib­ is explained by the increase in money rates Frank Oxman to the lying evidence of Estelle eration of the Massachusetts martyrs in plain in this period thru the orgy of gambling or Smith, the long list of witnesses who passed language. speculation in recent weeks in the stock market through the court to put a noose around the The opportunity is still at hand for the work­ when call money reached astounding propor­ necks of the two California labor fighters have ing class elements, particularly its advanced tions. The building trades industry requires been revealed as a troop of bribed characters section, to organize, strengthen and lead the large outlays of ready money for wages, ma­ among whom prostitutes, pimps, gamblers, liberation movement. The International Labor terials, etc., and swift and large credit facilities. dope fiends, and forgers whose tongues Defense, which began the campaign under such But the tightening of cash and credit facilities moved in court in tune with the money paid good auspices last year, has fumbled the oppor­ for this period does not explain away such a them out of the funds of California’s business tunity for the moment. The faction agents of sharp slump in the first quarter of 1929 over men. Rarely, if ever at all, has there been so Stalin who were recently foisted upor. the I. L. the same period a year ago. The report of the bald and outrageous an instance of class “ jus­ D. are interested primarily in their revolting committee attributes the slump to “ slackened tice” inflicted upon workers. factional jockeying, and only secondarily in demand and unsettled credit conditions.’*. In Twelve Years in Prison the class war fighters in prison. The reestab­ this time, industrial and commercial building Mooney and Billings have been imprisoned lishment of the basic principles upon which the gained, while public works and utilities con­ now for almost twelve years. Their case has I. L. D. was organized and built up is imme­ tracts decreased over the whole country, ex­ served not only to blacken the already reaction­ diately necessary. The defense work of the cept in New York where educational buildings ary nature of the capitalist ’’courts and 'the movement cannot be a hunting preserve of increased. The report notes the trend of de­ whole machinery of “ justice” in this country. Party factionalists. creasing residential building throughout the It has also served as a black mark against the The movement for Mooney and Billings must country. labor movement of the United States. The be revived on a national scale, with the sup­ The decline reflects itself in the increase of labor misleaders at the head of the trade union port of every worker and every working class unemployment or part time work among the movement in this country, had they been organization in the country. The prison gates building trades workers generally with isolated moved by any genuine desires to obtain the must be forced open and the two fighters be exceptions in some localities. The officials of release of the prisoners, could have accomp­ returned to the ranks of the working class from the building trades unions hide their heads in lished this aim long ago. But their only inter­ which they were torn by our class enemies, the sands and content themselves with the vention in the fight for liberation has always prospects of huge projects of public utilities been to attack and seek to discredit every seri­ and governmental building on national, state ous’ working class movement organized to free and local scales. They accept “ Hooverian pros­ the victims of the frame-up system. From the perity” and promises, but take no steps to days of the fight of the International Workers In Jewish strengthen the fighting qualities of the unions Defense League, organized on the Pacific for the time now approaching when the build­ Coast by the radicals, to the tim e-last year— ing contractors w ill push systematically and when the International Labor Defense re­ The Real Situation in in a concerted manner for lower wage scales, opened the national agitation for the two men, longer hours and speeded production. The re­ the role of the A. F. of L. bureaucrats has actionary union officialdom is contenting itself been that of persistent sabotage. Russia with day-to-day adjustments. Still, they know For our part, we are for the release of that the building corporations and contractors Mooney and Billings in the interests of the By L D- TROTSKY w ill not stop at efforts to “adjust credit facil­ working class, and NOT for the purpose of ities” , but w ill intensify even more the rationa- whitewashing the corrupt judicial institutions This edition of the book which has sold ization process in the building industry. Ma­ of capitalism WHOSE BASIC PURPOSE is in thousands of copies in the United States chine methods are being introduced wth pre­ the frame-up and imprisonment of the Moon- in the English translation, and has ap­ cision and speed into all trades of the industry, eys, Billingses, Barnetts, Lambs, Mclnerneys, peared in all the chief European languages, bringing with them the concomitant of unem­ a ms, MacNamaras, and the scores of is now available for the first time in the ployment first, and next, demands by the em- p it r p Ac^ .wi r ?nsoners; WHOSE BASIC Jewish language. ruKP O S E is the legal murder of the Joe Hills, It contains: P o CmS *or wagc Auctions, longer hours, etc, Building trades workers are especially affec­ the Saccos and the Vanzettis. The Mooney- The Platform of the Bolshevik-Len- ted with the illusions of public works and Billings case js part and parcel of he essential inists (Opposition) >”cvltab*e work of the capitalist courts, utilities construction by the government when How Stalin Falsifies the History of times are hard. There is need for these to be and those who seek to free Mooney and B ill­ ings by erasing the "discredit on the whole the Russian Party and the October broken down among them and all workers, and Revolution instead preparations made for forthcoming system of justice”~ th a t is, capitalist justice— struggles: strikes, lockouts, etc. th^ s ro m d for the commission The “Testament” of Lenin of new Mooney-Billmgs frame-ups, new Sacco- The Public Works Illusion vanzetti murders. And other important material "Prosperity reserve” is the name given to the . ., ,° nl7 th{ Workers Can Free Them Only « Limited Edition at Hand illusion of public works construction in times When Mooney and Billings are liberated it Cloth Bound Only of depression. On occasion capitalism utilizes w ill be due only to the organized demand of such and similar projects as "stop-gaps” . They the American workers and the labor movement Single Copy - - - - $2,06 F yfli Five or more copies . . . $1.75 Each offer no permanent solution to the unemploy­ of the rest of the world. It is good that nu­ ment problem which grows constantly and merous public men not associated with the Order Now From maintains its permanent character. labor movement have demanded their release. THE MILITANT Capitalism cannot ever stop unemployment, This demonstrates further the obviousness of P. O. Box 120, Madison Square Station but onlv increase and aggravate the situation. the prisoners’ innocence. But to leave the lib­ New York, N, Y. The federal or state governments may provide eration movement in their hands alone would Conference of the Opposition Communists

C O N TIN U ED FROM PAGE ONE Perspective of a Labor Party was adopted by and restoratipn elements in the Union. interest was manifested in the report on this a majority after a thorough discussion. The regime in the Russian Party decides the question and an earnest discussion followed it. Following a discussion of the disputed sec­ regime in the International and the present Here a great progress was reflected. m e tion of the Platform on the Slogan of the Right crisis in the: Comintern is due to the fact that tendencies toward organization ¡eUsh.sm m re; of Self Determination for the Negroes it was opportunism and bureaucratism have entered ear'd to the Stalinist apparatus, the legahstic decided to defer final action until more ex­ into the leadership of the C.P.S.U., and result­ attitude toward the rules of the usurping bur­ haustive material on the subqect can be as­ ed in the general demoralization of the sections eaucrats, which affected our ranks in the °e sembled and made available for discussion in and the expulsion of the Left Wing. The Op­ ginning, had been completely overcome. Not the groups. In view of the profound importance position refuses to identify the International a single voice was raised in favor of holding of this question and the manifest insufficiency with the Stalin hierarchy. It is the Opposition back our necessary organization development df informative material and discussion pertain­ which in reality represents the historic line on this score. On the other hand there were ing to it, this decision to defer final action was of the Third International, for the leadership of signs of a reaction to the other extreme. The undoubtedly correct. which it w ill struggle both inside and outside unbounded provocations of the subsidized co. General Summary the party. The victorious outcome of this ruptionists had led some comrades, who in­ struggle depends not only on the sharpening The National Conference, held under such class struggle in the U.S.S.R., in the capitalist correctly identified them with The Party, to adverse conditions and with such gratifying re­ think a complete break with the latter. ■world and the Orient, but on the active and sults, made a profound impression upon all organized intervention of the Left Communist The discussion clarified this question and re­ who took part in it. Quiet and matter-of-fact, Opposition. sulted in the unanimous decision to organize in glaring contrast to the bombast and bally­ The Conference turned a corner in the strug­ our forces for independent activity while main­ hoo of so many “ Conferences” which have gle of the American regiment of W orld-Bol­ taining our position as a faction of the Party made a noise and left no trace, our gathering shevism and opened up a new stage of its de­ and strenthening our bonds with its proletarian generated an enthusiasm which was real and velopment. It faced its problems,' its difficul­ elements. This latter is necessary in order to genuine. The pledging of quotas for the sup­ ties and its prospects realistically and showed assist their inevitable development toward the port of The Militant from the various delega­ a collective w ill to battle onward to victory. path of the Opposition which is the only pos­ tions, which preceded the singing of the Inter­ This victory w ill come all the sooner if the sible outcome of the present factional impasse national at the close of the last session, was a members of the Communist Opposition promp­ in the Party. The Oppositionists must have sign of that kind of enthusiasm which express­ tly carry out the decisions of the National Con­ confidence in such a development and work es itself in deeds. Such enthsiasm and con­ ference to organize their forces more Cohesive­ for it. That means to keep contact with the viction are our capital for the future. ly, develop a firmer and more conscious dis­ party ranks. We were the first to grasp the The Conference was a picture of the best re­ cipline and work with increased energy to en­ significance of the world issues shaking the presentatives of American Communism. Side list new recruits under our banner, which is Comintern and to raise the banner of the In ­ by side with the young fighters, many of them the banner of International Communism. ternational Opposition, but we w ill not be the at the beginning of their revolutionary activity last. The struggle for the consolidation of a and attending a National gathering for the new grouping in the party on our Platform first time, were not a few veterans of the move­ Help the Imprisoned must go hand in hand with the development ment whose faces have been familiar at all im­ Bolshevik-Leninists! of our organization and the recruitment of new portant meetings of the party since its found­ revolutionary workers outside the Party ranks. ation. We saw there the forces of the Com­ We must start a systematic and unremitting The Conference decided unanimously for this munist vanguard again assembling and taking campaign of struggle to improve the conditions shape on a National scale, and it was a heart­ of the exiled and arrested Bolshevik-Leninists. policy. ening sight. The Opposition and its Plat­ A large percentage of the delegates were re­ The number of the latter now exceeds 2,000. form are on the march in America. That They are confined in prison under foul condi­ presentatives of the Communist \outh. a his which was merely on idea advocated by a few was a proper reflection of the composition of tions : no light (the blinds on the windows are individuals in the Central Committee a brief almost tight shut), damp rooms-in which they the ranks of the Opposition movement, as a seven months ago has become a National- whole. The Youth are the most free from bur­ crowd the prisoners to the extreme limit, bad movement taking on organization form and food, extraordinary brutal treatment. It is eaucratic cynicism and corruption and the functions. It has its own momentum. It will most responsive to revolutionary ideas. A still worse in the Tobolsk hard labor prison go forward in spite of all. (Poltical-Solitary). It is the same as it was large number of the foremost young Commun­ The characterless bureaucrats who cannot ists of the United States and Canada ha\\e al­ in the time of Dostoievsky’s “ House of the understand how anyone can or should swim Dead” . In this prison there are only Bolshev­ ready rallied to our banner—far more propor­ against the stream talked a great deal about tionally than the adult party members—and ik-Leninists. They have released the Men­ the early collapse of the Opposition movement sheviks and Social Revolutionaries. They have this process is only beginning. The letter from and, no doubt, really expected a flood of “ cap­ comrade Trotsky which placed the greatest em­ introduced m ilitary sentries. The cells are itulations” after the first few engagements. The locked. No interviews are allowed. The phasis on the struggle for the- proletarian delegations were thq answer to them. They youth met with the warmest approval of the Mensheviks had a common dining table, a com­ showed our ranks unshaken and more closely mon kitchen, free interviews, etc. Our com­ Conference united than ever. Our forces have grown, rades are deprived of all this. Unquestion­ Disputed Questions slowly, but steadily, since the beginnig of the ably the powers have adopted a policy of phy­ Conflicting opinions were revealed in the dis­ fight. sical extermination of the Bolshevik-Leninists. cussions mainly on the Labor Party and on the A significant aspect of the Conference was Relations have grown very tense. Any mo­ Slogan of the Right of Self Determination for the appearance of a true collective leadership, ment you can expect not only physical con­ the Negroes. The delegates who opposed the capable of harmonious collaboration and divi­ flicts, hunger strikes (which have, no end) but formulation of the Platform on the Labor sion of labor and bound together by a common . . . yes, the firing, squads. Fifteen men from Party showed a number of differences and standpoint on all important questions. The the prison personnel of the Tobolsk Political shadings ranging from a virtual ‘‘opposition in close unity of the leadership with the Opposi­ Solitary refused to apply repressive measures principle” to the position that it would be corr tion movement as a whole was illustrated by to Bolsheviks; they were replaced by guards rect for us to participate in a mass labor party the conscious and deliberate support given to specially sent from Moscow. The need a- if it should be formed, but wrong to work for all its proposals by the Conference delegates mong the families of the arrested is enormous, its formation. The gloss errors of the Party and by the unanimous election of the National simply montrous. The families of the prison­ and the Comintern on this question, which Committee. A nucleus of leadership evolving ers and exiled remaining at liberty are literally have never been properly corrected or explain­ by these processes in the heat of struggle w ill starving. We haven’t our own International ed, have undoubtedly produced a vast con­ have ah organic character. It w ill have a real Labor Defense. We must collect money a- fusion and skepticism about the labor party authority and w ill be able to exert a unifying broad. We must fight for the right to have throughout the ranks of the American Com­ influence on the movement. It needs no ap­ our legal International Workers’ Defense. We munists. There is less of it in the Opposition pointment by cablegram and cannot be remov­ must pillory the contemporary agents of the than in the Party as a whole. Such as exists ed that w'ay. Soviet power, the Party leaders, who are res­ among us was brought out more clearly and The political and organization tasks of the ponsible for these crimes. Correspondence fully only because the dscussion was open and Opposition are determined basically by the sit­ from Tomsk, Sterdlovsk tells of whole free-at our Conference and there was no rea­ uation of the Russian revolution and the Com­ crowds driven into the hard labor prison, Nar- son for anyone to conceal his opinions or intern. Representing the stream of genuine ym, where they are sending Oppositionists, doubts. proletarian internationalism, the Communist taking them from the various places of exile. It was the opinion of the majority that, al­ Opposition equally rejects the bureaucratic Among the exiled and imprisoned there are though it certainly is not a pressing question caricature of internationalism by the subsidized heroes of the October Revolution and Civil of the moment, the labor party question has a Stalin consulates, and the reaction to social- War decorated with the Order of the Red Ban­ great importance for the future when the rad- democratic national-narrowness of the Right ner (Dreitzer, Gaievsky, Kavtaradze, Enukid- icalization of the workers w ill begin to seek W ing Brandler groups. The course of the ze and many others). Among those imprison­ political expression. Therefore it is imperative Russian revolution, which has now reached a ed in a hard labor prison is Budu Mdivani, the to have a clear and definite stand on it. A mis- turning point, is fateful for the international old Bolshevik who served time under the czar, judgment of the probable line of development class struggle. The final victory of socialism was president of the Soviet of People’s Com- ®f the American workers or a sectarian doc­ in the Soviet Union, in the economic as well as issars of Georgia under Lenin and head of the trine which would prevent us from approach­ military sense, can only be assured by the in­ Soviet Trade Delegation in Paris, -fifty-three ing and influencing new upward movements ternational revolution. In the interval only years old. might have the most serious-consequences later the platform of the Russian Opposition can T. T. on. The formulation of the Platform on the strengthen the socialist as against the capitalist Moscow, March 20. 1929.