1919.
THE CO Iva NIST Pago Seven The Party Organization Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary, 1219 Blue Island Avenue, Chicago, III.
To the Comrades of the Finnish and Scandinavian Federations purpose of this statement is to present to you the viewpoint of the Communist Party, with which we hope you will find yourself in agreement.
You are familiar with the general development in the working class movement sulting from the crisis of action precipiated by the world war. In every country fundamental differences developed between groups which previously hard worked together within one or.
ganization. These differences varied in sharpness from the situation in Germany, where the dominant Socialist Party used machine guns against those who had previously been part of their organization, to such a factional struggle as is going on in France between the same elements still included within the one party.
The issue involved in this struggle is the method through which the emancipation of the workers is to be brought about. In every Socialist Party there are those, who in spite of the experience in Russia, Hungary and Germany, still hope to establish Socialism through the use of the machinery of the bourgeois parliaments. The fact that in the hour of crisis those who hold this view have become the open enemies of the revolution has not changed the position of these elements in those countries where the crisis has not developed. On the other hand, there has developed in every party a militant group which accepts the test of action which the world war has brought and bases its principles and tactics upon the lessons which we have gained from revolutionary proletarian experience.
This fundamental difference of principle was bound to make itself felt in the Socialist Movement in this country. The development of the Left Wing, which culminated in the organization of the Communist Party, was not the work of individuals and leaders but the natural response of the membership of the Socialist Party to the world wide movement to harmonize the party program with the new Inowledge that experience had brought us.
That the Communist Party correctly expresses the new principles in its program and constitution even its worst enemy has not dared to challenge. The Communist Party accepts the principles laid down in the program of the Communist International and its program of action is a re statement of these rinciples to meet the peculiar problems which it has to face in this country.
Within the ranks of the party are to be found today the great majority of those elements which were foremost in developing the Left Wing in this country. The credentials of the delegates to the convention which organized the party showed that 58, 000 members were represented, and this membership figure is being realized in charter applications and the dues payments.
The party constitution is based on the principle of centralization without which elfective action is impossible in the conditions which the party has to meet. The party faced problems that are peculiar to this country in a realistic spirit. Figures are at hand to prove that nearly 70 of the workers in the basic industries of this country are foreign born. These workers control the economic life of the country. They can best be reached and organized through their language groups. Within the Communist Party there are already Federations of the Esthonian, German, Hungarian, Jewish, Lettish, Lithuanian Polish, Russian, South Slavic and Ukranian language groups. These organizations make it possible for the Communist Party to carry on its work with more efficiency and effectiveness than would otherwise be possible.
In addition to these groups there are torlay in our organization the bulk of the English membership in all the large industrial centres of the country. Practically the entire Left Wing Organizations in New York, Phila lelphia, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Clevelard, Buffalo, Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles and many other places have affiliated with the party.
In judging our organization you need not depend alone upon the organizations affiliated and the membership figures, but although the party has been in existence only a short time, there is the party record of action to judge it by. The Steel Strike offered the first opportunity for participation in the industrial struggles of the workers and the party responded with its leaflet on the military invasion of Gary, driving home the lesson to the working class in a fashion that resulted in country wide attention on the part of the press of the ruling class. The party has since developed a campaign against the blockade of Soviet Russia and made the same use of the coal strike crisis that it did of the Steel Strike. The general attack made upon the Communist Party by the government in its recent raids is evidence that in the eyes of the ruling class our is the organization that is to be reckoned with if it cannot be crushed in its infancy. This persecution will produce that discipline and organization strength that will carry us on to victory.
We have reached the period in which the contradictions of capitalist production are developing the crisis that will precipitate the world revolutions of the workers. The advanced sections of our movement are already in the midst of the revolutionary struggle.
Even in this country the signs are not wanting that we are moving to an early decision.
Cur party is the party of action, of aggressive and militant action against the capitalist class and the capitalist system, with a program adapted to the present epoch. Communist party must necessarily be made up of those who are in agreement on fundamental principles. Unless thus united it will develop weaknesses in action. Therefore the Communist Party has not and does not now make a general appeal to the former Socialist Party branches to join it, but it does appeal to all those organizations which can endorse its program and constitution to join.
We ask your careful consideration of the present situation and if vou are in agrecment with Communist principles, we will be glad to have you affiliate with us.
Fraternally yours, Central Executive Committee Communist Party of America. RUTHENBERG.
Executive Secretary.
By motion at C. meeting of Nov. 16th.
AGAIN COMRADE RUTHENBERG IS HELD AWAY FROM OF FICE BY THE COURTS, THIS TIME ON CRIMINAL ANARCHY EXTRADITION WARRANT FROM NEW YORK!
THINK OF THE OUTRAGEOUS HOUNDING THE NEW YORK PROSECUTORS TRYING TO IMPROVE ON THE WORK OF THOSE OF OHIO, ALSO THOSE OF ILLINOIS WHERE COMRADE RUTHENBERG HAS BEEN OPENLY ENGAGED IN COMMUNIST WORK, IN HIS OFFICE AND ON THE PLATFORM, FOR SEVERAL MONTHS.
COMRADE RUTHENBERG WAS IN NEW YORK BUT ONCE IN HIS LIFE, AT THE TIME OF THE LEFT WING CONFERENCE, WHEN HE MADE SPEECH IN MADISON SQUARE GARDENTHE SAME SPEECH, IN SUBSTANCE, WHICH FIGURED IN THE RECENT TRIAL AND ACQUITTAL IN CLEVELAND.
THIS OUTRAGEOUS PERSECUTION OF OUR EXECUTIVE SECRETARY MUST BE MET BY VIGOROUS RESPONSE IN ORGANIZATION ACTIVITY AS WELL AS IMMEDIATE BOOSTING OF THE DEFENSE FUND NO INDIVIDUAL IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES HAS HEIN MORE SHAMELESSLY HOUND ED THAN COMRADE RUTEEN BERG.
COMRADES, SHOW YOUR RESPONSE IN HIS DEFENSE, NOT ONLY BY DONATION FUNDS, BUT EVEN MORE BY EFFECTIVE EFFORT IN THE BUILDING OF THE PARTY ORGANIZATION AND IN EXTENDING ITS INFLUENCE LONG LIVE COMMUNISM!
or Mexican Communists Make Progress THE Mexican Communist Party is now definitely organized in five states and provosionally organized in ten others of the Mexxican republic. The provisional off:cers of the party are: International Secretary, Geo. Barreda; National Secretary, Enrique Arce; Treasurer, Tabler; Executive Committee, Geo Barreda, Enrique Arce, Tabler, Linn Gale, Luna, Adolfo Santibanez, Dmitri Nikitin, Parker and , Araujo.
The states which are permanently organized are those of Mexico, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Jalisco and Coahuila.
Comrade Araujo, member of the tive Committee and State Secretary for Coahuila, is one of the Mexican revoletionists who fled to the United States during the Diaz regime. He spent 11 years (Continued on Page