THE COMMUNIST Five APPEAL TO THE MEMBERSHIP, ISSUED BY THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY Bolsheviam, rated by the Communist Labor Tarty and hy home persistent voices within the Comtests wero confused. 90 far as the Communist Labor Party was concerned, and that they were cinta stired within the Communist Party.
He longs for the Left Wing, dreams of that bilssful time when he will be back arrin in the Left wins. His whole article. In fact, is a con.
The language tederations of the Party particularly the Russian Federation were instrumental the United Sates. This is Communand estabin the organization of the Party in Hehed fact by this time. Comrade Zinovlev, the Chaluman of the Communist International. In one of his official communications, calls the Russian the inunist movement in the United States. undoubtedly also knows and recognizes this fact. But Just because of this ho a sentimental bard of the Left Wins. bitterly hates and of the Federation leadership has been an absolute pushing backward of the revolutionary Socinligt movoment in the United States, ho indignantly xclaims o, of course, inco the Communlet Party has ready been organized in this country. It is assuredly not the desirent this date to quarrel with the fact of the starting the Communist Party, he triee to reassure us.
He is so magnani.
mous, that he does not even mentionint this date that the Convention. at which the Communist Party was started, had been packed.
and accepted seemed to him good forum But he the Communist Party simply in which to fight against domination of an ag krossive, activo, hopeful membership by email elique of vain nollticians.
By the way, Comrade Reader, does this not have familinr ring to you this charge of amall cloue, of vain politicians. Ion this the very same charpa llunk apaingt lanin and his cang by the reptile pross in dominating and suppressing the good. kind and generous but simple Russian peaple. he accusation that an aggressive membership canla he or has been dominated hvn mull ellque ol politicians. cortainly sounds just as absurd as the most ridiculous and lying accusations Invented gainst the Bolaheviki by the capitalist press.
While virulently attacking the Federations for their fight to conquer the Left Wing. In order to transform 11 into the Communist Party our virtuous Left Winger confesses, however, his aim as well as his ndheront intho Communist convennonauhanently in the Communist Party was a Left Wing conquest of the Communist Party in nther words re trnnaformation of the Communist Party back into the Left Wing. Once in Coma unist Convention (In other words. once such a catastrophe had happened. thoro appeared no escape from the allemma except a cft wing conquest of the Communist Party.
The Federation, and especially the more experienced Russian Federations understood very Well and saw through the tricky plans of the perpetual Loft Wingers. they realized the danger of th Left Wing conquest (or absorption of the Wiat Party and acted accordingly. But his adherents did not understand and did not know that they and their plans wore discovered and wided. ilgainst. and this is precisely why he so sarcasticnlly accuses (in his naivety tot unnecting even how comically it really sounds)
les Federations of posting for marbitrary chalendar munist Party No, dear though you are a learned statesman and political scientist. you did not understand than, and still do not understand, that it was not a calendar test. The question was not of date, but of the method of formation of the Communist Party. Substantially, there was no difference whother to start it officially on June 22nd oy on September 1st. and ns natter of act the Federations shifted the date from the former to the latter,. but it WAN important, and it made a grent difference as to how to start the arty. It is one thing to start with a clearlydefined, real. Communist Tarty from, and with membership. already consciously Communist who in fact were ready Communists. und it is quite a different thing to invite to participation in its formation, and in the formulation of its but poor in Communist program and tactics, elit large numerically But, we reallze, of course, that such considera tions are beyond the understanding of our learned staterman and author.
10.
Having falled in an attepmt of a Left Wing conquest of the Communist Party at its first Convention, and in several similar attempts (in fact It was onc continuous attempt) during the subsequent seven months of the Party exist once, our Lord Varney and his followers were not discouraged: they found their consointion in the sentence: defeats are only disastrous when we fail to ncauira a new wisdom and a new detormination out of them.
4:14 And so they decided to arm themselves with a new wisdom and new determination, in order the other parts and incidently liberato it from (read: foreign) domination by FederaA now wisdom soon prompted them on pronac course of action while a new determination them ready and willing to accomplish something really be something extraordinary. The Communist movement in the United States Hus kone backward since June 1919. having been dramatically declared by the Don Quixote theo.
Fotician of the minority group. his administrat this statement into action. And, since the communist movement has gone backwardit was only natural that he decided to push it forward.
to June of last year. Tin recent coup etat in the and the was clearly an attempt to carry out that plan and that decision. It was a deliberate attempt to accomplish thelonging desire of the minority and to return the Party to that delightful primit.
ive stage of Luft Wingiem. Had their plan succeeded, there would be just as in June of Inst Not being 10 theoretician und unveringly branding an efeat theorists all thone who collstantly talk about principlen. Damon, woll known, is a man of action and a great administrator and organizer. His administrative and organizing genlus found its expression in the followin profound sentence in his statement to the Majority members of the JD. Ex. Council. The Chiengo District Organizer.
man in such a powtion He has turned over to the National organization more funds thu all the other district combined. The offeindom of the are called vote catchers. Damon may well be called a good money cntcher. And he certainly knows how to catch money, Ite proprinted more than seven thousand dollars of party money and ot away with it. Editor Note: part of this call way oinitted by some error in the last issue of The Communist.
must be well prepared and carefully arranged since it is impossible to reprint the omitted part The time, the place, the method of olocting the by Iteolf we are reprinting the entire call as this delegates, and above all. Instructions to the deleantes are essential prerequisites in order to make The Coming Convention of the Communist Party.
APPEAL TO THE MEMBER COMMED BY this convention accomplish to purpose, This means, first of all that before the conTHE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE vention is called, the membership must be kiven COMRADER: tho opportunity to discuse all the 19 o that.
The Central Executive recognizes the when 111 nat olart them blindly. BUT the time comes for the election nedete ates, necessity for party Converterin ordor to settle finally the differences that have been seothCINTLY AND TOT ONT, VTPOTETE ing within the party for a long time and which GATES WHO ACTUALLY REPRFOENT TAMIR ODTNTON ON THE 196CES IN THE CONTAO present secession at last in the mormohet in movement led by the former VERSY Executive Secretary and two members of the All this requires time for preparation preparaC.
tion for the process elections in the various The recognizes that the membership staces and the technical arrangements connooted Therefore, thia boing the earnest and general also domande a convention for the same reasons.
with these and the convention itgard, both hy the memberahin and the Central Executive Committee, desire of the party, THE PARTY CONVENTION Il called too soon, without the proper time for MUST AND WILL BE CALLED preparation as stated above, the convention wond However, in order to make the convention a only result in failure and necessitato the calling success in order that the convention shall accom: of another convention a few montha after this the necessary task of clarifying the under COMMUNIST PARTY SHALL FUNCTION POR convention will inevitably fall to nocomten.
Moreover, the convention should be called only THE PROPAGATION OF COMUNISM IN HAR. by the Central Exeeutive Committee of the party.
MONY WITH THE PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES ay the only legally elected body which between LAID DOWN BY THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL conventions can sneak with anthority in the name without internal dissension paralysing its netiv of the Communist Party and its membership as a Itlet and what is most important In order TO Whole. This is the only meaning of revolutionary GIVE THE MEMBERSHIP THE RANK AND centralism and discipline upon which a real. trong FILE the opportunity to express their opinion Communist Party can be built.
on the issues before the party, this convention Therefore. we call upon the membershto to ropudiate the so called convention oalled by the year no organized Communist Party, but only an will shoecutive Secretary Damon, which, 19 former is nothing but trap set for the unimaginative, diffused Left Wing divided into rank and file. The flate itself, as fixeet in the two groups mnjority and minority.
coll issued by the Former Executive Secretary CONCLUSION impiles no real desire to have any convention At the end of the first Inetallment of his article at all.
of which this is an analysis. Promises a In the first place, the former Executive Secretary continuntion. We do not know. whether or not had no right or mandate to call this convention he will fulfill this promise. But even if he should, The duty of the Executive Secretary, 12 defined wo doubt whether he will say anything new, by the Cnvention is to work only under the whether it will be of any particular interest to us. supervision and control of, and in eonfornetton As we stated before, his political new and identity is with, the Central Executive Committer. He is now definitely clear to us.
only the executor of the decisions of that body. Interesting he could have said, is already con or where a division exists. of the majority of tained in the first part of his article. His further that body, and is responsible only to the Central written exercises can only havo un archeologicExecutive Committee, which is in turn, responsial or psychological interest. They may contain ble to the convention.
interesting material for treatise on the Psy Secondly, the date set in the call Sesued by the chology of a Political Has Deen, but no more former Executive Secretary, May. for elections than that.
of intermediary units and May. Por national He revealed himself politically, 28 a Communist convention, even were it technically possible, HAH Been. Together with Harold Lord Varney would give no chance to the membership to discuss Walling. Spargo and others, he has the dubious the issues involved.
hoons.
to belong to a class of political has.
Thus, while pretending that they represent the membership and that they want to give them the It may be argued that to identify him with opportunity to express themselves at the convenWaling and Sparco is a little too strong.
tion, the minority in fact, is deliberately arranging the convention so as to To which we reply, that we do not imply that the mom boy his apostasy is of the same degree is that of ship from any possibility on themselves.
Wallins or Spargo, but what we do intend to The date fixed by them implies that they are imply. may be better expressed in a mathematical dellberately arranging their convention go as to formuin. The relation of to the Communist Party identical to the relation of Walling and blindly. In other words, they nre simply develvta Spargo to the Socialist Party, or of Lord Varney the membershin.
to the But it is obvious that it is physically impossible to have the elections and the convention on the. 11 of them belong to the same political species, date set in the call of the minority. Convenall of them should be carefully shelved and listed tions are not called at a week e notice! This is in ainuseum of political hen beens.
Regrettable, however, is it that so many com80 self evident, that even the minority. how ever ignorant on party โH.
cannot pretend to be undoney mny ists, perhaps. stin ao not understand Communwith. Most usbeen character of and of the minority surely they knew it, but still they purposely fixed group whom he represents.
the membership in an attempt to swing them away Some of tliese carnest comrades, are still cuo from the Communist Party and its Central Exto misunderstanding, misinformation, or misinterecutive Committee, over to their side by offering pretation, on the side of the minority, serving them an earller date. The very fact that in the latter as a sort of gunfoddor In its fight their letter to the requesting joint action against the Communist Party. But even among the on the question of a party convention, the mi.
comrades who are on the side of the majority. norly express a willingness to change the date or rather of the Communist Party good Comand other details already fixed by them. indicates munists though they be we hear from time to clearly that they themselves did not take their timo (but more and more seldom though, it is own call and its fixed date for the convention truc) voices in favor of requesting Damon and seriously the other members of the to return In the meantime, the minority do not hesitate Immediately to their respective posts and con to use the party funds in the possession of the tinue to work under the control and supervision former Executive Secretary, entrusted to him by of the the to appoint pala Dietrket Organizers The comrades voicing these requests and demandy. in their honesty and sincere devotion to by the are still functioning, the Communist Party do not realize that neither in order to build up rival organizations in all Damon ng and other leading figures of the the party units TO CAPTURE THE DELEGATES minority group do belong any longer to FOR THEIR SIDD. In other words, to break the Communist Party and for that matter to the very foundations of the Communist Partythe Communist movement in general. that to ITS REVOLUTIONARY DISCIPLINE Invite them back into the Communist ranks But we know that the membership win answer sounds just a naive and sentimental. If not to the minority and in no uncertain terme say ridiculous. as for instance, to invite Hil will not be led into the trap set for them.
ney quit or Oneal into the Communist ranks. will refuse to go into convention called by We want. In this country, as everywhere. these secessionists and disrupters. They will renl. definite, revolutionary Communist Party, with disinies as irrelevant and hypocritical the cry of out any Centrist thint about it. It was for Pnctional control raised by the minority such a Communist Party that we split away from against the the Socialist Party, that we (or overwhelming The rank and file will, first of all, carefully majority of us) bolted from the National Left Wing discuss the issues involved WLL TAKE SIDOS Conference and separated ourselves from the Cen. and elect their delegates accordingly to order to trist Communist Labor elements. Are we now Nettle tho Inuen at the convention called by the going to destroy the results of this long and Central Executive Committee. At present, the painful process of building the Communist Party? next order of business before the membership Are we now going to invite back to our ranks is to take up those issues, discus9 them and thoso Contrists, who. Just because of their understand them. And the urges every Contrism have themselves voluntarily left us. party unit to this order of business.
No, comrnden! is high time to understand. It is necessary that every group should have that, whatever might be said of the split in this discussion, before the sub distriet and distret the For it is Its reasons and of its desirability conventions are held( not after them.
or practionhillty at that particular moment, two exnctly these preliminary conventions that will months before the convention. now. since the OF THE MONARTY CONVENTION determine AND COMPOSITION split has alrendy occurredl, we have no rensons to rovet Its occurrence DO NOT ELECT SUB DISTRICT AND DISTRICT Premnturoly, perhaps, having occurred earlier DELGATES NOW.
than it would have otherwise, this split liberated The call for the party convention will be issued us from the Centrist clomonts who handicapped by the Central Executive Committee, setting the our Communist work. ind. 16 anything we must time for sub district and district conventions.
details and methods of elections.
rejoice about it.
It is high time to understand that the return Tho will set il date for the convention after inquiries from, and consultations, with, thu of all these Centrist olements into the Communist District Organizers and the Executive Committees Party (unnting for the unke of argument, that of the language federations. So that the date much 11 bxolutely impossible thing could have occurred) would he decided step backward. inally fixed wmi be physically possible and convenient for all party unit to partielpate.
it would really push our arty and the Communist THIS CALL WILI. ISCED SOON.
inovement baekward in this country by at least SIGNIFY THAT YOU STAND BEHIND THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE All the considerations and the desire to bring PARTY BY REPUDATLETTVIE SECRWARY u to write this article. Though devoted to one SIGNIFY THIS CONCRETELY, BY ALIGNINI IndividunlonlyIt might appear on the sur YOURSELVES WITH THE DISTRICT ORGANIZ.
ince this one individual being the loading theoretician of the minority group. it was ATIONS UNDER THE CONTROL AND DIRECTION OF TICE CEC important to prove conclusively to the comrades his and his followers eontrist character.
POTTI CAL. TO Miss EDTY THE IN TWO DANTIME DISCUSS THE 1990 ES.
Not spenkins even of the uttur inconsistency TRY TO UNDIRSTAND THEM SO THAT YOU of inviting back to his post former Oxecutive WILL BE ABLE TO ELECT THE DELICATES Secretary Damon, at man who ho shamelessly be. KVHO ROI RHSENT YOUR POINT OF VIHW. OD tinelli trust and the confidence placed in him. Continued on page appointed Plster inte en. wherer Districte de one year.