8 THE COMMUNIST Agreement for a Unity Conference Between the Communist Party and Communist Labor Party.
HE following agreement for a Unity Conference between the two organizations has been ronched: In harmony with the position of the Third Inter national that all parties which agree on the following fundamental principles shall unite: Class war of the workers without compromise with bourgeois and social patriotic parties.
Mass action of the working class as the mear.
to conquer power. Dictatorship of the proletariat.
Soviet constitution as the proper hasis of Proletarian Democracy.
The Communist Party and the Communist Labon Party agree to meet in Unity Conference called fov the purpose of uniting the two parties. The basis of this conference shall be: The principles of Communism as stated in the Manifesto and Program of the Communist Party are accepted as the basic principles upon which the two parties are in agreement.
Each party shall call a national convention which shall resolve themselves into a Unity Conference for the purpose of discussing unity between the two parties. Until unity is agreed upon, the delegates of each party shall vote as separate units and decisions must be reached by agreement. If, in such preliminary discussion, an agree ment for uniting the two groups of delegates is reached, then the delegates from the two parties shall unite and proceed with the work of adopting a Manifesto, Program and Constitution and the election of officers for the united party. In order to facilitate the work of the Unity Conference a Joint Committee consisting of three members from each party shall meet one week before the convention to draft a Manifesto, Program and Constitution to be submitted to the Unity Conferenco. It is understood that each party assumes the obligation to meet the expenses of its delegates. Should the two parties unite into one convention this obligation will be assumed by the united party. Arrangements for the Unity Conference shall bo made Jointly by the Executive Secretary of the Communist Party and the Executive Secretary of the Communist Labor Party. It is understood by both parties that the method of electing delegntos is to be by membership action and is to be conducted secretly. The above agreement for a Unity Conference places the question of unity in the hands of the delegates which will be elected by the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party membership.
If these delegates find that they are agreed on the fundamental principles which are to be expressed in the progrem of the united party, the two bodies of delegatos will be united with such proportional representation as is included in their agreement.
The preliminary conference between the two groups of delegates will furnish the best opportunity for the discussion of principles that has taken place in the Communist movement of this country thus far. There was no discussion of fundamental principles in the Communist Party convention in Chicago. Everything was cut and dried settled in advance by caucus action and the work of the convention was purely mechanical. Even the challenge of the Michiganites was overridden by votes and not by showing by argument that they were wrong.
It is not through such a convention that, real agreement and understanding on fundamentals can be secured.
There must be discussion and debate on all points in our program, so that if there is disagreement the issues are made and a decision is reached understandingly, not merely by swallowing what a caucus has decided in advance.
The fact that there have been two parties claiming to be Communist parties has been one of the things that prevented the development of a strong Communist movement in this country thus far. While the result of this Unity Conference may still leave a faction of the Communist Party outside of the United Communist Party, this faction will not live long as a separate organization, but will soon be absorbed by the united party.
This Unity Conference opens the way for the reorganization of the Communists in a party that will be a real party of understanding and action.
DAVID DAMON, Executive Secretary.
The Coming Elections States to the Russian Soviet Republic in particular and the European revolution in general. all these are questions that must compel a clear, definite expression of class relations and class interests, and that provide rare opportunity for Communist Party agitation. The Communist Party must participate in the coming elections actively and aggressively, and bend all its resources to that end. Under the prevailing conditions, the revolutionary use of parliamentarism becomes, for the American Communist Party, not the use of the parliament (Congress, Legislatures. use of the political campaigns for purposes of revolutionary agitation.
The prospects of electing representatives are nil; the prospects of agitation in campaigns excellent. The Party must act accordingly. The Communist Party will participate in the coming campaign on the basis of its revolutionary program. There must be no concessions to immediate demands on the capitalist state; on the contrary, these de mands, such as naturalization, must (Continued on page 8)
Theses Proposed by Louis Fraina for Discussion and Action by the Communist Party. Ed. Note: Tho following struggle against the reactionary article was received from Ber union bureaucracy and organizations, lin, and goes to press without and for industrial unionism; together discussion of its proposals. This with the paralell activity of organis an individual view of the izing direct branches of the Comauthor who, obviously, car munist Party in the shops, mills and hardly have a definite and real mines.
istie conception of the Comc) The struggle to make the Communist situation in the United munist Party an active force in the States at this moment. political life of the nation, and par1. The savage Government ticularly in the coming elections.
pression of the Communist Party, to The coming elections, in a na Kether with the revolutionary tional and international sense, in the quirements of the general situation, discussion of vital issues and the reimpose three chief and immediate vealing of class alignments, are of the tasks upon the Party: utmost importance. The Government a) The development of forms of repression of the Communist moveParty organization and means of mont; the proposed legislation Party activity enabling the Com gainst strikes and revolutionary munist Party to function in spite of activity, the coming of trades union the Government repression, ism to the political struggle (Labor b) More intensive activity in the Party. the problems of nationaliza unions by means of developing extra tion and the cost of living; the as the Longue of Nations and the Peace Workerw Councils, to carry on the Treaty; the relations of the United re but the re