THE COMMUNIST class conscious among them are within the Comthe propagation of Communism to the masses ship of the proletariat, which has repudiated Soviet power. The which believes that munist movement.
of the workers. The task of a Communist Party These workers in each lanmust be to inculcate and crystalize Communist Communists who advocate and propagate the use guage must be organized in a federation of their understanding among the masses over the heads of force against the state and the inevitability language in order that they may be able to of union offcialdom, whether in the of of a violent revolution are agent provocateurs!
function as members and to propagate Communism among the workers in their language.
or in the Communist Paries must It seems as if the considers its primary agitate constantly for Communism and not for task to propagate industrial unionism, and not Language federations have more than a proindustrial unionism.
paganda function to perform in this country at Just as we would enter Communism, to the masses.
the present time. The membership of the Comthe bourgeois parliaments for revolutionary pro Here is another example of the subservient munist Party as well as the is overpaganda so must we enter the most reactionary position of the towards the trade and industrial unions for our propaganda. The unskilled and semi skilled workers, in. whelmingly composed of foreign comrades who The however, is still flirting with cluding the agricultural laborers, constitute the do not speak or understand English. And necesthe stil holds syndicalist tendencies. bulk of the working class. It is an important sarily so. The majority of the workers in America are foreigners.
part of the work of the United Communist Party Especially the workers Its position is not based upon any clear cut conception of industrial unionism but upon a policy to awaken these workers to industrial union massed in the basic industries the unskilled, organization and action.
semi skilled and unorganized. These foreign of pandering to every element in their party in order to achieve their Centrist conception or On the question or problem of the Negro workers are the first to react to the revolutionunity. We recommend a careful reading of the workers, although the Communist Party at its ary conditions in Europe it is from their ranks second convention saw the fallacy of making it that the membership of the Communist Party pamphlet on this subject, published by the as well as the chapter on Unionism in the program a separate problem and giving it undue promin.
and the can be recruited if at all. These of the Communist Party printed elsewhere in ence, the has learnt nothing and forcomrades, especially the Russians, Ukrainians, gotten nothing. It still keeps it in its program.
Lithuanians, Lettish, South Slavic, Polish, Jew.
this issue.
In the paragraph on militarism the ish, Armenian, etc. are fired with old revolutionMass Action.
program again indulges in revolutionary phrases ary spirit of their own countries; many of them It would have been instructive and illuminathave gone through or witnessed the 1905 revbut evades stating the real Communist position.
olution. These comrades were members of the ing to have seen the original clause dealing with It speaks of directing mass protests against Socialist Party.
this question as brought in by the leaders of the imperialist militarism and war toward civil war They organized the revolt in before it underwent any changes at the against the capitalist class and its organs of the old party. They organized the Left WingCivil war they led in the formation of the Communist hands of the delegates. We are under the impower. clear evason of the issue.
Party.
pression, judging from Caxton article that no is not directed against the capitalist class and These foreign comrades, organized in their federations are the promulgators and car.
mention of force, or the propagation of it was its organs of power (which may mean anything riers of Communism in this country.
contained therein. However, prodded by a small and nothing) but against the capitalist state and They gave unstintingly of their time, their money, their aggressve minority, who threatened to split away its machinery.
energy. No sacrifice was ever too much for from the unity convention, some changes were But the last paragraph is a gem. There they finally adopted. The changes are slight. The them for the sake of their principles.
come out openly and show their kinship with How did they accomplish this miracle Centrist leaders, by clevor word juggling, suc the syndicalists of the and fall down of revolt and formation of a Communist Party (to ceeded in fooling the delegates, nevertheless. We completely as Communists. All the old syndisay nothing of forcing the old Left Wing elequote: calist fallacies are again aired social control ments to organize the Through their by the workers under capitalism workers conautonomous language federations. It is through revolutionary mass action of trol of capitalist industry under capitalism etc.
Without these the working class that the power of the capitalWe quote: language federations, the masses in the would never have succeeded in revolting and ist state will be destroyed and the proletarian The Communists must bring into these strug.
carrying the majority of the membership with government estabished.
gles the tendency toward conscious organization them. How did the language federations succeed Note that it says the power of the capitalist of the workers for taking over complete social in organizing and leading these non speaking state will be destroyed not the capitalist state control. Such control as the workers can secure English elements? Because the language federaitself.
of capitalist industry through their mass de. tions built up a machinery and discipline and or At an advanced stage of the class struggle mands can best be exercised through shop com ganization morale among them The language fethe capitalists realize the futility of other means mittees, shop stewards or similar organizations.
derations gave them Communist understanding and resort to widespread use of the armed power But control of industry won and maintained by it taught them to distinguish between Left Wing of the state. The capitalist government thert the power of the workers must not be confused and Right Wing, between Communist and Centfunctions openly as a military dictatorship. The with the sham industrial democracy established rist and through their federations they were working class must then answer force with by the employers for the same deceptive pur able to control their own leaders as well as the force.
poses as the political democracy of capitalism.
English speaking leaders who showed the slightHere is a typical Centrist attitude toward the It is interesting to note that the est tendency to backslide on principles and tao state and tho uce of force to destroy that state.
horo state tho old position of building tics.
The considers the use of force as a the new society within the shell of the old in The Centrist leaders in the Left Wing, the an offensive purely defensive measure not as a new way. The only difference is that the and those who recently split away from measure for which the Communists must consciI. know what they want and say it much the Communist Party, knew this fa better quite well.
ously prepare, and which is the highest expresThey had seen the federations in operation sion of the class struggle. There, again the This program is a typical Centrist document, against others as well as themselves. They bourgeois horror of force emanates strongly from lacking both clearness and understanding of realized from the very beginning, that language the camp.
Communism. Framed by unscrupulous word federations would always act as a brake upon The class struggle, which so long appeared jugglers, it evades the fundamental issues. their designs to lead the Communist movement in forms unrecognizable to the millions of workPhrases like civil war, armed insurrection backwards. The split immediately on ers actively engaged in it, developes into open and force were mechanically inserted here and this question. Damon, Isaacs Co. remained combat, civil war (this statement is entirely there, with no real intention of permitting such in the Communist Party to bore from within, vitiated by the omission that the open combat, insertions to change the tone of the document. for the abolition of the federations. Failing in civil war is waged by the armed organized, rev.
Not more than three pages of it should properly their attempt they split. If they had not split olutionary workers against the capitalist state.
belong in a program, and those three pages away, they knew as sure as fate, that they would Ed. need thorough revision. The rest is merely a have been discredited and deposed from leader The United Communist Party will systema background for a bourgeois analysis of the col. ship at the next convention.
tically and persistenly familiarize the working lapse of capitalism and the end, dealing with the There was no other recourse left to the Centclass with the inevitability of armed force in the Communist reconstruction of society is so much rist leaders of the than to abolish the proletarian revolution (italics ours. Ed. local color in ordert o give an air of vesimill federations if they wished to remain in control The word familiarize instead of the word tude to the whole.
and leadership of their party.
propagate or foster, is a deliberate manipulation.
The Constitution of the That is the real reason for the abolition of The word familiarize, indicates that the There are four outstanding features of the the language federations in the Lan. will carry this message in its program, or in constitution which demand consideration. 1) It guage branches, without any centralized body its literature dealing with the theoretical aspects states nothing about being an underground, to co ordinate their activities, organize and give of Communism, but it does not mean that the illegal organization. 2) the abolition of language articulation to their protests, are perfectly harmU. will propagate it in its leaflets and federations. 3) a composed of ten less to any scheme of the Centrist leaders. It propaganda to the masses.
members. 4) the election of International Secgives them control of the foreign membership, This sentence is further emasculated by the retary and International Delegates by the Conwho cannot act effectively in any given situomission that armed force will be used against vention itself.
ation.
the capitalist state. This is highly important. 1) This is evidently a deliberate omission Centralization has nothing to do with the as indicating that the Centrist leaders succeeded in view of the conditions in this country the question. What centralization can there be in changing the entire meaning of the whole nation wide raids, the destruction of the open chapter on mass action. Damon, Isaacs Co.
where various language branches in a given disorganizations (C. and and the trict or sub district transact their party business, never agreed with the Communist position during recent split within the in which under through the medium of representatives who are the recent split. At that time they stated heir ground, illegal organization was one of the main opposition to the advocacy of the use of force not the expression of their point of view, but issues.
and the inevitability of a violent revolution for who can speak English? The test of party offithe destruction of the capitalist state. The leoDamon, Isaacs, Mayor Co. have voiced cials becomes, not their understanding of Compard cannot change his spots. They lave not their opposition to underground organization more munist principles and tactics, but their ability changed. They cannot change.
than once. These Centrist leaders have so framto speak English. And from the experiences in The working ciass must be prepared for ed the program and constitution that the United the Socialist, Left Wing and Communist parties, armed insurrection as the final form of mass Centrist Party will be ready to become a legal those who could speak English best were not action by which the workers shall conquer the organization at any time. They are not opposed always the best Communists; sometimes it was state power and establish the Dictatorship of the to the formation of legal or cultural organizathe very reverse.
Preletariat.
tions; these legal organizations are already in Even the most unsophisticated can see The whole clause on mass action is weakexistence and new ones are being formed. As the point. Language federations make for conkneed. It is a mouthing of revolutionary phrases the network of these legal organizations gradutrol of leaders by the majority of the member Their complete silence on the question of an ally supersede the groups and branches, the ship who cannot speak English but who underunderground form of organization, either in their will function openly without any re transstand and can express themselves in their own program or constitution, confirms the suspicion formation of organization machinery.
language. The abolition of language federations that the may eventually give up any The clause in their constitution calling for robs the majority of the membership of exerpretension to being an illegal, underground party.
the formation of industrial branches is another cising control over leaders.
Immediate Tasks.
indication of their attempt to dispense with the We can safely predict that this clause in the It is in this chapter that the really underground, political character of the organU. constitution will soon be a dead letter, reveal themselves as aparty of Centrists. We ization, and swing into an open mass organizaor they will lose a great part of their memquote: tion.
bership In order to enable the party function (2) The abolition of language federations (3) The best proof of the kind of unity more effectively in the immediate struggles of within the we doubt whether this will achieved by the is the clause dealing the workers, shop groups of the party must be be obeyed by the language groups, for the Ruswith the Not unity but an amalgamation organized to secure actual contact with the sian groups have already organized and autono of two small organizations was accomplished.
workers. These sbop groups, together with Commous federation and the rest will soon follow Each side was afraid of losing control of the or munist groups within the unions, shall carry on suit. has been the pet scheme of Damon Co. ganization to thee other. They knew each other the agitation for industrial unionism and against for a long time. They tried and failed in the and therefore didn trust each other. The the of Communist Party, using every trick and artifice had seen the dastardly act perpetrated by Damon The substance of the desire to get known to the politician trade. Co. against the Communist Party and didn contact with the masses is to carry on agita The argument that language federations ham relish a repetition of it at their expense. Damon tion for industrial unionism and against the per centralization is fallacious. We are Co. for their part, knew they were amalgaF. of And the of course, is the not dealing with the abstract or ideal principle mating with a bunch of leaders who differed obvious medium for giving the advocacy of in of centralization. We are dealing with specific from themselves only in degree, and that only dustrial unionism affirmative character! The conditions, with a given population in this counbecause they didn have the same opportunity.
United Communist Party, in other words, try, which can be likened to Tower of Babel, Neither side cared a hang for principles or will act as a recruiting agency for the for they speak manylanguages and the vast tactics so long as they were able to interpret the which has repudiated majority of the foreign workers do not speak or mass action, which has repudiated the dictator. understand English, The most advanced and (Continued on page 7)