TWO THE COMMUNIST THE COMMUNIST bolated appeal for unity between the former This is the method which the 40utive Committee of the Communist Interna.
tlona has ordered for Foogland and any other country where two partios exist.
Wo are certain that the Communist Party will not retrent from this position, sanctioned and endorsed by the Communist International It remains to be seen whether tho O, leaders are prepared to disobey the mandate of the Communist International.
JOHN REED ton votes alloted to America in the Congrege.
Frains and Stooklitsky were not ayon in position to deny tho truth of their contention, Official organ of as they had left this country long before the THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA split. it remained for Comrado Rndok to riso published dy the and protest the O, claim on the ground CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE that they had only heard one side of tho caso. Pending more definite knowledge, the Vol. November 1st, 1920 M13. were given six votes to our four, and and were recognized as the major party.
This brazon He is on a par with UNITY the chauvinist llo of the to the Com.
By the decision of the Second Congress munist International that they wore the party and the Executive Committee of the Communof the American or English speaking olomonts ist International the whole vexing problem of while the Communist Party were composed only of foreigners. The point is that they unity, which has divided the communist movo ment in this country ever since its inception, succeeded in hoodwinding the Communist Inwill be settled once and for all, or course, the ternational, simply because they had superior date set in the decision October 10th is in channels of communication which is no mystory to any operative because we only accidently stumbled the comrado noquainted with across this decision on October 13th and it controversies in the Left Wing and Commun.
was not acted upon by the until Oct.
ist movements.
19th. In this connection we may mention that But now, by the decision of the Communthe date has since been put forward 1st International compelling unity by January to January 18t by the Executive Committee of 1st, the are hoist by their own petard THEY ARE NOW COMPELLED the Communist International upon the appeal TO PROVID of our delegate, Comrade Andrew, who reTHAT THIDY ARE THE MAJOR PARTY IN presented our party before that body in MosAMERICA. They will have to prove that thoir cow on September 22nd.
membership is ten thousand as they claimed The basis for unity is that laid down for in Moscow and in their official organs.
all Communist parties and groups in all other unity convention, if it is to be a true countries the decisions of the Second Con expression of the rank and fle of both parties, gress, the decisions of the Executive Commit can only be accomplished on the basis of memtee, and the method of uniting is by joint bership figures dues paying, good standing convention, based upon proportional represent membership. Any other way of arriving at the ation of membership in both parties.
number of delegates each party is entitled to We, for our part welcome this coming would not be a true index of the rank and flo, unity convention and the formation of one who in the last analysis, elect and control the Communist Party in America. There never was ofcials and lay down the policies by which any good reason for the existence of two part they are to be governed. This is the method ies except the inability of the minority of the laid down by the Communist International for organized Communist to abide by the decision unity of all Communist parties where more of the majority of the membership. From tho than one exists in any country.
very beginning of the rift in the Left Wing, Is the ready to accept the joint when the vast and overwhelmir. malority of convention and proportional representation the Left Wing membership had been expelled based upon membership as the ONLY method of from the and had no other recourse but accomplishing organic Communist unity?
to call a convention for the organization of Frankly we are skeptical. Although we have the Communist Party, this samo minority received no official reply to our propositions attempted to override the majority and falling (printed elsewhere in this lesue) they have in that split.
given our unity committee an unofcial, verbal The became the party of this mi reply which indicates that they realize that nority after various excursions in and out of they have been placed in the very unenviablo the convention a year ago last August. position of acknowledging that they LIED to Where are the Left Wing delegates to day who the Communnst International by claiming to organized the in opposition to the be the major party in this country, Communist Party?
They have put forward the tentative claim Out of some seventy odd delegates (many that they are entitled to a majority of the of whom had no mandate from any member delegates at the Joint convention BECAUSE ship) only a very few are left in the Com THEY HAVE BEEN RECOGNIZED BY THE munist movement. number of them suco COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AS THE openly repudiated the Communist movement MAJOR PARTY. THEY HAVE PUT FORand the Third International. Some of thom WARD TENTATIVE DEMAND FOR AP.
are back in the Others have disappeared PORTIONMENT OF DELEGATES BASED UP.
altogether.
ON THE REPRESENTATION ACCORDED only a handful are left reinforced by our THEM IN THE SECOND CONGRESS THAT former minority own leaders who have IS, SIX TO FOUR. In plain language they united with them to organize the want a majority of the delegates on the basis in opposition to the Communist Party.
of the very lie that gave them the six votes From the very beginning this stubborn in the Second Congress.
Centrist group plotted and intrigued, planned For unmitigated gall this beats anything and executed, a series of moves to abolish and they have ever perpetrated. Just think! THEY destroy the Communist Party. In the Left ARD AFRAID TO SUBMIT PROOF THAT Wing, in the in the the re THEY ARE THE MAJOR PARTY AS THEY cord of these Centrists and irreconcllabies 18 CLAIMED BUT NEVERTHELESS THEY one that should have led to their expulsion WANT US TO SWALLOW THAT LIID WITHfrom the Communist International were that OUT PROOF AND GRANT THEM THE body in possession of all the facts. But they MAJORITY OF THE DELEGATES AT THE have succeeded in hoodwinking the Communist JOINT CONVENTION International just as they succeeded in hoodWe do not know if they will persist in winking some of our own membership by lles this demand but the very idea they put forth and misrepresentation of tht vllest sort.
should convince any unprejudiced member of We need not go into this record at this esther Communist Party that these leaders are time. It is too well known to our member now trying to get away with tho goods. The ship. We shall only take up the latest phase Communist Party, we are certain will not conof their rascality. Immediately after the recent sent to enter into deals, or compromises or spilt and the coalition of the and secret understandings with these leaders of the minority into the C, the leaders the in order to help them save their Immediately sent out the information to MOSCOW faces therefore the Comm. Party will not conthat they had succeeded in uniting the major. sent to any apportionment of delegates to the ity of the organized Communists in this Joint convention that is not based upon memcountry into the Only a few de bership figures that can be substantially proven.
pleted language federations were left, mostly Certainly the Communist Party will not congent foreigners, who had no conception of the to any ABITRARY apportionment of delegates.
needs of the Communist movement, and The decision of the Communist International would soon be compelled to join the 1s clear. It calls for completo unity by January as the Communist Party was no longer in 1st This means organic Communist unity, Tho existince, They went their delegates to the Communist International hus laid down the Second Congress in Moscow to protest against basis of accomplishing unity only through a the seating of any delegates from the de Joint convention based upon proportional rofunct Communist Party and demanded the full presentation. This was clearly stated in the fow days before the third anniversary of the Soviet Republic comes the news that John Rood diod of typhus in Moscow. The death of John Reed removes one of the most picturesque characters in the American Communist movo ment. journalist, a poet, a revolutionist, Reed had the wonderful opportunity of gazing upon and participating in birth pangs of Soviet Russia in those memorable days which he coably doscribed in his TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD. What he witnessed there and thon gave a new impulse to his wandering, restless spirit. It gave a new direction to those remarkable talents of his, which were to be dedicated hereafter in the cause of the emanci.
pation of the working class of the entire world.
We do not have to den extravagant and hypocritical eulogies over John Reed, now that he is dead. We leave that to the bourgeois liberals and the petty bourgeois Socialists who are vieing with each other in lauding him as a martyr and a patriot. It is the way of petty souls to defame and besmirch a man during life and then to lavish fulsome praise when he is gone. This is not the way of Communists who measure all men by their devotion or antagonism to the cause of the world proletarian revolution.
John Reed was a young man. Ho came into the Communist movement by a circuitous path.
He was only just beginning to find his bearings in the Communist movement His previous flirtations with the radical and labor movements were of somewhat dulletanto charter. He worshipped at the shrine of Art, and adventure and was attracted to the radical moveme becuuse he found there new art values, new art concepts and a kindred spirit of adventure primarily because the movement itself or contact with It Alled the needs of Ws soul and his spiritual aspirations. He lacked the basic Marxian knowledge and the plodding industry of a Marxian Socialist. But he had something which made up amply for this lack.
He had vision and courage and daring and the tradition of revolutionary spirit that smouldered within him until he came in contact with a new world in the making and then those latent qualities burst forth in a splendor and profusion that transformed the erstwhile art rebels Into the most austere, self sacrificing Communist.
John Reed was destined for great things in the future. But Fate out him off almost at the beginning of his career. His skill as a writer, hie wanderings and adventure, his know.
ledge of human nature, and his mastery of the revolutionary art forms were only a period of novitiato for John Reed, all these would havo been cast into the melting pot of revolutionary struggle and heroic self sacrifice had he lived.
He had his part yet to play. No one acquainted with him and understanding the transformation that the Russian Bolshevik Revolution had wrought in him doubts but that his part would have been in the forefront with the choice and noblo spirits who have dedicated their lives and talents to the Communist reconstruction of society the world ovor.
The mourn tho loss of John Reed. We mourn the loss of a faithful comrade and sincere Communist. We mourn the loss to the Communist International and to the American Commun1st movement in which he was fast becoming an indisponsible and indefatigable worker in the common cause. John Reed to dead but his memory will live as feming inspiration to those ho left behind in the movement for which he gave his life.