The Semi Monthly Organ of the Opposition Group in the Communist Party of America It is necessary that every member of the Party should study calmly and with the greatest objectivity, first the substance of the differences of opinion, and then the development of the struggles with in the Party. Neither the one nor the other can be done unless the documents of both sides are published. He who takes somebody word for it is a hopeless idiot, who can be disposed of with a simple gesture of the hand. Lenin MILITANT VOL II. No.
NEW YORK, MARCH, 15, 1929.
PRICE CENTS The Results of the Party Convention cominetan, and taking part in the effort to some New York Workers Protest Trotsky Exile The Party Convention which was to end the factional struggle and unify the Party ended By James Cannon article signed by White in the Daily Worker with a free for all fist fight, the sharpening of the articles reaffirmed his stand as against that of Bitof March 4th was part of this campaign and Poor White of course did not write the article. It is internal strife, the wide distribution of new caucus documents and a race to Moscow by representa tleman and all the rest of the group. How then quite obvious that Bedacht and Lovestone wrote it.
tives of both factions. It could not be otherwise.
can the appointment of Foster be regarded as such This bankruptcy is only the reflection of the poli a great concession. to the Bittleman faction that the past war? asks the article. Does his record tical and ideological in the Colemanise fondern in the past war assure reliability in the coming of the Stalinist regime everything else can be cheerfully sacrificed? The war? It does not. With words like these and thought, suppresses the arise from its barren policy with organizational and the big talk about political line (forgotten hammered at the candidacy of Foster for the secre sion and undertakes to solved in difficulties which that the theses cast aside so soon and so lightly) vention floor the carefully coached proletarians.
manipulations. The unanimous endorsement of already) were merely trimmings. What kind of taryship.
Thus the Lovestone caucus was solidified the Stalin leadership by the Convention was an a group is this which divides over political ques against the War Danger and Foster. They fin.
appropriate act.
tions and reunites over organization questions?
ished by electing three secretaries with equal rights, one of whom is Foster in the same position he The convention sessions themselves were an THE MOBILIZATION AGAINST FOSTER held before the Convention and with even less empty formality. The real activity consisted of a long series of caucuses by the two factions and The attitude of the Lovestone group to the prestige.
Stalin Manoeuvre was more business like, practical The Bittleman Foster caucus document accuses was confined almost exclusively to the paltry struggle over the office of Party Secretary. The mechanand political in the Stalinist sense.
They took the Lovestone faction, because of its rejection of ical exclusion of the Opposition prevented a disaway its main motive by introducing a resolution Foster as Secretary, of placing the Convention in cussion of the great principle questions which con for Stalin and against Bucharin. thus refuting at the position of open hostility to the CI that is, the same time the accusation that they are purely to the Stalin faction. But that doesn follow at at the bottom of the fierce factional struggles in all and simply a Right Winterton Telemandes. a Ischic thereby they would receive the favors that come the parties. The convention delegates, carefully selected from the standpoint of their indifference next step was to discredit the proposal to make only to the loyal ones. They didn understand to these questions, naturally could not touch them Foster Secretary of the Party: For this they put Lovestone manoeuvre any more than they under. they do not even understand them and this forward their proletarian delegations to attack stood Stalin It is absurd to think the Lovestone failure doomed the convention to ignominious Foster war record openly in the Convention. The CONTINUED ON PAGE futility from the start. Without facing these is sues, which are the determining factor in the whole them on the right basis of principle, there can be no liquidation of the factional struggle no mat Stalinites Plan Pogrom. and Stage Fizzle ter how often the unprincipledness of this strug gle is proclaimed.
The protest meeting of the Communist workers of give an account of the meeting that will not be THE ISSUE AT THE CONVENTION New York against the banishment of Trotsky was recognized by anyone who attended it. Among other held with a packed hall at Labor Temple Tuesday things they say that we (we. brought police to the Almost the entire activity of the two caucuses. night and ended with great enthusiasm and loud meeting and gave orders to them. These people which met in joint session occasionally as the Sixth cheers for Trotsky and the Communist Opposition whose leader, Lovestone, testified in a capitalist court Convention of the Party was devoted to the at 11. 30. collection of 60. 50 for the Weekly against a Communist and helped to send him to the Militant was taken after an admission fee of 25 penitentiary, cannot imagine why we should not manoeuvre of Stalin which was presented by the two representatives of the Executive Committee were the speakers. The names of the Workers Guard haps as much instinctive reaction as conscious false of the Communist International: the proposal that who protected the meeting are too numerous to hood.
Foster should be appointed Secretary of the Party: The director of the Labor Temple announced from The fact that a secondary organization question of could not be learned. Those who were known to ing from the inside left so quickly that their names the platform that he had called the police against our protest and said he had done so because of the this kind should become the central problem of have come to carry out the instructions of the riot at the previous meeting. The police wanted to the convention is in itself a significant characteriza Stalin bureaucrats to break up the meeting mainly let the hoodlums into the hall, but our Workers tion of the gathering. The motive behind this paid functionaries were refused admission by the Guard at the door refused. It is very important to Stalin strategy is quite obvious. In the first place portunity to denounce Trotskyism to their hearts reason we asked representatives of the and. establish the facts about such questions, and for that it was a form of pressure on the Lovestone faction content in the wide open spaces of 14th Street. the to attend the meeting to observe and to make a complete break with Bucharin. It was committee from the sat on the platform give an opinion of the conduct of all concerned.
also designed to graft Foster onto the Lovestone with the speakers and Fellow Worker Edelman Lies against us in general are too numerous to faction as its American expression and decoy for spoke in their name, pledging the support of the answer but lies about the police business will be checked down to their roots and the real facts clearly the proletarian communists who are fighting it the Communist Opposition notwithstanding their dis established to the satisfaction of all honest workers.
under the banner of the Communist Opposition. agreement with its program. number of One final lie of the Stalinite press. We are acIt was easy to accomplish the first aim, for here workers also served on the Workers Guard which cused of having had gangsters and thugs at the it was a question of dealing with people without defended the meeting. Dr. Edmund Chaffee of the meeting to protect us. These gangsters and thugs were, every one of them, fighters in the revolutiondefinite principles or loyalties. The second aim out that the had always defended the right ary movement and fresh from the picket line in the had no chance to succeed. It failed to consider of the Party to hold public meetings and would do needle trades Left Wing fight and other battles the principle motives that animate the proletarian the same for the Communist Opposition, where their only connection with gangsters was to comrade supporters of the Opposition and it underestimated ther political intelligence.
be beaten and slashed by the thugs employed by the Abern was speaking, a group of Lovestone scouts at Right Wing. The day after they are cheered for tempted to force entrance at the rear door and rush their courage on the picket line, the Daily Worker reactions of the two groups in the Conven the platform. They ran into a strong detachment of and Freiheit denounce them as thugs. The Staltion to this proposal regarding the secretaryship point and were soon thrown out. The leader of this inite scribblers have lost all sense of shame.
throw an interesting light on their actual character. raid, one Gomez, had foolishly bumped his head successful meeting was also held in Philadelphia The Bittleman group went into convulsions of en against the door and seemed to be under the illusion on St. Patrick Day with James Cannon speakthusiasm over it and regarded it as, almost, the that Trotsky was in the hall in the act of betraying ing. The meeting was under the auspices of the final victory. For it they they completely Open Forum of the Friendship Liberal League. where Party representatives have often spoken.
theses, they declared a still more merciless strug feeble heckles, he left the meeting of his own accord.
There was a mobilization of the Party to break gle against the Communist Opposition and howled night by the Stalin officialdom of the Party and in discredit on the Stalinites. The disruption was orfor unity with the Right Wing structions were sent to all Party units to mobilize ganized by Benjamin, the district organizer of the stone, Pepper, Wicks, Stachel, Wolfe, Minor, Olgin the entire Party membership to break up our meetor anyone else of a similar stripe who would be ingin Preparations were made to stage a pogrom he mustered for the job. This is true imals cities a the working class core of the Party has no heart for cept it. How can such an attitude be explained? Its net result was to demonstrate the futility of these these reactionary methods. Benjamin, who is as It is only a few weeks ago that Bittleman issued methods and the weakness of their sponsors, to yellow as the yolk of an egg, remained two miles a statement, signed also by a number of lieutenants anto strengthen the fighting spirit of the Opposition behind the lines like a real general. There he workers and to create the beginning of a united front eventually received reports that his hoodlums had and new recruits, repudiating Foster position on of all progressive workers against fascist methods hit the sidewalk a few minutes after the trouble very important questions from a principle stand in the labor movement from the side of Lovestone began. The moeting continued, with questions and poin Foster himself stat his article that Bit and Foster as well as from the side of Sigman and discussion, till midnight.
tleman had denounced his position as liquidating Lewis.
everything connected with Communism. Foster The subsidized liars of the Daily Worker and Frei Two smashing defeats for Stalinism in three days!
heit, striving to win the Brass Check medal for 1929, The Opposition will be heard!
The forgot their