Saturday, November 30, 1929 THE MILITANT Page The New Unions and the Communists where a united front with the progressives is not a categorical condition for growth and development. In America there are only a few thousand scattered Communists among millions of politically In the correspondence from the Illinois By James Cannon the unions and to organize the conscious indifferent and reactionary workers. The coal fields there is room for serious thought.
militants inside and outside the Party for key to the unity and consolidation of the These informative and authoritative letters this fight. The issue must be brought into new unions, to the problem of leadership from the fields of battle models of prolet in their deepest ranks towards a genuine the open before the workers. The Foster and the expansion of revolutionary influarian Journalism giving a fresh meaning workers movement. The explosion at the fakers will howl about our exposure of the ence is combination of the revolutionary to the term Workers Corespondence Belleville convention of the miners where shameful game they are playing at the ex with the progressive minded workers.
cast a searching light upon a disease in the 40 or more delegates bolted is an alarming pense of the movement. Let them howl! Without this it is impossible under the new union movement which threatens its reminder of this conflict. We see in the And see that stronger blows are dealt present conditions to organize new unions existence.
miners union and not only in the minersagainst them.
on a mass basis. Pig headed insistence on This sickness consists to speak plainthe portentous appearance of a line up of The organization of the workers for a Communist monopoly of the directing ly in the importing into the new unions honest rank and file elements against the the labor fakers arts under the fraudulent organs does not as experience has amply Party; or, rather of the Party against the the elementary struggle is the primary revolutionary task, and the building of the demonstrated result in Communist leadbanner of Communist leadership. To the Tank and file militants for the Party marnew unions the most important medium for ership of the masses.
Linets are the agressors in the whole evil It simply results shame of Communism this rotten business its execution. The revolutionaries will in the exclusion of the masses from the held the stage under the Communist Party circumstance and are responsible for it.
fulfill their historic task only to the extent union auspices at the District Conference of the This revolt from below against neothat they understand the proper relations National Miners Union at Bellevile, Illinois.
fakerism tricked out in counterfeited ComThe Mechanical Control Disease between the masses and the vangaurd and and the scene enacted there was only a munist badges, which broke out in the Mincreate an internal regime in the unions The mechanical control sickness replica, made cruder by enlargement, of ers Union and which smolders in others, which attracts and holds the masses.
must be eliminated if the new unions are to the routine game being played in all the is a sign of internal health and strength.
new unions and which is evoking in all of live. There is nothing revolutionary in The question whether it will remain a negThe Need For Workers Democracy the dogma that Communists should control them the inevitable revolt.
ative protest or become a positive force for This means a struggle to make the new the unions by arbitrary and bureaucratic The Foster Wrecking Crew the regeneration of the movement is a unions democratic organizations in reality, means. The French Communist Party was This strangulation and disruption of hurning one. Indeed matters have come and not merely ip hypocritical declarations, severely condemned for this very nonsense promising movements for the organization to such a pass that the part to be played They must function as self sufficient bodies, at the Fourth Congress of the Communist of the workers in important industries is by the new unions in the stormy days ahead freely determining their own course, work International when Lenin and Trotsky becoming an old story. For a long time hinges upon that queston.
ing out their own rules and selecting their were at the helm. It is the refuge of feeble the situation among the marine workers The answer lies in the first place with own leaders. The right of expression for people who are afraid of the rough and has been crying aloud for industrial organ the politically conscious forces of the Com various divergent political views and ten tumble fight for influence and leadership.
ization. Experienced and capable milit munist vanguard who alone are capable of dencies must be firmly established. The In its effect it is sectarian and reactionary.
ants are not lacking for the job men who grasping the problem in its manifold aspects workers who are banded together there It has become a fetter on the developement have been thru the mill, who enjoy the and of organizing the struggle to cope with for a common struggle against their ex of a workers mass movement the primary confidence of the seamen and know how to it.
ploiters must be able to feel that they are revolutonary task and a source of disorganize them. But, thanks to the Fogin their own house, not the tolerated guests credit to Communism, ter wrecking crew, the marine workers orWithout the intervention of the most of the Party. The meetings, conferences ganization has its being largely in the bomconscious and uncorrupted elements in the Communist leadership of the masses 18 and conventions the new unions must bastic headlines and lying news stories of Communist ranks to right the situation the one of the prerequisites for the revolutionhave a formal and binding character.
the Dally Worker. The position of the left wing will pay for the sins of Party ary victory of the proletariat. But, converAuto Workers Union was recorded in a letmismanagement with a recrudescence of Only so can the new unions develope sely, the organization of the million masses syndicalism. Signs of this already are not Into genuine mass organizations and unter from Detrolt printed in a recent Issue to use De Leon classic phrase Is likelacking.
less they become such they are doomed. wise a preliminary necessity to the constitof The Militant. The Party bosses have They must aim to include in their ranks ution of a genuine class movement on the captured this union, captured it and For this struggle we have no new or not simply Communists and a fringe of sym road to a struggle for power. It is only locked it up in the Party office where the magic formulas and done are needed. The pathizers, but the masses, without whose in this process that the revolutionary leadauto slaves will never find it. The Needle teachings of Leninism on the work of Com participation the unions have no power. ership can expand. Tactics and methods Trades Industrial Union which had the munists in the trade unions, as laid dowa Not only the politically conscious, but the at this stage of events ought properly to most favorable chances of all, is today by the fundamental documents of the Com politically indifferent, the backward and be judged by how they help or hinder this only a pale shadow of what it might have munist International, are a sufficient guide. even the reactionary (who are the vast work of organizing the masses. And by been. And the National Textile Workers It is time to study them again, to make majority. must find a place in the unions. this standard the mechanical control Union the football of Party factionalism them part of the consciousness of the revolu Formal proclamations on this score are idea stands condemned.
since its fll starred birth Iles paralyzed tionary workers and to set them up against plentiful but mean nothing. What is necwhile the Party experts debate and golden the monstrous perversions practiced today Leadership of the masses cannot be essary is a deliberate course in this direcopportunities go by. The new unton move in the name of Communism. captured without ther knowledge or tion.
ment as a whole, inoculated with the consent. Communist influence which preThe new unions are at a fork of the The leading forces in the new unions Foster medicine, is reeling like a victim of cedes and evolves Into leadership can only road. One way the way of the Party bur ought to represent a united front of the poison moonshine.
eaucrats leads to degeneration and colbe based on service to the broad workers Communists with the progressives. The What is the matter?
lapse; the other to a period of expansion shallow uinded, phrase mongers imagine movement which the workers understand Like the left wing organizations in all and healthy growth for which all conditions that the formation of new unions disposes and approve. Serious and consistent work spheres of labor activity, this great poten are favorable. In the interest of the lat of the vexing problem of progressives.
for the building of the new unions in preptial movement of new unionism is regis ter it is of vital importance now for the greater absurdity is hardly conceivable.
aration for the great impending struggles tering the ruinous effects of the internal members and supporters of the Communist There is not a single organization of wor will do more than anything else at the crisis of the Communist Party. The apLeague to bring into the foreground some kers which expands beyond the paper present time to promote the influence of pointed Party leaders carry over into the fundamental conceptions to make a shar bounds of a Party auxiliary that is to the Communists. Clear the way for mass organizations the same foul practices which signalize their rule in the Party.
per and more agressive fight for them in say, of a duplicate of the Party membership this work.
They set as their first task the control of the new unions, and they ettect this possible after the selection of that body. control by methods that insult proletaResolutions were adopted protesting rian intelligence as they offend proletarian morality.
Following the issuance of a call for Seake, Bernadotte Lodge, No. 20, against the convictions in Charlotte and de Unearned and appointed leadership has manding the release of the prisoners, and a Unity Conference for Gastonia Defense, Egan Soneson and August Brodin, Electno faith in itself. It prefers mechanical signed by active militants in the labor rical Workers Union, Local 202: Lee another expressing solidarity with the Marcontrol of half dead organizations to the movement of Minneapolis and St. Paul, a Miller, Henry Cook and Ed Lawrence ion strikers and protesting the murder of struggle for influence in living movements. large and representative gathering met at Painters Union Local 292: William Lund five workers by the sheriff and his thugs.
Foster and Company want leadership in Tabor Headquarters, October 29, to discuss gren, Stanley Anderson and Boerback, Copies were sent to the Governor of North the new unions insured in and guaranteed and act upon the frame up of the Gastonia Pronethean Club, Unitarian Society: Carolina, to President Hoover, to labor orin advance by mechanical measures. Nine textile fighters and the massacre of the Arnold Anderson, Mercedes Nelson and ganizations and the press.
ty per cent of their mass work and 99 Marion strikers.
Robert Happ, Communis League of America The success of the Minneapolis contper cent of the funds at their disposal are The meeting was called to order by (Opposition. Dunne, Simon Barach erence shows the tremendous reservoir devoted to this barren accomplishment.
and Carl Cowl, Maintainence of Way Emof support that can be obtained for the The result is an absolutely artificial selecacting secretary Carl Skoglund, who set defense of Gastonia if a genuine effort is forth the object of the conference, namely: ployees, Lodge 144: McDonald, Thomas tion of the leading bodies of the new to acquaint the workers of Minneapolls with Rudd and Bennee Schrewer, Socialist Party: made to organize united action. That such and a stifling of their inner life.
action has been bitterly opposed up to now the situation in the southern textile indus Leo Gisselin, Minneapolis Federation of Everything is cut and dried in these by the leaders of the Communist Party try, especially the Gastonia trials, and to Teachers: Amy Edmunds, Alice Dreschler unions. There is little for the members Inaugurate a campaign in Minneapolis to and Dietrechson, Workers Club of Minnmakes the task more difficult, but, as Minto do at the meetings except listen to long aid the workers in defending themselves neapolis shows, far from impossible eapolis: Herbert Howes, Warner Day and winded speeches. There is nothing for them while organizing. Skoglund then called for Morris Hanson, Viking Lodge, No. 10, to decide everything 19 decided for them nominations for temporary officers, He was Sten Gagner, Alfred Engman and in advance. Intelligent non Party workers elected as temporary chairman and Helmer Augustson, Capmakers Union Local are systematically squeezed out thru the MINNEAPOLIS CLASSES OPEN Edmunds was chosen temporary secretary, application of the asinine formula which 12: Hoberman and Gordon, IndependThe agenda for the conference was then follows the doctrine of the Third Period ent Workmen Circle Br. 89: Moses, The Minneapolis Branch of the Comread and adopted.
as pestilence follows famine that everySam Lessin and Mrs Schwartz.
munist League of America (Opposition)
Upon a moton, a credentials commitbody who is not a Communist is a traitor.
All were seated, as well as the signers announces the opening of winter classes for Every Party quarrel is immediately transtee of three was appointed by the chairman, of the provisional call, and Skoglund was the study of problems facing the labor ferred into the union, and one who gets consisting of Lee R, Miller of the Electrical chosen permanent chairman wth Edmovement. Two classes are now open. 1)
crossways with the Party regime immediWorkers, John Nelson of the Steam Fit munds as permanent secretary.
ABC of Communism, with Carl Cowl inately becomes a target for slander and ters and Helpers, and Dunne of the The opinions of the delegates being structing. 2) American Labor History, frame up, as, is now the case with John Communist League of America.
then called for, all delegates agreed that with Karl Skoglund instructing. Cowl Watt, president of the National Miners Hedlund Speaks on Cuse whatever differences of opinion might exist class opened Tuesday evening, November Union. Hedlund, well known left wing among organizations, unity can and must 19th at 401 Washington Avenue South at The reckless gambling with the Wor fighter in the Engineers union gave short be had on the question of defending perse 7:45 pm Registration for the classes kers movement which marked the career summary of the various labor disputes in cuted workers. motion was made that the can be made by all workers by applying to of the Lovestono faction as the American past labor history and called attention to conference call a public mass meeting as the School Committee at Box45, Minneapolis, representatives of Stalinism, has been ela the new persecutions that are taking place soon as possible to acquaint the workers of torated in previous documents documents in the Southern textile industry. He urged Minneapolis with the Gastonia and Marion which Foster signed jointly with us. all workers to unite for the purpose of de situations and amended that another such The conduct of the present Party bureaufending all attempts of workers to organize THE NEXT ISSUE cracy, headed by Foster who learned from conference be called before such a mass and to bring all the labor forces into action meeting takes place in order to insure The next issue of the Militant will Gompers, is distinguished from that of contain the following special articles: investone only by a vaster clumsiness and on behalf of working class defense. The greater success. The amended motion was credentials commitee then reported the fol adopted.
Disarmament and the United States of Eur ignoranc eville Significance lowing organizations and delegates in atope, by Trotsky; Is the of BeAll organizations represented by dele tendance.
coming Progressive? by Arne Swabeck; The gates were asked to elect one representaof the Foster overseers The Results of the Czecho Slovak Elections Steam Fitters and Helpers, Local 539: tive on the executive committee, and the per and the Crisis in the Communist Party, by pe needs and intereste John Nelson, Platers and Polishers: manent officers were instructed to call an and with the impulses Neuman, Broom Makers Union: Lenorovics; Wow. uction Ixecutive Committee meeting as soon as Swindle, by MINNEAPOLIS FOR GASTONIA