Baturday, January 18, 1930 THE MILITANT Page Throughout the World of Labor Opposition Progress in Spain which is the bureaucracy of the Communist furious because it is said that MacDonald It was a battle organized according The British Miners and the in order to parry the announced attack to the rules. The known Trotskyist vichad taken the trouble of having Lloych tims at the moment write these lines are Labour Party George informed that he was quite dis not very numerous, but sure. One of the posed to accept long amendments. They methods employed by the technicians of The question of coal 19 once more on say that, as ever, Lloyd George was inter Spanish Stalinism against the Opposition the order of the day. On the occasion of ested only in creating an effect from the is denunciation. The first attempts were the debate in Commons on the government tribune, showing once more that he was a made in the November number of central project, the papers published numerous good demagogue.
organ of the Party, Bandera Roja. comarticles in which the ever recurring prob What is certain is that the governmen. rade was denounced in the central organ of lem is examined from its various aspects. tal project in fts first form is dead. When the Communist Party by the bureaucratic big space is naturally given to the length it comes before Commons for its third leaders who took advantage of the circumof the working day and to the wages of the reading it will have to be seriously touched stances, of the very gravity of the case minere, for the mine owners assert that it up. But it may already be said that it will and of the fact that the Spanish Opposiis the too high wages paid to the British hardly be worth more, the Laborites con tion has as yet no journal of its own.
miners that handicaps them in the struggle stantly retreating before the radical mea We will not lay stress on this caseAgainst foreign competitors, sures that encroach upon the privileges of for the time being, it is too dangerous. The The president of the Mining Associa the bourgeoisie.
comrades of the Communist Party have tion of Great Britain, Mr. Evan Williams taken note of it and some of them are ask in a letter addressed to the Times, asserts On the occasion of his fftieth anniver ing for the expulsion of the author of the that in spite of the law voted on the mor sary, the British Communist Party sent article from the Comintern. We simply row of the general atrike and the great de Stalin a telegram saying that the British make a note of it. But we must remark teat of the miners, the working week is Communists promise to create a mass that the act of expulsion against the austill shorter here than elsewhere. AC party which, armed with a daily paper, thor of the article in question (It was an cording to the figures he cites, it is 47 will be in a position to mobilize the masses editorial) would change nothing of the very hours, 28 minutes (it is known that in cer in the political struggles against the social causes of such acts. They have their roots tain regions the day is only and a half fascist government of MacDonald. Such in the composition of the Party itself, in hours. while the German miner works. 49 promises do not cost much. But that is the wrong political orientation. It is an and a half hours in the Aix la Chappelle not the case with the paper.
evil that proceeds from the chronic crisis district and 48 hours in the Ruhr, the Bel in the leadership and the orientation that glan miner 48 hours, the Polish miner 48 London, December 23, 1929.
is vexing the International: The discharge hours and 12 minutes in Upper Silesia and of a rotten functionary will not save from 49 hours in the Dombrow. In France, the corruption the organism in decomposition, average is only 46 hours and 42 minutes.
So far as wages are concerned, he. maintains that the real wage of a miner in We are in the midst of a brutal ata gangrened limb cannot save from death Great Britain is appreciably higher than tack by the acolytes of Stalin in Spain a cancerous organism. It is a quesin all the continental countries: 18 peragainst the comrades of the Opposition.
tion of giving the a competent leadercent higher than in Germany, 47 percent ship and, a brrect politiqnl orientation higher than in France, 39 percent higher Practically speaking, the Communist without which there is no solution possiParty of Spain exists only in the mind than in Belgium and 67 percent higher ble.
of a few mediocre and ignorant functionthan in Poland.
aries, who have no clear understanding of In Spain, the is extremely weak, The discussion of the government, protheir numerically and politically. The basis of Ject in Commons was stirring. As is known responsibility. Originally, we can say without fear of contradiction, the the party has always lacked the most eleit received a majority of only eight votes, can count as its members only the admentary political formation. The Leninist and even then not for its final adoption; it herents of the small circle of indolent buOpposition is also weak, a9 may be expectwas only the second reading and it is still reaucrats who ramble around on a wage ed, but it is the Marxist school of the Parthe subject for a profound debate.
This paid by Stalin. Let us work to remove this ty out of which will be born, because it however is not the most important thing.
small circle to Mars, without a return must be born, a genuine Communist party The liberals having decided to vote against, ticket.
to reconstitute on firm foundations the orit would not have had a majority at all.
ganization of the proletariat that an absurd But since no party wants a general election The masses of the Spanish workers and imbecile policy has led to dismemberright now, the conservatives will save the have no contact with the elite of the vanment and ruin.
MacDonald government from defeat hy parguard of the Spanish proletariat as Mantial abstention.
ullsky would say, there is an absolute diThe Opposition is trying to reorganize the party, to cleanse it by pushing it along What characterized these debates was vorce between the bureaucrats and the the Leninist Marxist line, to strengthen it the brutality of the criticisms of the speakSpanish working class. The district comers, conservative and liberal, and the tone mittees do not function end exist only on so that it may Tealize the historic mission paper, in which they were couched: that, even Can even one hundred dues payassigned to it.
more chan the vote that was humiliating to ments be counted in the Spanish party?
The bureaucrats may calumniate, dethe government, No! Here is the true, the sad and chaotic nounce (to justify and defend their salaries. We will not swerve from the correct The conservatives confined themselves reality. The is in a dying state and it lacks the most indispensable aid, line to which we have bound ourselves; we to saying to the ministers: your project is are fighting without a truce until we will detestable; withdraw it. You say that you The masses do not know of the party behave attained our objective; to revive Comwant to keep the promises made by you to cause it never shows itself anywhere; the party does not know of the masses of the munism in Spain on the basis of revoluthe miners during the elections. But there are already so many engagements that you workers because the bureaucrats lack tionary Marxism, by unmasking the corhave undertaken and did not keep that ansense of Communist political orientation. rupted bureaucracy which disorganized the other one more or less is of no importance.
The Executive Committee of the Comintern, Communist Party of Spain, by educating But it is Lloyd George who delivered in conformity with its destructive and the revolutionary working masses followthe big attack. The ground had been prespineless policy, gives its support to the ing the ideas of Marx and Lenin.
FERNANDO SALVATIERRA pared by Sir Herbert Samuel, now consid leadership which, in Spain, is engaged in Bilbao, December 8, 1929.
ered an expert on the question of coal, destroying what is left of the skeleton of who had made a condensed criticism of the the Spanish project and posed some precise questions almost in the form of an ultimatum. Lloyd George adhered to generalities, to the es tion to the masses. It launched an appeal sential features, and exercized his verve at the expense of the Laborites. It is known pelled) for the reorganization of Commuthat the government first assured Itselt, nism in Spain; it examined the causes of The clique of Sellier, Cells and Co. and painfully enough, of the support of the the disease and pointed out the remedy: which we have denounced since its first Miners Federation for restoring the wor the application of the methods of struggle acts, and fought inside the Communist Parking day to seven and a half hours. Then, recommended by the International Oppo ty as we will fight it outside the party, has to overcome the resistance of the mine sition, reorganization of the party based on Just constituted itself into a workers and owners, it accorded them a raise in the the principles of the Leninist Opposition peasants party. This buffoonery has but price of coal. The great Laborite project as the sole guarantee of the development one meaning for its authors: to preserve is thus reduced to a vulgar bargaining for of the party and its further consolidation. before the electoral clientele the label which the consumer will pay.
It is only in this way that the party will be which elected them, that of the workers Incredibly bad project! cried the lib able to make its way in the exceptional and peasants bloc.
eral leader: Incredible project on the part political situation through which Spain is The constituent meeting of this party of a Labor government. He continued by passing.
was held at Clichy last Sunday. We do saying that nothing had been done to at The Stalinist bureaucracy, incapable of not yet know the details of the deliberatack the roots of the crisis, the archalo reacting against the prostration of the partions nor the documents that were worked organization of the mining industry. What. impotent before historical reality, out. But we did not wait for the constituis necessary is to make it obligatory upon found in the appeal launched by the Len tion of the new party in order to say what the grouping of the enterprises to arrive inist Opposition an excuse for organizing was to be thought, of the policy of the at a rational exploitation. The project 18 a newspaper offensive of four columns elected. and we need not do any more confined to raising the price of coal. It is against our comrades. Doubtlessly for want waiting in order to give some estimates a project not of the Laborites but of the of any more appropriate means of defend of the new party.
mine owners. And on this occasion, he ing and justifying their salaries (Stalin The absolutely ambiguous character of rallied Cook, who defended its adop pays the enemies of Trotskyism well, its constitution must be indicated first of tion before the Miners Federation, Blessed which the leaders of the know all. It is already patent that a strong secbe the meek! he cried, amid a general quite well. they organized the battle outburst of laughter in the Chamber. against the counter revolutionary Trotsky. Municipal councillors in the Paris The ministers were 111 at ease under fsts who are pretending to maneuver in district who left the Communist party a these lashing criticisms that could be dir Spain. Horrors! Miserable Trotskyists. few weeks ago as the leaders of a Right ected against them by a more or less dis dead so many times and many times re wing split. They are the French allies of crelitel politician. Moreover, they were vived. the Lovestone group in this country.
tion of the trade union minority, champion of trade union independence. is partielpating actively in the work of constituting the party of Sellier. Deveaux presides over its meetings. Then, the comical and amicable negotiations with the Socialist Communist Union of Paul Louis, thu political leader of Monde (the Communist controlled non partisan. literary political Weekly edited by Henri Barbusse. are very indicative. Finally, the participation of the Alsatian deputy Mourer, the proclaimed sympathy of the organ of the Alsatian Communists Autonomists (Hueber group. with which Fourrier of the Liberateur collaborates actively the amalgam of Villaume, mayor of St. Denis, of Chasseigne, suddenly disappeared from Communist Party activity for reasons unknown, all these contribute to giving the new party a character loaded with rubbish, and also indicates that its career will be briet.
Many papers have already printed extracts from the declaration that will be made by the party. Pretty near everything that is needed to prepare a modest return to the waters of the social democracy can be found there. In language that attempts to be sharp, they raise against the Communist party the criticism made long ago by the Opposition, when the workerpeasants of today covered up the wholo activity of the party leadership. And naturally they attack above alt, like every good Right winger, the socalled class against class electoral tactle, which no other reason. experience proves today that It only consolidated the power of the worst bourgeoisle of the Right, without any profit for the party itself. In conclusion, they declare that there is a place to be occupied between Communism and Socialism, that is, in a particular nauseous swamp.
We will wait for the declarations and acts of this new party. But we already see and it has always been clear that it is taking a road that turns its back not only to the Communist Party, which the worker peasants of today led to its present position and which they abandoned when the profit from it became too trivial for them but to Communism, and nothing else It is falling back into the morass of petty bourgeois electoralism where the Paul Louises and Selllers are pushing it. certain number of comrades will perhaps try to follow it for a while. We will appeal to them to reconsider, to abandon confusion, to come and strengthen the ranks of the Left Opposition. For us there is no neutral ground between Socialism and Communism. We want to fight on the historic ground of International Communisın, and so far as it is indispensable, to denounce the faults, the errors, the crimes of the Communist International and the cadres of our party even against those who would leave it today after having assumed full responsibility for it without saying a word. LA VERITE Paris, December 27, 1929 the boldness t5 denounce the present situa. New «Workers and Pea JUST RECEIVED: to the Communist workers (official or ex sants Party» in France NO. The BULLETIN of the Russian Opposition The new Issue contains articles by Trotsky on the Twelfth Anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Communism and Syndicalism, Syndicalism Mistakes in Principle, the Austrian Crisis, China, etc. etc. Articles by Christian Rakovsky on Goyernment Policy and the Party Regime, the Capitulators. Letters from Russian Oppositionists in Exile. An unpubIshed document of the Petersburg Party Committee on the eve of the uprising, concealed by Stalin. And many other important articles and documents.
ALL ARTICLES IN RUSSIAN 250 each 18c in bundles Order From THE MILITANT 23 Third Avenue, New York,