THEMILITANT Weekly Organ of the Communist League of America (Opposition. III, No. 21, Telephone: DRYdock 1656 NEW YORK, Saturday. May 21, 1930 PRICE CENTS LEFT WING NEEDLE TRADES CRISIS WEEK Sandino few short weeks ago the Daily Worker gave General Sandino, Nicaraguan nationalist, a clean bill of health on the charges made that he had been bought off by american imperialism. It printed the statement of the League against Imperialism which said that the slanderous allegations were spread by agents of Yankee imperialism to discredit a man in the eyes of the working class and peasant masses of Latin America and so on and so forth, Having been given the by this Kuo Min Tangesque organization of the Comintern Sandino promptly proceeded to fire his Communist secretary.
Marti, and expel from his army any and all foreigners. Immediately the Daily Worker discovered (May 19, 1930) that the denunciation by Sandino of Communiste, in the form of his discharge of Marti, appears as a prologue to the equanimity with which his entrance into Nicaragua 18 observe. by the marines. Yesterday thoroughly white washed noble Warrior against Imperialism is thus transformed over night into a tacit agent of imperialism marines. The capacity of Stalinism for united front adventures with bourStalinist Brutalities in Russia The Left wing movement la the needle control. The picture includes not unly union and against the lower functionaries trades is experiencing a severe crisis. With New York, but practically every other who merely executed orders.
the exception of a handful of blind bureau needle trades center in the country where Palle Self Criticism crats for whom nothing has changed, the the Left wing contended with the Right for That kind of self criticism is best crisis has been realized by everyone. The the support of the workers.
exeriplied by the notorious article of Johnmost superficial glance at the sitiation reNelther the causes nor the remedies stone which we dealt with in our last veals the bald facts that while the Left for the situation have yet been given by the number. For the Johnstones. Is sufficient wing, two or three years ago, was followed official Left wing leadership: on the con to unload their responsibility upon someby the decisive majority of the needle trary, an honest and thorough analysis is one else; as for what is to be done in the trades workers and was driving back the prohibited by it (that is, by the present futu. e so that the blundering past shall Right wing office holders on every front, leadership of the Communist Party) be. not be repeated, they let the blueprints it has today accumulated an unbroken cause it would be the one to suffer pri of the third period take care of that.
series of defeats, been reduced to the Com marlly from such an investigation. It even But since these blueprints do not improve munist fraction and its most direct sympa seeks to foreitam this urgently needed ex the situation (on the contrary, they worsen thizers, and the Right wing has succeeded amination by a barrage of criticism direct it. it falls to the rank and file workers in re establishing a large measure of its ed against its, factional opponents in the in the Left wing to review its position and decide upon a proper course of action.
The Left wing is today redu red to e shadow of its former strength. One need only look at the recent Summary of Minutes of Executive Council Meetings issued (The editoral board of the Bulletin 23. On the 23rd, besides the beatings, by the Needle Trades Workers Industria of the Russian Opposition (Bolshevik Len our comrades were drenched with water Union to see this truth substantiated. Then inlsts) has sent us the important commun. from a fire hose this in the very severest is not a single gain recorded there. not lontions below. period of February frost. The pretext for one step forward is referred to; but in Dear Comrade: the beatings was the protest against the every field there are numerous losses ang From a very reliable source we have terrible conditions of imprisonment. failures mentioned. And the admissions of received the following information: In These brutal deeds of the Stalinist re the Executive Council are far more to the the Upper Urals Solitary Prison, which, as gime must be denounced in every working point than all the gaseous blut of the is known, is Alled mainly by our Opposi class organization and meeting. The hero Daily Worker and Freiheit.
tion somrades (there are 160 of them. two Iç fight of our Russian comrades calls for Out of the thousands that once adnew mass beatings have taken place. One the warmest solidarity from the class con hered to the Left wing, the union today on February and the other on February scious miltants in the United States, has scant 3, 000 dues paying members left in New York (more than one fourth with Brandler, Roy, Lovestone, Bucharin. of whom are Party members. with a Stalin finally decided to turn to the Left worse record in other cities. Out of the We are informed: 80 abruptly, so boldly, so definitely, as to irrepressible enthusiasm and spirit of selfbreak loose from the Opposition forever. sacrifice that imbued the Left wing and In the middle of February there was But in vain. The Opposition once more won its victories, there is left only pas: a raid at Rakovsky which lasted for seseized his coat talls and this time pulled sivity and skepticism. Out of the presven hours. Everything was taken a way. hini backward from the edge of the tige and authority its leadership once en Among other things it seems that they also precipice. It is unbearable. It must not Joyed, there remains only the distrust and took the completed draft of a declaration to be tolerated any longer. Then what is suspicion of the workers.
the Party. The police agents in charge of to be done? What do you mean, what: What has happened?
There can be the raid declared to Rakovsky: Yoa re Raid Rakovsky, take away his papers, no adequate understanding of the causes holding on to our coat talls. These ought arrest his correspondents. Since they have for the situation unless it is clearly seen to go down in history. It is regrettable that no thoughts of their own, they have to in that the crisis in the Left wing of the right now we are holding on only to the terfere with the thinking of others.
needle trades is part and parcel of the criscoat tails. But times will change!
is in the whole Communist movement, a The author of this letter is right. The On Guard!
crisis engendered by the multiplication of words of the agent ought to In one of the villages of the Bysk, zip zags known as Stalinism. The apparent go down in history Doubtlessly, they are district there was an uprising, under the inability the leadership to maintain a not his own words. They came down to him leadership of. representative of the stable policy is a reflection of the constant through a series of stages from the very This is where the real enemies leaps every national Party leadership is top. These are the words of the secret of the Soviet government are. Thousands compelled to make in order to keep pace arial genius (a play on the Russian words upon thousands of brutes who beat up our with the ruling machine in the Comintern for general secretary. e. Stalin. Ed. friends in the solitary prisons, who tor and the Russian Party. Only with this At all the stages, zig zags and turas of ture them, are in no way different from clearly established can we explain how the recent years, the victorious, mighty general the above mentioned representative of Left wing leadership passes so abruptly faction of Stalin did not take a single free the The Thermidorian scound from an openly opportunistine of action step: defeated Opposition the rels in the meantime unleash their fury to a rigidly sectarian one, from ultra conOpposition always pulls at its coat tails. against Communism at the Oppositionists. servatism to the wildest adventurism, from It pulled it from the embrace of Chiang The insurgents assassinated dozens of united front with Sigman to a rejection Kai Shek, Purcell, and the powerful mid their Party comrades and then fled to of the united front with rank and file dle peasant. It pulled it from the bloc the mountains. This is how matters stand. Continued on Page 3)
geofs nationalista seem to be without bot Raid on Rakovsky tom. in Toronto It was not difficult to predict the thorough valuelessness of the Toronto con vention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers.
It bas never held a more empty meeting.
Hillman big achievement was Philadelphia, where be sold speed up unionism to the bosses like a farmer sells sheep. Cleveland is to be tackled next by the same methode. The great statesman of the W, offers workers to the bosses on this basis: Let me handle them and you ll be surprised at the economles can make possible. Needless to say, the Left wing 15 not present at Toronto: its sectarian policy excludes such a possibility. For that.
however, Hillman has made his peace again with Beckerman behind the scenes. All is now harmony in the with the clothing workers paying heavily for it. of Brland Briand has now concretized his plan for a United Staes of Europe and given the liberals another chance to become hysterical with joy. Needless to say that the new plan will go the way of the previous ones the ash hean. The British lion looks upon it with a jaundiced eye, and with reason for it has no intention of letting France establish its formal domination of the continent. Mussolini has already screamed a belligerent reply to it, for this two by four Imperialist has no intention of letting Briand stick his leg into the Italian boot. And not even a child can be deceived by the polite assurance that the new plan is not directed against the United States or the Soviets, or by any Illusions about America acqutescence in this utopian anti dollar bloc.
Naturally Briand will not succeed in establishing this reactionary bloc which in mediately run its head into a dozen walls.
Only the proletarian revolution in Europe can unite the continent on a socialist basis and throw off the domination of the golden heel from across the sea. The Daily Worker and Co. as usual, see only au (Continued on Para WHAT DOES THE OPPOSITION STAND FOR?
The American Left Wing Weakened by Stal Inism Thousands of Oppositionists Imprisoned Russia Leon Trotsky Exiled on an Island in Turkey WHY?
Hear the Program of the Left Opposition Presented by ARNE VINCENT KARL SPECTOR SWABECK DUNNE SKOGLUND Canada Chicago St. Paul Minneapolis NOW IN NEW YORK FOR THE MEETING OF THE NATIONAL COMITTEE or THE COMMUNIST LEAGUE OF AMERICA (OPPOSIION)
At STUYVESANT CASINO, 2nd Ave. and 9th St.
MAURICE On Tuesday, May 27, 1930. a p. Sharp Admission be ALI. INYI Auspices: New York Francin. Communist League of America (Opposition