THE Paco MILITANT Saturday June 21, 1930 Aftermath of Needle Trades Convention Questions of a Left Wing Program The Delegations to and the Opposition maias a powerful force in the masses. And the leadership of the Communist Party in the Left wing movement to indisputable.
There is no other important power.
These facts are a remarkable testimony to the vitality of the Left wing movement among the needle trades workers and to their deep soated hatred for the Socialist betrayers.
The convention of the Needle Trades furriers is very weak organizationally at By James Cannon Not all the compulsion and terthe present time. In the men clothing rerism of the bosses, the reactionary labor Workers Industrial Union mot at a critleaders and the police, and what is equally ical poriod in the Left wing labor move task that the militants of the Left Oppost feld, the field dominated by the AmalGient and complicated questions of ment.
gamated, the strongest union in the industion, who are assembling in the union, must noteworthy not all the blunders of the devote themselves.
the struggle for a class union, directly alThe first prerequisite try, it has nothing. In the millinery sec. Party and Left union leadership, have been tion it has little. These figures are very im.
for success in this struggle for the salvaable to change fundamentally the gentifecting the welfare of the sweated and oppressed workers in the inhustry and tion of the union is clarity in their own portant as a point of departure, but they ments of the workers. The real strength do not tell the whole story. There are of the Left wing union is much stronger in bearing on the course of Left wing union ranks on the question of a program for the other important factors more favorable to union. This is the decisive question. The the sympathy of the masses than its orism in general, pressed insistently upon the lett union.
ganization, as that of Ge ht wtag this convention for an answer. They press present relation of forces means litule; it false answer was given ed in vain.
The figures cited above are not a true will be shattered by the impact of events, unions is weaker.
there to the basic questions of external The five or six thousand members of and soon enough. The correct prograin is representation of the actual strength of the rival organizations.
the basis on which the Opposition ComThe memborship of the Left wing union are, for the most part, policy as well as to those relating to the interral life of the union.
munists, iumphant forces of tomorrow, the Right wing unions, and particularly of the battle tried militant, the dynamic force will secure their victory and the victory the International Ladies Garment Workers, Errors which have accumulated into in the industry. They constitute, and will a system and brought about a crisis in the of the left wing workers.
is based on shop control, agreements with constitute, the core of the future fighting the bosses and job compulsion. Thanks to movement which will smash the present organization, weakening it in the face of The Rolution of Forces the partnership of the union officials with alignment Communist policy for the its great tasks and responsibilities and Our policy must proceed from an anthe bosses, a partnership sealed by the next stages of the struggle must be based on supplying a corresponding strength to its alysis of the actual situation and the precapitalist state powe, the workers them, as in the past. There is the reserve enemies, were formally ratified and laid sent relation of forces in the industry.
compelled to belong to the Right wing power which is not shown by the memdown as a guiding line for the future. The Facts and not wishes are important here union in order to get work in the shops bership figures of the rival unions.
Stalin faction of the Communist Party, Tho situation is approximately as follows: affected. Terrorism. hunger and the de. The Necdle Trades Workers Induswhich held the convention in the steel vise In the industry as a whole there are moralization of the Left wing forces were trial Union is not an articial creation.
of mechanical control, gave another dem over 500, 000 workers.
onstration there of its bankruptcy on the the whips with which the workers were It was forined as the result c! an unavoldThe Right wing unions have between driven into the Right wing ranks.
able spilt forced by the traitorous leaders trade union question. Repercussions from 150. 000 and 200. 000 menbers.
of the and the Furriers Union.
the convention decisions will be sure and Vitality of Lefts The left wing union has at most 6, 000 It had masses of workers behind it.
swift; they will fall upon the union, and Sympathy for the Loft wing is very members. les in good standing.
Left union has a real base in sections of consequently upon the workers whose fate Cousider those figures for a moment. strong among large sections of these reg.
1s bound up with it, like heavy blows over the industry and, as such, has every claim istered workers.
The Right wing unions contain about 40 All informed workers in the head.
to support. The first point in Communist of the workers in the entire industry, the the trade testify to this My heart is policy must be: to organize the unorganParty Factionalism Dominates Left wing union has about further will you but must make a living. is a ized and build the new union.
The convention was a field day for concretization shows that the membership common answer of the registered workers But this is only part of the proper pro.
Party factionalism. It was consecrated of the Left wing union has the bulk of its to the appeals of the Left wing. There is gram, not the whole of it as the convention primarily to a pogrom against the adberorganized strength in the dress making no doubt that the Left wing influence has proclaimed. in next week article we will ents of Lovestone a disgusting exhibition Bhops. Its hold on the cloak makers and declined in the past two years but it re undertake to explain the necessity of orof mob spirit. full of menace for the fuganizing broad Left wing in the reacture of a union. Howls and boos and the tionary unions of the industry. the methods caucus steam roller these were the anand slogans with which this task can be swers to all criticisms and proposals, reaccomplished, and the falsity of the theory gardless of their merit, which did not emThe International Committee of the But this doesn exhaust the obligations of Company Unionism which has been anate from the Party steering committee.
invented to justify a suteidal policy, Federation of Friends of the Soviet Union of the Opposition. The delegations this year Not even blows were spared in the idoohas launched an appeal to the workers and assume in connection with the prevailing logical struggle. The Lovestoneites, who situation particular significance and can The Militant invites Left wing needle labor organizations of Germany, England, were the first to employ these methods in fulfill a particular mission. Can thny not be trades workers to write for its colamus Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerthe communist and Loft wing movement, land, Luxemburg, Austria, Czecho Slovak. of great service to the working class by on the situation in the union and to got a double dose of their own medicine at ia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Canada bringing light on the general political sig. give their vie on the problems of the Needle Trades Workers conventions.
concerning the invitations of the Central nificance of the struggle of the Russian Leu their movement. Articles written But it was not they who will be the losers Council of the Trade Unions of the Soviet Opposition, the import and meaning of which by it. The Stalinists, who imagined that Any language will be translated into Union to seral Workers Delegations in is systematically distorted by the ometal English and printed. The Daily Worker their mob and hooligan tactics were conJune and July.
leadership? Can they throw some light on is the closed organ of the cynical bur.
tributing to the struggle against LovestoneIn the course of its struggle with the the organizational side of this struggle18ın, were only demonstrating how well eanerats the Militant aims to become official leadership of the Comintern and its and particularly the most recent phase of they have acquired some of its most abomthe volce of the militant rank and file inable features. The Left wing movement centre, the Stalin faction, the International the campaign of repression against the Rusand the Communist Party will pay a heavy Lett Opposition with the Russian Opposi sian Opposition?
tion at its head has despite all slander and Since the shooting of the revolutionary Trade Union Policy price for every victory gained by these distortion of its position continually man Party member, Blumkin, a considerable mcans. correct policy on the trade union Factional exclusion from the leading ifested its solidarity with the Communist space of time has passed. But up to the queetion and its consistent execution by bodies of the union did not stop at the workers and their Party, Its unreserved very present not a word by way of self a sound Communist leadership are decisivo devotion to the Russian workers state, In justification has passed the lips of those Lovestoneites, the excluders of yesterday.
for the expansion of the Party as the Members of the Party who have ventured its struggle with the self satisfied official who were responsible for the murder. There leaders of the struggling masses. Moreto exercise a mild selt criticism against dom, the Left Opposition bas never for a is nothing strange in this. There would not over, the tactics of tho Left wing, led by the ruling bureaucrats were also eliminated Inoment forgotten the magnitude of the rev. have been found a single revolutionary the Party, a dynamic force of gigantic imfrom all positions Everything was cut olutionary achievements, despite the in worker in the world who would have apportance. will be one of the most vital and dried in advance to the last detail.
numerable mistakes of the leadership. On proved the enormity of assassinating an Op determining factors in the future course and The sition Communist for his views The assasdemocracy was simply windows the contrary, to extend this gigantic labor development of the trade union movement.
1resying for the gullible.
and to fortify it was the sum and substance of Johnstone, the sing maintain silence. We must press for The narrow ng base of the of the activity of the Opposition. Hence we an explanation.
Party representative, bossed the convention and the increasingly reactionary conduct uike an arrognat drill sargeant, the veritwarmly welcome the appeal of the Friends The shot which on Stalin order killed and policy of its leadership ralse before able symbol of triumphant ignorance! The of the Soviet Union. The workers delega Blumkin was the prelude to a hitherto unthe Party and the left wing the problem of tions to the Soviet Union have always oc paralleled campaign of persecution of Oppoleadership of the union, which had alorganizing the unorganized workers in the ready been whittled down to Party memcupied a foremost place in the defence of sitionists for their views in prisous, in sol.
basic industries, primarily the unskilled the Soviet Union against the wild camberg, was ther nar wed itary confinement, in the wastes of Siberia.
nen paigns of the capitalist press and particand half skilled, who are becoming radi bers of the Stalin faction of the Party.
In these circumstances it behooves the calized and ready for struggle. 10 is the Thus the Stalinists strengthen their poularly in the exposure of the contemptible workers elected by their class to investitask of the Party and Left wing to lead slanders of the social democratic leadersition in the apparatus by weakening the gate the life of our proletarian fatherland, in the work of organizing these masses base of the union among the masses.
ship. The workers delegations issuing out On to demand on the ground an explanation into new industrial unions. The center of the side of internal policy the union is of the oppressive atmosphere of the cita and an accounting for the suppression of gravity in our trade union work belongs to dels of Imperialism breathe in a new at the Opposition Communists. This demand worse off than before.
this sphere. This has been indicated by mosphere of proletarian freedom and learn was not refused the socialist leaders of Pulse Attitude on Leit Wing the whole situation for some time and the to know with their own eyes the gigantic Western Europe, the betrayers of the pro long delay of the Party in shaping its In the most important and decisive achievements of their class.
letariat, when they asked to examine the course in this direction due to the registquestions of external policy the convention The call for the election of delegates conditions of the imprisoned Mengheviks ance of the leadership. has already had also gave the wrong answers. By declar comes at a time which is characterized by a and social revolutionaries at the time of extremely harmful consequences.
ing formally against the organization of a rebrogression of the Communist movement the heaviest struggles of the Russian WorkFROM THE PLATFORM OF Left wing in the reactionary unions in the in sharpest contradiction to the favorable ers State. So much the legs can the reTHE COMMUNIST OPPOSITION indusory the convention chopped away the objective situation. The ebb of the masses quest for an inquiry be legitimately reADOPTED (CHICAGO)
bridge to the workers in these unions, and MAY from Communism has unfortunately also fused to revolutionary workers who proved 20, 1929, they are the overwhelming majority of tho weakened their active interest in the Soviet to be the staunchest fighters for the Ocorganized workers in the industry. This Union. All the more energetically is it tober Revolution.
decision, and the theory which motivates necessary that the masses participate in The Left Opposition, robbed by the it hat the right wing unions are com the campaign for the election and dispatch bureaucratic regime of the possibllity to pany unions are both wrong and are of workers delegations. But the huge make its demands within the framework bountio bring catastrophic results.
pressure exercised by the Party apparatus of the Party, will have representatives All readers on the militant and thelr Tiere may be some who go so far as atus now as before hamstrings the initia through these delegations The delegates to think that this decision has sealed the tive and mobility of the working class el will be charged with energetically escerfriends, who desire to get their copy of doom of the new union of the Left wing. ement. Nothing could more effectively taining the facts regarding the fate of of leon Trotsky, My Life. should make it Bus in our judgement such an opinion is undermine the value and purpose of the Blumkin and the other comrades who have point to order the book directly through not wall founded. The danger that the delegations than the artificial undemocratic been shot, of favestigating the situation of the Militant. Shipment will be made the No. Trados Workers Industrtal Union methods in their composition, bureaucratic the imprisoned and exiled Communists. It day the order to received, and the cost of wil: de generate into an impotent sect no tricks and machinations. The Opposition is the duty of all revolutionary workers to the book, five dollars. 00. covers the dou! exists, and this danger has been in must fight shoulder to shoulder with the rev see to it that the delegates elected are postige charge. Send your order, together er by ilie unwise decisions of the con. olutionary workers that the delegations be those with the necessary courage and vigor with money order or cash to VI. there is yet time to correct the the result of an active and interested move to take a stand for the persecuted Com TIB MILITANT on the course. It is to this ment of the workers munist revolutionaries TAX FRANCE 25 Third Avenue, Now York, NY. MY LIFE