THE MILITANT «Progessives» Meet Published Iwice a Month by the Communist League of America (Opposition)
VOL. IV, No. (Whole No. 65 NEW YORK, MARCH 15, 1931 PRICE CENTS Prison.
ALetter from Exile Middle Class Impotence Can Solve the Burning Problems of Labor have already written you that one of the Jailors of Sosnovsky in Tomsk prison was arrested for having transmitted letters from comrade Sosnovsky to our friends. This fact is now precisely verified.
The prison employee who transmitted the material of Sosnovsky to the outside, was arrested and then shot by the guarantee the veracity of this news.
Uncertainty and disorder prevail in the as everywhere else. The distrust of everybody and everything is incredible.
For the least suspicion, often based on nothing, for example, for a polite attitude towards the Oppositionist prisoners, or for an indulgent raid, etc. the workers are dismissed. For the slightest negligence, there are arrests. For any support or assistance to the Opposition, a shooting takes place so as to terrorize the others.
Following a session of Congress which middle class progressives in both of the failed to contribute one iota to solving the old parties have followed a more or less problems ravaging the economic life of the common course, attempting in vain to steer country and inflicting indescribable misery between the representatives of finance capiupon the working class a Congress which tal who control Congress, and the interests not only marked the stark reaction of the of the only historically progressive classHoover administration but also the impo the working class. The fight against the tence of the progressive group in the trusts conducted by a declining middle Senate the latter summoned a conference class a fight doomed from its inception in Washington where the flower of Ameri was no less hopeless than the fight the can middle class liberal thought gathered middle class, raked from all sides by the to express themselves on the problems that fire of the crisis, is now conducting to Hoover Congress failed to solve.
save its social and economic position in What attitude did the Progressive Con highly centralized American capitalist socference assume towards that section of the iety. For the big bourgeoisie seeks to issue population upon whom practically the whole from its crisis not only at the expense of burden of the deep going crisis has fallen: lowering the standard of living of the workthe workers? That is the test of any poli ing class, but of further assaults upon the tical group in the country, especially now. middle class as well.
And it is precisely on this point that the Torn between the fear of finance capital progressive leaders demonstrated their on the one hand, and the working class on incapacity to rise above their source, their the other, the representatives of the midbloodless impotence, their inherent inability dle class and those spurious labor leadto break from the class of big business and ers like Sidney Hillman and William Green big finance, behind which they are con do not fall entirely outside of that category stantly trailing. convened and accomplished absolutely Norris, La Follette jr. and the small nothing. The mildness in attitude towards group of Senators and Representatives that Hoover expressed in the resolution adopted follows their leadership, are the represen created surprise even in the capitalist press.
tatives of the largest petty bourgeoisie in Outside of an empty criticism of the adthe world. The futile aspirations of the ministration for failing to act upon the farmer squeezed by finance capital, and the unemployment problem, the progressives urban middle class, are reflected in all the themselves advanced no program that the principal actions of the progressives. or working class might rely upon to relieve years, since the days of the activity of the it in these times of wretchedness and miselder La Follette and even before that, the ery. The problem of relations with the Soviet Union was officially tabooed by the conference, and the only mention of it was made by the faithful servant of capital, William Green, who spoke with the voice of reaction against the workers republic. And this at a time when the recognition of Russia and the extension of long term credite that would enable it to purchase machinery here would aid considerably in ameliorating the position of the unemployed.
Fear to act, inability to aot; windy protest and political impotence these are the characteristics with which the Washington conference was fatally invested in adVance by the very nature of its sponsors and the interests they represent. No more striking symbol of middle class futility could be given than the transfer of leadership from Norris to the younger La Follette, accompanied by the wistful regret that he would not live to see the sun rise above the mountain. The American petty bourgeoisie will never see the sun rise for it.
Here, as everywhere else, it is incapable of playing a leading role in society. Its fear of falling into the ranks of the proletariat it despises drives it at every crucial moment to seek shelter under the wing of big capital. It is powerless to defend itself, it is infinitely less capable of defending the class interests of the proletariat. To free itself from the mental enslavement to the decrepit middle class leaders, and from the petty bourgeois labor leaders, is the first pre requisite to independence and victory for the working class.
It must also be said that the distrust of the head of the even of its own collaborators, is very comprehensible. During the raids in deportation and even in prison, we often run into semi sympathizers among the agents of the Of course, they do not show themselves openly, but they carry out their dirty work, as far as we are concerned, with disgust. There have often been instances where raids have been made among us in such a way that nothing is found.
Among the arrested Oppositionists, comrade Philip Schwalbe is under the harshest conditions. It is now almost ten months that he has been in the internal prison of the and that he is literally wasted by tuberculosis (he loses blood in great quantity. two brothers are arrested Anti Communist Repression Spreads Throughout the Country with him. Nos communication is permitted Refuses to Aid Philly member course whenoor banatsastaedhe party Of course, when had finished, a party Police Raid Minneapolis Defendants Opposition Forum with him and absolutely nothing is known about him. He is being held in the most savage isolation. Comrade Philip Schwalbe (former secretary to Kamenev) is accused by the of having transmitted to the Left Opposition the report of the famous interview between Kamener and Bucharin Besides the Schwalbe brothers, 12 Oppositionists are incarcerated students of the Jugo Slay section of the Communist University of the Western Peoples.
The great poverty of skilled workers, especially in the distant provinces, sometimes (it is the exception) compels the giving of work to deported Oppositionists high in some economic institution or another. But there too, it does happen without petty meanness.
For instance, the Oppositionist workers are deprived of the right. to eat in the restaurant of the enterprise where they work. Those are the methods by which one is obliged to defend the general line. Sjermuks, the former secretary to comrade Trotsky, has been deported for three years now to he city of Cherepvts.
He is deprived of all work.
tripe.
All this was lost on the loyalists. They PHILADELPHIA. have no function other than to raise their The habeas corpus action for the re hands, we know, but it did have considerlease of comrades Leon Goodman and Ber able effect upon newer and less fractional nard Morgentsern, members of the Com elements. One young fellow, seemingly namunist League of America (Opposition) ar tive American (we don know him) took rested on International Unemployment Day the floor and said political differences should for distributing our leaflets, and held for not govern in this matter: that the sedition, was argued on Friday afternoon, not being a political organization, should and the judge took the matter under con. not make that the basis for discrimination.
sideration, asking both sides to file briefs. He wanted a committee to be elected to inAs soon as the proceedings were finished, vestigate our status, and if we were genuine Morgenstein was bailed out, and, with Good. workers, that we he sented and not excluded man already out, this automatically termin because of our political differences. Anates the proceedings. It is now a other asked that the matter be not closed clear cut matter that they are out on bail but that more discussion be given to it.
awaiting trial for sedition and distributing Several wanted the floor, seemingly not sat.
seditious literature. Trial will take place isfied with the exclusion, but the motion within the next two months.
was finally railroaded through.
We attended the Anti Sedition Confer In spite of the deliberate sabotage of ence of the International Labor Defense to. this obligation to defend workers picked out day. It was, as usual, a party affair with by capitalist class justice, our comrades delegates from only their shadow organiza intend proceeding with the work of setting tions present. There were, however. per. in motion a united front movement to fight haps a score of workers present who were against the indictment and against the Sedinot delegates. About 60 to 70 present in tion Act which is aimed at the militant labor all.
movement as a whole.
Engdahl made the usual speech about. WHITTEN.
a mass struggle and outlined a campaign of activities for collecting signatures for The national office of the Communist petitions to repeal the Flynn Sedition Act.
League has written to Louis Engdahl, The Local organizer of the secretary of the on this mater. Ross) who had told comrade Goodman pointing out the significance of the Philathat he would take up the matter of the delphia arrests and requesting the interarrests, had evidently taken it up. be vention of the in accordance with cause in his speech he carefully ignored the later expressed policy of defending our case. After his speech, the floor was all workers regardless of political or ecothrown open and was given five minutes. nomic viewpoints. Up to this writing, no called the attention of those present to the reply has been received And that is not fact that while Ross had known of the entirely surprising. The bureauchats in arrests, he had ignored them. pointed out charge of the are more interested in that they had been arrested while distri the maintenance of their factional solidity buting leaflets, and also a notice to workers than in defending a Trotskyist worker.
to attend the demonstration of the party Their attitude appears to be that the Trotat the City Hall Plaza on February 25. skyists may rot in jail for committing the pointed out that Engdahl had said that the crime of questioning the correctness of the bosses had a united front, and urged that course pursued in the Communist movement the workers form as broad one as possi by the Fosters, Stachels, Engdahls and other ble. asked them not to let factionalism agents of the Stalinist apparatus. No more obscure the fact that a conviction of Morgen criminal attitude than this can be imagined.
stern and Goodman meant a blow to them We expect little better from these sold souls.
also. concluded by asking that they help But what do the workers in the us, and that they permit us to cooperate to whom the class struggle is not a faction with them.
football, say to this procedure?
Following a sharp encounter between unemployed workers and the police which took place in Minneapolis on International Unemployment Day (February 25. occasioned by the attempts of the workers rendered desperate by their state of misery to seizing food at one of the well known city markets, the police have launched a violent campaign of suppression ainst the revolutionary movement. The citadel of FarmerLabor party reformism in the North west is now the scene of an anti Red hysteria reminiscent of the Palmer days in 19191920. Stricken with fear at the militancy of the hungry and jobless workers who are ketting fed up by the capitalist and their empty promises, concerted attempt is being made to drive the whole Communist movement underground so as to cut down its effectiveness in fighting for the needs of the workers.
Vincent Dunne, Twin Cities Opposition leavler, writes us. We are having quite stirring and evintful times here. The Communist party is underground to all intents and purposes.
The Communist Lengue is also sharply affected. Our last open forum was broken up by an army of police and our hall closed.
We will of course make an issue of it and put up a tight. The Lengne, because of its basis in the unions, is in much better shape as to mass contact than the party. We have succeeded in having a resolution of protest (covering the whole business of police suppression workers meetings) passed by the Organization Committee of the union movement. fight will be made in the Central Lahor Union for further agitation.
The attack on the Communists is an attack upon the vanguard of the labor move ment. Through it, the capitalists seek to sever the head from the shoulders of the working class. While the reformists plead for a crumb to the starving workers so as to lull them into passivity. the Communists are fighting for the relief of the workers driven into poverty and suffering.
The capitalists recognize this keenly enough.
They are assailing the working class as a whole through the assault upon the vanguard. The workers must present a solid front against the reaction. PARIS COMMUNE Hold Open Saturday, March 21, 1931 FOR THE PARIS COMMUNE CELEBRATION organized by the New York Branch, Communist League of America (Opposition)
at the HUNGARIAN HALL, 323 East 79th Street Prominent Band Wm Furnish Music Admission 50c 600 at the Door