EDITORIAL NOTES would be changed and that our criticism warn the Communist workers against this would be a factor in hastening it.
danger.
Events have already confirmed this prediction, and unavoidably 90. The party THE DEATH OF JOHN DONLIN does not and cannot operate in vacuum.
John Donlin, veteran of the revolutionIt is an organ of the class struggle and ary labor movement, is dead at Kansas City lives constantly under its pressure. In the at the age of 68. In this tragic event the trade union field, the field of the basic and Communist movement suffers a real loss.
elementary organization of the masses, an The memory of this exemplary man and arbitrary and unsound policy cannot fail to revolutionist is very dear to those who bring violent repercussions. Errors, especifought beside him in the past and it is not ally a system of errors, on the trade union easy to speak of him as of one no longer in question brings swift and inevitable punthe struggle. For the writer of these lines ishment. That is what has happened.
the name of John Donlin stands todayAnd already we find the party leaders as it has stood for twenty years as the admitting in the Dally Worker for February symbol of a model soldier for whom devo28th that our party has not yet learned tion and service to the cause of the prothe proper way to carry on trade union letariat its own justification and its own work. Of course it is somewhat dishonest reward.
to blame our party. because it is the leadJohn Donlin was not a conspicious figers who are responsible for policy. But ure, not a hero acclaimed by the crowd. He even in this they do not disappoint us. To lived and worked obscurely as a man of the demand honesty from Foster and Stachel rank and file. He was a true Jimmy Higwould be to convict oneself of utoplanism; gins that ideal militant of Ben Hanford of asking for things which are not attain portrayal. He never made a speech, but he able.
carried the soap box for many speaker.
When we establish the fact that the He was not a writer, but he could distriparty leadership is attempting to make a bute the literature written oth en turn in trade union policy we do not mean and throw a dollar into the hat to pay thereby to express any confidence in them it. He was not a leader and never prefor the future. And our distrust is in no tended to be one But he could set before way diminished by the fact that they repeat leaders an example of unwavering allegiance now, with literal precision, phrases and to principle. His biography, like that of formulae taken from the Opposition plat uncounted thousands who have worked in form. We have seen that happen before. quiet places, can be written simply: He They climb out of one ditch only to fall lived, he worked for the revolution, and into another. Centrism has no ideas of its he died.
own; it must borrow from the Right or With his death the Communist move from the Left as occasion demands.
ment in the middle West has lost a personIn this article they say: ality which was a bond uniting it with the No systematic and persistent work is best traditions of the past with the Socialcarried on winning over the workers ist Party Debs and Hanford and with who are members of reformist and other the in days of glory. In the reactionary trade unions. Yesterday they person of John Donlin the revolutionary were company unions. proletariat was represented by the figure of Again. a man who was able, in a rare degree, to Bring into the revolutionary trade unrise above the mean and petty self concern ions ALL WORKERS IRRESPECTIVE OF generated by the class society of the preTHEIR POLITICAL VIEWS, INCLUDING sent day and to approach the dignity and THOSE WHO DO NOT AGREE WITH THE stature of the Commuist man of the future.
COMMUNIST PARTY. The emphasis is By contemporary standards John Donin the original to call special attention to lin was not a success in life. He was a a truth which they have just discovered. worker, and such his rewards were third quotation: meager. The best energies of his manhood In no case should they permit the dir prime were given to the revolution. Physi.
ections of the party leaders on the funda cal ailments, joined with the direst povmental questions of trade union activity to erty, assailed him like twin monsters in be carried out mechanically. This is said his declining years. But his unconquerable by the people who called the Illinois miners spirit rose triumphant over all the vicissiout on strike without even the formality tudes of personal fortune, and he remained of a strike vote. to the last a confident revolutionist. The In this article in the Daily Worker, old warrior never shirked his duties, even which is prefaced with a note about its though his duty as he saw it consisted in extreme importance, a clear change of the distribution of a leaflet.
policy is indicated. The bureaucrats have While carrying out such a task he was been compelled to lay aside their counter arrested and confined in the hell hole of feit Leftism in the trade union movement. Leeds Farm where once before he served a Their pseudo radical polley was proved by sentence in the Free Speech Fight of 1913.
events to be completely bankrupt. They The indignities and abuses he suffered there could no longer conceal the fact that the brought on his death. Thus, despite his position of the party in the trade union great infirmities, he died in harness as a movement was undermined by it.
worker and fighter for the cause. By our The danger now is a big swing to the standards such a lite represents a real sucRight in the characteristic manner of Cert cess. It will be vindicated. new generatrism. In cooperating wth the party effort tion of proletarian revolutionaries will pick to extricate itself from the evil consequ up his banner and carry it to victory.
ences of the third period tactics we must HERBERG QUOTES TROTSKY These clear and refreshing words outWe learned from Shakespeare that the line a bold revolutionary perspective for the American proletariat. For that reason devil can cite scriptures for his purpose, Right wing snivellers, who seek to invoke and this maxim is called to mind by the attempt of the Right wing of American Comhis authority for an opportunist policy, munism to make use of a quotation from would never think of repeating them.
Trotsky. In the March 14th issue of the Revolutionary Age, Herberg takes a few sentences from the revolutionary writings LAWRENCE GIVES THE SIGNAL.
of the leader of the International Left OpThe Lawre e strike ended suddenly in position and tries to fit them into an opportunist frame. In his search after an aua compromise, but the twelve day demonstration of the textile workers there had thority for the idea that objective causes a nati in wide significance. It was heard pre determine the passivity of American labor in the crisis, he cites, as explanation from one end of the country to the other which deserves serious consideration. the Ilke a thunder clap in a dead calm, warnIng of a coming storm. There is no doubt following remarks in Trotsky autobiography: that it had a heartening influence on the After a period of big battles and deconscious sections of the workers everyfeats, a crisis has the effect of depressing where, stirring them with the thought that the signal for struggle bad been sounded by rather than arousing the working class. It an authoritative voice.
undermines the workers confidence in their Lawrence is a name to conjure with.
power and demoralizes them politically. UnThe tradition of 1912 has lost none of its der such conditions only an industrial re vival can close the ranks of the proletariat, luster with the passing the years. The pour fresh blood into its velns, restore its memory of that heroic example is a part of confidence in itself and make it capable of the armament, not only of the workers of further struggle.
Lawrence, but of the entire labor movement of America. That is why the militant, if As a general proposition it cannot be short lived, demonstration of the past weeks denied that international experience has was a national bugle call.
tended to confirm this clear and precise The masters of America, sitting uneasily formulation of the question. If Herberg were referring to it in that sense no one on a volcano of working class misery in the crisis, were no less alarmed than the workcould object. But in offering Trotsky general formula to explain away a radical perers were inspirited by the strike. This was shown by the feverish attempts to get it spective of American crisis, Herberg dissettled before it could consolidate its or torts its meaning and applies it to a spe.
ganization and extend its scope. The frencific and concrete situation where it does zied persecution the strike leaders was not fit. Trotskys conclusions, as quoted prompted by their terror, as also were their by Herberg, presuppose a number of facconcessions to the strikers, offered so soon tors which are absent in the concrete case of the American crisis and its effect on the after the strike began a procedure quite labor movement.
unusual in the textile industry. The direct and immediate intervention of the federal In the first place, our crisis did not government, with deportation warrants follow a period of big battles and defeats. against some of the strike leaders, was a of the workers, except in the case of the clear recognition that the strike was re miners. In the second place, the passivity garded by the capitalist over lords as a of the workers did not arise from the crisis, national affair.
as Herberg implies, but existed over a long The National Textile Workers Union period before it and arose on the basis of the prosperity.
appeared in Lawrence as the organization And finally, we maintain for the strike. That is also a sign of the that the crisis has already exerted more of times. militant organization is the prerea radicalizing than a depressing influence quisite for an effective strugge by the texon the working class of America. Illustratile workers of Lawrence or anywhere else.
tions: The unemployment demonstrations. To allow the corrupt machine of McMahon the increase of Communist and Socialist the right of way in a textile workers strike votes; Lawrence strike, etc. From all is to condemn it in advance to betrayal and these facts, which are specific seculariaties defeat.
of the American crisis situation, it is clear real and serious preparation for the that the opportunist has quoted the Marxist great battles yet to come in this field presuponly to distort him.
How significant is this little incident!
poses the strengthening of the National Textile Workers Union as against the treason Out of the voluminous literary productions machine of the This must never of Trotsky a veritable library on the theme be forgotten. To help the prepare of how to grasp the revolutionary situation for the coming days means also to insist and win the victory the American Brandon a correct policy and a correct régime lerites extract one small paragraph devoted within it. This must not be forgotten to retreats and defeats, and quote it, with either.
approval, in a false connection. Anything will do even a chance word from Trotsky to bolster up the theory that the reserves of American imperialism remain unTHE TRADE UNION TURN shaken. The reserves of the masters of It has been demonstrated many times America are undoubtedly very great, but that apparatus Centrism, which dominates the reserves of the proletariat are even the Comintern and the party today, is not greater. In our opinion the crisis is serva stable political tendency and is not caping and will serve to awaken more workers able of carrying out a consistent line of to the consciousness of this fact.
policy on any question. The thesis of the Contradictory forces are at work in the Right wing, which characterizes the régime crisis, but its main effect, already revealed as sectarian and attributes all evils to to a certain extent, is to arouse wide sec.
that, is superficial and incorrect. Sectartions of the workers out of the stupor and lanism. even in the worst sense, implies passivity induced by illusions of permanent a certain constancy and conduct that unprosperity. The crisis is thus maturing the principled Centrism cannot even dream of.
conditions for a militant labor revival on an Just the contrary. The statesmen of unprecedented scale. In view of all the Stalinism are distinguished above all by circumstances of America setting in the the ability to jump from one position to world situation, it is most reasonable to its opposite; and by the readiness to de calculate that this development, once well nounce on one day what they advocated on started. will march with seven league boots.
the day before. Witness the liquidation of Proletarian Communists, in contradis the third period and the tactics flowing tinction to opportunist theorizers of defeat, from it. Witness, in the realm of tactics, will hold such a perspective and work for the right about face in trade union policy.
it. On this point a quotation from comrade The Right wing is obliged to deny obvious Trotsky (not one torn from its context and facts in order to maintain its thesis. That mis applied, bu one directly contributed to is why their insistence on ulta Left sectarthe American situation) will be in order. lanism is losing all point, and consequentIn his letter to the first National Confer ly all power to influence the party members.
ence of the Communist League in the early On several occasions, and particularly part of 1929 he said: in the statement issued by our group in the We must not for a moment lose sight needle trades, the Opposition has called atLant that the mich np Amorinan nani.
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