THEMILITANT Weekly Organ of the Communist League of America [Opposition]

Vol. Ill, No. 20Telephone: DRYdock 1656 NEW YOltK. N. Y. Saturday. May 17, 1930.PRICE 5 CIONTS

onaId's AssauWEEK

The crude anti-Soviet forgeries of Mr.Whalen have proved a miserable dud—evenin Washington. The New York Graphicexposed their origin by tracing the forger-ies to a New York printing shop where the"Co.nintern" letterheads were turned out.Besides, anyone casually acquainted withthe Communist-movement could see at firstglaace that no Communist or Communistorganization could possibly have concoctedthe letters. What stands out quite clearlyis that Whalen must have been well aware otthe falsity of the "documents" when hefirst made them public. For his pains hehas been virtually laughed out of court bymost of the prominent capitalist papers.EU'J that does not mean the cud of the mat-ter. There are indications that the rootsof the whole dirty business may be uncov-ered and "men higher up" involved. TheForgers International reaches from Rigaand Sofia, through Berlin .through Mac-Donald and Baldwin, to Whalen. MaWiewWoll and Ralph Easly of the Civic Feder-ation, and some "noted individuals" inWashington whose names may yet be knownNevertheless, Whalen's attempt to put acrimp into the growing V. S,-Soviet n-adeby in "exposure" of Amtorg has not gotvery faV. American labor, suffering in-tensely from unemployment, will do wellto demand credits to. Russia that willenable it to place machinery orders herej» cj alleviate joblessness.

and TradeThe attempt of American captalism to

issue out of its profound crisis is involvingiti in the sharpest conflict throughout the•world. Hoover's soothing syrup is obvious-ly accomplishing nothing. The ill-fated"engineering mind" no sooner says that allis going well than the Stock Market suf-fers its worst crash, Canada opens a bittertariff war on the U. S/and a new decreasein New York jobs is immediately re-ported. The U. S. (which can build cap-italism in one country just as little as Sta-lin can build socialism in one country) canalleviate its body-wracking crisis only byan assault upon the world market, whichmeans primarily an assault upon European.capitalism, headed by England. But theanarchy of capitalist production. makes itenormously difficult to reorganize AmericanIndustry for this attack. Bad signs forAme-ican industry multiply: steel and ironare stagnant. Foreign trade dropped al-most a third of a billion dollars in JanuaryFebruary-March. Canada is hitting backat the Gruiidy bill by establishing a British-favored tariff that will cut American tradewith Canada by 25 percent; France andother countries are also preparing retalia-tions. America will meet world competi-tion only by lowering costs of production,•which means the severest attack on U. S.labor's standards, and.the creation of themost profound international social convul-sions and upheavals. The American crisisis not only lifMng whole sections of the•working class out of capitalist-mindedswamps, but is blazing the trail for theproletarian revolutions in Europe.

Tne Lynching Beerh-> uniformed defenders of law and

order in Sherman Texas stood by while thelynching: mob burned to death George

i ^rmtinued on Page 7 )

The Labor Party's Message of Peace Comesfrom the Mouth of Machine Guns

The world of liberal and socalist refor-mism is deeply stirred with fear and chag-rin. All its shabby principles and methods,its "prestige", its "future" are in dangerof crashing on the rocks of the class strug-gle in India. The British Labor Party andits leader, Ramsay MacDonald, are againtaking the great dispute between reformand revolution out of the realm of abstractdiscussion and testing the merits of theformer in undisputable realities. And thetest has resulted, as was inevitable, in acrushing indictment of MacDonaldism.

Eighteeen hundred British troops, thesoldiers of His Majesty and'His Majesty'sloyal servants of the Labor Party, are pat-rolling the streets of Sholapur. TheIndian population is being persuaded ofthe nobleness of MacDonald's "inevitabilityof gradualness" by the establishment ofmartial law. The message of all-hallowingpacifisii- is pouring out of Labor Party ma-chine guns that point down all the thor-oughfares. MacDonald :is insertng thesweet spirit of Christ and Laborism intothe hearts of the Indian masses at the pointof the saber and bayonet.

From 200 to 500 Indians have been

imprisoned in turbulent Bombay and vi-cinity so that they can reflect in their cells

on the Labor Party's passionate desire to"free India". So can the 80 Indians thatwere arrested in Calcutta. So can the rel-atives of the Indians massacred at Pesha-wur when the British troops (with theslogans of MacDonald's pacifism inscribedon their regimental banners) retook thecity from the insurgents. The pious Chris-tain Laborites are on a Holy Crusade—topreserve Wie British Empire.

The international social democracy isworried. Its "prestige" is being hopelesslycompromised. The French Pojmlaire writes:"Political opinion in England—and in thatcountry every government is obliged to re-ckon with id—is so attached to what itcalls 'the integrity of the empire' that thecabinet which would infringe this integ-rity, in which India forms the keystone forthe English, would be immediately sweptaway." Nevertheless, these professionalslave traders add, "the Labor Party looksupon the Gandhi movement with sympa-thy". Certainly, for Gar.dhi who is strang-ling the movement he is involutarily arous-ing but not for the movement itself.

The «Red» Guerilla War in ChinaNOTE: This article by one of the leaders of the Chinese Opposition was

received after our last issue was off the press. Iti gives a first hand picture andMarxist analysis of the guerilla warfare now going on in Southern China andserves as a thorough reply to the falsehoods and anti-Marxist nonsense which theofficial Party press (particularly its Chinese "expert" Doonping) publishes on eventsin China. Our next issue will contain another letter from comrade Niel-Sih.—Ed.)

SHANGHAI-TO have an idea of the real importance

of the official Communist Party, it shouldbe noted that according to the official fig-ures the membership in Shanghai does notexceed one thousand. The organizationhas no active life; fill is concentratedin the hands of the apparatus. The situ-ation is still worse in the provinces.

The recent congress of the Party atDazhan-Sus proclaimed that the revolution-ary situation was "ripe" and appealed forthe general strike and the armed uprisingin the cities, and for the development of theguerilla war in the country.

Certain strikes imposed from abovewere terminated either with a lockout bythe bourgeoisie or with bloodshed; in thebest case, by the economic defeat of theworkers. A spirit of passivity prevailswithin the textile industry which is theprincipal industry in Shanghai. The bour-geoisie conducts a systematie offensiveagainst the workers, replacing men in tex-tiles by women and children.

Two or three Communist workers cansometimes be found in the most importantindustrial enterprises. For a long timenobody took the 'trouble to keep in contactwith them. But' the First of August sawthe beginning of a period of artificial ex-plosions: the Party organized demonstra-tions, one after the other. Outside of thekernel proper of the membership, the de-monstration only attracted some chancepassers-by. For the most part they pro-ceeded as follows:

In a busy street, with many passers-by,small merchants, buyers and idlers, a bunc*

of Communists arrive and begin to shout:"Down with the Kuo Min Tang! Long livethe Communist International!" and dis-tribute leaflets. But this method gives noserious results: the leaflets fall on thesidewalk and street and are swept up withthe dirt by the municipal street cleaners,A dozen demonstrators are led to the sta-tion house. Next day, the Party organproclaims that the demonstration was mag-nificent, wi^Jli thousands of participants,when only about one or two hundred Partymembers could be seen. Such demonstra-tions were frequently launched for themost futile motives.

On the other hand. Communists aresent to the Left Kuo Min Tang generals inorder to help them in the constitution ofnew troops. It is even said that the Com-munists sent a delegate to the conferencefor a bloc against Chiang Kai Shek. Thisconference was recently held in Hong Kong.It goes without saying thati while it main-tains its collaboration with the Left KuoMin Tang, the official Party and its organ,The Red Flap, conducts a rabid campaignagainst the Left Opposition.

The situation is still worse among theprovincial Party forces. No campaign hasbeen conducted against the Kuo Min Tangfor a long time, on the belief that was afinished phase and that after their dis-illusionment with the Kuo Min Tang theworkers would rejoin the Communist ranksof their own accord.

In reality tiny did nothing of the kind.The Left Kuo Min Tang showed consider-able flexibility, even taking the lead in nu-

( Continued on Page 2 >

Norman Thomas. t''.ie spokesman fotAmerican "socialism" who is also a manof God and piety, expresses the worried"hope that the (Labor) Party will finosome honorable (!) way out of the tragicallydifficult situation which it has inherits!(?) in India." To be sure. Mr. Thomas, whohas such ardent hopes of building a replicaof the British Labor Party in the UnitedStates so that he may himself become aMacDonald, is more than a little embarras-sed by the difficulties created for him inadvance by his brother-in-Christ. Mac-Donald. Thomas is wiser than MacDonaldonly because he has not the chance ;o ex-ercize power—and may Thomas' God helpthe Filipinos and Cubans if he ever getsthe chance. There is uo reason in the worldto jeliove that Mr. Thomas will act aujbetter in Havana or Manila than Zoorgiebe!in Berlin or MacDonald iti Sholapur orCairo.

Puzzled end Powerless!

Tliomas is not the only apolegetic andembarrassed socialist. His colleague, JamesOneal Cables the Labor Party: "Americanworkers puzzled regarding Labor Party'sattitude toward India." The evangel oftimid "progressivism" Muste. declares thatMacDouald has done things "which leavehis friends powerless to say a word in hisdefense". We know of no better character-ization of these two men than the ones theythemselves employ: Oueal is puzzledabout how to defend the scoundrelly recordof is fellows ill India (he is puzzled ingene"al, by any important question), andMuste is as powerless to defend it as he iscareful not to attack it.

But what Muste is careful not to do,Lovestone does. He is, as he will explain,an enemy of British imperialism and Labor-ism. So that on May 10, he called a massmeeting at Columbus Circle to "DEMANDFREEDOM FOR GANEHI"!! Lovestoneis biiter at MacDonald too. He wants to"restore" Gandhi to the Indian masses!Lovestoue is the most violent opponent ofthe "permanent revolution" in India. Hedoes not want to "skip any stages of devel-opment". Gandhi has not yet had the op-portunity to massacre the Indian masseslike Chiang Kai-Shek did in China. The"only" thing he has done so far is to be-tray them in his own way, hand the mili-tants over to the British jailors by dis-owning-their "violence". Consistent Love-stone! For the alliance with Chiang Kai-Shek in the Chinese revolution in 1925-27and for the defense of the strangler o(the Indian revolution, for "the freedom olGandhi", iti 19SO!

As for the Daily Worker, and the restof the Stalinist press, it is as puzzled a«Oneal and as speechless as Muste—fromanother point of view. It has an unusualopportunity to draw pointed lessons from theIndian revolts and the attitude of Laboritereformism. But iti is strangely silant. UsIndian news is buried somewhere on aninsignificant page. It fears to speak of agenuine revolutionary movement to Indiabecause there is no Communist Partythere. AND THERE IS NO COMMUNISTPARTY BECAUSE STALIN HAS BERNTOO BUSY PLAYING WITH INDIAN NA-TIONALISM AND PETTY BOURGEOIS"WORKERS A.-TD PEASANT PARTIES"TO BUILD THE COMMUNIST MOVEMTNTThe .udian masses are paying heavily fortlie crimes of Stalinism.

—MAX SHA.CHTMAW

Ifege 2 T H E M I L I T A N T Saturday May 17, 1930,

Co-operatives Conferat Superior

The annual board meeting in Superior,Wisconsin, of the Cooperative Central Ex-change has just registered a severe defeatfor the official Communist Party and at thesame time put squarely the problems ofthe immediate future of the Finnish revo-lutionary movement in tlie United States.

We have previously described the fea-tures of the crisis in the Northwest co-operatives, which are in many respects apivot of Hie Finnish labor movement in thecountry. For virtually ten years, thispowerful movement has been dominated bythe Communists. For at least half thattime conflicts of greater or lesser severityhave gone on constantly between the lead-ers of the Finnish Communist (and co-operative) movement and the CommunistParty to some extent because of the im-portant role played by the Finnish Partymembers in the various Party factionalfights, but essentially because of the in-creasing weight of conservatism, sluggish-ness and opportunism developing in theFinnish movement and restraining its rev-olutionary progress. Nevertheless, the Partymanaged to retain its influence and holdon to the movement for quite a time.

Conflict Comes to a HeadThe conflict came to a sharp point

only in recent times. The victory of theLovestone faction in the Party resulted inthe violent imposition upon the large Fin-nish movement of discredited and incom-petent! hacks (Puro, Heikkinen, Suvantoand Co.) Then the impure chemical con-coction recently foisted upon the Party asits Stalinist leadership (Browder, Bedacht,Foster, Minor, Amter, etc.) together withtheir irresponsible ultra-Leftist course,brought the mess to the boiling point. In asudden, Leftist outburst, disfigured by ad-venturism and criminal unconcern aboutresults, the Stalinist crew created such aBtate of affairs in the Finnish movementthat they not only alienated the great bulk«f the Finnish workers in the Northwestbut enabled a group of opportunists (andHalonen in particular) to win these work-ers to their side against the Party. WhatJs worse ,the Stalinist freebooters succeed-ed in lining up on Halonen's side some ofthe best elements in the Finnish revolu-tionary movement—a fact of considerablesignificance for the future.

The struggle centered around the annualteeeting of the Cooperative ExchangeBoard, with both sides mobilizing all forces."When the delegates assembled, the Partyat best had 20% of the delegates, with theopposing forces holding the rest. The ma-jority was not even swayed (such is theloss of C. I. prestige!) by the cable fromthe Cooperative Section of the Comintern,•whose, slogan was: "Wrest the leadershipof your Central Exchange from the handsof Halonen and place it in the hands of areliable fighter for a proletarian class pol-icy." "Reliable fighter" is apparently thepseudonym of Matti Tenhunen leaderof the Party forces at the meeting, and as•unreliable an opporunist as ever led theFinnish movement.

The "Reliable Fighters"It is characteristic of the "reliable

fighters" who were entrusted with fightingfor the Bolshevik line that) they were quitecareful to do n6 such thing. Corgan spokeon policies only once, and that in connec-ection with a motion to remove him. Ten-hunen fought with the greatest violenceon technical questions but he assiduouslyavoided the "Left wing program" asthough it were poison ivy. Vainionpaatook t'ne floor only once to make a defensenot of the Party line, but...his ability as afunctionary who has been trustworthy andefficient. Corgan, Tenliunen and Vainion-paa are waiting—waiting to see how theline-up will look when things settle a bit.

For all of that, the Halonen forceswere a thousand times wrong, and set aneven worse precedent, by removing thethree named above from the Board, al-

though it was found possible to elect oneI. W. W. and one socialist to it. That) isthe method used by the Stalinists, in re-verse English, and indicates a profoundweakness and fear in the Halonen group.

The meeting of the Board ,with morethan 250 representative delegates attend-ing, was unmistakably a bitter defeat forthe Party which a competent leadershipand correct policy might have avoided. Themanner in which the Party conducted i t 'side of the fight was literally blockheaded.The Finnish Party press was simply filledwith outrageous lies, misrepresentations,personal slander, scandals and the like,probably under the impression that thiswas the way to win workers from theother side. It accomplished just the opposite•—as was easily predictable—particularlysince the Party had only a weak leg tostand on to begin with and had compro-mised itself in the eyes of the workersby. absolutely indefensible gangster me-thods against Halonen's group. It suc-ceededed in pushing genuinely revolution-ary elements over to Halonen; it is "mak-ing up" for this blunder by calling themall "a pack of social-fascists". All theworss for Stalinist confusionism.

What Kext?But the fact that these fine workers

are temporarily with Halonen and the groupof officials around him—people primarilyinterested is substantial labor cooperatives,notl in the revolutionary class struggle andits basic principle—is of the highest im-

portance. Some of these officials had a verTplatonic and fleeting interest at one mo-ment for the Left Opposition, as a sort ofcover for their essentially Right wing fight.That's gone, of course. And just as waterfinds its level in the end, so a sectionof these functionaries is already leaningtowards Lovestone, who conducts a verydemocratic group, open to all stages andvarieties of opportunism.

It is the younger elements, howeverand the workers, who have a decisive wordto say. Many of them have waited be-fore speaking on the fundamental princi-ple questions, on the basic disputes in therevolutionary movement (of which the co-operative situation is only a reflection)until " the crisis is over". The organiza-tional victory over the Stalinists confrontsthem more than ever with the necessity ofdefining their perspective in clear wordsand firm deeds. Not even the cooperativemovement) not even Halonen, can remain"neutral". The differentiation that musttake place in the ranks of the confused,and so to speak, "all-embracing" Halonengroup is of greatest consequence A po-sitioii must now be taken on the politicalquestions of the hour. Right wingers willinevitably go with the organized Rightwing. What is urgently needed is anorganized, outspoken group of revolution-ists, a Marxist core in the Northwest move-ment .that knows how to fight and what!to fight for. That is the guarantee for themovement'* fu tu re . —M. S.

«Red» Guerilla( Continued from page 1)

merous strike movements. In short, afterthe defeats of the demonstrations organizedon the initiative of the C. P., many workerscan be seen abandoning the Party and goingover to the Left Kuo Min Tang and join-ing the yellow trade unions. This is whathappened especially among the miners ofTang-Chan, near Tien-Tsin.

In the provinces, the strikes, acts ofsabotage and other conflicts were often pro-voked in an entirely artificial manner inorder to justify the schema of a revolu-tionary recrudescence. This sort of demon-stration succeeded in embracing only a re-stricted part of the workers' forces andcontributed more to weakening than streng-thening the movement

lUch Peasant Elements in PartyThe very small proportion of prolet-

arian elements within the Party frequent-ly leads to the decay of the movement inthe villages. Also, the rich peasants oftenjoin the Party. Easily solidarizing with thestruggle against taxes, the assessments ondomainal land leases and other state impo-sitions.

Conversely, these same rich peasantsshow themselves basically hostile to thedirectives of the Party on the leases be-tween individuals and usurious loans. Inthose regions, the poor peasants breakaway from the revolution, become dis-couraged and go to sleep at meetings. Themovement has no hold on the class ofpoor peasants because it does not constitutea struggle against the rich peasants.

In the villages of the Tung-Cheiu andKwang-Slx provinces, the Party organiza-tions are peopled with lumpen-proletarian ,elements or bandits whose armed detach-ments often cover themselves with thename of Red Army. Further in the sameprovince of Tung-Cheiu the rich proprietorscall themselves Communists in order toseek an alliance with these armed groups.Such proprietors often pay the "Red" chiefsso as to be authorized, under tiheir pro-tection, to levy rental rates on the poorpeasant. When the peasants ask why theseCommunists levy rents, they are told th,atit is for various needs, including the pro-visionment of troops. Such troops of so-called Communists do not limit themselvesto levying contributions on the rich, butalso on the poor, and in general carry onnumerous exactions and violence, arousing

the hatred of the peasants and compromis-ing the names of Communism and the RedArmy.

K\'erything shows that with such aweak development of the revolutionaryspirit in the villages and such an oppressionof the proletariat, the guerilla war in thecountry can lead to nothing but pure ban-ditry. In any event, that is the situationin the province of Kiang Su.

Frequently, also, troops of partisansproceed to the temporary occupation ofsmall localities only in order to give theirchiefs the opportunity to enrich themselvesat the expense of the population and theState treasury. TMs it what is happeningespecially in the Hupei province.

Tclm-Deh's ForcesThe detachment of the Communist Tchn-

Deh, composed of the remnants of Ye-Tin'sforces, has been reinforced by new groupsof rebels. Pursued by the regular forces,this detachment goes from Right to Left,utilizing the lack of any contact betweenthe governmental forces of the four pro-vinces of Hunan, Kiang-Si, Kwantung andFukien This detachment, or at least itsnucleus already exists since 1927. It wageswar without cessation. It escapes all pur-suit, taking refuge in the mountainous partsof the four provinces mentioned above.Tchu-Deh's detachment distinguishes itselfadvantageously from the groups of ban-dits in that it really pursues a revolutionaryaim. As soon as it invades a new region,it proceeds to share the land among thepeasants, proclaims the annulment of debts,constitutes village Soviets, furnishes thepoor peasants with provisions as far as itis possible, so that as soon as the govern-ment troops arrive the detachment leavesnothing but regrets among the peasants.

Personally, Tchu-Deh is a former Chin-ese student in Germany, a Communist, for-merly a divisional general under the WangChin Wei government. The operations ofthis dettachment, however, produce onlya weak impression here because in thepresent general circumstances, they lackperspective. What the Moscow Pravda says,cited by the Left Opposition press, is man-ifestly exaggerated is order the better toserve the needs of the "Third Period".

Our group has just) issued its first ap-peal for the establishment of a Left Com-munist League. The work is only beginning.January 25, 1930. —NIEL-SIH

Plan Two TorontoDress Strikes

Two unions in Toronto have issued thacall for a "general strike of the dress-makers". The corrupt International, led bythe bureaucracy of the socialist party, andthe Industrial Union under the leadershipof the Communist/ Party are both preparingto bring out the workers.

'.Trade Conditions ItottenThe conditions in the cloak industry,

are very bad but those in the dress indus-try, where the overwhelming majority ofthe workers are young girls, married andunmarried women, they are even worse.As in the cloak trade, the conditions con-tinue to grow worse from year to year andthis is reflected in the seasonal migrationof workers from shop to shop, hoping invain that maybe the next place will ) ; r > alittle better.

Preceding the organization of the In-dustrial Union two years ago, no attemptwas ever made by the International to or-ganize the trade. The answer the militantsalways- received to their request for theInternational to organize a local was atypical expression of the successful self-satisfaction of all bureaucrats: "Too many'shickses' (gentiles)," who were supposedto be impossible to organize.

When the Industrial Union was firstorganized, over 300 young dressmakersflocked to join the local, a striking an-swer to the lie of the International aboutthe impossibility to organize them. Un-fortunately, the golden opportunity was-allowed to slip by, mainly because of thefailure of the Left wing, dominated by theParty, to give the young leadership of thelocal the necessary lead and advice. Thelocal afterwards went completely out ofexistence, to be reorganized iater. Todayit numbers about! 75.

The International's dressmakers' localwas organized following the success ofthe International in tying the cloakmakers:to a typical Righti wing agreement in thesemi-company union. The loud bally-hoothat the bureaucracy raised during andafter the strike succeeded for a while inpulling the wool over the eyes of thegreat) majority of the cloakmakers and themass of the dress makers, who believed thata great victory had been won.

The soap bubble, however, has burston the rock of reality. The conditionsof the cloakmakers are as sad as theywere before the strike and even worse.Dissatisfaction in the shops is universal.The cloakmakers are chained to an agree-ment that binds them hand and foot, andion -top of that they have to pay the self-satisfied bureaucracy $5.00 in taxes

IVhy left Wing FailsThe failure of the Indutrial Union

to make further headway is due mostlyto lack of strategical approach and orient-ation to the dress makers, as well as to theloss of prestige they sustained from theirprevious mistakes. With a correct approachto the workers they should be able to winback the majority of their lost member-ship, who are now passive on-lookers. Theextent! to which the Right wing bureaucracyhas compromised itself with the bossesshould have definitely killed their chancesof leading the dressmakers had the In-dustrial Union acted correctly.

The basis on which the bureaucracystands is the I. L. G. W., against whom theParty has completely abandoned the fight.Not only do they absolutely refuse to or-ganize a Left wing fraction in the I.L.G.W.—for which there are very good opportun-ities—but the Party members who wereforced to join the International to hangon to their bread and,butter were expelledfrom the Party and branded as traitors.The future of the Industrial Union lies inthe hands of the clear-headed militants.They must know how to choose properlybetween deceptive phrase-mongering aboutwinning the masses and realistic, fruitfulwork in every field of the class struggle.Thus far the Party bureaucrats have madethe wrong choice. -YOUNG DRESSMAKER

THE MILITANT-, Vol. Ill, No. 20, May 17, 1930 Published weekly by the Com munist League of America (Opposition) at 25 Third Avenue, New York, N. Y. Sub-tription rate: $2.00 per year; foreign $2.50, Five cents per copy. Bundle rates, 3 centsper copy. Editorial Board: Martin Abern, James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman, Mau-ice Spector, Arne Swabeck. Entered as second class mail matter November 28, 1928, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y. under the act of March 3, 1879. (Total No. 45)

Saturday, May 17, 1930.THE MILITANT

Crisis in the Needle TradesThe essence of Stalinist "self-criticism"

can be summed up in one sentence: Thecentiral leadership is infallible and must notbe criticized under any circumstances but asblamo must) be fixed for the constant blun-ders and debacles, let it be loaded upon the

'shoulders of the rank and fila or the se-cond, third or fourth layers of functionarieswho only carried out the ruinous policiesimposed upon them. The bureaucratic ideadominates every line of the sensational ar-ticle (Daily Worker. 5-7-1930) by JackJohnstone (endorsed by the Political Com-mittee of the Party) which has caused afurore in the ranks of the Left wing needletrades workers. By \vhati could only beironical humor, the article is titled "Build-ing tho Needle Workers Union"!

The article is sensational, and was ob-viously intended to creaie a sensation. Aftermany long months of unstinted praise forthe. Left wing Needle Trades Workers In-dustrial Union, of bluff about the progressand the strength it was enjoying, and of therevolutionary class leadership H was giv-ing to the needle workers, Johugtone es-tablishes the followug astounding facts:

A Scandalous RecordThe whole past period in tlio union has

been one of defeats. Virtually the wholeunion has become corrupted and has betray-ed the workers. The leadership is perme-ated .witih class collaboration ideas indis-tinguishable from Sigman's. It has workedhand in hand with the bosses and has evenorganized one group ot them into an assoc-iation in order to arrange contractual rela-tions with it. It has used Tammany Hallpolice during strikes, bought immunty fromthe bourgeois state by employing TammanyHall lawyers and refraining from criticizingthe city administration, and has deliberate-ly covered up the treachery of RyanTammany Hall president of the local A.P. ofTJ. council, in order to gain his support. It'was being hooked up with Mr. Brorterick",

head of the infamous Industrial PoliceSciuad, the professional skull-crackers of theworkers. It. sold outj to Sidney Hillmanby pledging its tacit support to him iu ex-change for suppor, against Sigman and Co.It even macie dea?s behind the scenes withthr> blackest I. L. G. W. bureaucrats (Ninfo,etc.) and helped Schlesinger to oust. SigmanIt accepted the worst kind of "impartialchairman" settlements in strikes it led. Col-laboration with the police flourished amongthe leadership of the Left, wing and of thenew union and "produced such jewels asShapiro whose itching hand and stool-pigeon (!) proclivities were allowed toflourish. ..The real inner union politics con-sisted of a maze of 'clever' intrigues, man-euvers with socalled progressives, ShellySorkin, sections of the bureaucracy, the po-lice, the bosses and the underworld, but ne-tfer laying a base among the workers."

The whole hair-raisins paragraph writtenabove is taken practically word for word,from Johnstone's article. He is not let er-ring here to any ''counter-revolutionaryTro;i3kyists", who are "asents of the bour-geoisie and its police" but '•> the leadersof the only Left wing union that has hadany semblance of mass influence. Worst ofall, every important charge tfcat Johnstonsmakes ,'s true. There remains, however, thejob of looking into the reasons for John-stone'* article at this time and the ADDI-TIONAL facts and charges which he and thePolitical Bureau of the Party which endor-sed his article omtted to mention.

The Left wing union in the needle tradesIs in a severely critical state. From ideo-logical and organizational control of the de-cisive sections of the workers in the indus-try it has steadily sunk in the last two-threeyears to a position of impotence and passiv-ity. The Right wing, effectivelp crushed at .one time, has succeeded in reestablishing itsstifling control of the organized workers.The Left wing has neither a perspective ofits future, nor an effective program ofaction to extricate itself out of its present8la™n:-.Mon and decline.

l.ovestoneites Mainly ResponsibleH i- quite beyond doubt that the main

ljui\l: i of responsibility for this state offKu'.r;: rcji.s upon the shoulders of the Lov-

stone faction whose representatives and pol-icy have dominated the course of the union inthe last period. The rankest opportunismand all the elements of degenerating cor-ruption were consciously nurtured by thisgroup, from Lovestone, Gitlow and Wolfe,down to Zimmerman Wortis and Gold.

But with the removal from control of theLovestone group and the imposition of the"new leadership" the situation har not im-proved, but if anything, been made worseThere is no reason to doubt that John-stone's article was dictated by essentiallyfactional motives—to discredit the easilydiscreditable Lovestone leadership, to lay Hon thickly in order to cover up Johnstone'sown share (and that of his fellow "leaders")of the, criminal respomibility. For example:

Johnstone constantly fentions Gitlow,Zimmerman and Gross as the culprits.Why does he fail U write that Gold, Potashand Burochovicti are at least equally guil-ty? Purely and simply because the lattertrio have "accepted the new line" andthereby automatical^' guaranteed themselvesfrom criticism for their past misdeed?. Werethey any less involved in the dealings 'withTammany Hall, with Broderick with thepolice, with the I L. G. W. fakers withthe shrewd Hillman machine than Zimmer-man and Co? Not a whit less!

Is Johnstone animated by the interestsof the Left wing and working class, ormerely by the desire to take a factional

crack at Lovestone when he convenientlyforgets that Gold proclaimed Shapiro's "in-nocence" only up to a couple of monthsago? o. that it is precisely the now whitewashed Gold who had the financial dealingswith Hillman by which the Left wing's"neutrality" in the A. C. W. fight was pur-chased? or that Gold and Burochovitch arefar from being strangers to the police? orthat Wortis has always been the "ideolog-ical" inspirer of opportunism in the needletrades?

Or perhaps Johnstone will tell us whyhe "forgot" in his cataloging of opportunistcrimes, to mention that both he and Brow-der advocated a policy for the I. L. G. W.Philadelphia convention which would haveallied the Lett wing with a temporarilydisgruntled gang of the bureaucracy in or-der to "divide the power" in the union?The record of this shameful proposal andour fight against it is in the minutes of thePolitical Committee for that period. As ona previous occasion, we again demand: Pub-lish Jhat record! Where was this vulgarlyopportunist policy, which we fought sosharply in the Party,,, any better than tinmaneuvers of Gitlow-Zinnnernian withSigman and Ninfo? Or perhaps Johnstonewill find for us a record of his protests inthe past against the corruption rampant inthe Left wing?

Johnstone Then and .VowJohnstono speaks indignantly about the

"Zimmerman-Lovestone" policy of the Leftwing during the cloak and dress makersstrikes of the Right wing last year. HasJohnstone so quickly forgotten that thepolicy was HIS ami Foster's and that, of therest of the "new leadership"? When be

Prelyde to a President's Swan-SongThe United States has recently pro-,

duced two distinct types of presidents:Coolidge, a mediocre politician, an uprightmarionette who screens his masters' cor-ruption, one who knows little and i.oes less—in other words a mere figurehead. Dur-ing a period of "plenty and prosperity" suchmen even become little heross. Simpletonsascribe the good times to their expert lead-ership. The other is the Hoover type, theengineer of high finance, one who can takeleadership in capitalist aggression. Duringhard times, it is this type that capitalismneeds.

Louis Hyman, president of the NeedleTrades Workers Industrial Union, is rather

industrial union of Lfft wing needle tradesworkers, cannot see wliy anyone should"lose the power" except as a result of badpolicies.. .But that is something else again.Suffice it to ask: Does Hyman know whatthe Opposition demanded and still demands?Did he read it from their documents or outof the fabricated handbooks containing

now criticizes the "negative" slogan o("Don't Join the Pake Strike!" why does h«not add that this was the official Party pol.icy for criticism of which the Militant wasdenounced as counter-revolutionary, just aswas done when we demanded the applica-tion of the united front tactic? Why was iUcounter-revolutonary to criticize Johnstoneand Foster IN TIME for the same stupiditieswhich Johnstone A YEAR LATER accusesthe scapegoats of having committed?

The answer is not hard to find: "Self-criticism" under Johnstone and Co. is themean and cowardly device by which scape-goats and whipping boys are made to takethe blame for disastrous results of policiesthat the Johnstones themselves impose.Stalinist) "self-criticism" means the gag forthe workers and the shield for the bureau-crats In this case, it happens that John-stone is really able to make out an excellent)case against the Lovestoneitcs, but he willnot be able to conceal the principal cul-prits: the new Party leadership. No, noteven though tomorrow, when things con-tinue to grow worse, Johnstons tries topick new scapegoats out of the ranks of thastill anointed leaders. Let Burochovich andWortis look to their posts ! Uneasy reststhe jead that wears a crown—even the pa-per crown of a Stalinist functionary, [s itnot already known that Browder, Johnstone,

and Co. are feverishly organizing a newfaction struggle to "clean out the old Love-stonites"? The demand that Wortis, Gold,etc. "acknowledge their errors while asso»ciated with Gitlow, Zimmerman and Co." \'madvance thunder of this struggle.

The reader will ask: What does John*stone propose now? The cold truth is tlia?he proposes nothing because he has nothingto say. His principal aim is achieved wheahe succeeds in crushing his Party faction,opponent/ He writes a few vague, HOIK-commital words about 'the closest applica-tion ofthe R. I. L. U. class struggle policylaid down by the 4th World Congress andthe 6th Plenum of the R. I. L. If. for thisperiod of imperialist wars, mass class strug«gles and proletarian revolution."

That costs nothing and means nothing,because Stalinist resolutions are raw clothout of which any policy you want (except

by Stalin, handbooks given gratis to allofficial visitors to the Soviet Union? Thesequestions are not* difficult to answer.

Where Hyman Has Fallen DownThere is, however, another side to the

matter, and that is the tactlessness withwhich Hyman spoke about "losing" power,

the Coolidge than the Hoover type of pres- We needlTtradM workers have known for

-"«•"" luuiumius the correct one) can be manufactured at aideas maliciously ascribed to the Opposition mnmonh'a T,^;™ ™,,<- *<--- -•- - -•—•-•

ident. While he rode the prosperity waveof Left wing influence among the needletrades workers, he even became a littlehero. Some simple-minded people thoughthe had something to do with the wave.But when matters look on a different shape,•when an aggressive policy, hard lighting andclarity of purpose were required, presidentHyman became impotent, useless, and insome respects even an obstacle. Wholaweeks passed with the president's chairvacant. It is during this period that he wasgiven a trip to Moscow. There he spentseveral worth while months—worth whilainsofar as the president's absence fromactivities and the office could at least beeasily explained.

But there is one thing that must bementioned to Coolidges credit: because hehas nothing to say he is silent. PresidentHyman, however, frequently speaks out o£turn. Onfe of these occasions was at theLeft wing needle trades mass meeting atCooper Union on May 9th, where a cam-paign " for 6,000 new members" was sup-posed to be started. I suppose the Militantwill deal with other interesting aspects ofthis meeting; I have in mind the unsignedarticle of "self-criticism by Johnstone.

In his speech, Hyman said, among otherthings: "When Trotsky was asked why itwas that he lost the power, it did not takehim long to think up an answer. 'Wheathe revolution was at high tide it neededgreafl leaders, but when it was at ebb suchnobodies as Stalin got into power.' As amatter of fact, if Trotsky's policies hadbeen carried out Russia would beruined today."

President! Hynian who, because of his

a long time tlie unfortunate role to whichHyman's lack of genuine independence hascondemned him. Hyman is essentially ascreen—an honest, an unwilling screen butnevertheless a screen. He has used hisprestige as a militant, Iiis standing as a Dy others"non-partisan" to cover up the chicanery,first of Zimmerman, Gross, Gold. Wortisand Co. when they were in power, and nowof Gold, Potash and Co. alone He hasnot had very much heart for this sort otjob—that is true. He has freguently ex-cused it to himself and his closest friendsby pleading: "What else can you do? It'sin the interests of the union." He has noteven done this work very actively or en-ergetically—and that accounts for his longpassivity in' union affairs. Nevertheless,the accomplishment, however feeble, of thistask lias enabled him to retain his formal"power" in the union, at least until now.

Alas, his recent needless assault uponTrotsky, even though it earned him thepraise of Gold and the other Potashes, isonly the operatic prelude to his own swansong. It is an open secret in the needle

moment's notice. Elut there is a significantsilence about the immediate perspectives otthe LeTt wing union, about the program oJaction it should pursue, about! the atti-tude it must have towards the masses olworkers now dragooned into the I. L. Cr,W. TJ., and about the dozen other concretedecisive problems in which the Stalinistshave so thoroughly demonstrated theirbankrupty and blunderings. "What John*stoin fails to say, what he fails to pro-'pose as a means of issuing forth from thecrisis that is wrecking the Left wing in theneedle trades, will therefore have to be said

Space roQuirements compel usto postpone that for the next occasion. '

The. Militant invites Left wing needletrades workers to write for its columnson the situation In the union and togive their views on the problems oftheir movement. Articles written inany language will be translated intoEnglish and printed. The Daily Workeris the closed organ of the cynical bur-eaucrats—the Militant aims to becomethe voice of (ho milifniil rank anil fill1.

Co

FROM HAD TO WHISK

The C. K. C. of the Party has replacedRoy Stephens as district, organixer in Bos-ton witlh Nat Kaplan. Stephens, after hav-

to go. Coolidge was ».«tcu lo su. ^uuuage was aci least fol- promoted-not for abilitv b> t for •«* r,lowed by Hoover, but Hyman cannot even to Boston Th* ,L,, ' „,„ I ndelity-have that poor consolation. He is to be

to Boston. The results are~tnV,~v "Kaplan, after havinL donV >, , " , on , ,

replaced (isn't the decision already made at to ruin the New Jersev R «" T ,125th Street? '" 125th Street?) by that giant intellect anddarling of the needle traeds masses, H.Sazer. In cold truth, Sa.er is alreadyloitering around the corridors and officesot the union, an ominous shadow to Hyman,preparing for his historic task of leadershipby an apprenticeship of licking postagestamps and folding envelopes.

So we see that comrade Presileiit II y-

year, is now ««, promoted tagain not! for ab Httv hTf Io.'3o8«».Know' St wo d I re TSnu *',the Party C F Cthe C^rn,' £'the two organic is wemembers in Boston cannot be permitted to suffer so long w,th ' "J,6™1" e* °

"urn is held we are willine to nn , ,"

own faultless policies, wields such enor- man is precisely the man to talk about 'drive for the Persic ntted a T t&

mous power over the mass, revolutionary "lost power". He ought 1o know. -B. T. Suffering Party members in Bosto,

Page * r H E M I L I T A N T 6at*urday May 17, 1830,

Internationalism and the Theory of «Exceptk>nalism»( Continued from Last Issue )

Only recently, March 8 :1930, Pravdaexpounded Stalin's unfortunate theory anew,in the sense that "socialism, as a social-economic formation", that is, as a definiteorder of productive relations, can be fullyrealized "on the national scale of theU.S.S.R." Quite another matter is "theco.-jlete \k-tory of socla'lsm in the senseof guaranteeing it from intervention of :

capitalist encirclement"—such a complete•victory of socialism "actually demands thetriumph of the proletarian revolution inseveral advanced countries". What abys-mal decay of theoretical thought was need-ed 'for such sorry scholasticism to be ex-pounded in a learned form on the pages ofthe :;ntral organ of Lenin's party! If weshould assume for a minute the possibilitiyof realizing socialism as a finished socialsystem in the isolated frame of the U.S.S.R.,then that would be the "complete victory"—what intervention could be talked of then?The socialist order presupposes high tech-nique, high culture and high solidarity ofrtoe population. Since the U. S. S. R. at themoment of complete construction of social-ism will have, it must be assumed, not lessthan 200, or perhaps even 250 million inpopulation, then we ask: what Interventionoould be talked of then? What capitalistcountry, or coalition of countries woulddare think of intervention under these .cir-cumstances? The only conceivable Inter-vention could be on the part of the U.S.S.R.But) would it be needed? It Is doubtful.The example of a backward country whichin the course of several "five year plans"constructed a mighty socialist society withindependent forces would mean a death blowto world capitalism, and would reduce to a/-iinimum, if not to zero: the costs of theworld proletarian revolution. This Is why(he .vhole Stalinist conception leads in es-terice to the liquidation of the CommunistInternational. And really, what! could itshistoric significance be, if the fate of so-ilalism is to be decided in the last resort... by the Gosplan ( State Planning Commi-•iou) of the U. S. S. R? In such a casethe Comintern has as its task along withthe illustrious "Friends of the SovietUnion", to guard the construction of so-cialism from interventions, that is, in es-sence, iti Is reduced to the role of a frontiersjuard.

The already mentioned* recent articleattempts to prove the correctness of theStalinist conception with the newest andfreshest economic arguments: "... preciselytow," the Fravda says, "when the socialisttype of productive relations, besides indus-try, begins to take deeper root in agricul-ture through the growing Sokhoz (Sovietlarms), through the gigantic growth inquantity and quality of the Kolkoz (col-lective farm) movement,and the liquidationof the Kulak as a class based on completecollectivization, it shows more clearly thesorry bankruptcy of Trotsky-Zinoviev de-featism, which has meant in essence 'theMenshevist) denial of the legitimacy of theOctbber revolution' (Stalin)" (Pravda,March 8, 1930),

These lines are really remarkable, andnot juerely for tteir glib tone which cov-ers a complete confusion of thought. To-gether with Stalin the author of (be Prardaarticle condemns the "Trotskyist" concep-tion "for denying the legitimacy of theOctober Revolution.". But it was exactlyon the basis of this conception, thati is thetheory of the permanent revolution, thatthe writer of these lines foretold the Inev-itability of the October Revolution. 13 yearsbefore it occurred. But Stalin? Alreadyutter the February Revolution, that is sevenand eight months prior to the Octoberoverturn, he came forward as a vulgarrevolutionary democrat. It was necessarythat Lenin should arrive in Petroograd(April 3, 191"), with his merciless struggleand ridicule t f the self-conceited "OldBolsheviks",; for Stalin carefully and noise-lessly to climb over from his democraticto a socialist position. This inner "re-growth" of Stalin, which by the way hasnever been completed, took place, at anyrate, not earlier than 12 years after wegave the basis for the "legitimacy" of the

By L. D. T R O T S K YritEFACE XO THE AMERICAN EDITION OF "THE PERMANENT REVOLUTION"

* See the Militant, May 10, 1930.

seizure of power by the working class of.Russia before the beginning of the prolet-arian revolution in the West.

National Revolution and World EconomicsBut working out the theoretical prog-

nosis of the October Revolution, we didnot at all expect tihat, winning state power,the Russian proletariat would exclude theformer empire of the czars from the worldeconomic sphere. We Marxists know therole and significance of state power. It isnot at all a passive reflection of economicprocesses, as the social-democratic ser-vants of the bourgeois state fatalisticallydescribe iti. Power can have a% giganticsignificance, reactionary, as well as pro-gressive, depending upon which class holdsit in its hands. But the state power isnevertheless a weapon of superstructuralorder. The passing of power from thehands of czarism and the bourgeoisie intothe hands of the proletariat, does not re-move the processes, nor the laws of worldeconomy. It is true that for a certain timeafter the October overturn the economicties of the Soviet Union witih the worldmarket weakened. B*it it wcVald be amonstrous mistake to generalize a phenom-enon which was merely a short stage ofthe dialectical process. The world divisionof labor and the supra-national characterof modern productive forces, not only re-tain, but will increase twofold and tenfoldtheir significance for the Sovietl Union,'depending on the degree of its economicrise.

Bach backward country adapting itselfto capitalism, has gone through diversestages of decreasing or increasing depen-dence on the other capitalist countries, butin general the tendency of 'capitalist devel-opment leads towards a collosal growthof world ties, which expresses itself in thegrowth of foreign tirade, including, ofcourse, trade with their capital as well.The dependence of England upon India has;

of course, a qualitatively different characterthan the dependence ot India upon England.But this difference is basically determinedby the difference in the level of develop-ment of their productive forces, and notat all by the degree of their economic self-sufficiency. India is a colony, England a—metropolis. But if today England shouldhe subjected to an economic blockade, it•would perish sooner than India. This isone of the convincing illustrations of thereality of world economy.

Capitalist development.—not in the ab-stract formulae of the second volume of"Capital" which retain all their significanceas a stage In analysis, but in historic re-ality—capitalist development took placeand could only take place, by means ofsystematically widening its base. Conse-quently, in the process of its development,in the struggle witto its internal contradic-tions, each national capitalism turns in agrowing degree to the reserves of the "ex-ternal market", ttoat is, of world economy.The inevitable expansion growing out ofthe permanent internal crisis of capitalism,is its progressive force until it becomes fatalto it.

The October Revolution Inherited fromold Russia, besides the internal contradic-tions of capitalism, no less deep contradic-tions between capitalism as a whole andtie pre-capitalist forms of production.These contradictions had and still havea material character, that is, they are hid-den ib the material relations between thecity and the village Sn definite proportionsor disproportions of various branches otindustry and the economy of the people Ingeneral, etc. Some of these contradictionsare rooted directly in the geographic anddemographic conditions of the country, thatis, they breed on the surplus, or. tihe lackof one or another natural resources, andthe historically created distribution of themasses of the people, etc. The strength ofSoviet economy is in the nationalization ofthe means of production, and their planneddirection. The weakness of Soviet economy,besides the weaknesses inherited from thepast—is in its present post-October isola-tion, that is, in its inabilif.iv to utilize the

resources of world economy not only on asocialist, but even on a capitalist basis—inthe form of normal international credits,and generally "financing", which playssuch a determining role for backwardcountries.' In the meantime the contradic-tions of the capitalist! and pre-capitalistpast not only do not disappear of them-selves, but, on the contrary, rise out) of theaccumulations of the years of decline anddestruction, revive and sharpen togetherwith the growth of Soviet economy, andfor their removal, or even softening theydemand at every step the bringing intocirculation of the resources of the worldmarket.

The Growth of ContradictionsTo understand what is now happening

in the gigantic territory which the Octoberoverturn aroused to new life, we mustalways picture to ourselves clearly that tothe old contradictions which were recentlyrevived by the economic successes, wasadded a new one, the mightiest contra-diction: between the concentrated characterof Soviet industry, which opens the possi-bility of hitherto unheard of tempos of de-velopment, and isolated Soviet economy,which excludes the possibility of a normalutilization of the reserves of world econ-omy. The new contradiction added to theold ones, lends to the facti, that alongside ofthe exceptional successes, painful difficul-ties grow up. The latter find their most im-mediate and painful expression, felt dailyby every worker and peasant, in the factthat the conditions of the toiling massesnot only do not rise in relation to the riseof economy, but even worsen now as aresult of the growing food difficulties. Thesharp crises of Soviet economy are a re-minder that the productive forces createdby capitalism, are noi adapted to a nationalframework and can be socialistically co-ordinatod and harn onized only on an inter-national scale. In other words, the crises ofSoviet economy are not nicely'sicknessJBS ofgrowth, a sort of illness of chilJho:>d butsomething immeasurably more significant,precisely the rigorous pull of the worldmarket, that same one, "to which," accord-ing to Lenin's words, "we are subordinate'!to which we are tied, from which we cannotbreak away" (at the XI congress of theParty, March 27, 1922).

From t-Iiis, however, the deaial of thehistorical "legitimacy" of the October Rev-olution does not at all follow, a conclu-sion which smells of shameful Philistinism.The seizure of power by the proletariat can-not be a simultaneous act. The politicalsuperstructure—and a revolution is relatedto "superstructure—has it own dialectic,which breaks powerfully into the worldeconomic process, but does not removeits deeper laws. The October Revolutionis "legitimate" as the first stage in the worldrevolution, which inevitably drags out fordecades. The Interval between the firststage and the second turned out to be con-siderably longer than we expected. But itnevertheless remains an interval, and doesnot at all turn into a self-sufficient epochof constructing a national socialist society.

Out of the two conceptions of therevolution have grown two leading lineson economic questions. The firsfl rapidsucesses, -which were completely unexpect-ed by him inspired Stalin in the Fall of1924 with the theory of socialism in onecountry as the crowning of a practical per-spective for an isolated national economy.In the same period, Bucharin gave hisfamous formula that by fencing ourselvesoff from the world economy by a foreigntrade monopoly, we can consttruct socialism"even at a snail's pace". This was thecommon formula of the Centrist-Right bloc.Stalin was then tirelessly expounding theidea that) the tempo of our Industrialtzatloais our "internal business", having no rela-tion to the world economy. 6tach a sortof national self-contentment. howeven,could not last long, for ft wad reflectingthe first), very brief stage of economic re-vival, which inevitably revived pw depen-dence on the world market The fcreishocks of intra-state dependence, unexpect-

ed by (he national socialists, created arfalarm, which in the next stage turned intoa panic. To gain economic "independence"speedily with the aid of the fastest possible'tempos of industrialization and collectiveation!—this is the change that has taken]place in the economic policy of national-socialism during the past two years. Crawl-ing was substituted all along the line byadventurism. The theoretical base underboth is the same: a national socialist con-ception.

The basic difficulties, as was shownabove, result from the objective situation,first of all from the isolation of the SovietUnion. We shall not stop here to considerto what degree this objective situation iaitself a result of the subjective mistakesof tihe leadership (the false policy in Ger-many in 1923, in Bulgaria and Esthonia—•in 1924, in England and Poland—in 1926,in China—in 1925-27, the present false stra-tegy of the "third period", etc., etc.). Butthe sharpest convulsions in the U. S. S. R.are created by the fact that the presentleadership tries to turn necessity into goodfortune, and, from the political isolationof the workers' state, produces a programof an economically isolated socialist so-ciety. From this has resulted the attemptof complete socialist collectivization ofpeasant holdings on the basis of the pre-cap-italist inventory—a most dangerous ad-venture which threatens to undermine thevery possibility of collaboration betweenthe proletariat and the peasantry.

The "Mad Gallop" and the Panicky BetreatAnd it is remarkable: just at the mo-

ment when this began to appear in allits sharpness, Eucharin, yesterday's theo-retician of the "snail's pace" composed apathetic hymn to the present "mad gallop"of industrialization and collectivization. Itis to be feared that this hymn will soon bedeclared the greatest heresy. For thereare already new melodies in the air. Undertoe influence of the economic material, Sta-lin hns been compelled to beat a retreat.Now the danger is that the adventurous of-fensive dictated by panic of yesterday willturn into a panic-stricken retread Thissort of alternating stages result i n o v i l n b l yfrom t'.ie nature of national social;; ; :>.

A realistic program of an u . iavdwcrl:o..';;' state, cannot set itself the aim o*ac."c:n lulling "independence" from wurldeconomy, or e/en more, to construct anr . l^onal socialist society in the "ni;o;'f.ositi-r.a." The task is not to accornpHsli Mieabstract-maximum, but the optimum t i;!;::>sthat i; such that flow from the i i . i i - : ;i:ilaud wcrld econo'mic conditions, sire:1.-;! ;.'Hthe positions of the proletariat, prcv.vn, Hieli:it:Oift:I elements of the future intern/ . '" .n-al socialist society and at the same i i i . . e ,and before all systematically improve Hieliving level of the proletariat, strengthen-ing its union with the non-exploiting massesof the village. This perspective remainsin force for the whole preparatory period,that is until the victorious revolution inthe advanced countries will bring the SovietUnion outl of its present isolated position.

Some of the thoughts expressed hereare developed with greater detail in otherworks of the author, particularly in the"Criticism of ibe Draft Program of theComintern"*. In the nearest future wehope to publish a pamphlet especially de-voted to an evaluation of the present! stageof economic development in the U. S. S. R.To these works we are obliged to direct thereader who seeks a closer acquaintancewith the way in which the problems of thepermanent revolution are posed today. Butthe considerations brought out above aresufficient let us hope, to reveal the wholesignificance of tihe struggle of principlesthat was carried on in recent years, andIs carried on now In the form of counter-posing two theories: socialism In onecountry and the permanent revolution.Only this timely significance of the quest-ion Justified the fact that we present her*to foreign readers a book, which is largelyflevoted to a critical reestablishment ofBre-revoluttonary prognoses and theoreticalimputes among the Russian Marxists. Wecould Of course, have selected a differentform ot expounding the questions that in-

*ThIs book Is for sale by the T h - "ii-ftant at KB cents a copy.

THE MILITANTPages

N. Y. District PlenumIf the Plenum of the C. E. C. demon-

istrated the utter bankruptcy of the present•Party leadership and its line., the NewSork district Plenum can be said to haveSurpassed it in that respect ; Needless tosay, the session was held up for hours onSaturday (May 10) while the best! think-ers in the Party were working out themost proper thesis. Then came the re-ports of Hathaway, for the Central Com-mittee, and Benjamin for the district.

Hathaway's report gave neither anal-ysis nor perspectives. "There is a dis-parity between the resolutions adopted andtheir execution by the Party members, aswell as between these resolutions and ourorganizational strength. There must be asharp turn (again!) in the Party orienta-tion because so far all decisions are ac-cepted in words but noti in deeds (becausethe comrades have no real belief in youridiotic decisions!) Discipline is neededand there cannot be any neutrality on de-cisions, as for example in our Czecho-Slo-vaklan organ which accepts all the criti-cisms made of Hi but refuses to publishcritical articles.." It never occurtjfl tohim to explain that the "disparities" re-sult from the fact) that his decisions havelittle if any relation to the realities of theSituation.

"Our Negro department is bankrupt,"he reported. Then why does he print allthe" lies in the Daily Worker about theSuccesses with Negro work, and then tellonly the assembled bureaucrats the truthbehind closed doors? "There are no newcadres or forces in the Party. The T.U..17. L. is really going through a crisis andthere also there are no cadres for lead-ership." Why then do you expel and re-move all the capable comrades, just! be-cause they fight your weekly zig-zags ofpolicy? Why do you crush all our initi-ative in the Party ranks, killing everypossibility for the development of mem-bers and poisoning them with your miscon-ceived theories? Why don't you reallycarry out! -workers democracy in the Partyinstead of just writing junky resolutionsabout iti? When you do that and changethe present Party course, maybe you willnot have to admit so shamefacedly to aPlenum that "in the membership drive wegol 1,400 applications (in the press youexaggerated again!) and only half remain-ed. We got these applications at massmeetings and demonstrations but not 'romelements in ttoe shops."

As for his analysis of the Americansit'uation, it was miserable. We sent himto school in Moscow to get a Marxist educa-tion and he came back to tell us that thereis fascization of the state here because thegovernment has become super-organized,because Hoover conferred with the busin-ess men, because financial capitalists areJtt the government, and power is jeingconcentrated in the president' and judiciary.Nor did we need his trip for him to re-port "the crisis in America is deepening"without adding a single word of explan-ation, elaboration .proof or analysis tothose six words.

If anything, Benjamin only paintedthe coal blacker. The district has failedhere and there and everywhere. *'We arestill lagging behind the masses." In Patt-erson, a spontaneous strike, but the Partyis nowhere to be seen. (What has hap-

terest us. But this form was never creat-ed, by the author, and was not selected byhim voluntarily. It was imposed upon himpartly by opponents, and partly by the verycourse of political development. Even thetruths of mathematics, the most abstractof the sciences can best of all be learned inconnection with the history of liheir dis-coveries. This holds all the more trulyof more concrete, that is, historically con-ditioned truths of Marxist policy. The his-tory of the origin and development of thepro?Jose's of the revolution In the condi-tions of pre-revolutionary Russia Will, W6think bring the reader much nearer and farnvirs concretely to the essence of the revo-)• ' ary tasks of the world proletariati . "/'liool-like and pedantic exposition

political ideas, torn out of the'• -ntsnces that gave birth to

pened to ttoe general silk strike you wereboasting about?) Our women's tiepart-ment has collapsed; the Negro departmentis completely bankrupt; the building tradesfraction is impotent and unorganized; ourdemonstrations were not utilized at all;tine same forces that are alway with uswere there at the May Day conference,but no new ones (why didn't you adoptthe Trotskyists' proposals for a broadunited front'?); the department work isuncoordinated; etc., etc., etc. The only"success" Benjamin mentioned was the"elimination of the languafe branches";only Le forgot to say that the memberswere eliminated too.

Comrades, let us demand a real discus-sion, not of trifles and not bureaucraticallybut on the basis o£ the vital questions ofprinciple, of strategy and tactics that ourexpelled Trotskyist comrades have raised.And let's fight to reinstate them! —ROGER

The Pittsburgh ExpulsionsPITTSBURGH—

The latest news in the CommunistParty is that John Kaspar has been expelledfrom the Party and M. Garflgel suspendedfor six months. Unit No. 2 protested infavor of Garifigel and Kaspar with the re-sults that) a squad of officials, headed bythe acting district organizer, Salzman at-tended the meeting to pass the resolutionagainst Kaspar. Salzman- is ths boy whowalks around with a diploma from the In-ternational Stalin School and won bis spursas a leader by wrecking the Plttcburgh.district of the I. L. D. The unit electedits own chairman but Dunne took the chairwithout asking the membership, The mem-bership was terrorized so that they wereeven afraid to speak.

Salzman read my article from the lastissue of the Militant to the membership inorder to show that Kaspar is connectedwith the Opposition. After long speechesfrom Salzman, Dunne, Overgaard and therest they approved the resolution by ask-ing the members one by ono to say Yesor No. Eighti comrades didn't say t:therYes or No and now they are also in dangerof expulsion. These eight comdades areold members of the Party, real proletarians,very active in the Party's work, leadersof the unit and well acquainted with thebureaucrats of this district. All these that)voted in favor of the resolutions spokeagainst it when the meeting wa.s adjourned,which indicates how fearful they were toexpress their real opinions openly.

All honest comrades must see, andthat soon, that! such a leadership onlywrecks the movement. It must be got ridof . The comrades know what a failure theMr.y Day demonstration was, for whichSalzman and the rest of his crew <»re toblame. At the park demonstration, therewere about 400 people and only about 200paraded in the street. At the evening massmeeting where there were only 50 or soSalzman spoke, and without blushing, toldthe workers who had participated in thatday's demonstration that there had beea2,500 workers on the streets. When I heardthat I said to myself that the Stalinist)school in Moscow sure graduated a gooddiplomatic liar. —JAMBS SIFAKIS

May Day in YoungstownYOUNGSTOWN—

Tens of thousands of workers and bus-iness men gathered in uhe streets ofYoungstown to see our small parade tohear the speakers in the Public Square,but the slogan of a mass political strikefailed entirely. Not only did the steelworkers not respond at) all but even theParty members largely failed to act. Theofficial Partly "here failed to mobilize themembers and sympathizers with their fam-ilies in 'Order for the parade to be moresuccessful, and there were neither womennor children In it. (Which doesn't preventthe Daily Worker from publishing its cus-tomary monstrous exaggeration about theMay Day demonstration In Youngstown..•-̂Ed.) The way to make the workers un-derstand our political slogans Is to organizethem on the basis of concrete Issues In theClass struggle, and through hard fightingagainst the capitalist class to develop aworking class understanding and politicalmaturity. The Party leaders don't seemto understand this at all.

•-DENIS PLARINOS

Mm Mtaly

Crisis in the Communist PartyMOSCOW—

It seemed that the Italian CommunistParty was an exception in the CommunistInternational by its escape from the criseswhich have up to now ravaged its sections.And this fact was very disquieting for theleaders of the C. I. How is it possible,they said, that in the Italian C. P. thephenomenon of opportunism can be limitedsimply to the jase of Tasca?

Italy is the country of the most fer-ocious capitalist dictatorship; the countrywhere our Party, by great and constant!bloodshed has been terribly decapitated.All the old directing cadres and also allthe intermediary cadres of our ItalianParty and then the cadres successivelyformed after the exceptional laws, havebeen swept away, destroyed by the enemy.

Opportunists, Real and FakedNow however, the Heckerts, the Fer-

rato and their friends can be satisfied bythe discovery that, within the Italian C.P.also a strong current of "Opportunism"has manifested itself, which has literallyshattered in two the leading organs of thissame Party. Every comrade, no mat'terhow little initiated in the practises of theC. I.'s life in recent years, can guess im-mediately that you will not find among theopportunists the Ereolis and Garlandiswho, "in the same way that they spit onthe "corpse" of Bucharin after having beenits mosti fervent lackeys, have, themselves,hoisted the flag of the struggle againstopportunism.

First of all, a preliminary remark: thefatt tbat in this minority are the bestelements who after the exceptional laws,all occupied the most perilous posts in theillegal work in Italy, as well as the pro-letarian elements of the former leadershipelec.ed by the last congress of the Party(Lyons, 1925); and the fact that on theother side there are all the petty bour-geois elements who made their revolu-tionary career in Party offices (these ele-ments are under the direction and guidanceof the attorney, Ercoli, precisely definedby comrade Trotsky, as 'the a'ttorney for allcauses")—these facts are therefore alreadyfilled with significance by themselves toprc--<3 to us where the home of opportunismrc"l!y is in the Italian Party. The verySi/.'lrus discords that have cut in two the leaderuLi;j of the Italian Party which had upto now retained its unity a£ all costa, re-late a^ once to political and to organiza-tional questions

The majority, headed by Ercoli—inan endeavor to have his past errors, hisBucharinist and Tascan loves forgotten—has repaired, as usually happens, to themost advanced position of the " Leftest"Leftism. In accordance with the decisionsof the 10th Plenum on the famous "ThirdPeriod", Ercoli and Co. say they see "thecoming to maturity in Italy of all theelements of an acute revolutionary situa-tion". The formula is typically "opportun-ist" for it affirms: 1. "seeing the coming";2. "to maturity"; that is, a process is in-dicated which may last months or years.But it is for the coming months that Ercoliand Co. put on the order of the day theanti-fascist insurrection in Italy. "Thecatastrophe is imminent.. .The crisis sharp-ens every day...The masses are on thestreeti.: .We must) accomplish a politicaland organizational turn...The organiza-tional work, they say, must be adapted tothe 'new situatdon 'and to the 'new tasks'posed by the situation that! is being precip-itated."

The Minority ViewpointThe minority objects, in the first place:

Is it possible to accomplish a turn, nomatter which, without taking the Partysituatdon into account? A turn which takesno account of the Party situation insteadof bridging Khe gap existing between thePar.ly and the objective situation, can onlymake it deeper, extend it. This is the sadexperience that the Italian Party itself hashad in the years of absolute illegality fol-lowing the exceptional laws.

In the second place: The signs of mil-itancy of the working and peasant massesare multiplying, it is true, every clay(Faenza, Sulmona, Avellina, uneninlo:••.r.-ntdemonstrations etc., are a proof t!i"t a

chang,; is begrning to take place in the gen-eral state of mind of the working popula-tion). But what still characterizes theItalian situatdon is the very grave state ofdisorganization of the workers, their con-dition of passivity and terror. It sufficesto consider the following fact: even thoughthe wage of the Italian workers has beenreduced to almost 40 percent only in theselast years, the industrialists today can per-mit themselves a new reduction of 10%without meeting open resistance. (Unem-ployment has asumed such proportionsthat the workers accept these reductionsout of fear of seeing jobless hired in iheirplaces). To adapt the tasks and the workof he Party to the situation means to un-derstand in the first place, where the mass-es are, so as to have the possibility to mov-ing the forward. But the tasks of the Partytowards the masses are not independent ofthe internal condition of the Party, in theworking class of its effective bonds 'withthe masses.

If the Party is not connected with thefactories, it can have noising but phraseswhen it speaks of the political generalstrike and the insurrection. If the Partlyis not in a position to organize the workersin the struggle against the bosses for theirdefense cf their wages, it can have nothingbut ihrases when it speaks of guidiny themasses in the civil war, in the ba'Xles ofthe street ,etc.

Another discord involves Kie disposi-tion of the forces of the revolutionary bloc."In Italy today," declares the Ercoli ma-jority, "everybody poses the dilemna: fas-cism or Communism?" Everybody I Yes,everybody: workers, peasants, city pettybourgeoisie. So there is nothing more forour Party to do for the conquest of theworking class, its allies the peasant, to neu-tralize the middle sections,etc., since every-body in Italy poses the dilemna: "fascismor Communism". How could -all this havehappened when our Party, since the excep-tional laws has been reduced to abso-lute illegality, has been chased from thefactoriea by the harshest reaction, has lostjits contacts wth the country, etc? It is amatter, as all can see, of the theory of therevolution that matures of itself, the theoryof the spontaneous revolution, which is atthe basis of the whole system of thAe"creators" of revolutions who think thatit is enough to write in a paper—whichreaches only a very limited number ofworkers—that the insurrection is maturingin '-rder for us actually to face the insur-lection.

The «ole of tlie VanguardAgainst the ridiculous infantilism of

those who announce everything ripe, easyready for success, the minority affirms theneed of fighting bitterly against the socialdemocracy because it is not true that thedemocratic illusions (which, as Lenintaughti, find their most favorable groundin every reactonary situation) have disap-peared in Italy because it) is not true thatthe dilemna is today posed: "fascism orCommunism"; but on the contrary, it isthe role of the proletarian vanguard or-ganized in the Communist Party to see toit that this dilemna: "fascist dictatorshipor proletaran dictatorship" beo-jmes tfaedilemna of the whole toiling population.

The minority characterizes the ultra-Left position of Ercoli and Co. as a positionof real capitulation in the face of difficult-ies. To substitute the revolutonary phiasefor the old opportunist positions held in thepast by Ercoli and Co. does not me^n togive the Party a more radical policy. Pettybourgeois opportunism can mask its waresby revolutionary phrases: if it is underthe banner of the official lead-ership of the C. I. that the endeavor ismade to introduce these wares into ourParties, then the fight against opportunismappears once more as the fight for a firmreally Bolshevik leadership of the Com-munist International. —H. S.

If the nnyour wrapper is

45 i hen your subscription ;D -i.e Militant ha*expired. Renew immediately in order toavoid missing any issv."

T H E M I L I T A N T Saturday May 37, 1930.

The Socialist Party and trie Prospects for CommunismIn various sections of the country the

Socialist Party has during the lasti fewmonths been unfolding a greater activitythan hitherto. It is attempting, and withsome success, to plant its roots in thepresent favorable soil of mass unemploy-ment. In inverted form it becomes a testi-monial to the fact that among the American•workers there are now visible trendstoward the shaping ot a class movement.

The Socialist Party is very, consciously"radicalizing" in phraseology its generalslogans and platform demands, although thefact that all references to the class struggle'have long since been obilerated from itsprogram is momentarily glossed over. Theobject is clearly to head off the workingclass movement, to prevent its natural de-yelopme'nt towards a revolutionary positionand to harness it within "safe" reformistchannels, in order ultimately to strike theblows of defeat. The capitalist political(Strategists of the .somewhat moderate type,jwill not be slow in taking advantage, forIheir own purposes, of this situation andhelp push the S. P. forward to extend its'influence and thus enable it to fulfill thatrole. These are ominous signs for the fu-ture. Bull firstly, success for such designshave to count with line tempo of .growingworking class consciousness which maybecome so accelerated as to confine the re-formist ideology to a rather brief period.Secondly, much depends upon the degree towhich the Communist movement can es-tablish its mass influence.

The S. P. and the Middle ClassWhom does the Socialist Party repre-

sent/ and of whom are its ranks composed?In the United States it has by no meansestablished the traditional influence upon•yorking class ideology or the broad massorganization enjoyed by the social democ-racy is the foremost European cuntries.In fact it became almost obliterated by the1919 split which resulted in the founding ofthe Communist movement. Ever since, itsexistence has been a rather obscure one,finding scant support largely from the low-er middle class strata with a sprinkling ofimmigrant trade union officialdom. Todaythe 'ia-:d pressed middle class, in its lowersections, the small business and profession-al man, becoming ."radicalized" by bank-ruptcies, are undoubtedly the first to hark-cn to the message of the S. P. But thereare also evidences of its penetration intoforking class ranks through trade unions,through gaining labor votes at election imesand otherwise. It is quite understandablethat among American workers, now devel-oping radical thoughts nourished by theunemployment crisis and consequent dis-illusionment with Republicans and Demo-crats, there should be many whose firststeps are directed towards support! for theSocialist Party.

In the United States the Socialist Partyhas as yeti no governmental responsibilities.It can therefore still afford to appear as an"opposition" party and keep a gentle rythmin accordance with the throbbing vibra-tions of the class struggle. With the cun-ning adroitness, which for a long time"distinguished" the more experienced Eur-opean social democrats their Americancounterpart has, since the beginning of thepresent crisis given much more fronti pagepublicity to demands for social insurance ingeneral and unemployment insurance inparticular. U is now inaugarating a sortof a national campaign for the six iiourday slogan. Naturally this is designed tocatch the mass sentiment and gain influ-ence among such workers just casting oftfrom their old moorings of capitalist ide-ology. Having had little experience in aproletarian movement such workers do notimmediately distinguish the objective role ofthe Socialist Party nor the fact! that itsleadership has not the slightest intentionof ever fighting for these demands. Theydo not as yet notice that the methods of theS. P. are not at all those of class struggletut merely of giving lip service to socialreforms in order to gain the mass influencenecessary to play its ordained role.

Growth of the S. P. is noticeable to-day in three main directions: First in in-creased votes obtained at local elections

By ARNE SWA6ECK

last year as demonstrated particularly inthe New York municipal elections. Un-doubtedly a goodly section of th« vote gainwas furnished by the working class. Se-condly, it is noticeable in extended influ-ence and control in certain trade unions,mainly through the re-establishment of theRight wing leadership in the needle tiradesunions at the expense of the formerly pow-erful Left wing under Communist Partyleadership. In these unions, where theworkers are generally further politicallyadvanced, the role of "socialist" union offi-cials has also developed to a "higher"stage. Hence the more outspoken auto-cratic conlirol; more outright, unconcealedco-operation with the bosses and their gov-ernment in the anti-Communist offensiveas well as in the severer suppression ofthe rank and file workers. More recently,through the C. P. L. A., the Socialist Partyis making inroads into other union fields,for example, in the miners union of the.Howat-Walker-Germer-Fishwick combina-tion.

Seemingly there is a paradox in thefact thati in such, unions, when comparedto the needle trades, the Socialist Partyelements appear in a more "progressive"position. However, ijt is a very naturalphenomenon completely in harmony withits flagrantly opportunist policy of winningmass influence and control and accordinglychange its methods and phraseology when-ever found advantageous. In these unionsof more distinct A. F. of L, type a "pro-gressive" front makes more rapid advancepossible. Secondly the Socialist leaders donot as yet consider Communist sentimentthere of sufficient strength to warrant aviolent attack. Such, however, will bethe course as soon as sufficient mass in-fluence has been gained, or in the eventof rapid growth of revolutionary sentimentamong the workers. The whole record ofthe "socialist!" needle trades union official-dom testifies to this.

The Socialist Party now claims a gainof 6,000 new members since September last,the founding of two new weekly paperson the Pacific Coast strengthening of idsgeneral press, greater leaflet distribution',revival of branch units in several sectionsof the country and more preparations modefor publicity, for participation in the Fallcongressional elections, etc. In the unem-ployment situation not only does it putforward "demands" for social insuranceand the shorter workday but in New Yorkand a couple of other points attempts havebeen made to create broad unemploymentconferences. These conferences had, ofcourse, no actual contact with the unem-ployed masses and were "safely" controlledfor the S. P. bureaucrats, nevertheless theygathered quite a substantial representa-tion from the trade unions and other work-ing class organizations.

Communists and UnemploymentOnly the Communists have actually drama-

tized the unemployment issue and begun toset masses into motion through the March6th demonstration and subsequently. Thatalone is a distinct service to the working .class cause and has increased Communistinfluence. But there are now seriousdangers that this motion, despite the in-

tensity and pressure of the crisis, may bediverted into social reformist channels bythe Socialist Party acquiring an ever moresolid organizational basis—-once more atthe expense of the Communist movement.Particularly does that danger- become ap-parent when the official Communist Partyadvances slogans, which at this time areentirely abstract and devoid of any revolu-tionary content, such as the slogan of the"political genera! strike". The same is trueof ita refusal to broaden the actual organ-ization o: the unemployment movementJjeyoud what can be gathered in under thetutelage of the "revolutionary unions", theT. IT. U. L. and the Party itself.

Thai the Socialist Party will not evenseriously struggle for its own reform de-mands has been amply demonstrated byexperience here and elsewhere. In the Eur-opean countries as the Social Democracygrew in mass influence and bourgeois re-spectability and in several places becamethe government, its upper hierarchy becamethe tools of capitalism to curtail the socialreform legislation already gained, to usethe state machinery of suppression to carryit through and to crash ite revolutionaryopposition. The social democratic govern-ments pursued exactly the same imperialistpolicies as their capitalist, predecessors inoffice.

One notable case in point jus* nowis the MacDonald government of ;ireat Bri-tain and it's attitude to the rebellion isIndia. MacDonald has decided to carry onmore openly the imperialist policiss andcrush the Indian rebellion. He does it con-scious of the fact that it will seriosly stim-ulate the rebellion going on within thelabor party against the reactionary leaders,a rebellion now already growing in mo-mentum. This is inevitable. It is inthe very nature of things f lowing from andbecoming the expression of IVrtuev in-creased economic pressure upon theworkers and growing inability of the so-cial system of wage slavery to feed themasses of the workers.

Within the American Socialist Partycan now be noticed some faint ripples,expressed in New York in proposals fora more "progressive" trade union policyand lor opposition to the black reactionarypolicy of the Daily Forward. Even theS. P. is not immune from the economicpressure upon the workers. But the pre-sent stupid attitude of the Stalinized Com-munist Party blankly characterizing it "so-cial fascism" strangles all possibilities oftaking advantage of such developments andplays directly into the hands of the Rightwing reformists. There could of course,be no reason whatever to place any relianceupon the leaders of the "oppositions" with-in Social Democracy, unless they wereready to break with that Ideology and ac-cept the revolutionary position. In Englandat this moment, for example, the "Left op-position" leaders take that position fearingthat the rapid swing to the Right, to thefull employment! of the imperialist forcesby ';he MacDonald government will too seri-ously compromise the cause of reformism.Hence they sound the alarm to save it.

In the United States, in a less developedstage, "Left opposition" leaders who appear

A National Tour (or the Communist LeagueThe end of this month will see the

first meeting in the national tour now be-ing organized by the Communist Leaguebranches throughout the country to hearreport by Max Shachtman on the Communistmovement in Europe, the International Con-ference of the Left Opposition that washeld in Paris a month ago, and his visitto Leon Trotsky in Turkey. ComradeShachtman has just come back from anextended slay in Erope and the comradesfrom all parts of the country have alreadywritten in asking for dates on which massmeetings can be arranged in their localities.This -:s the first national tour organize*by the Communist League, and it offers a

good opportunity for the strengthening ofthe Opposition

New Haven, Fri. May 30. Philadelphia,Saturday, May 31. Boton, Sun.-Mon. Jane1-2. Montreal, Tucs. June 3, T<>ronto,Wed.Thurs. June 4-5. Hamilton, Fri. June 6.Detroit, Sat-Sun. June 7-8. Chicago, Mon.-Tiies.-Wed,.T hurs. June 9, 10, 11, 12. Min-neapolis- St. Paul-Superior, Frl.-Sat, Sun.Mon.-Tues. June 13, U, la, 16, 17. KansasCfty, Thurs.-Fri.-Sat. June 19, SO, 21 St.Louis, Snn.-Mon. June 22-33. Springfield,Toes. June 24. Cleveland, WcKU-ThuTS.June 26-26. Pittsburgh, Fri. -Sat June 27-38

For further information on the tourwrite to 25 Third Avenue, New York, N.T.

within the S. P. fear that it is not basingItself sufficiently upon winning specificworking class influence to strengthen thecause of reformism and thus more effective-ly preventing the masses from marching toa revolutionary position. It is evidentthat such elements are weather cocks of thepressure upon the workers but iti is other-wise with the workers themselves who aresubject to the pressure. Those workerswho have taken the first step away fromtheir capitalist ideology and are going to-ward the S. P., as well as those who areclass conscious but temporarily disappoint-ed by set backs experienced, are preciselythe ones the Communist Party must win forthe revolutionary struggle. Whenever "Left1'oppositions" develop within the Social Dem-ocracy the ground becomes more favorablefor that task.

But above all the Communists insteadof lumping together all organizatioiio andgroups, based on social reformism, leadersand rank and file members, to be corabattedas social fascists, must make clear the roleof the Socialist Party. That is, to showthat in a period of beginning raclicalizatiouof the workers, the S. P. or sections of it.will take on a more radical appearance andmake n pretense of fighting for the needsof the workers illustrated now by ite "de-mands" for the six hour day and for social(unemployment )insurance. When the rad-ical wave rises to higher stages and Dieworkers move forward, actually pressingfor their needs, the S. P. will becomeeven more of an open brake upon the move-ment. When the workers go over to rev-olutionary action for their needs (he S.P.will finally reveal itself in the open as amost ardent defender of capitalism, . usingall the means of force ot the capitaliststate to suppress the workers' action. TliUis the history of Social, Democracy andthere can be no other role for a "Pa!' y notbased upon the proletarian revoliilior.

For Correct Policy Towards .SociitlisUThe ebb and flow of the movement are

part of the natural laws of motion whichMarxists will not fail to understand. How-ever, to continue shutting their eyes to U)i.<*and the failure to apply correct policies inthis respect by the Stalinized CommunistParty, can in a large measure be respon-sible for any additional lease of life givento social reformism and for the strengthen-ing of the role of the S.P. as an instrumentto attempt to suppress the proletarian revo-lution.

It becomes quite evident that preciselytoday, in the unemployment crisis in theUnited States, the most effective method ofconcretely and practically demonstratingto the working masses exactly what the-position of the S. P. is, would be for CheCommunist Party to make all efforts towin socialist workers for a united fronton unemployment demands. Moreover, abroad united front with all workers, includ-ing those of the socialist ideology is animperative necessity.

The S.P. leaderhip would not acceptthis, which would only -aid in clarifyingreformist workers. With the strupgle goingforward, their exposeure could be facilitatedand the influence of social reformism limit-ed accordingly. However, it is hardly rea-sonable to expect that) the present Com-munist Party leadership would be able topursue s-uch a policy, which would havereal revolutionary content. At least notuntil the "third period" gymnastics havebeen eliminated.

It is perhaps well once more to em-phasize what comrade Trotsky has alreadypointed out: that conditions of developmentin the U. S. are now such that the classstruggle may become sharply intensified toa quick tempo, wiMi turbulent upheavalsWhat will it bring to the workers? Victory,in the sense of marking a step forward to astronger position from which more effec-tively to continue the struggle, or .defeat,in the sense of giving the movement anactual setback? This in a large measuredepends upon the ability of the ComnuinistParty to prevent the extension of the i n f l u -ence of social reformism upon the worker.-*and to assemble them, instead u n d e r i! iaCommunist banner.

Saturday, May 17, 1930.THE MILITANTPage f 8

. CT. W.

Hillman's Record forTorontoIt is now over five years since the

Right wing has been in complete control inthe Amalgamated. Have conditions of tiheworkers been improved? No! Conditionsin New York are worse today than ever.The^ clothing workers work under the mostinhuman conditions. Hillman went a stepfurther than "standards of production", andreductions in wages. With the aid of localpoliticians he forced piece work on theNew York tailors, although tlio workersrejected it at meetings. The liberal andsocialist press hailed this move as a vic-tory for the workers.

The Times not long ago carried an ar-ticle by Louis Stark: "Amalgamated unionand employers celebrate this week the suc-cess o£ the 'Impartial machinery' which hasimproved industrial relations and settleddisputes.

HHlmiui's Kind of Labor Tuify

"Next "Wedneday evening the New YorkClothing Manufacturer's Exchange will behost at a dinner ti about 1,000 engaged inthe manufacturing of men's clothing, lead-ing officers of the Amalgamated Clothing.Workers of America and a group of distin-guished guests interested in human relationsin industry.

"The dinner will celebrate the fifthanniversary of the founding of the impartialmachinery of the men's clothing industryin New York under the chairmanship ofJacob Billikoff, economist, social workerand pioneer in industrial relations.

"Without strikes or lockouts the im-partial machinery, sometimes called 'a lab-oratory of human understanding', has func-tioned smoothly and efficiently because theunion has embraced the labor view of con-structive rights and responsibilities to in-dustry and because the employers have•welcomed such a constructive cooperation.

"The discussion on the qfaestion ofpiece work continued for three years dur-ing the course of which the inadequacies ofthe system of production standards becameapparent to both sides. A year and a halfago the union consented to the revolution-ary step of going on a piece work basis."(See the New York Times, Special Features,December 1, 1929).

This article by Louis Stark shows thatthe Amalgamated officers together with theemployers celebrated the victory they hadachieved at the expense of the workers.Yes, the Amalgamated doesn't believe instrikes any more. The impartial machinery.works smoothly and efficiently. This is true.For whom? For the bosses! Yes, theemployers have welcomed Hillman's con-structive cooperation. It pays the employ-ers. I agree with Louis Stark when hesaid Hillman's union "consented to therevolutionary step of going on a piece workbasis." Have the workers given their con-sent? No! What the employers could notget when they fought the Amalgamated for26 weeks in 1921, they got through Hill-man's good will and constructive leadership.It is no wonder that Hillman gets medalsfrom capitalist institutions while the work-ers get matzohs for Passover.

Not long ago I saw a circular sent!out to the clothing workers by the threelargest local unions, 5, 3 and 2, signed bythe secretaries and local officers. In thecircular they stated, "Brothers, arise! donot stand aside. A movement to lift thetailor from his deplorable conditions beganthrough the united tihree Jewish ExecutiveBoards. The time is not far distant whenour trade will be lifted up again to theextenti that we could with pride recall thename 'Amalgamated' in the city of NewYork. We need your help and cooperation."

These local unions have been controlledby the Right wing for the last few yearssince Hillman began his expulsion policies.These local officers helped Hillman to forceon the workers the piece work system.These charlatans who are responsible forthe present conditions because they helpedHillman to bring about these miserableconditions, ask the tailors for help' and

Moreover, letters can be seen daily inthe Right wing press, the Forward and theDay, abou'J the intolerable conditions piecework brought to the workers. I will quoteone half of a letter. "I was a long time amember of the Amalgamated. A lot ofworkers know me well. I was one of thebest workers and earned a good living.But) when the union began her businessventures, and neglected the union, I couldno longer make a living, and had to leaveNew Y7ork.

"Now 1 am in a small town of 1,500inhabitants, only Gentiles. I am the onlyJew. If I were in New York today, withthe Amalgamated, 1 would surely be in thesame position and would need relief forPassover. I am very sorry that they madea beggar out of the tailor." (The Day,March 26, 1930). These facts prove whatHillman and his henchmen made out ofthe Amalgamated under their regime. Hill-man not only destroyed the best of theworkers in the Amalgamated, he destroyedits very soul.

The only ones who are making a livingin the Amalgamated today are the staff, theeditors and the boosters (1 mean the penslaves).

The outside world and the intellectualsstill consider the Amalgamated a radicaland progressive organization. Where dothey get their information 1 They go tolunches, and dinners given by the employ-ers in conjunction with the union officials.They interview Hillman, Billikoff, the pres-ident) of the Clothing Manufacturers Ex-change, etc. This is how they get theirinformation. Then they edit journals andclaim they give their readers facts, thattihey are the authorities on labor problems,also on research work. How can thesepeople give facts when they were never ina shop, and never investigated conditions?These professors or economists merely re-peat what one person, Hillman told themwhen tihey dined together. At least theyshould go into a few shops and interviewemployers and workers alike. If not theyought to go into different union officeswhere workers assemble, talk to tdiem,hear their grievances and sentiments. ThisI would call facts and research. Otherwisethey deceive their readers when they saytihey give them facts. This stuff they givetheir readers is fake, not facts.

Did Hillman ever tell his publicity agentsabout corruption and graft thati is going onin his organization? A few months agoHillman removed Harry Cohen with hisgang for taking graft. Hillman just dis-covered that Harry Cohen is a crook. Imentioned with quotations (see last Mil-itnat) from the Advance that Cohen wastried and condemned by a committee for ta-king checks. Who took II. Cohen backinto the Amalgamated to sell out the work-er? Hillman took him back. H. Cohensold cotton and unionism tio the clothingmanufacturers. Nevertheless, without re-turning to the trade, Cohen was installedonce more on the union payroll within ashort period after the Chicago Convention.During the Cohen affair in 1921 Hillman ata meeting in Manhattan Lyceum said, "H.-Cohen can never come back Into the or-ganization without stepping over my deadbody." Schlossberg said he would resignbefore he would sign pay checks for H.Cohen. You can see how they kept) theirpromise. Are they doing it for principle?

After seven years of taking graft andhelping to destroy the New York organiza-tion, Harry Cohen was again removed withhis staff for taking graft. H. Cohen ig-nored the summons and did not appearbefore the committee. The question is,why did noti Hillman try these grafters?The answer must be that Hillman did notwant the outside world and those intel-lectuals to know how much dirt there isin the Amalgamated. H. Cohen left enoughgrafters in the union to go on with theirwork without! fear. J. B. Hardman, the penslave, writes about cleanliness in the Amal-gamated, Can you beat it? Do the liberal

and intellectual boosters know anythingaboutl it?

The ninth biennial convention will beheld in May, in Toronto, Canada. Whatare the achievements the Amalgamated canshow for the lastl few years? The pub-licity agents, the pen slaves, will do theirbest for their masters. They will showthe wonders the Amalgamated has done inthe Philadelphia campaign and the unem-ployment insurance which Hillman's unionbrought the workers for the last few years.Let us examine the Philadelphia situationfirst.

What have the workers gained sinceHie Amalgamated came into Philadelphia?The Amalgamated press and the boosterscould not show what the workers gained.When I was in 1-hiladelphia I met a for-mer manager of the Amalgamated in arestaurant, for the last few years a man-ager for the clothing manufacturers. Hetook an active part in the Amalgamatedcampaign in Philadelphia and made a dollaror two. I asked him how it was possibleto organize the Philadelphia market. Heanswered , "The Amalgamated spent) overa million dollars and we made the workersjoin the union." I asked him what have theworkers gained by it? He answered again,"Fool, don't you know the Amalgamatedmust convince the employers it will paythem to deal with the union?" I askedhim, How will the Amalgamated get backthe money they spent? "Through dues andtaxes," he answered. Now I understandwhat the workers in Philadelphia gained:the-check-off system, speed up and efficiencywhich will throw a few hundred workersout of the shops.

What about unemployment insurance?Well, unemployment insurance is a goodthing but the way it is conducted in theAmalgamated it) is only of use to the crooks,not the majority of the workers. I willcite a fact and let the pen prostitutes ofthe Amalgamated deny it. In New York,each local received a sum of money topay out to the workers in unemploymentinsurance. So Harry Cohen's gang received$8,000. They paid out $5,000 to all theworkers and took $3,000 for themselves,Do you see how smoothly things work inthe Amalgamated? These are the achieve-ments with which the union comes to theToronto convention.

Hillman comes to the Toronto conven-tion when thousanls of workers are suffer-ing from unemployment. The best workershave been expelled or squeezed out throughHillman's "efficiency". There will be noopposition at this convention because allopposition was crushed by Hillman andbecause the Left wing had either a badpolicy or none at all.

No opposition, except) the rivalry be-tween Beckerman and the Forward gang onthe one hand and the Hillman machine onthe other. The serious business of theconvention is to be a "new balance of pow-er" between these rivals.

What) can the workers expect from thisconvention? Nothing! The boys and theirguests will have'a good time at the expenseof the tailors, playing whoopee, banquetingand boozing. it is the after-conventionperiod that is important for that iswhen the Left) wing will again be con-fronted with the need of organizing for thefight. Let the lessons of tihe past be ourguide to the future. —A. SCHNEIDER

TROTJBCy'fBOOK

Do you want to get a copy, free UKcharge, of "My Life" by Leon Trotsky? voyou want to get the book which is arous-ing such enormous interest in the revolu-tionary movement in Europe and America?Many workers anxious to have it are un-employed. They can geti it in spite of that.The Militant is offering a c6py free to anyworker who turns into its office TEN yearlysubscriptions or TWENTY six-month sub-criptions to the paper. Approach yourfriends and fellow workers. The sub fora year is $2.00; for six months it is $1.00.Collect the subs and the money, forwardthem to the office and get your copy of theAutobiography, which has been called Trqt-sky's greatest work, absolutely free ofcharge. This $5.00 book is yours for thelittle effort required to get the subs—orrenewals.

OK YOU CAN liKT A FREE COPY OF

This book is> also available free otcharge tp all workers. Here you will fin4the . uly Englisa translation of the famousPlatf' rm of the Russian Opposition, sup-pressed by Stalin, and Trotsky's letter ex-posing the falsifications of the History ofthe Russian revolution and the CommunistParty. You will also find here the im-portant Testament of Lenin. It is a $2.00book but you can get it free from theMilitlant by turning in 5 yearly subscrip-tions (at $2.00 each) or 10 six-month subs(at ?1.00 each). Rr.ewals are accepted.

>VE ALSO OFFER A FREE COPY

Since Hlenin DiedThis book by Max Eastman was the first

work in the English language to tell thetruth about the struggle in the Russian

ommunist Party between the Oppositionled by Trotskv, on the one hand, and Zin-oviev, Kamenev, Bucharin, Stalin on theother. You will have an excellently drawnpicture of the beginings of this fight .ifterreading this book. The Militant has suc-:eeded in getting the last few do?;n copies

of this book, of which no other editionexists. It has been sent) to us from Eng-land, the American edition being exhausted.It sells for $1.00, but you can get it fre.e ofcharge by turning in 3 yearly subs (at$2.00 each) or 6 six-month subs (at $1.00each).

Send All Subscriptions and Funds to

The Militant25 Third Avenue, New York City

M BE

( Continued from page 1 )

Hughes, a Negro, in the local court, housevault. Like the National Guard and StateMilitiamen in other states, the Texas Ran-ger are always available at a moment'snotice, with pistols, machine guns and tearbombs, to charge into the ranks of workersstriking or fighting for a minimum livingstandard. That is what they exist for: thedefense of bosses "law" and the "order"of capitalism. But when bloodthirty mon-sters are on a lynching bee, . the law-abiding Rangers— if they are on hand atall — excercize their book-sworn duty byseeing that the savage rnob conducts thelynching in as quiet and undisturbed amanne as possible. Neediest! to ndd that

nobody will pay the penalty for the barbar-ous murder. Lynching ie not only the ap-proved "extra-legal method of the Bour-bon South, but also of democratic Massa-chusets and pioneer Washington. George,Hughes, Wesley Everest, Sacco and Van-zctti are all victims of an identcal cap-italist justice. The greater brutality of theSouth is provoked by the anxiety of theSouthern bourgeoisie to keep the Negroesterrorized in order to prevent them fromcoordinating their enormous potentialstrength for the overthrow of wage slav-ery. Better than the white worker, th«white masters know the Negro can be OUTstrongest ally in struggle. A common^bitter struggle of white and Negro laboi1

p gainst the horror of lynching and JimTrowism therefore, is imperatively neces-sary.

Page 8 T H E M I L I T A N T oatiurday May 17, 1930.

Biography and Revolutionary Struggle

The struggle of the factions in theComintern is in the last analysis a strug-gle of the classes. Once more the revolu-tionary Marxists are a persecuted and cal-umniated minority in the International theyfounded and rolshevism an upstream cur-rent in the revolution it created. Thisturn of eveno.3 can only deter those whofail to understand the dialectic process.History obstinately refuses to flow in thesmooth and unruffled channels marked outfor it by Fabiaa doctrinaires of "gradual-ism". Only in the brain of a Bucharin isit possible to "abstract" the Soviet Unionfrom the development of world economyand the correlation of class forces.

Two Phases of the October KevolutiouThe October Revolution falls into two

phases separated by the death of Lenin.The first was the stage of the conquest ofpolitical power and the military and econ-omic consolidation of the proletarian dic-tatorship through tSie instrumentality ofthe conscious Communist vanguard. Thesecond phase is marked by the growth ofthe elements of dual power, the economicadvances of t'he urban and rural petty bour-geoisie the subjection of the Party to thebureaucracy, the replacement of the lineof Communism by Centrism.

To screen their back-sliding the Partybureaucrats had resort to the invention andcampaign against "Trotskyism". Lenin whowas safely embalmed in a mausoleum couldbe disregarded by the bureaucrats butTrotsky remained as the living symbol ofthe heroic phase of October. To destroyhis immense revolutionary authority there-fore became the bureaucrats' prime con-cern. To this end history and biographywere monstrously perverted. An Englishcritic's definition of history as a "Missisippiof falsehoods" was never more fully meritedthan by the conscienceless fabrications oftihe school of Stalin.

The powerful sweep of L. D. Trotsky sAutobiography leaves the whole tissue offraud and misrepresentations woven by theofficial theoreticians in shreds and tatters.In the light of this memorable work howpitiful even to his own faction must appearthe scurrilities with which a YaroslavskyHke the Fat Boy in Dickens, seeks to makeour flesh creep. The motley careers ofthose who sat in judgement on the Opposi-tion, wearing the saintly oareole of the"Old Guard" are here passed in mercilessreview. Concurrently the organizer of theRed Army sets out the course of the de-velopment which led to his complete fusionof goal and method with Lenin in the sup-reme crisis of October. The biographicaltest, Trotsky once declared to an Opposition-baiting plenum is not decisive. Bern-stein who was the literary executor of En-gels wound up as a rabid revisionist. FranzMehring who approached Marx in a criticalspirit ended in the camp of Spartacus. Butif biography is indeed to be treated as thecriterion, then let us have exact biographynot of Trotsky alone but of all concerned.

The owl of Minerva, that bird of wis-dom, takes flight when the dusk gathers,runs a familiar saying of Hegel. The tem-porary cloud on the October Re^ olution isthe last thing any of us desire J but thefacs being what they are, the theoretical andpolitical contributions of Trotsky since hisstruggle with the epigones began, are ofinestimable service in the education of awhole generation of younger larxists. His-torical Materialism is no philosophy ofblind impersonal forces. In reply to thecriticism of the Gotha program, the olderLiebknecht declared that Marx stood highin hie esteem but "the party stands higher".This is the veriest fetishinn, creating anentirely false antithesis between party andprinciple, beween organization and lead-ership. The clioice of leaders is as in-escapable today as when it had to be madebetween Marx and Bakunin, between Leninand Plschanov, between Rosa Luxemburgand Xautsky. The Autobiography beforeus perfectly fulfills the requirements ofLassalle's dictum that the beginning andend of all great political action lies in thestatement of that which is. Trotsky is

the heir to the revolutionary legsKV ofMarx and Lenin.

Bolshevism did not spring fully grownand accoutred like Pallas Athene from thehead of Jove in the Greek fable. "Russia."wrote Lenin, "has attained Marxism.. .bydint of fifty years travail and sacrifice...Thanks to the emigration forced by theCzar, revolutionary Russia in the secondhalf of the 19th century came into posses-sion of rich international connections, ofthe grasp of superlative forms and theoriesof the revolutionary movements abroad asno other country had. . . "The road ofBolshevism runs through the struggle withthe populisO Narodniki, syndicalist "econ-omism", ultra-Left "otsovism", and Men-shevik and 'conciliatory' opportunism".But not the least of t'he obstacles it hadto clear cut of its path was the conserva-tism of tlie "old Bolsheviks" who morethan once, declared Lenin, have played amelancholy role in the history of our Partyby repeating senieless and obsolete for-mulae.

These preliminary struggles of Bol-shevism have significance only as theyserve to prepare the Party for the conquestof political power. Not one of the epigoneswho called themselves the "Old Guard"measured up to the demands of the gr^atOctober ordeal. Not-one had advanced be-yond the position of a Left democrat priorto the arrival of Lenin and his April Theses.The slogan of the democratic dictatorshipof the proletariat and peasantry as Leninconceived it bore two aspects, one thatlooked to the past and the other to the fu-ture. The epigones only saw the pa:t ofthis slogan. They were prepared for nomore than bourgeois revolution, thati isRussia a free market, no repudiation of for-eign debts, no assistance to tihe interna-tional proletarian revolution, no national-isation of the means of production.

If according to Lenin t'he role of Zin-Oviev and Kamenev was no accident, nei-ther could it be an accident that from thedistance of New York, Trotsky reached thesame conclusions regarding the revolution-ary motive forces as Lenin in Switzerland.On March 19, 1917 Trotsky wrote fromAmerica: "In this struggle the proletariat

ought to unite about itself the rising mass-es of the people with one aim in view—to seize governmental power." And threedays later: "If the first "Russian Revolutionin 1905 brought' t.bout the revolutions iuAsia, in Persia. Turkey, China, the se-cond Russian revolution will be the begin-ning of powerful revolutionary struggle inEurope..." Trotsky found himself in abso-lute accord with the April theses. He hadremained outside the Bolshevik faction be-cause he feared a tendency would de-velop within it to limit the revolution todemocratic objectives. Fortunately the lineof Lsnin and the elan of the masses provedstronger than the democratic Right wingwhich did indeed crystallize. History fusedthe theory which is anathema to all bureau-crats—the permanent revolution—with thefundamental strategy of Leninism.

The Usurpation by the BureaucratThe crisis in the International begins

with the usurpation of power by the bureau-crats. The struggle to put an end to thealternative zig-zngs of opportunism andadventurism is inextricably linked up withthe struggle for a correct Party regime.The base of the leadership iu the SovietUnion has become more dangerously nar-rowed. When Marx characterized Bakuninhe anticipated Lenin's characterization ofStalin. Marx wrote: "Theoretically he isa cipher but ; ; a schemer he is in hisele.nent." To leave a disloyal figure likeStalin at the helm is. as experiences amplydemonstrate, to court disaster for the revo-lution. The Party regimes in the varioussections of the Comintern have been madeover in his image—a bureaucracy temperedonly by fear of the Opposition.

I£ the policy of the Comintern official-dom in the period of the British GeneralStrike and the Chinese Revolution was atragedy, that oi' the so-called "Third Per-iod" has the elements of a tragic fr.rc'e.What laust be clone? We recall that therewas another "third period" away back in1902, when Lenin was fighting one who isa present theoretician of Stalinism, namelyMartiuov. To the question, what must wedo, Lenin wrote: "We must give the briefreply: "LIQUIDATE THE THIRD PERIOD"(N. Lenin. 1902.—"Que Faire"—Paris1925). And we must add, liquidate the as-cendancy of the epigones, purge the pro-gram of the Comintern of national Social-ism, and restore the Bolshevik-LeninistOpposition to its rightful position in theParty. —MAURICE SPECTOR

T. U. MJ. BL.

«Mass Work» in PhillyThe present state 'of the newly created

North Philadelphia branch of the T.U.U.L..the membership of which has fallen awayto te.i within a few weeks, is another :.mallbut instructive instance of the havoc being'wrough in all Party organizations 'hrouglistupid bureaucratic control.

This branch takes in the proletarian.Kensington area and was started on theinitiative of a few enthusiastic workers, ofwhom only one was a Party member. Bydint of hard campaigning, and without thaleast help from the crackpot T. U. U. L,'•organizer", Murdock, or the other Stalin-ist' job-holders, they built up a membershipof thirty native-born workers and were in afair way to make things hum around herewhen the bureaucrats stepped in.

The Vuetf Strait-JacketThey laced the branch in a strait-jacket:

programs and policies worked out behindclosed doors at the Party headquarters wereliterally jammed down its throat; anythingnot contained in them was taboo. Demo-cratic election of functionaries and com-mittee, free discussion from the floor,suggestions for real organizational work,objections to the brazen company unionprocedure were squelched at once. Seeingthat in the eyes of the bureaucrats theywere not self-reliant workers but sucklingbabes, the disgusted members began drop-ping out by squads.

As was pointed out. recently in thaMilitant, the Kensington a*ea is panting,for organization. The workers there aresavagely exploited t?:ctile slaves of Irish -American and German-American stock witha pr jud and militant history. But neitherduring the reign of the Trotsky-phobiacBenjamin, nor since, wijj the TrimmerGardos on the throne, have the Party offi-cials raised an eyebrow in its direct ion.The only part played by them in the heroicAberle mill strike was that of war corres-pondents behind the firing line, sendingpreposterous bulletins to the Daily Workerabout their wholly fictiuious "leadership"of the strikers. And when through theefforts of rank and filers who tooolc the"recruitment! campaign" of the T. V. U. L.seriously organization in Kensington wasactually begun, they promptly orusheil it todeath. —J. ARC'T]!Pv v : !<O

Proposes Fight for Jobless in Chicago Labor Bo&yCHICAGO—

The Chicago Federation of Labor nowtypical of central bodies of the A. F. of L.and quite oblivious of its past militant tra-dition, has shown a decided fear of ven-turing into as much as a discussion of thepresent unemployment crisis. Neverthelessat its meeting, held May 4, a discussiondid take place, initiated by comrade ArneSwabeck, who has been a delegate from thepainters' union for a number of years.

At the early part of this meeting a com-mittee previously appointed macie a reporton prospects for the establishment of adaily labor paper, to be published by thefederation, recommending that as a nec-essary condition for a daily the present!weekly publication be first extended in cir-culation. In the discussion ensuing severalof the delegates who spoke emphasized theneed of reviving the militant spirit of thepast and voiced some criticism of the pre-sent trade union officialdom in general.

It was upon the conclusion of this de-bate that a letter was read proposing thatthe Chicago Federation of Labor join iu theefforts now being made unitedly by thesocial charities, the Illinois State Fed-eration of Labor and various civic bodies,including the Chamber of Commerce, to con-duct an investigation of the free employ-ment agencies. Upon a question beingasked the president, Fjtzpatrick, explainedthat what we are after is not so much toinvestigate the^ free employment agenciesbut rather the "fee" empolyment agencieswhich are completely interlocked with thesuperintendents and managers of the bigcorporations in getting a rakeoff from theworkers when placing anybody in employ-ment.

At this point comrade Swabeck se-

cured the floor and turned the attentiontowards the real problem—the unemploy-ment crisis. He said: "If the connectionsof the 'fee' employment agencies are asstated by president Fitepatrick, which Ibelieve to be a correct statement, I cannotsee what the Chicago Federation of Laborcan expect to accomplish in an investigationto be conducted jointly with the Chamber ofCommerce, as the main object of this bodywill naturally be to protect such institu-tions and to clamp the lid down on any ex-posure of this form of racketeering. Itiwould be much more appropriate for thefederation to conduct an investigation of itsown. Not only that but to look up the un-employment situation in general.

"It is about time for the Chicago Fed-eration of Labor and for the trade unionmovement as a whole to concern itself withthis question. It has done nothing so far toendeavor to protect the workers' interestsin this situation or even to begin to fightfor the measures which could to an extentbecome alleviating nud which nave be-come a pressing need. The American Fed-eration of Labor leadership has done ab-solutely nothing ir a concrete way. It' haseven proceeded, true to its reactionaryposition, to oppose any form of direct un-employment insurance.

"I can think of three important mea-sures which the Chicago Federation ofLabor can take up a fight for in order tobring some relief to the unemploymentsituation. First, to take up the fight forunemployment insurance. Those who havedone the productive work but cannot nowfind jobs are entitled to it . Secondly, totake up the demand everywhere for theshorter workday, i do not mean merelythe five day week, but the seven hour day.

or the six hour day, whatever is necet'cur/to bring the relief needed. Thirdly, thaSoviet Union, which is now engaged inbuilding up industry for its workers is iuneed of large scale credit to enable it to buymachinery and material and you know theSoviet Union is the only country which hasinsisted upon union made products. Thiscountry has enormous funds available fathe control of Wall Street which could beused for such a purpose. It would be aworthy cause for American labor to take ui>this demand and bring its mass pressureto bear upon Wall Street to grant suchcredits with which machinery and materialcan be bought in America produced bythe American workers and thus not onlystrengthen the bonds between the workersof these two countries but also be a greatfactor In helping to relieve unemployment!here."

The motion was put. and carried. Tlii»debate was closed when president Fit/.i.at-rick, using the "privilege" of making a,statement from the chair, got up and ad-ministered one of his notorious backhandedslaps. He tried to accuse comrade Swabeckof not being sincere, of being an obstruc-tionist and a destructionist who had donaeverything in his power to destroy thaAmerican Federation of Labor. Some ar-dent claquers immediately began poundingthe palms of their hands, but when the gen-eral audience failed to follow it died quick-ly as a fizzle.

When comrade Swabeck left the hal lseveral rank and fiie delegates came tohim to shake hands as a token of theiragreement. One remarked: "A dirty slamis no answer and the correctness of yourarguments could not be oor.tradio1.'---1 "

"•8