The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-06-25

accepted. In the sentence. ga Com.
munist who belongs to the A. F. of L.,
on account of absolute job necessity
should size every opportunity to voice
his hostility to this organization,
not to reform it but to destroy it, "
there was eliminated the phrase "on
account of absolute job necessity"
The sentence, ga stronger 1. W. W.
must be built" was stricken out.
The unity issued flared up again
on the question of party name. On
the first vote there were 90 count
ed for Communist Party "a against.
A roll call was demanded; The G. P.
names were read first; 80 votes were
recorded for Communist Party
The G. L. P. delegates resented
what they considered coercive
vote without any chance for discussion.
An indignation speech was made by
Flynn which proved the moral power of
effective minority criticism with the
opening of the next session came a
ballot vote on "United Communist
Party" or Communist Party" with
"united" written underneath. The
vote was 33 to % for "United Com
munist Party"
This appeared to the real achieve
ment of unity, the breakdown of the
old party lines. But there were still
the elections.
Two important debates came under
the consideration of the Constitution,
one on party Capitalization, the other
on federations.
In the first instance the issue of
Capitalization came up on the amend
ment making the G. E. G. appointment
and removal of organizers subject to
the approval of the district executive
committees. On the one side it was
argued that this meant the substitu.
tion of autonomous districts for auto
nomous federations, a central executive
shorn of real authority and real cap
ability of action; that democracy was
not to be obtained by decentralization
but only by some effective means for
control of the central authority; that
district committees would lend them
selves more easily to factional manipu-
lation than the central committee elect
ed in national convention by dele.
gates well known to the members. It
was urged that an underground party
must have the possibility of instant
decision and action by small commit.
tee; 1t must act as single machine,
else 1t can never strike a decisive
blow
Lack of confidence in officials was
argument. The party affairs, it was
urged, must be brought nearer to the
control of the rank and file. The
central committees had been the
breeding place of factional contro-
versies. 1t was not asking much to
give the district committees a
veto in the choice of the organizers
upon whom their work depended.
Upon the first vote the amendment
was declared adopted. 1t then appeared
that some Of the delegates had mis-.
conceived the proposition to be one of
appointing all organizers "from the
top downward" that is, sub district
section, branch and group organizers
as well as the district organizers. A
motion to reconsider was made and
declared lost. Then followed keen
parliamentary battle, led by Damon,
which finally resulted-after three rol
ealls-in reversal Of the original
vote, 81 to 20.
On the federation question the Joint
Committee had come to no agreement
In curious contrast to the history of
last Summer, it was tho CLIP com.
mittee members who were loath to take
o rigorous stand against federations
At the convention the G. L. P. deleg.
ates took no group stand on this ques
tion. Two plans were presented, one
for the c. P. delegates by Damon, the
other by Dubner and Raphailoff for
the federation members of the G. L. p.
The debate was largely between the
federation delegates on both sides
The principal controversy was as 10
the existence of national executive