The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-06-24
SOCIALISTS
  HOLD ANNUAL CONVENTION

Detroit, Mich, June 23-Interna- tional relations of the socialist par ty and the disputed question of affil- Iaion with the Russian SovistS will be the para mount problems when the socialis national convention opens in Northeastern High school Saturday. The executive committee meets here tomorrow to complete the conven- ton plans.
 The radical left wing has prepared
 to make it's stand on a motion for complete acceptance of the condi- tions laid down by Moscow for af- filation of American socialists with the Third International, but conser- Tative party leaders predict that ex- tremists will muster not more than five of the conventions fifty votes on this motion.
 Moscow's terms. 21 in all, include
 abandonment of the party name in ica,' expulsion of Morris Hillquft, of New York, who is convention dele gate, and all other moderates and ! petty bourgeois elements; and ab- solute submission to the Communist 1 international Congress at Moscow. | Three other motions relating to in | ternational affiliations have been in 1 cluded in the convention agenda- One l Russians in hope of more favorable | terms. It is opposed by Otto Bran | stetter, national secretary, Morris | HiHquit and other moderateS a waste of time. Another resolution proposes utilization with the recently | formed International Working Union | of Socialist Parties, organized at Vi enna by the British Labor union, the | Longuet faction in France. Swiss | and Austrian socialists. German in dependents and various Balkan fac tions. The conservatives are ex- | pected to support either this reso- | utiOn a fourth. which
 The Socialist party of the United States considers that it's paramount duty is to build a powerful, revolu- tionary, Socialist organization in this country. Until this task is ac- complished it is resolved to
 remain without international affilia- tions.''
 A second fight is expected to break tional executive committee to expel all socialists endorsing the Third (Cpmmunist) International. or advo- eating utilization herewith
 J. Louis Engdahl. editor of the Chicago Socialist and one of the
 left wing delegates of the convention, recently issued a statement attacking this resolution which, he said, is spon- sored by Otto Branstetter, the na-
 tional secretary For two years
 now the party off1cialdom has been
 busy eNpelling and driving out the
 party those comrades who have talk
 en stand with the Third Interna-
 tional,'' Engdah1 said. Yet the desire for utilization with the Inter national is still alive among what re-
 mains of the paty'S dwindHng ranks"
 >Branstetter, in reply, denied that any members had been expelled since the communist split two years ago, when 35.000 socialists were thrown out
 The justification for the reso1u- tion, and for it's adoption and en- forcement," Branstetter said, ''is
 found in the proclamation of the Communist International refusing our application for utilization, which contains the following: soa,o1 Workers: Leave the American and ours. Already in America there is a revolutionary Dsrty. the United Communist Party. the American sec ton of the Communist International These are our true comrades Thou sands of them have suffered for the Revolution. This is the party osf rhr revolutionary working class. Join the United Communist Partyr" The conservatives have another resolution defining political action by
 the socialists as participation in
 elections for public office and prac- tical legislative and administrative
 work" while the left wing will pre- sent an alternative motion which de-
 fines political action as "any organ ized, concerted endeavor on the part
 of the working class to influence the process of governnl
 The two factions are also opposed on the question of the Soviet system. The left wing will move it's even tua1 adoption in America, while the Branstetter group sponsors a motion which says:
 '@The Socialist Party is opposed to the establishmet of a Soviet form of government in the United States be- cause it is a system of delegated pow CT which drives the working class of any direct voice in the election nf r-oSnnnSih1a T1IIh1 off Is
 A motion on immigration favors a free movement of immigrants, ex- cept when artifical1y stimulated for the purpose of flooding the labor market or of breaking strikes"
 The convention is expected to last five days.