The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-17


slogan ''for farmer-labor party is
raised by whom? BY the Workers Par
ty. Who is going to advocate it and
fight for 1T? Again, the Workers Par
ty. Now, then, why does it not en-
ter Comrade Bimba's mind that, UNI
der these conditions, the slogan ''for
farmer-labor party" will Immediately
become Unidentified with the slogan
for a Communist Party" and that
whatever objections the masses have
to following the lead Of the Workers
Party these masses will equally have
to following the lead of the farmer
labor party Comrade Bimba knows
that this is so. Only he believes that
somehow and in some mysterious way
the sound "farmer-labor" will be more
pleasing to the ears Of the masses
than the sound workers Party"
1t is very, very funny. We seem to
be reaching a stage when our policies
are to be determined by musical mys-
teries instead of by an analysis of So
cial forces and political situations.
The logic of the minority, expressed
very simply by Comrade Bimba. is
merely this: The combination Of the
words farmer-Iabor will be digested
by the masses easier than the COM
bination of another group of words.
Therefore, farmer-labor party.
And, mind you, Comrade Bimba is
not totally blind to facts. He sees, for
instance, the important fact that a
great many workers voted for Mr..
LaFollette because they were told and
they themselves believed that they
were voting for independent political
action" In other words, those work
ers who felt the need for new party
believe that the LaFollette movement
| is going to bring them that party.
Comrade Bimba will have to agree
that these workers are wrong only in
one thing, namely, in their expecta-
ton that a LaFollette party will be
beneficial to the workers. But how
are you going to disabuse the minds
of the workers from this Illusion?
Surely not by preaching the abb
Why? Because to advocate now a
farmer-labor party as against LaFol-
Iette party is the same as advocating
the Communist Party. And if the
slogan ''for a Communist Party" can
have no mass appeal how will Com.
munist farmer-labor party have such
an appeal?
Comrade Bimba would do we'll to
read again the thesis of the c. e. G.
He will find there that the way to
drive wedge between the workers
and LaFollette is not by advocating
another name for the Workers Party,
but by mobilizing the masses for
struggle for such economic and polltl-
cal demands as will expose LaFollet-
te's hostility to the workers. Not by
changing names but by engaging in
elementary struggles will you raise
the consciousness of the American
workers and build your own party.
LaFollette is ALREADY" DiscredIted.
You, comrades, may not know 1t
that "the LaFollette movement is al
ready discredited in many ways" but
Comrade Candida knows. He says
so in his article, why / am for the
Minority" published in the Daily
on December 18th.
! Now, this is a totally different
proposition. If the class-struggle in
the United States has gone so far as
to discredit in many ways the LaFol-
lette movement in the eyes of the
workers, then we are actually nearing
a revolutionary situation in America.
Comrade Candida simply failed to
draw the proper conclusions from his
analysis of the political situation.
The Communist International ad-
heres to the following theory that
when the petty-bourgeois, reformist
illusions become discredited, or are
beginning to become discredited in
the eyes of the workers, this is sure
sign of the beginning of revolutions
airy situation. Comrade Candida
should know that. And since he was
able to detect the fact that "The La
Toilette movement is already dis
credited in many ways" he should
have proposed another slogan. one
that would be more suitable to a
developing revolutionary situation, for
instance, for farmer-labor govern
ment, instead Of for farmer-labor
party.
The followers of the minority have
difficult task to perform. They have
got to re-educte themselves from farm
er-laborism into Communism. The
sooner they do 1t the better for Com
munIsm and for the Communist Par
! ty.