The daily worker., 1924-12-22
WHAT ABOUT MINNESOTA?

as our local comrades learned a les
son in what not to do at a conven-
ton.
Late in the evening session the
question Of electing the delegates pre-
viously referred to, came up. Our
committee introduced the resolution
and fought for it. 1t was met by a
bitter attack from the reactionaries
Even workers who are now members
of the party refused to support us in
the fight. We were left absolutely
alone with eighteen votes against
close to three hundred and fifty. At
this point a point Of order was raised
that no organization had been Great
ed at the convention (only provi-
sional organizing committee had been
elected) from which to send dele
gates and that therefore no funds
were available with which to send
them.
The chairman sustained the point
at the same time Comrade Johnson
withdrew the resolution, the steering
committee feeling that if the matter
was pulled out the provisional com
mittee could still send delegates. Com
rade Wicks then showed his "Lenin
ist" leadership by rushing up the isle
and instructing the committee to
"split the goddamned thing wide
OPEN" We could not have taken
single delegate with us on such
split and the steering committee re-
fused. A caucus of party delegates
was called Immediately after the ad-
journment of the convention, Com
rade Wicks then was busy with his
private affairs and did not get back
until the caucus was breaking up at
two O'Clock in the morning.
l do not know whether Comrade
Wicks reported to the G. e. c. or not
on his feminist" leadership in Mime
sofa, but the steering committee did
send in detailed report on the situa-
ton including their action on the
resolution to send delegates to the
federated convention. This report
was mimeographed in full by the pres
ent minority and sent to party work
ers together with letter telling them
that this was model report and
that the tactics followed should serve
as a guide to them in similar situa-
tions. So you will see that if our
tactics were in error up until this
convention they were shared by the
present minority of the c. E. c. So
much for Comrade Wicks.
Immediately after this convention
the present minority started their ne
gotiations with Mahoney relative to
the calling of a national convention,
and from that point on we started our
wild orgy of united front from the
top that lasted right up until the
June II convention Mahoney and
Cramer, the farmer-labor party and
the farmer-labor federation we're all
for LaFollette from the beginning. We
never carried out our own policy in
Minnesota from that time on, we were
trying to develop tactics that would
retain for us the support of Mahoney
nationally, we were trying to criticise
him at home and at the same time
create an organizational cleavage
from the LaFollette movement, but
yet of course, we had to support him
in the event that he was nominated.
All of these maneuvers made our
membership so dizzy that apparently
some of them have not as yet regain
ed their equilibrium.
At the second convention of the
Minnesota farmer-labor federation
held in March Of this year, we were
concerned only with the one problem
of getting the Minnesota party to en-
dorse the calling of the June II con-
vention. This convention not only
gave their endorsement to the calling
of a national convention, but the
'class" farmer-labor federation gave
their endorsement to LaFollette as
the candidate to be nominated at that
convention. Our local desire to fight
on this issue was subordinated to the
needs of the national situation.
After the reputation by LaFollette
Of the June IL convention, a meet
ing of the state committee was called
to decide whether they would contin-
ue their support of the convention
At this meeting Comrades Hedlund,
Johnson and myself launched an at
tack on LaFollette, Mahoney and
Cramer raised the slogan in their
speeches of hold the June II con-
yention and nominate LaFollette" and
sven with them lighting for LaFollette
We had a narrow speak in the COM
| mittele. After the G. p. p. A. con-
gention July 4, you know what hap
pened to Mahoney and Cramer, well,
the same thing happened to the farm
er-labor federation.
From its very inception the Mime
sofa farmer-labor federation has been
a LaFollette rganization-we Great
ed it for him. He did not like the
name because we had smeared 1t with
red. After July 4, Sinclair, the LaFol-
lette campaign manager, first said
that they would create their own or
ganization, Mahoney, however, out