The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-04
BY WIN. z. FOSTER.

campaign, We nave tendency led IL
the G. e. G. minority by Comrades
Lovestone and Ruthenberg, and made
up Of comrades who may be properly
dubbed farmer-labor Communists
These comrades have developed
most extravagant evaluation of the
farmsrlabor party slogan. With them
1t has become fetish. They are fol
the farmer.labor party dead or alive
Despite their loud protests to the con.
trary, they tend to look upon the
fprmer-labor party campaign as an
and in itself, and not merely as
means (no longer useful) to build the
Workers Party into mass Commun-
ist Party.
These farmer-labor Communists adj
vance the most bizarre theories and
make the widest claims In order to
justify their demand that the Workers
Party continue to propagate the dead
farmer-labor party slogan. They argue
in effect that It constitutes the sole
means Of applying the united front on
the political field. In the Workers
Monthly for December. Comrade Ruth
enberg makes this astounding state
ment: 'It abandonment Of FL. slo-
GAM means the reputation of the
united front as a weapon Of our par
ty on the political field" These com
rades conceive the farmer-labor party
as THE united front, and not, as
in truth it was, merely one applica-
ton of the united front tactic. They
ignore completely the many forms of
the united front being used thruout
the Comintern, and the many that
have been used hereof which shall
speak further along. For them
the farmer-labor party was the be-all
and end-all Of the united front pro-
gram. The essence Of their argument
is that II we have no farmer-labor par
ty we can have no united front, which
is ridiculous.
"cIass Party" Confusion.
These comrades, continuing the con-
fusion which was introduced into our
party on this subject by Comrade Pep
per, also consider the farmer-labor
party to be class party which car
ries on class political action. Hence,
when we make the statement that the
i,rmer-labor party has been ANAL
amated into the LaFollette movement,
Comrade Ruthenberg accuses us
(Wcrkers Monthly, December) Of say
ing that 'the movement towards class
political action by labor is dead" In
his mind the farmer-labor party move
ment and class political action are
synonymous. Apparently he does not
conceive of class party except thru
his "class" farmer-labor party. Or
perhaps, when the difficulty is called
to his attention, he will say there are
two class political parties, the Work
ers Party and the "class" farmer-la-
Dor party? Is it not high time for all
Communists to realize that in the
United States there is only one class
party, the Workers Party, and that
alone-not some semi-demi farmer
labor party-is carrying on class po-
iitical action?
The FarmerLabor Legend.
But the point l wish particularly
to deal with in this article is the ex-
travagant claim made by the farmer
labor party enthusiasts that the farm
er-labor party campaign, as if by
magic, built the Workers Party from
an obscure sect into great party.
To hear them tell it, the Workers
Party was insignificant until it picked
up the farmer-labor party slogan, and
it will fall back into insignificance
again If it drops that slogan. Says
Comrade Ruthenberg (Workers
Monthly, December): 1--WE shall aban-
don the slogan which in the past has
enabled us to establish close contact
with at least the left bloc Of the labor
movement and to return to our
former status of sectarian propa-
ganda."
This legend of the Alternative power
of the farmer-labor party slogan has
been carefully cultivated in our party
by the farmer-labor Communists. 1t
is time to prick the bubble. The fact
is. the farmer-labor party campaign
was only one of several united fronts,
altho the major one. carried on by
our party. All these have contributed
most substantially to the growth and
influence Of the Workers Party. But
the farmer-labor party slogan has
hogged the credit. We must get the
right perspective on all our united
/ front work, and not simply accept the
teurFent notion that the farmer-labor
party campaign alone lifted us from
secSarianism and made us real
factor in the labor movement. Let us
glance for moment at some of our
other united fronts.
Successful United Front Efforts.
An important movement was the
united front campaign for the protec-
ton OF the foreign-born workers. That
was real political work. II gave us a
measure OF leadership over great