The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-24
a. WIN. 2. FOSTER.

ity thesis is its failure to acknowledge
the mistake of the third party ALI
ance It is characteristic of the mi
nority to be stiff-necked and to as
sumo an air Of infallibility. They new
or admit mistakes. They still per
sist in defending their opportunistic
maneuvers in the Chicago and St.
Paul conventions, IN the grab at the
farmers, and in the August thesis. A
case in point is that of Comrade H.
M. Wicks, a prominent leader of the
minority, and one who speaks much
Of feminist leadership. Just couple
Of months ago he, in a wide breach
Of Communist tactics, principles, and
discipline, supported the ultra-reac-
tionary, James Lynch, for president
of the international Typographical
Union, for which he was censured
publicly by the party. Typically, in
stead Of confessing his mistakes, he
persists in it and tries to justify it.
In this attitude he merely follows the
course taken by the minority general
ly regarding party policies.
But the minority attitude in failing
to acknowledge the third party alli-
ance mistake is far more sinister than
merely their customary refusal to ad-
nit mistakes. It's real significance
is that they still mourn for the third
party alliance. And, more significant
still, is that instead of being correct
ed and brought back to a Communist
1f~o -, tbo Cnrointorp daoioi0n fhov
are ignoring it and going still further
to the right. Now, they are actually
coming to accept the LaFOllette move
ment as the expression of the labor
party movement. This conclusion is
inescapable after a reading Of their
thesis and the arguments they pro
duce to sustain it.
The minority, simply substituting
the term "farmer-labor party" for the
"LaFollette movement" practically
consider the latter in theory and prac-
tice as the mass political movement
Of the workers and poor farmers and
propose to work within it. Stripped
of verbiage and understood as it real
ly is, the minority thesis does three
things. "a While presumably laying
the theoretical basis for the "class"
farmer-labor party, it actually lays
the basis for the LaFollette move
ment; (2) While ostensibly indicating
the organized expression of the
"class" farmer-labor party movement,
it is in reality pointing out sections
Of the LaFollette movement; 60
While proposing a pretended "class"
farmer-labor party policy, 1t really
outlines a program for penetrating
the LaFollette movement. Let us
look at these propositions more in
detail:
I. Minority Falls to Find Theoretical
Basis for "class" Farmer-Labor Party
The minority thesis is supposedly
written in defense Of the use of the
slogan For a class farmer-labor
party" by the Workers Party. Con-
sequently if it has any purpose at all
it must be to demonstrate the exist
snce of a definite movement for the
formation of a farmer-labor party of
industrial workers and poor farmers
ana to analyze the forces producing
it. With great fanfare of trumpets
the thesis sets out to do this. 1t
speaks of the decay of world capital
ism, of use of the government by the
big capitalists against the workers
and poor farmers, of the open shop"
drive, of the big agricultural crisis,
of the industrial crisis, of the strug-
gle of the petty bourgeoisie against
the big capitalists, and Of the general
sharpening of the class struggle.
But after all the travail of the mi
nority thesis, does it show the exist
ence of a concrete "cIass" farmer-la-
Dor party movement or a tendency in
that direction? 1t does not. 1t simply
brings out the following propositions:
/. That masses of workers, farm
ers, and urban petty bourgeois are
deeply disconnected from the grow
ing pressure of capitalism.
2. That these masses are breaking
away from the republican and demo
cratic parties.
3. That they have formed them
selves into a petty bourgeois move
ment under the leadership of LaFol-
lette.
4. That within this movement
there are class antagonisms which
will eventually disrupt 1t.
But where does the "class" farmer
labor party come in in this analysis?
Nowhere. The minority thesis does
not show such movement to be in
existence now nor does II even prog
nosticate that It will come into exist.
ence at the breakup OF the LaFol-
lette movement. The thesis, supposed
ly written to justify the use Of the
"class" farmer-labor party slogan,
does not indicate a movement at the
present time to correspond to that
slogan, nor does It hold such a move
ment to be inevitable. The thesis
says, 1T is quite possible that the ac-
tual organization of class farmer
labor party which will establish itself