The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-06
PARTY PRINCIPLES AND DISCIPLINE

| present our viewpoint. we cannon
stultify ourselves because of the
pressure Of the capitalist state power
What then, is our viewpoint on the
question of the part that force will
play in the class struggle, between
the workers and the capitalists.
Our Party does not advocate the
use Of force by the workers today
The whole strength of our Party is
being given to the campaign to build
mass political party, that is Far
mer-Labor Party, thru which the
workers and farmers will enter into
the political struggle against the
capitalist ruling parties. We believe
that it is thru the formation of such
mass Farmer Labor Party that the
cause of the revolutionary movement
in the United States can best be
served. Does this mean that we be.
lieve that the workers and farmers
of this country will thru such a
Farmer Labor Party elect their re.
representatives. to public office and than
win control Of the governmental
power and proceed by legislative
action of the parliamentary institu-
lions Of the capitalist government to
the abolition Of the Capitalist Sys-
tenn?
Such a viewpoint is an illusion.
The history of the past shows that
such viewpoint is an illusion. No
privileged class in past history has
given up its privileged position upon
the demand of the exploited class
without resorting to force to main
tain it's privileged position and its
right to exploit the oppressed class.
Even American history shows that
when privileged class is attacked
it resorts to force in order to protect
its privileged position. The South
ern slave-owners resorted to civil war
in order to prevent their right to
profit from the labor of slaves from
being taken from them.
AS Communists, we therefore frank
ly declare our viewpoint that the class
struggle between workers and cap
italists will inevitably in its future
development take the form Of a
struggle in which force will be used.
The exact form of this struggle is
matter of historical development
which we cannot predict today. All
that we can say is that it will be a
struggle between the organs of the
state power of the workers and the
organs of capitalist state power. We
have seen in Russia, in Hungary and
in Bavaria that the forms which ex-
pressed the workers struggle for
state power are the Soviets and that
the struggle takes the form Of a
struggle between a capitalist parlia-
mentary government and the Soviets
which are the expression Of the work
ers' government. It is this fact which
we believe that Comrade Newman
tried to bring out in reading from the
various pamphlets at the forum meet
ing.
The Central Executive Committee
believes that the rule laid down by
the City Central Committee Of Port
land forbidding the branches discus
sion of the whole question with such
a subject as, "Can the Workers Gain
Their Freedom Thru Political Action
Alone?" was wrong. While it is the
duty of Party members to carry out
the decisions Of the governing body
of the Party, when the body is wrong,
the Central Executive Committee can
not sustain the action of the City
Central Committee in expelling Com
rade Newman for endeavoring to
present the Communist position by
reading from Communist literature
at the forum meeting in question. The
effect Of sustaining this expulsion
would be to support an erroneous po-
sition of the question discussed
above, and it is more important that
the question of principle be clear than
the issue of discipline involved in
this case.
In view Of all of the foregoing, the