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

.heless rally at the eleventh hour to
put our candidates on the ballot in
- states out of As, despite the tre-
.nendous legal difficulties in the way,
S something to be proud of. That
fter months of flirting with the more
liberal labor bureaucrats our party
could swing unanimously into action |
10 expose and fight them for the lead |
ership of the masses is a tribute to |
our discipline and record Of which |
many an older Communist Party could i
well be proud. An administration |
spokesman seeks to prove our alleged |
desire to ''liquidate" the Workers |
Party because we do not go in pane |
gyrics over the alleged 100,0U0 votes
he claims will be counted for us. He |
attacks Comrade Minor for reading |
from the DAILY WORKER that our
party will even cast more votes tnan |
the S. l.. p Since when is this the
acid test of success" in Communist
campaigns? Since when does de-
sire for realism, as shown in the
minority estimate Of 10000 counted
NOlCcg RAONC 0CcAAC ~
l4quidate our party? An argument of
chat kind is an insult to the intelli-
gence of our membership. Those who
collected the s. gnatures, who took the
straw votes, who held the street meet
ings, who took the shop collections.
who distributed the literature know
better on what basis to measure the
achievements of the party in the last
campaign
Why Make 1t unanImous7
ment for class politics has not been
changed, has it's superficial election
campaign expression undergone such
profound alterations as to justify
change in tactic on our part? II
there were any such changes they
would have to be very important in
deed to justify any deviation from a
tactic otherwise formulated on the
basis of the objective economic situa-
ton. What changes are there in the
political alignments; how do they
affect those workers that want the
labor party; how do they affect the
Communists?
The administration is very en-
phatic on this point. One Of its mem
bers writes: "As far as building new
party is concerned, the masses are
now at rest" At the Ell Paso conven-
ton, Grand Duke" Woll, according
to our reporter, declared, THE last
oloofion uyoc a rafiora1 ,aforouds,r,,
and showed that labor did not want a
labor party" Brothers Johnston and
Gompers and Senator LaFollette
agree. The Chicago Tribune had an
editorial to the same effect. We can
understand LaFollette's position when
we consider his class afIiIiation. We
can comprehend Gompers and Woll
being glad to get out of this excursion
into irregularity. We can evaluate
Johnston's motives for entering this
campaign-and leaving it fiat at the
first opportunity. But why Bittelman
and Cannon and Foster? Why our
party? Why make il unanimous?
II It's Dead, Bury It.
AT this very point. when the enemy
ass and the labor traitors seek to
bury the labor party movement in the
liberal party funeral, our tactic should
be to take full advantage of the de-
preston created by their relative fail
ure in the election to regain our ideo-
logical leadership over the movement
toward class politics. mis- is a very
different proposal from the "Commun-
ism versus Laborism" with which
shallow adherents of the administra-
ton try to explain the fractional differ
ences. Even II 1t were true that the
grave of LaFollette's effort to organ
ize a definite liberal party also con.
tanned, for the time being, the remains
of movement for labor party, these
last two months before the funeral
would be very poor time to slaughter
our own slogan, For a class labor
party" Even from the point of naked
expediency, from which the majority
judges this question, 1t is utterly
stupid political tactic to surrender our
advantage as the only political force
in America which has kept unsullied
the banner Of working class politics.
Even II we wanted to conflne our
selves hereafter to the purely trade
union program Of the party 1t would
still be criminal TO abandon those
militants whose original response to
our own slogans started them on the
pilgrimage that ended in the liberal
party swamp. The labor party slogan
is not dead, but even IL II were, the
most elementary political sense would
demand that we give 1t decent burial,
after determined offensive upon the
LaFoiiette gathering In January and
campaign OF Qualification in the
unions TO dispel the confusion that
now exists among the militants them
selves as to our true position.
We cannot jump from one slogan to
another, abandoning our fundamental
campaigns like tired infant its play
things. II Is necessary at times TO