The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-08
SHALL WE DROP THE SLOGAN OF
THE POLITICAL UNITED. FRONT?

4 OO~~~~-~
when forming bloc with the petty
bourgeois elements, must so much
the more sharply underscore their
views instead Of disavowing them"
Ut appears now that Comrade Hatha-
way did not actually sign the state
ment, and that it's appearing in the
capitalist press over his signature
was due to its being accompanied
by a mimeographed form letter bear
ing Comrade Hathaway's signature
requesting its publication. Comrade
Hathaway explained that it passed
thru his hands merely as a matter of
routine and that had he noticed the
passage above quoted he would have
objected to it,
Yet Comrade Foster, confronted
with the accusation that the reds
were capturing the leadership of the
convention, could not refrain from
getting up and repeating the spirit of
the statement, idea for idea, para
phrase for phrase, from beginning to
end.
Later, at netting Of the party
editors and district organizers called
by the C. e. c. in Chicago on July
10, Comrade Foster responded to ques-
tioning by admitting that he should
not have made such a statement to
the st. Paul convention, but explain
ed that this was a typical example of
the kind of things we are forced to do
as the inevitable result of the anomal-
Gus position we were in at st. Paul;
the anomaly being that we found a
majority of the convention with us,
whereas our natural" position in
such an action was to be in the mi
nority. Because we found ourselves
in possession of majority and there
fore responsible for the convention,
he said, we were forced into posi-
ton of denying our principles--a posi-
ton which we must be careful new
er to be forced into again.
This idea of the Communist role in
the labor-party united front is very de-
finitely continued in the majority thes-
is of the Foster-Cannon group now
DOAcAC eAO POI
2. Majority thinks q Communist
led left wing farmer-Iabor party
would be "duaI unIonism on the poll
tIcaI field"
When In 1923, in the August thes-
is" of the G. e. c., we who were then
a majority spoke of the possibility
of left wing labor party being de-
veloped into mass Communist Party
as one alternative that might arise,
the Foster group violently objected to
the idea of the left wing of the labor
movement crystallizing into a labor
party and demanded its reputation
as dual unionism on the political
field" and as the split theory" The
idea Of the possibility of using the
labor party slogan with view DOS
sibly to develop left wing labor par
ty organization into a mass Commu-
mist Party, was most bitterly attack
ed by the Foster group, who denounc-
ed it as criminal folly and as the abb
solute negation Of the basic purpose
of the labor party tactic which was to
get labor party.
For us, on the contrary, this united
front labor party action like all other,
present actions, had and continues 10
have only the Interchangeable PURPOSE
OF building the Workers Party into a
mass Communist party, any other pur-
pose being subordinate, tentative and
subject to change to conform to the one
supreme purpose. AS declared in our
August thesis, the development of a
mass Communist Party OF some hun
dreds OF thousands Of members would
be far greater attainment, and far
more advantageous to the masses of
the exploited, than to get farmer
labor party OF three millions based
upon what is called the bona fide"
L:rade unions and led by the leaders
OF those unions. 1t is true that we
unhesitatingly formulated the slogan.
"a great mass organization formed by
organized labor" Confronted with
the fact that there already existed
several embryonic frameworks claim.
ing to be labor parties" -abortive
movements Of trade union reformists
Continued on page n