The daily worker., 1924-12-22
BY c. A. HATHAWAY.


ments in the Minnesota farmer-labor
united front. They say in Minnesota at
the present time there exists stroni
sentiment against LaFolletteism and
for a class farmer-labor party. They
quote articles from Mahoney's paper
to prove their contention. Other mem.
bers Of the minority group have charg-
ed that we have actually made mis-
takes during the year and one-half Of
the most intensive farmer-labor cam
paigning that any section of our party
has gone thru. They say ours was a
united front with Mahoney and Cram
er-not with the rank and file. Com
rade Wicks even charges that the
comrades in active charge of the work
here were so enamored by this united
front with the top that we refused
to carry out his instructions as the
representative of the G. E. c. when he
instructed us to fight for the election
of delegates to the proposed conven-
tion of the federated farmer-labor
party at the state convention that
organized" the Minnesota farmer
labor federation on September 8, 1928.
Comrades, l am going to let you in
on a little secret-we did make some
mistakes in Minnesota. Furthermore,
the active comrades that have direct
ed our party thru all the work of or
ganizing for two conventions of the
state federation of labor and four state
political conventions and have watch
ed the after effects of the policies fol-
lowed know something of the mis-
takes that were made. These conven-
tions in Minnesota were not fake"
conventions either, neither were they
conventions made up of delegates of
party branches only, as was the case
in most of the states. These conven-
tions were attended in each case by
from three to four hundred delegates
representing local unions, farmers or
ganizations, etc. Furthermore, they
were being called in state that had
a functioning farmer-labor party in
the field since 1918. and had already
established a farmer-labor leader
ship. Furtheromer, the local unions
thruout the state had been organic
ed politically in a definite political or
ganization since 1919-three years be
fore our party ever thought of TAX
ing up the farmer labor issue They
had Just elected their candidate to
the United States senate which ere
ated feeling of self-satisfaction on
the part Of the. rank and file which
mad to be broken down.
These We're the conditions that fac
cd US when we returned from the con-
vantion of the federated farmer-labor
party held in Chicago, July 8, 1928
Outside of myself, our party had no
connections in the farmer-labor party.
We had very few English-speaking
comrades. We had a situation com
plicated by three existing organiza>
tions-the official farmer-labor party,
the farmers nonpartisan league and
the working peoples non-partisan
league. All of these organizations
were under petty-bourgeoisie leader
ship. Last but not least, we had just
two weeks to prepare for a state con-
vention of the working peoples league
after returning from Chicago. | was
the only party member who succeed
ed in being elected as delegate to
that convention. We succeeded in
creating a split between Mahoney and
Van Lear and forced the calling Of
another convention to consider ways
and means of reorganizing the en-
tire movement.
Before we actually got the call is
sued we had to break with Mahoney
by going to the rank and file of the
unions and get them to demand the
calling of the convention based on
representation from local unions.
From the very beginning we started
the process Of building up our own
independent power which we retain
to this day in spite of the attack that
has been launched on us by Mahoney,
CrameY and the reactionaries gener-
ally. Our criticism of these leaders
was tempered only by the need that
the party had for them nationally and
only on instructions from the c. E. c.
think, however, that before going
any further, Comrade Wicks should
be answered. do not object to criti-
cism but the very title of Comrade
Wick's article in the Monday DAILY
WORKER, "A Question of feminist
Leadership" makes the blood of every
Minnesota comrade boil who had any
thing to do with the September cor
Yention in Minneapolis. We in Mime
sofa have always had considerable
respect for Comrade Lenin's leader
ship and still have, but we have seen
Comrade Wicks in action. Comrade
Wicks was sent to Minnesota to as
sist us in applying the united front
tactics to the situation here. He was
sent by the present minority Of the
c. u. c., then the majority. He ap-
parently misunderstood his instruc-
tions-he thought he had been sent
on a vacation. AS soon as he landed
here he became SO much engrossed
-. -. - L. "A