The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-11
Rv M. ]. Whit.

/ majority theses is one of the most
discouraging documents it has ever
been my misfortune to have to wade
thru, and / use the word wade adj
visedly, for that is what the rank and
file must do in order to get the true
inwardness of their funking and run
ming away from the necessity Of form
ing a united frant in the ranks of the
landless farmers and the unorganized
industrial workers.
And when these workers have
gotten headache, from their toll and
ravail from the unwelcome task, this
long-winded apology imposes on the
membership, no word of hope or en-
enlargement will they find to greet
them at the end, nothing but discour-
agement and despair if they have the
tenacity and concentration of purpose
to stick it out to the end. So much
for the theses itself
Running like thread thru this is
he continual cry Of despair: ooh,
and they did not head Everything
is lostl Let us quit, let us quit let
us leave them to their fatel" This
is the lett motive running thru the
entire document A quitting, defeat
list theses.
How Sam Gompers, Lewis, Berry
and other capitalist allies, who helped
to foist upon the workers the LaFol-
lette goblin, must laugh when they
see the panic and fright their politi-
cal masked strategy has caused in
the ranks of the Foster, Cannon.
Browder groups. How they will
chortle with glee when they see this
bunch of Don Quixotes still charging
at the wind mills Of LaFollette and
LaF ollettism, which they set up for
this very purpose, instead of putting
all this wasted energy to the better
purpose of attacking the real enemy
of the working class, lack of solidar-
ity and. organization in the ranks of
the poor farmers and the unorganized
industrial workers, and teaching them
the necessity Of class solidarity and
organization In the face OF common
enemy.
| With this panic running thru the
ranks of the majority committee it is
well that there is sane minority hav-
ing the courage to call the attention
Of the membership to the real tasks
confronting the workers. Paragraph
after paragraph in this theses is de-
voted to laying this LaFoIlette ghost
1t would take an adding machine to
keep tab on the number of times the
word LaFolIette and LaFollettism is
to be found in this epic to the goblin
Of LaFollettism. Take courage Cop
poral ICY Klegg" Bittleman and
'Sancho Panza" Browder, you who
are fighting this rear guard action, to
lay this ghost, for this is not so deadly
as it seems, and after the majority
Of your group have recovered from
this panic and fright, they will find
that this ''red herring" of LaFollet-
tism under other forms will be
dragged across the path of the work
ers time after time. The rank and
file of farmers and industrial workers
are not such damphools as they seem.
Do not, beg of you, waste so much
ammunition bombing fogs and shoot
ing ten Founders at chipmunks. Turn
your guns on real issues, there are
plenty Of them, and they are worthy
of your craftsmanship, assure you
However, 1 see another matter
which is running thru this theses,
which is to be called to the attention
of the rank and file of the members
Of our party who read the DAILY
WORKER, and that is the attempt Of
! this now majority to foist upon the
minority the guilt Of their own sins.
In the August Theses" it was the
vancouver OF Pepper and Ruthenberg
o form a united front of the farmers
md industrial workers, who were
| deologically, and in interest, closest
10 the Workers Party, and the only
criticism the Communist Interna-
tional made on this was that they
stressed the farmers end on this front
Of workers and farmers too much. In
other words they were right from a
Bolshevist viewpoint, but did not bal
ance up their work in the two wings
Of this logical front, while the work
Of the Communist International has
been to keep the party going to the
left and not swinging to the right
under the leadership Of the Foster
Cannon group.
This move OF Comrades Pepper and
Ruthenberg was the true Bolshevik
position and to true conception Of
Marxism and Leninism, but the Com
munist international said the Workers
Party was not strong enough from the
standpoint Of Bolshevism to carry out
the maneuver.
This was the decision OF the Com
munist International on the question.
In the case Of the LaFollette maneu-
gering under the leadership Of the
foster-Cannon group It was only I'M
Ter the hardest kind Of work OF the
International that we were kept head
Jng from plunging headlong into the