The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-26
By ALFRED wAeENKNEcr

quote Pepper in proof. (Liberator,
Sept. 1929 1.-THE bankrupt farmers are
overthrowing the most sacred fun
damental law of capitalism, namely,
cash payment, and do not pay their
debts. The Negroes of the South are
making an unarmed Spartacus upris-
ing" And again, same issue: 1.-THE
coming third (LaFollette) revolution
will not be proletarian revolution.
It win be a revolution of well TODD
and exploited farmers, small business
men and workers. The revolution will
come thru the ballot and, as Magnus
Johnson foretells, THRU FORCE OF
ARMS"
Well. comrades, the LaFollette rev.
olution, for the time, seems to have
passed it's peak. And not a shot has
yet been fired. And the unarmed
Negro Spartacus uprisings of the south
resulted in a solid Negro vote for
Coolidge. Capitalism is on the de-
cline, sure enough, but we seemed to
have misjudged the tempo Of this
decline and the political reaction to it,
by many a mile. This cross-eyed
evaluation Of a year and half ago
led US into opportunist swamps, from
which we had to extricate ourselves,
with big boost from the Communist
International.
Take our first "big success" in this
skirmish of ours for a labor party.
On July 3, 4, 1928 there was organized
in Chicago the federated farmer-labor
party. It was heralded mass par
ty Of $4,000 workers and farmers
connected with the new party not
merely formally thru high officials, but
thru rank and file representation. /"
And then, the minute we lost a few
high officials, the Fitzpatrick group
in Chicago, and a few other high Off
Gals in various other "strongholds of
the labor party idea" the F. F. L. P.
wrinkled up and died. the last "optimis
tic" report issued being that we had
all of party of 100000 left-that is,
ourselves and our nearest relatives
What was our error? We were crazy
for a farmer-labor party. We saw i'm
mense masses where in reality only
single crooked leaders stood. The cap
italist crisis was not severe enough
10 move the workers and farmers
towards independent political action.
The basis for organization was not
wide enough and this was proven
when, in the end, we found ourselves
biting our own tail and calling it the
F. F. L. P. If l might be permitted
a pleasantly, Pepper had peppered,
spiced for us the orientation of the
Workers Party in the daily struggles
and its labor party activities so high
ly. that we became dopey and chronic
romancers. Then the month of August
gave birth to the idea that if the F.
F. L. P. did not go forward towards
a mass labor party, it might metamor-
phose itself into a mass Communist
party. Either way we'd win, so let's
again shout, Hurrah! In other words,
the idea was that we could perform
the miracle of grabbing a mass Com.
munist party in America without con-
Meeting ourselves with masses of
workers and permeating them with
our theology.
But the F. F. L. P. neither became
mass Communist party nor a mass
labor party. A toadstool is what some
comrades called it. And having lost
out in Chicago we looked for other
green fields. Green they were, sure
enough. Dakota and the west caught
our eye. The industrial east did not
move quick enough and so we moved |
west and grew up with the country. |
We fell so in love with the farmers
that the G. l. had to tell us that such
love was not at all legitimate. And |
wehereas this northwest had longing !
in its heart for LaFolette and being so
hot on the trail of labor party that we
would sniff most any place for one,
we got the foolish idea that an al
lance with the LaFollette movement
might give us a smell. The c. de- |
cided it was not the right kind Of a
smell, this odor of opportunism. So
we ran our own Workers Party can
didates.
Before last June there was some life |
In a labor party slogan outside our
mutations and extravagancies. A COM
ing presidential election interested |
many. This was yesterday. Today
we are confronted with the question
Of whether we shall have another
chapter or two of romance, OF whether
we shall enjoy a little realism. Shall
we attempt the organization Of. an
other +. r.. L.. r.. an aggregation /
which Pepper termed "a militant, revo- |
party? august, 1928,
Liberator.) Shall we again attempt to
gather into a fold the insignificant
when compared with the mass Of
workers) near-relatives and dub It a
abor party? These nearrelatives OF
ours we can get at any time for any |