The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-13
A Fighting Slogan in the Trade Unions
The Farmer-Labor United Front
By BENJAMIN eITLow.


national referendum on the labor
party.
mot to speak of the political neces-
sity for militant independent party
of the working class, the Trade Union
Educational League holds that it is
impossible to have a successful trade
union movement in this country un-
til labor has declared definitely for a
labor party. The Gompers political
policy of rewarding our friends and
Furnishing our enemies is fatal to la
Dor unions. The workers will
never be able to think or act intelli-
gently as proletarian so long as their
trade unions are linked up with CAPT
talist political parties. This is funda.
mental of unionism. A labor party is
one of the most vital needs of the Am
erican labor movement"
Now Comrade Foster and the other
members Of the majority that in 1923
sponsored the above sentiments pro-
pose that the united front in the un-
ions on the basis Of the farmer-labor
party slogan be abandoned. In 1923
they said "The workers will never be
able to think or act intelligently as
proletarians without labor party. A
labor party is one of the most vital
needs of the America labor move
ment." Now they say that the slo-
gan of farmer-labor party has lost
its power of stirring large masses of
workers. They claim that the farm
er-labor movement which Comrade
Foster in his article on the triple re-
volt stated was one of the issues
that might break Gompers' control
over the American labor movement is
dead. They go even further and state
that the whole movement for indepen-
dent political action in the unions is
dead. They now assume that as
result Of that, that the only form the
movement for independent political
action can take is the form of the
Workers Party.
The c. E. c. majority reiterates that
the economic conditions which were
the basis before for the farmer-labor
party united front have not material
ly changed. The development Of the
farmer-labor party movement should
therefore continue. The c. e. c. ma
jority, however, does not reason with
economic factors. 1t wants every one
to believe that movement that has
its roots in the economic life of the
country and movement it admits
had big following among the mass
es and particularly among the or
ganized workers, in a single day, was
destroyed because the workers be-
lieving in labor party who followed
LaFollette were disillusioned when
LaFollette received only five million
votes. The majority wants to create
the impression that movement that
has been developing in the United
States for years, that a movement
with historical background and with
an theology that has permeated hun
dreds of thousands of the most mill
that workers in the unions can imme-
diately cease to be a factor in the Ia
Dor movement. The majority makes
the mistake here Of considering the
labor party movement not as a de-
velopment going thru a period Of
years, but as a phenomenon Of only
immediate Importance. That is why
they make the big error of consider
ing the election results as the final
determining factor ending the labor
party movement and not an important
event in its development.
The Comintern in its decision on |
the American question has correctly |
formulated the significance OF the la
Dor party movement in its relation to |
the Workers Party. It states as fol- |
lows: THE first task of the Workers
Party is to become mass Communist |
Party of workers. It can fulfill this
task only by most actively participant
ing in the establishment of labor |
party which will embrace all elements
~ tho worIffn0 class uiahfnO 70 con