The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-16
United Front From Below
VS..
United Front From Above


groups of parliamentarians for work
ers in action, manifestos that may
raise fighting slogans but which at
tract workers. any wo Kers are at
tracted at all--not into the Commun-
list Party, but into halfway Ravens that
are fertile breeding places for op-
portunism and reformism.
There is another characteristic, far
more dangerous and inexcusable, that
false conception of the united front
tactic develops in its devotees, char
acteristic that every distorter of Marx
iam-Leninism has in common It is
the use of quotations from the great
teachers of the working class and the
use Of these quotations for the pur-
pose Of giving Communist color to
an opportunist policy.
The worst offender in the discus
sion so far is Comrade Lovestone
In his article in the DAILY WORK.
Err of Wednesday, Dec. 8, under the
sub-hAd, "Skepticism-A Menshevist
Disease"-Comrade Lovestone quotes
Lenin as follows:
"The MARKHAM doctrine has weld
ed the theory and practice OF the
class struggle into an INDIvlsI5LE
WHOLE. He is no Marxist who, to
justify existing conditions, dis
torts the theory which soberIy con-
firms the objective situation, who
goes so far as to adapt himself with
the greatest possible speed to any
temporary lulI in the revolution %
to throw quickly overheard his re
evolutionary Illusions and to set
about collecting the realistic
shreds."
Comrade Lovestone, with a not sur
prising jesuitism, attempts to use
this quotation to justify what? His
desire to build "cIass" farmer-Iabor
party--a substitute for the Workers
(communist) Party in the daily bat
ties of the working class.
If ever an advocate of the united
front from above was hoist with his
own petard it is Comrade Lovestone.
Was there ever a more apt quota
ton to describe minority that states
plainly its disbelief in the ability Of
the Communist Party to fight, in its
own name, for and with the working
class in every daily struggle and
bring directly into its own ranks the
more militant of the workers?
"He is no Marxist who, to justify
existing conditions, distorts the
theory which effectively confirms
the existing situation, who goes so
far as to adapt himself with the
greatest possible speed to any tenn
porary lull In the revolution, to
throw quickly overheard his 'revolu-
tionary illusions and to set about
collecting the realistic shreds."
These are strange words in the
mouth of one who speaks for a mi
nority that bases its realistic" policy
on not one single objective fact ex-
cept its own opportunist tendency and
which brands as "skeptics" a c. E. G.
that bases it's policy on a revolution
airy situation in the whole capitalist
world and which does not share-we
accept Comrade Lovestone's. own de-
fnition Of the minority policy-the
''menshevist skepticism"-of the mi
nority as to the Importance of the
Communist Party in the class strug-
gle and its ability to attract the mass
es of America.
1t takes the brazen egoism which is
another characteristic of opportunist
individualism, to quote the master
Lenin in support Of the minority posi-
ton in discussion where the Com
munist Party is opposed to hybrid
"class" farmer-labor party that the
minority visualizes as an indispens-
able organ in the revolutionary strug-
gle.
1t is just exactly that the minority
thinks it sees-in spite of lip service
to Communist theory-that there is
a temporary lull in the revolution"
that is their real reason for advocat-
ing a substitute for the Communist
Party. In this they are not alone.
In almost every party of the Com
intern there is or was a rightist group
whose disappointment with what
they term the SLOW development of
the revolution" led them to revisions
Of Leninism.
In the British party this group be-
came clearly defined and most OF them
finally left the party-walton New
bold among them. This group lost
faith in the British Communist Party,
1t did not develop mass character
fast enough to satisfy them--Qt
should be noted here that a mass par
ty to this type Of individual means a
big" party that gives them a sense