The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-06-19
Communists Double MembershIp.

Communists Double Membership.
The Communists have more than
doubled their membership They had
only 10 deputies in the chamber before
the election. Now they have &C. They
polled nearly million votes. In some
industrial districts the Communist
vote was greater than the total vote
of all the other parties. This is a
great success, especially to be realized
| if we can get the right focus on
France. Germany is different. In de-
feated Germany the process of
capitalist decay has gone much
further than in France In Ger
many, also, there has long been the
tradition of centralized, disciplined
parties of the workers. In France,
the workers have not been reduced to
such conditions of starvation and
misery as are the German workers.
And in France the old tradition of
anarchism and neutrality-suspicious.
was strong indeed. The workers were
unaccustomed to the idea of n strong,
centralized MARKHAM party of revolu-
ton.
Great Swing to Left.
AS Comrade Cachin remarked, this
marks the beginning of great Com
munist advances in France. There is
definite swing to the Left, as was
Enthusiastically shown by the elections
Hundreds of thousands of workers
have voted for the Socialists and the
Radicals, hoping that these parties
will bring them peace and financial
stability and an alienation of the bur
den of taxation.
But they will be unable to do this,
said Comrade Cachin The bourgeois
parties of the Left cannot bring peace
to Europe, nor can they cope with the
growing financial problems of France.
Only revolutionary action can do this.
In five years time the French state
will not even be in position to pay
the interest on its ordinary national
debt-let alone its enormous war
debts to other countries. And then
will come national ruin. And the So
cialists and Radicals, like the Social
lists and Radicals in Germany, will
seek to throw the burden of these
debts on to the proletariat
And the French proletariat will have
an opportunity Of realizing, in bitter
fullness, the treachery and uncapacity
of the Socialists and Radicals Thon
viii come the great movement of the
masses over to the Communist Party.
Workers And Peasants Only.
One of the striking things about the
last election, said Comrade Cachin,
was the proletarian character of the
Communist candidates. With the ex-
ception of the retiring Communist de-
puties who stood for reelection, and
of the heroic sailor, Marty, all the
candidates came straight out Of the
factory or workshop, or from the fields
of the peasantry. At the last national
congress of the French Party, it was
decided that no full-time party officials
should stand for the Chamber.
So, every one of the candidates was
a worker or peasant. At o'clock,
when the factory gates closed they
came among their electors, to bring
them the message of Communism.
Particularly striking was the number
of working farmers who stood as can
didates in the Communist cause.
80" said Comrade Cachin, when
the chamber opens, they will march
| in, straight from the factories, the
mines, the fields, or the prison, carry
| ing with them the marks of their ar.
duous and ill-paid toll, bringing with
them, into the effete atmosphere of
the chamber Of deputies, all the vigor
of their proletarian hatred of capital
ism and determination to end it."
Jailed for Work In Ruhr.
Marty was not the only ex-prisoner
who was elected. Comrade Cachin
himself, not so long ago, passed five
months in the Sante, the well-known
Paris Jail, for having brot the message
Of brotherhood from the French work
ers to the workers of the Rhur That
oPAChNAA AASulCAg
who has also been reelected, also has
suffered Imprisonment in the work
ers' cause, as have several others.
The case Of Jaques Doriot is partic-
lularly interesting. Doriot is a young
worker who holds a prominent posi-
ton in the Young Communist move
ment of France. Together with others
Of mis- comrades, he was recently SEN
fenced to six months imprisonment
for activities among the French sold
iers in the occupied German territory.
He was sentenced and imprisoned
about three days before the election.
And, on the Sunday following his i'm
prisonment, he was triumphantly
elected, by working-class suburb OF
Paris, to the chamber OF deputies!
"They have not yet released Com
rade Doriot," said Cachin. But they
soon will. We're going to see to It
that he is free for the oneninp of tha