The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-08-29

from this, the Central Executive Com
mittee concluded that the slogan for
labor party had no appealing force
under these conditions and could not
be employed by our party with much
use in the immediate future. This
was the situation when the change in
policy was made and these were the
reasons why the change was made.
This precipitated in our party the now
famous labor party controversy.
COMRADES. without going into this
~ matter again in any way, wish
to say that whether this violent strug-
gle in our party was justified or not.
whether it was necessary for our
party to pay the price that it did for
having its policy corrected, the fact
remains that never in the history of
our movement did a party pass thru
a fight of such dimensions, bitterness
and violence. Most of the delegates
here are not novices In the Commun-
ist movement. A good number of
them have been founders OF our party.
Most nearly everyone of us participat-
ed in all the internal struggles since
1919 and every one will agree that
never did our party have fight of
this kind. And / say that if our party
succeeded in withstanding this fight
without splitting into about ten or
fifteen parts, this again is a tribute
to the growth of the Communist quail
ity Of our party. We all remember
the old days. We know that every
fight on a big issue produced a split.
In those days we did not seem to
know any other way of settling our
difficulties than just to part ways and
go asunder and then begin a cam
paign for unity.
A Central Executive Committee OF a
Il Communist Party which functions
in the face of such an opposition,
should not and cannot be expected by
anybody to have taken care fully of
everything that Communist Party
must take care of.
Now do you know, comrades sup
pose you do = that during these
months of factional struggle, party
discipline practically lost its meaning
for about one-third of our party. II
did not mean anything. A decision OF
the Central Executive Committee
would be received and fled. 1t would
be accorded the courtesy of being re.
ceived and filed, but as far as results
were concerned, every minority dis
trict organizer, Comrade Jakira, Com
rade BALKAN, for instance, would be
the judge of whether the Central Ex
ecutive Committee instructions should
go into effect or whether it should
just be disregarded. This example
set by district organizers was followed
practically by every minority com
rade in the ranks. In the old days
Central Executive Committee would
do what? 1t would initiate series
of disciplinary measures against every
one guilty of breaking party discip
line, which would result in a split
The recent Central Executive Com
mittee of the party did not want &
split. And it was for this reason thai
the Central Executive Committee
overlooked many and many things fol
the sake of retaining the unity Of the
party Of enabling it to outlive its
crisis and proceed further in a unified
manner.
Now about the activities Of the Cen
trail Executive Committee during thai
period. You are all supplied will
copies Of our written report. Those
Of you who have studied the report
have no doubt received complete
picture OF what the party was occupy
ing itself with these 20 months.
want to draw your attention l. somt
specific features OF our work turing
these 20 months. The party carried
out a number of very important unit
ed front campaigns. I will go into
some details discussing tsese cam