The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-12-05

highly dangerous to the bureaucracy,
The rank and file are susceptible to
the propaganda of the left wing.
Hence a basic condition for their con-
troll of the unions and for the con-
tinuance of the class collaboration
program recently so highly developed
is to crush the left wing at all costs.
This cannot be done by argument and
theological struggle. Consequently the
resort to force through the expulsion
policy and the many other harsh dis
ciplinary measures that are being
used against the militants in the
various unions.
What shall our policy be in this
situation? How shall we successfully
defeat the expulsion policy of the re-
dictionaries and reach the rank and
file with our message? The fate of
our work in the trade union in the
present period depends upon our cor
rectly solving this problem.
The first and most important step
to its solution is the mastering Of the
full available forces of our party for
work in the trade unions. There still
remains much to be done in this re-
spect. A very large proportion of our
membership do not yet belong to I'M
ions, and of those who are members
only small percentage are really &C
tive. These conditions must be re-
NEEDED at once. A persistent and in
sistent campaign must be carried on
to the end that every proletarian
member of our party is at the same
time member of trade union. We
must make our members understand
once and for all the truth of the
statement in the recent letter of the
Comintern and Profntern to the eff
feet that no worker in an industrial
country like the United States can
really be a Communist unless he is
member of a trade union. And we
must see to it that our members not
only Join the trade unions but be-
come active in them. The only Com
munist in the trade unions who is
worth his salt to our party is the one
who militantly and inteiligently fights
to put its program into effect and thus
to extend its influence over the
masses. This development of our full
party strength is the first and founda-
ton step, not only for combating the
expulsion policy, but also doing any
successful work whatever in the trade
unions.
A special feature of our fight against
expulsion must be a flexible attitude
towards the expulsion orders now in
force in the unions, whether they be
in the shape of constitutional amend
ments, as in the painters, or instruc-
lions from the executive boards, as in
the machinists. In the trade unions
there are organized proletarian
masses, contact with whom is vital
for the success of the revolutionary
work of our party. This contact can
best be maintained only if we are
members of the unions. Hence we
must put up militant and intelligent
struggle to remain within the unions.
If we can do this openly as members
of the Workers Party and the Trade
Union Educational League, all the
better. But if the opposition is in
such desperate frame of mind as to
use the expulsion policy and is in a
position to apply it effectively, then
we must be prepared to deny our
membership in these organizations
rather than be expelled from the un-
ions.
Such policy means the occasional
swallowing OF nasty pills in the way
of signing the various statements
that are put up to us by the reaction
airy officials in the hope that our revo-
lutionary gorge will rise against them
to the extent that we will not sign
them, and thus make our expulsion
all the more easy. A type of such
statement was that recently gotten
out by the carpenters district council
of Cleveland, which reads as follows: