The daily worker., 1925-08-29

paign was unanimous as 1t never was
before and never was afterwards, in
the manner in which the election cam
paign should be carried on so that
in this convention today, whether the
minority or the majority are going to
criticize the shortcomings of our cleo
ton campaign policies, it should be
understood that these were policies of
a unanimous Central Executive Com
mittee.
might perhaps indicate one or two
shortcomings of our election cam
paign not it's policies so much, the
policy was correct, but the defects
and shortcomings in the carrying out
Of these policies. One is that the
party for one reason or another was
not fully successful in linking up our
presidential campaign with the inn
mediate issues that were disturbing
the minds of the masses during those
weeks. The policy provided for it,
our election program, our pamphlets,
our resolutions, our instructions, all
provided for that, but in the carrying
out Of it the party was not successful,
and when l say the party, l do not
mean the Central Executive Commit
tee, l mean the entire party organ
izatiOn. Every city committee and
district committee, our organizers,
speakers, writer's, etc. The fault was
not with the resolutions, not with the
policy but with something else which
am not ready to explain. The party
did not seem to be able to fully link
up its campaign with the labor strug-
giles that were going on in those
months. This is one shortcoming
which must be criticized and avoided
In the future.
.TNHE second difficulty was that one
= Of the main instructions, organ
national instructions of the Central
Executive Committee for the campaign
was not fully carried out in the party
organization, at least not with enough
enthusiasm and determination. I re-
fer to the decision that In every city
and in every district the party should
call together conferences of labor to
endorse our ticket and election cam
paign and to organize supporting
committees for our election campaign.
AS general rule this was carried out
but the results we believe could have
been much bigger even in spite of the
LaFollettee sweep, If our party had
shown more determination in carrying
out this part of the program.
AS to the results Of the election
campaign. not much need be said
here. The party succeeded in winning
about the maximum that It could un-
der the circumstances. The election
campaign In our opinion established
the fact that American capitalism at
the present time has immense re-
sources, immense and tremendous re-
sources to break up, to demoralize
and to temporarily defeat opposition
movements of the petty bourgeoisie.
This is a very important factor. am
sure that all of us as well as the
ehSire country not only the Commun-
lists, were disappointed partly In the
results Of the election as far as La
Foilettee movement was concerned.
Everyone believed, even the capital
lists themselves, that in view of the
acute agrarian crisis that prevailed
for SO long time, In view of the Sc
we're defeats of and attacks on the
workers by the capitalist, in view of
the general disturbed situation. that
the LaFollette movement would be
able to muster much more strength
than it really had and when the count
was made after the election, everyone
realized that what the LaFollette
movement actually achieved was much
below that which was expected by
everyone. 1t proved number of
things, but the point 1 wish to make
In this connection is that it proves
the immense resourcefuluess, econom-
10 primarily and then political, of
American capitalism in fighting oppo-