The daily worker., 1925-01-03

left-wing, because they were active
in the organization Of the Communist
Party, and, finally. because they had
gone to Jail, therefore they cannot be
charged with opportunism and liquida-
ton.
Now, comrades, what do you think
OF that? | address myself now par
ticularly to those of you who have
seen jails, the exile, the torture, and
have looked death into the face not
once but many times,-what do you
think of this sort of an argument? l
ask our Russian comrades, the Polish,
Jewish, Lithuanian, Let's, and all
those who received their revolution
airy baptism not in the socialist party
OF Hillquit and Berger, not in the
state legislature at Albany, N. Y, but
in the revolutionary struggles of the
proletariat of Russia between the
years of 1903 and 1911-what do you
think of Communist who undertakes
to defend his policies by reference to
his Jail record and to the sacrifices
that he brought for the movement? Z?
Did Lenin do it? Did you ever hear
such arguments from Zinoviev, Stain.
Kamenev, etc?
Why, my dear GitIow, If it is a
matter of Jail records, we can give
you all you want, only we want to
be sure that you will honor Jail re-
cords under the car as highly as
! you honor some Jail records under
President Wilson. Also that you
will give US credit for exile into the
Neold' portions of Russia, and for
participation in armed struggles
against czarism, and it's agents. And
mind you, we were doing all this as
proletarians, as workingmen, as
members of the SociaLDemocratic
Labor Party of Russia, of which,
Lenin, Stain, and Kamenev were
members and leaders.
| The reason it never occurred to
US to refer to our Jail records as
proof of the correctness of our pol
icy, is because we do not believe
in this kind of bunk, which is cheap
self-advertisement, and smacks of
the methods of bourgeois salesman
ship. we thought we were members
of Communist Party and not trav-
cling saIesmen to advertise chewing
gum.
My Third "Lie".
l reported Gitlow as saying, in sub
stance, that because the Russian Com
munist Party initiated the movement
for and participated the building of
Soyiets, although the Soviets were
non-partisan. non-Communist political
organizations, therefore, the American
Communist Party may also initiate a
movement for and participate in the
building OF =. farmer-labor party
which is also non-partisan, nom Com
munist. political organization.
Gitlow does not like the way re.
lported his argument at this point. He
dislikes it SO much that he calls it a
lie, and he proceeds to tell, in his own
words. what he really said. Read it:
"The above is a complete fall
sifcation Of what said. When the
political secretary OF a Communist
Party resorts to such deliberate
methods Of Misrepresentation in the
furtherance of factionalism, the par
ty is bound to suffer severely. Now
what did l say on the question OF
Soviets? 1 said that the Russian
Communist Party participated in
the Soviets even though the Soviets
were not Communist bodies and
even though they were not integral
parts of the Bolshevik Party. That
did not stop the Russian Bolshevik
party from raising the slogan of all
power to the Soviets thereby
through the revolutionary strug-
gle that ensued making the
Soviets the instruments of state
4