The daily worker., 1925-08-29


tions of the American working class
in the Industrial parts Of the country
and the poorer sections of the farmers
we're willing and ready to proceed In
to third party movement and actual
ly in the formation Of a third petty
bourgeois party And when we are
going to adopt our policies for the
future, we must keep in mind this
very important factor, confirmed
again by the results Of the election
campaign. The basis for a third pet
ty bourgeois party is here. Eventu-
ally it will materialize and develop in
to power in the United States. And
third fact established in the election
campaign proved to us that in the
face Of this sweep of the LaFollette
movement the labor party movement
in its present stage could not retain its
independence. As we have foreseen
so it has happened. The labor party
movement was nearly totally disinte-
grated and then swallowed up by the
LaFollettee movement. What con-
clusions one should draw fSOm this
fact Is another matter, but 1t must be
established that the labor party move
ment was not strong enough, was not
politically conscious enough to be able
to Withstand and successfully resist
this rising sweep of the petty bour-
geois ideology. And the fourth factor
that the election campaign established
is that our Workers Party, tho small
yet in numbers, is already quite firm
ly established. The number of votes
that were actually cast for our presi-
Dental candidate should be consider
ed as we have been considering them,
in view of a number of other condi-
tions. First, that the most exploited
sections of the American working
class, those whom our appeal reaches
quickest, are disfranchised and could
not therefore take part in the election
campaign. The second thing to con-
slider in connection with analyzing the
result of the elections, as far as we
were concerned, is this fact that the
LaFollette movement had captured
the minds not only Of those that just
began to awaken politically but even
those who thought they were. polite
ally class conscious. And If in the
face Of these two conditions the
Workers Party could carry thru its
election campaign with the result that
it actually scored, believe it is safe
to state that the Workers Party has
already firmly established itself. It
has a basis wide enough to proceed
with confidence and energy in build
ing its power and strength for future
larger campaigns.
Now, confronted with this result of
the election campaign, the Central Ex-
ecutive Committee was beginning to
give serious consideration to what the
situation really meant as far as our
policy was concerned. Soon following
the election campaign our party pub
1shed its statement on the results of
the election campaign, there we made
1t known for the first time that we no
longer believed in the usefulness and
appealing force of the labor party
slogan. This question was discussed
at great length last night, therefore
will not now go into detail about it.
What l do wish to emphasize is that
the comrades of the minority up until
this very moment, still refuse to un-
derstand what the real position of the
Central Executive Committee was be-
ginning with that statement and fol-
lowing it. I have mentioned a few
moments ago the outstanding facts or
lessons that we should derive from
the election campaign. And what
were they, comrades? We must know
them in order to understand what has
moved the Central Executive Commit
tee following the election campaign
to reorientate itself or to change was
policies as far as the labor party was
concerned. The Central Executive
Committee in those months saws the