The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-07-01
.ey JACK sTAcHEL.

party cadres and in the consideration
of our major policies, but find their
expression in our every day work in
the trade union, the fraternal organi-
cation, and in the shop. In the shop
the right and leftist tendencies are
symbolized by two types of comrades.
The first who, after working in the
shop for IL years, is not suspected
by anyone Of even having progressive
ideas, the comrade who conceals the
party The other extreme, the leftist
type, is symbolized by the comrade
who, after getting a job at a. m, is
called "Bolshevik" and "Trotzky" by
the entire shop and is fired at II m.
Both of these types are dangerous to
the work of the party to the degree
that they are afflicted with these ten
denotes.
WE must fight against both Of these
w tendencies on the part of our
membership in the shop nuclei. Both
of them exist, both are anti-Leninist.
We must recognize, however, that
these tendencies are due to a lack of
experience in the approach to the
masses, lack of experience Of the
whole party. Some comrades ask the
s,stion, (which of the two tenden-
] is more dangerous at the present
timer" and the answer is that this
depends on the particular situation
involved, Also that the situation is
invariably so implicated that the right
deviations lead to liquidation of the
Communist nucleus thru too much ex-
posture, while the deviation is exactly
due to a desire to avoid exposure. /,
therefore, say that we must have more
caution in our work and not expose
our comrades too much, because at
this time, when we are getting our
roots planted in the shops, this is our
greatest danger.
r WILL now give some experiences
L that we have had in the New York
district to illustrate the necessity for
caution. In one of the large plants
employing about 1000 workers we
have succeeded in organizing party
and Young Workers League nucleus.
The comrades worked well and pub
lished a shop bulletin, which was very
well accepted by the workers. In a
short time the comrades came to the
district office and informed us that
they had already formed shop COM
mittee of 16 workers. The bulletin
was published, not in the name of the
party or the Young Workers League
as the organ of the nucleus, but it
was stated that it was published by a
group of workers in the shop. The
shop committee began to look upon
the paper as its organ.
How Not to Form Shop Committees.
TINE district executive committee
l. Immediately recognized that the
situation in the nucleus and in the
shop as whole was a dangerous one.
The shop committee was organized on
individual membership; in other
words, it was not really a shop COM
mittee, but the basis of union in
that industry. There is no union in
that industry. The workers in the
shop began to talk of strike. Fortu-
nately, our comrades soon enough told
the workers that premature strikes
are dangerous, but the workers still
believed that they were forming a
union. The paper naturally, to them,
became the organ of their future
union. Every member of the party
and the Young Workers League be-
came a member of this so-called shop
committee.
What were the dangers here? In
the first place it is the easiest thing in
the world to liquidate the nucleus
thru this method Of forming commit
tees. We must always assume that
one out of every 10 in the shop who
will join such a committee is either a
spy of the firm or will give them in
formation in one form or another. OF
course, it may be true that there is
not a single spy in this committee OF
16, but, basing ourselves on past ex
periences, we must nevertheless as
sumo the possibility of there beinl
one in the committee. Unless checked
by the district executive committee
this committee would in all probabil
ity now have about 30 members an6
would continue to grow. The danger
Of spies increases with every increase
IN the membership of the so-callet
shop committee" We have every
member of the party and the Young
Workers. League there. We, there
fore. run the risk that every Commu
mist and militant worker in the shoI
VIII be fred and we will lose every
thing. We will liquidate the nucleus
and we will discourage organization
among the workers for some time tt
cone.