The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-08
Speech of ROBT. MINOR
At Workers Party Convention.


l on activities in Moscow during the
past year. But in a practical sense
my report deals chiefly with the ques-
ton of the war, danger, not emitting,
of course, the other subjects as in
dictated in the title. During the past
year the Comintern has given atten-
ton to some of the most important
questions that have ever faced it since
its organization. The questions which
we faced in the VII Enlarged Plenum
of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International are to a GER
tain extent repeated in the questions
which we faced in the last Plenum in
the month of May. Most of what |
will have to say relates to the actions
of the last Plenum of the Executive
Committee.
First of all this extraordinary ses-
sion of the Comintern Executive was
not routine session. 1t was called,
not simply because there hadn't been
a session for certain time, but be-
cause of an extraordinary interna-
tional situation requiring decisions
and instructions to all of the Com
munist parties of the world. Instruc-
tions for action, not mere theoretical
explanations of some fine-spun points,
but instructions as to what concrete
actions the Communist parties are to
put through in the immediate pres
of he
of very startling nature which led
up to the calling of this session of
the Executive. There was the devel-
opment of the Chinese Revolution, a
revolution which broke so many his
torical presidents in the sense of fur
nishing new experiences, that it was
absolutely imperative for the parties
to receive an orientation. There was
the intervention in China, the inter
vention which meant much more than
the crushing of a national revolution
in single country, even tremendously
important as such would be. There was
the breaking off of diplomatic rela-
tions between the leading imperial
ist power of the European half of the
world, and the Soviet Union. There
was, in other words, an acute devel-
opment of world war SITUATION re-
curing the mobilization of every re-
volutionary power of the working
class of the world. The war of 1914
proved to be a breaking point or point
of destruction of the old Socialist In
ternational. The world war which is
coming must be met by the Com
munist parties of the world showing
the workers that they are funda
mentally and absolutely different
from the Social Democratic parties.
Instead of proving the destruction of
the Communist parties and their In
ternational, this coming world war
must prove the victory of the Com
munist parties and our international.
THE situation leading up to this
period is interesting. In the first
place enormous strides were made by
our Soviet Union. In the last few
months, in only so much as 8 months
for instance, the output Of the state
industry which is such a great test
of the building of socialism, has in
creased between 20 and 81 per cent in
only eight months. This rate of
progress had been almost equalled in
the months preceding. Soviet Rus
STA is truly being transformed, truly
they are building the new society of
which the revolutionary workers for
three quarters of century or more
have been speaking of. The raise in
the standard of living of the working
class in the last year has been re-
markable. There has been an in
crease of the wages of the workers
of the Soviet Union of eleven and
one-half per cent over last year. The
significance to the capitalist world
system, of the successful socialist
construction in the Soviet Union, is
thing which I think is little under
stood. 1t is not a matter of indiffer-
ence but a matter of gravest concern
to every capitalist power which is in
terested in the question of markets.
On the other hand we see the great
British Empire, up till now the great
est empire that ever existed in the
history of the world, an empire which
had enjoyed an undisputed monopoly
in the world market and hegemony
over the worlds capitalist forces. Eng
land had undergone a crumbling pro-
cess, process weakening its founda
tions. England finally reached the
general strike, which in spite Of
betrayal and defeat was the writing
on the wall. England was in posi-
ton where in the logic Of capitalist
policy it was obliged to proceed on a
blood-thirsty career of war and de-
struction in the effort to save its
imperial self.
But England again secured what it
bad lost a few months earlier. 1t
again secured hegemony Of European
continental affairs. England was
busy in mobilizing the small border
states, Poland, Lithuania, Roumania,