The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-23


tics. What these comrades fail to
understand is what Lenin has said:
that it is not only necessary for the
! Communist vanguard to understand
the need for establishing proletarian
dictatorship in place of the bourgeois
republic, but the downtrodden and
ignorant millions must become con-
WINGED of this also. These back
ward masses b believe in parlia-
mentarism. Misled by the capitalist
press, the church, the school and by
all the agencies of publicity the
American masses believe that demo-
cracy affords them way out of capt.
talist oppression to their emancipa-
5tlon. 1t is necessary to work among
these masses in order to educate them
that only through proletarian die
tatorship can the workers be emanci-
pated from capitalism. This cannot
be done by mere general agitation but
must be done by utilizing bourgeois
parllamentarism itself, by putting up
our candidates against the candidates
of the capitalist class, by demonstra-
ting through the actual experience of
the workers that parliamentarism
cannot serve the workers and through
I the concrete experiences of the work
efs preparing them spiritually, politi-
cally and practically to accept the So
Wet regime and dispense the bour-
.geois democratic republic.
Are Immediate Demands Reformistic?
Are not immediate demands re-
formistic? Are they not cut out of
the same reformistic pattern as those
of the Socialist Party? Are we not
duplicating the tactics of the Socialist
Party If we put up our candidates and
run in the elections? Quite the con-
trary. The fundamental doctrine of
Leninism is stated with the greatest
clarity by Lenin in his Left Commu-
nism. Lenin pointed out that the
masses cannot be gotten to fight for
the. proletarian dictatorship merely
by agitation of the slogan, but only
the day to day struggles, fighting for
increased wages and better working
conditions, fighting against war, etc.
Will the masses be educated to the
fact that these struggles alone are
not sufficient and that it is necessary
to overthrow the capitalist system in
order to solve the problems affecting
the workingclass, and this conviction
Will be gained only from their own
practical experience. The program of
the Communist International states
these tactics as follows:
In its struggle for the ultimate
goal of the proletarian movement,
the party must take into considera-
ton concrete circumstances, the
correlation of class-forces; the de-
gree of capitalist strength; the de-
gree of proletarian preparedness.
the attitude of the intermediate
strata, and so on. The Party for
INITIATES its slogans and the manner
OF its struggle in conformity with
these circumstances. While adj
I Vanclng a whole series of transit
tlonal slogans and partial demands.
winch are determined by the given
i circumstances, the party must SUBJ
ordinate these demands and these
slogans to its revolutionary goal of
the capture of power and over
throw OF bourgeois-capitalist So
ciety. Hence, it is inadmissible for
the Party either to hold-aloof from
/ the everyday needs and everyday
struggles of the workers, or to
llmlt It's activities to these every
day needs and everyday struggles.
1t IS the task of the Party. while
starting out from these needs. to
direct the thoughts and action of
the working class beyond these
! limits, l.e., to lead the working
class to the revolutionary FIGHT for
( power
I TO neglect the formulation of
the partial demands and transition
slogans IS incompatible with the
tactleal principles of Communism.
T Tor 1t unavoidably leads the Party
TO passlyity and destroys it's con.
nection with the masses"
difference between S. P. and w p
Immediate Program.
Z An examination of our immediate
program as compared with that of
the Socialist Party will reveal the
fact. '"e
a. That our program really meets
the needs of the workers;
~ That it is of character that
can appeal to the workers and pet
them to struggle for these ends.
t5) That it helps to strengthen the
class-consciousness of the workers 10
build up their morale. and 70
strengthen their organizations. Tins
preparing them for greater STRUGGLES
Our attitude toward immediate de-
mands and immediate struggles DIFF
fers from that of the Socialist Party
also IN that even where our program
may be similar on a specific issue as
Tor example, Sacco and Vanzetti the
Socialist Party will be found waver-
ing, vacillating and betraying. and in
the end fearing to develop mass
movements. resortiDe to purely legal
measures (because of fear of the
masses and Of clashing with the