The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-07-24
(Continued.)


coming of the Party that they die
not react in any way to the first
negotiations of Latvia with Great
Britain, or to the signing of a pre-
vious treaty for a customs union
with Esthonia,N and did not recognize
in time that this customs union with
Esthonia, which is under the unlimi-
ted influence of Great Britain, rep
resented step towards the forma-
ton of an anti-Soviet bloc of Baltic
countries.
1t would be an exaggeration tc
designate all the aforementioned
mistakes, which were admitted ano
later corrected by the Parties, as
the results of frivolous attitude to-
wards the war danger. The above
mentioned examples, however, are
good illustrations of how big and
actual is the danger of allowing out
spoken measures in preparation for
war to pass unnoticed, and how nee
essary it is to be at all times on
guard, to follow up at all times the
concrete forms and phenomena of
the war danger in order to avoid
fatal omissions.
However, one may observe also
this phenomenon; that after the
VIII Plenum an intensive anti-war
work was begun in many sections
but that it subsidized later as if there
had come a realization that in the
beginning the war danger had beer
greatly exaggerated.
Superficial and expressly oppor-
tunist is conception which looks
upon anti-war and anti-militarist
work as the task only of a special
department and not of the entire
Party and its leading organs. This
conception is hardly to be found in
the official Party documents, but il
is prevalent here and there. 1t is
expressed, for example, in such
statements as hold that one cannot
enter upon the most elementary
questions of Communist anti-war
tactics because one is "not an ex-
pert"
Must Have "ToiIers' Militia"
THE slogan for "Toilers' Militia"
has come into application since
the VIII Plenum practically not at
all. Even in the theoretical organs
this question has been given little
notice. One of the few cases in which
this slogan was discussed was the
answer of the Pol-Bureau of the
Communist Party of Germany to the
Program of Action" of Comrade
Brandler. Here also the question
was only touched on in passing with
out going into the connection of this
slogan with the partial demands and
with the practical problems of the
disintegration of the bourgeois army
and the arming of the proletariat
And it is precisely on this point
that Qualification of this slogan If
urgently necessary. The circum-
stances that so little use has been
made Of the slogan for the "Toilers'
Militia" is in our opinion to be ac-
counted for to great extent in that
this side of the question has been
insufficiently clarified.
Not From Bourgeois Parliaments.
According to unconfirmed reports
one of the Communist Parties is said
to have introduced in parliament P
proposal demanding the Workers
and Peasants Army If the demand
for Workers and Peasants army
is in it's actual content to be con-
sidered identical with the "Toilers
Militia" then it is surely misun-
derstanding to demand such thing
from the bourgeois parliament.
The slogan of Peoples Militie
has come into practical application
in few cases. In the cases known
to us, this application is unquestion-
ably correct with regard to the ac-
tual content Of this slogan. But in
practice it is not unimportant to diff
ferentiate between the actual politi-
cal content of the slogan and its ex-
preston. 1t is not clear without
special investigation as to whether
the slogan of Peoples Militia in this
mode Of expression is sufficiently
concrete everywhere as a practical
slogan, viz, whether the use of the
expression Peoples Militia" can be
recognized by the masses as their
own demand or whether it should
not be replaced by another slogan
actually meaning the same thing.
but adapted to the specific local con-
ditions.
In many countries belgium, Po-
land, Finland, Latvia, etc., the Com
munist Parties have raised the de-
mand for the reduction of the SER
vice period to six months. Fears
have arisen as to whether the re-
duction of the service period, which
is planned or carried out in connec-
ton with the new military refornna