The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-12-11

8. Systematic fractional discrimin-
alton against comrades capable for
trade union work. Placing and dis
placing of field and district organ
izers and industrial organizers sole
ly with regard to factional interests,
with resultant damage to mass or
ganization.
V. Resistance to 0rientation of
Active Struggle Against Lewis
Machine and for Building
New Union in Mining
Industry.
The most important industrial
struggle ever carried through by our
Party and it's biggest achievement
in trade union work is the left wing
struggle now being waged in the
mining industry. The driving force
in the formulation and execution Of
correct policies and mobilization of
Party forces in this campaign was
the Gee minority. The policies of
the Lovestone groups dictated by an
underestimate of the whole fight
definitely initiated against the de-
velopment of the aggressive action
necessitated in this crucial struggle
and prevented this work making
greater success.
With the coal industry in a deep
crisis (due to over-development of
the industry, use of substitutes for
coal, etc.) and with the union,
weakened by the heavy unemploy-
ment and the shifting of industry
to the South, being rapidly torn in
pieces under the impact of the at
tacks of the employers and the
treachery of Lewis, our Party orien-
tation should have been definitely
in the direction of an poem struggle
against the Lewis machine and for
the formation of new union. The
policy of the Lovestone Geo major
ity placed many obstacles in the way
of developing the execution of such
policy. Among these are:
1. Rejection of the open confer
ence proposed by the Gee minority.
This action checked the Party orien-
tation towards new union and con-
fused and demoralized the miners
left wing and left the miners move
ment without definite perspective
and disconnected our Party from
the discontinued masses of miners
who wanted to struggle against
Lewis. Renewal Of the motion sew
eral months later by the Geo min
GRITTY for an open conference and a
direct struggle against Lewis, and
its acceptance by the .Polcom re-
established our leadership over the
masses who were in grave danger
of being demoralized by the IWW.
2. Failure Of the Gee to vigor-
ously combat the deep-seated pes
simism and systematic resistance
against the application of the policy
of open struggle, after this policy,
upon motion of the minority, had
been formally adopted by the Geo.
The task of breaking down the re-
sistance of these Lovestone group
district organizers fell chiefly upon
the Gee minority who were sharply
criticised by the Lovestone majority
for these actions. The right wing
tendencies of these organizers sig
nalized by reluctance to fight the
Lewis bureaucracy and by general
underestimate of the fighting
spirit of the miners, were most
clearly exemplified by the letters of
Comrade Bedacht, district organizer
of Illinois, to the Gee.
8. From December, 1926, till De-
cember, 1927, including nine months
of the miners strike, the Lovestone
majority failed to publish a left
wing miners organ. This was due
on the one hand to the underestima-
ton Of the struggle and on the other
to yielding to the demand of the So
called progressives (Brophy, Hap
good, etc.) that no criticism of Lew
is should be made during the strike.
a. For six months no efforts were
put forth to establish a left wing
miners relief organization and re-
lief campaign, which offered excep-
tionally favorable meanss for the
left wing, to establish mass contacts.
This relief organization could only
have been built by an open fight
against the Lewis machine and the
AFL bureaucracy.
5. fractional jugglery in the an
thracite districts. This was based up
on the established principle of the
Lovestone group of keeping minority
comrades from key positions. By
placing incompetent organizers in
charge of the Party apparatus and
by carrying on sharp fractional
war, the whole campaign in the
anthracite was gravely injured.
6. Failure to initiate in time and
to rrosocilta vipnro,1Slv tho caY,-