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

The line of the Lovestone group
in it's vital work is right wing line
which liquidates the Party's efforts
to organize the unorganized. The
principal defects are: (a) resistance
to reorientating the Party decisively
in the direction of the building of
new unions and (b) dilettante ap-
proach to the mass organization
campaigns and failure to carry them
through with the vigor and persis-
tence necessary to this success. The
whole American Party was slow in
i ORIGINATING towards organizing new
unions, but the Lovestone group is
primarily responsible for this, be-
cause it has resisted and is still re-
sisting despite the pressure of the
Comintern, the Profintern and the
minority of the Gee.
Principal causes of wrong Love
stone policies in organizing the un-
organized:
| 1. Lack of faith in the possibility
for effective struggle of the masses
resulting from the overestimation
Of the reserve powers of American
capitalism and underestimation of
the industrial depression, the CAPT
talist offensive and the developing
mood of resistance among the work
ers.
2. Tendency to orientate upon the
organized skilled workers rather
than upon the unorganized, semi
skilled and unskilled workers.
8. Underestimation of the dimin.
ishing influence of the skilled work.
ers due to the INFLAMMATION of in.
dustry and the growing gulf be.
tween the skilled and unskilled.
4. Tendency to orientate upon al
legged differences in the upper strata
of the labor bureaucracy.
5. Underestimation of the crisis
in the trade unions, and tendency
to minimize the necessity for new
unions. Illusions regarding possibi-
lities of organizing the masses into
the AFL unions: Articles and
speeches by Comrades Pepper and
Lovestone.
G. Constant practice of placing the
interests Of the Lovestone fraction
ahead of those of the Party, and the
sacrifices of mass campaigns for
fractional advantage.
7. Tendency to toy with mass or
ganization campaigns instead OF
pushing them through aggressiyely
The majority leadership of the
YWL, which is an organic part OF
the Lovestone faction in the Party,
follows the same opportunist line in
it's industrial work: Typical exam
pies of these wrong tendencies and
policies are:
/. Rejected as dual unionism the
proposal made by the Gee minority
in May, 1927, for the calling of an
open conference of the left wing
and progressives in the coal industry
to wage direct struggle against the
Lewis machine.
! 2. Condemned as dual unionism by
campaign throughout the whole
Party the proposal of the Gee min
ority in its thesis of May, 1927
that the Party should "unhesitat-
ingly" establish new unions wher-
ever the old unions are decrepit OF
non-existent.
8. In the February, 1928, thesis
the Lovestone group simply repeated
the year-old Comintern decision re-
garding new unions, although the
CQmintern was then in the process
of developing another resolution
which on the bassi Of the industrial
depression and the deepening crisis
in the the old unions, laid far great
er emphasis on the formation OF
new unions.
a. Resistance to the introduction
of the slogan "Organize New Unions
in Unorganized Industries" into the
Party national election platform.
8. Failure to push forward vigor-
ously for new unions in the needle
industry. In this industry the Love-
stone leadership has craft union
theology and is afflicted with Right
wing theories that the workers can
not fight the employers and the
union bureaucrats at the same time,
that the police can be bought. into
the service of the workers and that
the unions must cooperate in build
ing up associations of employers.
6. Resistance to open struggle
against the Lewis machine and
building a new union in mining in
dustry.
Z. Failure to concentrate Party
forces for determined or organizing
campaign: example, total lack of
preliminary work in New England
textile industry prior to New Bed
ford strike.