The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-06-05
MOBILIZE FOR A BETTER PARTY!

NO.
We have, for instance, the fact
that the industrialization of the
South transforms tens and hundreds
of thousands of formerly declassed
poor white trash" almost over
night, into industrial proletarians.
And this transformation takes place
under conditions of most intense
methods of exploitation, which the
latest inventions and the most scien-
tific systems can supply. Thus the
industrialization of the South pro-
duced its own revolutionary anti
dote, an element Of tremendously
sharpening class struggle which
tends to undermine American cap
italism. This should have been the
decisive factor for any Communist
analysis based on the resolutions Of
the Sixth World Congress. But in
our own analysis the decisive factor
was not this counter-force to cap
italist upward development, but
rather the industrialization of the
South itself. The Comintent criti-
cism, therefore, is correct. And the
source Of our error certainly was
petty bourgeois opportunism,
Was the Comintern justified in
condemning us for our unprincipled
factionalism, and is the conscious
eradication of this factionalism a
necessary prerequisite for the prep
aration of the Party for it's serious
tasks in this period? Of course it
is. fractional considerations have
IN the past acted as barrier be-
tween C. I. decisions and their I'M
reserved application. The COMM
tern said: Struggle against the
Right" We said: eve accept the
struggle against the Right" But
we said that the Right danger is the
other faction. The struggle against
the Right danger in the ranks of
our own faction was studiedly
avoided because it would only weak
en- Gus" at this moment in our strug-
gle against the Right danger of
the other faction. Therefore we
maintained, in practice, that in order
to fight successfully against the
Right danger, we could not fight
against it in the ranks of our own
faction.
The Comintern said: Liquidate
the factions" We said: Accepted!
Let us liquidate the opposing fac
ton. Of course we cannot liquidate
our own. That would weaken US in
the fight against the factionalism
of the other group. Therefore, our
very acceptance of the Comintern
demand of liquidating the factions
necessitates that we should not
liquidate our own"
Thus the corruption of our own
logic, wrought by six years Of fac
tional strife, led us to a systematic
negation of every important deci-
sion of the C. I. Can we hope to
free ourselves from this corruption
if we do not, first of all, recognize
its existence and acknowledge the
justice of the C. 7. criticism?
The same corrupt factional logic
illustrated in our reaction to the de-
mands of struggle against the Right
danger and of liquidation of the fac
tions, manifested itself in our reac-
tions to all Of the demands and criti-
cism of the Comintern. 1t mani
tests itself even now in the attempt
of comrades who do not dare to
deny the justice of the c. I. criti-
cisms, to negate them by propagan-
dizing the Party against its form
and against the language in which
it is couched.
1t is true the Comintern does not
mince words. Factionally corrupt
logic presents to the Party that
pleading guilty to the charges of
the Comintern means to incapacitate
the pleader to leadership or even
membership in our Party. But the
Communist International only exer-
cises its duty when it points out
that certain policies proposed We're
opportunist, certain tactics employed
were the tactics of petty bourgeois
politicians. To accept the criticism
means to recognize these errors in
order to re-establish our Communist
quality. But to reject the criticism
means to turn these wrong policies,
tactics and actions into system
and thereby prove that they were
not mere deviations from a correct
line, but were a line in themselves.
And such a rejection of the criti-
cism, such a maintenance of the
wrong line, would transform the cul-
prit from a Communist into a petty
bourgeois opportunist, petty bour-
geois politician and a rotten dip
lomat.
The first duty of a Party mem
Der and, especially, of a Party
leader, is obiectivity. One who can
rot subordinate himself to the Party
and its needs, it's interests, it's poll
cies, is not Communist, but petty
bourgeois individualist. Comrades
Lovestone and Gitlow take this non
Communist attitude now. They put
their personal judgment over that
Of our world Party; they put their
sclf-conceited personal integrity
above the revolutionary integrity