The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-12-12
By BILL dunno.


THE statement that: Following such and
such a meeting in such and such city,
such and such number of workers Joined
our Party" is rarely if ever found in reports
in our press.
The recruiting of workers into our Party is
perhaps the most neglected part of our activi-
ties. In the dozens of mass meetings, ete
which absorb such large part of our Party's
energies, tits the exception to find that one
comrade has been designated to make Gn ap-
peal for members At most meetings an ap-
peal is not even made accidentally although
there is plenty of abstract praise CT our Party
by speakers. But the direct request for work
ers to sign an application and enlist in our
revolutionary ranks is seldom heard
That our shop units are weak III recruiting
is likewise true Otherwise membership
would be increasing much more rapidly than
it is. 1t is doubtful if very many members of
shop units ever make an estimate of the Party
possibilities for recruiting work among the
workers in their shop or factory. Under such
circumstances sympathizers, can remain out
side of the Party for years. Nothing can take
the place of the direct request for them TO
fill out an application card.
Many workers have the idea that Commu-
nists are select group and only by some fear
some test of loyalty to the working class and
its party can they qualify members. We
must Systematically correct any idea existing
that the so-caled ordinary POLITICALLY unde-
veloped) worker is not eligible for Party men,
bership. 1t is precisely the ordinary workers
who compose the proletariat in basic industry
that our Party needs and must have if it is
to become a real mass Party and be able to
lead the struggles in which these Ordinary"
and hatred of capitalism-and to the Commu-
mist Party and its revolutionary program.
If the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union, previous to the overthrow of reaction
and the seizure of power had turned its face
from the ordinary" worker and dreamed,
some comrades appear to do, of some ideal
type of worker who comes like Minerva from
the brow of Jove, full-armed with Communist
theory, to our Party, it would still be perse-
cuted sect and the Russian masses would to-
day be plundered by the imperialist powers.
This failure to do systematic recruiting
among the workers, who read our literature,
respond to defense and organizatino campaigns
and generally follow the lead of our Party, is
something more than neglect of technical
measures-like the failure to have application
cards at a meeting or to ask workers to join.
In my opinion the roots of this weakness are
to be found in what Lenin called Communist
vanity" In essence it is feeling of super
iority which leads to the belief that sooner or
later all militant workers will be forced to adj
mire the intelligence and courage of Commu-
mist Party members and will then clamor for
admission to the ranks of the elect Nothing
could be further from the truth To believe
such nonsense is to repudiate what Lenn
called "the only weapon of a suppressed class
struggling against the arsenal of mighty wea-
pons which capitalism possesses-the weapon
of organization.
Why should workers take seriously our many
articles and speeches about organization of the
masses if we do not constantly emphasize that
our party is first of all the organization of the
working class but that it remains so only if it
brings into its Enthusiastically fights for
every worker who accepts its program and car
ries out the Party tasks in accord with Party
discipline?
The main reason why the Comntern insists
again and again on the proletarianization of all
leading committees, on the drawing in of new
working class elements" into the Party and
the leadership is because our Party was rapid
ly becoming caricature of working class
party, capable Of organizing and leading
American workers in serious class struggles.
There is nothing that can replace the build
ing Of the Party by recruiting from the ranks
of the masses brought closer to us in every
strike, demonstration, mass meeting, etc. The
bad social composition of our Party has been
stressed time and time again by the Comintern.
Historical req ms crn be and have been adj
vanced in er~'Hnet'on Of this fact. But the
time when such explanations play any progress
sive role is past
The way to change the social composition
of our Party from its present preponderance
Of skilled workers and heavy sprinklins Of