The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-11-02
Socialist Rivalry Is a Mass
Movement By Those Who
Are Building New Society

was to ask the Moscow proletariat
to aid them in this work. "We,''
stated the delegates, care aiming
at realizing the five-year plan
before the date appointed, but the
Donbass workers have not suffi-
Gent technical knowledge, the
spreading of industrial knowledge is
not developed. We, the workers
CT Lougansk, appeal to you for aid"
Moscow has promised, and will
give, her aid. But this is not the
point. The incident itself shows
how great is the enthusiasm of the
masses, how unlimited is their read
mess to carry out a Socialist at
tack, in spite of all difficulties.
We can quote further examples
of the unprecedented development
of the Socialist initiative of the
masses. Just now, for instance, a
new form of testing the results of
Socialist rivalry has become wide
spread. Workers send delegates to
kindred factories, examine the sue
cesses attained, and, without fear,
sharply criticize the defects. Not
long ago, for instance, delega-
ton from a small macaroni fac
tory in Armavir arrived in Mos
COW. Having studied the condition
of rivalry in a Moscow macaroni
factory, and found that it was go
ing on very slowly, the delegation
sent sharp letter to the press,
forced the Central Committee of
the Food Workers Union specially
to discuss the question of the Mos
COW factory, spoke to the workers
of this factory, and thus gave
decisive impulse to clearing away
all the defects found there. Work
ers send special brigades to the vii
lagos, and these brigades give help
to the collective holdings, agitate
for the collectivisation of agricul-
ture, for the appliance of new
methods to land cultivation, ETC.,
thus strengthening the industrial
tie with the laboring peasantry.
There have been several attempts
on the part of the class enemy to
bring about the failure of Socialist
rivalry. "Kulaks," priests, ETC.,
managed to get into Soviet enter
prises, and tried to raise the back
ward workers against the advanced
workers who were theoretically
carrying on Socialist rivalry. But
the masses themselves stood up with
such fierceness against these at
tempts that the plans of the kulaks
hopelessly failed.
There are the facts and this is
the reality of the matter. 1t is suffi-
GENTLY convincing and instruc-
tive. 1t shows, first of all, what
enormous creative powers exist in
the working class of the Soviet
Union. 1t confirms the absolute
truth of Lenin's words on those pos
sibilities that lie hidden in the work
ing class and which come to light
only under the conditions of the
proletarian dictatorship. These
facts are the best proof of the cor
rectness of the Communist Party's
policy and of the complete hopeless
ness of the ideas of the Rights and
Conciliators. Socialist rivalry dealt
the death-blow to those who, fright
ened by the difficulties, gave the
signal for retreat and for capitula-
ton to the resisting class enemy.
Out of the ranks of the Right were
heard voices advocating, instead OF
the speed-up of the five-year plan,
the creation of two-year plan,
with big peasant bias. The work
ing class, hand-in-hand with the
party, not only voted for the five
year plan: it now demands that the
term of its accomplishment should
be reduced Can a bigger failure
of Right theology and Right policy
be imagined?
Lenin wrote: Communism be-
gins when the rank and file work
ers evince a self-sacrificing desire
to increase, in spite of the hard
labor entailed, the productive pow
ers of labor" Socialist rivalry is
the greatest example of that desire
which has filled the rank and file
workers, the working class as a
whole. And the tremendous enthu-
siasm of the millions, their readi-
ness, "self -sacrificingly to overcome
hard labor" is explained by the
fact that they feel and understand
that Communism is beginning;
that, in spite of all the difficulties,
the great plan of works created ac-
cording to Lenin's testament, will
be realized and every day will bring
nc pooror RI Communism,