The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-06-20

absolute agreement with the Party line and in
favor of building mill locals.
In New Bedford we have Party member
ship of rs to 100. But at no time did tn:
Party stop to analyze carefully the work u
the Party there and that of the Union. III
comrades in New Bedford above all lack pc:
tical training They do not understand th
relation of the Party and the Union And ver
often, when the Party is forced to make
change in leadership because of the wro1.
policy pursued by the individual these loca!
comrades regard the Party outside intrud
ers. There isn't enough differentiation betwet.
the activities of the Party and the Union.
In Paterson; we find an old Party member
ship both in age and in movement. But mo:
of these comrades pride themselves on theii
revolutionary records of 1905. Practically al.
are skilled weavers, and are divorced from the
unskilled, low paid unorganized workers. Al
though there are SO comrades in the Union.
only an average of Is are active, and most OF
these are young comrades
In Passaic, the Union is very weak at pre-
sent. No activity whatever is being carried
Both of these large textile centers are under
the jurisdiction of district two of the Party,
Here we have situation where the question
of leadership of forces generally is not the
immediate cause for the weaknesses of the
Union. 1t is simply outright criminal negli-
gence.
y The Party in Passaic is very weak numeric-
ally and does not carry on any factory work
whatever.
If were to go over the districts one by
one almost the same weaknesses can be pointed
out. Firstly, lack of forces. Secondly, pas
sivity and sometimes resistance of large
tions of the Party membership to carry on
trade union work. Thirdly, which is part of
number two, the absence and poor functioning
of existing shop nuclei.
Our Union is today in a very critical situa-
ton, the causes of which are mainly y The
past opportunist leadership and policies; p
After the removal of the opportunist leader
ship we did not carry on a struggle against
the remnant of opportunism, opportunism in
practice; 81 The failure to carry on a more
systematic struggle against the fascist A. F.
of L. and the Musteites Tin Greenville, in Dan
vile, in Philadelphia, in Paterson, etc.; ~
The failure to develop leading cadre, and the
lack of attention given by the Party.
The Party convention has the task of closely
examining its trade union-economic work Of
transforming and building the T.U.U.L and its
affiliated organizations into active weapons of
struggle for the workers in the respective in
dustries. New methods of work must be de-
vised. Very often we come across in our work
with an exact duplication Of old A. F. OF L.
smethods, such as local meeting once month,
with top heavy apparatus of president, vice
president and dozen or so more officers.
The Party must initiate a more ruthless
struggle against the right danger in the Trade
Unions, which expresses itself in the refusal to
carry on work and organize on a mill and
factory basis, the burocratic methods of work,
the craft A. F. of L. theology. The reliance on
the spontaneity of the masses. The failure to
build committees of action. At the same time
we must carry on struggle against opportun-
ism covered with left phrases. Comrades who
become ultra-revolutionary and spout venem-
ously at the fascist A. F. of L. and refuse to
carry on work within these organizations. The
acceptance of decisions and failure to carry
them out.
The Party must also combat the self-clas-
sification of some of our Party members into
two categories, "inside workers" and "outside
workers" l have often heard comrades pro-
claiming themselves to be good Communists
but are "only fit for inside Party work. They
don't know how to deal with workers." In
fact when our Union requested leading Sec
ton organizer of district two to become
union organizer, this comr hde put forward such
an argument. Such comrades must be re-
moved from leading positions If they are not
fit to deal with workers, they are not fit to
be in leading positions of the Party. Be-
cause ours is Party of the workers.
The slogan of the organization of the I'M
organized must be the major slogan of the
T.UU.L and closely linked up with all its
campaigns. In the unemployment campaign
this slogan should have been one of our i'm
portant political slogans, instead it was COM
pletely pushed to the background.
The Party will seriously have to tackle the
problem of youth work in the trade unions.
In almost all unions, without exception, do
the youth comrades find resistance to the
youth work and to the building of youth Sec
tions. Comrades refuse to acknowledge the
youth problem as a social problem and if
they do not see the immediate economic con-
ditions as different from that of the adult
workers. it becomes sufficient reason for not
doing any youth work. (Marine).
Other comrades who claim to agree with the
need of doing youth work wish to transform
the youth section into social and educational
circles rather than economic weapons of strug-
gle for the demands and needs of the young
workers.
Very often our young comrades are utilized
for every phase of work but that for which
they are most fit and from which the Union
would best profit; namely, youth work. Why?
Because the adult comrades in these unions
refuse to understand the need for youth work
(not because of their age) and very often
adopt typical social democratic attitude to-
wards the youth functionaries.
The objective conditions present the best
possibilities for the growth of our Unions. But
we must strive to have our Unions live up to