The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-01-31


have taken steps to remove the hammer and
sickle from the cooperative products. and
substitute as the Exchange trade mark the two
pine trees, the label of the bourgeoise North
ern States Cooperative League. Already Halo
men has taken steps to try to turn the Ex-
change into purely business institution.
Organizationally, Halonen also quickly came
out in the open. He openly allied himself with
the renegade Sulkanen He sent letters to the
cooperative store managers endorsing Vapaus,
the social-fascist Canadian paper, as his Of
fetal organ in attacking the Tyomies. He
began printing a counter Revolutionary weekly
paper of his own, the cooperative News" ,
His chief supporter became the social demo-
cratic buffoon Allanne, who had just been ex-
PEELED from the Minneapolis Workers Club for
his opposition to the working class line of the
club. Urn, of Chisholm, the Trotskyst became
Halonen's spokesman on the Iron Range. The
Trotskyist organ, the Militant" printed an
article by Vincent Dunno, attacking the party
and defending Halonen. This article was re-
printed in the Jewish Forward, the social de-
mocratic bosses sheet, with favorable
ment. Industrialsti, the Finnish, reformist
I.W.W paper, began printing interviews with
Halonen, and these were quoted with approval
in the Finnish white guardist paper in Duluth.
Typical examples of the conciliators were
Matti Tenhunen and Oscar Corgan. They for
mally voted for the decisions of the party,
but they spoke against them. They attacked
the party decisions and "tactics" bitterly, but
had nothing to say against Halonen's oppor-
tunist line Worst of all they allowed their
names to be used as supporters of anti-working
class statements, signed by the board of direc-
tors of the Exchange, of which they were men,
bers, without protesting. Others took even
more open anti-party attitudes. Kantola,
member of the board of directors of the Tyo-
mics, although voting for the Tyomies state
merits, in his speeches declared that the Jani-
tor of Tyomies had done his duty in clubbing
the district organizer of the Party with axe
handle. Rossi, another member of the board,
declared that those Party representatives who
had burned the November Pyramid Builders
containing a counter revolutionary attack on
the working class, suffered from cleft sick
ness" and should be thrown out of the window.
Koski, another board member, declared that we
should judge impartially between Halonens
gangsters who raided Tyomies, and the Party
representatives, including members of the &C.
commission, who protected the building from
this attack, and that both were wrong.
The struggle against Halonens anti-working
class line was quickly taken to the non-party
members in the mass working class organiza-
tions. The workers and poor farmers quickly
gave the lie to Halonen's theory of the shack
wardness of the Masses "that the masses will
not understand the Party line" The masses
overwhelmingly rejected Halonen's social-fas-
cisnl, and gave wholehearted support to the
Party line. This struggle opened when the
Party organization in the District was weaker
than it had ever been. The dues paying mem
bership had fallen from about 700 dues paying
members some months ago to BAL in August
and to 144 in September, and 10 in October.
A majority of the units had ceased to meet
regularly. But in spite of this organizational
weakness, the Party membership repudated
the line of the renegade Halonen.
In the heat of the struggle against the right
wing opportunists, sections were established
and the units again began to function. Frac-
ton meetings were held for the first time in
many months, and in some cases years. Eighty
five organizations, workers clubs, Cooperatives,
ETC., passed resolutions against Halonen and
for the Party line. The lumber workers con-
ference in Mass, Mich, endorsed the Party line,
rs to 2. The IL local unions of the National
Miners Union with several hundred members
(metal miners) endorsed the party line. Twen-
ty cooperative stores, in spite Of Halonens
machine, have already voted against the rene
gade Halonens policy. Halonen's idea of the
backwardness of the masses was repudated.
Tyomies. The women's sections repudiated
Halonen's anti-Party ideas.
Keep on Fighting Opportunism.
The struggle now centers around the coming
meeting of the Cooperative Central Exchange
Shareholders in the spring. Elections have al
ready begun. The left wing must remain on
the offensive and center the fight in the CO.
operatives, those already supporting must ac-
tually in practical work put the correct line
into effect. The fight to keep the cooperatives
for the line of the revolutionary workingclass
must be Intensified.
The Party won a victory in the first clash
in spite of the organization weaknesses Of the
Party. Haonen had at his disposal large sums
of money. He had the reformst press at his
disposal in addition to his own weekly paper.
He sent organizers, paid fat salaries, to every
section of the district, and these organizers
went from house to house speaking against the
Party.
The Party now faces tremendous tasks. The
apparatus has only begun to function. In the
Superior Duluth section over 40 Party and
League members, all bureaucratic intellectuals
except few who have been corrupted by Hal
lonen, will be out of the Party.
The last plenum of the district, held on Dec
81, showed that the fight against the Right
wing has strengthened the Party considerable.
The theological line has been clarified, the
Party is united on feminist program, the
Halonen opportunists have been eliminated.
The discussion showed that the Party men,
bers realize that the mass work of the Party,
organizing the unorganized, political demon