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


IN the present Party Recruiting Drive we
must guard against the notion that the sole
purpose of this campaign is the numerical in
crease of the membership of our Party. I'M
portant as increased ranks are to the Party,
we must remember that the Recruiting Drive
is also a Party Building Campaign.
1t is because Of this consideration that the
Central Committee submitted to the Party
carefully worked out program for the Drive
Where for instance, the membership is made
up primarily of workers from the light in
dustries, as in New York. the emphasis should
be laid on recruiting workers from basic and
heavy industries Because of the war dan
ger, special attention is to be paid to workers
employed in the chemical transportation, COM
munication and allied industries,
While recruiting workers from the above
mentioned industries, the membership is
called upon to draw into the Party more
Negro workers, for the Party cannot have
enough Of this most exploited and oppressed
section of the American working class. In
fact the Party cannot become a revolutionary
factor in America before it has enrolled and
thoroughly absorbed thousands of Negro prole-
tarians into its ranks. Special quotas of young
workers have been assigned to the various sec
lions of the Party. Here again we realize the
strategic role of the young workers in the
present epoch Of the war danger and ration
alization.
Similarly, greater emphasis is to be laid on
the enrolment of working women, who, hardly
organized and greatly exploited, represent
potential revolutionary force which must be
harnessed for the Communist movement.
Recruiting Drive-A Major Political Task
If the Recruiting Drive is considered by the
membership as a major political task and the
program outlined by the Central Committee is
followed, we shall have as a result not only
larger Party but better Party, Party bet
ter equipped to cope with the tasks that are
confronting it in the present period OF class
conflicts in America. BY recruiting new men,
bers, especially from among the categories
mentioned above, we shall see how quantita-
tive increase in the membership will lead to
a qualitative improvement of its social COM
position-a prerequisite for a truly revolu-
tionary-proetarian party.
The present Recruiting Drive cannot be con-
Quoted without employing the entire Party APP
paratus and the auxiliary agencies. Not only
the Organization Department, which naturally
gives the leading impetus to all the activities
relating to the drive, but all the other Party
NATURALIZATION and Propaganda, Ne
gro. Women's etc. as well as the Young Com
munist League. must dovetail their present ac-
tivitiess with the special program of the Re-
'crtift1hg Drive In fact the Drive will be
Fl lure unless it is tied up with all the poll
teal campaigns and the struggles IN which
the Party is engaged at the present time
Strategic Importance of Literature Distribution
The Literature Distribution of the Party as
sumes in this Drive prime Importance The
proper functioning of this field will contribute
greatly to the success of the Drive. 1t is
true that workers are attracted to the Party
bv seeing it in action in their behalf on var
ious fronts of the class struggle; that they
give it their confidence because they find
members Of the Party in the thick of every
fight against the boss and his hirelings, but
their confidence will be deepened when they