The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-12-15

Comintern. This Plenum of the Central Com
mittee declares its complete agreement with the
Resolution of the American Commission adopted
by the E.C.CI in october, 1890 The weakest
link in the chain of our Party work is in the
application of this line in daily life. The entire
Party must now realize the full meaning of the
words of the E.C.CI. Resolution of october which
said:
"The principal weakness OF the Party is to
be found in the fact that the Party was and
remains a gooG propaganda organization
which has not understood how to mobilize the
masses for struggle for their immediate de-
mands and especially for their economic de-
mands."
@ The weakness in making the turn of the
Party towards mass work and mass organization
is expressed in the entire Party from top to bot
tom. The Party must learn in practice how to
transform our correct general slogans into the
correct immediate demands of the masses in
their daily life We must solve the seeming con-
tradicton between immediate demands and our
revolutionary aims and perspective. Such con-
tradiction is a false one and is an expression OF
remnants of opportunism well as of "leftist'
sectarianism. Precisely because our Party is the
Party of proIetarian dictatorship it must be the
foremost leader and organizer of masses in the
struggle for their daily immediate needs. This
struggle in turn can only avoid the sWamps OF
opportunism by being guided in every detail by
our revolutionary aims and perspectiveS. We
must concretely show the workers in practice
that the road to revolution is at the same mo-
ment the only possible way effectively to achieve
immediate betterment of their conditions.
g. The weakest point in work in this
respect is in the trade union field. The con-
ditions here are positively alarming. In the
midst of most favorable conditions when the
iS
in all other fields have repression in the trade
union work The basic roots of this are III the
neglect of the immediate demands of the work
ers; bad preparation and leadership OF strike
struggles absolutely insufficient development
Of trade union democracy, which must be ex-
pressed in widespread participation of Party and
non-Party workers in the actual conduct of trade
unions from top to bottom; strong remnants
of bureaucratic methods taken over from the
past Gncluding too many and almost complete
reliance upon paid functionaries and not enough
voluntary work.; lack of disciplined planned
work and check up of results; loose organiza-
tional practices; insufficient capitalization of
authoritative and responsible leading committees
with constant close daily connections with the
masses. There is at the same time in practice
an almost complete neglect of systematic work
in the refornist reactionary trade unions. The
entire Party must make decisive effort to face
those weaknesses and overcome them. The eX-
periences of the Illinois miners strike the Flint
auto workers strike, the abortive attempts on the
Philadelphia water front, and the agricultural
workers strikes, must be thoroughly examined
by the entire Party. The lessons of these strug-
giles must be made clear in whole series of
articles to be published in the entire Party press
and in pamphlet form. The Strassburg Resolu-
ton on Strike Strategy must be Systematically
studied and put into application in all trade
union work The resolutions of the Fifth Con-
gress of the RIL.U. must be thoroughly popular
lied by publication of the decisions and by
series of popular articles. Revolutionary trade
unions and oppositions in the reactionary unions
must be built into mass organizations in the
next months upon the basis of struggle for i'm
mediate demands; systematic application of the
Profintern drectives the preparations and
leadership of strikes; concretizing our general
slogan of "Organze and strike against wage cuts
and speed-up:" development OF trade union de-
mocracy; struggle against bureaucratic ten
denotes, the development of realistic, disciplined,
planned work and detailed attention to organ
national tasks. The Trade Union department
must work out the concrete directives for the
widespread organization of grievance commit
tees in the shops, which beginning with the most
elementary forms of organized struggle, de-
veloped into shop committees thereby furnish
ing a solid foundation for the building of the
revolutionary trade unions and oppositions in the
reforrnist unions. The building of the revolu-
tionary trade union movement is the first task
of the Party without which no consolidated
progress can be registered toward winning the
majority of the working class. While strength
ening the T.UUL Center and completing its
transformation into a real trade union central
council the main attention must be concen-
trated upont the industrial unions and district
organizations, establishing responsible leader
ship, assigning the most effective and reliable
comrades, who must lead in the transforma-
ton of the whole trade union work onto the
basis of mass struggle and mass organization for
immediate needs of the masses District Confer
ences to examine the Trade Union work shall
be organized within six weeks. The improved
editing and circulation of Labor Unity must be
still further consolidated and the paper made
more of leading and organizing instrument.
A. Another expression of our slowness and in
ability to concretize our general slogans is il
Illustrated in our weak and insufficient work in
the shops and the meagre number of shop nuclei.
The Party must intensity and improve its ac-
tivites on the basis of concrete issues confront
ing the workers in the shops. Our shop papers
must reflect the grievances of the workers in
the shops and on these issues organize shop COM
mittees of the T.U.UL unions at the same time
winning the most advanced workers for the
Party and organizing them into shop nuclei The
District Committees must work out a plan of
systematic concentration on the large plants and
assign adequate forces TO build up shop commit