The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-03-14
THE RIGHT DANGER IN THE
LANGUAGE FRACTIONS

just clanish." l suppose there are some "psy-
Geological reasons, geography, the climate,
etc. The Lithuanian worker in the stock
yards IS better "miXer" with the other for
eign-speaking workers in the yards and less
clanish than some of the skilled and petty
bourgeois elements of the Lithuanian fraction.
The belt and conveyor system fuses the work.
ers and makes them less clanish
White chauvinsm is very strong in the lam
guage fractions. This again is mainly due to
the social composition and leadership of the
fractions. There are numerous examples that
could be given, We will this time merely quote
one of the leading Czechoslovakian comrades.
He said: "Comrade is a very good comrade-
he just has a weakness against Negroes"
'Weakness!' Oh, no, it is nothing else but
counter-revolutonary attitudei The very be-
ginnings of the Partys concentrated drive and
attack against white chauvinism and the very
little progress made in that direction has al
ready produced concatory attitude towards
white chauvinsm. Shame-faced tolerance ana
defense of white chauvinism. Such "opposi-
tom to white chauvinism must be uprooted
The textile workers in the South brought under
our leadership learn faster to understand the
true nature of white chauvnsm than some of
the members of the language fractions. The
main reason for the fact that the southern tex
tile workers under our leadership learn faster
than some of the Party comrades lies precisely
in the difference of the social position between
unskilled and semi-skied workers and skilled
and petty-bourgeois elements.
Generally speaking, we may say that in this
period III many instances the newly-recruited
workers into the Party will learn faster than
some of the old Party members-"worn out"
by the prosperity period. Therefore, no hesita-
ton in involving properly the new members
into Party work.
The recruiting drive is hardly at all carried
on by the language fractions. At best the re-
cruiting drive reflects itself mechanically in
our foreign language press. A mere reprint
of the material sent by the National Office.
The recruiting drive is mentioned as something
Incidental, and does not appear as the unifying
point of all Party campaigns. The real weak
ness lies in the fact that our language papers
did not as yet develop specific forms of re-
cruiting agitation methods amongst their res
pective language groups. There is no doubt
that all these weaknesses are due to some
serious organizational shortcomings, but the
main reason sa political one, namely-lack
of faith in the Party's capacity to recruit Of
course, this lack of faith is not merely failure
to understand the. general theoretical outlines
of the third period in the u S., but especially
the failure to grasp the third period in the
concrete terms of the daily activities in the
class struggle. AS one comrade pointed out at
the meeting that some members of the editorial
staff of the "Rovnost Ludu" (the Czechoslovak
daily appearing in Chicago are very pessi-
mistic as to the possibility of recruiting new
members in the Party. This is merely re-
Election of the Right wing line pursued in many
instances by the "Rovnost Ludu."
While the main decisive emphasis and orien-
tation in the recruiting drive must be the ma
tive unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the
basic industries, at the same time must not
neglect the foreign-born unskilled and semi
skilled. We must make special efforts to reach
the Polish and Italian workers, as their num-
bers are negligible in the Party and they oc-
cupy strategic position in a number of the
basic industries in the country We must also
make special efforts to reach the Filipino, Por-
to Rican and Mexican workers. In the steel
mills and stock yards, the Mexican worker
occupies very strategic position.
The main 'mass" activities of many of our
language fractions consists in (a) cooperative
restaurants which have no class basis, and
merely degenerate into "stores" that train some
OF our comrades in the ways of a petty shop
keeper; (b) homes and halls which are mon
partisan" and rent their halls, as in Ham
tramck, to bourgeois parties in the election
campaigns or as in the case of small indus
trial town in Illinois, where the comrades in
charge of the hall refused to rent the hall to
the W.I.R. at reduced rate. The answer to
the request for reduced rate was Priest or
W.I.R., it makes no difference, the price is
$50 and that is all there is to it." (This attitude
is in complete harmony with the statement of
a leading Czechoslovakan comrade: II am try
ing to be Communist in business way"
Greatly One more case. In the Massachusetts
District, Party member, the manager of a
hall, under the pressure of the police refused
to grant the hall to the T.U.U.L. at the time
of Comrade Fosters recent tour for the T.U.
U.L. (c) The various schools for the children
which are based on a worldly humanitarian
liberal basis" and not on a class basis.
The "mass" cultural activities of the Ian
guage clubs under the leadership of the lam
guage fractions is confined to singing and
dramatics. 1t is very difficult to induce our
comrades to arrange lectures in the clubs on
the recruiting drive, the Lenin campaign.
Generaly--to mobilize the clubs and the vari-
GUS mass language organizations to participate
in the mass campaigns of the Party.
Now more than ever before the various Ian
guage organizations must be developed into
real mass organizations and involved more di-
rectly in the class struggle. Our comrades,