The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-03-01
By SAM DARCY.

WE are approaching the end of the member
" ship drive. 1t is too early as yet to make
a thorough estimate of the drive itself. If we
are to keep and even further the achievements
of the drive however, we must already now
find the weaknesses in our work and eliminate
them. This means not only to complete the
drive successfully, but also to make thorough
campaign to win the new members to active
participation in Party work.
Drive Results Show Party Prestige.
Certainly it is tribute to the prestige of
our Party that our quota has been far exceeded
by the number of applicants. Also we must
note that the method with which we carried out
the membership drive was far more Bolshevik
one than ever before, in that our approach was
more than ever before on the basis of the
Party's participation in actual class struggles.
Possibly the most encouraging feature of the
membership drive is the improved composition
of the new members who have entered our
Party. We have recruited already four times
as many Negro workers into the Party in the
New York district alone as we have ever had
in our district at any one previous time. The
composition by industries, by nativity, by age,
and so on all reflect improvement in the Par
tvs work in reaching the American proletariat
in the basic industries.
Not Sufficiently in Factories.
There are, however, a large number of short
comngs which we must seriously consider For
example, out of the total recruited in the New
York district almost half were recruited at
demonstrations and not in the factories This
fact alone has brought to light a considerable
number of shortcomings in work. For
example, out of the total number of those who
Joined our Party 200 recruits, mostly those
who Joined at the demonstrations under the
pressure of mass enthusiasm are not re-
porting for assignments to units. Although
many of these will undoubtedly turn up prop
erly. yet this is an indication that the full
number listed as recruited will not actually
become members. Also because of having re-
cruited at mass meetings so large a number
of members rather than in the factories
have very few new shop nuclei as result of
the drive
Nevertheless, this influx of new members is
undoubtedly a tremendous source of added
strength to our Party and our task must now
be to win these new members for activity. One
of the most serious problems that has been fac
ing our Party up till now is the large fluctua-
ton of members which prevents steady growth.
commensurate at least in a measure with our
recruiting efforts Excellent proletarian ele-
ments join our ranks only to drop away after
very short time. While not justifying the
political Party of the whole working class,
must yet examine the reasons for it and take
measures to improve the situation.
The Life of the Unit.
The first question we must put is-Why do
workers join our Party? They see us, their
fellow workers. fighting the bosses as an or
~snization on the picket lines and in the shops.
They see us fighting the police who break our
strikes, in street demonstrations, etc. The al
most instructive hatred for imperialist war by
the great masses makes them respond readily
to the Party anti-war struggle. In this way,
from the outside the worker sees our Party
only in its general fighting role in the struggle
and does not see the long arduous and detailed
tasks necessary to carry out in order to prepare
these struggles properly.
Therefore, when they join our organization
and do not find the units quite as they pic
tured it from the outside, especially those of