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

districts must absolutely place the Daily Worker
circulation upon a basis of prompt payment
every week, and the Daily Worker management
must enforce this rule. There can be no unpaid
circulation of the Daily Worker. The developing
system of workers correspondents must be put
upon more systematic basis, organizing Work
ers' Correspondence Groups, especially in the
localities and must be given more guidance from
the Center.
The Daily Worker editorial staff must con-
Sciously set itself the task of making the paper
not only the agitator and propaganda but also
the. organizer of the struggles of the workers.
The Daily Worker management must develop
more systematic planned work and more re-
SponSive apparatus in dealing with the districts.
Special care must be taken everywhere to de-
velop delivery and distribution system indie
pendent of the capitalist distribution system.
Is. The election campaign of our Party regis
tered the Partys advances and at the same
time brought out in sharp relief the Party weak
nesses. The more than doubling of the Party's
vote above 1928 was measure of the advance
of our Party politically among the masses as
the result of the correction of the Party line,
the throwing out and political defeat and sola-
ton of the renegade Lovestone and Cannon
groups and the increased activity of the Party
upon its correct line. These results however
objective situation and far short of the extent
OF the Partys mass influence. The greatest
weakness of the campaign was in its failure to
concretize our program in terms of daily life of
the workers in each locality, in each industry in
each neighborhood. The campaign was too alb
stract, too much confined to the broad sweep
ing general slogans. Tremendous sympathies for
our Party were raised among the masses by our
general slogans and by. the struggles crystallized
around them, but in order that this sympathy
should be crystalliSed in the concrete act of vot-
ing for the Communist candidates much more
was necessary Too often our speakers not only
In the street meetings but even among respon-
Slble leaders and candidates in the elctons APP
pealed to the workers to vote for the Communist
Party only as the Party of proletarian revolu-
ton, but neglected entirely immediate daily prob
lens. AS a result these workers applaucled for
the revolution and for the Communist Party,
but voted for the various demagogs of the three
capitalist parties who talked about Immediate
needs The workers were not shown sufficiently
that vote for the Communist Party is not only
vote against capitalism but is most effective
act In the struggle for immediate demands This
artificial division, resulting from our poor cam
palgn methods, between revolutionary aims and
immediate needs was most dramatically ex-
pressed in the Minnesota VOTE where our candi-
date Tor governor received about 5000 votes
Whlle our candidate for lieutenant governor re-
ceived $4,000 votes. Nine thousand workers split
their VOTE voting first for the farmer labor can
didate in the mistaken idea that it served their
immediate needs and second for the Commu-
mist candidate the expression of their reyol,1-
tionary detectives. Such situation would be
impossible If the Party had in Boshevik man.
ner combined the immediate needs of the work
erS with its whole program. An effective strug-
gle against the demagogs of the three capitalist
parties and especially against the socialist party
was hampered by this general weakness of our
election campaign
This weakness was further expressed by the
insufficient linking up of all of the campaigns
OF the Party with the election campaign. The
campaign against the war danger, for the de-
tense OF the Soviet Union, for Unemployed In
Surance for the struggle against wage-cuts and
speed-ups were not sufficiently made founda-
ton and integral part of the whole election
struggle.
The election, therefore, which should have
been summing up of every phase of working
class struggle concentration of all our issues and
all our forces, was to a large degree developed
as separate isolated campaign. The efforts of
the Central Committee to correct these weak
nesses were themselves not energetic and sharp
enough In the districts and localities these
weaknesses were even more pronounced and in
some cases hardly beginning was made to over
come them. The organzational basis of the
campaign was extremely weak We have not
even begun to approach the organization of cleo
toral struggles in the same intense and concen-
trated fashion that even the capitalist politi-
clans display in this field
The failure of the Party to get on the ballot
in such strategic industrial center as Ohio.
merely because of lateness and careessness in
approaching this problem is a scandalous ex-
ample OF the general weakness of the PARTY in
this respect The Party nationally, in the dis
tricts, and in each locality, must seriously make
review OF the whole election campaign and its re-
suits, examining the methods of work, pointing
out the weaknesses and shortcomings and taking
steps to eliminate them in all future work The
districts must Immediately begin preparations
for engaging in the municipal elections to take
place in large number of cities in the spring of
1881
10. The entire Party must be sharply awak-
cned TO the fact that it is not yet prepared for
the decisive tasks that face it in the coming
winter. The economic crisis which continues to
deepen, which has already reached unprece-
denied depths, will in the coming months be-
gin to register most profound political conse-
quences. Mass struggles for bread for the most
elementary necessities of life will be on the Or
der OF the day. Our Party will be able to guide
and to organize this mass movement and lead it
into revolutionary channels only If it makes the
most drastic, selfcritica denomination of every
detail of its work and activity opd f,,pdopoo,,