The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-02-27
ON SOME OF OUR ORGAN
NATIONAL SHORTCOMINGS

mass organizations. This has been especially
noticeable in the South. In the South many of
the workers in the Piedmont region have con-
fused the National Textile Workers Union, the
international Labor Defense and the Workers
International Relief. To many of the workers
these three organizations are all parts of the
same organization. While this is not an I'M
healthy-tho primitive-cass conception and
not dangerous, nevertheless it has bad conse-
quences occasionally. Workers will come to
an organizer of the N. 7. w. u, for instance,
and show him a WIR card and tell him that
he is an NTWU member. Or vice-versa. And
then when one considers that the workers must
know what the Trade Union Unity League is,
the Labor Sports Union, possibly the Friends
of the Soviet Union, and on top of everything
the Party and YCL, there certainly is room for
confusion. The same thing is true of the var
ious organs of the Party and the auxiliaries.
To many of the workers there is no serious
distinction between the Daily Worker, the La
Dor Defender, Labor Unity, the Young Work.
er, Workers Sports, Solidarity, etc. That each
has separate function is not clear. The eff
feet of all this was that the various mass Or
CARNATIONS were constantly duplicating each
others work and. to a certain extent, having
certain "iurisdictional' quarrels. Further, each
one of the mass organizations could have no
separate and distinct organizational life.
Our Writing.
As bar to leadership of the great masses,
our writing has been second only to our poor
forms of organization Lately, it must be said,
however, there have been some serious efforts
at charging this, as the GEO. resolution on
the Daily Worker shows.) Our writing has, on
the whole, been of such nature that the great
~
stand the content of what we said, and this,
to a great extent still continues.
This is another one of the plaques left us
by Lovestone and can be explained mainly by
the same historical" reasons that explain our
organizational weaknesses. The Lovestone
petty-bourgeois opportunist group, which was
totally Indifferent to the needs of the masses
and had no roots in the working class and had
very little contact with actual workers, did
not write for workers In true opportunist
sectarian fashion they used only the "scien-
tific jargon" (Lenin) of the vanguard of the
proletariat-which although necessary and cor
rect in the theoretical organs of the Party
cannot be used to rally masses of American
workers. Another characteristic feature of
the writings of Lovestone and Goa feature,
which, unfortunately has not yet been wiped
out-was their opportunist fear of speaking
out too plainly. This. combined with their
fractional Indifference to the actual needs of
the masses and their habit of lifting bodily
and mechanically from Inprecorr, etc, created
such a state of affairs that today the Party
has almost no simple Party literature for pro-
paganda among the masses. The same
thing was true of the Vel. and our youth
propaganda and literature for the youth, who,
of all workers, need popular literature. And
what holds true of our Party organs, also
holds true of our leaflets. Some comrades
seem to imagine that the great masses of
workers understand what the words rational
ization," imperialism" third period "con-
ciliators," etc, mean without any previous ex-
of our leaflets just so much Greek to the
workers. This was shown as late as three
months ago when the Party put out national
leaflet, entitled Hoover Makes War Upon the
Workers" This leaflet which was supposed to
be popular" leaflet and which was meant
especially for the Party recruiting campaign,
had by actual count, exactly 40 words that
southern workers could not understand! Which
meant that, as far as they were concerned,
the leaflet was total flop. And this sort of
leaflet is by no means exception to the rule,
sad to say. In just one article in one issue of
the Labor Sports organ workers Sports"
there are a dozen words that most workers
will not Understandable this in a magazine
that should achieve wide popularity on its class
sports line and working class simplicity.
ITO Be Continued)