The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-04-13
PARTY LIFE
Conducted by the Organization Department of
the Central Committee Communist Party, U.S.A.
Language Work and
Building OF TUUL
BY ANDREW OVERGAARD.
cy. Metal Workers Industrial League)

against wage cuts, speed-up, for unemployment
insurance and for better conditions in the shops,
we must take into consideration the role of the
foreign born workers in these industries If we
take such industries as coal and Steel the ma
jority of the workers in numerous coal and steel
centerS are foreign born, and it is therefore use
less to talk about organization unless we under
take measures to recruit them into the unions
and leagues of the TUUL.
In order to actually put into practice the policy
of the Party in regards to the building of revo-
lutionary unions, it is necessary to propose
number Of steps for improvement of our work
in the various language organizations, and also
use the language press more effectively than is
the case at present. We must also examine
carefully the work Of our language organizers,
who are in the field with the object of improy-
ing their methods of work.
First it is of the greatest Importance that/we
combat the influence of the agents of the CAPT
talists the social fascists etc. who are constant
ly reminding the foreign born workers, That
they have no right in America" and therefore
must keep quiet. Our answer must be that the
foreign born workers are part of the American
working class, and call upon these workers to
unite with the American workers for struggle
and at the same time vigorously take up the de-
Tense of the foreign born workers The pes
ample in the minds of some of our comrades
that they can not do anything because of lam
guage difficulties" must be combatted as only an
influence of the bourgeoisie.
We see for instance in mills like the Repub-
lie Steel in Warren, Sparrows Point, in Balti-
more, the Metal Workers Industrial League is
growing, but the majority are foreign born work
erS. Why? Because the majority in those mills
are foreign born workers.
Our members say also chat you cannot do
anything in the shops" But after considerable
work and new methods introduced, we find to-
day in the above mentioned plants that all our
leaflets and bulletins are being widely distributed
in the plants without the bosses discovering the
guilty" ones. In the International Harvester
Co, in Chicago, the Daily Worker is being sold
by our comrades. In Warren, Ohio, in the Re-
public plant, the leaflet issued by the Metal
Workers Industrial League appears the same
time the company announces a wage cut.
Wherever these foreign born workers have
been given concrete suggestions as to how to
carry on work and how to recruit members into
the Party and the unions and Leagues, the re-
suits have been very good.
Now a word on our language organizers. In
most cases, our various districts are visited bv
language organizers, agents for the language
press etc, once a week. In Pittsburgh, in the
heart of the steel and coal industry, where
mostly foreign born workers are EMPLOYED I
have seen as many as ten language organizers
pass through in one week. What has been their
work? In most cases, they had splendid meet
ings, made long speeches, made good collections
for Radnik Rovnost Ludu, ETC., and then beat
it to the next town to do the same thing In
one case, a comrade working for the Radnik
+oI
ing in Donara, Pa, with some 81 South Slavic
workers. all working in one steel plant, present.
He took collection of some $25 for the Radnik,
but when asked what about organization-that
is when nothing happened. 1t never occurred to
the comrade that he must at the same time be
an organizer for the revolutionary unions and
the Party, that among these q workers who are
Wiling to support the official organ of the Party
in the South Slavic language, there would be
at least few willing to join the Party, and most
likely, all of them could be recruited into a
shop local of the Metal Workers Industrial
League. In youngstown, South Slavic Club
arranges mass meetings, as well as social af-
fairs, attended by as many as 600 workers.
mostly working in steel mills. Our South Slavic
organizers again make long speeches, take COL
lections and again nothing happens organiza-
tionaIy.
In Farrell, we have fraction of Party men,
bers who through their efforts and work have
secured control of the Creation Benefit Society
They have also organized a substantial left wing
group there, but when the representatives of the
Metal Workers Industrial League request the
floor, as the majority of the workers are in the
steel mills, our own comrades are against hav-
ing Comrade Cush speak, as this may result in
the state troopers breaking up the meeting. In
Farrell, probably the crasSest example of wrong
and long speeches can be cited. Our comrade
the South Slavic National Bureau,
giving lecture, speaks over two hours and an
swers questions for another hour and a half
dealing with everything under the sun, but again
nothing happened organizationaIly.
We can take numerous examples like this and
as result every language organizer becomes a
specialist for getting subs for the paper but for
gets all organizationaI problems of the Party.
In this way ten language organizers spend time
in all steel centers in the Pittsburgh District but
none of them brought single member into
either the National Miners Union or the Metal
Workers Industrial League. Only occasionally
and accidentally member of the Party.
1t is here of greatest Importance to have meet
ings with these language organizers and the re-
spective union organizers, as well as the District
Organizers of the Party, when they are going
into the field, in order to link up the work of
the whole movement more efficiently
This organizational weakness also effects our
language press which certainly does not reflect
the conditions Of the workers in the shop When
we pick up any language paper, it is still having
the major portion of articles on the political
situation in Europe, International news, me-