The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-11-24
PARTY LIFE
Some Thoughts On Party
WI
Conducted by the Org. Dept. Central Com
n1ittec, Communist Party, U. S. A.
BY PAUL MUNTER

n TYPICAL Saturday night in Portland The
Al Party holds its street meeting in the heart
OF the downtown district at $50 to 7:45 Usu-
ally at pm there is a social program in the
Workers Hall, given by some revolutionary or
gamzauon. Inc street meeting is attended by
AGO or 500 workers They listen attentivelv to
the speaker So attentively do they listen that
the takers of the socialist party and unemployed
union wait until the Party meeting is over They
Know that it is impossible to get the crowd
away from the speaker They have failed enough
times to know this. A collection is taken It's
base is ncikes and dimes and pennies of unem-
ployed workers A few dollars and half dollars
come from employed workers. There we see the
interest of both groups of workers in the pro-
gram of the Party. Literature sales are generally
fair. Workers give money for the distribution of
literature to workers who cannot afford it. The
meetings &c fine agitation Only one little sug-
geston have to offer. The Party comrades in
the meeting should approach workers about
Joining the Party. 1t would be good idea I
think. So much for Saturday night except that
the workers attend the social entertainments in
increasing number. They are becoming very
popular. Here, too, Party members should be
looking for workers who show interest and strike
conversation with them regarding joining the
Party.
spending to the forums, entertainments etc. of
the revolutionary organizations With the one
or two close sympathizers of the Party that are
among the women; plans for the building of
some sort of Woman's Club would be in order
Ihere is number of workers joining the I'm
employed councils at every one of it's member
snip meetings. All of these workers who ioin
snow that Tor them the problem is definitely cct-
tied They must fight to gain relief. More of
them are resident workers than ever before in
the history of the movement in Portland To
date there has not been one neghborhood branch
established There is no need of saying that the
basis for them do not exist All that is neces-
sary is that the Party comrades use a little
initiative.
The l. L, D. is getting ready to go into the
criminal syndicast repeal campaign. In order
to get this repeal measure on the ballot about
lLoOO signatures are 3eded. The Party is going
INTO the elections. T at is, it had better after
telllng hundreds and reaching thousands of
workers with election agitation. To date the
Party is vaguely considering elections are not
until next November" 1t is interesting to note
that the same approximate number of sigma
lures are necessary to get the Party Oh the bal
lot as are necessary to get the repeal measure on
why not a little socialist speed-up and enter
the campaign for signatures for the Party at
Party known in the states as a Party of Work.
ers and Farmers The other course is to run
Party candidates as independent entries lit
tie caucus Of 1875 registered voters and this is
possible There is one hitch, bourgeois parties
nave funds to rush these details through the
Party has not. 1t is case OF the early worm
trying. The Party should try as soon as possible.
These are but sketchy suggestions for the Party
work In Portland and oregon but behind them
lies lesson. Despite the tremendous growth
OF Party prestige in the last year some things
still exist that are revealing At the time of the
raids in Sept. 1880, the Party had bigger unit
membership than it has now. The funtonaries
in all organizations mostly from the same
cadre as existed year ago. What does this
mean? Simply that the comrades have not
learned all the lessons in the past year they
might have learned. There is still lack of faith
in the masses. Perhaps not verbally, but look at
your leading functionairies comrades That
tells the story. The comrades are not afraid of
doing their duty to the working class movement,
they are merely afraid of UNDERGOING it. Isn't