The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-05-13
PARTY LII E

NUN enGlre Party is making the turn TO mass
work, away from social democratic forms
and methods, but some sections still cling per-
sistently to social democratic forms and methods
and resist the turn. 1t is very noticeable that
the American workers coming into the Party
through the day to day struggles, conform to
and welcome a disciplined Bolshevik Party The
older comrades, however, mainly organized into
language organizations resist the new turn in
the Party and hold on to the social democratic
methods of work This persistent hangover is
a serious handicap in the development of the
mass work of the Party especially the establish
ment of the revolutionary unions
Let us look into the situation in the Mime
sofa District Out of membership of over $780,
over 500 are Finnish comrades organized into
the organizations of the Finnish Federation and
the Cooperatiyes These left wing organizations
under the leadership of the Party have con-
Quoted brilliant struggles against the right wing
renegade Halonen and his crew, and have thru
persistent activity developed a mass campaign
to win away masses of workers from their in
fluence.
However in spite Of the fact that the Party
has conducted the battle and has established its
influence among upward of $4,000 workers and
farmers in the northern part of the district, we
have failed to build the economic organizations
of the workers and farmers. The lack of will
ingness and the resistance to the building of the
Miners Union, in spite of the increasing worsen-
ing conditions of the miners in both the copper
and iron mining country, is the key to the entire
problem facing the future work of the northern
and largest portion of District 9.
During the 1880 election campaign through all
our general propaganda campaigns, mass meet
ingS and demonstrations, the Party was able to
call out thousands of workers and farmers in
every town and at every cross road. The Miners
Union, however, did not grow and has today only
100 members, while the United Farmers League
is just beginning to penetrate
The comrades do not seem to understand the
role of the Party. The current and widespread
theology exists that the cooperatives and the
Finnish Workers Clubs are the leaders of the
workers and farmers The Cooperatives and the
clubs cannot lead the workers into struggle
against the capitalist system, they cannot or
ganize the workers in strike struggles against
the rotten conditions. We must understand that
even in the cooperative fight without the Party
no consistent class struggle program is possible.
Only in the measure in which the Party has
taken hand to lead the fight, have we led
successful struggle against the right wing
We can see from the report of Walter Hariu
to the Fraction of the Cooperatves, that in those
cooperatives where the Communist Fraction did
active and systematic work did we score definite
victories, such as Mass, Michigan; Cook, Mimi;
Eben Junction, etc. This MISUNDERSTANDING of
the role Of the Party as the political leader of
the working class, as the builder of revolution
airy unions, leads the comrades to mechanical
isolation of the workers in the cooperatives and
the clubs, from the basic economic class strug-
gle organizations the National Miners Union,
the United Farmers League and to lesser de-
gree from the Party.
The mead for Bolshevik fractions, consisting
of the Communists in the mass organizations,
in order to centralize, to bind and to give or
ganized strength to our program is felt on all
sides. The thousands of workers and farmers,
hard hit by the crisis are clamoring for organiza-
ton, for militant action, and the Communists or
ganized with them in the cooperatves and the
clubs must see to it that those workers and
farmers are drawn into the basic organizations
of the workers and farmers. Our fraction must
exert every effort to draw the workers Into the
struggle for unemployment insurance, and into
the daily struggle for immediate relief The
ruined farmers must be organized into the
United Farmers League and arc ready for mill
tant action now more than ever.
We cannot accomplish these elementary tasks
without making the turn We must throw over
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