The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-10-02
BY /. AAITER.

THE Thirteenth Plenum of the Central Com
mittee of the Party pointed out basic weak
nesses of the Party and the methods Of over
coming them. In enumerating the weaknesses,
the resolution of the Central Committee says:
THE entire Party must recognize the need
of building up the Party Organization of shop
nuclei in the factories, the increase Of mem
bership in the decisive industries in the fac
tories, recruitment of large number of MEM
berS, etc. as an important next step for the
organization and leadership Of mass struggles
Further the resolution says, in criticism of the
attitude of committees and members of the
Party who are busy with strike activity, and
forget the necessity of building the Party:
THE building of the Party on mass scale
necessitates that a number of misconceptions
that prevail with regard to the role of the
Party in general and particularly during
strikes be clarified"
Among these misconceptions are;
That during the strike the members of the
Party working in the strike and in the union
as organizers and leaders of the strike, cannot
and even must not take simultaneously the
task of building the Party.
That during the strike the individual lead
ing members of the Party are entirely exempt
from working within the Party nuclei, dis
trict committees, etc..
THE limitation of the functioning of the
Party organizations during the strike to the
point of liquidation of the regular function
ing of the nuclei.
That the Party must work only through
fractions and not come forward as an indie
pendent force among the mass of the strikers,
and at the same time failure to organize even
the fractions"
These shortcomings of the Party, as exemph-
fled in other strikes, we're present in very
sharp form also in the Paterson strike.
The Paterson silk strike has many lessons for
The Party and for the entire working class. 1t
shows the strong points of the Party and its
harp weaknesses, as perhaps few strikes have
shown in recent times. The Paterson strike was
& partial success for the Party. 1t established
The National Textile Workers Union and the
Party in the eyes Of the workers of Paterson.
1t built the N.TW.U. increasing its membership
by about 1000. The strike taught the workers
Of Paterson, both those in the N. T. W. U. and
those who we're misled and were forced to join
the United Textile Workers how to conduct the
fight against the Musteites and the renegades
from Communism. even though this was done
and not with complete success, oW-
ing to the denlagogy and treacherous methods of
these social fascists linked up with the depart
nent Of justice, the police, the mayor, the
bosses and gangsters.
The Paterson strike was not organized upon
correct organizational principles and methods in
the preparatory stage. The Party failed to
establish itself in the shops (for which the dis
trict is responsible relying on the so-called
tradition" of the workers of Paterson, who
never built up organization" but were consd-
cred and considered
therefore would respond without organization
for struggle. This is supposed to be the history
Of Paterson-and if it is, it is one of the reasons
why Paterson strikes have been defeated in the
past.
Failure to build the Party in the shops meant:
Cd isolation of the Party from the masses in
The shopS-no connecting belts with the masses
and % that the union (Which before the strike
had small membership, many of them unem-
ployed, the remainder working in small shops
also was isolated from the shops
The strike committee was formed on a basis
that could not connect the union or the PARTY
with the workers in the shops, in an organized
manner. 1t was constituted at meetings of work
srs OF various languages, with many unemployed
in their midst This was an improper form, but
,he conditions demanded such action It is OBJ
NOUS, therefore, that the first prerequisite for
-AlC VI 5aAI11stJIOIl OI q SCTlke is elCler shop
nucleus from which the strike may be organ
zed, or shop committee, out of which shop
nucleus should be formed
With no nuclei in the shops the Party was
divorced from the shops, and the recruitment of
members for the Party could only be at mass
meetings. by picking out the most militant -ele-
nents in the strike, etc. This was seriously ne
elected the comrades being too "busy" to per-
orm their most important duty in the strike
'iz, to build up the Party, so as to provide the
trong basis for the organization of the workers
n the shop, for the present and future strug-
yles. Only about 25 members were recruited
turing the strike but the Party now is so well
established in the minds of the workers. that
recruitment has only just begun
The Party as party played no independent
ole in the strike. Although the speakers at
ne mass strike meetings were in the main Com
nunlsts, and were presented to the workers as
uch nevertheless, the Party played no part
whatever in the strike as Party. No state
nents, practically no meetings, even hesitancy in