The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-04-08


methods of work and leadership
~ The Poltburo of the C. P. U, S, A.. in
examining the work Of the New York DlstrlcI
,of. the PARTY while noting certain substantial
achievements (stabilization OF the Party I'M
movement in Party composition, beginning OF
,1o,,,,od work orientation toward mass work,
etcl. nevertheless concludes that the district is
not vet fully utilizing the possibilities afforded
bv the present extremely favorable situation TO
oIickIv transform our Party into mass Com
nunist Party And when it is remembered tilat
the New York organization has almost one-thro
of the Party's total membership, then the ser
iousness of the Districts weaknesses ana snort
conaings can be readily grasped.
Such Improvement in the Districts work as
can be noted is chiefly of a routine character
. an improvement in the old methods, rather
than a sharp turn to the new methods winch
have been repeatedly emphasized by the Cen
trial Committee at and since the l2th Flenull'
The very excellent achievements Tor instance, Oh
the New York and New Jersey hunger marches
while certainly real step forward for the Dis
trict. do not in any sense offset or counter
balance the bad work of the Districts as shown
I,v its failure to set up and maintain regularly
flInctioning Unemployed Councils, Grievance and
Shop Committees, shop locals of the t. u u l.,
L. S. N R. branches, ETC.. capable OF leading per-
sistept struggles of the workers against hunger
md starvation against wage cuts, and Tor their
immediate partial demands.
The Poitburo considers it necessary, therefore
to call the attention of the District COMMITTEE,
first to the continued weak orientatlon OF the
District towards serious, thorough and contln-
nous work among the unemployed and at the
factories and secondly, to the persistence IN
loose haphazard and chiefly agltauonal methooS
of work The failure to make the sharp turn
demanded by the 18th Plenum constitutes an
opportunism in practice which greatly limits the
extension of the Partys mass influence and
especiallv the organization Of broad mass strug-
giles of the employed and unemployed workers
against the bourgeois offensive which can be the
only real gauge of the Party's work
90 The principle weaknesses of the District
in developing serious and effective mass work
are the following:
(a) Lack of collective leadership IN the DIS
trict. While harmony exists between the COM
rades in the District leadership, each one is in
volved almost exclusively with the routine work
of their particular departments. There is insult
ficient collective responsibility in the working
out of policies and programs and in checking up
on the carrying through of decisions made
obl Lack of coordination in the work. This
practice of individual work leads to an almost
complete lack of coordination in the work OF the
various departments and especially to a lack OF
coordination between the work OF the Party
District Sections and Units and that of the
mass organizations Unemployed Councils, L. U.
u L. L. S. N. r., etc. where, in fact, there IS
even the tendency to regard mass work IN these
organizations as being in conflict with so-called
PARTY work insufficient and irregular attention
n aud fno foil N
Y c. L. into the Partys mass campaigns is an
other example of the failure to utilize all the
available forces in developing effective mass
work.
Co Weak contact between the District lead
ershiu and lower units and fractions. Lack of
collective leadership in the District plus certain
bureaucratic tendencies, and too much reliance
still on circulars and orders" is one of the chief
reasons for the failure to rally the Party Tor
mass work. This gap between the leadership
and the comrades directly engaged in mass work
among the unemployed, at the shops and fac
tories and in the trade unions has led to serious
mistakes in formulating strike demands and in
properly carrying through strike struggles (dress
strike, Eagle Pencil Strike, etc.. The initiative
of the units, sections and fractions has not been
developed nor have they been taught to carry for
ward the work in a planned thorough and sys-
tematic way. New Methods of Work" has be-
come too much of phrase and the leading
comrades of the District and sections have given
insufficient attention to helping the units and
fractions in actually working out such new meth
DDS in accordance with the concrete situation in
each factory or neighborhood.
Id Insufficient and improper criticism.
Self-criticism has been conceived of in a mar
row. bureaucratic way 1t has been practiced too
much in the form of criticism of the lower units
by the District and it has not been Systematically
encouraged and developed from below. 1t has
not been accompanied by simultaneous and de-
cisive self-corrective measures.
(e) Failure to develop struggles local
issues. Local issues graft and corruption in the
city government, issues before the state legisla-
ture activities of the Negro nisleaders, betrayas
and demagogy of the socialists, Musteites and
A. F. of L. takers, etc. have not been sufficiently
or continuously utilized as means of exposing
the bourgeois and social refornlists and of de-
veloping and broadening the workers struggles
Aor their partial demands Unemployment re-
NAf. for Negro rights etc).
% Failure to develop self-activity and ini-
Mative. The District Committee by failure to
Get up functionng fractions in the Unemployed
Councils, the T. u u. L. unions. and other mass
bodies, by failure to guide and direct the mass
work, and by too much reliance on circulars, ETC.,
has failed to develop real leadership in mass
work. This is especially shown by the few work.
ers (both Party and non-Party) brought for