The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-07-15
The Struggle Against the Right
and LEFT" DeviatiOns

been found more advisable to correct them
through drastic process of reorganization rath-
er than of simple correction That is why it is
proposed that the YCL shall set itself immed-
lately the task of bringing the membership of
the Young Liberator groups into the YCL and
those who are not ready for the Vel into the
LSU and similar mass organizations. To full
fill the function of the youth division Of the
general mass organization Of the LSNR we will
then proceed to the organization Of youth
Friends of the Iiberator, which in the light of
one year of intensive and valuable experience we
should be able to guard against all the mis-
takes and weaknesses that distorted the develop
ment of the Young Liberators.
In general we have been keenly aware that
right tendencies and "left" tendencies do not
always show themselves as consistent systems
of thought and action in any particular comrade.
Quite often it is otherwise. Comrades whose
general line is quite correct may at particular
movement be victims of a right error and at
other moments Of a left error, without having
fixed tendency to deviate in their direction. Fur
Their, comrades who may have tendency to-
ward the right deviation may also be particu-
Iarly susceptible to sudden leftis deviations, par
ticularly in moments when the party is conscious
ly and stubbornly fighting against their particu-
lar right tendency. The connection between
right and left" deviations is very close, not only
in their opportunistic essence, but also in their
individual expressions
Supremacy important at the present moment
is the struggle against the imperialist war and
anti-plilitarist work We are now in the midst
Of the preparatory campaign for August First,
CIV aroit, rrar
This is our third August First campaign Can
we say that even now we are carrying out
thoroughly Bolshevk gle? No. we cannot.
Most serious and glaring weaknesses have shown
themselves. 1t is true, Of course, that we are
making advances. Our first August First cam
peign was extremely weak politically and organ
nationally. 1t eliminated in demonstrations Of
only few tens of thousands Our second August
First campaign, last year. was stronger politi-
calIy and organizsticnelly. it modified approx
irately 100000 demonstrators. This year again
we are improving ana broadening our campaign.
But even today we still find evidence of gTo-s
r76e1 estimation of the war danger We find
important newspapers published by the Party
s=-Icusly negle;tng the agitation for August
First We find expressions occasionally of the
idea that the danger of war is not really so
serious as we say. All such tendencies of the
past show that in our Party the pressure of
bourgeois theology is still felt slowing down our
work bunting the keenness Of our work and
generally causing us to lag behind the masses.
Quite the contrary to this opportunist view of
our campaign, as eXaggeration of the war dan
ger. the defect of our campaign, lies precisely
in the fact that it is not sharp enough political
ly. that we do not speak in flaming words that
will arouse the rnasses against the coming war
We take the question too enthusiastically too calm
Of
~ intellectual interest.
We must put a hundred times more fire and
energy and political sharpness into our struggle
against war and for the defense of the Soviet
Union We must alarm the working class. We
must make it feel the presence of a horrible
monster that is gathering itself to leap upon
them and their families We must recall all
the horrors of the World War; not in order to
raise humanitarian and pasifist walls about them,
but in order to stimulate every ounce Of en-
erby of the working class to struggle to avert this
impending catastrophe. We must rouse in the
working masses the consciousness that they have
the power to prevent war against the USSR.
Only such struggle will give us the full revo-
lutionary possibilities inherent in the present
situation of the impending war danger will
actually contribute towards the postponenent of
the outbreak of war, and, when war becomes a
fact will have laid the foundation for the strug-
gle to transform the imperialist war into civil
war.
vital part of the struggle against war Is the
anti militarist work The greatest deviation in
this work has been its almost complete neglect.
This is true of both the Party and the YCL.
One phase of this neglect has been the niscon-
ception that ant-militarist work consists entirely
of conspiratorial penetration of the armed forces
Work within the armed forces is an essential
part of anti-militarist work 1t must be devel-
oped on a scale far surprising anything that
we have hitherto attempted. But we must also
understand that there is al even broader phase
Of anti-militarist work. This is the mass work
of propaganda and agitation against militarism,
the raising of mass agitation for demands of
the soldiers and sailors, the creation of the po-
Itical atmosphere both among the masses and
among the armed forces, which will facilitate
the connections between them and render pos
sible the carrying of open mass anti-mih-
tarist agitation of all kinds.