The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-07-15
BY EARL BROWDER.


from yesterdays paper)
BY EARL BROWDER.
Vow shall we choose our forms and methods
IL of developing the struggle? The xI. Penum
OF the E. G. c. I. directed our attention especi-
ally to concrete application of forms of the
United Front from Below
This, simultaneously with the careful eva
luation Of the general situation, calls for an
exact estimation of the situation and the re-
lation of forces in the various branches of in
dustry and in each enterprise, the estimation
of all the peculiar features and conditions of
the various strata of the working class and the
application of corresponding concrete methods
of struggle: economic strikes, short protest
strikes, revolutionary demonstrations mass
political strikes, etc.
In connection with this we see the leftist devi-
alton in the strike struggles in the attempt to
jump without preparation from the economic
strike into the mass political strike The reaI-
cation of the mass political strike is one of the
higher methods of struggle. Its achievement
will mark high level of working class struggle
which will already raise before us the problems
of the developments to some extent of the prere-
quisites of revolutionary crisis in the United
States. We must therefore propagate the idea
Of mass political strike. But it is something
II
the midst of the present miners strike, for ex-
ample, to raise the slogan of political mass
strike as the next STEP as the answer to the
problems of the struggle in its present stage
of development. Such use of the political mass
strike slogan would not raise the movement to
higher level. On the contrary it would disor-
ganize the present struggle, create illusions
serve as an excuse for everybody to do every
thing except the most necessary tasks of organic
ing and strengthening of the miners strike
committees at the pits, uniting them in section
strike committee, ETC. 1t would thus obstruct
the preparing of the relation of forces necessary
to develop the struggle to higher stage. The
illusions that would be created by the raising
of the slogan as an immediate practical slogan
of action would be quickly shattered by life it.
self and result in such disappointment and sense
of defeat as would Immediately SKATER the strike
morale. 1t is clear, therefore, that behind the
left appearance of such proposals there IS the
same old opportunist essence that exists in the
open right-wing policies. Both can exist side
by side.
In the struggle for Negro rights we are also
going through the same experience, finding it
necessary to conduct a constant daily battle
against right and left deviatons-with the pecu-
rarity that the right danger in a greater OK
tent is the decisive danger which Party and
youth must concentrate to fight. IN our conduct
of the Scottsboro campaign, we nave been forced
to criticize ourselves very sharply for some most
serious weaknesses.
It is true that the Scottsboro campaign has
on the whole been a magnificent success for
the Party. 1t has been an historical struggle
in which we have reused hundreds Of thousands
of hitherto passive NEGRO workers and farmers
as well as considerable bodies of white workers
he @
the Negroes In this campaign we have proved
To the Negro masses that the revolutionary work
ers both white and black, are the only rehaple
fighters for their liberation. We have demon
strated to these masses in life the treacherouS
nature of their bourgeois and petty-bourgeolS
official leadership, both of the NAACP and the
churches. We have begun the process OF bring
ing to these masses the main slogans OF our
whole program of Negro liberation and some
elementary understanding Of this program In
snite of these achievements however, the point
which we must emphasize in our dlscusaAoz2as ]s'
the weakness with which We have carried out
the popularization in this campaign Of the slogan
of self-determination and its accompanying slo-
cams confiscation of the land in the black belt
from the white land owners, the state unity OF
the black belt and its right of seh-determlna-
ton up to the point of separation. We have not
sufficiently explained the class nature and basis
of the treachery of the Negro nisleaders Those
weaknesses are concrete examples of the right
dangers of the Negro question. We have not
as vet won decisive victory over these weak
nesses. over this tendency to the right. Many
angles of the right deviation we have not time
TO speak of in detail
The right wing Tendencies on the Negro ques-
tion have the general character of lack OF at
tention and emphasis on the class differentiation
within the oppressed nation. The leftist devla-
tions are on the contrary an underestimation OF
the Importance of dealing with the Negro masses
as an oppressed nation in which the working
class can and must give leadership, and substl-
tuition therefore of the class struggle. Many shad-
ings of this leftist deviation have appeared In
its most open form it no longer shows itself.
But widespread remnants of it still exist in the
opposition of the building of the LSNR as a
mass organization, especially dedicated as an
auxiliary of the Party to the struggle for Ne
gro rights by the joint forces Of white and
black workers The leftist deviations try to
Justify themselves on the basis of the existing
weaknesses in our work which are OF right
character generally. But the right weaknesses
cannot be overcome or corrected by left ten
denotes, but only by a simultaneous struggle
against both right and cleft" deviations.
The work of the Young Communist League on
the field of struggle for Negro rights has the
same general mistakes and weaknesses as the
Party, only in more exaggerated form. There
has been an opportunistic slowness in taking up
H. aI,1