The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-01-17
N...:sdSaatA-
1t Isn't Sc-But
By JORGE

1t Isn't SC-But
On Jan. A. we ran in this column lett
from worker, who said:
about our Unemployed Councils. we lac
leadership especially in the Downtown Council,
which is very weak especially in membership.
We should have about $4,000 members with cards
and this is a very conservative number con-
sidering the fact that we have large army
of unempln'-"' - New York City"
Well were visited by something like a
delegation, who left us the following:
1T was mentioned in Red Sparks Jan. IA, that
the Downtown Unemployed Council lacks lead
ership. 1t is not So The Council has several
thousand members and they are very militant
and in each demonstration the members Of the
Council participate The Downtown Unemployed
Council fought many eviction cases and they
we've successful and they have secured 5000 sig
natures for tn Unemployment Insurance Bill
and hold meetings in the cold open air each day
1.-The Communist Party members wl2o are I'M
employed, fail as yet to join the Downtown Up-
employed Council and carry the work of the
Council The membership of sne Council consists
95 per cent of non-Party workers.
THE Trade Union Unity Council and the I'm
employed Council of Greater New York, must
guide more the Unemployed Council of New
York, and develop more speakers. And the
ARRANGE more space in the school for the unem-
poyed workers where they can be prepared for
the struggle and this must be done because the
Downtown Unemployed Council has about 200
unemployed workers who would like to go to
school, but the arrangements are not made
1.-THE school should in the future see that all
unemployed workers be given lectures on the
class struggle and then more leaders would de-
veop from the rank and file and this would
make an end of the confusion"
Now, we do not think that the worker who
wrote US the letter mentioning that the Down.
town Council was lacking leadership and was
weak intended at all to minimize what l. has
already accomplished but rather intended to
make its future accomplishments better by
strengthening the leadership and incheasng the
membership. And this desire is also that of
the delegation which visited u.s. So let nobody
feel sore about it,
The delegation was correctly proud Of what
the Council has DONE but it, itself, asks for more
guidance and proposes means to improve the
leadership The idea is, that we shouldn't be
all puffed up with pride of what we have done,
so much that we fail to see what lot Of things
we could have done but didn't for lack OF sys-
tematic detail work and a stronger leadership.
The workers letter raised the question why the
Council didn't have $4,000 members instead of
the several thousand" mentioned by the dele
| cation.
| One of the reasons very likely is, as the dele
CATION says, that Communist Party members
| who are jobless fail to join the Council and
| carry on the work. This certainly must be
| corrected and the Party should not have to be
reminded again by nom Party workers.
| In the struggles of the unemployed most
valuable source of proletarian leaders is avail
| able, leeding some measure of theoretical train
ing to become effective mass leaders. The dele
CATION rightly brings this sharply to our atten-
ton The Downtown Council says it has 200
that need schooling, and they suggest that the
Workers School do it,
But with the other hundreds from other Coun-
ellis, we Sc that it is too big job for the school
1t is physically unable to handle more than a
few Yet there should be methods to give the
other, greater number, systematic lectures in
their own halls, that will answer the purpose OF
class training This for the several hundred Of
"actives" in the councils. And besides this, there
should be an educational system that will en-
brace the whole mass of members TO all councils.
This, we feel, should be at once taken up by
the TU.ULi and the Communist Party-and not
only in New York, but all over All the time
and everywhere, we are kicking at the lack of
cadres Let us really do something with the
material under our nose.