The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-09-17
By SAM DON

IN order to mobilize the Party membership for
/ tbe growing tasks, understanding and enthu-
siasn1 are absolutely essential Enthusiasm can
MT he manufactured. 1t must be developed
through conviction. We must not merely hand
down decisions from above in military fashion,
without making the body of the Party under
stand the meaning of those decisions both from
the broader perspective and detailed appncauoh'
The 18th Plenm resolutions and decisions
must become the property Of the entire Party
membership Not merely discussions al oISIrlcC
committee meetings and tunctlonarleS CONFER
Ances on the Plenum but at every Party UNI
It is the understanding Of the line OF the Parry
az established in the various Plenums which Will
beIp in modifying the Party membership Tor the
important concrete detailed work and the grow
ing campaigns.
quite often we hear the cry Of too many cam
r,aig7,s Undoubtedly we must learn how to
coordinate the many campaigns. But these
growing campaigns are in line with our an
o1vsis of the continuous deepening economic
crisis The mine strike, Scottsboro campaign
election campaign, struggle against the war dan
ger and many othre campaigns are not 'arCl-
ftciaI issues" invented by the Party. They are
the concrete expressions Of the sharpening OF
the class struggle.
The many campaigns" face us INSULT
rientlv prepared because we have not
learned how to mobilize the Party mem
bership how to develop new forces. we
must therefore learn in our daily WORK 10
develop the initiative and vision OF the Party
membership. and this can be accomplished by
broadening and deepening the political lie ana
outlook of the Party membership.
while the Party has made real Roadway in
;ts ,olitcal life still too often the political LIE
of the PARTY is confined to the various layers on
the top while the bottom Of the Party the
units, are not sufficiently developed into po-
utcallv alive and sensitive organism.
Through the Party unit every phase OF &C
tivitv must be taken up from a broader po-
Ittical angle Just as the cleraest political dis
c.7esion without detailed discussion OF methods
of organization will remain fruitless, so the
rnii,utest working out of details OF campaign
without clarity and faith in the detectives OF
the campaign will remain barren. There must
he the closest Bolshevik linking up OF the de-
tail with the perspective and the perspective
with the detail.
The Party units must become the political
org2nizational point for mobilization of the mem
bership and not as they are today in many
cases, merely dispatching point to assign COM
rsdos to various tasks. Decisions which are
reached by the higher committees, after long
ana Q6uDeTdUe pOuIlCdl uoCUooIOAAo oAO GU 'AAAASS
handed down to the unit without explaining the
meaning and background of these decisions. Any
wnoder then that quite often the membership
fails to respond or lacks enthusiasm for the
carrying out of various plans of work?
We will give below a number Of typical cases,
which show that decisive turn must be made
in the theological mobilization of the Party
membership for mass work
Take Detroit for instance, The comrades
there complain about the difficulties Of mob
ilizng the membership to collect signatures to
place the Party candidates on the ballot. An
opinion was even expressed that so per cent Of
the membership should be called before the Con-
troll Commission for not participating in the
signature drive. Yet what did we find there?
That while there were some discussions in the
district committee and at functonaries confer
ences on the political sapects of the election
campaign, it did not reach the units. The solu-
ton does not lie in calling large section Of
the membership to the Control Commission,