The daily worker., 1931-02-13
Functioning of Section Depart
mentS
nentS

EVERYTHING written in the previous article
concerning the status of District Departments,
holds true for section departments with two quail
ifications "a on a section scale we generally
did not even make a pretense at departments,
and co we have made less progress in improve
ment on section scale.
During the period we did not organize depart
ments of the District Committee, it is not sur
prising that departments on section scale were
not established or where attempts were made,
with no uniform policy or guidance given. AT
one time, only few months ago, not every sec
ton committee even had a full compliment of
leading functionaries such as Industrial Organ
izer and Agitprop.
This lack of Section Departments brought COM
plete bankruptcy to the nuclei and is an explain
alton of why the nuclei were not political
factor in their shops and neighborhoodS, of the
low political level of the membership and of why
new members were not kept in the Party. 1t
is non -contradictiooal fact that there were
majority of nuclei functionaries who, between
the time they were elected and then succeeded
by someone else Ia period of several months)
they were never called to meeting, never were
given directives and seldom participated in mob
ilizing the membership for campaign.
The problem to decide was how to constitute
the Section Departments There were two pre-
Vailing conceptions, one, organize a department
of three to five comrades, majority from the
ranks of the Section Committee and minority
from the nuclei; the other, constitute the de-
partment from the Section head of the depart
ment plus the nuclei functionary of the same
department. There were feasible arguments for
one and against the other, but we decided on the
second choice and insofar as our limited ex-
perience goes, it shows itself to be successful.
The reasons we decided on this method Of
constructing the Section Departments were:
l. To involve those comrades who we're re-
sponsible for the same kind of work in the nuclei
2. To make drastic step in overcoming the
gulf which separated the nuclei from the sec
tions.
8. To insure a more uniform understanding
and carrying out Of all plans.
Once the departments are well established
and functioning, in the larger sections it may be
necessary to revise this, and create Section De-
partments of smaller size, which will be more
collective in the preparation of the work-since
at present it is the head Of the Section Depart
ment who bears the main responsibility for pre-
pairing all the work. OF course, under this sys-
tenn, it will also be necessary to have regular
meetings at least once a month and twice Of
all nuclei functionaries of each Department.
Not all sections in the city have as yet func-
toning departments, and those who have, are
still in their infant stage, but three to four
regular meetings (nleetings are held twice
month"; have been held. In the out OF town
sections, ST. Louis is the only one making an
effort to carry through this system. Other Sec
tons still trail behind
In organizing these Section Departments ON
this base, some comrades thought they must
wait until they got 100 per cent attendance be-
fore considering it department. This is wrong.
Even If SO per cent Of the nuclei functionaries
show up at the first melting. the Department
should be organized and then work for improve
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