The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-01-16
Some Danger in Formulating
Partial Demands

Better quality and larger quantity of food
Abolition of the various prison regulations!
No waiting in the bread lines!
Mattresses. linen and blankets in lighthouses
Pay for all work in the flop-housesi
Right to remain in lighthouses until a. N
instead of a. m!
Soap and towels in the morningi
Charity funds to be turned over to commit
tee of unemployed!
Opening of armories to unemployed
Right to sleep every night instead of five
nights a month!
Abolition of forced work in the morgues, etc.
Some of these demands were even more specific
applying to each definite institution
However, in formulating these demands some
of our comrades in New York forgot the reso-
luton of the XII Plenum of the Central Com
mttee which said the following:
THE entire Party must become the I'M
challenged leader of the daily struggles of the
working class for the smallest and most in
innate demands and link them up with the
general class demands and revolutionary aims"
And further:
The concentration point of the unemploy-
ment campaign is the movement for unem-
ployment insurance This question is of i'm
portance to the whole working Glass;
Reformist Dangers
While each of these demands may serve as
the starting point for revolt against the ter
rible and revolving degradation of these inst-
tutions and serve The link to draw these
workers into the broader struggle for Unemploy-
nlent Insurance and Cash Unemployment Relief
the danger of these demands lies in narrowing
the struggle solely to the achievement of these
demands which limits and degrades the move
ment into "better and bigger and nicer bread
lines and lighthouses"
The partial bread line demands are only per-
INVISIBLE when the struggle for them Is the or
ganic part of the struggle to rise out of the
hreadlines through adequate Cash Relief from
the city or state government or through the
Unemployment Insurance Bill. Further, the
struggle for these partial bread-line demands at
ali times and under all conditions must assume
the form of most militant and desperate mass
revolt and not the friendly or formal confer
erce Of consultation with the officials in some
respectable office.
Most Of these demands arise from the viola
ton OF the most intimate human self-respect to
which the starving workers are subjected to and
against which they are ready to fight stub
bornly. The mistake of some of our New York
comrades lies in the fact that the relative ease
with which they mobilize the bread-line unenl-
ployed caused them to overlook the vast major
ity Of the unemployed who are not yet in the
bread-lines and lighthouses and who can be
modified into desperate struggle to remain out
Of the bread-lines and flop-ho
The mistakes Of our New York comrades, which
were quickly corrected, must serve as a signal
and warning to our entire movement.
The struggle for clean mad warm municipal
lodging house must be an organic part OF the
struggle to ea;e the flop-house for warm
apartment and must further be linked up with
the struggles Of the vast masses to remain out
Of the flop-house, a part OF the struggle for
Unemployment Insurance Bill which in turn is
. bonbardment Il the entire Shaly structure Of
nnsaAaSamn -AnssN -x--s--~s ~sEr <s~s~~s~~AspAx~