The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-04-01
How 1t Was Done
BY BEN GERJOY.


IL the comment on my article Living in the
Past" appearing in the Party Life column
on March IA, we find the following. 1--WE hope
that Comrade B. G. will soon send us another
article telling us how the Cleveland District pro-
poses to revitalize such sections and bring home
the Plenum resolutions to the members there"
We wish to call attention to the editor of
Party Life that the above mentioned article was
based on a trip South about six months ago
The comment would therefore be more correct
in saying 1--WE hope comrade B. c. will tell us
what the Cleveland District did to revitalize,
ETC." The comrades of Cincinnati and Column
bus will have perfect right to be peeved, since
the situation described in the above mentioned
article speaks in the present, while the present
situation in these cities is entirely changed.
Since February a. the actual date when was
last in Cincinnati. the comrades of that city
organized a very good unemployed demonstra-
ton on February 10, at which 5000 workers
participated On February Is, Cincinnati wit
nessed another unemployed demonstration OF
1000 workers which turned into Hunger March
to the City Council at which immediate demands
were presented The march was very well organ
zed by the local comrades themselves without
any other help from the District Center except
advice In addition to these demonstrations
Cincinnati has now two functioning Unemployed
Councils The Cincinnati Party headquarters is
a real "busy bee" where many workers are around
most all the time. AS result of the good &C
tivities the Cincinnati unit is making an eX-
cellent showing in the Lenin Recruitment The
Cincinnati comrades no longer tell us that In
Cincinnati the workers are different" The
broken typewriter is no longer a problem Even
the mimeograph, the fragment of the Socialist
empire" seems to turn out better leaflets We
can clearly see that the comrades in Cincinnati
are optimistic and are we'll on their way to
build up a Party there.
But not everything is rosy in Cincinnati The
comrades still have not developed any shop
work. which is the next big task facing the
comrades of that city.
In Columbus, Ohio, we have similar change
since the last article was written. The COM
rades orcarized Hunger March on February
IS, and presented immediate demands to the
City Council They have organized function
ing Unemployed Council and they are now pro-
ceeding with the organization of another Coun-
Gil. They took in three additional members
into the Party, all Americans. The unit now
consis of seven instead of four when 1 passed
there.
Now, how did this change come about? 1t
was not the result of miracles. II was merely
the result of a correct application of the Twelfth
Pl6Ilun TeSOluUlOIlS. IL WIS illeTely QucSJOI
of clarifying the comrades, of taking them out
from the abyss Of generality" and placing them
on a ground Of "planfulness." The first thing
we did there was to explain to the leading
comrades the signifance of the new turn towards
concentration. This done. we proceeded to show
the leading comrades how to do things. They
did not know how to organize mass meeting:
we showed them by example how to do it. They
did not know what must be done to organize the
February 10th demonstration; we showed them
step by STEP how it should be done. We showed
them What sort of leaflet should be gotten
out, we planned out the march route and we
showed them how every detail must be taken
care of in advance The February 25th demon
stration the comrades organized themselves, not
asking for our assistance
The next thing we did was to hold a men,
: bership meeting at which thorough discussion
took place on the questions dealt with in the
Twelfth Plenum resolutions concentration, I'M
employment, Negro work, etc The result of this
meeting was that It broadened out the unit
leadership. The comrades felt that the Party is
actually beginning to do mass work, and they
pledged themselves to get into ZION
At this ve;v rectirS the r.lit bro vas re-
~'Niaed, reaning the brst OF Tie PFC. rs
buo and replacing the dead ones by fresh pro-