The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-02-05

presented program, they had to use this dem
agogy. In H1bhtng, MINI, where the labor fax
ers are using all sorts Of demagogy In the eco
nonic fiedl, they did not use any Of it in the
elections because there we're no Communist
candidates in the field there
Where the activities Of the workers under the
leadership OF the revolutionary organizations are
lntenstying the tools OF the bosses are forced to
intensity their left phraseology but 1t is the
communist Party, with its revolutionary theory
and practice, which has the task OF exposing
these takers and their demagogy.
Understanding Role Of Communist Elections
In order to successfully carry through the pro-
program OF the Communist Party In such cleo
uon campaigns, 1t Is necessary that our own
members and our sympathetic organizations be
ideologically clear on the importance Of the Com
munist elections
Were our units ideologically prepared and
clarified? No! In this connection. our section
leadership was instrumental In confusing orr
membership on the Importance of this issue An
outstanding example Of opportunism IN our CAM
paigns In winch our section leadership played an
important part is the following:
In Gilbert, we could only secure one Comraae
to run on the Communist platform, so we de-.
cided to run him for mayor We prepareA nm
meetings etc.
On the last day before the filing date the
comrades from the Gilbert unit came to the
section Bureau with a request "sincs we have
cooperative store in Gilbert and since this
store is not yet left wing store in the full sense
OF the word 1--WE only have a majority of one
vote In the board, and since the sympathizers
OF the store are supporting Finnish business
man for mayor, therefore, we must change our
candidate from mayor to trustee, or we will
surely lose this store to the right wing" Thus.
argued our Gilbert comrades
They further argued that we can carry on inst
as good campaign II our candidate is for trus-
tee instead Of mayor. After discussion, the
majority of the Section Bureau voted for chang
ing the candidate, and since it was too late to
consult with the District Bureau 1--WE are go
miles away from the District Headquarters the
Section Bureau decision was carried through As
result OF this vaccilating and opportunist de-
cision Of the Section Bureau the Gilbert COM
rades went one step further into the swamp of
opportunism.
A few days after our candidate filed for trus-
tee, our Gilbert comrades found out that the So-
enan syrnpathizers of the cooperative store
were supporting mine boss for trustee and
therefore, came to the Section Bureau demand
ing that we withdraw our candidate entirely. And
when the Section Bureau refused to do any,
thing OF the sort, the Gilbert comrades decided
Cnat The Section Bureau was not consistent in
their line, and they didn't know what they
wanted anyway, so our Gilbert comrades pro-
ceeded to outline their own activities for SUD-
porting the mining boss against the Party can
didate.
Ihey even went far as leading the Finnish
workers Club In giving official endorsement to
the mining boss as candidate for trustee The
Section, OF course, sent in forces to Gilbert and
with the help of some Party members there, car
red on the campaign, but the result was 10
votes for the Communist candidate, and now
these same comrades admit that these Is votes
were not from our members or close sympa-
thlzers but from workers who probably had read
Communist literature for the first time.
This example is an exceptional and not a typ
ical one. In the Chisholm elections, we did not
have such situation, but even there one of
our old Party members Withdrew from the Party
slate at the last minute. What does this prove?
1t proves first of ALL that our units were not
ideologically prepared for these campaigns; and
secondly, that our Section Bureau greatly I'M
derestimated the role Of Communist election
campaigns, and therefore, the bureau let things
slide to the last minute In spite OF repeated
warnings from the district against this danger
Value Of Self-criticism in Communist Analysis
Due to the timely criticism given us by the
District Bureau and the National Agit-prop
Committee, our Section Committee was able to
analyze these campaigns In Bolshevik manner
and draw the proper lessons from them We are
now to certain extent putting these lessons
into practice.
We are now carrying on an election campaign
in Virginia, Mimi Here we have avoided the
mistakes made in the previous campaigns
First, we have held educational meetings with
our Party units and mass organizations and have
drawn them into the campaign not only ideo-
logically but practically.
The Finnish mass organizations have endorsed