The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-01-29
BY II. PURO
PART l.


THE Eleventh Plenum of the Executive Com
mittee of the Communist International paid
great attention to the questions of the world
agrarlan crisis the peasant movement and the
work of the Communist Parties in the country.
In emphasizing this work, the PoHtsecretariat
of the EC.CI later sent a letter to all Com
munist Parties with the opening paragraph as
follows:
In view of the new conditions of the rev.
oluttonary class struggle in general and in the
villages III particular, which are taking an ex-
tremely favorable direction for the Communist
PartleS, IN view of the role of the toiling
peasants as the allies of the proletariat in
the revolution, the PIenum put forward as
one of the immediate basic tasks for the Com
munist Parties the winning over of the toiIing
peasants to the side of the proletariat on the
ground of their struggle for everyday needs.
But, in addition, while criticizing the work of
the Communist Parties for the past year, the
Plenum pointed out as one of the greatest
shortcomings the extraordinary weakness of
the work of the Communist Parties in the viii
lagos and the absolute absence of such work
in some countries. This passivity of the Com
munist Parties in the villages has connections
with the tagging of the Parties behind the
rehabilitation of the village masses their tail
ism with regard to the strikes of agricultural
workers. to the unemployed movements of
the peasants The Plenum made it obligatory
on the Communist Parties TO increase their
work on the village front to the greatest pos
sible extent, thus strengthening the revolu-
uonary alliance of the workers and the peas
ants under the leadership of the proletariat"
Especially now that our Party is conducting
the Lenin Drive for membership, we must speak
very critically about the shortcomings of our
work among the agricultural laborerS and toll
ing farmers, which in many of our Party dis
trlctS amounts to a complete absence of this
work. We mus tpoint out to our Party mem
bership that it was Lenin who always pointed
out the absolute necessity of work in the villages
and the necessity of the winning over of toiling
farmers on the side of the working class against
the capitalist class. The establishment of the
revolutionary alliance between workers and toll
ing farmers under the leadership of the workers
in this alliance is one of the fundamentals of
Leninisnl.
The teachings of Lenin in regard to the peas
ants are embodied in the program of the Com
munist International as one of the fundamental
doctrines, and as a section of the Comintern
our Party must follow this program, not only
in theory but also in practice.
The program of the Comintern regarding the
peasant question is embodied in the thesis of
Ine oeCOAu WOrlu OOHSreSS Oh JQe COMMUNIST
International. This thesis is written by Lenin
himself For the benefit of our Party COM
rades, this thesis has been republished in the
Dec, 1881 issue of The Communist. This basic
feminist document of the Communist Interna-
tional on the present question must be studied
by all the leading comrades of the Party and
explained to the Party membership On the
basis of these feminist teachings must begin
Immediately to do practical work among the
farmers, because acceptance of feminist theory
without practice does not mean anything at all.
Let us point out some of the latest happen
ings in the villages and we can easily see the
inability of our Party to utilize the growing
spirit and readiness for struggle among the
agrarian masses
From Camp Hill, Alabama, one comrade
writes:
1.-THE troopers getting but three to four
cents pound for their cotton after paying
ginning. This is in the cotton belt, yet
they must go around in tattered, torn cloth
ing The white troopers are in just about the
some bad fix thought they (some of them get
little better treatment than Negro CROP
pers). White children go to school, but
the Negro children do not go at all"
These situations developing the deter
mined spirit of struggle, both among Negro and
white share troopers in the South Camp Hill,
Alabama, croppers). But our Party down in
Alabama and in the entire South is too weak
10 develop these struggles, but very slowly n