The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-12-29
PARTY LIFE
PARTY LIFE
Some Sharp
Criticism of
Mass Meetings
BY JEAN BOLAN.

the lower units OF the Party,
spurred on by the decisions of the
14th Plenum Resolution, are doing
their best to break the isolation of
the Party from the masses. Those
of us whose activities are in block
work are spending nearly all of
our time among the workers in the
neighborhood, talking to them,
bringing them our literature, con-
vincing them Of the necessity of
struggle, drawing them into the
block committees. On Sundays, we
not only canvass part of the day on
the campaigns of the Party, but in
the afternoon and evening, the
homes Of many comrades become
open forums where friends and
neighbors coming to visit us and
knowing that we are Communists,
ask us question after question about
the movement which we try to an
Swer to the best of our ability.
We spend days without end bring
ing the message of struggle to our
friends and neighbors, drawing
them closer to the movement.
After we have created strong per-
sonal ties with the workers, win
ming their confidence through our
limited efforts, we bring our con-
facts to mass meetings, to affairs,
so that they may get the feeling
of being a part of a large mass,
so that they may hear the line of
the Party presented by leading
comrades. We do this in the hope
that these meetings and affairs will
clinch our individual arguments
and finally draw the workers into
the special organization that we
want him to join
If viewed in this light, our mass
meetings must take on the greatest
importance, must be given the most
painstahng attention as far as the
organization of these meetings and
affairs are concerned.
Unfortunately, the nature of our
mass meetings up till now has
tended to disrupt all the good eff
fects our individual contact work
has had.
Lately there has been a series
of meetings so miserably arranged
that there is a bad taste in our
mouths we cannot get rid of.
The Maxim Gorky Festival on
Friday, December %, which was
,rY,Jot- tho o,,e,o;oae IF +I,o Do,,o1,,
tionary Writers Federation, was SO
bad that words fail me. I invited
some friends from out of town and
feel particularly resentful. The
first thing I want to emphasize is
that on the stage where all the
delegates from the different mass
organizations sat, there was not
single Negro delegate. Not single
Negro participated in the meeting
and l counted exactly one Negro
in the audience. Not only that, but
every speaker but one scheduled to
appear and widely advertised failed
to appear. Con1rade Olgin, who
did come, spoke SO long that the
greater part of the entertainment
had to be cut out! I tried to con-
vince my friends as best I could
that this was an unusual case and
invited them to the District Train
ing School Graduation ball the fol-
lowing evening. Well, there is
plenty to be said about this affair.
In the first place, it was the great
est mistake in my opinion to COM
bine an event of such political i'm
portance as the graduation of these
students together with dance. The
graduation exercises alone deserved
an evening in itself and, II SO de-
sired, the graduation dance could
have followed it an evening or two
later. At this affair, Colnrade
Hathaway, NY. District Org. of the
Communist Party, was scheduled
TO speak. A day before the affair.
it was announced that Earl Brow
der would speak instead. On the
night of the affair, Conrade Puro
was the main speaker. The com
rades attempted to stage long grad
uation exercises during the course
of the dance and were unable to
get the attention of the audience.
Everybody was in a holiday spirit
and were impatient with the many
long speeches. My friends insisted
on going home soon afterwards,
and believe me, it will be hard to
get them to go to another affair.
.
The night of the Send-Off of the
Hunger Marchers on November 90
was another bad experience. This
meeting was advertised to start at
2 O'Clock. My unit modified the
block committee. We rallied the
workers and got them down to the
Coliseum by 7:30. The meeting be-
gan at 8 o'clock! Of course, the
spirit Of the meeting was excellent,
but the workers could not get home
so late and had to leave before the
end Of the meeting.
The Madison Square Garden
Election Rally, by the way, was
one of the best organized meetings.
The speeches were carefully timed
and there was no repetition in the
subjects. These are just q few of
the more recent meetings We have
had.
In the local clubs and organiza-
tons, the comrades arrange lee
lures, open forums, etc. to which
speakers are assigned by the Dis
trict and one case after another
has happened where speakers never
showed up, leaving the comrades
who organized the meeting in a
very embarrassing position, and the
workers thoroughly disguised.