The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-10-03
PARTY LIFE
At a Unit
Meeting in
NeW York
Nv ETHEL STEVENS

A . A student OF the 1882 Central
n Training School of our Party,
I looked forward to attending a
Party meeting in New York. Now,
with the little training gained in
the School, was able to see more
clearly some of the reasons res
ponsible for our Party remaining
essentially in the same groove.
The meeting started five to 9
with eight comrades. The organ
tzer, who opened the meeting, ap-
pointed chairman. He then read
off an agenda for the meeting with
eight points. Each of these points
was reported on by the same unit
organizer. cat 9 pm. another mem
Der drifted in)
THE ASSIGNMENTS
The following were some of the
undertakings for the week of this
unit, with nine members present.
ID comrades were assigned to go
to Harlem to help In the signature
drive; (2) demonstration was or
gained for Saturday against the
beating up of a certain laundry
worker; (3) Thursday, Saturday,
and Monday the comrades were
assigned to go out with the Daily
Worker; (4) All comrades assigned
to unemployed work were told to
go to a certain fraction meeting
(9:20 two more members enter the
room. 80 An open air meeting
Friday night at which, of course,
"An Comrades Must Be Out" &C.
cording to the unit organizer. Or
ganizer still speaking: "Comrade IS
is the main speaker, comrade b
must be chairman, and comrades
TT and FL will sell literature"
One comrade, at this point, took
the floor and explained that since
he works till pm. every night
and already has two assignments
he won't be able to be the chair
man of the Friday night meeting.
Then the unit organizer began to
list a dozen assignments that he
has for the week in order to con-
vince this worker that if he wants
to be a good Bolshevik, he must
follow his example. OF course the
unit organizer again monopolized
the floor for about Is minutes try
ing to make good BolShevik of
this worker. q0:00 pm. three COM
radeS drift in)
passed note to my fellow
student attending the same meet
ing, asking him what he thought
of the meeting and this was his
reply: TOO complicated for me to
make head or tail out of it." None
of the comrades in the room knew
who we, the three students were,
and no one cared to find out, or
to talk to us.
WHAT is WRONG?
At the close of the meeting,
among other things, I asked why
the meeting is so dry, and why does
it only take up assignments. To
this the organizer replied when
we have an open meeting our meet
ing is entirely different, but when
we have a closed meeting it must
be of highly technical character"
A few lessons we must draw from
the above brief picture: The unit
is highly technical" it is not
political factor in the territory.
The entire meeting was taken up
with assignments, without an ex-
PLANTATION of the political import
ance of every undertaking; buro-
cracy, which workers simply won't
swallow, is rampant; the organizer
simply reports on the Buro deci-s
Sions and all initiative is taken
away from the workers; all activiti-
ties seem to be like a hodge podge,
there's no center around which
they revolve. We have good com
rades in ~our movement (if they
remain in spite of such activities),
sincere and devoted workers, but it
is necessary to fuse with the work
ers in the territory (this was re-
sidential unit to daily develop act
ivities around the burning issues
and not only to record events tax
ing place, but to gradually lift the
workers to a higher level of strug-
gle.