The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-02-04
Some Experiences in
Municipal Elections
BY M. KARSoN
Part I.


THE Mesaba Range is one Of the stronghosds a
the Steel Trust From the Mesaba Range thu
raw material for iron and steel is being shipped
Hundreds of millions of tons of iron ore have
been mined out from the bowels of the earth I'm
this stretch of land. Hundreds of miners lives
have been sacrificed in the scores OF years DUR
ing which time this land has been exploited. Biz
lions of dollars worth OF wealth has been created
for the Steel Trust and the so-called maninm
companies. Some OF the most heroic struggles Ia
the history of the labor movement can be traced
back to this Mesaba Range
The Objective Situation. I
The Mesaba Range, in Minnesota, is eoanpcse&
OF a chain of mining towns with g. popS11a*Anm
of from 5000 to $4,000 people, plus fs1xn4ns1
townships around these towns.
Because of the betrayaB of the LW.w. Leaders.
and most vicious spy and blacklist system, the
miners here have been terrorized to submit to
wage cuts, speed-up and lay-off. The economiG
crisis has hit the iron-mining industry as part
OF the general steel industry, severely
Most of the mines have been completely shut
down and thousands of miners we're thrown on
the streets. The Stagger system of wage cuts are
the lot of the still employed miners The ma
jority OF the working population in these min
ing towns are face to face with poverty and
munger. The local governments all of which are
directly or indirectly controlled by the steel trust
are OF course doing nothing to relieve the suffer-
ingS of these workers
For the last few years, the Communist Party
and the revolutionary unions have been carving
on organizational work here We are steadily
making inroads amongst the miners and the un-
employed. Our meetings and demonstrations are
attended by hundreds and even thousands of
workers. OF course, there are as yet, many weak
nesses in our work. Failure to utilize the Htua-
ton for building strong and militant union and
unemployed councils, failure to develop local
struggles for immediate local demands, eta But
about this some othe rhine. What we are now
concerned with, are the election campaign ex-
periences.
For the First Time In Local Elections
Although Communist election campaigns are
not new here, it is for the first time, however.
that the Communist Party participated in local
municipal elections in these mining towns and
therefore, the experiences and lessons in these
elections will be of great value in our future
campaigns.
The results of our election campaigns in two
of these towns, already known and are not
so good. In Chisholm, Mimi, only So votes were
received, ad in Gilbert MINI, the Communist
thousands of programs, thousands OF leaflets.
Daily Workers and other literature. We held sew
eral large meetings, and other activities of agi-
rational and publicity nature were carried on.
How then, can we explain this rather disappoint-
ing vote? Some leading comrades in this section
attempt to explain it in the following manner:
l. The language difficulties of our candidates 4
In the Chisholm elections.
n rrL
elections, where the workers know the candi-
dates they are voting for, and are expecting in-
dividual favOrs from these candidates. I
3. The Theory Of the lesser evil, which the
workers still possess and the social demagogy
Of the liberal candidates" in these elections
To make the above arguments the basis OF
our analysis and to omit self-criticism means
first of all, to misunderstood the nature of
Communist election campaign, and secondly. it
tends to evade the real political weaknesses and
shortcomings in these elections, and thus miss
the valuable lessons which we can put into prac-
tice In our future work.
Firstly, the language difficulties: It's true that
some OF our candidates could not speak English
very well, but it is also true, that those of our
candidates who could speak English did not re-
ceive more votes than the others. In Gilbert,
we had an American born worker as a candidate,
and he only received 113 votes.
Secondly, the theory of individual favoritisn:
1t Is true that such tendencies exist among the
the workers in these small towns, but it is also
true that it is precisely these and other illu-
sions which the bourgeois candidates will spread
among the workers which we must combat in
favor of our program Of immediate relief for
the starving workers and their families To the
extent that we expose and combat these illu-
sions, will we succeed in our campaigns.
Thirdly the theory of the lesser evil: Unfor-
tunately this theory does not only exist among
the workers. but also creeps into the ranks OF
our Party. CAS- it was expressed in the Gilbert
elections, where the Finnish Workers Club UNI
der the leadership of some Party members CAM
pagned for a mining boss against our candi-
date) But here, also, 1t is to the extent that we
must expose and clarity the workers OF this
bosses propaganda, will be able to succeed
To what extent, then did we expose this boss
eS' propaganda?
To what extent did we combat social dema-
gogy?
To what extent did we clarity the workers in
our program for immediate relief? CThis will be
examined in the conclusion of this article which
will appear tomorrow,
To be concluded ~ V