The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-03-05
A CRITICAL CHECK UP OF THE RECRUITING DRIVE IN
DISTRICT 10

alton from the Railway Industrial League, had
ruined the good possibilities of drawing railroad
workers into the T,U.UL.
1t was the unanimous opinion Of the enlarged
District Committee meeting that the quota OF
functioning shop units by March 10, could and
must be realized The District Bureau was
specially charged with responsibility for this
task. A quota of at least 20 packing house
workers and 10 railroad workers to be recruited
by the end of the drive was set. Definite ways
and MEANS and calendar dates for concentration
on these industries were laid down.
In relation to the recruiting Of unemployed
workers it was stressed that no real local strug-
giles had been developed and that this had re-
suited in dwindling membership Of the Unem-
ployed Branches and also in weak February
demonstrations. A thorough discussion took place
around the question of developing flexible and
inclusive forms of organization of the unem-
ployed along the lines indicated by the Central
Organization Department directives. 1t was
stressed that the organization structure of the
unemployed movement must be adaptable and
conducive to drawing in masses of workers
around daily struggles rising out of neghborhood,
flophouse, factory, and union grievances.
In the field of Negro work, 1t was revealed,
very little had been done, except for some agit-
alton around the HollinS case, In Oklahoma.
Failure to penetrate among the unemployed Ne
gro masses-except in Omaha - was registered.
The quota of 80 Negro members by March 1s
was affirmed as easily realizable, providing that
advantage was taken of the many issues affect
ing the Negro workers to develop struggles.
A serious weakness in the activities of the
District during the past several months, weak
ness which must be drasticaly eliminated, has
been the slowness, the opportunist passivfty in
taking up the struggle against war; the failure
to mobilize the entire membership ideologically
and organizationally for this, failure to link up
constantly the anti-war struggle with our shop
work, unemployed work, Negro work, etc.
In view Of the above, it is clear that the root
weakness of the recruiting drive-a weakness for
which the District Bureau is primarily respon-
sible-has been failure to politcalize the drive
on the basis of bringing the campaigns of the
Party home to the membership With mem
bership that is very low in political understand
ing and organizational experience, this failure on
the part of the District leadership becomes par
ticularly serious The District Bureau, recogniz-
ing this situation, exercised the sharpest self
criticism at the enlarged District Committee
meeting, and took definite steps to overcome it
by calling special meetings of every unit in the
District and sending Buro members to report
and lay out plan of work. (Only the Texas
units, because Of the great distance, were not
covered).
Other weaknesses of the recruiting drive have
been feeble development of revolutionary compe-
titon, absolutely insufficient spreading Of liter
allure, and inadequate political enlightenment
work among the membership, both new and
odd"
In order to stimulate the recruiting drive,
special meetings Of the Section Committees in
Kansas City and Omaha have been called, and
definite calendar plans Of work laid out. The
Sections and units are being encouraged to set
their own quotas, which in most instances are
higher than those suggested by the District. AS
result new momentum is already being felt
in the work. and the tempo of recruiting in the
last few days has speeded up.
There are many difficulties TO be confronted
in carrying on the work in District 10. The
enormous distances to be covered between the
scattered units in the seven states comprising
the District, the rawness OF the units the bulk