The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-11-02
PARTY LIFE
"ReShuftling''
Forces in a
Harlem Unit

THE writer's OF this letter are two
L comrades who were transferred
from Downtown to Section 4 liar
lem. Before being assigned to any
unit we were sent to attend meet
ing of Unit AIT, as visitors. No
one in the unit had ever seen or
heard of us before.
When we went in at o'clock
no one was present excepting the
unit organizer and the secretary.
BY $40 two more comrades had
come, so the meeting was opened.
The keynote of this meeting was
''reshufflng of forces" (Section 4
is recognizing its membership.
BY $50 there were five people pres.
ent. The organizer dismissed this
shortening in the unit work by
saying: We'll, there is going to be
a 'reshuffling of forces."
ASSIGNMENTS
After the agenda had been duti-
fully and perfunctorily gone
through and communications and
announcements read, work assign
ments were discussed. One unem-
ployed comrade was the only one
who seemed to be willing to do any
work. The others were all very
busy" or had "a very important
meeting" just at the time some i'm
portant assignment was to be car
ried out. Even the unit organizer
had very important meeting just
at the time when the WHOLE
UNIT was requested to participate
in a mass demonstration. The sec
rotary was going to be very busy,
too"
GO, as might be expected, they
y reached the conclusion that
there was no use assigning any
work because they had no forces,
but, there's going to be reshuf-
fling Of forces A member spoke
up and said that it didn't mean
anything when assignments were
accepted by comrades because they
never carried them out anyhow.
The comrades seem to take the
work and their promises very
lightly: pledging themselves to do
certain work, and then not feeling
sufficiently responsible to carry it
out. But-the perfect alibi-"re-
Shuffling. :" This is one of the
reasons for the extremely low level
of the work in Harlem.
This sort of repetitious discussion
lasted more than an hour and
half. There was no interest dis
played by anyone, no enthusiasm,
the meeting dragged itself along
somehow with much irrelevant dis
cuSsion.
This unit meets at a hall about
eighteen blocks from their concen-
tration point. No mention was
made of the territory, but when a
comrade asked where the new CEN
ter was, someone said: tits right
in our territory" BY this casual
reference we learned where their
point of concentration was.
A CONCENTRATION POINT
Their point of concentration was
at West 14Srd st. During the past
three weeks a struggle has been
going on in the heart of their ter
ritory at one of the most important
points Cor at least it should be- in
Harlem, the 369th Regiment Ar
mory, where the segregated Negro
National Guard has its headquar-
tiers. During the construction of an
addition to this building, 80 build
ing laborers we're robbed by the
contractor of large parts of their
wages. Under the leadership of
the Trade Union Unity Council
these men have been carrying on
struggle for their money. Forces
were needed for distribution of
leaflets, picketing and for demon
strations, but none were forthcom-
ing from this unit or from THE
SECTION ITSELF, for that mat
ter. Despite the fact that articles
appeared in the Daily Worker and
in several Negro newspapers about
it, not one mention was made of
this struggle at the unit meeting.
If this is the situatin generally
in the section, then it will take
more than "reshuffling" to cure the
situation in Harlem.