The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-05-19
Party Life
On Fluctuation in
Party Membership

The following are, in brief, the
major reasons for the high fluctua-
ton in Communist Party membership
in Section 4, District 8. Chicago
DISTRICT.
l. Recruiting not done in an or
ganized manner, and while attempt
ing to reach the goal of the quota
set, we were not sufficiently orien-
tated on the quality of recruiting.
Our fractions in mass orgar1iza-
tions did not take the task of build
ing the Party seriously, and if there
was any recruiting done in the mass
organizations it was done on an
Individual and not in an organized
manner. The actual recruiting took
place on street corners, demonstra-
tions, mass meetings, etc.
2. Inability of the Section Com
mittee to cope with the very difficult
matter Of developing, quickly enough,
functionaries capable of keeping up
with the growth of the Party while
at the same time being compelled
to release more developed comrades
from Unit Buros for mass work, weak
ening thereby, the Unit Buros.
Captain System
3. Introduction of the captain sys-
tenn, with insufficient guidance as to
their function, had a derogatory eff
feet and caused the loss of many
members. The attendance Of unit
meetings, which we're changed to
twice monthly during this experiment
was cut into almost half in some of
the units, and 1t took a good many
weeks to recover and place the units
back on normal function, after we
went back to the old method.
4. Too numerous collections, tickets,
ETC., is the reason claimed by many
members for their losing interest in
the Party and eventually dropping
out.
s. Not sufficient political life in
the units. Many units do not carry
on political discussions. Preoccupa-
ton with technical matters and per-
sonal chickering's among certain older
comrades has caused many new and
IN some instances even older Party
members to drop out of the Party
Unit Buros
6. Lack of functioning Unit Buros
made meetings very lengthy and at
times very dry, which fact also has
had poor effect, especially on new
members, and caused many Of them
to quit the Party.
To overcome the present high fluc-
tuation, the Section has set itself the
task of "a establishing functioning
unit buros in every unit, ~ Improve
political life of the units. (3) Keep
stricter check-up on the quality
of recruiting with the main oriental
ton towards the shops and mass or
CARNATIONS. "a More personal con-
tact with the unit organizers and the
Unit Buros, etc. IS. y
Editorial Note:
we agree that if the four tasks
mentioned above be fl\illed, the high
rate of fluctuation will be overcome
by Section 4, District 8. However,
we think it is not enough for sec
ton committee, after analysing a.
serious situation of high fluctuation,
Just to enurnerate few general
tasks of the Party As the remedy.
The Section Committee must be
clear on the concrete steps to be
taken to accomplish these tasks.
Exactly what is the Section going
to do to overcome the various weak
nesses that 1t found to be the cause
for the serious fluctuation? What
steps is the Section taking to develop
new functionaries? To give better
guidance to the captains? To 90
away with collections, tickets, lengthy
meetings, etc?
These problems will be solved only
when the section committee will plan
definite steps to be taken and con-
tinually check up on the carrying
out of these steps.