The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-18
PARTY LIFE
Scores Poor Meetings AS
Discouraging New Members
Worker Also Comments Oh Pessimistic Tone
of Some Party Members


We quote below a letter sent to
as by a member of shop unit In
New York District. The letter was
read to the shop unit, who voted
10 send 1t TO the Party Life Column
of the Daily Worker. We are also
publishing the comments of the
New York District in reply to this
letter.
By a Member of Shop Unit, Section
No. 7
"As new Party member, con-
nected with what Is considered an
important shop unit, 1 would like to
make a few observations as to life
within the Communist Party.
How Not To Organize Meetings
Some weeks ago, I was given a
notice to call at the Workers Center
on a Sunday morning, where I was
to receive a card of admission and
be notified as to the place at which
a meeting was to be held. This meet
ing was to take up the progress made
In carrying out the Open Letter. I
called at the Center and was given
q card and told to go to the Man
haitian Lyceum where a meeting
would start at 10 a. M. Apparently
this was to be a closed meeting. How
ever. upon reaching the place Of
meeting there was no one there to
collect the admission cards. The
meeting started at 11:15 a. m. The
failure OF this meeting to start on
time was apparently due to the fact
that the members of the District
Committee did not snow up. After
the meeting started we were told that
1t was to last until 10 p. m, in other
words, we were asked to stay there
approximately IL hours.
Another Long Meeting
The next meeting I attended was
a functionaries meeting called for /
p. M, Nov. 18th, at Irving Plaza. This
meeting was attended by another
member Of my unit and myself AS
our shop does not close until 1890,
we we're unable to be there on time.
At this meeting 1t seems that the
District Committee was there on time,
but the meeting was held up because
the membership Was late in coming
in. The meeting started at p. m.
After it had started, the District Or
ganizer told us that he had a secret
to tell us, and the secret was that
we were going to stay there until s
p. m. No one had been notified
that the meeting was to last for
seven hours and few of the members
had made. provision to stay there
that long.
The conrade who came with me
was compelled to leave about 6 p. M,
and he tells me he had great diff
ficulty in getting out as he was
stopped at the door. He also COM
mented on the fact that anyone
could have gotten into this meeting,
as he was not required to show any
credentials and that to him this
meeting was no different than many
similar meetings at which he was
required to show his membership
book. He also commented on the
fact that the members formed them
selves into small groups and held
meetings amongst themselves, there
by distracting the attention OF mem
bers who came there to really learn
something.
The whole meeting seemed to carry
a note of pessimism. This seemed
to be particularly true in regards to
tine organization of the units. The
units complained that they were I'M
able to get leadership and corpora
ton from their sections and the Dis
trict.
No Pessimism in This Shop Unit
Our shop unit, due to certain con-
ditions at the present time, is I'M
able to carry on active work except
in the form of leaflets and is, there
fore, one In which you might ex-
pect to find more or less a state of
stagnation. However, you will find
no trace OF pessin1ism or stagnation
In our unit, and the reason for this
I attribute to the fact that we have
always had excellent leadership by a
member Of the Section Committee