The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-08
Lessons Of the Dearborn
United Front Elections
Main Weakness Vas the Fact That Ne We're
Too Timid in Putting FORWARD the Party

timid in bringing forward the
Party line. We stepped too care
fully and feared that we would lose
some Of the elements who were part
of the United Front. We failed to
see that to lose these elements
would strengthen the struggle. We
were somewhat overawed by our
strength. We failed from the begin
ming to take sufficient advantage of
the fact that our strength was in
that we had solid contact with the
rank and file members in the vsri-
Gus organizations, whether these or
CARNATIONS we're officially part Of
the United Front movement or not.
We failed to consolidate our inhu-
ence at the start, because we were
not bold and decisive at all times.
Thus it was natural that under the
tremendous pressure that was
brought upon us, the weaker ele-
ments, particularly the candidate for
Mayor, would weaken under this
pressure. Thus it was possible for
the Democratic politicians to mobi-
lie forces to try and destroy our
influence and to confuse the masses
through their agents in our ranks.
Thus it was possible that the oppor-
tunistic view of getting elected at
any cost gained ground, not only
among the non-Party elements, but
also among a section of our COM
radeS. Thus it is clear the failure to
bring forward the Party in a deci-
sive manner was the main weakness
Of the campaign. This was true de-
spite the fact that the section
organizer, who was elected cam
paign manager. and who spoke at
every election campaign meeting ex-
cept one, always came forward as a
Communist and that the Party held
two public meetings under its own
auspices and issued a rather good
and effective leaflet answering the
attacks of the Ford gang.
The second outstanding weakness
was accounted for by our isolation
from the shop and our not giving
sufficient attention to establishing
Of new contacts among the shop
workers-waS our failure to take
proper steps to organize the workers
in the shops in support of their eco
nomic demands and to make this an
outstanding part of the campaign
Had we been able to do this, it
would have stiffened the back of the
campaign while at the same time
utilizing the campaign to strengthen
our situation inside of the shop.
The third serious weakness in the
campaign was the fact that we
failed to act independently through
the Party and through the organ
izations which were under our in
fuence in the organizing Of demon
strations but instead we relied only
on those steps which were taken
through the united front committee
The fourth outstanding weakness
was that, despite the fact that we
succeeded in winning the support OF
the Socialist Party branch in Dear
born against the leadership and
won some Socialist Party members
for our Party, we did not sufficiently
combat Social Democratic methods
and towards the end of the cam
paign, we ourselves became the VIC
tins of Social Democratic election
methods by relying solely upon par
liamentary forms. 1t alsos reached
point where the section organizer
MISSED an important meeting of the
Section Committee under pressure
of the parliamentary campaign.
We failed to take up the fight
against the Jim-C Grow character of
Dearborn where Negroes are forbid
den to live by the Ford controlled
city. Had we done this, we would
have contributed effectively to the
fight against the illusions among
the Negro masses that Ford is "the
best friend of the Negro people" as
Negro refornists say.
These I think are the main weak
nesses in the campaign.