The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-06
Piatnitsky's MasterIy
analysis of the World
Crisis Of Capitalism

Z enough learned how to carry On
mass work.
Comrade Piatnitsky, the head Of
the Organizationsl Department Of
the COmintern, has for years been
( at the head Of the struggle to make
the tremendous experience Of the
Bolshevik Party the property Of the
! Communist Parties Of the capitalist
/ coUntries-to bolshevize the Come
munist Parties Himself an old Bol--
shevik with vast experience in the
! practical struggle from the earliest
days, a master in the difficult art
Of combining legal and illegal work,
he has made the greatest contribu-
tons time and again to every tms
portant Of the Communist Inter-
national
Especially has he been concerned
with the problem Of closing the great
/ gap between the widespread IN
fluence Of the sections Of the Com
munist International and their orr
ganizatiOnal strength. In this speech
Comrade Piatnitsky deals with
number Of Communist Parties in
detail showing by concrete examples
why the Communist Parties and
revolutionary trade unions have not
sufficiently liberated the masses Of.
the workers from the influence Of
the Social-DemOcrstic Parties and
the trade union burOcrats," what
mistakes have been mads in the
United Front. why the red trads e
unions have not grown adequately,
etc.
THESE questions Of mass work re-
ceived the shsrpest and most de.
tailed clarificati on for our own
Party in the Open Letter addressed
to the Party membership last fan
which pointed out the failure Of
our Party to make adequate efforts
to root itself in the decisive shops.
to build the revolutionary unions in
the decisive industries and to carry
on an adequate campaign for the r.
main demand Of the American
working class Unemployment and
Social Insurance.
At the Eighth Convention the
whole discussion was carried on in
the light of the control tasks laid
down in the Open Letter. One after
another, delegates from basic IN
dustries reported on the life and
struggles led by the units, on im<-
proved mass work and organizs=
tional consolidation in the shops. on
growing unity Of whites and Ne
groeS, Of successes in penetrating
the A. F. Of l.. But the Conven-
ton itself estimated these reports BY.
no means as adequate progress in
face Of the tremendous tasks of the
struggle against war and fascism,
but as sufficient to give an indi-
cation of what tremendous results
can really be accomplished if every
member of the Party becomes in
volved in organized Bolshevik mass
work.
Comrade Piatnitsky pays partic-
ular attention to the tasks con-
nected with the transference Of a
Party from legal 10 Illegal status
Cbeing forced underground. With
the approach Of war the bourgeoisie
will undoubtedly try to illegalize all
Communist Parties. In this regard,
Comrade Piatnitsky stresses. as one
Of the lessons of the German expert
ence. the Importance of decentrali-
cation of the work and especially Of .
developing local initiative. This
local initiative is very important.
The Communist must not wait until
the Party is driven underground to
remember that he is Communist
and that he must pursue the Party
line on his own responsibility"
Victory never comes by ITSELF"
said Comrade Stain. Comrade Plat
nitSky's speech shows what kind of
work must be done if we are to drag
victory out Of the struggle. EVERY
comrade building his shop nucleus
through struggle in his shop, every
comrade following up and consolidate.
ing the gains won in strike, bind
ing the strikers to the Party. every
comrade persistently strengthening
our work in the A. r Of L.. every
comrsde laying a solid basis for the
mass movement against fascism. Will
find new inspiration and will see
the worldwide significance Of his
daily work, in reading this speech
OF one of our world organizers.
Some idea Of Comrade Piatni-
sky's life and experience may be
gained from reading his Memoirs
Of a Bolshevik, and of his con-
tributions to the Communist Par
ties from his reports at the PIE r"
mum. most of which has been
published in English.