The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-07
Party Life
Is LOngshOremen
Recruited to Party
In Competition

I
CECTION One, Three and Seven
recently entered into a pact Of
socialist competition in waterfront
recruiting with the object of en-
rolling 40 new longshoremen into
the Party by Jan. 81, Lenin Memo
rial Day. A good start towards
reaching this quota has been made,
with total of IS longshoremen
having been recruited in the first
few weeks of the drive by Sections
One and Three alone. These Is new
Party members are excellent ele-
ments-Irish, Americans, Negroes,
members of the I. L. A., militant
workers with contacts annd prestige
on the docks.
a Test of Section Leadership
To develop these is new long
shore members (as well as the
others to be recruiteO into capable
and devoted Communists, into lead
ers among the dock workers, means
taking a serious step forward in
basic concentration work in this
District-marine work.
| Will we prove able to keep all of
these proletarians in the Party, to
develop and utilize them for fur
Their extending our Party's base
among the New York longshore-
men? This is a test for Sections
One, Three and Seven, a test in
constructive Party leadership, the
results of which should be of in
terest and concern to the entire
District.
A Few Points from Recent Work
CERTAIN lessons and experiences
" from working with the new long
shore Comrades and Nuclei can al
ready be cited, as follows:
y Because of the constant shift
ing of the working time of the long
shoremen, the question of holding
regular nucleus meetings, of getting
full attendance at these meetings,
is an exceptionally difficult one, and
requires for its solution, the highest
degree of organizational leadership
and attention from the leading Sec
ton comrades. Also this makes it
extraordinarily important that the
nucleus meetings are most thor
oughly prepared that they are ed
ucational, constructive, down to
earth-and short. Special efforts
have to be made to impress on the
new comrades the absolute impor-
lance of attending unit meetings.
q Dock conditions and issues
should be briefly discussed at each
meeting, with constant stress being
laid on the fact that solid personal
contact on the job coupled with agi-
tation and action around small
grievances is the basic approach to
winning the masses of longshore-
men. The leading comrades must
give the utmost possible help in
working out the detailed steps and
special forms for carrying through
these small actions.
- Special stress must be placed
on carrying through systematic po-
litical training of the new comrades
through nuclei discussions, through
special study groups, through the
Daily Worker and assigned PAM
phlets for reading and through per-
Sonal attention. Failure to politi-
cally develop the new comrades
means that we will eventually lose
most of theml
a 1t is very important that close
comradely relations be established
between the leading comrades and
the new members, drawing out their
questions, criticisms, personal and
home difficulties, ETC., thus making
possible a concrete and flexible ap-
proach to each new member on his
assignments and development. Steps
must also be taken to draw the new
comrades in socially.
81 The outside" comrades at
tached to the nucleus must be care
full not to swamp the new unit with
their own proposals, discussion, ini-
tiative, etc. They must patiently let
the new comrades discuss problems
and run the meeting, only taking
the floor to suggest or advise when
absolutely necessary.
s. Special care must be taken not
to swamp the new members with
too much work or inner meetings,
thus cutting them off from their
contacts, their friends, and their
personal obligations.
However lin closing, we urge
that the comrades in waterfront
concentration work-above all the
longshoremen themselves = discuss
the points raised here and then
send in their own suggestions, criti-
cisns, experiences, ETC., for the
Party Builder and the Party Life
Column.
Let us resolve not to lose single
one of these newly recruited Is
longshoremen from the Party. II
we can carry through this resolution
we can be quite certain of success in
fulfilling our entire quota of forty
bV Jan 21