The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-01-13

Va
December the Party started an inten-
SiVe drive for new members. The
aim that we set for ourselves was to
strengthen the Party in the factories,
among the basic elements of the
American proletariat, to bring into
the Party workers from the concen-
train factories and industries, from
the Industrial, Independent and A.
F. of L. unions, to increase consider
ably the number of Negroes in the
Party, and during the Recruiting
Drive to build new factory nuclei,
strengthen the old ones and make
the Party fractions in the Union
function.
Let us examine on the basis of the
tration districts, how these tasks were
December recruiting in the concen-
carried out. (Here we want to state
that some of the districts started the
recruiting drive in the second half
of December).
S95 New Members
In the five concentration districts
we recruited S95 members out of
which about thirty-two per cent are
employed Twenty-three per cent
GOD of the total recruitment in the
concentration districts come from the
concentration industries. Only TWEEN
ty-eight per cent 1882 of the new
centration industries ere empoyed.
One hundred of the new recruits from
the concentration industries belong to
unions; fifty-five per cent to the
A. F. OIL. and Independent Unions
and forty-f1ve to the Industrial
Unions.
About thirty three per cent 1881 of
the new members from the concen-
tration industries are native born;
about eight per cent I'D are Ne
groeS.
Let us look at the concentration
districts one by one:
New York District
New York in the height of their
recruiting drive, reports for five
weeks 453 new members, an average
of about 90 per week, about the same
as the number reached by the district
in the 1882 recruiting drive with less
members then and incomparably less
mass activity than now. But this
figure Is double the average monthly
recruiting previous to the drive.
We would like to emphasize one
New York. Only one employed
Marine worker came into the Party
during the five weeks in spite of the
fact that the main concentration in
the district is waterfront. Out of the
So recruited from the concentration
is, or thirty-one per cent
were employed, yet, on the whole, the
district reached the second best
figure as to the percentage Of en-
ployed new recruits. While seven
teen per cent of all recruits belong to
the A. F. of L., only eight per cent
Of those were recruited from the con-
centration industries. One serious
shortcoming in the New York Recru-
iting is the insufficient number Of
new Negro members; Al with only
five of them in the basic industries
and % in the light industries.
Pittsburgh District
District 5, in absolute figures, is
only a little behind Chicago which
has a membership three times the
size of Pittsburgh. The District
recruited ia new members, forty
six per cent of whom are employed;
seventy per cent Of the new recruits
come from the basic industries, six
ty-two per cent Of these are en-
ployed. Out Of the 40 miners, 81 be-
long to the A. F. of L. Out Of the
IA steel workers, nine belong to the
Steel and Metal Workers Industrial
Union. Railroad and transportation
is not a special concentration in
Pittsburgh but the Party succeeded
in recruiting three native born rail-
road workers, two of them employed.
The weak point in the Pittsburgh
recruiting is the insufficient number
Of Negro recruits, only Is (only six
from steel and mining).
We are glad to note the great i'm
provement in recruiting over Novem-
Der, but the District should pay more
attention to recruiting Negro miners
and steel workers.
Cleveland District
District GAS the figures show in
District there is a marked. improve
ment in recruiting in the month of
The proportion of the
and unemployed is not the
best one, Is PER cent. Only about
"a per cent of the new recruits come
from the basic industries (40) out OF
which 81 per cent are employed.
Very few new members belong to