The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-14
Struggles of the Farmers and Movements of MIXED
Class Character

The movement for organization Of rising
strike struggles among the employed workers
together with the growing organization and
struggles Of the unemployed, have served as a
powerful stimulus to the activities of other sec
tons of the exploited population, and attract
these other groups around the working class as
the leader and organizing center We have
seen the serious beginnings Of this process in
relation to the farmers movement. This move
ment is beginning to take on a different char
acter from that seen in previous farmers move
ments. The new characteristics have been
brought forward most clearly in those struggles
and organizations of the farmers which have
found their organizing center in the Farmers
Committee Of Action, and the two national
Farm Conferences held by it in 1882 in Wash
ington, and in 1888 in Chicago and especially
its left wing, the United Farmers League What
is new in this farmers movement is first the
political clarity with which it has attacked the
traditional nostrums with which the farmers
have been fooled so many times in the past
Currency Reform, etc., and its resoute COM
batting Of the anti-farmer policies of the
Roosevelt New Deal (crop reduction, etc.. 1t
is distinguished by It's ability to rise above sec
tional and race divisions by its proclamation
formulation Of national outlook and pro-
gram, as against the narrow, regional. provin-
cial approach. 1t has struck at the heart Of
the farmers problems in its demand for the
cancellation Of mortgages debts and back
taxes, raising sharply the most vital issues
which determine class alignments Above all
it has been able not only to proclaim the
abstract principle Of the worker-farmer alliance,
but actually to begin to realize it in daily life
and struggles.
mass movement of mixed class nature
that has begun to take on revolutionary trend
in the U. S. in the past period, is that of the
war veterans. The veterans movement COM
prises workers, farmers and larger proportion
of middle class elements 1t is unified not by
its class composition but by its common de-
mands for payment of the adjusted compen-
sation certificates (bonus) for disability allow
ances and disqualification, all Of which have
been under heavy attack by the Roosevelt
administration. The tremendous revolutionary
potentialities in this movement were startl-
ingly revealed by the great Bonus March in
1882 which was tremendous outburst of mass
indignation against the Hoover regime That
these forces are again gathering, that they are
exerting tremendous pressure, that they are
threatening to burst forth again into mass
action, was dramatically shown by the panicky
action OF Congress in overriding Roosevelts
veto of the Congressional replacement of a
small portion of what the Roosevelt regime had
stolen from the veterans. An indispensable
role has been played in this veterans move
ment by the still small but very active Workers
Ex-Servicemens League If this organization
would receive more cooperation and assistance.
rt-eta IT. I,aI..
potential forces of veterans. who are as vet
inactive in this work, the results in bringing
into active expression the mass forces of the
veterans revolt would mature much faster The
veterans movement is most valuable ally to
the revolutionary working class movement. 1t
stands as one of the important tasks of the
entire Party in nobilizing the auxiliary forces
for the working class movement in the United
States
Another auxiliary movement of growing i'm
portance that has appeared as a serious factor
only in the last two years, is the revolutionary
movement among the students. In the student
movement we are also dealing with a mixed
class composition. The movement began prin-
cipally in the higher institutions of learning
with predominantly middle class composition
1t has rapidly spread to the secondary schools
and involved a large number of proletariar
students in its activities Led and organized
by the National Student League this move
ment has established a base in hundreds Of
high schools, colleges and universities; it has
become national in scope; it has exerted
great and growing influence upon all intel
lectual circles. From the beginning it has beer
clearly revolutionary In its program and acti.
vities. One of its strongest points has been It's
clear Tnr0cnttiOn that he ro1e helo r,ce
to the workers and not to the students in tn