The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-08
Party Lite
Work in ROumanian
Fraction Discussed
By the Secretary

In Jne Party Lie column OF the
Daily Worker, Nov. 26, Comrade
P. N. discusses some failure of our
Party fraction in the Roumanian
Workers Club and the Roumanian
I. w. o. Branch No. 4502.
There is no doubt that our frac-
ton in these organizations is very
weak.
We failed really to penetrate the
ranks of the Roumanian workers.
We failed to recruit members into
the Party. We failed to build the
above-named organizations, and to
develop their initiative.
In some of our work we we're
most tactless. We treated these
organizations as Party units, we
have not yet learned to educate
non-Party workers. We do not try
to explain things to them in such
a manner as to make them active.
And we do not clearly understand
that our task is to educate and
lead the workers and not control"
them.
A new worker that comes into the
7. w. o. or in the workers club
cannot be treated like a Party mem
Der. Because we refused to see this
in the past, we have narrowed the
base of our club and of the I. w. o.
branch; in a way we have isolated
ourselves from the Roumanisn
workers in this city And at the
same time We have tolerated wrong
acts on the part of some fraction
members.
A comrade took money from our
club and from the Daily Worker,
and we failed to expose him, Not
only this; we allowed him to re-
main in our club long after he was
expelled from the Party. This re-
suited in our losing some of the
confidence of the members of the
club. Some comrades to this day
continue to befriend this element.
Such a n-proletarian attitude
makes very bad impression on the
workers.
Another bad mistake some of us
make is an attitude toward new
workers that they are ignoramuses.
Comrades either show toward work.
ers an air of superiority or one of
condescension. We can not win the
confidence of the workers that way.
Instead we must win the workers
by example in activities and by real
leadership.
The letter in the Party Life COL
umn bears strong evidence of hav-
ing been written by a certain Party
member, but under an assumed
name. To this Party member we
say:
1t is easy to stand on the sidelines
and criticize; but that is not enough
for a Communist. He must roll up
his sleeves and help improve the
work, especially where he sees weak
neSses.
You tell us that demonstrations
should have been held in front of
the New Yorker and Washington
Hotels, where the Roumanian pa
triots celebrated the Roumanian
bourgeois independence. on May TO-
But, comrade, have we concentrated
sufficiently to draw in the $50 to
300 Roumanian workers in New
York City into our organizations.
Do the % members that we have
in our club, and the SO members in
our !, w. o. branch (most of them
being members of both organiza-
tions) indicate that we have? Is
the fact that we have only five
members in the fraction proof that
we have reached the Roumanian
workers in this city? Do you really
believe that in the face of these
circumstances we coud have held
two ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in front
of each of the above mentioned
hotels, and by such demonstrations
increase our prestige and the pres
tige of our Party among the men,
bers Of our organizations and
among the workers in general?
Isn't it true that had we tried to
carry through such demonstration
with the small forces at our COM
mand we would have lost not only
our and our Party's prestige, but
we would have also lost some of the
new and raw elements in our club
and l. w. o. branch, because we
could not have modified an i'm
pressive number of workers for
these demonstrations?
In our + w. o. branch we have to
a certain extent been able to make
the turn, and, as a result, We have
in the past year succeeded in more
than doubling the membership. We
must continue to work along these
lines, never losing sight of our duty
to get these workers to respond to
the calls of our Party, and their
duty in the class struggle; and we
must do this by convincing these
workers, and never through pres
sure.
In closing, I would like to ask
Comrade P. N. to get in touch with
us; for surely the place of COM
rade that sees all of our short
comings is to work with us and
help us to eliminate them. On the
other hand, we may be able to elm
mate some of his shortcomings, as
the proposals in the article are not
all in accord with your activities in
these organizations. And if the
writer is not a Party member, it
can be seen from his article that
he knows enough to be one. We
invite him into our Party and frac-
ton, and let us work together with
one thing in mind: to penetrate
more and more among the Rou-
manian workers, so that before long
we will be in position to carry out
and to successfully fulfill all of the