The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-12

The most important problem
facing our Party today, on the eve
of the 9Th Convention, is the prob
lem of entrenching ourselves among
the industrial workers in the big
mills and factories; to build up and
stabilize our existing revolutionary
trade unions; to draw into our
daily struggles the many independ-
ent unions and the masses Of rank
and file members of the American
Federation Of Labor.
The Open Letter Of our Party
states that, The entire work Of
the Party and the best forces of
the Party are to be directed first
of all to building up and CONSOLE
dating the Party and Revolution
airy Trade Union movement in the
most important industrial centers
of the country, to effectively and
Systematically win the decisive Sec
tons of the American workers, free
them from the influence Of the re-
formist and bourgeois parties, mobi-
lie for the struggle against the
bourgeoisie, and get our influence
solidly established in these centers."
Have we Systematically carried
out this important task, which has
been brought to our attention 50
forcibly by the Open Letter and
again by the 18th Plenum Reeolu-
ton Of the c. T.?
Concentration
In our recent struggles we Ger
tainly learned the need and the
advantage Of applying concentra-
ton. If our Union in Paterson had
not applied such determined con-
centration on the Weidman Dye
Plant, and built up a strong Union,
we would not have been able to
start and lead the dye strike, which
was Of such decisive Importance to
the entire national silk strike.
Although this experience should
have made us more determined
than ever to continue applying this
concentration in our work after the
strike, it has been again neglected
because Of the pile of all kinds OF
other work But no task can be
more important than the task Of
concentrating our best forces and
energies on one particular big
factory, which will be of strategic
Importance in moving the chain Of
factories in given territory.
Although Lawrence and New Bed
ford are the concentration districts
Of our textile union in the wool
and cotton section of the industry.
our concentration has been applied
in such haphazard way, that our
Union is still weak and has little
effect in these two centers. This
is especially significant because
Lawrence and New Bedford are
both centers where our Union led
and won tremendous strikes. 1t is
important that precisely at this
time, on the eve of the 9th con-
vention of our Party, not only our
Union, but also the Boston District
leadership of our Party carry
through a detailed examination of
the entire work carried on in Law
renee and New Bedford so as to
successfully help solve the Difficult
ties in both of these important
centerS.
We must not lose sight of this
extremely important passage in the
Open Letter: Unless we tena-
ciously concentrate our work on the
most important industrial centers,
We cannot build up stable Party
and a Revolutionary Trade Union
Movement"
During the last year, there has
been q tremendous growth of In
dependent Unions in all industries.
One of the reasons for this growth
is the fact that the workers are
tired Of the numerous treacherous
betrayals of the A. F. L. burocrats,
and are shying free of them. The
second reason is that we are not
on the job in some important tex
tile centers.
Our Party District Organizers in
the textile regions know the
strength of the National Textile
Workers Union, and know OF the
lack of leading forces within this
important organization. Still some
of them do not attempt to build
the textile union through their
available forces, but takes the at
titude that eff the N. T. w. U.
cannot send in an organizer to build
the union, we cannot take that
responsibility"
This attitude is contrary to the
entire line of the 18th Plenum
Resolution and the Open Letter to
our Party. The 9th Convention
Of our Party must make deter
mined effort to change this atti-
tude in our trade union work.
In some Districts our Party COM
rades developed the theory that it
was futile to build the T. U. U. L.
Unions, and thus necessary to build
INdeDendent Unions