The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-14
.W.I.R. Warns
Against Foes
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2 Cleveland DisrupterG
Exposed by Relief
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A warning against the anti.
working class disruptive activities
Of two persons in the Cleveland ",
1. r., John Foley and NJ. J. Elliot,
was issued yesterday by the Ma
tionsl office Of the Workers IN
ternational Relief.
The full statement describing tbs
anti-Communist work of these ele-
ments follows:
1t has always been the policy Of .
the Workers international Relief
to build a broad membership orr
/ ganization, to secure as members
individuals from all strata Of the
! population, workers irrespective
Of what political party they be-
longed to, or what religion they be-,
lieved in, middle class and profess :
sional people who sympathized with
labor.
The program of the w. I. R.,
namely, of helping to win strikes
by collecting and distributing strike q
relief, supplying material aid to the
hunger marches Of the unemployed,
permeating working class neighbour
hoods to establish unity for neigh
borhood welfare, building workers
cultural groups, presupposes that
each W. I. r. branch or group
would constitute a rank and file f.
united front of all kinds of work.
ers and synpathizers.
The Cleveland w. / r. has to its
credit many successful united front
actions. However, in the recent
period, it has allowed itself to de-
generate into center Of disrup-
tive work within the w. I. r. and
Of destructive criticism of the Com
munist Party.
John Foley, an expelled member
of the Communist Party, was able.
to gather around himself a number q
Of Party members, M. j. Elliot and
others, and use the w. I. r. to
poison the minds of workers
against the Party. The w. 1. r.
was made the center of constant at.
taclks upon the Party, of spreading
slanderous rumors about the Party
one of which was that the Party
had within its Cleveland leadership
several members who were con-
nected with the capitalist govern
ment.
This resulted in the disintegra-
! ton of the w. I. r., resulted i'm
narrowing its activities, in disabling
its members from carrying OUT
their tasks. The object of this
Foley and Elliot group was to
weaken the Communist Party, to-
poison the minds of workers against
it. This can only be characterized
as counter Revolutionary work and
the w. I. R. can under no circum-
stances allow itself to be the cen-
ter of such activities.
Ernest Wagenknecht, the former
secretary of the Cleveland w. I. R.,
allowed himself to be influenced by
this Foley group, to which he sur
rendered. A new w. I. R. secretary
had to be elected. In the mean
time the Foley group is attempting.
to constitute itself as a self-styled
w. I. r. of Cleveland.
The National Office of the w. I.
R. will under no circumstances give
recognition to this group, which is
doing harm to the w. I. r. 1t calls
upon all w. I. r. members to join
the official w. I. r. of Cleveland,
whose secretary is Comrade Lucas.
1t calls upon former w. 1. r. mem
bers, who have for the moment
been disguised with the unhealthy
situation in the Cleveland w. I. R.,
and upon those honest workers
who are still being misled and poi
soned by Foley, to join the official
w. I. R. branch of Cleveland.
The Communist Party has always
given all the cooperation within its
power to the activities of the w L
r., and its members have been tha
most courageous in strike situations,
where the relief activities of the W.
1. r. we're menaced by the thugs.
and police of the bosses and caps
italist rulers. Not only will the w.
I. r. refuse to allow itself to be tina
center of spreading false accusa-
tons and runors against the COM
munist Party--it will fortify itself
against falsely accusing any or
ganization, against all dishonesty
within the ranks of the working
class and its friends among the
poor middle class and professionals.
Only this kind of attitude will
win the support Of workers of all
political beliefs and of other points
of view for the w. I. R. and its
program.
ALFRED WAGENKNECHT.
National Secretary,
Workers International Relief.