The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-08
By MAX sALTZNIAN

-
Excerpts from a speech at the
ghth Convention of the CPUS,A.
Cleveland).
WANT to deal first with the ex-
periences We had in carrying
trough the United Front movement
the Dearborn City elections.
hese experiences are important not
lly because they took place in the
controlled town Of Dearborn,
ut because they viii be of aid to
II comrades who face similar stu
tons elsewhere.
Our United Front movement came
ito existence as a result of the
ght for the immediate needs Of the
'orkers in the city. The fight was
aised to a political level by direct
lg it against the Ford Motor Com
any.
Was it correct for us to enter the
United Front in the municipal cleo
ions in Dearborn? Yes. It was cor
eet, despite the many mistakes we
nade.
We must remember that we were
solated in a terror ridden company
own. The United Front was a
means through which the Party
ould be brought before the masses;
o establish closer contact with the
hop workers and to rally not only
he workers but also the petty bour-
.eoisie, under our leadership
tgainst the rule of Ford. During the
;ampaign We were able to speak to
thousands of Ford workers. in mass
meetings, in the public schools, in
,mpty lots, and in the Easements Of
workers homes. We printed and
distributed over 10000 pieces of lit
srsture in this town of $4,000 peo-
pie. This included $4,000 copies of
our election platform. We succeeded
N raising over $500 for the cam
oaign from the impoverished work
srs of Dearborn. We succeeded in
registering over 500 workers as &C
tive supporters of our movement,
and organized them into precinct
committees. We were able to organ
lie two auto parades with over 100
cars, each, on very short notice. We
were able to organize a meeting of
700 workers by word of mouth. We
succeeded in involving the women
very actively in the campaign.
Women participated actively in dis
tribution of leaflets, house-to-house
csnyassing, as watchers on election
day. in arranging affairs and in
other activities. We organized two
children's parades which were very
effective and in which hundreds of
children of Ford workers partici-
pated They made their own signs
and showed tremendous initiative.
The extent to which the youth sup
ported our movement was seen in
the fact that in one of our election
parades, a whole detachment of
C.C.C. boys, who were home on holi-
day, participated in our parade with
banners saying: "C.C.C. boys sup
port workers candidates against
Ford"
We conquered the most solid pro-
letarian section of Dearborn-the
South End, where the Mayor, a
cousin Of Henry Ford dared not re-
turn after he was booed from the
platform in the early part of the
campaign. In this section, we Sc
cured 500 out of 1921 votes. And
these votes were in the greatest ma
jority open Party support. In the
final election, 1000 votes, IS per cent
of the total votes cast, were secured
by the United Front candidates.
These, comrades, were the main
positive achievements resulting from
our participation in the campaign.
Comrade Browder in his speech
said that to push the Party into the
background is fatal. That is true.
Only to the extent in which we
brought the Party forward in a de-
cisive manner were we able to re-
cord positive results. We were too