The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-20
Party Life
Some Problems
In Building Up
Strong Units

! Gllnk we Ren6rdliSS on bIliS
subject too much without really
anslyzing it. We seem to say some
thing must be done to make our
Units an organized force of leaders
in the class struggle facing the
workers Of its neighborhood. We
fail to point out the cause of the
Units backwardness in becoming the
handspring within its territory.
OF first Importance among our
failures is the absence of Unit
Buro meetings. Just to say this is
not enough. We must see why Unit
buro meetings must be held. Not
only must they be held, but we
must be clear upon the reason why
they are held.
I think we have formed certain
habits that must be discarded. In
the past we seemed to start off each
week with a clean slate, paying
very little attention to what was
taken up the week before. The Unit
buro must make out an agenda for
the Unit meetings. How often have
we seen this done in about min
ute's time without thought of the
order in which the points are ar
ranged.
The Unit buro should meet be-
fore the Unit meeting and study
the Org. letter from the Section. It
should gather from the Sections
Org. letter just what the main OBJ
jectives of the entire Section is.
The Unit buro in knowing from its
experience in the neighborhood
and also the composition of Unit
membership will arrive at the part
its unit can play in the directives
from the Section buro. The Unit
also can start campaigns of it's own
that will be in line with general
campaign of the Section as a whole
The Unit buro must plan and
propose such plans also to mem
bership.
The first part of the agenda
should be taken up with check ups
and reports. No comrade should be
left out in this check uo This part
of the meeting should no5 take long.
Above all a sense Of discipline must
be felt by each comrade. This can
be developed by electing a chair
man who will stop comrades from
going into many minutes of small
talk that has no place in a report.
If necessary the financial secretary
should act as chairman until the
comrades learn how to take part
in the proceedings and become a
chairman themselves. After the re-
port the next period should be led
by the Organizer. 1t should be
taken up with activities planned by
| the bureau. In this the Organizer
must not make flat statement of
| the tasks and assign comrades to
carry through these tasks. He must
frankly show N an intelligent man.
ner land he can l. he has earnestly
studied IT. the campaign the Sec
ton has undertaken. Then he must
show why the Unit bureau has
taken the part it proposes to accom-
plish, of that Section plan. He must
also show how the campaigns origi-
mated by the Unit Bureau fit in
and aid in achieving the direct tasks
| taken from the Section bureaus d.
receives. 1t is not necessary TO sit
and read the Org. letter as If it
were bit of dogma at Unit meet
ings 1t is not necessary to read
it at all. That is why we have
Unit bureaus to predigest the ma
terial. If the Organizer has studied
with the rest of the bureau the Org.
letter he will be able to show why
the proposed action of the bureau
is correct. The Unit membership
will also gain a better understand
ing of the problems to be solved and
agree to the proposed action.
The next period should be led by
the Agit- Prop. How often have We
seen Agit-Props. who took the at
titude of professors. He often leads
a discussion that in no way con-
meets up with the problem facing
the Unit. The Agit-Prop. should
fit in with the activity OF the Unit.
He should show the advantage po-
litically of accomplishing the tasks
decided upon. He should cite GER
tain actions in the past to prove
the correctness of planned action.
He should warn against certain ten
denotes that may be cropping up
in the Unit and show now failures
have resulted by using such tactics
During major campaigns of the en-
tire Party he should especially
broaden his discussion so that q
picture of the whole working -class
movement will result. He should
prepare himself to ask two or three
questions each meeting which he
believes are not clear to the entire
membership. Above all he must de-
velop discussion among the men,
bership The only way to do this
is to tie up the subject he has in
troduced with the campaign al
hand and which has been previousl,
discussed.
We can readily see when we con.
slider the above that our Unit meet.
ings can no longer remain the loose
gatherings many of them are today
We cannot deal with the indiv
idual propaganda work we may hav'
done while selling pamphlet to
worker. We cannot continue to tel
stories of insignificant happenings
We must raise major happening
within our neighborhood and discus
them with the expectation that w
will arrive at plan for action which
will fit in with our general program
In order to bring about this de
sired change in our Units We mus
first make it our business to holt
Unit buro meetings and then see t.
it that every member in the Unit i