The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-27
Party Life
Sees Membership
Doubled Through
Good Mass Work

Comrade Browder in his report to
the Eighth National Convention of
the Party, in dealing with the build
I ing of the Party into a mass Party,
pointed out that mass recruit
ment must be undertaken in con-
nection with all our mass activities
and struggles and the fluctuation
overcome through the improvement
Of our work especially the raising of
the political level and initiative Of
| the leadership Of the nucleus and
lower Party organizations in the
day-to-day struggles and in the
work of the fractions in the mass
organizations" This statement APP
plies with full force to our Party
in this Section in carrying out this
task. The great weakness Of our
Party does not lie in the fact that
we have not carried on a certain
amount Of mass activity and
struggles election campaign, relief
struggles) or that the fluctuation is
very great, but the failure to build
the Party lies mostly in the fact
that our methods of work are very
poor not only in general campaigns
Of the Party, but particularly in the
work inside the mass organizations
We wish to give here a concrete
example of the quality Of the work
Of the Party among the farmers.
The County Secretary of the United
Committee meeting to take place on
certain date in certain
Farmers League called a County
place to start at 2 p. m. What
happened at this meeting? First,
the meeting started an hour late.
There was no agenda prepared in
advance. The leading comrade
responsible to the State Committee
for his activity arrived not at 2
p. m. when the meeting was orig
inally called but at $50 after the
meeting had already started. The
meeting took up g. few very i'm
portant problems such as mobiliz-
ing q delegation for the State Re-
lief Conference. the struggle against
the eviction of farmer and so
forth. Had the Party comrades on
the County Committee met before
to bring concrete proposals to the
meeting? The answer is that it had
not The result was that good
deal OF valuable time was lost
dealing with small detail matters,
and technicalities.
The weakness in this particular
phase Is not solely due to the low
political level of the members but
that guidance and leadership is
neglected by the leading Party
committee, failure to check up the
work of the leading comrades as
we'll as Tightening the discipline of
the leading Party members This
bad situation can best be overcome
by having greater holiness in the
promotion of cadres from the ranks
Of the farmers, and by raising the
political and theoretical level of the
membership, through more concrete
personal contact and work among
the masses, through study clubs,
through schools and last but not
least through greater efforts to
have every Party comrade become a
reader Of the Daily Worker and the
other theoretical publications"
The writer Is of the firm opinion
once our Party comrades improve
the work inside the mass organiza-
tions, the task of doubling the
membership of our Party in this
campaign will not be difficult one,
but our Party will root itself among
the basic strata of the American
working class who will be able to
lead the developing class battles, be
able to meet any suppressive meas
ure of the bourgeoisie and lead the
oppressed masses out of the crisis
through the revolutionary way out.
Comradely yours
u q