The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-09-29
Amter Tells of Fight of CP> Against cleft" Tendencies

the workers through the election
campaign and the election of can
didates, for struggle in the shops,
on the streets for their demands.
More left sickness!
In order to carry on open work
and to mobilize the militant, rev.
dictionary workers into a fighting
party, the underground Communist
Party after a bitter struggle in its
ranks, organized the legal Workers
Psrty-thereby breaking the secta-
rianism to some degree that per-
meated the Party. How strong this
was may be gathered from the fact
that in New York in 1920 a Work
ers League was formed for carrying
on work during the election cam
paign. The Party decided on
nothing more sectarian than to call
on the workers to boycott the cleo
tions! This sectarian attitude
showed how far removed the Party
was from the moods of the masses.
OppOrtunist Tendencies
AS further manifestation of this
infantile sickness from which the
Party suffered, there arose in the
underground party tendency that
a workers party in the United
States could not be revolutionary
unless it was an illegal party. AL
though practice had demonstrated
that the Party through various mass
organizations could at that time
carry on its work and expound it's
full program, the idea arose-aS. an
expression Of Grass sectarianism,
which was nothing but opportunism,
that an open party would become
opportunistic, would make ccnces-
sions in its propaganda and agita-
ton to the bourgeoisie, would COM
promise with it's principles in order
to remain above ground. When
Lenin compared the work of the
Workers Party with that of the
underground party and saw that
under the existing circumstances it
was possible for the Communists in
the United States to carry on their
work openly; when he compared the
legal paper of the Party with the
Illegal organ and saw that prac-
tically the same articles appeared
in both, he declared that we should
"cut out this nonsense" meaning
the illegal organ. The struggle be-
gan for the liquidation of the I'M
foreground party, but it lasted for
two years.
Now in the third postwar period
in the period of the decay Of cap
italisn, it must be stated that the
Party has not yet fully overcome its
sectarianism-its infantile sickness.
There remains an opposition to
work in the A. F. of L. and re-
formiSt unions = based almost on
the same grounds as in the early
days of the Communist Party. AL
though the attitude of the Party
membership is changed on the ques-
ton Of revolutionary parliamentsr-
ism, and certainly it is not to be
found in the leadership of the
Party, it cannot be said that the
whole Party membership is filled
with clear understanding of the
significance of revolutionary parlia-
mentarisna. 1t remained a basic task
Of the Party to educate the men,
bership on the question of work in
the reformist unions and bourgeois
controlled mass organizations, and
Of parliamentary activity.
Destroy Left" Sectarianism
Today faced with the deepening
general crisis Of capitalism, with the
rapid development of fascism
through the N. r. A., with the
feverish preparations for another
world war, it is fundamental that
all manifestations of cleft" secta-
rianisrf1, which is nothing but Grass
opportunism, be uprooted from the
Party. This is so much more es-
sential in view of the growth of
membership of the reformist unions,
the militancy of the rank and file
Of these organizations, the urge of
the workers for a different way out
Of the crisis than that of the new
DEAL" the readiness with which they
follow the slogans and proposals of
the Party.
Left" Sectarianism re ain S
within the Party-an infsntile sick
ness, which the Party, now fifteen
years old, must uproot from its
ranks, in order fully to play the
role that Communist Party must
fulfill in the period of revolutionary
struggle in which we now live. Only
in this way will we fight success
fully the right danger-the main
danger at the present time.