The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-01
THE RESULTS AND LESSONS OF THE ELECTIONS
\ N Dit RIAL

towns, other sections voted for the progressive"
parties candidates being better" than the
Democrats; in California they voted for sinclair's
EPIC, first in the Democratic primaries to stave
off the odd guard" Democrats, and next in the
elections to stave off Merriam The huge votes for
third party candidates where they presented them
selves to the masses is definite indication of both
of the weakening of the two party system as well
the beginnings of establishment in Roose-
vet which the bourgeose is trying to stem through
these new third party illusions. Moved by the desire
to secure immediate relief from the intolerable
misery, still doubtful of the election chances of the
Communist Party candidates, and in the mistaken
belief that the successful" eft7 bourgeois candi-
dates will do something for them, large masses have
given their votes to such candidates The A. F. of L.
non-partisan policy, which in these elections was
fully modified in support of Roosevelt and New
DEAF candidates; and Socialist Party reformism
which cultivates the illusions of bourgeois demo-
cracy, which everywhere paves the way for fascsm
the Socialist Party reformism which produced the
Sinclair EPIC-these contributed large share
especially the A. F. of L. partisan policy prac-
tised also by many Socialist Party trade union
burocrats in obstructing the expression in the
elections of the growing rehabilitation Of the
Poor work in the A. F. of L. unions and among the
toiling farmers and their mass organizations Upon
which the Farmer-Labor Party rests, is an addi-
tonal reason in Minnesota where opportunist capt.
ulations to Farmer-Labor Party influences mani=
tested themselves in few points
8. The increase of the Communist vote which
in number Of industrial towns and election dis
tricts in big cities showed marked increase for
the first time equaling excelling the vote of the
Socialist Party is directly raceable to our correct
revolutionary work along the lines laid down in the
Open Letter. At the same time the weaknesses
which led to decline of our vote in Bridgeport
and certain cities Minnesota
weakness which found especially expression here be-
cause Of the relatively greater activity of the re-
formists.
These weaknesses which are, of course, inter-
related, express:
a. General fundamental weaknesses as indi-
Gated in the open Letter.
b. Special weaknesses arising from the ap-
proach to and conduct of the parliamentary strug-
gle.
9. On the fundamental weakness Of the still
existing lack Of Bolshevik mass work. 1t is neces-
sary, proceeding from the Open Letter and the
Resolutions of the 9th Party Convention, to point
out the following:
al Still relatively weak position of revou-
tionary work in the trade unions, despite recent
progress; the tardy slow manner in which the
Party organizations took up the major task of
revolutionary work in such unions of the A. F. Of
Longshore Railroad and Steel.
Continued neglect to politicaIize the eco
nonic struggles of the workers, the inability, in
many instances to raise these struggles to higher
levels and to bring forth the CP as the political
party of the American proletariat and leader Of
all exploited Experience shows what should be
well known to every Communist that the masses
by themselves even as result of the sharpest
economic struggles do not arrive to a full under
standing of the correctness and need of the
Party program. This can be achieved only if on
the basis Of these struggles, the masses are con-
scously guided and developed. This continues to
go hand in hand with the inability to concretize
the general political slogans of the Party to con-
dtionS of various localities and situations. The
slogans of the Party for the struggle against fas-
citation and war, with the central slogan for
Soviet Power, as rule are not sufficiently linked
up with the daily mass work in the economic
struggles or they are presented as something
separate and detached from these struggles
Cd The tactic of the united front is still not
being applied with the necessary persistence and
flexibilty. Here we point especially to our lack
of readiness to extend the united front locally also
to the election field with local unions, SP etc.,,
particularly in industrial communities in mining,
textile steel, etc.
ID Despite certain undoubted progress, the
still existing weakness of the Party organizations
in the concentration points, lack of systematic and
correct Party recruiting and Party building. AS
a rule, where the Party grows so does its influence
register in the elections
e. insufficient and not always effective ex-
posure Of the non-partisan policy of the A. F. Of
L. bureaucracy, SIP. and FLIP reformism as the
landmarks of the New Deal" and lack of wide
spread agitation for independent working class