The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-12
5000 HEAR
BROWDER ON
LABORPARTY
Audience Enthusiastic
As Secretary of C.P.
Analyses Question

tThe text of Earl Browder's
speech on the Communist position
on the Labor Party question made
at the st. Nicholas Palace on Sun
day night will appear in tOmor-
rows edition of the Daily Worker.)
Speaking before an audience of
5000 in the st. Nicholas Palace on
Sunday night, Earl Browder, gen.
eral secretary of the Communist
Party. outlined the Communist po-
sition on the possibility of a Labor
Party as a means of leading the
masses who are breaking away from
the old parties onto the path Of
class struggle and bringing the
working class face to face with the
problem of State power and with
the problem Of which class shall
WELD this power
In a brief, incisive talk, which
stimulated some 700 questions from
members of the audience, Browder
declared that the recent resolution
of the Communist Party Central
Committee was neither an about
face" nor a surrender to oppor-
tunist tendencies.
THE Labor Party is not, for us
Communists, a means of making
peace with the LaFollettes, the Oh
sons, the Sinclairs, the Longs, the
Waldmans and the others who will
seek to turn mass labor party
movement into mere appendices to
the old-line capitalist parties.
"On the contrary, it is a means
to make more effective war against
and to defeat and isolate these gen.
tlemen from the masses" Browder
said.
Not a Substitute for c. P.
I'm no way do we bring forward
the Labor Party as substitute for
the Communist Party" Browder as
serted. For us it is merely a part
Of our struggle to build and
strengthen the Communist Party it.
self among the masses, to extend its
authority, to root its principles, tao
tics and organization deeper among
the masses.
The key to the breakawsy of the
masses from the Roosevelt New Deal
is in the economic struggles, in the
trade unions, Browder pointed out.
Our Labor Party policy, there
fore, depends upon fearless, en-
ergetic and correct work in the
unions of the American Federation
Of Labor.
THE changes in our trade unions
work which we are now completing
after year of cautious experiment
and testing of our ground, have
proved their correctness up to the
hilt. The Party membership has
already mastered most of the les
sons of this changed trade union
policy 1t will master more quickly
the Labor Party policy ip all its
details when 1t understands this as
only a further extention of the trade
union policy, of the whole struggle
for a united working class front
against capital"
700 Questions Asked
During the brief intermission
which followed Browder's speech,
more than TOO individual written
inquiries were sent to the platform
in response to his announcement
that he would answer questions.
Browder prefaced his answers by
announcing that systematized di-
gest of these questions and answers
would be published in the Daily
Worker at later date.
Most of the questions which
Browder answered were representa-
tive of scores of others. He took
occasion, however. to reply to ques-
tions which came, obviously, from
renegade elements or from workers
who have been misled by the at
tacks of renegades on the Commu-
(Continued on PAGE q