The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-14

Fellow workers and Friends
The Communist Party is now dis
cussing the change in tactics pro-
posed by its Central Committee on
the question Of a Labor Party.
After rive years in which We OPP
posed all proposals to make the
Labor Party 3 practical issue. We
have now changed this negative
attitude, We now come forward as
the advocates Of q Labor Party to
be built upon the basis Of federat-
ing the trade unions and other
workers mass organizations, on a
platform of the immediate issues Of
the class struggle.
We make no change in principle
in the Party line. Our approach re-
mains the same as that formulated
in the Sixth World Congress, in
1923, which, on the proposal of
Stain, resolved unanimously:
"On the question of the organ
izing of a Labor Party, the Con-
gress resolves: That the Party
concentrate its attention on the
work in the trade unions, on or
ganizing the unorganized. etc.
and in this way lay the basis for
the practical realization of the
slogan of a broad Labor Party
organized from below"
This decision registered the fact
that the issue of Labor Party, as
a practical mass question, had at
that time passed into the back
ground, Since 1929, any attempt
at a Labor Party could only have
resulted in, either a new appendage
to the old parties of the bourgeoisie,
or else mere substitute for the
Communist Party with its weak
nesses and none of its strength.
New Mass Party Looms
The events of 1884 begin to place
this question in a new light. Mass
disintegration of the old two-party
system has begun. A new mass
party, TO the left of and in opposi-
ton to Roosevelt, will in all proba-
bility occupy the foreground by the
time of the 1886 presidential cleo
tons.
For the opportunists and rene
gades, this is the end Of the uues-
ton, but for us this is only the be-
ginning. For them this develop
ment is welcomed because 1t con-
tains within itself the opportunity
to find substitutes for the Connmu-
mist Party, find means to lead the
masses away from class struggle
into class collaboration, find the
channel to lead those who break
away from one bourgeois party i'm
mediately into another essentially
the same. We Communists look for
precisely the opposite elements of
the situation, we seek to make the
break with the old parties mean q
break with the bourgeoisie, we seek
to lead these masses onto the path
of class struggle, to break the power
of the class collaboration leader
ship, to bring the working class face
to face with the problem of State
Power, the problem of which class
shall WELD this power.
Thus in no way do we bring for
ward the Labor Party as a substi-
tute for the Communist Party. For
us, it is merely a part of our strug-
gle to build and strengthen the
Communist Party itself among the
masses, to extend It's authority, to
root its principles, tactics and Or
ganization deeper among the
masses. We stress this even more
today, precisely because life itself
places the Labor Party as a prac-
teal question of the moment: pre-
cisely because we are now pledging
our readiness to actively participate
in the establishment of 9 Labor
Party, all the more must we insist
that the Communist Party is the
indispensable weapon of the work
ing class, without which it can
neither fight successfully for its i'm
mediate needs nor find the way out
of capitalist oppression into the new
socialist society.
Education by Experience
To successfully bring those
millions now being disillusioned
about the New Deal, over fully to
the revolutionary path, is, however,
. process that can only be COM
pleted over period in which their
own experience teaches them, and
in which the persistent, unwaver-
ing, growing work of the Commu-
mist Party completes their educa-
ton,
Every day brings new evidence of
the extremely rapid breaking of the
old political bonds. Events of the
past two weeks are of historic i'm
portance in this respect. Roose-
velt's decision in the Jennings case,
In which he threw the government
on to the side of the newspaper
publishers and against the News
paper Guild incidentally forgetting
in most cynical fashion, his direct
demagogic promises to the officers
of the Guild was the first open
reputation of the demagogy which
has become famous as the National
Run Around. Haywood Broun,
president of the Guild, coined q
clever bon-mot when, commenting
on this decision, he said: THE
newspaper owners cracked down on
the President, and the President
cracked-up." But this wise-crack
could not hide the fact that what
really cracked-up was Broun's illu-
sions about Roosevelt and the New
Deal.
It had become impossible any
longer to maintain the fiction that
Roosevelt's administration is aiding,