ISIMILITANT Weekly Organ of the Communist League of America [Opposition]Vol. HI, No. 16,Telephone: DRYdock 1656 NEW YOKK. N. Y. Saturday, April 19, 1930PRICE 5 CENTS

FIVE COMMUNISTS FRAMED c.rP.r.«.n. M.I« Huge Profits Unite Working Class Forces for May Day DemonstrationsIn a star-chamber proceedings in New

York five Communists, including Wm. Fos-ter, were found guilty on April 11 of un-lawful assemblage and face a maximumsentence of three years in jail. They hadbeen among the leaders of the unemployeddemonstration on March 6th at UnionSquare.

Typical capitalist justice was dis-pensed from the time of their arrests tillthe frame-up was consummated and convic-tions were secured. So-called civil liberties•were again mocked at by the agents of thebosses. A jury trial was denied the defen-dants. Three judges in special sessions courtruled on all points. No evidence was per-mitted to be given that stated the case andviews of the defendants and the workers.Moving pictures showing that Police Com-missioner Whalen had deliberately precip-itiated a riot were not allowed, nor cotil'dw.tnesses testify to the deliberate and pro-vocative acts of Whalen's Cossacks againstthe participants at the Union Square de-monstration. T^he riot was precipitated bythe police on the pretext that the demon-strators could not march to City Hall topresent the facts and grievances o£ the un-employed regarding the unemployment sit-uation before Mayor Walker. The bosses

'and their governmental agents were benton railroading the workers to prison. Sen-tence has not yet been pronounced. Thecase will be appealed to the State Sup-reme Court.

Thus do the capitalists show their con-cern for the misery of the unemployed andthose who try to defend their interests.

It is necessary for all workers, work-ers' organizations and other groups to rallyon behalf of the convicted comrades. Abroad defense movement is needed. Amongthe issues are the right of free speech and as-semblage; against the star-chamber pro-ceedings; the right for the workers to ex-press their grievances through demonstra-tions, parades, e£c. without interference bythe bosses' agents. Labor must show itssolidarity. May Day can become one of theoutstanding rallying days on this and otherimportant issues, confronting the workingclass in the United States and throughoutthe world. Repressions of the capitalistsagainst the workers are taking placethroughout the cpuntry. In New Yorkthey haye taken a most virulent form. TheNew York capitalists have taken the In-itiative and given the lead for the capital-ists elsewhere.

Regarding May Day we have pointed tothe necessity for a genuine united frontof all working class forces against capit-alism on a number of specific and burningissues before the workers; and that it is upto the Communists, especially the officialCommunist Party to initiate such a May Daymovement. Otherwise, the May Day demon-strations will be limited, the workers' pro-tests divided and made less effective; andto the degree of its influence, the ^official

RAKOVSKY'S ILLNESSSew Information has come to ns con-

cerning; the health of Christian Rakovsky.Our comrade has suffered a new and par.tlcularly severe heart attack. The doc-tors who were called to his bedside re-mained for a whole day. Will the StaHn-1st bureaucracy which exiled our comradeMid his sick wife to Barnaoul wait too longbefore permitting him to take measures forthe nl1 "t'ltton of his condition!

Communist Party will be responsible for adivision of the workers, particularly amongthose elements who are Communists orsympathetic to the cause of Communism.

All the conditions point to the need ofa broad May Day movement. Eiut the pol-icy of the official Communst Party preventsthis, and makes a mockery of the sloganit pretends to be for and issues; namely, aUnited Front of all labor on May Day. InNew York the official Communist Party atthe May Day Conference dalled to mobilizethe workers for May Day, held a long talk-fest, limited to its previously appointedspeakers and gave no expression to del-egates from the ranks and other bodies.The conference was like others for whichthe Party has become a laughing stockamong honest and sincere elements whowant to cooperate and participate in themovements of the day, such as the move-ment on behalf of the unemployed, etc. The

( Continued on Page 3 )

L.D. Trotsky's Autobiography«MY LIFE*

has just been Issued in thelish language and will be reviewedIn the next Issue of the .Militant.Watch for it.

This outstanding work of leonTrotsky can be purchased throughThe Militant The price 1$ $*.00per copy. By ordering ".My" Life"through The Militant, you can alsohelp to sustain' The Militant whichreceives a coinlsslon for each copyso'd directly by It. Everyone willwant to have a copy. Order fromThe Militant (Cash with orderonly), 25 Third Avenue, Room 4,Sew Tork, >. T.

The Naval Conference «Agrees»The Naval Limitations Conference at

London is nearing its close with an "ag-reement". The imperialist powers andpress laud the "achievements" arrived at inthe conference. Yet the original aim set

"Tor the conference—a five-power treaty—did not develop further than discussionsbetween the delegations. The intense ri-valry between the belligerent countries in-volved at London doomed in advance afive-power treaty.

The conference in recent weeks, recog-nizing the attempts at a naval limitationagreement between the United States, GreatBritain, Japan, Italy and France, as futile,reverted to a three-power agreement whichmeans the exclusion of Italy and France.The negotiations in the latter part of theconference were centered in this direction.Thus the three-power treaty is attemptingto establish parity between the UnitedStates and England, and a 60 percent ra-tio for Japan.American Imperialism In the Ascendancy

Should the signing of the three-poweragreement take place the conference willend with the following results:

1. The achievement of parity betweenthe United States and Great Britain, signi-fying the destruction of the British Em-pire's hegemony on the seas, and its formalreplacement by the United States as theleading imperialist power in the world.Such a parity would mean that Great Brit-ain would cease in the next six years tobuild naval armaments. But the estab-lishment of this parity involves a billiondollar building program for the UnitedStates, thereby destroying the myth of dis-armament and placing heavier burdensupon the shoulder of the American work-ing class.

2. The failure of the conference toarrive at its original program of a five-power treaty. The three-power treatywould not be binding upon Italy andFrance.

3. The complete collapse of the dis-armament character of the conference.

Even the three-power treaty carries inits wake a number of difficulties. There aredoubts as to Japan's signature tothe treaty. Japan indicates that She willnot ign the treaty until she is able care-fully to study the final draft of the treaty.In addition, the ..present proposed treatyallows for a "safeguard clause". Recog-

nizing that the three-power treaty wouldhave no binding character on either Franceor Italy. Britain demands that such aclause be entered into the treaty, since ifthe other two powers strengthen their na-val fleets, they will become a menace toBritish interests in the Mediterranean. Insuch a situation the "safeguard clause"would allow Great Britain Immediately tobegin the construction of naval armaments.This would also apply to the United Statesand Japan.

Thus, A. V. Alexander, First Lord ofthe admiralty, says: "It should of coursebe recognized that each of the parties tothe three-power agreement will have to becovereu by the terms of the treaty in sucha way that they may adjust their positionif the construction programs of other pow-ers outside the agreement should makethat necessary. For example, our reduceddestroyer tonnage would be materially af-fected by an increase in submarine tonnageelsewhere. This is, unfortunately, unavoid-able in the circumstances.''

E. L. James, in the Jfew York Timesof April 12, says as follows on the safe-guard clause: "It has been agreed that thesafeguard clause shall not apply solely toGreat Britain, but to all three powers "

The entire conference was a sham. Itsoriginal program was defeated. It failedin its attempt at disarmament, and couldnot arrive at a five-power treaty. The al-ternative, the three-power treaty, is a be-lated attempt to "achieve" something out ofthe talkfest. But the three-power treatyis filled with more explosives than is sus-pected. The London Daily Herald, summingup the situation, says: "The gains of theconference are plain enough (!). But atthe same time it would he folly to over-value them. It has neither achieved dis-armament nor assured peace."

The conference draws to a cl <se withconditions about the same as before it be-gan. The parity between the United Statesand Great Britain took place prior to theconference; Japan's ratio was fairly wellestablished also before the conference. Theonly additions remained Italy and France,and the/ are now out of the conference pro-per. There has been three months oftalkfest; war is in the air; preparations forit continue. The role of the imperialistsneeds to be exposed more than ever.

How American colorations made haywhile the boom sun shone last year is fur-ther revealed by recent financial reports.Steel, oil, motors, and chemicals, all Im-portant war industries, were especiallyprosperous up to the time of the crash.

1. 8. Steel and Standard Oil GetHuge Profits

United States Steel raked in the largestincome it ever reported in peace time, pay-ing $21.19 dividends on each of its 8,132,-000 shares of common stock, as against $12.50in 1928. Eothlehem Steel sent jts "earn-,ings" (read "unpaid earnings of its work-ers") up more than 100% over the previousyear. It donated to each idle holder of apiece of common stock a neat $15.50 forwhat the Italians call "sweet doing no-thing".

The Standard Oil companies, as usual,<Md nicely, thank you. The California unitpaid dividends of $3.70 a share, while thaIndiana company, the sturdiest of the fam-ily, raised the ante to $5.37. ThoughVacuum Oil showed a drop of over $2,000,-in net profit, its stockholders were none thepoorer. By putting into practice the prin--ciple of "stabilized earnings" (for capit-alists only) they were given nearly $21/000,000 in divideudeds instead of the provious year's $19,000,000.

"Public Service" Corporations Bake Inthe Dough

United Gas Improvement Co., whickhas subsidaries in at least eight state*and operates the municipal gas work o)Philadelphia on a private lease, Is now ne-gotiating to absorb the monster Public Ser-vice Corporation of New Jersey, controllingpractically all the power, trolley, and busservice of thatv"commonwealth". Mid-WestUtilities, presided over by one of the In-sullent Insulla, nearly doubled its "net", butAmerican Superpower Increased its win-nings up less than tenfold!

International Harvester did the largestvolume of business in any twelve months Inits history, due largely to an increase in itsforeign trade, some of which went to SovietRussia. Its common stock dividends wentup from $3.58 to $6,65. Eastman Kodak Co,also "outstripped all previous earnings"—no wonder old George can afford to give away50,000 cameras for advertising to twelve-year olds next summer! Radio Corporationof America, which last year swallowed thaVictor Talking Machine Co., cranks, discs,and all, reports $182,137,000 gross business,compared with $153,933 ,00 for the twocompanies in the year before consolidation.

American Tobacco was another cor-poration which turned a "record year", In-creasing its total profits by 20% and roll-ing divideneds on each share up to $13.17.

A LECTUREon

C~oini»unisiu and theXr«ile Union

Movement

by

JAMES P. CANNONSaturday, April 19, 1930 at 8 p. m.

L %UOK MM *••»••:242 East 14tn Street

Auspices: New York BranchCommunist League Of America (Opposition)

Admission 15 cents

T H B 5 M I L I T A N T Saturday, April 19, 193ft

B. OF L E. CONVENTIONA PROGRAM OF ACTION FOR THE ENGINEERS

By C. R. H E D L U N DOn Monday morning, June 2nd, the

Sixth Triennial Convention of the Brother-hood of Locomotive Engineers opens in thecity of Cleveland. There are many impor-tant tasks confronting this convention,which if correctly performed would im-prove the B .of L. E. tremendously.

Among the 21 Railroad Craft Organ-izations the B. of L. E. occupies a strategicposition and if properly led with a progres-sive program would become a powerful fac-tor in helping to solve the ever growingproblems of the railroad workers.

However, in the last six years the B. ofL, E. has been mismanaged and betrayed byits officials on a scale which challengescomparison in all labor history in this orany other country. During this period theorganization, as well as its membership,have been swindled out of millions of dollarsof its hard earned money. The officialsunder the leadership of the late WarrenS. Stone, started out to organize one pri-vate corporation after another and pro-ceeded to" sell the worthless stock, runninginto millions of dollars, to the B. of L. E.members who were trained to think thattheir leaders, or rather misleaders, coulddp no wrong.

Floating Worthless StockAfter the officials had unloaded all the

worthless stock they could on the member-ship, they then proceeded to float equallyworthless bonds in the name of these worth-less corporations and put on a campaign topalm them off on their victims. After theofficials had obtained all the money theycould by the sale of worthless stocks andbonds they helped themselves to the largefunds which belonged to the various de-partments, such as insurance, pension, etc.,and mortgaged the two office buildingswhich the organization owned in Cleveland,presumably, to get around ihe insurancelaws in the state of Ohio. Mind you, theymortgaged the B. of L. E buildings in orderto get their hands on the B. of L. E. funds.These mortgages amounted to about $7,-000,000 at the time of the last convention in1927. Since that time these mortgages,which ran to the different insurance de-partments of the Brotherhood, have beenlifted in the air and another first mortagehas been slapped on these same officebuildings to secure another loan of $4,000,-000 from a private source. So there is nowa mortgage on the two office buildingsamounting to approximately $11,000,000.

The Officials loot the TreasuryBut the process of looting had only be-

gun. The officials needed more and moremoney, so they started to help themselves tothe cash in the Cleveland bank and in itsstead shoved in worthless paper, until' thebank reached a condition where it wasabout to be closed by the bankexaminer at the time of the 1927 con-vention. The officials then induced theconvention to obligate the B. of L.E. for thenecessary amount of cash to put into thebank in place of the worthless paper, andas a result the closing of the B. of L. E.bank wa« avoided.

But the B. of L. E. officials neededstill more money. They had sold all theworthless stocks and bonds they could getrid of to the membership; they had helpedthemselves to .the various funds of the or-ganization, they had taken all the cash theycould out of the B. of L. E. bank. \Yhatcould they do next to get more money?They had not yet given real estate a trial.So they proceeded to get 30,000 acres ofFlorida real estate, also practically worth-less, and a great campaign was started inevery terminal throughout the country toBell real estate tc , the already overloadedvictims, the B. of L. E. members Thefraud and deliberate lying which was usedby the B. of L.E. officials and their realestate salesmen in their high pressure sales^campaign to palm off worthless Floridareal estate on its members will be recordedas one of the blackest spots in the whole-Bale betrayal of the B. of L. E. by it officialbureaucrats.

But the sale of Floiida real estate didnot go over big. The members were not

realizing any profits from their former in-vestments in stocks and bonds, but theofficials had to have still more moneyand/ the B. of L. E. and its membershipconstituted the only source fr»m which theofficials had any hopes of getting' it. Sonew schemes had to be devised to pry moremoney loose from the membership. Theidea of floating a $10,000,000 B. of L. E. bondissue was now proposed by the officials andtheir henchmen to the 1927 convention andtbfs proposition was actually put over.But they succeeded in selling only a littleover two million dollars worth of thesebonds which were also worthless, and tostimulate the sale of these bonds, they werelabeled "Loyalty Loan Certificates." The"Loyalty Loan' however, did not furnishthe required amount of money needed bythe officials, who by this time had becomeregular gluttons for "jack". More andstill more nfoney was needed and there wasonly one more way of getting it, and thatwas by arbitrary assessment of the member-ship. So a $5.00 special monthly assess-ment was levied on the members for 24months as a starter, and to sweeten thisassessment a little they gave it the namaof "Loyalty Assessment". The word "Loyal-ty" and even the secret work were beingused by the money gluttons to popularizethe fraudulent Loan and Assessment.

The Real Estate ,BncletIt is with this background of experience

that the B. of L. E. Convention convenesat Cleveland on June 2nd. However, theofficials have done their utmost to keep themembership in the darkest kind of ignor-ance concerning these socalled "Obliga-tions" which the members are being calledupon to pay. Gaglaws, obligation's, secretwork, censored magazines, threats, and evenexpulsions have been used by the official-dom to keep the membership suppressedand in Ifne. It is hard to toll to what ex-tent the intelligent and militant minorityis organized and prepared to carry out aconstructive program at the coming conven-tion.

A Program for a Itnuk and File UnionThe writer of this article circulates the

recent St. Paul B. of L. E. union meetingwith a convention program containingthe following proposals, to wit:

Fire all the piesent Grand Officers anddrive them from the B. of L. E. in disgrace;cut officials' salaries to the level of thewages received by the engineers on thebest paid runs, not to exceed $350.00 permonth plus necessary traveling 'expenses;election of all officials at each conventionand no six year terms as at present; allofficials, after serving two terms in office,to be drafted back on the job to run a loco-motive for a period of at least one term be-fore they are again eligible for election tooffice; establish a definite system of repre-sentation at conventions so that the GrandOfficers cannot juggle the representationas at present; election of the editor of theJournal instead of appointment ?jy theGrand Chief.

Repeal of the gaglaw section No. 84,page 73 of the statute, which prohibits theissuing of printed matter concerning theorganization by a member; have a freespeech clause inserted in the constitution;elimination of membership obligation to-gether with ritualistic and secret work;have the convention taLe definite steps toamalgamate with the B. of L. E. & F.; havethe new administration stand instructed notto spend another dollar of the duespayers'money for the personal benefit of theGrand Officials and other profit seekerswho sunk their earnings in these misman-aged and fake corporations; also to havea law enacted which will provide that nosalary increases of officers and delegateswill become effective before being ratifiedby a referendum vote of the membership.

The Divisions and memberships in andaround the Twin Cities and Minnesota arealso being circularized with the above pro-gram in order to get some of these neededchanges in the B. of L. E. enacted into lawat the coming B. of L. B. convention.

Illinois Elections IgnoreWorker's Needs

CHICAGO—On Tuesday, April 8, thestate of Illinois held its primary election.A record has been established in a peacefulelection in the city of Chicago, not even asingle killing or kidnaping. How muchstuffing of ballot boxes took place or vot-ing by sovereign citizens "residing" onempty lots or the spacious quarters of astreet vender's push*, cart, one may notknow.

There was no lack of contest, however.During the present economic crisis andgloomy business prospects a political jobmay appear very enticing to any hard pres-sed merchant willing to serve the masters;and hence there were in cases as many astwelve contestants for one office, particu-larly within the. "Grand Old Party". Theoffices to be nominated ran all the way fromU. S. senator) representatives in Congress,the state legislature, county offices, judgesof municipal courts and party committee-men. The Republican Party primary bal-lot was 3 feet long.

A Contest Between GroupsThe hottest contest centered around

the most cherished job—U.S. senator on therepublican ballot, between Charles S. De-neen the present incumbent and Ruth Han-na McCormlck, daughter of the once no-torious politician, Mark Hanna. The lat-ter won in a landslide of over 200,000plurality. She represented the typicalviewpoint of middle western industrialmagnates and made her main issues: nointernational entanglements and againstadherence to the world court. Whateverthat could mean tv workers participating inthe primary jg still a puzzle. Otherwisethe important campaign issues wore "pureRepublicanism" in the one camp and "de-mocracy without entangling alliances" inthe other. Here and there some sympathywas expressed foi the distress of the far-mers, but that cost as lit t le as catering tothe colored vote by McCormick throughher support of De Priest, the colored con-gressman from Chicago. All candidatestried to be in I'avor of the waterway fromthe Great Lakes to the Gul f . Kach accusedhis opponents of shiftiness but only thosecould clinch their point who made bestuse of the accusation "entangling alliancewith the city hall machine'". In the midstof the campaign, the Chicago TrilmiK! camelumbering forward with the "paramount"issue—wet or dry. Of course one may notforget the importance of this issue as con-sidered by the official Communist Party ina platform plank of hybrid opportunismin the last presidential elections.

Labor Fakers Play Usual GameOtherwise these elections and t'ae pre-

ceding campaign produced not one wordin. regard to the immediate issue confront-ing the large population of industrial work-ers in the state—the issue of unemploy-ment. Thus could the capitalist partiesshow their haughty contempt for the po-litical backwardness of the American work-ers. But to those who are »ow beginningto learn, it also becomes a proof that cap-italist parliaments cannot function in theInterest of the workers. So-called laborcandidates and "friends of labor" were notlacking, however, on both capitalist partytickets. The Illinois State Federation ofLabor and the Chicago Federation of Laborran <.he whole gamut of indorsing "friends"and punishing enemies in perfect harmonywith the A. F.of L. policy. The actualworking out of the indorsements and pun-ishments is, of course, becoming an evertougher task. A few reversals had tohe made since It is now so difficult to dis-tinguish the "friends" from the enemies.

Independent Political Action Raisedin Federation

The Chicago Federation of Labor didnot even propose to make any demands orrequests upon its indorsed candidates in re-gard to unemployment relief. That couldpossibly lead beyond the policy of politicalneutrality. Yet one development is note-worthy. At its last meeting, just beforethe primary elections, the Federation dis-cussed the report on the appalling condi-tions in the city public poorhouse institu-tions. There entered into It the dreaded

STALIN SILENTON BLUMKIN;JACQUEMOTTE SPEAKS

In a recent number of -he Eed Flag,organ of the Belgian Communist Party,there appeared an account of a publicmeeting at which Jacquemotte, a Stalinisthenchman, replying to the questions of oneof our Opposition comrades concerning theassassination of Blumkin, made an apologyfor this assassination and declared point-blank that Blumkin was a caunter-revo-lutionist who was struggling for the over-throw of the Soviet regime. If such areply by Jacquemotte did not astound us,we would ask why Stalin does not reply tothe question of the International Oppo-sition.

Jacquemotte, by such filth, hopes per-haps to. recover "his leading role" in theCommunist Party of Belgium. This slan-der concerning Blumkin is accompanied illthe same issue with a flaming headline overan article abput a strike: "Police, Trotsky-ites, reformists against the workers." Nofurther enlightenment concerning Blumkinis produced. It is clear that "objectively"our Belgian comrades are in league withthe police, probably because the leadershipof the movement escapes from those whosepolicies have resulted in the virtual liquid-ation of the Communist Party of Belgium.

*Railroad Workers to Meeton 6-Hour Day

MINNEAPOLIS—The proposed mergersof the Great Northern and Northern Pacificroads has aroused the railroad workers tothe necessity of action, if a great numflerof them are not to be pla.ced permanentlyin the army of the unemployed.

The next meeting of railroad workers iato be a delegate conference to be hold onTuesday, April 22nd, 1930, S P. M. at Wood-ruff Hall, Prior and St. Anthony Aves., St.Paul, Minn. Each local union of railroadworkers is called upon to send three dele-gates to discuss the six hour day anil fiveday week.

The above meeting is being called by aprovisional committee elected for this pur-pose at a meeting on April 3rd, whiY-h wasattended by 125 railroad workers repre-senting various crafts, including Switch-men, Engineers, Trainmen, Stationary Fire-men, Conductors, Electricians, Carmen andLocomotive Firemen. This meeting wasenthusiastic for further meetings and dis-cussion to consider the problems of therailroad worker. Nearly 20 workers tookthe floor to discuss the six hour day andfive day week and kindred subjects.

*—0. COOVERo

PITTSTON, Pa.—2,000 jobless men andwomen applied for 2GO available jobs ascensus enumerators in Luzer^e Co.

subject—partisan politics. There were stillthose among the delegates who thoughtthat «mi.etbing could be accomplishedthrough the oli" policy of rewards and pun-ishments; but they were not listened tovery attentively. The acclaim of the housewas for those who spoke dotinitely for abreak with the parties of the bosses andfor a labor party. To the gullible whothink of the labor party in terms of ,. so-lution even for the immediate needs, wemust of necessity say: Take a good lookat his majesty's Ir.bor party government ofGreat Britain and its relation to the unem-ployed army there. But the labor partyas a step away from the support of the par-ties of the bosses is surely in a. forwarddirection.—A.s;

II" thfi numlw on your wrapper ia

41then your subscription to tho Militant hasexpired. Renew immediately in order toavoid missing any issues.

Published weekly by the Com munist League of America (Opposition) at 25 Third Avenue, New York, N. Y. Sub-THE MILITANT, Vol. Ill, No. 16, April 19, 1930•ription rate: |2.00 per year; foreign $2.50. Five cents per copy. Bundle rates, 3 cents per copy. Editorial Board: Martin Abern, James P. Cannon, Max Sh.iehtman, Mau-Ice Spector, Arne Swabeck. Entered as second class mail matter November 28, 1928, at the Post Office at New York. NT. Y. under the act of Marek 8. 1870. (Total \o. 4n

Saturday, April 19 1930THE MILITANTPa«ef

Five Communists FramedUnite Working Class Forces for May Day Demonstrations

( Continue-1 from page 1)Youth Conference for May Day, called bythe Young Communist League of New Yorkrefused to seat the delegates of the YouthSection of the Communist Lague of Amer-ica (Opposition) on the ground that theywere "renegades".. .The idiocy of the Partyleadership evidently knows no bounds.It leads to further isolation of the Com-munists from the labor movement, andlowers steadily the prestige of the Commun-ists in the eyes of the workers. Amongother things, by rejecting the delegates ofthe Left Opposition from official participa-tion in the May Day demonstrations, theParty objectively plays the game of the bos-ses, who are indeed pleased to see theCommunists forces divided.

It is imperative to unite all possibleforces for May Day. The slogan of theUnited Front remains valid as the meansto rally the workers and their organiza-tions with their various economic and po-litical views for a united and solid demon-stration. The issues around which to unite,the workers are many: 1. The solidarity oflabor against capitalism. 2. A struggle onbehalf of the unemployed, taking the formof demands for: work or compensation,the seven hour day and five day week, so-cial insurance, abolition of the speed-upsystem, the unity of the employed and un-employed workers, the establishment of•wide-scale credits to the Soviet Union bythe U. S. government as a practical meansto aid the unemployed at once, and recog-nition of the Soviet government by theUnited States. 3. A militant campaign forfull civil liberties—unrestricted free speech,free press and assemblage for the workers•—now being ruthlessly taken in various•ways from the Communists and other work-ers' groups by the capitalist class. 4. Abroad campaign to mobilize the workingcla;;s against the repressions of the workersand their organizations by the employingclass and the government. 5. Mobilization

of the progressive and Left wing move-ment for the organization of the unorgan-ized masses into labor unions. 6. Torouse the masses for the Defense of theSoviet Union.

Thee are a few of the immediate issuesaround which to rally the workers on MayDay. A prerequisite is the unity of allCommunist elements to conduct a campaignalong these lines.

* * *The slogan of the official Communist

Parly for a mass political strike on MayDay is without validity under the prevail-ing conditions. As promulgated now by theCommunist Party, its only results will beto mislead the workers, particularly theCommunist workers and sympathizers,about the true situation today. Its inev-itable failure will only bring discredit tothe slogan and to the Party. Phrase-mon-gering is the most dangerous game forrevolutionaries.

# * *In New York, reactionary organiza-

tions of World War Veterans and similargroups have secured Union Square for MayDay and propose, with the full support ofthe Police Department, to prevent the•workers from their accustomed use ofUnion Square for working class demonstra-tions on that day. Here is another directoffensive of the capitalists and the govern-ment to smash and limit the workers' andCommunist movement.

May Day is Workers' Day; UnionSquare on May 1st, by usage and tradition,fought for and gained by years of deter-mined organization and struggle, belongs tothe organizations of the working class.The Communists and the Left wing mustappeal to the masses of the workers againstthe insolent provocation of the reactionaryforces, the militarists, the White Gnardists—against the whole gang of anti-labor ele-ments with the New York City governmentin the forefront. The Party cannot fightthis battle alone. It must appeal to themasses. Upon the volume of support whichthe masses give to this appeal, clearly man-ifested beforehand, depends the Questionwhether the Communists should accept thechallenge to flght for t'je Square on MayDay, or make a temporary retreat Before

stronger forces of the enemy. All effortsin the next days must be concentrated ingoing to the masses with this issue.

The Hoover government and1 the cap-italist class continue to do everything intheir power to hide the facts about massunemployment; to lie about and distortthe situation of prevailing misery; to coverup the failure of capitalism to solve the un-employment crisis as well as other ills ofcapitalism.

Reports are given in other columnsof the Militant of the huge profits duringthe past year made by the numerous cor-porations throughout the country. Ofcourse, the workers got, instead of profits,low wages, long hours, speed-up and then—joblessness. The census reports now be-ing compiled by the United States govern-m|nt itself indicate that in round figuresthere are 7,000,000 unemployed workersin the United States. The panaceas of thebourgeois apologists and agents for un-employment have proved just nothing.Frances Perkins, the State Industrial Com-missioner of New York, now hopes for asolution in the "next quarter century"!Other apologias for capitalism are equallyvalueless for the needs of the workersnow without a job and the means of liveli-hood.

Vaster trade relations with the SovietUnion, extensive ci edits to the Soviet Unionby the U. S. government, should be vig-orously put forward by the workers, by theCommunists, as practical measures to al-leviate the unemployment situation in theUnited States and thereby also to aid thedevelopment of the Fire Year PJan of theSoviet Union. Of course, no measuresunder capitalism can solve the unemploy-ment problem which develops out of thesystem of capitalism. The basis for thecomplete elimination of unemployment canonly be laid under a Workers' Government,a Soviet system. But it must be impressedupon the workers that broad economic re-lations with the Soviet government are oneof the -ways to aid the present situation, andthat demands must be made upon the U. S.government accordingly. It is particularlyunfortunate that the official CommunistParty does not utilize this concrete propo-sal as a major slogan in the unemploymentcampaign.

In New York a small demonstrationagainst the murder of the anti-fascist, CarloMazzola, took place in Union Square onApril 12 under the auspices of the Social-ists, at which anarchist representatives alsospoke. Mazzola was killed by one ofWhalen's policemen at an anti-fascistmeeting in Cooper Union. The Communistswere not permitted to participate officiallyin the memorial services and anti-fascistdemonstration. For this the socialists de-serve the severest condemnation for divid-ing the workers and refusing to unite allworking classes forces against the fascist!anff their murderous acts. A United Frontmovement against Mussolini, against Fas-cism is capable of organization and devel-opment. Those serve Fascism who refuseto permit the unity of workers' forces andorganizations in demonstrations, meetingsand movements against Fascism. That is themanner in which the Socialists acted atthe Union Square meeting. Honest anti-fascist workers who think the SocialistParty Is the enemy of fascism should askthe question why the most militant fightersagainst it were excluded from the demon-stration. —M. A.

BASTON, Pa.—(FP)—HulnievilKs Ho-siery Co. has applied for an injunctionagainst the South Langhorne local of theHosiery Workers Union, to prevent pick-eting of the plant. About 65 workers areon strike, following the lockout of severalworkers.

<I>LYNN, Mas».—(FP)—Unioa carpen-

ters here have adopted the 6-day week, inan attempt to provide work for the unem-ployed. There is no change In the wagesale. The agreement between emplos'era

and ilie union expired March 83,

DISPATCHERS NEED SHORTER HOURSCHICAGO—(FP)—Nystagmus may be

the al! that will help train dispatchersto a shorter workday and workweek. Nys-tagmus is not a welcome assistant but itinsists nevertheless. It is the name for apathological condition of the eye and is be-lieved to afflict dispatchers because of theireyestrain as well as nervous strain of theirexacting duties, made much more onerousby fpeeding up of trains and by substitutionof the telephone for the rail telegraph inmany offices.

Dispatchers belonging to the AmericanTrain Dispatchers Assn. are now beingexamined medically not only regardingtheir eyes but generally as the basis fornew wage and hours presentations to bemade in new negotiations with the railbosses. Men at Tew York, Birmingham,Ala., and Omaha have been examined assample lots and others are in line.

Wage 'boosts of 27 cents a day to$10.0 have been won by union dispatcherson the St. Louis-Southwestern.

4>WASHINGON GOVERNOR PARDONSCROOKS, REFUSES WOBBLIES

SEATTLE—(FP)—While Gov. Hartleydeclares he is not empowered to free theCentralia prisoners, Prosecutor Charles W.Greenough of Spokane charges that thestate parole board acts "under orders ofGov. Hartley."

"Convicts are being paroled faster thanthey can be convicted because members ofthe board act under orders of the gover-nor."

Advocates of the release of the eightCentralia prisoners are glad to see Hart-ley's alibi that the matter is "entirely in thehands of the Parole Board" punctured bysuch a "respectable" witness.

Atlanta Threatens Death to

Communist OrganizersATLANTA. Ga.-—Charges involving ex-

ecution or, "if the jury recommend tomercy", 5 to 20 years imprisonment, undera post-civil war statute regarding "inciting,to insurrection", have been returned by theAtlanta grand jury against M.H. Powers,and Joe Carr, Communist organizers. Theywill be held without bail. At present theyare out on $1,500 bail on charges of "unlaw-ful assembly" and distribution of( insur-rectionary literature", which involves a pen-alty from 5 to 20 years.

Their "offense" was holding Communistmeetings of white workers and Negroes to-gether, advising them to join forces in thestruggle against boss oppression, and to de-fend themselves against lawless attacks bypolice and lynching by private citizen*.

<J>$50,000 MINIMUM BUDGET FOR TOUN«

N. T. BANKERNEW YORK—(FP)—You can't save O»

$50,000 a year. That's the experience of ayoung New York banker, under 35, writingin Fortune. Ths Park Ave. apartmentalone costs $7,000 a year, he writes, andhouse expenses are $650 a month. Thenurse gets $120 a month, the cook $90*the maid $80. Theatres and night clubs.take at least $1,400 a year, the doctor grab*$2,250" the wife 'mist have $5,000 for clothes.The summer house expenses run to $5,185for three months.

Other little expenses, including charity,run the total up to $48,475, the Irreducibleminumum. The young banker hopes, whenhis income runs to $75,000, to be able to savesome money.

great writer lias here set forth his fantastic life in suck

a way as to make me wonaer why people still read novels, or

even write them. The l>oo\ lil^e Hamsun^ AHA closet

likjf a third act, "... Entil

Mv

Life

I

eon

N exile on au obscure Turkish island Trotsky writesthe story of his fantastic life — his country boyhood,

his revolutionary passion, his friendship and work with Lenin, hisseething participation in the brooding plots that transformed Czar-ist into Communist Russia, his leadership of the Soviet Army, hisopposition to Stalin, and his banishment.

Trotsky avoids theoretical discussion. He describes the eventswhich and characterizes the men who brewed a mighty drama ofWorld history in our own times — the transformation of somnolentHoly Russia into a country of experimentation, ethical and economic.Trotsky has a flair for narrative, a power in description, shrewdhumor, even when the joke is on him.

Born in a remote village in Little Russia, he was arrested at nine-teen as a revolutionary and spent two years in unspeakable Czaristprisons. Ha was exiled to Siberia, escaped, wandered through Swit-zerland into Paris and London, and then returned to Russia for theunsuccessful revolution of 1905. Prison again, exile again, an in-credible escape by reindeer. The war came, Paris, expulsion to Spain,and forced deportation to New York, and then — the revolution!Power, tremendous power,, as the directing head of an army. Intrigue,dissension, Lenin's death, and a conspiracy, and Trotsky began histhird exile. At fifty, as he writes his autobiography, he is maroonedon an island, on " a planet without a visa."

a I I bookstores

Gnarles Scribner's Sons, New York City

Page 4 T H E M I L I T A N T Saturday, April 19, 1930

The Ultra-Left Policy on Right DregsThe following article represents chapter

•even from the larger work of L. D. Trotsky•ntitled«BeTOlntIonaiy Strategy and Tac-tics* in the Imperialist Epoch", which, inturn, makes up the third section (yet tofee printed in full in English) of the docu-ment "The Criticism of tlie Draft Programof the Comintern" presented to the VlthCongress by the Bolshevik-Leninist Opposi-tion led by Trotsky. The document wasSuppressed by the Stalin-Eukharin regime.The first two sections were published inferouchure form by the Militant and copiesmay be obtained through the Militant Chap-ter eight of the section "RevolutionaryStrategy In the Imperialist Epoch" waspublished in the April 5th, 1930 issue ofthe Militant under the title, "The Period«f Bight Centrist-Down-Sliding in the C.I.")

* * *After the period of the storm tide ot

1923 began the period of a long-lasting ebb.In the language of strategy this means an«rdered retreat, rearguard battles, strength-ening of the position within the mass or-ganizations, re-examination of one's ownranks and cleansing and, sharpening ofthe theoretical and political weapons. Butadoption of this attitude was characterizedas Hquidatory. As in general with this,as well as with the other ideas of the, Bol-shevist lexicon in late years, the verygreatest abuse was practiced. No longerdid they teach and train, but only so we dis-sension and confusion. Liquidatlonism signi-fies a renunciation of the revolution andendeavors to substitute the roads and me-inods of reformism for the road and methodsof revolution. The policy of Lenin hadnothing in common with liquic!ationism.Yet Just as little did it have anything todo with an ignoring of the changes in theobjective situation, or with the mainten-ance of the course of armed uprising withmere words, at a time when the revolutionhad already turned its back upon us, anda Jnng-lastijig road full of stubborn, sys-tematic laborious work among the massesfar the preparation of the Party for a new•evolution lay before us.

The German Defeat of 1923

When a man ascends a stairs he needsone kind of motion, but when he descendsii—another. Most dangerous is such a sit-uation in which a man puts out the light,raises his foot to ascend when there aretiiree downward steps before him. A crash,injuries and dislocations are unavoidablethereby. The leadership of the Cominternin 1924 did everything to extinguish a crit-icism of the experiences of the German Oc-tober, like all criticisms In general. It re-peated stubbornly: The workers are im-mediately approaching the revolution—thestairs lead upwards. Is it then astonishingthat the directives of the Fifth Congressapplied in the revolutionary ebb had tolead to heavy political crashes and dis-locations?

In No, 5-6 of the Information Bulletinof the German Opposition, March 1, 1927, itsays:

"The greatest mistake of the Lefts attte Frankfurt Congress in the Spring of1924, when they took over the leader-ship, consisted in not speaking relent-lessly enough to the Party of the hea-viness of the defeat of 1923; in notdrawing the necessary deductions, innot showing the Party, soberly and un-embellished, the tendencies of the rela-tive stabilization of capitalism and in-dicating a corresponding program forthe impending period with its strugglesand > slogans. This would surely havebeen possible, Just as well as a correctand absolutely necessary sharp under-scoVing of the individual programdemands."These lines showed us already at that

time that a part of the German Left, whoparticipated during the Fifth Congress inthe struggle against our fictitious "liquid-atlonism", seriously understood the les-sons of 1924-25. That mad<* possible afurt'ler approach on the foundation ofprinciple.

The Bulgarian and Esthonian

Adventures

The main year of the turn was theyear 1924. Nevertheless the . recbgnitionof this ensuing brusque turn ("stabiliza-tion") followed only a year and a half

By L. D. T R O T S K Ylater. What is astonishing here, sincethe years 1924-25 were filled withLeft adventures and putschist experiments?The Bulgarian terrrorist adventure, likethe tragic history of the Esthonian armeduprising, form an outbreak of despairevoked by the false orientation. Thefact that these attempts to force the his-torical process by means of a putsch re-mained without critical investigation, ledto a relapse in Canton towardt, the endof 1927. In politics not even the smallestmistakes are made unpunished, much lessthe big ones. And the greatest mistakeof them all is when the mistake is veiled,when it is sought to suppress a criticismand a correct Marxist estimate of the mis-take in mechanical ways.

We write no history of the Cominternfor the last five years. We bring hereonly a factual illumination of two stra-tegical lines in the fundamental stagesof this period and at the same time—anillumination of the seclusion from theworld of the draft program, for whichall these questions do not exist at all.We cannot therefore, give here a descrip-tion, however general, of the inextricablesituation into which the Parties of theComintern, placed between the directivesof the Fifth Congress on the one hand andpolitical reality on the other, had to laudconstantly. Of course, not everywherewere the contradictions solved throughsuch deadly convulsions as was the casein Bulgaria and Esthouia in 1924.

Falsification and Fiction Replaec

Facts and Truth

Yet always and everywhere the Par-ties felt themselves bound, gave no echoto the demands of the masses, went aboutwith eye-flaps and stumbled. In the purelyParty propaganda and agitation, in thework in the trade unions, on the parlia-mentary tribune—everywhere the Com-munists had to drag the decisions of theFifth Congress behind them like a chain.Every single Party, one more, the otherless, became a victim of the false positionsof departure. They chased after phan-toms, ignored completely the real process,transformed revolutionary slogans intohowling phrases, compromised themselvesin the eyes of the masses and lost all theground under their feet. To crown allthis, the press of the Comintern was robbedof every possibility, then as well as now,to gather, to arrange and to publish thefacts and figures on the work of the Com-munist Parties jn the recent years. Theleadership of the epigones, after the de-.feats, mistakes and lack of success, pre-ferred to accomplish the retreat and theaccounting with extinguished lights.

Finding itself in a great and growingcontradiction with the real factors, theleadership had to cling ever more to fic-titious factors. The Executive Committeeof the Communist International lost theground under its feet and strove constant-ly to disclose revolutionary forces andsigns where there weren't any. In orderto balance itself, it had to cling to rottenropes.

The Illusions About the Peasantry

In the same measure that an obvious,growing swing to the Right was going onin the proletariat, there began in the Com-intern the line of idealizing the peasantry,a wholly uncritical exaggeration of everysymptom of its "break" with bourgeoissociety, an embellishment of every pos-Rlble peasant pseudo-organization and adirect hochpappelnng of "peasant" dema-gogues.

The task of a long and stubborn strug-gle of the proletarian vanguard against thebourgeois and peasant demagogy for in-fluence upon the village elements mostdeprived of rights, was always more andmore replaced by the hope for a directand independent revolutionary role of thepeasantry on a national as well as on aninternational scale.

In the coursa o? the whole year of1924, that is, tlia main year of the "sta-bili^ti-i"". t' o Crmnumlst press was con-st'i! "" • • • ' ! ! f l -mo 'e te ly fantastic r e -

ports on the strength of the lately foundedPeasants International. Dombal, the rep-resentative of th"e latter, declared that thePeasants International, six months afterits formation, already unites within itselfa few million readers.

Zinovieff on Raditch

There was enacted the scandalous in-cident of the leader of the Croatian "Pea-sants" Party, Raditch, who considered itadvisable to show himself in Red Moscowin order thereby to strengthen his minis-terial chancas in White Belgrade. OnJuly 9, 1924, Zinoviev, in his report beforethe Leningrad Party workers on the re-sults of the Fifth Congress, told of»a new"victory":

"At this moment an important turn

is taking place within the peasantry.You have all surely heard already jofthe Croatian Peasants Party of Ra-ditch. Raditch is now in Moscow.There—is a real people's leader...Be-hind Raditch stands united the entirepoor and middle peasantry of Croatia.. .Raditch has now decided in the i.ameof his Party to Join the Peasants In-ternational. We consider this eventvery important.. .The building of thePeasants International is an extraor-dinarily great event. * Some comradesdid not believe that a big organizationwould grow out of this...Now we aregetting a great auxiliary machine—thepeasantry..." ( Prarda, July 28, 1924.)And so forth and more of the same.

The LaFollette Manuever

The leader LaFollette corresponded onthe other side of the ocean to the "genuinepeople's leader", Raditch. The represent-ative of the Comintern, Pepper, in order toset "the auxiliary machine"—the Americanfarmers—into motion at an acceleratedtempo, drew the young and weak AmericanCommunist Party into the senseless andshameless adventure of creating a "Farmer-Labor Party" around LaFollette so thatAmerican capitalism might be overthrownin the quickest way.

The glad tidings of the closeness ofthe revolution in the United States on thefoundation of the farmers filled the speech-es and articles of the official leaders of theExecutive Committee of the Communist In-ternational at that time. In the sessionsof the Fifth Congress, Kolarov reported:

"In the United States the_ smallfarmers have created a Farme'r-LaborParty, which becomes ever more radical-ized, comes closer to the Communists,and is being permeated by the idea c"the creation of a workers' and peasants'government in the United States." (Prav-da, July 6, 1924.)

So; neither more nor less.

From Nebraska came Green—one of theleaders of the LaFollette organizations—tothe peasants' congress in Moscow. Forsome reason or other he "Joined1 'in order,as is customary, to help along later on ata conference in St. Paul to strangle theCommunist Party when it made the weakattempt to go over to the realization of thegreat plans of Pepper. The same Pepperwho was councilor to Count Karolyi andwho i'ut on an extremely Left air at theThird Congress as a reformer of Marxism.The same Pepper who was one of thosewho butchered the revolution in Hungary.

Prarda of August 29, 1924 complainedas follows:

"The American proletariat as awhole has not even risen to the con-sciousness of the necessity even of sosonciliatory a Party as the English La-bor Party is."And about a month and.a half before

that, Zinoviev reported to the LeningradParty workers:

"A few million farmers are being vol-untarily or involuntary pushed by the ag-rarian crisis all at once (!) to the work-ing class." (Pravda, July 22, 1924.)Ana Kolarov immediately added: "to a

workers' and peasants' government."

The Farmer-Labor Party audthe Class

The press spoke continuously about theimpending building of a Farmer-Labor Par-ty in the United States for the overthrow ofcapital, "on a not purely proletarian, but aclass" foundation. What the "not proletar-ian, but class" character was supposed tomean, no sage either on this or the otherside of the ocean could point out. In thelong run it was only a Pepperized editionof the idea of a "joint workers' and pea-sants' Party" on which we will yet haveoccasion to speak in greater detail in con-nection with the lessons of the Chineserevplution. Here it is enough to establishthat this reactionary idea of non-proletar-ian but class Parties arose entirely fromthe pseudo-Left policy of 1924, which, whenit lost the ground from under its feet,clung to Raditch, LaFollette and the in-flated figures of the Peasants International.

"We are at present witnesses,"—soproclaimed the academician of common-places, Miliutin—"of an extraordinarilyimportant and significant example of thesplitting away of the peasant massesfrom the bourgeoisie, the coming forthof the peasantry against capitalism andan ever stronger consolidation of theunited front of the peasantry and theworking class in the capitalist countriesin struggle against the capitalist sys-tem." (Pravda, July 27, 1924).

In the course of the whole year of1924, the press of the Comintern did nottire of telling about the general "Left-ward trend of the peasant masses", asthough something independent couU beexcepted from 'this, in most cases only ap-par>nt, Leftward trend of the peasants ina period of the open Rightward trend ofthe workers, the strengthening of th. so-cial democracy and the consolidation ofthe bourgeoisie.

We meet the same mistake in politicalvision towards the end of 1927 and the be-ginning of 1928 with regard to China.After every great and deep crisis, in whichthe proletariat suffers a decisive defeatfor a long time, the stirring still contin-ues for a long time among the semi-pro-letarian masses in city and country, likethe circles in the water when a stone hasfallen in. So that when the leadershipascribes an independent significance tothese circles and contrary tb the processwithin the working class, points to themas a symptom of an approaching revolu-tion, we know that this is an infalliblesign that the leadership is once more go-ing towards adventures, as with the Es-thonian or Bulgarian in 1924 or the Can-tonese in 1927.

The Course Toward the Kuomintang

During the same period of ultra-Left-ism, the Chinese Communist Party is dri-ven for several years into the Kuo MinTang, which is characterized by the FifthCongress as a "friendly Party" (Pravda,July 25, 1924), without undertaking a ser-ious attempt to investigate the class char-acter of the latter. Tha idealizing of the"national revolutionary bourgeoisie" de-velops the greater. That is how thefalse Left course, with its eyes shut andburning with impatience, laid the founda-tion for the subsequent opportunism withregard to the East also. To give form toopportunism, Martinov was called upon,who was all the more a loyal councillorof the Chinese proletariat, having himselflimped behind the petty bourgeoisie dur-ing the three Russian revolutions.

In the hunt after an artificial acceler-ation of lt.e i e r ! e» U't .-illy Raduch, l.n-Follette, the mythical peasant millions ofDombal and even Pepper were clung to; abasically false perspective was also builtup for England. The • weakensses of theEnglish Communist Party gave birth atthat time to the necessity of replacing itas quickly as possible by a moreimposing factor. At that time arosethe false estimate of the tendency of Eng-lish trade unionism. Zinoviev gave us tounderstand that he counted upon the rev-olution finding an entrance, not throughthe narrow gateway of the British Com-munist Party, but through the broad gate-way of the trade unions. The struggle ofthe Communist Party for the masses or-

(Continued on Page 8 )

Saturday, April 19, 1930THEMILITANTPage 5

Throughout the World of Labor

In the Soviet UnionFirst Fluttering* of aNew Course

The recent address of the Central Com-mittee of the Communist Party of tile So-viet Union has two principal objects. Itfurnishes the directives in the collectivi-zation campaign and for the atheiststruggle. It will smash the mounting op-timism of the official press which, eachday, carried figures and percentages of theprogress of the collectives. The lettersfrom the Union of Socialist 'Soviet Re-publics, printed in the Militant, have al-ready established the nature of the reen-trance of the Kulaks into the collectives byexamples of the slaughter of live-stock andthe statements of the Kulaks to the effectthat the collectives are a refuge. But thiscriticism, which takes into consideration therealities of the class struggle, is not at allthe act of bureaucrats, hungry for crush-ing figures.

A Rebirth for the Kulaks!The address of the Central Committee

comes out against the methods of violenceemployed against the peasant class, which,under the cover of increasing numbers,artificially accumulated' class antagonisms.Does this address mark a. change in theface of difficulties of which they cannot beIgnorant? Does it mark an apparatus .zig-zag from "Fac« to the Country", to "Liquid-ation of the Nep"? In any case, what canone expect from contradictory orders is-sued without an effective analysis andwithout a concrete study of the class phe-nomena which impose their inflexible laws?The close of the address shows, a desirefor conciliation with the better-off sectionsof he peasantry: the rule regarding non-admission of the Kulaks into the collectivesshould no longer be strictly applied. Hence-forth members of families in which thereare red partisans or soldiers in the RedArmy can be admitted, provided that theyvouch for the members of their families.The door opens wide. Taking into consid-eration the study of L.D. Trotsky, whoshowed that because of their inadequatetechnical base the collectives could becomea secret point of the renaissance of theKulaks, it can be asked whether this "turn"in the bureaucratic strategy does not makea step towards a Bucharinist course undera cover of the liquidation of the Nep. Inaddition the address forbids the closingdown of markets and authorizes the mem-bers of the collectives to sell their productson the market.

The Changed Course Toward the ChurchBesides this, the address forbids the

closing down of churches except in cases•wherein an overwhelming majority of thepeasants actually desire it. If this wereconcerned only with a letting up in the me-chanical struggle against religion this par-agraph—however mild—could be sanction-ed. It has as its purpose to put an endto the bureaucratic excesses which canalign the backward elements of the pea-santry against the regime. But publishedat the time of the infuriated offensive ofthe clergy of all religions against theUnion of Socialist Soviet Republics andagainst the Dictatorship of the Proletariat,it appears like an effect of the pressure ofreactionaries on the revolutionary state ofthe workers and peasants. It is, besides,normal that the Centrist apparatus, which,through its mechanization, is deprived ofthe influx -of revolutionaries from themasses, should be exposed to the influenceof external public opinion whose tunes areplayed by the world bourgeoisie,

O

The Elections to the-Factory Councils in Germany

Berlin March, 1930The elections to the factory councils

have begun. The results already knownfully confirm our previous prognostications.In many shops where the Party put for-ward red lists for the first time, it metwith appreciable success. But where itrecorded dazzling victories last year, and

it should at. present.

realize the expectations and hopes of theworkers, there does it suffer defeats whichare sometimes disastrous. Let us take, forexample, the case of the Berlin Trans-port Organizations where on the 15th ofMarch the elections to the factory councilsfor 1930 took place. They were a heavydefeat for the Party. Against 10,797 votesin 1929 it obtained but 6,317, whereas thetrade unions leaped from 5,934 (1929), to10,146 votes.

The results of the elections to the fac-tory councils in the red factory of Lenma,which has, wiih good reason, until now,passed for a stronghold of communism, arealmost as catastrophic. Here the partydropped from 9,256 in 1929 to 4,763 votes,whereas the trade union list which had re-ceived 5,914 in 1929 attained 5,093, thusrecording but a slight loss; the decrease inthe number of workers evidenced Itselfalmost exclusively by the decrease of Com-munist votes; whereas the fascist listsgained 500 votes.

These results are all the more alarm-ing in that they refute in a very definitemanner the theory of "unceasing revolu-tionary advances". But this is not all.The figuies in these elections should notbe considered alone; in relation to the fi-gures of the syndicalist movement theycharacterize the fundamental processeswhich are taking place among the masses.

The Party Fails to LeadDespite the rapidly increasing unem-

ployment comprising more than threemillion workers, the number of trade-unionadherents is constantly growing....

This turn does not at all signify thatthe evolution of the masses toward theLeft (which we have already noted on se-veral occasions) is now moving backwards.On the contrary, this turn proves onceagain, still more conclusively, that the de-gree of maturity of the leftward evolutionis quite different from the appreciation ofthe role of the Party. The gathering ofhundreds of thousands of workers aroundthe trade unions characterizes the initialstage in the Leftward development, thevery first form of class-consciousness—theconsciousness of the necessity for class or-ganization.

If, during the past two years, whenthese processes become more and more dis-tinct, the Party leadership had known howto follow a Bolshevist course, we wouldhave today a mass Party, measured not byelection figures but by its capacity for ac-tion. Instead of forming a strong Left wing:in the trade unions, and gathering—with-out regard to the question of parties—theconscious elements into an organized min-ority on the basis of the class struggle,the leadership, by its lamentable oscilla-tions, has led the Party into a state ofextreme confusion.

Under these conditions the Leftwardpush, expressing itself through the influxinto the trade unions, has resulted at thesame time in a weakening of the Party andits capacity for action. Moreover, it isbecoming more evident from day to daythat the masses no .longer have any con-fidence in the program of the socialistparty. Dozens of Communist function-aries, determined opponents of social-de-mocracy, have been expelled from theParty, but have refused to let themselvesbe pushed out of the trade unions, byobeying the Party which gave them child-ish and stupid orders.

The Left Is Assembling Its ForcesUp to the present, the Right wing only

has benefitted from the growing dissatis-faction in the Party, but during the im-mediate past, significant symptoms haveappeared: new oppositions are forming•within the Party (especially in reaction toits trade union policies), which absolutelyrefuse to unite with the Right wing.

The first attempts of the real Leftwing in the Party to reassemble once more,to free themselves from the traditions ofthe past and to adopt a new orientation onthe trade union question, provoked com-motions in the Right wing. In their dailyDie Arbeiterpolitlk of March 13th, theymake a strong bid for a rapproachmentwith the supporters of the InternationalLeft Opposition who are still in the Party—the Wedding and the Palatinate Oppositions.They give themselves tip to the vain hopethat some dav there will b« a common

struggle of the Right and Left against theCenter.

The final developments will be a bitterpill for them. The Left which is regroup-ing itself once again, will in the future fightthe Right as bitterly as it has in thepast. —K.L.

<!>Strikes and PeasantUprisings In Greece

Athens, March 12The last two strikes of the gas and

transport workers were caused by what wecall the 'third order" (end of year bonus)granted thus far-at the beginning of eachyear and which certain enterprises wishedto do away with, at one blow, although theyrepresented an acquired right of the work-ers. The Venezilos government naturallytook tie part of the companies and placedat their disposal its police who were par-ticularly brutal toward the strikers. Butit was under this very same Venitelos gov-ernment that this custom, now defended bythe workers, was established a few yearsago.

These strikes, which were not move-ments of a day, but lasted for a long time,were finally put down by the governmentand the companies, who subjected theworkers to a regime of implacable terror.A large number of workers were impri-soned and deported and all the "leaders"were discharged.

The chief functionaries, sailors, offi-cers in the navy and students in the upperclasses of the polytechnic school took partin the repression. The students did nothowever take part of their own accord:they participated only under the threats ofthe school directors. This corps of strike-breakers soon found itself reinforced by agroup of adherents to the yellow tradeunions confederation who from the outsetdivested themselves of all tigns of sym-pathy for the strikers.

The attitude of the government is. nei-ther new nor surprising to us. We hadlearned from its actions in a number offormer strikes (the metal workers of Laur-ium, the workers of Elefsis, the transportworkers of Piree). Thus, its reactionaryrole was exposed and its liberal mask tornaway when it betrayed the workers at theAugust 1927 elections; where it clearlyshowed itself to be a capitalist governmentwhose purpose was to stabilize the forcesof production on the backs of the Greekproletariat.

Rationalization and SuppressionThe carrying through of the projected

plans in this field under the former min-istry of Kafadaris (a bloc of all the bour-geois and democratic parties) could not beaccomplished except through the most in-tensive exploitation of the workers. Theheavy taxes bearing directly on the people,the successive measures directed againstthe workers (increase in productivity, main-tenance of the twelve and fourteen hourday, frightful exploitation of women andchildren, reduction of wages, etc.), this wasthe course of capitalist stabilization.

Peasant uprisings broke out simultan-eously in all parts of the country; theywere extinguished by the same methods em-ploy 3d in the strikes (Aeropolis of Messina,Messaria of Crete, Langada in Macedonia,etc.).

In proportion as the stabilization wi-dened, those enterprizes which did not havea solid foundation, which were basing them-selves on inflation, on hazardous specula-tions, or on fluctuations in the stockmarket, began to falter. It was in thismanner that a certain number of impor-tant bankruptcies came about: banks (Bankof Thessaly, Anglo-American Express Com-pany, etc.,) corporations (Kyrkinis Wool,Alexopolus Soap and Oil,), certain commer-cial enterprises such as the Palios Mari-time Society.

Mass Unemployment DevelopsIn order to put an end to these bank-

ruptcies which disturbed the economic sit-uation in the country, the governmentadopted certain measures which increasedstill further the pressure on the workingmanses; it expunged from the order of theday in the Chamber the debate concerningthe nlan for social insurance, at the same

time that it reduced the taxes on the cor-porations.

Paralleling the rationalization of in-dustry by the union of a number of enter-prises in single branches of productionthere was created mass unemployment, andto this permanent industrial unemploymentthere was added that resulting from thestopping of work in the tobacco manu-facturing of Maceonia and the raisin pro-duction of Peloponesia.

Thus the number of discontentedworkers and peasants increase without lim-it; the illusions which arose as a result ofthe access of the "liberal" governmentare vanishing; everyone seeks means fordefending himself against the worseningexploitation.

The necessity for a strong Party whichshould have for its task the complete de-masking of the government and the gather-ing of the workers and of crystallizingtheir discontent into a struggle having con-crete objectives is today clearer than everbefore.

The Adventurist Party CourseSuch a Party cannot be other than the

Communist Party of Greece. Unfortunately,there is actually in Greece no CommunistParty capable of carrying through a Com-munist course. The small group whichleads and still exists as the Party, is com-posed of loud-mouthed sectarian and petty-bouregoise lements who osscilate unceasing-ly between opportunism and ultra-Leftismbut are always incapable of laying downa Communist course. Deluded by the visionof a "third period" of capitalism they callupon the workers, almost every day,through the central organ of the Party, totake part in demonstrations which collaps*in ridicule and compromise the communistmovement. They have provoked the tradeunion split and thereby have separated fromthemselves a considerable number of work-ers who today furnish the cohorts for themonarchist or democratic leaders. Theenormous majority of Greek workers is ac-tually outside the trade unions and forms a,"human material" which the bourgeoisieknow well how to utilize.

Our Opposition group has struggledagainst the trade union split; it is now stri-ving for a unification of the trade unionsan for the organization of the unorganized.

— A GROUP OP MILITANTGREEK OPPOSITIONISTS

d>Spanish Opposition EndorseInternational Conference

We have been informed by the Com-munist Opposition of Spain on the projectof an International Conference. Our Span-ish comrades write:

"Already on several occasions we haveclearly stated our position with referenceto the necessity of a conference of the In-ternational Left Opposition. The immedi-ate preparation of this conference is abso-lutely necessary. It must clearly fix ourposition, especially as the opposite of thesplitting attitude of the Comintern, that is,it must cleary state our desire to establishunity and to revive Communist democracywithin our organizations.

"The International Communist Opposi-tion must work out its international plat-form immediately. The critical examina-tion made by Trotsky of the Program ofthe Communist International should serveas a basis for our international platform.This platform should be the central pointof the conference. We must clearly fix ourestimation of the international political sit-uation, of the trade union problems, of ourposition toward the Union of Socialist So-viet Republics and of socialism in onecountry, etc... We must not forget alsoto state our position toward the o?po tun-ists of the type of Paz and Urbahns. TheSpanish Oppositionists, among whom thereare no differences, believe it necessary tobreak immediately with all types of op-portunists."

<J>LETHBRIDGE, Alta.-(FP)—Militarist

propaganda is responsible for the restora-tion in the high schools of cadet trainingagainst the Opposition of Lethbridge or-ganized labor .The majority was 123 in ac-itv referendum.

Face < T H E M I L I T A N T Saturday, April 19, 193*

THE LESSONS OF CAPITULATIONS - - h^n regard to the capitulation of Bu-

charin, Rykov, Tomsky there were manyconjectures. Is*it a shrewd raaneuvre onthe part of the Rights, or else, is it a re-newal of the Right-Centre bloc? Theseguesses in themselve are without muchcontent. Maybe the Right Trinity dreamson the quiet about the approach of favor-able conditions when it will once moreraise its head; maybe, in view of the al-arming economic symptoms, it is sorryfor having been too hasty in repenting.It is quite possible, on the other hand,that the Stalinites consider it useful toretain the Rights near power, in case of anew turn. But not these considerationsare of significance. It is politically im-portant, that, in the very heat of the ultra-"Left" course, the bloc between the Cen-trists and the Rights was renewed, at thetime that the repressions against the Leftswere not weakened but strengthened.Rykov, regardless of everything — is thechairman of.the council of commissars, butRakovsky cures his diseased heart at Bar-naul with frosts of 40 degrees. Tomskyand Rykov—are on the Polburo, Bu-charin on the Central Committee, but So-novsky, B. Mdivani, Kavtaradze — are inJail, Uglanov—is the Labor Commissar, butBlumkin is shot (yes, Elumkin is shot!).These facts are politically decisive—ap-praising the Left course as a whole.

However, the capitulation of all theRight leaders after the capitulation of someof the Left is a fact of no little importancein itself. The significance of these ritual-ist capitulations for the fata of the Partywill become clear, if we look at them notfrom the angle of subjective intrigues, butobjective symptoms. One lesson, one con-clusion flows before any other from thetwists and turns of the last six years: thestubborn, systematic, tireless, suffocation ofthe ;Party.

The "Leaden" Denounce ThemselvesThe Party is the selection of ideas. It

remains a Party only so long as the volun-tary tie of ideas lies at Its basis. But whatmeaning; can ideas and principles retain, ifthe leaders of the Party alternately re-nounce themselves, and the impersonalidea-less apparatus not only asserts Its in-fallibility, once and for all, but even de-clares openly to the Party: "Us you canremove only through civil war"! (Stalin in1927.)

We remind once more: Zinoviev—theformal "leader" of the Communist Party ofthe Soviet Union and the Comintern (1923-25). Zinoviev—in the Opposition repentshis false struggle against Trotskyism(1926-27). Zinoviev renounces the Oppo-sition and once more declares war against"counter-revolutionary" Trotskyism (1928-29). Ewcharin in 1922—a "Trotakyist"; in1923-26—hand in hand with Zinoviev; in1926-28—the theoretical leader of the Com-munist Party of the Soviet Union and theComintern, the inspirer of the Right-Centercourse. In 1928-29—the theoretician ofthe Right Opposition. In 1928 Bucharinrepents his errors and renounces the veryviews that inspired him during the wholeperiod of struggle with "Trotskyism".

If we take Stalin from tln» point ofview of his ideas, we find that in differentperiods he covered himself with the ideasof Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bucharin, atpresent he covers himself with fragmentsof the Opposition ideas, not having any ofhis own. But just as "truth is the resultof a court verdict" (Schedrln), a reputa-tion is the result oi the appparatiw manipu-lations., .only for a certain time.

The automatization of the Party lifehas reached Its fc ghest limits. Tro appar-atus does not demand the recognition ofany kind of principles—it demands the re-cognition of its infallibility. The., extor-tion of repenting documents does not haveas its task the affirmation of a given sumof ideas. The purpose of the extortion isto instill in the Parties that any kind ofcounteraction or resistance, any kind ofcomplaint, even a whisper against the ap-paratus, even a note in the diary, (Kam-enev!) bring about only repressions or hu-miliation of one's ideas. "Self-criticism"serves the same purpose from another side,for It means that the Party members areobliged to criticize the same things thatthe apparatus "criticizes".

The Capitulations by the BightThe Party is the selection of ideas.

The Party Is the revolutionary temperingof characters. The Party is the shield ofthe class, for it is made up ot the most con-

Necrological Reflectionsvinced, the strongest and the most stead-fast. The unification of these elements oc-curs gradually, under the constant check-ing up on events. The live texture of theParty is therefore a very complicated andsensetive texture. The Party must not bekept under a vise, just as you cannot keepa human hand under a vise: the bloodcirculation is interfered with, and the tex-ture dies away.

The process of the dying away of theParty texture occurs before our eyes withthe growing mr.terial pressure of the Partybureaucracy. The alternating capitulationsof all the "leaders" of the Party, in groupsand singly, before the absolutely idea-lessapparatus, shows an unheard-of power ofpressure, that stage of it when the blood-circulation of ideas in the Party ceases al-most completely.

The circumstances of the repentance ofthe Rights are particularly striking—withthe transparence of the apparatus cyni-cism.

Unexpectedly and without preparationhumanity finds out that three of the mosteminent leaders of the Party and SovietRepublic—the -leader of the Comintern, thehead of the government and the leader ofthe trade unions—have been in sharp op-position to the central committee for near-ly two years, and that they consider theofficial policy as detrimental. How is Itthat this did not come to the surface? Thefate of the revolution was concerned!Where were the disputed questions consid-ered and decided? The minutes of theCentral Committee are printed for the know-ledge of the Party. But it so happens thatthe apparatus leads a double life. Thequestions are decided behind the scenes,and on the official scene pretended argu-ment and voting are enacted according topreviously prepared procedure. With thisthe Party is fed. And what is more, duringthe sharp opposition of the three membersof the Polbureau, It was officially declared,and primarily by the general secretary,Stalin, that the rumors and talk about dis-agreements in the Central- Committee andabout a Right deviation in the Polbureau,are but revolting calumnies of the "Trot-skyists". Afterward, and in a belated fa-shion, it Is ascertained that under "cal-umny" one must understand that correctand exceptionally important facts werehidden from the Party.

How the Capitulations are ObtainedThe open agitation against Bucharin

started about a month or two before hiscapitulation. But the name of Rykov, asone of the leaders of the Right deviation,was mentioned Aloud only on the eve of theNovember plenum of the Central Com-mittee. With particular mercilessness,howevei, Pravda started to drag aboutthe name of Rykov only after his capitula-tion, expressing the suspicion that the re-pentance of the Right leaders is "insin-cere". In other words, the central organ ofthe Party considers quite possible, that aperson placed by the Party in the most re-sponsible position jn the government, is ca-pable of deceiving the Party and the massesin questions Involving the fate of the Par-ty and country. The suspicion Is hurled Insuch a tone as if it was a quite simple andordinary occurrence. Nevertheless, it Isa question of political deceit, cynical un-prlnclpledness and betrayal of ideas on thepart of central committee members, whoeven today, when these lines arewritten, stand at the head of the Sovietgovernment, or ore on the staff of its mostimportant organs.

in passing, and already at the conclu-sion, the Party learns thai for n year anda half the head of the government and thehead of the trade unions "hare been play-Ing with the fate of the Party and revolu-tion" (literally)—"speculated on a catastro-phe" (literally!)—all this somewhere in thebureaucratic underground. The help of theParty, It appears, was not at all required torepulse their criminal "game"...How elsecould the press keep quiet? Neverthelessthe press did keep quiet. The Party waslulled and deceived. The Right deviationappeared to be personified in the figure of...Frumkin. Publicly Rykov and Stalinfought equally against Frumkin and Sha-tunski, and this hypocrisy was called thestruggle against the Right deviation.Whether Frumkin fought against himself—-

we do not know. At one time we eventhought that, according to a decision of theCentral Control Commission, Frumkin wassentenced beyond redemption, so that therecould always be on hand a ready object forthe needs of a struggle against the Rightdeviation. But these hypotheses were notverified.

Only after Rykov had capitulated—which would make it appear that any fur-ther struggle is rendered unnecessary—only from that moment Rykov and withhim the whole trinity, were subjected toparticularly unrestrained public abuse, be-fore the Party, the population of thecountry and the whole of humanity in gen-eral. The Party was not at all needed forthe struggle against the "conspiracy" ofRykov, Bucharin and Tomski. The Partywas assured that there is no struggle atall. But after the Rights were defeatedbehind the scenes, the Party was shownthree political skeletons: see, this is howthe general secretariat deals with and willdeal with all those who get in its way.

And Badek Yelps, «Me, Too."The method of dealing with the Right

leaders is -a new stage in the process of theBonapartist transformation of the Party re-gime: on the stage they occupy themselveswith fighting exercises against Frumkin,and afterwards, unexpectedly, the skeletonof Rykov Is shown. The automatism of thestruggle and the contempt for the Partyare here given expression hithertounknown.

The picture of the Party regime be-comes clearer in view of the circumstancesthat Rykov, Tomski and Bucharin capitu-lated a day after the Radeks and Smirnovsconsidered it necessary to capitulate "in theinterests of a struggle 'against the Rights".On the return from exile to Moscow, Radekwailed at the stations that soon the twoparts of the Central Committee will be ar-resting each other, and that it is thereforenecessary to hurriedly aid the Center, thatis, Staaufl in the struggle against the Right,that is, Bucharin, Rykov and Tomski. Butno sooner did Radek finish writing thethird or fourth repenting clause, then thestern leaders of the Right of the CentralCommittee hurried to declare that they, too,burn with the desire to help the Center inthe struggle against all deviations, particu-larly against the Right. Thus, the encirc-ling of Frumkin seemed to be assured onehundred percent. Smirnov and Ettguslavski,who were a bit late found all the places inthe raid taken. But here, as if for spite,Frumkin himself repented. The Right, wingbecame completely transcendental.

In spite of the tragedy of the wholesituation, it cannot be denied that the Leftcapitulators bring into it an element of buf-foonery. Hurrying to join the apparatus ina struggle against the Right danger, thecapitulators of the Left lead a struggle ex-clusievly on the Left, that is, against...Trotskyism. And it is for this purpose thatYaroslz-vsky recognized them as "the bestelements" of tie Opposition. Yaroslavskyshould know where are the better, andwhere the worse!Zinoviev and Kameuev "Repent" Once Again

It is clear that Zinoviev could not but,make use of such an explosion in the bu-reaucratic tangle, in order to remind every-one, that he, thank god, is alive, and as acapitulator of the first order, so to say, anaristocrat in the family of deserters, heshould have all the privileges in the strug-gle against deviations, and before all, it isunderstood, against "counter-revolutionaryTrotskyism".

?roerly speaking, the need of a newand such a fiery repentance of Zinoviev("conclusively fused with the Party") mayappear puzzling at first: it would seem thisman has already repented and could letothers get in line. But in reality it is notso. The first repentance lacked the neces-sary enthusiasm. The lack of this elementthat is so hard to catch, became particular-ly clear to Yaroslavsky, since the Oppo-sition published the minutes of negotiationsfor a struggle against Stalin, carried onbetween Kamenev and Bucharin, with So-kolnikov as the intermediary. Kamenevkept these minutes for the sake of Zinovievwho still remained at- Kaluga for a timeafter his first repentance. While negotia-ting w'th Bucharin, Kamenev and Zinoviev,upon meeting Oppositionists, would t*gu

deeply about the split in the Opposition,complain of the sharp attacks by Trotsky,and express the hope for common work inthe future. When all this was incidentallyrevealed, these elders of the capitulationistclan took on a morose silence. Kamenevdeclared that he would write a book onLenin, for he saw that he could not bake apudding with Stalin. But at the very mo-ment that the general secretariat wavedthe scalp of the repentant Rykov over theParty, Zinoviev, very opportunely, thoughtof his own scalp and repented for the se-cond time, and this time with such mightyenthusiasm, that it should have touchedeven the tempered heart of Molotov himself.

But in vain. In Stalin's report to theagrarian-Marxists, the "Trotsky-Zinoviev"and even "Zinoviev-Trotsky" opposition fi-gured more than once. A careful readercould not but notice it. The fact is thatamong the bureaucracy the opposition wasalways called "Trotskyite"—so as to un-derline Zinoviev's lack of independentideas. Why is it now, after Zinoviev's nu-merous capitulations, when he has succeed-ed to ^'conclusively fuse with the Party"—why and what for is the talk about theZinoviev opposition now raised? Acciden-tally? Oh, no, there may be accidents inthe five year plan, but not in the apparatusmaneuvers. The design became clearer yetin the utterances of the obliging Kagan-ovlteh. This latter, in one of his recentjubilee speeches, spoke about the oppositionof Zinoviev and Kamenev, as if we hadbeen living in 1926. The general political

.sense of this reference to the long-silencedstruggle was clear, even without specialcomment. The Stalinist apparatus "hinted"to Zinoviev and Kamenev: do not think,please,' that we will let you raise yourheads. The leaders of the apparatus"hinted" to their underhand men: Under nocircumstances must you let these equivocalrepentors raise their heads! No more andno less.

Stalin's Equilibrium is Sbak,The equilibrium of the present one-man

apparatus leadership rests on an extremelyartificial and constrained system of theo-retical fictions, historical legends and theactual seduction of the Party. This systemrequires the further tightening of thescrews and by no means their loosening.For this system even Zinoviev is danger-ous. Every one of his puffed articles inPravda puts the international upstart, Mol-otov, alarmingly on guard.

Now we find out the reason that promp-ted the apparatus marshals to remind Zin-oviev and Kamenev that they should dropforever their "senseless dreams". It seemsthat Zinoviev attempted to Imply, duringhis ora" repentance, that the Opposition wasnot wrong in everything, as the struggle ofthe Rights proves. And Kamenev admitted(in the diary) that Trotsky was right whenhe warned him and Zinoviev, that capitu-lation is the road not to the Party, but topolitical death. Kamenev always showedmore inclination and ability to make endsmeet than Zinoviev. But as Lenin said inbis Testament: ' ' it is no accident" thatKamenev was with Zinoviev. ".It is noaccident" that he went with him throughall the stages of degradation of ideas inorder to come to the simple conclusion thatwas outlined to Km before: this road leadsonly to politicul death. Whatever it is,both l"l to repeut anew, this time withenthusiasm, which, by the way, did not pro-tect them from the public slap in the faceby Kaganovitch—the Amstcrdamer

The Danger of 1'onapartismMore than once we had occasion to

•explain that the Party regime does not takeshape of itself, but is a function of policy,which, in its turn, carries through theinterests, and reflects the pressure, ofclasses. The bwreaucratization of the Com-munist Party of the Soviet Union, begin-ning in 1922, continued parallel to thegrowth of the economic strength and polit-ical influence of the petty bourgeoisie, bas-ing itself on the N. B. P. and parallel to thestabilization of the bourgeois regimes inEurope and the whole world, as a resultof the successive defeats of the proletariat.But the Party regime is not merely a pas-sive reflection of processes of a deeper or-der. The Party is a live force of history,particularly a ruling party, under a regimeof a revolutionary dictatorship. Bureau-cratism does not have an immaterial char-acter. Its bearer is the large solidified bu-reaucracy with a whole world of Interests.

( Continued on Page 7 >

Saturday, April 19 > 1930THE MILITANTPage 7

Karl Marx, the ManKARL MARX: Biographical Memoirs, By

WHhelm Lieblmecht, 181 pages. Chas.H. Kerr and Co., Chicago.

The great figures who have helpedto shape the course of history and to mouldhuman thought are always the object ofInsatiable curiosity to living men. Thists particularly "true of those who leave aheritage of ideas on which the minds ofmen are fed. Light on the personalitiesof the great doers of the past stimulatesinterest in their work and aids in an under-standing of it. Hence the great popularityand the great value of biography.

In this little volume devoted to memor-ies "of Karl Marx, the elder Liebknechtbrings the founder of the Communist move-ment nearer to the proletariat as a man.and father. Incomplete and inadequate asthese sketches are, in consideration of themagnitude of the subject, they "have a doublemerit.- They come from one who lived inalmost daily contact with Marx for nearlytwelve years of his most fruitful activity;and one who, in a lifetime of struggle borethe proud name of "Soldier of the Revolu-tion". Thus he speaks with an exceptionalauthority.

This is not a treatise on his doctrines.Liebknecht in the book under review, con-fines himself to a series of reminiscences re-garding him as he revealed himself at workand play, the circle of his intimates, in thebosom of his family—in short, Marx theman, whom the world, seeing him from afar,did not know. He draws, if not a full por-trait, at least an outline of that great figurewhich grows in inimensity as the worldmoves "to its remoulding on his ideas. Andwhat a man emerges from that outline!

Marx forged the incomparable weaponsof tho workers' emancipation struggle in alifetime of the most assiduous and pains-tajking inquiry and labor. Guesswork hadno part in his philosophy; ignorance, espec-ially in one filling the role of leadership,was anathema. Politics, to Marx was astudy and the.business of a proletarian toknow, to understand. "How wild Marxcould lecome when speaking, of those hollowBknlls who arrange matters for themselveswith a few cant phrases." Reading thesewords of Liebknecht's one can imagine thelion rising from his grave to storm againstthose who transform his science into asystem of catch-words devoid of realityan cl. alien to his method.

Scientific Truth Was Marx's GuideMarx was affected not a particle by

the superficial judgment of the majority atthe moment. Scientific truth was his guid-IHG; tine. And, rejected in his own day whileBC-.rnps won the applause and favor of theworld, he solaced himself with the self-confident motto of Dante: "Follow yourcourse and let the people talk." He wasconcerned only to establish the wisdom andverity ef that course and that, thereby,it misht become the course of humanity'sfuture.

From his evaluation of politics as ascience came his contemptuous disregard of"agreements" on a false foundation andhis intransigeance in questions of principle—a quality which marked the course of Leninwhen his bolsheviks were but a handfulagainst the world and. which now marks theleadership of Trotsky in the struggle to re-form the disrupted ranks of the proletarianvanguard. It was on this point that I/'eb-knecht himself came into conflict with histeacher—not once but twice. The first time,in the days of his London exile, it led to anestrangement there, and the seond time—some twenty years later, on a much largerscale—it led: to Marx's trumpet blastsagainst the Gotha Program—a compromiseknecht on this decisive question was surelyhis greatest shortcoming—a shortcoming hedid not recognize, for he attempts to justifyit in his book about Marx. But history hasalready answered this question in accents,which all revolutionaries must hear. Onthe welter of confusion which besets theCommunist movement of the world, intrans-igeanco must "oo their motto no less thanit was the motto of Marx and Lenin.

Marx knew his value, but the legendsspread by his enemies about envy, spite,conceit and vanity—nil this, says the authorwho worked under his direct guidance for

more than a decade—Is pure fantasy. Hesimply insisted on scientific exactitude Inthe dostrfmes of thi proletariat. Mftrxcould tolerate no blunting of their weapons,whether from ignorance or any other cause.Unworthy personal considerations were noteven within his comprehension, to say noth-ing of their actuating him. "Marx wasthe most generous and just of men, when itcame to acknowledging the merits of others.For envy and jealousy as well as for con-ceit, he was too great. Only the false great-ness, the artificial fame inflated by incom-petence^ and vulgarity, he regarded with adeadly hatred—as he did everything falseand adulterated."

He was no man of mush, as Liebknechtdraws him, but a doughty fighter and anirreconcilable hater of the false, the super-ficial, the pretentious. Windbags were anabomination to this man, whose words al-ways stood for facts and deeds. "Woe tohim who indulged in phrases. There hewas inexorable. 'Phrase-monger' was inhis mouth the sharpest censure—and whom-ever :>e once had recognized as a 'phrase-monger' he ignored forever. To thinklogically and to express your (thoughtsclearly—this he impressed on us 'youngfellows' on every occasion and forced us tostudy."

Marx in Exile at LondonIn this book, Wilhelm Liebknecht paints

an unforgettable picture of the group ofexiles who gathered around Marx in Londonin the years 1850 to 1862. During thatperiod he was almost daily in the companyof the great teacher, and his reminiscencesare a treasure to the present-day disciplesof Marx who seek to know the man behindthe doctrine. In these pages the legendaryfigure is brought near, made real, aliveand human. We are drawn into the marchof the author's charming narrative andmove in that immortal company.

The first genius of the proletariat, deadthese 47 years, rises and walks before us.We see Marx as Liebknechc saw him thruhis days and nights of systematic and un-deviating labor on his monumental works;we watch his furious concentration on agame of chess and his child-like exasper-ation when he fails to win; we see him aplay-mate of his children and a plaything intheir hands; we walk with the group offamily and friends on a holiday to Hamp-stead Hes-th, feast with them from the picnicbasket and slake our thirst with them inunderbidden British beer; we are with thelion at the grave-side of his son and seehim broken and humbled in the dust ofgrief.

The Marx .that Liebknecht describeswas a pure-hearted lover of children—his own and of all. The sight of a help-less child in misery tore his great heartwith pity. "Time and again he would sud-denly tear himself away from us on wander-ing through districts of poverty in order tostroke the hair of some child in rags or toslip a penny or half-penny into its littlehand, He mistrusted beggars. But when abeggar or beggar women with a whimperingchild accosted Marx, then he was lost with-out fail. . . He could not withstand theimploring eyes of a child."

In Marx's day as now, society bestowedits honors and rewards on charlatans,cheats and swindlers; persecutions, hard-ship and poverty is the coin vith which itpaid those who served it truly. Such wasthe lot of Marx. He who held up to societythe picture of its future and charted theway towards it worked with humiliatingwant and privation as daily companions.In his ability to endure all this, and tocarry on his work and hold to his course inspite of it, he has set a stern example to allthose who follow his path. For years, evenwhen the worst of this was. past, th3 poundsterling he received every week for hisarticles in Horace Greeley's "New YorkTribune" was his only certain source ofincome.

"On 'Capital' he was at work forty years—and he did work! Only a Marx can workso. And I am not exaggerating when I say:The worst paid laborer in Germany has re-ceived more wages In forty years thanMarx did for a salary."

The economic hardships suffered byMarx and his family were "not a solitarycase of want, such as anybody may meetwith, especially in a foreign country wherepoints of recourse are scarce; the miseryof exile lasted for years in its most acuteform for Marx and bis family."

Marx the TeacherFor the exiles grouped around him in

London Marx was a teacher who forcedthem to respect knowledge as indispensiblein a revolutionist and to labor to acquire it.In such an atmosphere his first discipleswere trained. While the superficial revolu-tionaries, like many who have come afterthem, were substituting wishes for knowledge and reality, intoxicating themselveswith phrases about the revolution whichwas to start "tomorrow," Liebknecht tellsof the pupils of Marx "sitting in the BritishMuseum and trying to educate ourselves andto nrepare arms and ammunition for thebattles of the future."

This was Marx's way to train the leadersof the proletariat and make them fit fortheir occupations. "To learn! To learn!This was the categorical imperative hefrequently enough loudly shouted to us, butit also was expressed by his example, yea,by the sole aspect of this forever strenu-ously working mind."

These are golden words for the guid-ance and inspiration of the young Commun-ists — and not only for the young ones —who are enlisting in the great battle forrestoration of Marxism under the banner ofthe Opposition. Phrase-mongering ignor-ance has had its e.vil day in the ranks ofthe workers vanguard. Disorganization anddefeat are the fruit of it. Those who aspireto re-form the disrupted movement will besuccessful only insofar as they master thebasic truths of Marxism and learn how toapply them as a guide to action. Thisknowledge will not fall from heaven; itwill be acquired only by those who havethe »nind ,and the will to study, as Marxrequired of his first disciples. WilhelmLiebknecht's little volume of reminiscenceswill be an aid and stimulus in this direction.It ought to have a place on the bookself ofevery revolutionary worker.: — J. P. C.

Harvester Profits Soar; Lay

oFf MenCHICAGO — In the face of record pro-

fits disclosed in the animal report of theInternational Harvester Co., the farm ma-chinery trust is laying off men by hun-dreds in its various plants, according tounion reports. The 1929 velvet of Alexan-der Legge's corporation, ths presidency ofwhich he resigned to admlntsier farm re-lief for Hoover, was $30,779,908. This un-precedented net profit \vas just about ;iSlarge as the entire gross profit in 1927.

At the Milwaukee division of the har-vester half of the men have been laid offand in some departments he employmentis in a still worse state. The crank-shaft department has only 16 out of 46 menleft and in the pistond and sleeve depart-ment just three men are working in placeof the former shifts of 48. The trust re-fused requests from the workers that thework be spread on a 8-hour day, 5-day weekbasis. The men still on payroll are beingworked 9 hours a day and Saturdays.

Total assets of Legge's trust rose from$346,120,486 at the beginning of 1929 to$348,078,322 at the beginning of this year.

CD5EWARK JOBLESS HAUNT SEWSrAPEB

OFFICE TO SCAN WANT ADSNEWARK, N. J.— (FP)— Mcbs of rag-

ged and hungry men, sometimes as many as1,500 of them, crowd the street {-round theoffice of the Newark Evening News, dayafter day. They gather at dawn and wait,clutching pennies in their hands, to pur-chase the first edition and search the help-wanted columns for possible jobs.

Shortly before noon, when the firstpapers are carried from the building andoffered for sale, the mob presses in andfights for papers. Many who havn't even3 cents to buy a paper crowd around theirmore fortunate brothers to read over theirshoulders.

The News, in a full page message InEditor and Publisher, addressed to potentialadvertisers says: "Always plenty of workand money to spend in Newark. PeriodicalHard Times Are Practically Unknown. Anindustrial Status such as this accounts forthe perennial condition of prosperity withwhich Newark is blessed".

<I>WISCONSIN FEDERATION MEETS

JULY 15LA CROSSE, Wis. — The annual conven-

tion of the Wisconsin State Federation ofLabor will open in La Cross? July ir,.

The Lessons of CapitulationsContinued from Page 6)

In this w.ay, like irany other secondary andsuperstructural factors, the Party regime—.in known and very wide limits—acquiresan independent role. Moreover it becomesthe center of all deviations, errors, dangers,contradictions and mistakes. It now be-comes that link in the general chain,through the madium of which it is possibleto get to its other links. Maybe it is still1:

more correct to say, that the Party regimabecame that Gordian knot which the Partymust disentangle at all cost, so that theremay be no chr.nce for Eonapartism to cutit with a sword.

* It is understood that Kaganovitch inhis time went through the whole policy ofStalin to the Right. . In 1926 the Stalinitescondemned the Profintern to liquidation,through its unification with the AmsterdamTrade Union International. Every refer-ence of the Proflntern was eliminated fromthe constitution of the Soviet trade unions.Getting scared of the Opposition, Stalin re-«treated at the very last moment. Kagan-vitch succeeded, however, to read a reportin Charkov, in which he defended the entry,into Amsterdam with arguments thatwould do honor to any social-democrat.But no sooner did the book with .th«speeches see the light of day, then retreatwas sounded from Moscow. Kaganovitchthen declared in the press that...the sten-ographer understood him wrongly and thathe did not at all have intentions of enter-Ing Amsterdam, but burdened with workhe had no chance to edit his speech. Sinc^then Kasanovltch got the additional name:the Ameterdamer.

4>EXPOSE REVOLTING CONDITIONS

In CANNERIESNEW YORK—Conditions in fruit and

vegetable canneries In New York state ar«ghastly and revolting, it is revealed in tfl«report of a thorough investigation conduct-ed last summer by the Consumers Leaguaof New York. The report was read at thaLeague's annual meeting.

Conditions since an official state inves-tigation in 1911 are virtually unchanged.The ii-iustry largely is carried onby' over-worked women and girls, working in un-sanitary and unhcaied shacks, for 1'rom $10to $12 a v.-cl:. Illcral overtime is i-om-mon and housing conditions are wretched,the leas'ie reports. As a result of) theoverwork, the women are too fatigued tomake proper selection of the fooii, andmuch is cr.unel that shuld not be eaten.

More than B 000 women do seasonalwork in. New York canneries.

STATFMENT OF THE OWN KSSJH», MAN-AGEMENT, CIRCULATION, ETC., RiCO IHKKOBir THE ACT OF CONGKl'.SS OF A'.'<.;. J4,1912.Of The Militant, published \vceHy at New York,

N. V. for April 1, I'-JZO.•> State of We,. *'o

County of New Y< ..jJefoie r.ie, a !,...i;y in .-.'id for 'he ^'i;\'<' and

county aforesaid, personally a;>iK'.tt»-'d M;u1i»i Abcrn, '»vho, having .been iu;y swova according r..> U\v, vte-Doses and says that he is the liur.mess M^n.i^er «.'fthe Militant and that the foHov.-jii^' is, to thebest of his Icnowle-lcte atid belief, a tme stumucat ofthe ownership, management, etc., of ;'<;e ainvesaii!publication for the date shown in the above caution,required by the Act of August 24, VJI2, embodiedin section 411, Postal Laws and Re^ukitions, printedon tlie reverse of this form, to wit:

1. That the names and addresses of the publisher,editor, managing editor Gild bu.sHicss jiuiu.t^ors aie:

Publisher: Communist Leci^ue of America (Op-positoin) 25 Third Avenue, New York, N. Y.

Editor: None.Managing Kditor: Max Shachtman, 25 Third Ave,

New York, N. Y.Business Manager: Martin Abem, 25 Third Av«

nue, New York City.2. That the owner is: Communist League of

America (Opposition),, 25 Third Avenue, N. Y. CMartin Abern, i'S Third Avenue, N. Y. C. J. P. Can-non, 25 Third Avenue, N. Y. C. Max .Sch.ictman.25 Third Ave. N. Y. C. Maurice Specter, 25 ThirdAvenue. N. Y. C. Artie Swabcck, 25 Third Ave.N. Y. C.

3. That the known bondholders, mottLragees, andother security holders owning or holding 1 per cenlor more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, o*other securities are: None.

4. That the two paragraphs next above, Kivinfthe names of the owners, stock-holders, and seturit|holders, if any, contain not only the list. of stock-holders and security holders as they appear uponthe books of the company but also, in cases wherethe stockholder or security holder appears upon thebooks of the company as trustee or in any other

bracing affiant's full knowledge and belief as to thecircumstances and conditions under which stock-holders and security holders who do not appear uponthe books of the company as trustees, hold stockand securities, in a. capacity other than of a bonafide owner; and this affiant has no reason to believethat any other person, assoriation, or corporationhas any interest direct or indirect in the said nock,bonds, or other securities' than as *o stated by him

Martin Abern, Business ManaprrSworn to and subscribed before me this 29 davof March 1930.

Geo. J. Lambert, Notary Public.(My commission expires March 30, IS?: >

T H E I L I T A N T Saturday, April' 19, 1939

LETTERS FROM THE MILITANTSTHi: l i S T H O M V N 1'KESS HEWS I'O

I' .VKTY L I N K — T H E RESULTS

Dear Comrades:One foreign language Communist pa-

per that does uot need constant coaxingand reminding by the Party to keepstraight on the "Line", is the Esthonianweekly, Uus Ilm. This paper, in fact, triesits utmost to keep away ahead of the fixedline, by multiplying all the exaggerationsof HP e'.dtr—the Daily Worker, in the hopeof putting its front beyond any question ofpossible "disloyalty"

When the Daily Worker reported afterthe 6th of March demonstrations that a "hun-dred thousand workers demonstrated inUnion Square", and "two were killed" (inGermany), the Uus Ilm came out andprinted in large type over its front page:"200,000 workers fight police; four killedin XTnion Square". Polieve it or not—thereit stood, black on white, for the tomfooleryand misguidance of the Esthonian workerswho still read the sheet. And, rememberthat the last statement was made sevendays after the demonstration—14th of March,when all accounts, including the number ofdead (?) were supposed to be checked upand gone over!

Such insane exaggerations and mis-statements, that have systematically ap-peared on the pages of Uus Ilm for the lasttwo years, and particularly for the last sixmonths, ever since the Party strong-armsqua.1 forcibly took the paper and plantover from the alleged Lovestoneites, havebrought the Communist movement amongttte Esthonian workers in this country nearto its ruin. The papei which one time, inthe ear'j' days of the Party, appearedtwice-weekly, and boasted of nearly a thou-sand readers, has shrunk—thanks to thestrict Party-line—to a mere weekly bulle-tin (and a poor one at that), with, accord-ing to the last secretary-treasurer, only139 paid subscribers; and it sinks lowerwith every issue.

Workers' Clubs Disbanding

The "Workers Clubs" (headed by theParty) are breaking up all over the country.Prom Chicago it is reported that the lasttwo "reds", who have been the readers ofUiis Ilm for the last 22 years, since itsestablishment, have joined the recentlyorganized nationalistic "liberal society". InDetroit, where about 150 known Esthonianslive, and where two years ago a relativelystrong Communist group existed, only oneParty member is left, who writes in UnsIlm that all the resi have drifted awayinto the great unknown, and asks—what iahe going to do about it? From Hamilton,Canada, another worker writes that whereformerly powerful Communist groups exist-ed, namely in Winnipeg, Lethbridge and Cal-gary, none could be found now. The smallBoston group, consisting of petty-bourgeoiselements, has gone with the Lovestonites,while Philadelphia is completely out of thepicture, so far as Communist activityamong Esthonian workers is concerned.

The Uijs Ilm with its strict "Party-line"does not seem to be interested in masswork in deeds—although words know nobounds—but appears to be primarily con-cerned with its •immedlAt!) business ctvu nthome, such as running the restaurant, hav-ing regular dance parties, etc.

When the writer of these lines calledthe attention of the Editorial Board to thefact, that nationalistic and patriotic organ-izations are springing up everywhere, whereformerly the Communists had their strong-holds, and that immediate steps should betaken to counter that, the loyalites, withtheir self-acquired reputation of being the"old guards," answered in the columns ofUus Ilm with seeming satisfaction,"...let them do i t . . .we live in the thirdperiod...now we know who they are!..."

Stalinism Wrecks EstlionianMovement Also

The Esthonian Communist movement inthis country Is gradually but mirely sinkinginto pblivion. It degenerates because of itsIsolated bureaucratic policies and its at-tempt to keep with and ahead of the Party"Line." Workers who have stood with themovement for years, are now talking withtheir feet: they drift into inactivity andto certain fascist societies. More patientcomrades are repeatedly asking: Why isTrotsky in exile? Why was Rakowsky re-placed by Beasedowsky? Why did Stalin•hoot Blumkln? etc. Failing to get any

answer at all, they become suspicious, dis-illusioned, and. disappear from the ranks ofthe Communists.

Those few new members that wererecruited in the recent membership driveare sure to stay out also, as they wrote theirnames on the dotted line as a personalfavor toward their friends, without payingdown even the initiation fee. The majorityof them are ignorant, indifferent or so tosay— "set" in their ideas, and would notlisten to the argument that Communismdoes not mean dividing up all the money inthe banks, and that Karl Marx is not theman who sells clothes on the instalmentplan.

The weekly has not done anything inthe line of class-education in the past twoor three years, and does not intend to. Allthe more important articles start and endwith the familiar but much abused slogans—for satisfying the Party—that have nomeaning to the average worker. The restof the text is taken up by lias and slanderagainst "renegades" (whoever they are)translations from the Daily Worker, somesilly rovel and plenty of steamship ads.No wonder if such a ''Line" finally leadsinto the great abyss!

However, the disillusioned Esthonianworkers, and for that matter workers inevery other language group as well, shouldnot lose their hope and initiative, butjoin with the Communist League of Amer-ica (Opposition), which is at present theonly true standard bearer of Leninism inAmerica, that will light the path of Com-munism in the dark alleys of confusion.

— P. S.

<tLOVESTOXE SPEAKS HIS PIECE

Dear Comrades:Ijovestone is in a penitent mood these

days, as I noted at a recent meeting of theLovestoneites that I attended. The machin-ations for which he has won such deser-ving notoriety when in the Party, have lefttheir mark on his political reputation. Thehonest workers who follow him cannot butfeel some element of distrust toward theLovestoneite leadership. Consequently thespeeches of Lovestone overflow with re-pentant sentiments for th« sins of the .:ast.

'I, too, was an expert in writing suchresolutions," remarked Lovestone in thecourse of a recent speech on economicevents in the Soviet Union. He was speak-ing of the complete ignorance which exist-ed among the leaders of the Party on thefive-year plan in the early days of its appli-cation. But this ignorance was no barrierfor producing resolutions in wholesale quan-tities praising the five-year plan. Therewere some words of regret for the resolu-tion demanding the removal of Bucharinpassed at the last convention. It is a goodfeeling to know one's hands are clean, saidLovestone.

Unprincipledness is an inseparable at-tribute of Right opportunism. All the con-demnations of former unprincipledness willnot change the situation in -.ny way. Toremove this unprinclplec'.nesss it would benecessary to extirpate its roots. The op-portunist idea behind all of Lovestone'smanuevers was that the national tasks ofthe .'arty could be torn from their Interna-ional background. In view of this it wasnecessary to pretend loyalty to the Com-intern in order to be left unmolested toexecute the national task as one pleased.The theory of national socialism is the ba-sis ior the opportunism of the Right.

"It is not at all a question of individ-uals,' said Lovestone, "but it was Rykovwho introduced the five-year plan. How-ever, the trouble started when the slogan"Five-year plan in four or bust" was raised,or in other words, the "Trotskyfication" ofthe five year plan. Just as there is thesaying that Germany lost the war but wonthe peace, so Trotsky lost the Pirty butwon the Party line." But here there devel-ops something unexpected. Lovestonequoted from L. D. Trotrky's article, "TheNew Course in the Economy of tbe SorletUnion printed in the Militant, March 15,1930, in which Stalin'a adventurist line iscriticized. Lovestone designated the articleas a monumental document. Mind you, hestated, Trotsky the Left of the Left, the godof the Left, Trotsky, attacks ulra-Leftiam.Lovestone expressed the greatest amaze-ment. Then he wound up by explaining,"This is unprincipledness!"

On the whole it was most amusing. It.is not to be expected that the Right couldbe capable of" understanding in the least de-gree the nature of a genuine Left line.

As if in mockery of. himself Lovestoneconcluded his speech by emphasizing amongother things the necessity for principled-ness.

Among the questions asked there werethree which hit the mark. They were:why did Stalin borrow Trotsky's platform ;what is the class basis of Stalin; whatcompels Stalin to continually zig-zag? Towhich Lovestone gave no satisfactory rea-sons. — G.R.

AMERICAN CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENTNew York

Dear Comrades:The Sew York Sun of April 11, con-

tained an article on the growth of Amer-ican exports, which lends considerablelight on the new role of the United Statesas the leader of world economy. The itemtraces the development of exports for threeperiods of 100 years each. It traces thedevelopment of the United States from itscolonial period to its present position ofthe highest develped capitalist country inthe world.

In 1730, the approximate value of Amer-ican exports was $7,000,000. By 1830, ithad increased ten times, to the amount of$71,671,000. Today, one hundred years la-ter, th3 exports amount to 5.157,000,000,over seventy times the exports of 1930.

An interesting change has also takenplace in the character of the exports. In1730, during the colonial period, the ex-ports consisted mainly of foodstuffs, horses,tobacco, fish, etc. Today there is a completereversal in the character of the exportswhich indicate the huge development oC theUnited States as the leading industrialcountry in the world. Cotton is the lead-ing axport, just as it has been for the lasthundred years. But its lead is seriouslythreatened by e: portation of machinery.There follows in regular order the exportof petroleum, automobiles, foods, iron andsteel, copper, etc. Such is a picture of thehuge development of American i apitalism.

But such tremendous development tookand continues to take place only throughthe intense exploitation of the workingmasses. The immense wealth indicated inthe export growth lends additional light totbe concentration of this wealth in thehands of the capitalist class, while themasses become daily more impoverished.This huge development of American capit-alism takes place at the expense of theworking masses. — C.L.

The Ultra-Left Policyon Right Dregs

( Continued from Page 4 )

gauized in the trade unions was replacedby the hope for the swiftest possible util-ization of the ready apparatus of the tradeunions for the purposes of the revolution.Out of this false position sprang also thelater policy of the Anglo-Russian Com-mittee, which, after the defeat in China,dealt us the second heaviest blow, a blowagainst the Soviet Union as well as againstthe English working class.

The Party and the Proletarian

Revolution

Already in tSe Lessons of Octoberwritten in the summer of 192?, the idea ofan accelerated road — an accelerated roadthrough friendship with Purcell and Cook,as a further development of this- idea — isrejected as follows:

"Without the Party, independently ofthe Party, in an evasion of the Party,through a substitute for the Party, theproletarian revolution can never tri-umph. This is the principal lesson ofthe last decade. It is true that the Eng-lish trade unions can become a pow-erful lever for the proletarian revolu-tion. They can, for example, under cer-tain conditions and at a definite period,eyen replace the workers' Soviets. Butthey can never play such a role without

the Communist Party and certainly notagainst it, but only under the conditionthat Communist influence in the tradeunions becomes decisive. For this les-son and conclusion—in relation to therole and significance of the Party for theproletarian revolution—we have had topay too dearly to be able to renounce itlightly or even to have it weakened."(Trotsky, Volume 3, page 9.)The same problem is dealt with in even

greater detail in the book, W'hitlier England IThis book, from its very first page, is de-voted to the presentation of the idea thateven the British revolution cannot avoidthe gate of Communism, and that with acorrect, courageous and intransigeant pol-icy which steers clear of any illusions withregard to circuitous routes, the EnglishCommunist Party can grow by leaps andbounds and mature so as to be equal inthe course of a few years to the tasksbefore it.

The Left illusions of 1924 were forcedup with the aid of Right yeast leaven. Soas to be able to conceal the significanceof the mistakes and defeats of 1923 fromothers as well as from oneself, the progressof a. Right swing that was going forwardin the proletariat had to be denied and therevolutionary processes within the otherclasses optimistically exaggerated. Thatwas the beginning of the down-sliding fromthe proletariat to the Centrist, that is, tothe jetty bourgeois line which, in the courseof the further developing stabilization, hadto free itself from its ultra-Left shell andreveal itself as a coarse conciliatory line,in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics,in China, in England, in Germany, as-wellas everywhere else.

#SPRINKLER FITTERS TAKE 5-DAY" WEEK

MILWAUKEE—(FP)—Local 183 ofthe plumbers, known as the MilwaukeeSprinkler Fitters Union , signed $a five-year agreement with the bosses. The dtilyrate is $11, an increase of $1, but the weeklywage is $55 just as before.

This is the first union in any Milwaukeemechanical trade to win the 5-day week.

<DWhere To Buy The MilitantLOS ANGELES, Calif.: Western NewsBox 604, Arcade Station.SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. McDonald's 65Sixth St.WASHINGTON,-D. C. Gale's -ok Shcp T ' 5Tcnt'i St. N. W.PITTSBURG, Pa.: P & A News Co., 220Federal St., N. S.CHICAGO, ILL., Cheshinsky'g Book Store.2720 W. Division St.; Horsley's Book Store1623 W Madison St.; Walden Bookstore)311 Plymouth Ct.; Britscke's Store, 1611N. Kedzle and on various newstandsSPRINGFIELD, ILL.: Joe Angelo. 431 NoWe.'ay St.BOSTON, Mass.: Shapiro's, 7 Beach Stnear Washington,: Andelman's 284 Tre-mont St., Newsstand, 38 Causeway st.ROXBURY, MASS., Goldberg's Store, 638Warren St.DETROT, MICH.: Aidas Book Shop, 1713-24th St.; and on various newsstands.MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. : Engelson NewsCo., 234-2nd Ave. So.KANSAS CITY, MO.: Bushlr-'s Book Store,220 West 12th St.ST. LOUIS, MO.: Foster's Bt stoic. 410Washington Ave.PHILADELPHIA, Pa.: Newst&nrts at 19thand Market, S. E. Cor.; 15th and Market,S. E. Cor.; 13th and Market, N. W. cor.;Warwick's News Depot, 262 S. llth St.; llthand Market, N. W. cor.; 5th and Market,S. W.cor.; 5th and Pine Sts., N. E. cor.;9th and Locust Sts., N. E. cor.NEWARK, N. J.: AHer's Stand; 58 PrinceStS3ATTLE, WASH.: Raymer's Old BookStore, 905 Third Ave.TACOMA, Wash.: Raymer's 1317 Pacific St.St.TORONT), ONT.. CANADA : On variousnewsstands.NEW YORit, N. Y.:On various newsstands inNew York and Brooklyn; Biederman Book-store, 2d Ave and 12th St.; Rand ^kstore,7 East 15th St.; The Militant, 25 Third AveCALGARY, ALT A., CANADA: Boston New&Co., 109-Sth Ave. West

In addition to the stores listtl above.The Militant also can be obtained t' tishmembers and branches of the Communistf^nei iA nf *«**••'.«