Undetermined Month

"'Militants, Notice!': An Advertisement for the Trade Union Educational League" (circa 1923). Machine-readable facsimile of an advertisement appearing on the inside front cover of an early TUEL pamphlet by William Z, Foster -- almost certainly written by Foster himself. The ad states that the Trade Union Educational League is "in no sense a dual union," but rather is "purely an educational body of militants within existing mass unions, who are seeking through the application of modern methods to bring the policies and structure of the labor movement into harmony with present day economic conditions." TUEL is called "a system of informal committees throughout the entire union movement, organized to infuse the mass with revolutionary understanding and spirit" and basing its work on the existing union structure rather than upon "starting rival organizations based upon ideal principles." It is this tendency of progressive unionists to establish dual union organizations that is "one of the chief reasons why the American labor movement is not further advanced," the ad declares.

 

"Outline for a History of the Communist Party in America," by Alexander Bittelman [circa 1923] One of the more obscure general histories of the early American Communist movement, these seem to have been extensive notes for a book-length treatment, somehow obtained and appended to the record of 1930 Congressional hearings on the American Communist movement. Date of writing is unclear -- last date mentioned is September 1922, use of the word "Leninism" at one point might be indicative of authorship in 1924, the lack of discussion of the Farmer-Labor Party controversy of 1923-24 would seem to favor the earlier rather than the later of these dates. Although terse and shorn of illustrative quotations, Bittelman's main narrative thread is surprisingly comprehensive, beginning from origins in the Socialist Party Left Wing of 1910-12. Of particular interest is his analysis of the National Conference of the Left Wing of June 1919, the ideology of the Michigan Proletarian University group, and discussion of events in the Jewish Federations -- observing that the Jewish Federation featured a Socialist-Communist split which predated the shattering of the SPA itself. Bittelman depicts the organizational development of his factional ally William Z. Foster in overly rosy hues. Also important is the first mention of a September 1922 (i.e. post-Bridgman) convention of irreconcilable members of the Central Caucus faction which was addressed by a representative of the Comintern and convinced to rejoin the unified CPA and legal WPA in exchange for representation on the leading party bodies.

 

"Letter to Clarissa "Cris" Ware from Jay Lovestone." [date undetermined, 1923] This letter was extensively quoted in Ted Morgan's biography of Jay Lovestone, a glimpse at a little soap opera inside Workers Party Headquarters. A love triangle emerged between Research Department staffers Lovestone and Cris Ware (divorced wife of party agricultural expert Harold Ware) and Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg. This letter was handwritten by Lovestone to Ware and features her marginal retorts to Lovestone's thoroughly pathetic love-smitten wailing. While not significant from a political perspective, the letter adds color and texture to our understanding of life at the party summit between two of the party's top figures, Ruthenberg and Lovestone -- elite social history, if you will. "By your work and by your work alone -- through your work and through your work alone -- can you and I know each other. You have absolutely severed whatever bond may have existed between us and I only ask that as a white man you will never refer to it -- the past or present -- to me or to any other living being," Ware demands. A second, more catty, note from Lovestone to his estranged object of desire, passing along office gossip purporting Ruthenberg (father of a grown son from a first wife) to be a score-keeping Lothario did not fare as well as this initial dollop of insecure bleating, the latter boorish note being torn in half by Ware and returned. Ware tragically died on Sept. 27, 1923, of an infection sustained during the course of an abortion, capping the melodramatic saga. Ware was later spewed upon in the tall tales of Ben Gitlow, who seems fairly clearly to have had sexual insecurity issues of his own...

 

"Membership Series by District for the Workers Party of America. 'Dues Actually Paid' -- January to December 1923." Official 1923 data set of the Workers Party of America, compiled from a document in the Comintern Archive. This document shows an average monthly paid membership of 15,395 for the WPA, with District 2 [New York City] accounting for just shy of 21% of the party membership. The second largest of the party's 15 districts is D2 [Boston], accounting for 13.4% of the membership, followed by D8 [Chicago] at 12.9% and D9 [Minneapolis] at 11.5%.

 

"Membership Series by Language Federation for the Workers Party of America. 'Dues Actually Paid' -- January to December 1923." Official 1923 data set of the Workers Party of America, compiled from a document in the Comintern Archive. This series shows a great numerical dominance of the WPA by its Finnish Federation, accounting for a massive 42.8% of the average monthly paid membership of the organization (6,583 of 15,395). The total of the English language branches is the 2nd strongest amongst the federations (7.6%) followed by the South Slavic (7.5%), Jewish [Yiddish language] (6.9%), and Lithuanian (6.0%) Federations. In all, there were statistics kept for 18 different language groups of the WPA in 1923, including the English and the barely organized Armenian sections.

 

"Initiation Stamps Sold by District for the Workers Party of America. January to December 1923." Official 1923 data set of the Workers Party of America, compiled from a document in the Comintern Archive. This series shows a massive 60% uptick in the 4th Quarter of 1923 -- which was exceeded yet again by nearly 20% in Q-1 of 1924 before the rate plummeted again, indicating a high probability of some sort of connection with the January 1924 launch of the Daily Worker. Further archival work and newspaper reading needs to be done to test this hypothesis. A total of 6,532 initiation stamps were sold by the WPA in 1923.

 

"Initiation Stamps Sold by Federation for the Workers Party of America. January to December 1923." Official 1923 data set of the Workers Party of America, compiled from a document in the Comintern Archive. This series once again (repeating the previous published 1924 series) shows a schizophrenic pattern of stamp sales among language groups . Some federations clearly did not collect the initiation fees called for in the WPA constitution at all (Jewish, German, Latvian) while at the same time the quantities sold via the English branches are ridiculously high. Over 53% of the initiation stamps sold for the entire WPA were credited to the English branches -- nearly three times as many initiations than there were average duespayers in those English branches! Even assuming a significantly higher than average "membership churn" rate for English branches, there is clearly some other unexplained phenomenon at play in these English branch initiation stamp sale figures...

"Letter to the Workers Party of America from the Communist International, January 1923." The Second Convention of the legal Workers Party of America, held in New York in December of 1922, formally applied for admission to the Communist International. This reply of the CI informs the WPA that its party is admitted only as a "sympathizing party" rather than as a fully affiliated organization. The CI calls on the Americans to support the workers in every strike and carefully follow their daily life so as to better bring the proletariat into alliance with the party "against the capitalist offensive." Trade union work is particularly important, the Comintern advises, stating that in the "correct application of united front tactics" it was essential to "unite the masses over the heads of the yellow leaders" of the trade union movement.

 

"Minutes of the Meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America: New York City -- Jan. 3, 1923." On Jan. 3, 1923, the governing Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America met to reorganize itself after the recently completed 2nd Annual Convention. A new body called the "Executive Council" was created to replace the former "Administrative Council" as the CEC's executive committee, "to function between the sessions of the CEC." Eleven were elected to sit on the body: Alex Bittelman, Jim Cannon, Bill Dunne, Marion Emerson, Louis Engdahl, Edward Lindgren, Ludwig Lore, Theo Maki, Moissaye Olgin, C.E. Ruthenberg, and Harry Wicks. Various new Federation Bureaus, elected by conventions of the Federations, were approved and other personnel matters addressed. Resolutions from locals demanding action against Jacob Salutsky for his behavior at the December conference of the Conference for Progressive Political Action were referred to Salutsky's local so that disciplinary action might be begun.

 

"The Second Convention," by C.E. Ruthenberg [Jan. 6, 1923] Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg dons his rose-colored glasses to portray the recently completed 2nd Convention of the Workers Party of America in an extremely upbeat manner. Factional warfare over delegate credentials was nonexistent and with each resolution introduced by a member of the Central Executive Committee "practically every resolution was adopted unanimously at the close of the debate, although wide differences of opinion sometimes manifested themselves during the debate," Ruthenberg proudly declared. The convention was declared to be a "landmark in the history of the Communist movement in this country" in that the WPA had firmly established itself. General topics of discussion are briefly mentioned in a list. "The relations of the party with the Communist International was a special point on the agenda and was thoroughly discussed and a resolution establishing fraternal relations adopted," Ruthenberg notes.

 

"We Go Forward to Victory! Second National Convention of Workers Party Makes History in American Class Struggle," by J. Louis Engdahl [Jan. 6, 1923] Editor of WPA English-language weekly, The Worker , J. Louis Engdahl, recounts the events of the 2nd Convention of the WPA, held in New York City from Dec. 24-26, 1922. Principle decisions of the convention included (1) the sending of delegates to the forthcoming Convention for Progressive Political Action and endorsement of the CEC's decision to work for establishment of a Labor Party; and (2) endorsement of the tactic of working within existing unions for the amalgamation of craft organizations into powerful industrial unions in accord with the program of the Trade Union Educational League. Decisions were additionally taken to defend foreign-born workers from the legislative assault which they were facing; against mass emigration to Soviet Russia; for the continuation of foreign language groups within the WPA, albeit under the central control of the party; for establishment of a party educational program; and for dedicated work directed towards women and youth. The convention heard speeches from four of the recently-released CPA Bridgman convention defendants, elected a new Central Executive Committee of the WPA and attended a banquet hosted by Local New York, Engdahl notes. The successful 2nd Convention was heralded by Engdahl as a refutation of the claim that the Communist movement had been crushed by state repression in 1920.

 

"Red Raid Scribe in Nonunion Clan: Connections is Shown Between Michigan Cases and the Labor Movement," by Robert M. Buck [Jan. 6, 1923] The grandfather of Right Wing ultra-politicized "history" of American radicalism was journalist R.M. Whitney, who was granted special access to documents seized at the August 1922 raid of the Communist Party's convention at Bridgman, Michigan by the Department of Justice and then used this material as background for a sensational and sensationalized series of articles in the Boston Transcript and a 1924 book called Reds in America. In this article Robert Buck of the Farmer-Labor Party reveals the linkage between the organized anti-labor movement in America and the "red raids" of the early 1920s. Historian Whitney is revealed as the Washington, DC director of the "American Defense Society," a nationalistic pro-business organization which sought to establish "Home Defense Committees" around America to stand ready to break the strikes of " irresponsible agitators" and to work for the elimination of "labor reds and outlaw strikes." The ADS also provided printed propaganda to employers for insertion into pay envelopes urging increased productivity as a means of reducing the cost of living. The American Defense Society "folds itself in the American flag and makes itself out a kind of an industrial Ku Klux Klan," Buck declares.

 

"Letter to Ella Wolfe in Mexico from Jay Lovestone in Chicago." [Jan. 8, 1923] One of many surviving letters from Jay Lovestone to and from the beautiful wife of his factional ally, Bert Wolfe, a man who had boldly fled the anti-Communist repression of 1919-20 in New York for an assumed identity in San Francisco and thence to Mexico, all without party permission. Lovestone thanks Ella for a letter which "made me feel momentarily at least that I was free from boring Party routine and tiresome Party company." He proceeds to pass along a brief account of the Dec. 1923 Workers Party convention held in New York: "For the second time in 2 years I have finished a Convention in the minority though coming to it as a member of the majority ruling administration. This time as at Bridgman [Aug. 1922] I was trimmed, I got trounced and trounced rather handily. I made a more vigorous [effort] than I did at Bridgman, but this was due only to the fact that the majority against my position here was much more decisive than in Michigan." He adds: "By this time you must think that there is nothing I enjoy more than fighting losing battles or fighting for the sake of fighting. That is not so at all. In my opinion there was [a] very important point of view at stake." Lovestone continues: "On the surface they adopted our proposals and formally voted for it in the convention. But throughout the year and even in the debates in the convention it was definitely established that some comrades were afflicted with a narrow point of view towards the class conflict. The broad political point of view of communists was narrowed in their cases by a too strong emphasis on the importance of the Party being in the good graces of certain progressive labor leaders... Practically everything our side stood for was adopted. Yet we were voted down. There was considerable enmity to Pepper. Most of the opposition to him was petty, personal, and conceived in jealousy and reared in infamy. "

 

"Organize National Council for Protection of Foreign Born: News Release from the Workers Party of America Press Service, Jan. 23, 1923." News release from the Workers Party Press Service announcing the formation of a National Council for Protection of the Foreign Born. The new organization had been "initiated" by the Workers Party at its 2nd National Convention, held in December of 1922, according to the press release. A "provisional National Committee" was being established which would "likely" include members of the Farmer-Labor Party, the Trade Union Educational League, the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Minnesota State Federation of Labor, and the Workers Party. In addition, officials in the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union had expressed approval of the project and were also anticipated to participate. After the permanent National Council was established "a call will be issued by that body for the organization of local councils in every industrial center of the country," according to a statement. The report includes a short direct quote by William Z. Foster, stating "The proposed laws for registration, fingerprinting, photographing, and punishment of foreign born workers for strike activities are a blow directed at the whole American labor movement. The bosses hope by keeping the foreign workers unorganized through such oppressive measures to weaken the whole organized labor movement."

 

"Letter to the Workers Party of America and all its Language Federations from the Executive Committee of the Communist International, January 25, 1923." The ECCI salutes the seeming unity of action coming from the WPA's Dec. 1922 Second Convention and congratulates it for solving the question of Language Federations in a "satisfactory way, in that it regards the Federations merely as propaganda sections of the Party." The 16 foreign-language sections of the WPA are unique among the world communist movement, it is noted, and represent both a beneficial way to communicate with the most hyper-exploited segment of the American working class, the foreign born workers, as well as a fetter to broad revolutionary propaganda. The immediate task facing the party is the establishment of an English-language daily organ, the letter states, contrasting the existence of ten foreign-language WPA dailies with the lack of a single daily in English. The Language Federations are directly challenged to take up this "most urgent" task and to "demonstrate whether the WP is a unit or not." Without an English daily newspaper, the WPA would have no means to reach sufficiently broad masses of American workers with its revolutionary message; the slogan of "An English daily for the WP by November 7, 1923" -- Russian Revolution Day -- is proposed.

 

FEBRUARY

"Statement to the Members of the Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia," by C.E. Ruthenberg [circa Feb. 1923] The Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia was established by the Communist Party as a parallel mass organization dedicated to fundraising to purchase tools and agricultural machinery for Soviet Russia. The organization served as a means for emigrés from Tsarist Russia to return to their homeland as participants in model agricultural communes established in conjunction with the technology being imported. In practice, these new communes were economic failures and did little to alleviate the difficulties of Soviet agriculture during immediate post-revolutionary period. Furthermore, economic scandal swept the organization when some of the top leadership of "the TA" were implicated in economic activity for private gain as part of the business operations of the organization. Early in 1923 the Workers Party brought the troubled "TA" under direct party control, ousting the members of the group's governing Central Bureau and replacing them with a group including the top leadership of the WPA (Ruthenberg, Pepper, Jakira) and others regarded as disciplined members of the WPA. This news release announces the change in leadership of the "TA," assures members of the group that it is not to be liquidated and merged into the Friends of Soviet Russia organization, announces changes of policy, and asks for the loyal support of members of the organization.

 

"Letter No. 6 to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from C.E. Ruthenberg in New York, February 6, 1923." Message from the Executive Secretary of the American Communist Party to the CI that not only would the CPA be acting on the instructions of the Comintern to amalgamate the underground CPA and the "legal" Workers Party of America, but that even prior to the CI statement "the CEC decided to take steps to convert the Party into an open Party." Ruthenberg states that since the 1922 Bridgman Convention, the CPA has been working harmoniously, with the three former factional groupings (Goose Caucus, Liquidators, Central Caucus) actively working to advance policies that had previously been underappreciated or even regarded as anathema. The division of the American bourgeoisie over the question of repression of the Communist movement and expansion of sympathy for the Communist movement among the working class and the ability of the WPA to work more and more as an open Communist Party had changed the situation in the country, Ruthenberg notes. "We trust that we will be able to carry out the reorganization of the Party without a crisis. It is possible that a few sectarian elements will leave the Party. But we are convinced that no organized faction will fight against the policy of the CEC and the CI, and that we will be able to lead the Party into the open without a split," Ruthenberg concludes.

 

"Letter to Vasil Kolarov in Moscow from Edgar Owens in Chicago and C.E. Ruthenberg, Feb. 17, 1923." This is an informative review of the status of "political" cases in the United States, in response to a request from Moscow for information in conjunction with the formation of a new international legal defense organization. Owens details the activities of the National Defense Committee for Deportees and Political Prisoners (which he headed) and the Labor Defense Council in fighting against the prosecutions initiated by federal and state authorities against the radical movement. According to Owens, as a result of recent releases on bail, only three prisoners were being held for explicitly Communist activities: Israel Blankenstein, Joseph Martinowitz, and Charles Spinack. Others were held in jail on political charges which predated establishment of the Communist movement, including J.O. Bentall and a host of IWW prisoners. Still others, including Benjamin Gitlow, Harry Winitsky, I.E. Ferguson, C.E. Ruthenberg, and 35 Philadelphia party members, were free on bail pending appeals or initial legal proceedings. Owens summarizes the results of the 1922 Bridgman prosecution as a positive for the party, which was said to have established solid new contacts with the progressive wing of the labor movement and to have exposed the nature of the spycraft of private detective agencies as a result of the trials. The new "International Relief for the Fighters of the Revolution" organization is welcomed by Owens, who promises close cooperation through the party's legal defense organizations.

 

"Letter to Vasil Kolarov in Moscow from C.E. Ruthenberg in New York, Feb. 17, 1923." The early Communist International is frequently misrepresented in the literature as a paramilitary command-and-control system, issuing binding orders arbitrarily deduced in Moscow to blindly obedient Communist Parties around the world. In reality, there was a give-and-take, with information flowing from the periphery to Moscow, which was often called upon to provide tactical advice, to mediate disputes, and to rectify factional schisms. This letter from Workers Party of America Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg to General Secretary of the ECCI Vasil Kolarov is an example in which the Comintern was used by national parties as a mediator. Ruthenberg protests the establishment of a new Soviet relief organization, the Volunteer Fleet, noting three relief organizations are already in existence: the Friends of Soviet Russia, Technical Aid, and the Yidgescom. The Workers Party was attempting to centralize these relief efforts in the hands of the FSR, a task which Ruthenberg argued was being needlessly complicated by the ill-considered establishment of the Volunteer Fleet fundraising apparatus. Concrete suggestions are made to make use of the ECCI's Ausland Committee to transmit information on future relief campaigns to the Friends of Soviet Russia, which was to coordinate such drives.

"Letter to Grigorii Zinoviev in Moscow from William Z. Foster in Chicago, February 17, 1923." A personal letter from prominent American Communist and Trade Union Educational League founder William Z. Foster to the head of the Communist International. Presumably, Zinoviev directed a query to Foster soliciting his personal opinion about the "new policy" for the American Communist movement -- that is, the termination of the primary underground Communist Party of America and the merging of that organization's leadership with that of the "open" Workers Party of America, with "underground" work a subsidiary department of the new organization. Foster gives his ringing endorsement to the new organizational form, stating that he was "convinced that it fits American conditions and that a powerful Communist movement can be built upon it." Interestingly, Foster gives high praise to the man who would soon become his greatest factional opponent in the American Communist movement, Josef Pogány ["John Pepper"], stating that "The underground apparatus, as outlined in the new policy, should amply take care of the work which cannot be done openly. The splendid work of Comrade Pogány has made unlikely the prospect of any very serious split in the application of this policy." Foster calls the establishment of an American Labor Party "one of the first essentials in the development of a militant labor movement, both political and industrial, in this country." He has harsh words for the American labor movement, deriding not only Gompers and the AF of L establishment, but also the "so-called progressive wing" as "almost as bad, its leaders lacking the foresight, honesty, and courage to declare even in favor of independent working class political action." He similarly lambastes the syndicalists of the IWW, calling them "only a small sect" and "chronic dual unionists" who are "detached physically and intellectually from the organized masses." The open Party and its "industrial department," the TUEL, are in an excellent position to achieve its strategic objective of bringing militant American workers into the organization, Foster believes.

 

"Foster Admits Bridgman Meet Held Secretly: Radical Chieftain Declares "Power and Cash" to Decide Issue." [Feb. 20, 1923] Unsigned contemporary news account from the daily newspaper serving St. Joseph/Benton Harbor/Bridgman, Michigan. This short article quotes a Foster speech made at Grand Rapids in which he states that "the Communist Party in January 1920 was subjected to the heaviest persecution ever experienced by the movement when 5,000 persons were thrown into jail after raids. Was it going to walk into the lion's mouth like the Christians in the arena? It now is only for the public to assume a more tolerant attitude. Then it will come out in broad daylight with its message. You can't kill living ideas with terrorism. If the Communist Party can't function legally, it will function secretly."

 

"Letter No. 7 to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from C.E. Ruthenberg in New York, February 20, 1923." Communication from the head of the American Communist Party to the ECCI informing them that administrative amalgamation of the underground Communist Party of America and the legal political party, the Workers Party of America, had taken place as per the Comintern's instructions. Only one member of the CEC of the CPA, L.E. Katterfeld ("Carr") had failed to agree with the CI's decision to dissolve the formal underground apparatus, and he had accepted the decision of the majority as a matter of party discipline. Ruthenberg also provides a short update on the Cleveland Conference for Progressive Political Action's failure to endorse a Labor Party, noting that instead various state Labor Parties had been established, some of which included the Workers Party as participants. Also includes brief notes on the Michigan Foster case, the campaign for protection of the foreign-born, trade union work (said to key on the struggle in the United Mine Workers of America), and forthcoming literature.

 

"Call for the Third National Convention of the Communist Party of America, February 23, 1923." Convention call for the 3rd and final Convention of the underground unifed CPA, signed by that organization's Executive Secretary Abram Jakira ["J. MIller"]. The call announces that "conditions in the country have undergone changes which call for revision of the decision adopted at our last Convention on the question of an Open Party." To wit, a letter from the Comintern "specifically instructs the CEC to proceed with transforming the LPP into an open Communist Party as soon as possible, preparing at the same time a strong apparatus to enable the Party to meet emergency situations and to carry on the necessary underground activities." While the official organ is to be opened to discussion of this matter to the party membership, the convention call definitely implies the gathering is to provide formal ratification of a fait accompli rather than a venue for debate and decision of a controversial matter. Representation is to be on the basis of one delegate for each 250 average paid members (or major fraction thereof) for the period 11/22 to 1/23, with each district entitled to at least one delegate. The 3rd Convention was ultimately held in New York City on April 7, 1923, and was attended by 19 regular delegates and a total of 35.

 

"Scott Nearing and the Workers Party," by James P. Cannon [Feb. 24, 1923] Recently elected National Chairman of the Workers Party of America Jim Cannon attempts to make hay from material recently published in the Socialist daily, The New York Call, which quoted economist Scott Nearing as asserting "The Socialist Party has had its day.... Since 1912 membership has steadily declined.... Through the Middle West recently I found the Socialist Party almost extinct" and concluding "the Workers Party has fallen heir to the present radical political situation in the United States." Cannon sees "the rebel professor" Nearing as a significant figure, representative of a whole stratum of former members of the Socialist Party who stood outside of all organizational affiliations since the implosion of the SPA in 1919 and the driving of the Communist movement underground by state repression shortly thereafter. "Tens of thousands of radical workers in America are in that position today. More than half of the former members of the Socialist Party stand outside of any political organization. The collapse of the IWW as a revolutionary factor has left many good proletarian fighters without a center to call their own. The trade unions are honeycombed with virile militants who are looking for a lead. This is the living material out of which we must build our party," Cannon writes. Cannon does not fail to criticize Nearing for singling out the Workers Party's reliance upon "Moscow Dictators" to determine its line, pointing out that those same "Moscow Dictators" were the very same who pushed the American Communist movement out of its sectarian underground seclusion towards becoming an open and broad-based movement. Citing the failure of the federalized Second International, Cannon declares that "We flatly reject the idea of a decentralized International because it is fundamentally unsound in theory and has worked out most disastrously in practice. We think in terms of the International class struggle. That struggle can be waged successfully only if the proletarian vanguard in all countries is firmly united into one centralized Communist World Party."

 

"Letter from Robert Minor in New York to the Editorial Committee, WPA, February 24, 1923." A lengthy letter from member of the Workers Party of America Editorial Committee Robert Minor to his colleagues bluntly critical about the failings of the party press. Keying on the English language weekly, The Worker, Minor cites failings of both form and content, arguing the the massive and bold masthead of the publication makes it nearly impossible to run "scare headlines" which catch attention. Worse yet, Minor feels that these headlines do not illicit the interest of readers that factual information is to be imparted, but rather "that we are going to panhandle him for something -- service or money." Minor likens the publication to an amateurish advertising sheet, erroneously editorializing and sermonizing and making false calls to action in place of the presentation of factual news items. Minor calls for a strict segregation of opinion to a designated section of the paper and arguing that "the propaganda effect shall be obtained as the New York Times gets its propaganda effect in news articles -- by sequence and juxtaposition of fact and by analytical treatment in the news writing, without permitting one sentence or phrase of opinion to be printed in a news item." As an aside, Minor indicates the desire to return to political cartooning and asks the Editorial Committee to moot the question of excusing him from all obligatory writing chores so that he can concentrate once again on his craft.

 

MARCH

"Are the Communists Ready?" by Max Bedacht. [March 1923] A brief summary of the development of the Communist International by a leading American participant. "The working class has only one rallying point in its struggle against capitalism -- the Communist International," states Bedacht, noting that the opponents of working class revolution have also learned from experience "the seriousness of the claims of the proletariat to political domination." As a result, Bedacht indicates that the capitalists "organize a complete counter revolution even before a complete revolution has occurred -- as in Italy." "The Communist parties everywhere must rise to the occasion and meet it with revolutionary strategy, which neutralizes, paralyzes and fights the forces of the bourgeoisie, and at the same time recruits all the forces of the working class for the final battle," Bedacht states.

 

"An Open Challenge," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [March 1923] At the end of February 1923, jury selection for the first trial resulting from the August 1922 Bridgman, Michigan raid was begun. The best-known public figure among the defendants (regarded by the prosecution as the most threatening public enemy), William Z. Foster, was chosen by the prosecution to first face the jury. This article by C.E. Ruthenberg, published in the March 1923 issue of The Liberator, marks the beginning of this trial. Ruthenberg charges that the Palmer Raids of 1919-20 had as their goal not prosecution for crime but rather destruction of the radical movement and that the "bugaboo of violence" alleged of the revolutionary socialist left would be belied by the evidence presented at the Michigan trials. "No Communist advocates the use of violence in the class struggle in the United States today.... No Communist has been convicted of an overt act of violence in the United States," Ruthenberg notes.

 

"The Secret is Out," by Otto Branstetter [March 1923] This article by Socialist Party Executive Secretary Otto Branstetter attempts to make political hay out of the Workers Party's attempt to gain admittance in the Conference for Progressive Political Action, ostensibly to work alongside organizations upon which they had for years poured venom and vilification, such as the Socialist Party, the Farmer-Labor Party, AF of L unions, and the Committee of 48. This effort at admission to the CPPA had been turned back by the Socialists, causing Louis Engdahl to protest on behalf of the Workers Party. Branstetter mockingly remarks that "the matter is now perfectly clear. The aggregation of camouflaged communists and government agents known as the Workers Party is revolutionary because it wants to affiliate with the 'yellow' Socialist Party. The Socialist Party is reactionary because it won't let them. What a shame!" Branstetter also smirks that "Another decided difference has been brought to light by the testimony of Ruthenberg at the Bridgman trial. Ruthenberg quoted Lenin as saying that all talk of armed insurrection in the United States at present is 'nonsensical.' That settles it. The difference between a Socialist and a Communist is that the Socialist knew this all the time and said so -- which made him 'yellow'; the Communist didn't know it until Lenin told him, which makes him 'red.'"

 

"Report on CPA District #9 [Pacific Northwest]," by "Ex-DO Gilbert" [circa March 1923] A rare and extremely valuable glimpse of organizational disarray in the late underground period in the states of Washington and Oregon. "Gilbert," a former member of the CEC of the CPA, was dispatched to the Pacific Northwest to serve as District Organizer for District 9 of the underground CPA. He arrived to find an organization on the brink of oblivion: "From [July 1922] until November when I arrived the CP did not function (except in Portland to a limited extent). No news was received by them. No need to argue about liquidation there, for the CP as such had already dissolved." Party members were "bewildered," organizational records seized, destroyed, or lost as a byproduct of the raid of the WPA's district convention in July 1922 and the frightened aftermath. The organization was impoverished, the membership scattered and out of contact with each other and the center. Even party members had a poor understanding of the program and tactics of the party. No effort was made at recruitment, logical choices for party membership stood outside of the organization due to the low regard in which party officials were held. As a result "Many of the very best fighters who made the labor movement of Seattle famous are now doing nothing." Concrete suggestions for "building up the CP anew" are provided -- but the task promised to be daunting, expensive, and slow, as the underground organization had completely collapsed.

 

"Statement to the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America from the Lithuanian Bureau on the Proposed Reorganization of the Party," by K. Povas [circa March 1923] Communique of the Secretary of the Lithuanian Bureau of the unified CPA to the governing Central Executive Committee taking issue with the decision to amalgamate the underground and legal wings of the organization. "The latest reorganization of the proposed CEC is contrary to the decisions and spirit of the 2nd Convention [Bridgman, MI: Aug. 17-22, 1922]; it actually forces upon the Party such a basic reform for which the CEC has no mandate," Povas notes. Povas adds: "The attempt to force the Party into open existence is in full swing at a time when the CEC itself admits that the underground organization is still very weak. Such an experiment may result in a great chaos among the membership and may entirely cast aside the most important task of the hour -- the reorganization of the underground Party and the strengthening of its forces... If in view of the proposed reorganization we will start a discussion on the advisability of coming into the open, then the most important campaign, the slogan to build up the Party will be in vain; it will disappear in the midst of a pro and con talk about liquidation." Povas declares that "in its attempt to artificially raise the Party to open existence, the CEC should have had at least the majority of the Party membership solidly behind the proposed plan. Is this so? The overwhelming rejection of the CEC's plan by the membership almost everywhere in the presence of the representatives of the CEC does not indicate such a condition."

 

"What Kind of a Party?" by James P. Cannon [March 3, 1923] National Chairman of the Workers Party of America Cannon, recently returned from Moscow, where he sat on the Executive Committee of the Communist International, reflects on the two possible courses for the future of the WPA in America. On the one hand, some in the organization seek a small and doctrinally pure organization. This Left Wing feared the incursion of "Centrists" and opportunists into the party's ranks, resulting in a dilution of the party's theory and defeat of its revolutionary mission. Cannon, on the other hand, speaks for a broad and inclusive organization. Cannon remarks: "We see the best organized and most powerful capitalist class on earth; we see a highly developed labor movement and a strongly entrenched bureaucracy at the top of it, and we say: Only a big party can cope with this situation. Our greatest danger, from which we must flee as from a pestilence, is the tendency toward sectarianism, the tendency to let the party degenerate into a small, self-satisfied, exclusive circle of narrow partisans without influence on events about it and without receiving any control from them." Cannon holds up the TUEL as a model, with its comparatively broad membership giving the Gompers regime in the AF of L "more concern than any small group of pure disciples ever did." Cannon supports his call for a "mass party" by citing the words of the "great leaders" of the world Communist movement, such as Comintern President Zinoviev, who advocated this slogan of "A Million Members for the Party!" to the Communist Party in Germany -- a smaller country than the United States. "Communist principles are living things. They have no significance standing alone. They are made to mix with the mass labor movement and from that mixture fruitful issue comes.... The movement to broaden the party, in its membership and in its activities, is not a departure from communist principles and tactics. On the contrary, it is based on the desire to really begin to apply them in America," Cannon declares.

 

"Inviting Debs to Soviet Russia: Letter from Israel Amter in Moscow to the Presidium of the Comintern, March 9, 1923. Despite his decision to stick with the Socialist Party of America which he helped to found, the American Communists continued to hold out hope that Eugene Debs would turn his back on the SPA's increasingly conservative leadership. This letter from the CPA's man in Moscow, Israel Amter, noted that Debs had at last been persuaded to visit Soviet Russia to see the situation first-hand and requested that an invitation be cabled to Debs by the Soviet railway union, central trade union body, or government. Amter remarks that "when Debs came from prison, he was very angry with the Communists for their failure to do anything to obtain his release. Undoubtedly he was right in his contention, but the American Party not understanding proper tactics and incensed that he did not break away" from the Socialist Party and consequently "did not feel inclined to speak in his behalf." A sentimental disposition, Ill-health, and his "yellow Socialist" brother had prevented closer collaboration between the Communists and Debs -- who instead fell victim to the "trickery" of the SPA. Nevertheless, Debs' honesty and love for the working class combined with "repugnance at the brutal attacks of the Socialist press on Soviet Russia have made him at last desire to see Soviet Russia with his own eyes and judge for himself."

 

"Communists Throw Challenge In Face of Michigan Authorities: Ten of Participants in Bridgman Convention Walk into Courtroom at St. Joseph," by C.E. Ruthenberg [March 10, 1923] Press release by WPA Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg detailing the surrender en mass of 10 indicted participants at the 1922 Bridgman Convention of the Communist Party of America, a gathering infiltrated by a government agent-provocateur and raided by state and federal law enforcement authorities. The surrender of the ten (decided upon by the CEC of the WPA) was not being made "because they have any faith in the justice of the capitalist courts and prosecuting authorities," Ruthenberg indicates, as the defendants "have had too many experiences with these institutions showing the willingness of judges and prosecutors to ignore their own laws and rules in order to put Communists in prison." Rather the matter was being put into the hands of the American working class, Ruthenberg states. Those surrendering included: John Ballam, Max Bedacht, Ella Reeve Bloor, Jay Lovestone, Robert Minor, Edgar Owens, Rebecca Sacharow, A. Schulenberg,Rose Pastor Stokes, and William Weinstone. The ten were released on $1,000 bail each and freed on their own recognizance to raise the money over the weekend.

Berrien County Courthouse, St. Joseph, MI. [Circa 1910 postcard] *** PDF GRAPHICS FILE (420 k.) *** This postcard depicts the site of the sensational 1923 trials of William Z. Foster and C.E. Ruthenberg for having allegedly violated the Michigan "Criminal Syndicalism Law" by atttending the August 1922 convention of the Communist Party of America at Bridgman. The card notes that the courthouse was also the residence of the county sheriff. The old Berrien Co. Courthouse is no longer standing, having been removed to make way for a parking lot.

 

"Rose Pastor Stokes Gives Self Up: Walks Calmly into Court This Morning: Nine Others Appear in Court with Gotham Woman, Charged with Attending Communist Meeting at Bridgman." [March 10, 1923] Unsigned news report from the local St. Joseph, Michigan daily newspaper detailing the sensational surprise surrender of 10 members of the Communist Party under blanket indictment for participation in the ill-fated August 1922 Bridgman Convention of the Communist Party. Interesting in its depiction of "settlement worker" and "protege and close associate of Jane Addams" Rose Pastor Stokes as the leading figure surrendering, despite the presence in the group of other top-level party officials, including Ballam, Bedacht, Lovestone, and Minor. The surrender is dismissed as a grandstand play designed to elicit sympathy and aid the Communists' effort to spread their propaganda by one of the prosecuting attorneys.

 

"Venue Change Denied Foster: Trial Will be Started Here and Attempt Made to Get Jury." [March 10, 1923] Unsigned news report from the local St. Joseph, Michigan daily newspaper detailing the last minute pre-trial jousting between defense attorney Frank P. Walsh and O.L. Gray for the prosecution. An attempt by Walsh to obtain a change of venue to another county in Michigan was denied by the judge in the case, who did, however, quash three of the four counts in the indictment against Foster, charging him with spreading a violent doctrine. The sole remaining count of the indictment charged that Foster met with an illegal organization, the CPA, "created for the purpose of advocating doctrines of criminal syndicalism."

 

"'Not Yet!' Frantic Cry Against Seating Workers Party Delegates in NY Labor Party Conference," by J. Louis Engdahl [March 10, 1923] Participant's account of the effort of the Workers Party of American to seat its delegates for participation in the 2nd Conference of the American Labor Party, held March 3-4, 1923 in New York City. As was the case at the 1st Conference of the ALP, the Workers Party found itself blocked by Credentials Committee and the convention itself, dominated by activists in the arch-rival Socialist Party of America. Leading the charge on the floor of the convention against the Workers Party was James Oneal, former member of the SPA's National Executive Committee and one of the leaders of the anti-Left Wing party purge that preceded the split at the 1919 Emergency National Convention. The Workers Party sought to seat four delegates at the ALP Conference, including Engdahl, Alexander Bittelman, Ludwig Lore, and Harry Wicks. The WPA delegates and their program enjoyed the sympathy of "up to 30 to 40 percent of the entire delegation," Engdahl notes, including delegates from trade unions, Workmen's Circles, and "even a few of the Socialist Party delegates, who are anxious and sincere in their desire to build up a real United Front of the independent political forces of the workers, no merely a 'Socialist front.'" Engdahl quotes the WPA's nemesis Oneal as telling the assembled delegates: "The time will come when the Workers Party will be admitted here, but that time has not arrived yet." Includes a list of the 25 members elected by the conference as the new Executive Committee of the ALP -- a list heavy in members of the Socialist Party.

 

"The 1923 Foster Trial: The Reports of the WPA Press Service." [March 12 to April 10, 1923] The Workers Party of Society Press Service covered the nearly month-long trial of William Z. Foster in St. Joseph, Michigan exhaustively, sending out reports of each day's events to the party press. Only a fraction of this material was ever published in the of the weekly English-language organ, The Worker, the bulk being translated and run in the non-English daily press of the WPA. This 21-page document collects all 25 of these reports for the first time and provides what now stands as the best single blow-by-blow account of the landmark Foster "Criminal Syndicalism" case. The tone is, of course, sympathetic to the Defense, emphasizing the lies, distortions, and crass machinations of the Prosecution; a few non-factual statements of the Defense are reported without being challenged. These daily reports were authored by some of the WPA's best journalistic talent, including C.E. Ruthenberg, Robert Minor, Edgar Owens, Joe Carroll, Earl Browder, Clarissa Ware, John Hearley, and Jay Lovestone.

 

"'Foster at Bridgman': Spolansky. Identified by Testimony of US Operative: Defense Paves Way to Claim Evidence 'Planted.'" [March 16, 1923] Details of the cross-examination of Department of Justice agent Jacob Spolansky and Berrien Co. Michigan Sheriff George Bridgman in the trial of William Z. Foster for alleged violation of the Michigan Criminal Syndicalism Law in association with the August 1922 convention of the Communist Party of America at Bridgman, Michigan. Sheriff Bridgman described the scene of the convention as "a deeply wooded ravine hidden away from the Wolfskeel dunes, 20 miles south of St. Joseph and on the shore of Lake Michigan," according to this report in the St. Joseph, Michigan daily press. He also noted that Spolansky came to him to make an arrest of convention participants on Friday, Aug. 19, the actual raid being conducted on the morning of Tuesday, August 22. Three federal agents were named as being part of the arresting party, in conjunction with the sheriff's posse.

 

"Open Letter to John Keracher, Executive Secretary of the Proletarian Party of America in Chicago from C.E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary of the Workers Party of America in New York, March 17, 1923." The Workers Party sought to consolidate their growth in 1923 by incorporating the members of the Proletarian Party of America into their ranks. The PPA (formerly based in the Socialist Party of Michigan) is lauded by Ruthenberg as "an earnest self-sacrificing group inspired by the determination to help realize the goal of the Communist movement." Membership in the Workers Party, with its "20,000 members" would enable these individuals to "render vastly greater service" to the Communist movement in America, Ruthenberg notes. Understanding the PPA's fundamental belief that the current task of the Communist movement is to educate and enlighten the working class to prepare it for an eventually assumption of the reins of state and economy, Ruthenberg holds up the attractive possibility that PPA members might well play "very great" service "along the line of assisting in carrying on the educational work within the party." Ruthenberg asks Keracher to take the issue of joining the WPA en masse up with the National Committee of the Proletarian Party.

 

"Memo to All WPA District Organizers from C.E. Ruthenberg on Infiltration of the Socialist Party, March 17, 1923." A memo from Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg to all District Organizers of the Workers Party of America that a "left wing" movement seemed to be emerging in the Socialist Party and that "it is necessary for us to help crystallize that left movement." The DOs are instructed to "select some trustworthy and capable comrades who should be instructed to make an effort to join one of their branches in their locality. This is to be done in every city of your district where they are strong. One or two comrades is sufficient for every branch. The comrades must be absolutely trustworthy." This operation is to be secret: "The entire question is absolutely confidential and should not be made subject for discussion among the general membership for obvious reasons," Ruthenberg notes.

 

"Letter to J. Louis Engdahl, Editor of The Worker, in New York from Eugene V. Debs in Chicago, March 17, 1923." Short letter by Socialist Party leader Gene Debs to his former party comrade Louis Engdahl in reply to Engdahl's letter of March 12, 1923, apparently bringing to Debs' attention the action of SPA delegates in blocking Workers Party participation at the 2nd conferences of the Conference for Progressive Political Action (Cleveland, Dec. 1922) and the American Labor Party (New York, March 1923). In effort to explain the actions of the Socialist delegates to those gatherings, Debs sarcastically notes that "it may be that the Socialist Party delegates at Cleveland and New York voted as they did in order that the delegates of the Workers Party might not suffer humiliation and imperil their revolutionary reputation by affiliating with 'yellow-legged renegades,' 'agents of the petite bourgeoisie,' and 'traitors to the working class.'" He adds that "had I been a delegate of the Socialist Party I should have voted to admit the delegates of the Workers Party notwithstanding their organs and speakers having screamed themselves hoarse in their denunciation of the party I represented. This would have been my answer to their silly screeds and their vicious calumnies." Debs expresses the belief that WPA exclusion "will be adjusted in due course."

 

"Report on the United States: Up to March 20, 1923." [Selections] by Israel Amter Extensive excerpts taken from the lengthy digest of the news prepared for the Comintern by Israel Amter. Includes a long section of original reportage on the trial of William Z. Foster at St. Joseph, MI for his participation in the August 1922 Bridgman Convention of the CPA. Also includes information that provocateurs were being embedded by the WPA in the Socialist Party to sow dissension in the ranks; news of the affiliation of Scandinavian, Czechoslovak, and Romanian Federations with the Workers Party of America; details on the Olgin court saga in which he was hauled to court for publishing an unsigned letter making charges against the officials of the Furriers' Union; info on the struggle in the miners' union; and commentary about the emergence of a fascist movement in the United States, among other matters.

 

"Memo to All WPA District Organizers on Maintenance of Underground Apparatus from C.E. Ruthenberg, March 21, 1923." The decision to move the "seat of party authority" from the underground to the "legal" political apparatus did not mean an end for secret operations for the American Communist movement. This communique from WPA Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg to the District Organizers of the party makes clear. Ruthenberg instructs that pending the decision of the CEC on future underground operations, "you are to see to it that safe connections are being kept with the CEC and with the lower units, that safe addresses are being kept and transmitted in code, that Party names are used in written documents, etc." In addition, Ruthenberg added, it was essential that each party functionary maintain a substitution "who shall be supplied with all necessary connections and information, so that he would be able to proceed with the work without interruption in case of emergency."

 

"Assembling With is Foster's Crime: Steel Strike Secretary First Person Ever Tried on Such Trashy Accusation," by Robert M. Buck [March 24, 1923] Staunch defense of William Z. Fosters and the Communists denied their constitutional freedom of assembly by state and federal authorities in the August 1922 raid of the CPA's convention at Bridgman, Michigan. "William Z. Foster is on trial in this city on a charge that has never before been preferred against an individual in a criminal tribunal in this or any other country, so far as legal records show. He is charged with the 'crime' of 'assembling with,'" Buck declares. Even the West coast workers railroaded and imprisoned for membership in the Industrial Workers of the World were at least accused of organizational membership -- Foster faced prison merely for his association, Buck indicates. Adding to the unscrupulousness of the "trashy" indictment was the sordid fact that it was the vote of a government agent that tipped the CPA convention to retain the party's "underground" status; thus government action directly perpetrated the continued organizational illegality that the government was prosecuting, a perspective emphasized by Foster's chief counsel, prominent liberal attorney Frank P. Walsh.

 

"On the Foster Trial," by Grigorii Zinoviev [circa March 29, 1923] With Secretary of the Trade Union Educational League William Z. Foster embroiled in a trial for "criminal syndicalism" over his participation in the August 1922 Convention of the Communist Party of America at Bridgman, MI, head of the Communist International lends his support with this article in the press. "The record of the American labor movement is one of persecution and attacks by the capitalist class through the means of armed guards and detective agencies striving to destroy the labor organizations," Zinoviev says, noting that the charge against Foster are "old tactics employed by the capitalists in every country whenever the workers organize for the purpose of improving their conditions." Zinoviev states that "America today is under the absolute dictatorship of Wall Street.... The radical workers advocate a government of the workers and farmers operating in the interests of the workers and the exploited farmers, just as the capitalist government is operating in the interests of the capitalists." Zinoviev calls Foster "a true friend of the interests of the American workers and farmers" and states that he "cannot understand how a thinking worker or farmer living in America under the oppression of billionaire capitalism hesitates to accept" the program of the Workers Party of America.

 

"Judge Rules that Everything is Admissible at the Communist Trial in Michigan," by Edgar Owens [March 31, 1923] Brief news article from the pages of The Worker, English language official organ of the Workers Party of America, on the progress of the William Z. Foster trial at St. Joseph, Michigan. Foster was charged with violation of the Michigan state criminal syndicalism law for his participation in the secret convention of the Communist Party of America at Bridgman, MI during August of the previous year. Article author Edgar Owens notes that Judge White had allowed a questionnaire purported to have been filled out by William Z. Foster introduced into evidence, despite Bureau of Investigation undercover agent Francis Morrow admitting that he had been 15 feet away from Foster when he filled out the form, with about 20 people between Morrow and Foster, and that the form had been deposited on a table along with 74 others. The judge also allowed the introduction, over defense objections, of the program and constitution of the Communist Party of America, two articles from the underground official organ, the theses and statutes of the 3rd Congress of the Comintern, and a copy of Nikolai Bukharin's The ABC of Communism.

 

"Foster's Fate is in Balance: US Agents Keep Reporters Hootched Up and Have Free Access to Jury," by Robert M. Buck [March 31, 1923] A new accusation is made against the behavior of the Department of Justice and its lackeys in this article from the pages of the official organ of the Farmer-Labor Party of the United States: that reporters had been plied with booze and entertained by prosecuting authorities seeking favorable coverage in the press. "Dicks of the United States Department of Justice and others associated with the prosecution keep the newspaper reporters liberally liquored up with hootch and wine and nightly parties are held to insure that the reporters will be as enthusiastic in their thirst for the blood of the defendants as are the Department of Justice spies themselves," Buck declares. "The attentions of the stool pigeons, showered upon reporters, show results in the sending out of stories of things that did not happen in court, and otherwise unfair to the defense," Buck adds, singling out in particular the Chicago Tribune for its slanted coverage.

 

APRIL

"The Trial of William Z. Foster," by Robert Minor. [April 1923] Labor cartoonist and Communist Party leader Robert Minor writes here about the start of the William Z. Foster trial. Foster was charged in conjunction with the 1922 raid of the CPA's Bridgman, Michigan Convention with "unlawful assemblage" under the state's Criminal Syndicalism Law, for which he could have been imprisoned for up to ten years. Particular attention is paid to the seating of the jury and efforts of the government -- in conjunction with the Burns Detective Agency -- to sway public opinion in the case. Minor states that "the prosecution of Foster is a bald attempt of the Harding Administration to mold the American labor movement in its own image. Before the jury was completed the prosecution had definitely outlined its purpose to eliminate the Trade Union Educational League from the American Federation of Labor, the imprisonment of Foster being one of the intended means."

 

"Michigan Trial Shows Fidelity to Truest Interests of Workers, Arouses Bitter Enmity of Capitalism," by Rose Pastor Stokes [April 7, 1923] First-hand account of the Michigan trial of William Z. Foster by Workers Party members Rose Pastor Stokes, herself a delegate to the ill-fated August 1922 Bridgman Convention of the CPA. Stokes provides bits of local flavor, including an account of the detectives gathering for lunch daily at the Lake View Hotel in St. Joseph, across the street from the Whitcomb, where the defense gathered -- the better to keep an eye on the intermingling of sympathizers with the "terrible Reds." None of the Bureau of Investigation detectives on the stand did a particularly effective job, Stokes states, saying that Chicago-based agent Jacob Spolansky was "not believed" by the jury and that "hardly a question he answered was credited." Star prosecution witness Felix Morrow is accused of having told tall tales about handling a key document inadvertently dropped by Alfred Wagenknecht ("Duffy") which enabled him to in a single blow identify to the court the participation of 74 individuals at the convention. Morrow is quoted as saying of the laundry list of participants, "I remember every one of them except two who weren't there, and those two are Cook [Jim Cannon] and Raphael [Alex Bittelman]." Stokes writes of Morrow that and then he named names, "Christian names, surnames, and party names, until you are certain that the "Stool" has studied daily and nightly since the raids, and not unaided, to acquire his extraordinary knowledge. Even those who weren't there he has named....Thus 76 men get 'identified' at one whack." This testimony was nothing more than "lying," Stokes notes.

 

"Foster Case in Hands of Jury: Verdict is Momentarily Expected; Only Defendant and Ruthenberg Testify," by Robert M. Buck [April 7, 1923] On April 4, 1923, the case of William Z. Foster for alleged violation of the Michigan state criminal syndicalism law went to the jury in St. Joseph, Michigan. Buck contrasts the "childish brain" and "juvenile bunk" spouted by one of the prosecuting attorneys in his closing arguments and the far-fetched accusation by another that Foster had been fomenting armed insurrection at Bridgman with the "quiet, logical defense" made by Humphrey Gray and the "impassioned plea" of lead attorney Frank P. Walsh, which "held the crowded courtroom spellbound, interesting even the newspaper reporters." Buck quotes a couple choice epigrams from Walsh, including, "There is more menace to you and to me in the mahogany desks in one building in Wall Street than there is in the 45 men who voted at the Bridgman convention" and "It is a very poor American indeed, one without faith in the institutions of his country or in the quality of his countrymen, who sees a menace in communism."

 

"Capitalism's Howling Jackals Are Heralds of the New Day," by J. Louis Engdahl [April 7, 1923] New York weekly Worker editor Louis Engdahl unleashes a torrent of vituperation against the multipronged anti-Communist offensive which erupted concurrently with the Foster trial in Michigan. Engdahl hammers Sec. of State Hughes and Sec. of Commerce Hoover for their "broadside of old falsehoods" against Soviet Russia. Journalist and American Defense Society functionary R.M. Whitney, author of a series of articles in the Boston Evening Transcript based upon seized documents from the Bridgman raid, is attacked for heading an amalgam of "100 Percent Plus" organizations which were engaged in an offensive against "such friends of Soviet Russia" as Paxten Hibben, Charles Recht, and Anna Louise Strong. The Socialist Party is attacked for "trailing with the same crowd," a reference to the SP's ongoing effort along with others in the international Socialist movement to win release of the members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party imprisoned in Soviet Russia in 1922. Former SP publicist William Walling is singled out for his ongoing diatribes against Soviet Russia in the pages of The American Federationist. All of these disparate critics of Soviet Russia and the Workers Party of America are likened to a pack of cowardly jackals, hunting in a group and attempting with their howls to keep out of the newspapers "any small particle of Communist truth that might drift into them from the Michigan courtroom."

 

"Open Letter to the Members and the CEC of the Proletarian Party of America from O.W. Kuusinen, Secretary-General of ECCI, April 7, 1923." In the spring of 1923, the Workers Party of America put on a full court press attempting to win over the members of the Proletarian Party of America to its ranks. This letter by the Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Communist International makes the appeal in no uncertain terms: "The whole Proletarian Party must join the Workers Party of America. All who accept the leadership of the Communist International must be inside the ranks. The Proletarian Party as the last detached organized remnant today asserting communist principles and adhering to the ideas of the Communist International must no longer delay in becoming part of the unified revolutionary working class movement of America." The PPA is lauded for its "valuable educational work in Marxism" through the conducting of study classes, lectures, and street meetings. At the same time, it is held that the PPA "overestimated the value of purely educational activity," which to be effective must be applied through participation in the mass revolutionary movement. "The party organizing the workers must have as its tactic the getting of larger and larger masses into action until ultimately the big mass of workers will be prepared for the final struggle for power," Kuusinen states. Kuusinen calls the isolation of the small Proletarian Party "tragic" and urges the members of the PPA to "join the Workers Party, to accept the program, constitution, and decisions adopted by the last convention of the party, and help to develop it into the revolutionary mass party of the American working class."

 

"C.E. Ruthenberg in New York to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow on the Dissolution of the Communist Party of America, April 11, 1923." Official notification by the Secretary of the Workers Party of America that the Third National Convention of the Communist Party of America [April 7, 1923] had adopted a decision "to dissolve the underground party, leaving the Workers Party of America as the only Party having relations with the Comintern." Ruthenberg states while at present the name of the Workers Party and formal status of its affiliation with the Comintern as a "fraternal party" needed to remain unchanged, nevertheless the new unitary body should be accorded full rights of a member party of the Communist movement -- the right of its members to transfer into membership of other member parties, including the Russian Communist Party, and full voice and vote for its delegates to Congresses and other sessions of the Communist International.

 

"Official Notification of Dissolution from the Communist Party of America to the Workers Party of America, April 11, 1923." Pro forma letter by C.E. Ruthenberg to himself announcing the unanimous decision of the Communist Party of America by that organization's Third National Convention to dissolve the organization. The letter states that henceforth, any organization calling itself "Communist" is actually "an impostor and an enemy of the Communist International" which "should be exposed as such by every Communist and every class conscious worker." Communists are called upon to accept the discipline of the Workers Party of America as "a sacred duty" and that organization was duly authorized "when it deems it desirable, to adopt the name 'Communist Party of America.'" The Third Convention of the CPA was a one day affair held on Saturday, April 7, 1923; this letter and a similar letter to the Communist International written in the name of the CPA on the following Wednesday may be regarded as the moment of formal termination.

 

"Report on the American Party Situation to the Enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International, April 11, 1923." This is an official report by the "Secretariat" of the Workers Party of America (C.E. Ruthenberg - Executive Secretary; Josef Pogány - Political Secretary; Abraham Jakira - Secretary for Confidential Work) to the Enlarged ECCI summarizing the American party's work. A monthly dues-paying membership of "approximately 18,000" is claimed. The three old factions ("Liquidators," "Goose Caucus" and the "Opposition" [Central Caucus faction] are declared eliminated. Instead, three "tendencies" are said to now exist in the party -- a small "right" group opposed to underground organization, a small "left" group which considers underground operations the most important aspect of the party, and "the great majority" of party members who support the primacy of the open party. Details are provided about the Labor Defense Committee, the campaign to protect Foreign-born workers, the amalgamation campaign in the trade unions, the anti-Fascist campaign initiated by the WPA's Italian section, and the ongoing drive to establish an American labor party. The costs of legal defense of the Bridgman defendants are held to be onerous: "We have been obliged to put all our energy into the work of raising money for the defense of the comrades arrested at Bridgman, for which tens of thousands of dollars have been needed. This has made it impossible for us to raise money for other party purposes and has left us in a very difficult financial situation. The needs of defense will require all the money we can raise for a considerable time to come."

 

"American Legion Has Another Brainstorm: Break Up Labor Defense Council Meeting in Kansas City Thus Preventing Another Revolution." (Miami Valley Socialist) [report of April 13, 1923] Brief journalistic account of unconstitutional action engaged in by the ultra-nationalist ex-soldiers' organization, the American Legion. A peaceful public meeting in Kansas City of the Communist Party's legal defense organization, the Labor Defense Council, was raided by the unholy alliance of American Legionnaires and local police. "According to reports appearing in the Kansas City daily press the raid was made on information given by the local American Legion Secret Service," it is noted, with this news report adding sarcastically that "it was not explained why it was necessary for any undercover sleuths to 'discover' the meeting, which was given all the publicity and advertising that the local Labor Defense Council could secure." Four local trade unionists were arrested at the meeting. "Ella Reeve Bloor, who was the speaker at the meeting, was not molested. She announced as the crowd was being chased out of the hall by the dicks and Legion that a mass meeting would be held on Sunday, April 15 [1923], and the authority of the police and the power of the Legion to stop peaceful assemblages will be tested."

 

"William Z. Foster -- Revolutionary Leader," by John Pepper [April 14, 1923] Given the two fought a factional war to the knife for most of the rest of the 1920s, there is a certain element of irony in this Worker article by John Pepper holding that William Z. Foster was a living composite of the "splendid, typical characteristics of the American workers." Pepper gushes about Foster in the waning hours of his trial in St. Joseph, Michigan, calling him "at once blood of the blood, flesh of the flesh, of the working masses -- a worker himself, a leader of the masses, a trade unionist, a revolutionist, a Marxian, and a Communist." Pepper escapes the charge of hagiography by listing a set of Foster's "mistakes," including misestimation of revolutionary tactics as a member of the Socialist Party, failure to appreciate the importance of political action and the role of the vanguard party as a member of the IWW, and a failure to recognize the importance of the "revolutionary minority" as an organizer in the AF of L. Pepper adds that "these mistakes were never his own individual errors but always in quest of possible steps of advance for the American workers. Foster himself has always been honest and militant.... In every movement in which he participated Foster picked up all that was good and worthwhile and left behind what was harmful and worthless." Pepper concludes that "the American revolutionary will, after St. Joseph, know that Foster is their leader."

 

"Foster Verdict a Triumph for Communism in the United States," by C.E. Ruthenberg [April 21, 1923] Executive Secretary of the Workers Party C.E. Ruthenberg hails the hung jury at the end of the lengthy trial of William Z. Foster for alleged violation of the Michigan Criminal Syndicalism Law at St. Joseph as "a great victory for Communism in the United States." Particularly important, in Ruthenberg's view, was the judge's instruction that simple advocacy of Communist principles that historical change had been closely interlinked with resort to violence was not enough; rather, the prosecution needed to show that the Communist Party "taught and advocated crime, sabotage, violence, and terrorism as the method or one of the methods of accomplishing the changes in the organization of society desired by the Communists." Ruthenberg remarks that "Under these instructions it is surprising that there should have been any struggle in the jury room and that a disagreement was the final result, for these instructions fully uphold the Communist right to do everything which they have done in the state of Michigan or elsewhere in the United States." The thinking of the jury is revealed by jury member Russel Durm, who is quoted as saying: "The prosecution didn't prove that the Communist Party advocated violence.That was the only thing we split on. We all agreed that Foster attended the Bridgman convention, knowing what was going on there and sympathizing with the movement."

 

"NY Call in Conspiracy Against Russia; Also in War on American Communists; NY Socialists Hold Underground Meeting," by H.M. Wicks [April 21, 1923] During the winter of 1922-23 and the spring of 1923, the Workers Party and the Socialist Party simultaneously engaged in an escalation of rhetoric, making permanent a rift in the ranks of the American Left that would last for decades. Aspects of this "Divided Front" included the ongoing effort of the Socialist Party to exclude and isolate the Workers Party from the Conference for Progressive Political Action (Dec. 11-12, 1922) and from the American Labor Party (March 3-4, 1923) and a covert operation of the WPA to infiltrate its members in the SPA down to the branch level (per March 17, 1923 memo by Ruthenberg). As was the case during the 1919 Socialist Party internal war, the SP daily New York Call was dragged from a position of relative neutrality in the internecine scuffle into the position of being an instrument of factional warfare on behalf of the SP Regulars. This article from the WPA weekly organ, The Worker, reports (on the basis of unnamed sources providing "absolutely trustworthy and authentic information") a "secret meeting" held on the evening of Thursday, March 23, 1923. At this meeting, said to include representatives of the Call Managing Board, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the Jewish Daily Forward, and the Rand School -- Call Editor David Karsner was said to have been subjected to serious criticism for pulling punches in the factional war and for soft-pedaling defects in the political practice of Soviet Russia. A resolution was unanimously adopted, according to the Worker exposé, which launched a systematic attack on the Communists and their efforts at "boring from within" in the labor movement, and directing Karsner to ignore Soviet Russia as much as possible. The Worker article cites New York Call content from the issues of April 3, 4, 6, and 7, indicating that this direction to Editor Karsner was put into practice. The Call was thus engaged in a "campaign of slander against the Communists and the Russian Revolution" and was further taking positions at odds with those of SP leader Gene Debs, who supported the Russian Revolution, the constitutional rights of the Michigan trial defendants, and the work of the Trade Union Educational League, the Worker article charged.

 

"An Open Letter to David Karsner," by J. Louis Engdahl [April 21, 1923] Engdahl, a former leading editor of the official publications of the Socialist Party (now editor of the Workers Party's English weekly), writes this open letter to David Karsner, managing editor of the New York Call, making an effective personal appeal to Karsner's philosophy of intellectual liberty on behalf of the Workmen's Circle Mandolin Orchestra and Jewish comedian Ludwig Salz, both threatened with repressive measures if they performed at organized gatherings on behalf of the Workers Party or its institutions. Engdahl intimates that The Call, financially supported by the vociferously anti-Communist Jewish Daily Forward and the anti-Communist leadership of the Workmen's Circle, was complicit in the heavy-handed efforts to deprive these Jewish artists of their freedom of action, impinging upon the development of working class culture. "I was just wondering how you felt in the atmosphere created by those who fear for the existence of their own little dictatorship so much that they must needs resort to such diabolical suppression," Engdahl asks of Karsner.

 

"Ruthenberg Second Michigan Defendant: Prosecution Jolted When First Juror Called Voices Opposition to Criminal Syndicalism Law," by Joe Carroll [April 27, 1923] Federated Press news account of the first day of the C.E. Ruthenberg trial for alleged violation of the Michigan Criminal Syndicalism law for participation in the August 1922 Convention of the Communist Party of America at Bridgman, MI. "The veniremen questioned seemed to be either overanxious to get on the jury, or else equally overanxious to avoid such service," reporter Carroll notes. Interestingly, the prosecution listed the name of Louis Loeber among the potential witnesses in the trial, an individual who was believed by Carroll to be a second undercover government agent attending the Bridgman Convention as a delegate. Two veniremen had passed muster and been named to the jury after the first day of questioning; there were no women in the venire of 30 for the Ruthenberg trial.

 

"Cahan Dictator of The Call as Karsner, Editor, Resigns; More Light on Anti-Soviet Plot," by J. Louis Engdahl [April 28, 1923] The sudden resignation of New York Call editor David Karsner "confirmed" the reporting of The Worker on a change of political line at the New York Call, states this follow-up article by Worker editor Louis Engdahl. In reality, rather than regurgitating the melodramatic tale told April 21 of a "secret meeting" of New York's leading "yellow Socialists," this report retells the complete tale with more nuance, due in no small measure to the cooperation of "the best sources in the New York Call office" -- meaning, it would seem from the content here, Karsner himself. The revised and enlarged saga is as follows: a dire financial situation in the call necessitated a March 29, 1923, meeting of the Board of Directors of the New York daily (previously described as the "secret meeting"). It was determined to bring the paper closer to the (anti-Communist) political line of the prosperous Jewish Daily Forward in hopes of winning temporary financial support from that quarter. A resolution introduced by Algernon Lee bound editor Karsner to follow this line. A committee of 3, including staunch Red-fighter James Oneal, was appointed to ensure Karsner's obedience to this directive. Material critical of the Workers Party defendants in Michigan had been published before the Foster jury had arrived at a verdict at Oneal's direction, over the objections of Karsner. A piece of anti-Soviet reportage from the New York Herald had been directed to editor Karsner from the Call's city desk, and Karsner had run it on his own authority, attempting to follow the new line established for the publication. A firestorm of reader anger had resulted, and at the regularly scheduled April 6 meeting of the Call's Board of Directors, Karsner had been subjected to harsh criticism for his failure in judgment. "In the quarrel which ensued, Karsner gave his resignation as editor, to become effective a few days later," Engdahl states. The Board wrote an apologetic retraction of the story which had first appeared in the Herald and ordered its publication in the Sunday and Monday editions of the paper. The retraction had run in the Sunday edition, but Abraham Cahan of the Jewish Daily Forward raised an objection to the retraction and the Board had retreated, scrapping plans to run the apology again in the Monday edition. Engdahl concludes that "The reactionary "Abe" Cahan and the yellow Socialist Forward dictates the policy of The Call. It is a policy of war against Soviet Russia and the Communists. In this war the Socialists gladly ally themselves with the capitalist agents. It is the duty of all workers to boycott these prostituted sheets."

 

"Problems of the Party (I): Limits of the United Front," by John Pepper [April 28, 1923] Workers Party leader John Pepper begins a series of articles on "Problems of the Party" with a discussion of United Front tactics, spotlighting the broad-based United Front against Fascism built by the Italian section of the WPA. Absent from Pepper's analysis are mechanical and dogmatic formulae about "United Front From Above" vs. "United Front From Below." Instead, Pepper states that only those who loose any notion of their party while conducting joint actions with a broader Left are mistaken; In his words: "We become bad Communists when we forget our own Party within the United Front." Pepper states that "We cannot allow a so-called Left group to stand outside of the United Front -- not even if this group is not a real Left group, but one that is confused, unorganized, and at times even hostile." On the other hand, "it is impossible to forget the hatred against the yellow leaders at the moment when the Socialist Party makes a formal conspiracy in an underground meeting against Soviet Russia, and against Communists in general," he states. "We should form the United Front with every workers' organization, and when it is necessary, even with yellow Socialist leaders, with confused Anarchists. But we should not forget for a moment our distrust and hatred for these misleaders." Of particular interest is the primacy that Pepper places on the anti-Fascist struggle of the Italian Federation, a broad United Front which he calls for expansion to German, Polish, Jewish, Hungarian, Czechoslovak, and other language groups inside the party. Pepper also indicates the anti-Fascist struggle is being expanded on an international basis under the chairmanship of Clara Zetkin.

 

"The Workers Party and May Day," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [April 28, 1923] A short May Day message from The Worker in which the head of the Workers Party of America contrasts the current situation with the grim days of 1920, when outcast American Communists, "despised and ignored," were "driven underground, their organization destroyed." By way of contrast, the party was in 1923 "on the road to becoming that powerful influence in the labor movement" in providing "leadership and direction in the struggle against capitalism." It was the successful launch of the legal WPA that was responsible for this change of fortunes, this article implies.

 

"Circular Letter to the CEC of the WPA from Otto Kuusinen for the Secretariat of the Communist International, April 30, 1923." Perhaps moved in part by the howling of Shachno Epstein to the Communist Party of America for their denial of his purported status as a Comintern emissary, at the end of April 1923, Otto Kuusinen dispatched this circular letter to the member parties of the Comintern noting that ECCI "very rarely attempts to influence directly the tactical measures adopted by the Sections of the Communist International. When it does, however, it gives its representatives a direct mandate. No comrade, however closely and intimately he stands in contact with the Executive of the Communist International, who cannot produce such a mandate, is authorized to act as the representative or delegate of the Comintern or the Russian Party, or to attempt to influence the labors and discussions of the conferences of any section of the Communist International." The exact wording of the credentials provided to Comintern Representatives are to be closely examined as containing the essence of the organizational mandate, Kuusinen states.

 

MAY

"The American Foreign-Born Workers," by Clarissa S. Ware [Circa May 1923] Full text of a pamphlet published early in 1923 by the Workers Party of America. Clarissa Ware worked in the WPA's Research Department; this is her only publication as she died later in 1923. The pamphlet details the demographic composition of the American working class, measures being implemented and contemplated by the capitalist regime against foreign-born workers in America, and announcing the formation of a new mass organization called the "Council for Protection of the Foreign-Born Workers," dedicated to organize the nearly 35% of first- or second-generation Americans and their allies in the labor, labor political, and benefit society movements against the legislative offensive against the foreign-born. A National Committee of the Council for Protection of Foreign-Born Workers containing representatives of national organizations is called for, as well as the formation of Local Councils established on the same basis. The work of this new organization was to be financed through "voluntary contributions from the affiliated organizations," according to the pamphlet. "All the American Workers -- native and foreign-born -- have but one enemy -- the capitalist class that exploits and oppresses them," Ware states, noting that "the executive committee of the capitalist class, the Government" was active in evicting striking foreign-born miners, suppressing the labor movement via the injunction, and sending armed troops against striking foreign textile, mine, and steel workers. "Let there me one mighty army of labor! The United Front of the Workers against the United Front of the Capitalists! One front against the one enemy -- the employing class that robs and oppresses all the workers!" the pamphlet concludes.

 

"The Fifth Year of the Russian Revolution: A Report of a Lecture," by James P. Cannon [Circa May 1923] Full text of a pamphlet published by the Workers Party of America in 1922 by party leader Jim Cannon, detailing a 7 month stay in Soviet Russia dating from June 1, 1922. Cannon notes that Soviet Russia was well on the way recovering from Civil War -- the famine had ended, White armies had been defeated, production was being steadily restored, buildings were being renovated, and the Soviet government was supported by the Russian workng class. Commentary is also provided on the Show Trial of the Socialist Revolutionary Party leaders then taking place. Cannon attended the first day of the trial and he unhesitatingly recalls here: "It was a fair trial -- nothing like it ever occurred in America. The defendants were allowed to talk as freely and as much as they pleased. There was no restriction whatever on their liberty to speak in their own defense. The trouble with them was that they had no defense. The Soviet government had the goods on them. A number of the prisoners had repented of their crimes against the revolution, and they testified for the Soviet government. The case was clear. These leaders of the SR Party, defeated in the political struggle with the Communist Party, resorted to a campaign of terror and assassination. They murdered Uritsky and Volodarsky. They dynamited the building which housed the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party and killed 14 people. They had Trotsky and Zinoviev marked for assassination. It was an SR bullet that brought Lenin down and from which he still suffers today. They went even further than that. They went to the point that all the opponents of the Soviet system go in the end. They collaborated with the White Guards and they took money from the French government to do its dirty work in Russia. All this was clearly proven in the trial; most of it out of the mouths of men who had taken active part in the campaign." This pamphlet was originally to be called Russia To-day, 1923!

 

"On Trial in Michigan," by William Z. Foster. [May 1923] On April 4, 1923, after 31 hours of deliberation and 36 ballots, the jury in the William Z. Foster case resulting from the Aug. 1922 Bridgman Raid was declared deadlocked 6-6 and dismissed, resulting in a mistrial. This is Foster's interesting personal account of the trial, written in the immediate aftermath of the proceeding and published in the pages of the monthly TUEL journal, The Labor Herald. Foster noted that his case had been rightfully made into a test of Free Speech rights and that the mistrial represented a major defeat to the forces behind the case: the federal Department of Justice and the Burns Detective Agency. Foster asserts that government agent Francis Morrow was a provocateur who voted repeatedly for maintenance of the underground party at the Bridgman convention and who lied repeatedly on the stand in an effort to bolster the government's case for conviction.

 

"Michigan in the Muck," by Eugene V. Debs. [May 1923] Article on the heated legal battle in Michigan over the August 1922 raid of the Communist Party of America's Bridgman, Michigan convention published in the pages of The Liberator. Debs, the most widely recognized member of the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee, unleashes a barrage on the "idiotic and criminal 'criminal syndicalist' law enacted by political crooks to seal the lips of industrial slaves" in Michigan. Debs charges that "The communists had as good a right to hold a convention in the state of Michigan and to discuss their affairs and formulate their program, any kind of a program that stopped short of the actual commission of crime penalized under the law, as the graft-infested Republican and Democratic parties have to hold such a convention." The Michigan prosecutions were nothing but a "foul assault upon the Constitution and upon the elemental rights of citizenship," according to Debs.

 

"Party United Front Policy is Approved," by C.E. Ruthenberg [WPA Executive Council actions of May 7-8, 1923] Published summary of the actions of the 11 member Executive Council at its May 7-8 meeting. The Executive Council was a smaller group elected by the unwieldy 25 member CEC to conduct the business of the CEC between its plenary meetings. Ruthenberg indicates that the body decided the following: (1) to approve the United Front policy and instruct the Political Committee to launch an educational program on the limits of this policy; (2) to instruct the Organization Committee to work out a plan for party reorganization with more and smaller districts, and new units based in the workplace; (3) favoring the moving of WPA headquarters to Chicago, when practicable; (4) to accept the resignation of M.J. Olgin as editor of the Freiheit, and replacing him in that position with Benjamin Gitlow. The question of merging the two English language weeklies, The Worker (New York) and The Voice of Labor (Chicago) was also discussed, with this decision to be linked to plans for an English language daily. Final decision was delayed on this matter as was fundraising for a daily, due to demands on party funds to cover legal expenses.

 

"The United Front," by Upton Sinclair [May 12, 1923] Invited by editor Louis Engdahl of The Worker to provide his views on whether the Workers Party should be admitted to the newly organized Labor Parties around the nation, author Upton Sinclair says yes and then unleashes a torrent upon the sectarians who dominated both the Workers Party and Socialist Party. He states: "I believe in the 'United Front'; I have always practiced it, to the best of my humble ability, making it the motto of my life to keep my guns trained on the enemies of the working class, and to exclude personalities from my criticisms of working class tactics and activities. I regard it as the great tragedy of our time that so many leaders and would-be leaders of the working class can find nothing better to do with their time and energies than to fight one another. I quite understand that it is necessary to disagree about tactics, and where the life and future of the working class are at stake it is inevitable that men should differ vehemently. But they can do it without becoming personal enemies, and without splitting up their organizations and playing into the hands of the enemies of the working class. If they cannot learn to do it, they should be deposed as leaders, and other men should be put in positions of authority who can and will do it." Sinclair indicates that the Trade Union Educational League was correct in its estimation that the best policy was to "bore within" the existing mass organizations of labor to make them more radical and asks: "We had a working class organization, the Socialist Party, and it was not satisfactory to some of its members. If so, why was it not wise tactics to bore from within that party -- to stay in it and fight to make it more radical?"

 

"Problems of the Party (II): A Discussion with Upton Sinclair About the United Front," by John Pepper [May 12, 1923] Reply by Workers Party leader John Pepper to Upton Sinclair's call for a political amalgamation of the Workers Party with the Socialist Party. Pepper argues that a United Front of workers is possible due to the limited program of the unions -- for more wages, fewer hours, and against incursions of the ruling class against the foreign-born workers, etc. Political parties, on the other hand, had large programs based on fundamental conceptions of tactics. The Communists and the Socialists differed on a whole array of ideological and tactical matters. Pepper states that Communists believed (1) that Capitalism was in a period of irreversible decay; (2) that imperialism was inherent in the system, not an accident; (3) that advantage must be taken of the "present world-crisis of Capitalism" by the radical movement and a "dictatorship of the proletariat" establishes so that capitalists could be eliminated; (4) that never in history had a ruling class surrendered its privilege without the resort to force; (5) that the revolutionaries must destroy the existing form of government and replace it with a new form, the Soviets; (6) that trade unions should be militant in purpose and that old conservative leaders must be cast aside. "Communists and Socialists -- fire and water, revolution and reform, struggle and betrayal. How can Upton Sinclair for a moment imagine that these two elements can live in the same organization?" Pepper asks. Pepper also upbraids Sinclair for his contention that the 1919 split was caused by the Left Wing; rather, "the split in the United States was made by the same Hillquits and Victor Bergers who today sabotage amalgamation and the Labor Party." Sinclair's published work is saluted, but he is held to be possessed of "unclear" ideas -- concepts which are either in accord with the Workers Party in contradiction to the Socialist Party or which, Pepper says, not only stand in opposition to every Marxist analysis, but also contradict the facts.

 

"For a Labor Party: Addenda to the Second Edition, May 15, 1923," by John Pepper. There were three editions of the pamphlet For a Labor Party produced over the course of 1922-23, the second and third of which added additional commentary reflecting the developing situation. This document collects the vast majority of changed material from the original October 15, 1922, document (available as a separate file). Pepper excoriates the action of the Socialist Party delegates to the December 1922 Cleveland gathering of the Conference for Progressive Political Action, blaming them for the failure of the gathering to launch the Labor Party anxiously sought by rank and file trade unionists and poor farmers. Instead, the gathering chose to temporize, barring the Workers Party from participation, passing a virtually meaningless and watered down middle class platform, and following the AF of L's line of non-partisan political action ("rewarding friends and punishing enemies"). The decision of the Socialist Party not to aggressively pursue an independent federated Labor Party was an act of premeditated treason against the working class, in Pepper's view. It was left to the Farmer-Labor Party, which bolted the CPPA following it's defeat of a proposal to form a Labor Party, to organize this new federative group and a call for a July 3, 1923, Convention to found a new party had been issued. This July 3 Convention would "represent hundreds of thousands, and will be the first real step to an organization of a mass party of the American working class," Pepper asserts, adding that "the idea of a Labor Party is advancing, and it can no longer be stopped."

 

"Letter No. 13 to the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America in New York from Israel Amter in Moscow, May 16, 1923." One of the periodic updates by American CI Rep Amter detailing events in Moscow for the Workers Party of America at home. Amter obliquely details terms of Comintern support for an English language daily newspaper (using fractions code to hide the actual numbers). He emphasizes that "the understanding, I want to repeat, is that we will get what I asked for" in terms of financial support from the CI. As for the CI's requirement that a portion of the funds for the Daily Worker be raised by the American Party itself, "what they want is the assurance that the party will make the proper effort to help itself," Amter observes. Amter makes note of a May 1923 war scare over sabre-rattling by Great Britain: "The threat of rupture of relations with Great Britain has produced a tremendous effect. Hundreds of thousands of workers spontaneously protested against the attitude of the British government and the danger of war. And yet, although the Russian workers want peace, there is the greatest determination in case war should result. The demonstrations were even more gigantic than the May Day demonstrations. And these demonstrations show the wonderful power of the Party -- they show the enormous influence that the Party wields."

 

"The Conviction of Ruthenberg at St. Joseph," by C.S. Ware [May 19, 1923] This is a first-hand account by Clarissa S. "Chris" Ware of the jury verdict in the Ruthenberg trial for alleged violation of the Michigan Criminal Syndicalism Law by the act of "assembling with" the Communist Party at its August 1922 Convention at Bridgman, MI. Unlike the first trial, that of William Z. Foster, which resulted in a mistrial through a "hung" jury, Ruthenberg was found guilty. Ware attempts in this article to provide an explanation for the different outcome in the Ruthenberg trial. Her reasons include: (1) a jury with "with particularly strong prejudices against the things which the Communists stood for," including 8 farmers, a fruit buyer, a merchant, an oil salesman, and a gas station employee who was a member of the American Legion; (2) a prosecution which had learned from its previous mistakes, interrupting Ruthenberg's testimony at every opportunity and not allowing him to provide a sound exposition of Communist principles; (3) a ruling by the judge that "it was unnecessary for the prosecution to prove that the Communist Party had advocated anything in the state of Michigan," but merely "that the Communist Party elsewhere had violated principles which violated the law and that subsequently they had met in the state of Michigan." (4) the allowance of the prosecution to read anti-religious passages out of two books by Nikolai Bukharin to the jury in an appeal to religious prejudices, and allowance of the prosecution to bring up Ruthenberg's defiance of the wartime conscription law and subsequent jail sentence for the same in an appeal to patriotic prejudices; (5) an unfavorable jury instruction which no longer held that the Communists had a right to advocate "the Communist Revolution" or the Soviet form of government, but rather which asserted -- at the prosecution's request -- "It is the contention of the prosecution that the advocacy of the Soviets includes the advocacy of force" because the Soviets could not be established without the use of force.

 

"Problems of the Party (III): My Party, Right or Wrong, My Party," by John Pepper [May 19, 1923] In this third part of his "Problems of the Party" series, John Pepper takes aim at a tendency toward interest-group patriotism among many members of the Workers Party, instead of "Party Patriotism." No monolithic and blindly-obedient party here -- Pepper states that "It happens very often that Communists who work in a trade union or in a benefit society consider the special group interest of that particular organization as more important than the interests of their party.... These Communists who develop an AF of L patriotism are just as much in the wrong as those who have an independent union patriotism. Likewise, those who have become Benefit Society patriots are just as much in the wrong as those who have become Technical Aid patriots. They do not understand that the task of a Communist is not to be one-sided in upholding the interests of one group of workers, but that he must represent the common interests of the working class as a whole." Pepper indicates that the failure of such party members to "identify themselves 100 percent with the party" is "the chief hindrance to the strengthening of the Workers Party." Divided among 15 Language Federations and 1200 groups, "it is impossible that every member in such a party should possess the same uniform attitude on every question at all times," Pepper states. However, he continues, party members "must develop just as much patriotism towards their party as capitalists develop patriotism towards their country" by adapting the slogan of the capitalists of "My Country, Right or Wrong, My Country" to their own purposes. "Every militant Communist should write on his shield: 'My Party, right or wrong, my Party!'" Pepper insists.

 

"Problems of the Party (IV): Be American!" by John Pepper [May 26, 1923] In the 4th installment of his "Problems of the Party" series, party leader John Pepper analyzes the continued division of the Workers Party of America into a multiplicity of Language Federations, noting that not only the spoken language varies from group to group, "but often the ideology." He notes that "Our Russian comrades have a different historical tradition from the Italians, the Germans from the Poles. The workers belonging to various nationalities are still very deeply rooted in the social and political conditions of their old countries." Main issues of concern differed from group to group, as did their practical activity: "Our Italian comrades arrange a collection for the persecuted Communists of Italy, our German comrades send relief for the hungry children of German Communists. Our Hungarian comrades put forth great efforts to collect money for political prisoners suffering in Horthy's prisons. Our Polish comrades have made a collection for the support of the Communist election campaign in Poland. Our Ukrainian comrades collect money for the support of the Ukrainian publishing activities in Europe. Our Russian comrades are of course with heart and soul interested in relief of Soviet Russia. Our Jewish comrades collect money for needy Jewish workers in the Ukraine." Very often non-citizens and alienated from American political life, the Federations tended to retreat into their own "Ghettos," Pepper states. Political education and political activity had to be directed towards bringing the foreign-born majority of the WPA membership into the real American political struggle. To this end, Pepper puts forward the slogan "Be American!" -- a slogan which he says "means to struggle against the whole capitalist class of America; it means the hardest struggle against 100 percent nationalism of the jingoes. Be American means for the militant Communist to present the claim for the workers' rule of America."

 

"What Heinous Crime is This?" by H.M. Wicks [May 26, 1923] The spring 1923 attempt of the Workers Party of America to convince the Proletarian Party of America to discontinue its separate existence and to amalgamate was decisively rejected by the National Executive Committee of the PPA. The NEC went on the offensive, instructing PPA members to discontinue support of and participation in the Trade Union Educational League and insisting that it, the PPA, remained the sole legitimate vehicle of American Communism. Former PPA member Harry Wicks was called upon to return the salvo in kind, which he did with this article from the pages of The Worker. Wicks pulls no punches, calling his former comrades on the PPA's NEC "boastful hypercritical super-Marxists (?)" who were tending towards the swamp of Centrism through their over reliance on rank and file spontaneity in lieu of vanguard leadership. Wicks ironically remarks that "The Proletarian Party favors independent political action of labor, but that action must be confined to the Proletarian Party and does not embrace a Labor Party. However, it will favor a Labor Party 'if brought on by the rank and file.' What sort of leadership is this? Here are those who pretend to be a part of the vanguard of the proletariat waiting for the rank and file to act, then they, as gallant leaders, will follow." The Proletarian Party leadership dismisses the program of the Workers Party as a "fig leaf to cover old Centrist Leaders," Wicks notes, but in actual fact, the PPA's belief that a Labor Party was impossible without its development through the spontaneous action of rank and file workers was "as ridiculous as the opposite position held by J.B. Salutsky and his Centrist group," who asserted that a Labor Party is impossible due to resistance of Samuel Gompers and the AF of L machine. These were two sides of the same coin, in Wicks' opinion. "In the present case it is clear that the objective conditions for such a Labor Party are here, and evidence is accumulating every day that the subjective condition, viz., a strong demand for such a party from the rank and file of labor, also exists," Wicks asserts.

 

"Letter to O.W. Kuusinen, Secretary, Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from John Keracher, National Secretary, Proletarian Party of America in Chicago, May 26, 1923." Formal reply of the Proletarian Party of America to the Feb. 19, 1923, request of Otto Kuusinen on behalf the Communist International that the PPA liquidate its organization and join the ranks of the Workers Party of America. Keracher indicates that the Comintern is seriously misinformed about the situation in America -- that neither the Proletarian Party nor the Workers Party itself was in any way a mass political organization of the American proletariat. "Far from having achieved influence in and having gained control of any portion of the labor movement, the WP is following a course which, if unchecked, will add to the discredit of the revolutionists within the organized labor movement of America," Keracher remarks, adding that "If members of the Proletarian Party have "attacked" some leaders of the Trade Union Educational League, it has been because they disagreed with the tactics of these individuals. If the Proletarian Party has withdrawn its support from the Trade Union Educational League, it has done so after mature consideration." Keracher emphatically states that "While being desirous of cooperating at all times with the work of the Communist International in the struggle against world capitalism, the steps urged upon the Proletarian Party in the communication [i.e. liquidating itself and joining the CPA/WPA] are so out of harmony with the requirements of the revolutionary movement in America that the Proletarian Party can not bring itself to an acceptance of this unsound proposal." Keracher closes with a call for "COMMUNIST UNITY," which he characterizes as an amalgamation based upon "full knowledge of conditions here, and this knowledge can only be obtained by a thorough investigation and study of conditions as they exist in America, as well as the principles of the different revolutionary groups here" rather than through external fiat.

 

JUNE

"The Second Round at St. Joseph," by C.E. Ruthenberg [June 1923] While the trial of William Z. Foster for participation in the convention of the underground Communist Party of America at Bridgman, Michigan, in August 1923 resulted in a hung jury, the prosecution's second attempt to break the leadership of the Communist Party met with success, when Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg was convicted of having violated Michigan's Criminal Syndicalism statute. The unfortunate defendant, writing in the pages of the Trade Union Educational League's monthly magazine (probably because the defense organization, the Labor Defense Council, was targeted at the American trade union movement, with TUEL the logical conduit), attributes this unfortunate result to a Right Wing jury and a prosecution which had learned from its previous mistakes. Witnesses for the prosecution were generally practiced and efficient. Instead of allowing Ruthenberg to expound on the Communist philosophy for days on end, a steady stream of objections were launched when Ruthenberg sat on the witness stand in his own defense, breaking the flow. Finally, the instruction to the jury by Judge White was decidedly less libertarian than that issued in the Foster trial, when it was allowed that the Communists "had the right to advocate the establishment of a Soviet Government in the United States." In the second case, the judge had added that "the prosecution claimed that the advocacy of Soviets in itself included the advocacy of violence as the Soviets could not be established without a resort to force and told the jury if it found this was true they must convict." While unofficial reports indicated that the jury had split 9-3 for two ballots, in the Ruthenberg case a conviction was rendered, thus forcing the Communist Party into a precarious legal position, with the liberty of virtually its entire leadership hanging in the balance.

 

"Ruthenberg Convicted," by Jay Lovestone. [June 1923] The second trial springing from the August 1922 raid of the Bridgman Convention of the Communist Party of America saw Executive Secretary of the Workers Party of America C.E. Ruthenberg in the dock. This article from The Liberator by former and future CPA Executive Secretary Jay Lovestone details the course of the trial, which resulted in a conviction of Ruthenberg under the Michigan "Criminal Syndicalism" law. Lovestone attributes the success of the prosecution to a number of factors: avoidance of mistakes made in the earlier Foster trial, the greater ease of linking Ruthenberg to actual membership in the Communist Party, the Michigan law by which only registered property-owners could serve on a jury, and one-sided instructions by the judge to the jury in which it was stated that "the advocacy of Soviets and of the dictatorship of the proletariat might impliedly be taken as an advocacy of force."

 

"Socialist Party National Convention Delegates Remain Silent in Face of Attack on Soviet Russia: Cahan Rages in Attack on Soviet Rule," by H.M Wicks [June 2, 1923] First-hand account of the Socialist Party's 11th National Convention (May 1923) written by The Worker's journalistic attack dog, Harry Wicks. Wicks sinks his teeth into the convention keynote speech of "notorious Bolshevik baiter and editor of the Jewish (Socialist) Daily Forward" Abraham Cahan -- a "tirade that was so acrimonious, intemperate, and obviously false that the majority of the delegates were stunned." Wicks quotes Cahan as calling Trotsky a "bombastic windbag," Lenin a "muddlehead fanatic," Radek a dishonest and shady adventurer, Bukharin a "simple-minded fellow -- a mere baby in intelligence," and Zinoviev a "rotten egg" responsible for mass murder with a Swiss bank account at his disposal. He repeats accusations in the capitalist press that the Soviet government had made available a "$13 million fund sent out...to corrupt the world." Wicks quotes Cahan as saying of the Communists in America that "we must always fight them. Never show them any favors, but knock them in the head." Wicks intriguingly adds (without providing any specifics) that "This advice seems to have been followed by the yellow leaders of some of the needle trades unions, who employ sluggers and gangsters against the 'Left' opposition in their own unions." Only 6 of those present applauded Cahan's ill-tempered remarks upon their conclusion, Wicks notes. Wicks also details the Socialist Party's inability to pass any meaningful resolution on the question of International affiliation, sending the question back to committee from whence a carefully drafting and vapid resolution completely avoiding the controversial topic of alliance with the advocates of "Social Peace" issued forth.

 

"Socialist Party Convention Rejects the United Front," by John Pepper [June 2, 1923] Workers Party of America leader John Pepper comments upon the recently-concluded 1923 Convention of the Socialist Party of America, which he characterizes as a "debacle without equal" and a "pitiful spectacle." Pepper declares that the SPA, devoid of ideas and of leadership, had produced a gathering so vacuous that "the emptiest convention of the smallest trade union is more instructive and richer in content than this so-called National Convention of a so-called political workers' party." Pepper adds that "It may sound paradoxical, but it is true nonetheless, that in spite of its opportunism, the Socialist Party is nothing but a sect. We are accustomed to consider opportunism and reformism as maladies of mass parties. But the Socialist Party is a freak -- an opportunist sect." Pepper upbraids the SP for refusing to join the WPA in a United Front on common matters of interest to the working class. He notes that the accusation that the WPA is directed by Russians is preposterous coming from a party dominated by emigre Jews from the Russian Empire, such as Hillquit, Cahan, London, Shiplacoff, and Panken. Pepper asserts that the SPA's claim to American origins is false, with its own statistics proving that "almost half of it consists of Foreign Language Federations, and when we examine more closely the so-called English-speaking elements in the SP, we see that even these are mainly foreign-born, principally Jewish elements." Pepper declares that "The Socialist Party rejects the United Front with the Workers Party because it has degraded itself to an accomplice of the agents of the capitalists," allying itself with Gompers and the lower middle class reformers of the CPPA against the interests of the working class in establishing an independent Labor Party. "In obstructing the United Front the Socialist Party becomes an agent of the capitalists," Pepper asserts. Pepper also accuses SP leader James Oneal of falsifying quotations of Communist documents in order to subvert any movement towards a United Front.

 

"A Radical Irish Magazine," by T.J. O'Flaherty [June 2, 1923] Announcement by Workers Party of America journalist Thomas J. O'Flaherty of The Irish People, a new WPA-related monthly magazine directed to the task of radicalizing the Irish workers in America. O'Flaherty briefly outlines the history of the socialist Irish press in America, beginning with James Connolly's paper The Harp (1908); Big Jim Larkin's short-lived 1918 paper, The Irish Worker; and running through the first incarnation of The Irish People, published by the Irish American League and edited by O'Flaherty for 6 months in 1921. This new monthly version of The Irish People was intended to "tell the Irish workers in America some things they are not told by their bourgeois, superstitious press," O'Flaherty declares. Business manager of the publication was M.J. Scanlan of the Amalgamated Street Carmen's Association, and included among the contributing editors was William F. Dunne.

 

"Report from Alfred Wagenknecht (DO#14) in Wilkes Barre, PA to the National Office of the WPA, June 4, 1923." Workers Party District 14 (the second use of this number) was established in mid-1923, incorporating certain Pennsylvania mining towns formerly included in other districts. The DO of this new district was Alfred Wagenknecht, living in Wilkes Barre. This is an interesting early report from Wagenknecht to the center detailing the composition of party branches in D14 and the activities of the Workers Party in the "progressive miners" movement, including conferences for each of the United Mine Workers union's districts within the new WPA district. Wagenknecht laments the lack of English speaking cadres, noting that "we are handicapped by not having one English speaking WP member in these three anthracite districts." He asks for the transfer of a good speaker from Illinois. He also asks that Antonas Bimba be sent to work amongst the Lithuanian miners in the region "for some weeks."

 

"Debs - Chairman of the Socialist Party," by John Pepper [June 9, 1923] This is perhaps as interesting for the presumptions which Workers Party leader John Pepper makes about the rival Socialist Party of America than for its concrete analysis. Veteran Left Socialist Eugene V. Debs has been elected to the National Executive Committee of the SPA for the first time since 1899, Pepper announces, and further elected National Chairman of the organization. As the titular leader, Debs now faced a "dilemma" of whether to continue to support the policies he had long advocated, including Amalgamation, support of Soviet Russia, and support of the United Front with the WPA -- or whether he would cave in to support the "petty Tammany Hall" regime of "Hillquit and Berger" which stood as official party policy. "If he fights for his own political views, he must fight against the petty Tammany Hall of Hillquit and Berger. But the destruction of the petty Tammany Hall of the Socialist Party officialdom means the death of the Socialist Party. And yet, if Debs chooses the other way, and accepts the policy of the petty Tammany Hall of Hillquit and Berger, the laboring masses who have confidence in him today will quickly abandon him. That also means the death of the Socialist Party in another way." Includes extensive footnotes by Tim Davenport examining various dubious assertions about SPA ideology made by Pepper in this article, which seems to have been essentially agitational rather than truly analytical.

 

"Report on the 3rd Enlarged Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International," by Israel Amter [events of June 12-23, 1923] Very lengthy official report on the proceedings of the 3rd Plenum of the Enlarged ECCI by Workers Party of America delegate Israel Amter -- distributed to the party press with instructions from the CEC of the Party to translate and publish. Amter delves into the limitations of "Democratic Centralism" -- stating that the Congress of the CI, not the national parties themselves, must have the power to determine the membership of ECCI and that the CI must have the power to alter the composition of national party leaderships, when necessary. With regards to religion, Amter states that the ECCI has taken the position that religious belief is a private matter between the individual and the state, but that Communist Parties exist not only to liberate workers economically and politically, but also ideologically, and that they "will not fail to conduct educational work for enlightening the workers on the nature and content of religion, and to free them from its domination." Amter relates the ECCI's position on the the world political situation, with special emphasis on Bulgaria, Germany, England,and France. The new slogan of "Workers' and Farmers' Government" was approved by the 3rd Plenum, Amter states, with credit for the slogan attributed to the Workers Party of America by Zinoviev. The importance of Anti-Fascist organization, trade union work, and the implementation of the "factory nucleus" form of party organization are noted by Amter.

 

"Letter No. 16 to the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America in New York from Israel Amter in Moscow, June 26, 1923." Periodic updates by the WPA's Rep to the Comintern Israel Amter detailing events in Moscow for the party leadership at home. In this lengthy communique, Amter notes recently attending sessions of the Profintern with Charley Janson [Scott, Johnson]. At one of these Amter says " I got into the trade union resolution the clause that : "It is the duty of every member of the Communist International to join his union and work actively with the Communist faction, i.e. in the revolutionary opposition movement," etc. etc.... That will be a great aid in getting the comrades to join. In fact it was pointed out that no one should be allowed to be a member unless he joins -- that it should be regarded as a matter of course that he joins a union." This reflects once again the way that the early Comintern and Profintern were a two way street -- not a narrow circle of bureaucrats blindly issuing dictatorial and universally binding instructions, but rather a centralized organization with international representation and input. In other matters, Amter notes that 3rd quarter funding for the WPA remains locked up: "The next will go forward ONLY AFTER YOU HAVE SENT A STATEMENT." A fundraising campaign to establish an English language daily newspaper is greenlighted, the origin of the idea for the Comintern to provided a targeted grant only after the WPA makes an earnest effort to raise funds itself is reveal to have started with Amter, who writes: " I myself proposed that what they would do for us should be done only when and if we did our share - as stated. They accepted. I knew that would spur on our members to greater efforts." Amter asks for more WPA literature to be sent and for closer ties of American defense organizations with the MOPR. "It is necessary to centralize and coordinate all the prisoners' relief activities so that international actions can be achieved," Amter declares, indicating that the Labor Defense Council and National Defense Council should affiliate themselves with the Moscow-based international organization forthwith.

 

 

JULY

"The Role of the Workers Party," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [July 1923] A somewhat mistitled article from The Liberator in which Workers Party of America Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg recounts the split of the socialist movement into right and left wings. Ruthenberg dates this split back to the 1914 start of the European War, which prompted an "inevitable sundering" in which the "reformist right wing leaders in the socialist movement the world over betrayed the workers and supported the capitalist governments in the imperialist war," while "the left wing endeavored to rally the workers for the struggle against imperialist war and to turn this war into a struggle against the capitalist system." Ruthenberg sidesteps the fact that in America the overwhelming majority of the Socialist Party backed the anti-militarist St. Louis Resolution of 1917, which he himself co-authored. The tasks of the Communists in America included amalgamation of the unions, education of the masses as to the necessity of replacing capitalist rule with worker rule ("the Dictatorship of the Proletariat"), and formation of a Labor Party, according to Ruthenberg.

 

"The Declaration of Independence of the American Working Class," by John Pepper. [July 1923] The Hungarian revolutionary Jozsef Pogany ["John Pepper"] came to the United States in 1922 to assist with the Hungarian-language Federation of the American party and soon became one of the Workers Party's most authoritative voices. Throughout his tenure in America, Pepper was an outspoken advocate for the formation of an American Labor Party -- with Communist participation in that organization as a constituent body. In this July 1923 article from The Liberator, Pepper likens the forthcoming July 3-4 date of the Convention of the Farmer-Labor Party to the July 4, 1776, American Declaration of Independence, stating that it will mark the beginning of the formation of a "genuine Labor Party." The Republican and Democratic Parties had virtually nothing to differentiate one from the other, Pepper stated, whereas "only an independent political party of the working class can represent the interests of the laboring masses of the factories and farms."

 

"On Louis C. Fraina: An Excerpt from Israel Amter's No. 17 from Moscow to the Central Executive Committee, WPA, in New York. July 5, 1923." Excerpt from letter no. 17 from the WPA's man in Moscow, Israel Amter. Amter responds to the news that Louis C. Fraina has returned to New York with words of warning. Having spoken with Osip Piatnitsky about Fraina, Amter says with emphasis: "THEY ARE THROUGH WITH HIM. THEY DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIM. I hope that this will be a guide for us. I trust that there is no fool in the US who will attempt to put him into the ranks again.... He has a weakness for drink, women and, I understand, for cards. That is enough to keep him out, regardless of his ability.... And just at this time, when so many shady characters and worse are being found in our ranks, to add him would be to undermine the party and hand it over to the D of J. Frankly, I do not trust him."

 

"FLP Disowns the New Party: Workers Party Takes Advantage of its Position as Guest to Start Dual Movement," by Robert M. Buck [events of July 3-6, 1923] After adjourning as the convention of the Farmer-Labor Party of the United States, delegates in Chicago reformed as a conference to forge a non-binding umbrella organization for joint federative action of various working class political organizations and trade unions. The Workers Party of America, which had organized the election of delegates to the FLP convention and conference, prepared a program, and conducted itself as an organized caucus, found itself in a position of hegemony vis-a-vis the Farmer-Labor Party of the United States in the gathering. Rather than set up and recommend a non-binding federative umbrella, the conference set upon establishing a formal federative party organization, passing a constitution and program and electing officers. Thus was born the Federated Farmer-Labor Party. The FLPUS, intent upon its original vision of a non-binding recommendation subject to approval by each federating organization (and intent as well on retaining hegemony over the new organization) recoiled from the WPA-inspired new party, walked out of its own conference, and launched an acrimonious blast at the communists. "The Farmer-Labor Party was graciously allowed 2 representatives on a committee of 29, some members being added to the committee on the floor of the convention at the last moment," New Majority editor Robert Buck snidely notes. Upon the reporting of a new constitution to the conference, "the Farmer-Labor Party members, reporting as a minority, said that the Farmer-Labor Party could not accept the new plan, which set up a new party dual to the Farmer-Labor Party, in that it was almost a duplication by its form of organization, and further, that the majority of the committee proposed to steal the name of the party that invited them to the conference." The Farmer-Labor Party met again in a snap convention on July 6, 1923, Buck notes, with WPA and other non-FLPUS delegates excluded. After 4 hours of heated debate, a motion to appoint 5 members to the National Executive Committee of the new FFLP was decisively defeated and the breach between the two Farmer-Labor Parties was formalized. "The Farmer-Labor Party remained intact following this severance, except for its Washington state branch, the delegates of which bolted the convention and attached themselves to the new party," Buck notes, additionally slinging the epithet that those delegates seeking to remain in the Federated FLP rather than sticking with the FLPUS after its break with the new organization were "bolters."

 

"The FLP Convention," by Robert M. Buck [events of July 3-6, 1923] Editor Robert Buck of The New Majority presents an editorial review of the happenings of the eventful July 3, 1923 convention that saw the formation (and subsequent disavowal) of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party (FFLP). The Farmer-Labor Party of the United States (FLPUS) was uniquely suited to serve as the umbrella organization for a British Labour Party-style federative organization, in Buck's view; it alone of the existing working class parties accepted memberships from affiliated organizations on a per capita basis -- the others being based solely upon individual memberships. This fact implied that the organization should first establish deep roots with affiliated unions rather than attempt to forge working agreements with "other groups having a definite and different philosophy than its own, until such time as it, the central organization, the Farmer-Labor Party, should have worked up substantial strength of its own," Buck states. Still, a section of the FLPUS sought alliance with other parties of the Left to consolidate their appeal to the working class, and the July 3 convention was called to attempt to reach a working agreement with these other Left organizations, particularly with the Socialist Party of America and the Workers Party of America. The SPA was " not ready for unity except with themselves" and declined to even send a fraternal delegate to the July 3 convention, leaving only the WPA as the target for united action. "Reports came into the party headquarters that the Workers Party was packing the conference with delegates from trade unions in which they had enough members to have their own people named as delegates," Buck states, but the FLPUS did not burden themselves with much concern about this, since the convention was perceived as preparatory and subject to the ratification of the various constituent organizations. However, "instead of a program for a plan to be carried back by the delegates to their several constituents," the gathering hastily moved upon a "plan for immediate organization, including the election of a new National Executive Committee, not in the future, but by that conference, then and there, which they had packed and which they controlled," Buck declares. The "guests" had failed to "behave themselves," and the FLPUS had moved to disassociate itself organizationally from the new FFLP. Instead of joint action between the FLPUS and the WPA, greater factional confusion had been the perverse result of the convention, with the formation of a "dual" Farmer-Labor Party in addition to the already existing organizations.

 

"The Nucleus in America: A Secret Memo on Party Organization from the Executive Committee of the Communist International to the Central Executive Committee of the WPA, July 11, 1923." The underground Communist Party of America was formally liquidated at a convention starting April 7, 1923, in New York City. This secret memo, probably written by Grigorii Zinoviev, reminds the WPA that despite the complete move to an "open" party, "American comrades would be greatly mistaken if they cherished the illusion that hence forward they will be in a position to carry on their work unhindered exclusively in a legal organization." The memo instructs the party to base itself on a new form of organization based upon "factory nuclei" of three or more communists in a single workplace, with isolated individuals assigned to specific nuclei by the relevant party committee. This structure would allow for a quick transition to underground work should the need arise, the memo indicates. Importantly, these nuclei are to be comprised without respect to the native language of the participants -- language groups are henceforth to be territorially-based propaganda organizations with multi-national factory nuclei the basis of organization. Due to the widely scattered nature of American production and the relative unimportance of the factory in daily life, geographic organizations are also to be permitted, says the memo. The WPA is to centralize its press, make use of all available legal means of agitation for communism, to mandate union membership of its members, to coordinate its defense organization with International Red Aid, and to play closer attention to conspiratorial methods -- "even to the extent of removing comrades most responsible in this respect from responsible party work, and even exclusion from the party."

 

"Letter to the Workers Party of America in Chicago from Vasil Kolarov in Moscow, July 12, 1923." This letter from General Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Communist International Kolarov came into the possession of American government representatives and was regularly trotted out as evidence that the American Communist movement followed "orders from Moscow." Kolarov asserts that " the imperialist powers of France, England, and America are making their plans to divide the spoils in Germany and reduce the working class to the position of coolies" and that it is the task of the Workers Party of America to organized the "vast sentiment for Communism" that it has aroused. Kolarov salutes the WPA's attempt to forge both and economic and a political United Front, calling the establishment of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party "an achievement of primary importance" by bringing together "the militant farmers and workers for the attainment of political power against the control of the capitalist parties." He calls for the Communists to make a great effort to unite the 29 state labor parties and farmer-labor parties into one United Front in the 1924 campaign. Kolarov is critical, on the other hand, of the lack of attention of the WPA on anti-imperialist work. "The huge profits from the war and the exploitation of foreign markets have enabled the American bourgeoisie to penetrate deeper into the Latin American countries," he states, noting particularly American aggressiveness in Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Nicaragua, Panama, and Colombia, and the initiation of great loans to various governments in South America. "American imperialism intends to conquer the Western Hemisphere and force the colonies under complete control," Kolarov declares, adding that opposition to this trend "is a problem of vital importance to the American working class. Fearful imperialist wars face the country. The bourgeoisie is making ready. The government is perfecting its military machinery..."

 

"Report on the United States: From May 10 to July 25, 1923." [Selections] by Israel Amter Extensive excerpts taken from the lengthy digest of the news prepared for the Comintern by Israel Amter. Includes a strong section on the July 3 Convention establishing the Federated Farmer-Labor Party including self-critical views of the tactics employed by the WPA in conjunction with the gathering. Also includes material on the June 27 convention of the Pennsylvania district of the United Mine Workers Union which preceded and influenced the FFLP conclave. Also included is the TUEL view of the Industrial Workers of the World, which is characterized of being composed of "four bona fide unions" worthy of support, with 36,000 members -- lumber, agricultural, marine transport, and general construction -- and 20 pseudo-unions with 1900 members which should be "absorbed into the mass organizations of the AF of L." In addition to general economic and political reviews is included coverage on the May 1923 convention of the Socialist Party (whose claim of 12,000 members was "very doubtful") and the June gathering of the Young Workers League (with 2,000 members claimed).

 

AUGUST

"The Federated Farmer-Labor Party," by William Z. Foster. [August 1923] This long day-by-day account of the founding convention of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party (July 3-5, 1923) was written in the immediate aftermath of the gathering by William Z. Foster. This piece, published in the pages of the monthly magazine of the Trade Union Educational League, is gushingly upbeat and positive in its characterization of the founding convention: "Marked by a tremendous outburst of militancy and enthusiasm, it was a vibrant, thrilling, overwhelming demand by the rank and file of agricultural and industrial labor for the formation of a powerful political party of the toilers. Nobody who attended its sessions will ever forget them." While Foster would very soon come to regard the WPA's ideologically blinkered Farmer-Labor Party policy and TUEL's subsequent loss of contacts and influence in the labor movement as the greatest of debacles -- fuel for the factional war inside the Workers Party over the next several years -- at this precise moment he was positively ebullient about the organization's prospects, it's founding marking a new epoch in American political history: "A mass party, led by militants, embodying the vital idea of a united political organization of workers and farmers, and operating in the midst of the present industrial and agricultural discontent, it is full of dynamic possibilities," Foster declared. Foster dismissed the "supposed [old] Farmer-Labor Party bolt" as a "lie widely spread," and he asserted that "the fact is that the most militant elements in the FLP, carrying with them the bulk of the organization, have declared for the new party."

 

"The Workers Party and the Federated Farmer-Labor Party." by John Pepper [Aug. 1923] The immediate post-convention assessment of the new Federated Farmer-Labor Party written by the chief adherent of the Farmer-Labor Party tactic, John Pepper. Pepper depicts the new organization in the most rosy colors, calling it a "militant revolutionary party" and a "real mass party" to which 616,000 workers and farmers are affiliated through their organizations. Pepper ironically notes the contradictory behavior of Chicago Federation of Labor leader John Fitzpatrick, who split from the Dec. 1922 meeting of the Conference for Progressive Political Action in favor of a labor party, but split from the July Convention establishing the FFLP against formation of a labor party. "It is a pity about Fitzpatrick," Pepper remarks, "He merited much in the labor movement and was a good leader," but "the road to revolution is paved with the political corpses of well-intentioned leaders." The Fitzpatrick bloc consisted of "not more than 50 or 60 delegates," Pepper says, noting "the Workers Party was also in the minority" with a representation "through various militant unions and other labor organizations" of "not quite 200 delegates." Pepper says the WPA won all four of the "great tactical battles" which took place at the FFLP Founding Convention -- the seating of every delegate by the credentials committee, the report of the organization committee to establish a labor party immediately, the continuance of the alliance with the farmers in the report of the agrarian committee, and the defeat of an attempt by the old FLP to adjourn and reorganize a new party barring the Communists. In the establishment of the FFLP at convention, the Workers Party had demonstrated itself a "real communist party," Pepper states.

 

"Attempt to Murder Foster! Gunmen Burst in on Union Meeting and Open Fire on Labor Leader as He Commenced Speaking at Protest Meeting Against Expulsion of Garments Unionists by Perlstein," by Jack Johnstone [events of Aug. 27, 1923] One of the little-known details about the life of William Z. Foster is that he survived an attempt against his life by a gunman, as this news report from the Workers Party's Chicago English language weekly recounts. Foster was speaking before nearly 2,000 at Carmen's Auditorium in Chicago at a mass meeting called to protest the expulsion of a number of TUEL activists by the General Executive Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union. "Foster had just commenced speaking, when suddenly the door to the right of the platform was thrown open and 3 shots fired - all of them at Foster, who owes his life to the fact that the gunmen were so anxious to cover their faces that it interfered with their aim. The gunmen came up the fire escape and went out the same way," Johnstone notes. Johnstone indicates that this attempt at Foster's life came only after a failed attempt by ILGWU partisans to disrupt the meeting by steadily heckling each speaker. The meeting passed a resolution, included here, condemning the expulsions and urging the GEB of the ILGWU to reconsider its actions.

 

SEPTEMBER

"Police Report that Real Bullets Were Fired at W.Z. Foster," by Carl Haessler [Sept. 8, 1923] Whether the gunman that fired three shots at William Z. Foster at an August 27 TUEL protest meeting was actually trying to kill him was a matter of some debate in the mainstream press, with the Right Wing Chicago Tribune twice levying the charge that the entire incident was a fake planned by Foster and his associates to garner publicity and support. This article by Carl Haessler of the Federated Press quotes Detective Sergeant Crowley of the Chicago police: "From our investigation we have no reason to believe the Tribune statement that the shooting was 'faked,'" reads Crowley's statement, adding that "we have not caught the assailant, but are working on the case." Haessler also cites the unnamed manager of Carmen's Hall: "The manager of the hall declares that he had noticed a number of interrupters who were getting ready for more pronounced action and he spoke to them asking who they were. They told him, he says, that they were members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. He advised them to abandon their tactics and for a while there was quiet. Then after Foster had begun speaking a man in the audience near the emergency exit tapped loudly on the bottom of a seat. Immediately afterwards, the door suddenly opened, a single gunman fired, masking his face with one arm, and fled." Haessler states that "The bullet holes were plainly visible to me. They were evidently made through hasty pulling of the trigger while the gunman brought the revolver down forearm to level it at Foster. The first bullet narrowly missed a huge inverted electric light bowl, of which there were 2 in the line of shots. The second shot wavered a little to the right of the first, but 6 feet nearer the platform. The last was in direct line and 10 feet closer to Foster."

 

OCTOBER

"Romance in Journalism: From The Chicago Daily Socialist to The Daily Worker," by J. Louis Engdahl. [October 1923] Engdahl, editor of The Chicago Daily Socialist from the middle of 1910 until its demise in December 1912, recounts the story of its paper, including its origins as a byproduct of the 1906 Socialist Party election campaign, its greatest success during the Chicago newspaper strike of 1912, and its death as a result of factional fighting within the Chicago SP. The forthcoming Daily Worker is heralded as an ambitious resurrection of The Daily Socialist. The new paper is called "a new era in American working class journalism" in which "no fight will be too small to win attention" and "every battle will be interpreted in the light of its broader national and international significance."

 

"District Boundaries and Organizers of the Workers Party of America (as of October 1, 1923)," compiled by Tim Davenport. A very useful handlist detailing the geographic boundaries of the 14 districts of the Workers Party of America and listing the name and address of the District Organizers for each, as of October 1, 1923. The party did not make use of District nos. 11 and 14 at this particular time, but did have a three state "Agricultural District" including North and South Dakota and much of Montana. Includes brief notes on the history of Districts numbered 11, 14, and 15 within the WPA.

 

"Notes from the Road: September 13 - October 17, 1923," by Max Bedacht Max Bedacht was one of several National Organizers which the Workers Party of America sent on the road in the fall of 1923 -- traveling from WPA headquarters in Chicago all the way through to California, up the Pacific coast to Washington, before heading east across Montana en route to Minnesota. There Bedacht spent time in the Twin Cities and in Duluth-Superior. Throughout his trip Bedacht sent back informative handwritten letters about the party situation in the various locales on his trip. These letters to Ruthenberg provide an extremely important glimpse of the state of the early WPA outside of its urban eastern strongholds. The material is well written, informative, and fun to read. Includes reports about Omaha, NE; Denver, CO; San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Oakland-Berkeley, CA; Portland, OR; Astoria, OR; Tacoma, WA; Aberdeen, WA; Spokane, WA; Butte, MT; Miles City, MT; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; and Superior, WI.

 

"Report on the United States: Up to October 20, 1923. [Selections] by Israel Amter Extensive excerpts taken from the lengthy digest of the news prepared for the Comintern by Israel Amter. Includes a strong section on the strategy employed in the movement for the Federated Farmer-Labor Party. Amter interestingly notes that the Workers Party was prepared to join with the Socialist Party and FFLP in the "united front" candidacy of Eugene Debs for President of the United States. A great deal of commentary about the situation of the Party in the AF of L, which was launching a campaign to repress Communist influence in its member unions. This state of affairs was depicted in triumphant terms by Amter, who asserted that the expulsion of Bill Dunne from the Portland convention of the AF of L "has done the Communist cause a great deal of good, and shown the workers that the only body of men with measures that meet the situation are the Communists." Also included in this report: decision of the CEC that William Z. Foster should not only "come out into the open not only as a member of the Party but also of the CEC"; announcement of a "Hands Off Workers Germany" campaign; information on the dispatch of Jim Cannon to Mexico to organize a Pan-American labor organization in opposition to that of Gompers; news of the anthracite miners' strike; affiliation of the Hanshack Social Democratic Federation as an Armenian Federation of the WPA; and other topics of the day.

 

"Notes from the Road: September 23 - October 30, 1923," by Harry M. Wicks. Harry Wicks was one of several National Organizers which the Workers Party of America sent on the road in the fall of 1923 -- traveling throughout the Northeast speaking to public ("mass") meetings and smaller "membership meetings" consisting of WPA members. This is the set of extant reports submitted by Wicks together with a few letters to Ruthenberg preserved in the Comintern archive in Moscow. Worthy of note is a nasty anti-Semitic comment by Wicks relating to the case of a Jamestown, NY Jewish Federationist named Drozen, who was expelled from the party in some incident related to a recent streetcar strike: "The Jewish Branch is still crying over the expulsion of that rat who scabbed on the street cars last winter. They are trying to take him back in the Party saying 'really he is a good comrade and that it was just the doings of Wicks that he was expelled.' Now I never saw the bastard or heard of him in all my life until I saw him last winter when charges were preferred against him.... Now the one question to be settled is whether we are going to please a bunch of half-baked kikes who want him in the Jewish branch and who are themselves scabs at heart, otherwise they would not defend his action, or whether we want to maintain the respect of the active trade unionists here." Includes reports about Erie, PA; Jamestown, NY; Buffalo, NY; New Haven, CT; Bridgeport, CT; Revere, MA; Lynn, MA; Providence, RI; Elizabeth, NJ; Passaic, NJ; Reading, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Charleroi, PA.

 

"To All Labor Unions in Chicago: A Circular Letter Dated Oct. 31, 1923," by Joseph Manley In the aftermath of the July 3-5, 1923 convention which established the Federated Farmer-Labor Party there was a great deal of acrimony directed at the Workers Party of America for their purported splitting of the farmer-labor movement. This letter to Chicago unions, signed by Joseph Manley (son-in-law of William Z. Foster and National Secretary of the FFLP) answered these charges. The body of this letter is actually a quoted letter stating the position of the Workers Party, signed by the Executive Secretary of that organization, C.E. Ruthenberg. Ruthenberg charges that it was the (old) Farmer-Labor Party of Fitzpatrick and the Chicago Federation which "got cold feet," violated its previous understanding with the Workers Party, refused any further effort at mediation of differences, and which ultimately was ready to "sacrifice the labor party because Gompers threatened them." The Workers Party was not at fault, Ruthenberg stated: "If there was any split at this convention it was not a split caused by the Workers Party. If there was a betrayal, it was not a betrayal by the Workers Party. The split and betrayal were the work of Fitzpatrick and the Farmer-Labor group."

 

NOVEMBER

"Letter to Morris Hillquit in New York from C.E. Ruthenberg in Chicago, Nov. 3, 1923." A cryptic note sent from the Executive Secretary of the Workers Party of the member to the leading light of the arch-rival Socialist Party of America. Ruthenberg notes that he will be in New York on Nov. 8, 1923, and that he seeks a conference with Hillquit to "talk with you" in regard to an invitation sent by the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party to labor political groups for a Nov. 15 conference in St. Paul. This conference was an attempt to "come to an agreement on the question of calling a national convention for the nomination of a presidential candidate and the adoption of a national platform." Despite the hostility between the two organizations, this document affirms that there was at least informal discussion at the top level about the possibility of joint action with regards to the Farmer-Labor Party movement.

 

"Soviet Russia: A Triumph of Marxism," by C.E. Ruthenberg [Nov. 7, 1923] An agitational article for the Workers Party of America's party press by WPA Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg. Ruthenberg marks the 6th Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution by crediting it with the transformation of Marxian abstract theory into Marxian concrete fact. While the victory of Socialist Revolution in an isolated and embargoed country was something of great inspiration to the Marxist movement, Ruthenberg states that "the triumph of a general theory of the development of capitalist society, of the Marxian theory, which finds like conditions and like forces at work in every capitalist country -- that is something which has greater meaning and which is a greater inspiration." Henceforth, quasi-religious faith would no longer be required, in Ruthenberg's view, for "Today we, who once called ourselves Socialists and now call ourselves Communists, are building our movement and organizations, not upon a theory, but upon a demonstrated fact. The proletarian revolution which established Soviet Russia, which for six years has held the whole capitalist world at bay, which has survived hunger and starvation, is the living demonstration of the truth of what Marx said and wrote. Soviet Russia means that in Germany, where the clashing forces are now nearing a climax, in France, in Italy, in the United States, in every capitalist country of the world, the proletarian revolution will come, will triumph, that Capitalism must give way to Communism."

 

"Letter from C.E. Ruthenberg in Chicago to Osip Piatnitsky in Moscow, Nov. 19, 1923." A lengthy and illuminating review of the Workers Party of America's Farmer-Labor Party strategy as it rapidly evolved in the fall of 1923. Ruthenberg relates the decision of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party to call a convention at St. Paul in May of 1924 for the purpose of joint nomination of a candidate for President of the United States and adoption of a joint program -- thereby uniting the various state Farmer-Labor organizations, the Federated Farmer-Labor Party, and other labor and political groups into a single organization. Upon learning of this initiative, Ruthenberg states that the CEC immediately sent him to Minnesota, where he met for two days with Minnesota FLP officials working out the details for a November 15 pre-convention conference. Interestingly, Ruthenberg states that it was his initiative over "considerable objection" to extend an invitation to the pre-convention conference to Morris Hillquit of the Socialist Party in an effort to bring the SP and its popular cachet into the new united organization. Ruthenberg also related the decision of the CEC to declare a truce in the ranks of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which was racked by a severe struggle between the union administration of Sidney Hillman and a TUEL-based left opposition. Hillman and the ILGWU were to be key players in the forthcoming Farmer-Labor Party movement, Ruthenberg indicated, while Hillman had the incentive to play the public role of peacemaker, thus consolidating his position in any forthcoming amalgamation of the ILGWU with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, believed by Ruthenberg to be in the offing in the not too distant future. This document demonstrates that volition in WPA action in the Farmer-Labor Party movement came from the party itself -- that it did not blindly follow "orders from Moscow" on this matter but rather acted as it saw fit under the general line of the Comintern, providing information of its specific actions after the fact.

 

"Our Labor Party Policy," by James P. Cannon and William Z. Foster. [Nov. 1923] The split of the Chicago Federation of Labor from the Federated Farmer-Labor Party Conference of July 3-5, 1923, came as a stunning blow to the Communist Party's union-oriented activists -- of which Bill Foster and Jim Cannon were in the first rank. That the New York-based Central Executive Committee attempted to spin the July Conference as a great triumph rather than an unmitigated debacle came as an insult to this Chicago-centric cohort. It was this matter that triggered a bitter factional war inside the Communist movement that lasted for the rest of the decade. This internal party document by Cannon and Foster is a salvo against the New York leadership of John Pepper and his co-thinkers. To split with the centrist progressive union movement "on the grounds that they are not good revolutionary militants is to reject the idea of alliance of the Communists with other elements in the labor movement, and to repudiate entirely the principle of the united front," Cannon and Foster charge, adding that the result of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party blunder was sectarian isolation. "We have lost the issue of the united front labor party and are fighting now for our own labor party, the Federated. As a consequence our comrades are largely isolated, and face a united front of all other elements against them." Convention delegates who voted for the new party and returned to their unions either recanted under the onslaught or were repudiated, Cannon and Foster state, noting "we captured the delegates for three days, but we did not capture their organizations for the FFLP. The claim that the FFLP is a mass party with approximately 600,000 members has absolutely no foundation in fact."

 

DECEMBER

"Rules of Order of the 3rd National Convention of the Workers Party of America. Held in Chicago, Dec. 30, 1923 - Jan. 2, 1924." The predetermined rules for the 3rd Convention of the WPA and agenda for that same gathering. Of note is the fact that Robert's Rules of Orders reigned supreme when not in conflict with convention rules and the apparent fact that the convention was slated to end January 1 but actually saw its business carry over and end on January 2, 1924. The reports delivered to the convention were later published as a pamphlet, The Second Year of the Workers Party of America: Report of the Central Executive Committee to the Third National Convention: Held in Chicago, Illinois Dec. 30, 31, 1923 and Jan. 1, 2, 1924: Theses, Program, Resolutions. Reports were delivered to the gathering by Ruthenberg (keynote), Foster, Engdahl, Lovestone, Minor, Lore, Ballam, Jakira, Bedacht, Manley, Abern, and Cannon.

 

"Letter to the Workers Party of America from Vasil Kolarov, General Secretary of ECCI, December 7, 1923." This rather lengthy letter was addressed to the 3rd Convention of the Workers Party of America, held in New York at the tail end of 1923. In this rather general "state of the union" type message, Kolarov notes that "American Imperialism is in the heyday of its expansionist policies" and that "New, fearful wars menace the whole world as a result of the machinations of American Imperialism." To help combat this menace, Kolarov hails the decision of the CEC of the WPA to establish a new Communist daily newspaper. "The whole strength of the Party must be mobilized for the establishment of the Daily, which should be the forerunner of more revolutionary dailies in other parts of the country," Kolarov declares. Kolarov also comes out for an alteration of the basic form of the WPA, asserting that " the shop must be the basis of all Party work." Organization of the party around the shop nucleus "will enable us to gather the workers on the job, where they feel most keenly the capitalist and the force of the government," Kolarov asserts. The WPA's struggle for a United Front against capitalism, both in the economic and political fields, is hailed, while the party's chief deficiency over the previous year is held to be a failure to apply itself "with sufficient energy" against American Imperialism. "Fearful imperialist wars face the country. The bourgeoisie is making ready. The government is perfecting its military machinery; General Pershing is demanding a larger army. The Communists must sound the alarm and prepare the workers for resistance to these bloody schemes," Kolarov declares.

 

"Report of the Daily Worker Campaign Committee to the National Convention of the Workers Party of America," by John J. Ballam [Dec. 31, 1923] This report was delivered by chairman of the Daily Worker Campaign Committee John Ballam to the 3rd National Convention of the Workers Party of America. Ballam notes the particulars of the "$100,000 Daily Worker Campaign" of the 4th Quarter of 1923, in which financial quotas were set for each of the WPA's 16 language groups. A complete financial accounting of the activities of the Campaign Committee is provided -- and these figures are used in extensive footnotes by Tim Davenport as the basis for measurement of Ballam's various claims and allusions against the unstated reality which was faced by the WPA as it prepared to launch its English-language daily newspaper. The argument is made by Davenport that Ballam's claim of over $73,000 raised is probably deceptive and that the WPA appears from Ballam's figures to actually have had a net of approximately $30,000 infused into party coffers by the Daily Worker campaign.

 

"Ranked 1923 Workers Party of America Official Membership Statistics." A complete month-by-month account of the paid membership of the Workers Party of America ranked by size of membership of the various language federations of the party as well as by membership district. At the end of 1923 there were 18 language groups of the WPA (ten largest: Finnish, English, South Slavic, Jewish, Lithuanian, Russian, Ukrainian, German, Czechoslovak, Latvian) and 14 Districts (six largest: New York, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Detroit). Average paid membership for the year was 15,395, of which a massive 42.7% were members of the Finnish language federation. While many members of the various language groups were fluent in English, the membership of the English language groups was just 7.6% of the WPA for 1923.

 

Unspecified Month

"For the United Front of Labor! A Call to Action by the Workers Party: To All Labor Unions, All Organizations of the Working Farmers, the Farmer-Labor Party, the Socialist Party, the Proletarian Party, the Socialist-Labor Party, and the Industrial Workers of the World. [Early 1924] Full text of a four page leaflet produced by the Workers Party of America in an attempt to unite the various political organizations of the American left in a single united front against the "one common enemy -- the employing class." Unity is proposed on the basis a five-pronged program including (1) amalgamation of craft unions into industrial unions; (2) protection of the foreign-born workers; (3) repudiation of the 2nd, 2-and-1/2, and Amsterdam Internationals; (4) recognition of Soviet Russia; and (5) radical restructuring of the constitutional and political structure of the country, including establishment of a Labor Party, easing the standard for amending the US Constitution, elimination of the US Senate, elimination of Presidential veto power, elimination of the Supreme Court and the "veto power of courts over legislation," and eliminating the primacy of state-based law -- in short, "the removal of all such Governmental obstacles now hindering the workers in their struggle against the exploiting class." The manifesto declares that "unless the workers organize to meet the new offensive of the employing class they will lose every vestige of their hard-won gains of many years of bitter struggle. They will be completely enslaved by the victorious employing class dictatorship."

 

"Working Class Sport Organizations vs. Bourgeois Sport Organizations." [Leaflet of the Workers' Sport Alliance of America, 1924] This leaflet announces the formation of a proletarian sports organization in opposition to such institutions as the YMCA, the YWCA, and the American Amateur Athletic Union -- groups which were said to be funded and supervised by rich industrialists and other bosses of the ruling class. "The capitalist class finds that by sports they are able to draw the young workers into the sphere of patriotic propaganda that teaches that it is unpatriotic to go on strike, etc. And by making the more advanced athletes or the stars the ideals or heroes of every young man or woman they are able through their newspapers to raise the athletic enthusiasm to such a high pitch that the sport lovers become like maniacs that care for nothing else than their favorite sport," the leaflet asserts. The Workers' Sport Alliance, on the other hand, had as its object the making of the working class of this country "healthy physically and also mentally by making them class-conscious. Thus making them able both physically and mentally to oppose the attacks of their foes, the capitalist class and its lackeys and stool-pigeons." The leaflet notes that "In the Workers' Sport Alliance you get a chance to participate in your favorite sport, as well as a chance to become familiar with the economic system of society that you live under."

 

"The Labor Party Campaign: An Excerpt from the Report of the Central Executive Committee to the Third National Convention of the Workers Party of America," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [Jan. 1924] The Executive Secretary of the Workers Party of America reviews the organization's activity for 1923 in the Farmer-Labor Party in this report to the 3rd Convention of the WPA. The failure of the WPA to have its delegates seated at the Dec. 1922 Cleveland Conference of the Conference for Progressive Political Action combined with the FLP's withdrawal from the CPPA over its failure to launch a new broad-based Labor Party spurred a move by the WPA to join forces with the existing (old) Farmer-Labor Party as its "united front" vehicle for joint political action, according to this account. With announced decision of the Socialist Party and LaFollette Progressive movement not to participate in the forthcoming July 3, 1923, Conference to establish an new "Federated Farmer-Labor Party," the old FLP began to lose enthusiasm for the gathering, and a split with John Fitzpatrick of the Chicago Federation of Labor took place at the gathering. Ruthenberg is critical of the activity of the Chicago district of the WPA in the aftermath and attempts to document this group's mistakes in contrast to the "correct guidance" of the Political Committee of the CEC of the Workers Party.

 

Resolution on Shop Nuclei. Adopted by the 3rd Convention of the Workers Party of America, New York City -- Dec. 30, 1923 - Jan. 2, 1924. From 1923 there was movement inside the Communist International to restructure the various national Communist Parties on a model of the victorious Russian Communist Party, which when linked one to another by the Communist International would constitute the "world party." This process of restructuring parties to be based on primary units located in the workplace (so-called "Shop Nuclei") rather than in the geographic areas in which the party members resided was known as "bolshevization." This is the 3rd Convention of the WPA's instruction to its incoming CEC on the question of shop nuclei. The structure is favorable and necessary to the Communist movement, according to the resolution, but "greatly complicated by the fact that our Party is made up of many [17] language sections." The Convention envisioned a parallel structure in which party members would remain members of language branches, through which they would pay dues, while at the same time organizing shop nuclei "wherever two or more party members are employed in the same factory or shop." The details of the connection of these shop nuclei to the existing district organizations and city central committees was explicitly deferred to the incoming CEC, while the Comintern's idea of forming "international branches of workers of various language groups" was respectfully referred back to the CI as a change that would cause serious disruption of the Party organization.

 

"Minutes of the Central Executive Committee, WPA: Chicago, IL -- January 3, 1924." Immediately after the conclusion of the Third Convention of the Workers Party of America [Dec. 30, 1923-Jan. 2, 1924], the newly elected Central Executive Committee met in Chicago to reorganize the executive structure of the party. These are the complete minutes of the meeting with explanatory footnotes. This plenum of the CEC was notable for solidifying the controlling position of the Foster-Cannon faction, with 4 of the 7 members of the Political Committee and 3 of the 5 members of the Organization Committee aligned to the new Majority faction. In addition, the Chicago members of the CEC were to function as an Executive Council in between monthly meetings of the Central Executive Committee. In addition, the body elected a strong contingent of its supporters as part of the 10 man delegation to the forthcoming 5th World Congress of the Communist International. One surprise was the decision of Minority faction leader John Pepper to nominate himself for Moscow representative of the WPA to the Comintern -- seemingly a spur of the moment decision which gained only two votes, while Israel Amter was reelected with the votes of nine others, crossing factional lines. Includes decisions on the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party situation (decision to name Clarence Hathaway an organizer among the Minnesota farmers), the Conference for Progressive Political Action (decision to mobilize to elect as many delegates as possible), and the National Council for Protection of the Foreign Born (decision to mobilize language federation units as local councils of a United Front organization).

 

"Letter to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from C.E. Ruthenberg in Chicago, January 8, 1924." This cover letter was written by Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg to ECCI to explain the unseen politics behind the 3rd Convention of the Workers Party of America and the decisions of that gathering. Ruthenberg cites three main areas of division: (1) the policy of the WPA with regards to an anticipated petty bourgeois "Third Party" springing out of the Conference for Progressive Political Action; (2) the United Front policy of the Chicago district -- a veiled attack on William Z. Foster by John Pepper; (3) and the composition of the newly elected Central Executive Committee -- in which the Foster-Cannon faction in conjunction with the Lore "Anti-Third Party" group attained a decisive majority, defeating the Pepper group. With regards to the new CEC, Ruthenberg notes that the "conflicting forces involved in this election" are "somewhat difficult to present in view of the fact that the issues were those of personality rather than issues of policy." At root was latent antagonism between Foster and Cannon against John Pepper, a holdover from the 1923 debate over "organizing and building up the Federated Farmer-Labor Party as a party," according to Ruthenberg. Ruthenberg depicts himself as holding an intermediate position between the Foster-Cannon and Pepper groups and notes that in the negotiations over the composition of the new CEC at one point Foster proposed a 6-6 division of the CEC with the Pepper group, with Ruthenberg the decisive 13th vote. This proposal was scrapped in favor of a composition that represented "a clear majority on the CEC for the Foster-Cannon-Lore group," Ruthenberg notes.

 

"Our Party Convention," by John Pepper [Jan. 9, 1924] The 3rd National Convention of the Workers Party of America [Dec. 30, 1923-Jan. 2, 1924] accentuated the factional division win the WPA which had emerged over the party's handling of the formation of a federated Farmer-Labor Party. This article by the principal of the Pepper-Ruthenberg faction explains two seemingly contradictory actions of the Convention -- affirming the policy of the CEC majority (Pepper group) on the FFLP, while at the same time demoting that group to minority status on the incoming CEC. These incongruous actions were the byproduct of a non-homogeneous anti-CEC section consisting of two currents -- a Chicago-based group (headed by William Z. Foster) challenging the CEC's Labor Party policy from the Right and a New York-based group (apparently headed by Alexander Bittelman) hitting the CEC from the Left. Despite his faction losing its majority control of the CEC, Pepper remains upbeat that the issue was faced forcefully without a split resulting. Pepper is particularly pleased that the newly-elected CEC contained none but previously tested members, arguing that "a Communist Party is not a real Communist Party as long as it has not developed a leading stratum which is generally acknowledged by the Party membership as such. Only cheap demagogy will deny this." Pepper states that matters are now resolved between the factions: "Majority and minority recognize equally that we have no non-Communist elements in our Party, and this must determine our mutual attitude after the Convention. Neither majority nor minority has the right to continue the fight." He concludes by reciting a dictum of Zinoviev: "Discipline begins where conviction ends" and noting that the principle applies to his own faction in the minority as much as it did to his opponents when his own faction reigned supreme.

 

"The Workers Party of America's Comintern Appropriation Request for 1924." [Jan. 10, 1924] Text of a coded message to the Comintern sent by Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg shortly after the close of the Third National Convention of the Workers Party of America [Dec. 30, 1923-Jan. 2, 1924]. Ruthenberg asks for $64,000 for 1924, as follows: Daily Worker, $25,000 ("It is important that we receive it quickly if daily is to live"); Labor Party campaign, $10,000; labor unions [TUEL], $12,500; literature publishing, $3,500; educational work, $5,000; agricultural work, $8,000. This amount, if fully approved and transmitted, would represent a subsidy of $3.38 per member for an organization of 19,000 dues-paying members. Includes explanatory notes by Tim Davenport.

 

"The American Revolutionary Movement Grows: An Analysis of the Many Achievements of the Third National Convention of the Workers Party," by C.E. Ruthenberg [Jan. 13, 1924] An upbeat and positive account of the recently completed 3rd Convention of the Workers Party of America [Dec. 30, 1923-Jan. 2, 1924] by the Executive Secretary of the organization (whose faction lost majority control of the incoming Central Executive Committee to the Foster-Cannon-Lore alliance). Ruthenberg emphasizes the continuity between the past an forthcoming CECs, noting that the Convention voted to approve the policy laid down by the previous CEC. Through its United Front efforts (Foreign-Born Workers, Farmer-Labor Party, Bridgman Defense) the Party had gained a foothold in the American political culture for the first time, Ruthenberg asserts, while he optimistically adds that the Party had "at last consolidated its forces and that the period of splits and factional struggles was over..." Ruthenberg's language is measured in this account published in the new Daily Worker, but he does note major controversy over the United Front policy of the Chicago organization (i.e. the Foster group) and John Pepper's tactical decision to remove the divisive issue of the relationship of the WPA to an anticipated petty bourgeois Third Party in America from the Convention agenda to the Comintern for final decision -- thereby smoothing the way with the "15-odd" of the 53 convention delegates loosely affiliated around Ludwig Lore in opposition to any collaboration with such a party. This episode incidentally demonstrates once again the circularity of the American relationship to the CI in this period, in which appeal to outside authority was actively used BY THE AMERICANS to mitigate factional controversy. The Comintern's organizational model to be implemented by all parties, based on the shop nucleus, is sidestepped, with the convention agreeing to establish shop units in parallel with the current organizational system, based on language branches. "The Convention left to the next National Convention the question of extending this work," Ruthenberg notes.

 

"The Farmers and the American Revolution," by John Pepper [Jan. 19, 1924] One of John Pepper's most interesting and thoughtful analyses of the state of American agriculture and the Farmer-Labor movement -- an exposition of the core of his strategic thinking about contemporary American economic development from the perspective of a revolutionist. Pepper cites the statistics of Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace as to the extent of the deep crisis which rocked American agriculture throughout the 1920s: even though the 1923 harvest had been vast, high costs of tariff-protected manufactured goods and other production expenses and low market prices for agricultural commodities had combined to make agricultural profoundly unprofitable. Citing Wallace, Pepper states that about 8.5 percent of grain-belt farmers had already lost their farms to creditors with an additional 15 percent in a technical state of bankruptcy, surviving due to the leniency of creditors. This American agricultural crisis was the flipside of the industrial crisis then wracking Germany and Great Britain, with factories shuttered and millions of workers unemployed due to an inability to sell manufactured goods to an impoverished world. Over "big opposition in our Party" to the idea, Pepper stated that the agricultural crisis was not temporary and that "the most important revolutionary fact" of the January WPA convention was the decision to make a "bold attempt to place ourselves at the head of the farmers' revolt." Pepper analyzes the composition of the American working class and the WPA which mirrors it and concludes that "a revolutionary movement in the United States, which embraces only the foreign-born proletarian workers of the basic industries and only a narrow stratum of the native-born workers, has no real hope of gaining power without the support of the millions of native-born, working farmers." In short, in Pepper's view the potentially revolutionary condition was emerging in crisis-riven agriculture, not in the trade union movement, thus his seemingly obsessive drive to construct a class (i.e. Communist-led) mass Farmer-Labor political organization.

 

"Our Party -- Three Tendencies," by C.E. Ruthenberg [Jan. 19, 1924] This is the published statement of WPA Executive Secretary about the party terrain in the aftermath of the 3rd National Convention of the Workers Party of America [Dec. 30, 1923-Jan. 2, 1924]. Ruthenberg argues that there were three main tendencies in the WPA: (1) a group espousing the "impossibilist" ideas of the Left Wing Section of the old SPA -- believing that no effective short term program was achievable and instead seeking to embark on a policy of propaganda and education to prepare workers for a future revolution; (2) a trade unionist wing hailing from the unions and the IWW, not afraid to engage in the class struggle but placing primacy upon union action and subordinating the political role of the party to trade union activity; and (3) the former leading faction, which although acknowleging a great role in the trade union sphere, nevertheless believed in the primacy of the political sphere and subordination of trade union activity to the larger political goals of the movement. Ruthenberg stated that the result of the Third Convention of the WPA was the shattering of the alliance between the political [Pepper-Ruthenberg] and industrial [Foster] tendencies and a new "abnormal" combination of the educational [Lore-Lindgren-Wagenknecht] and industrial tendencies in opposition to the political. ". Such an alliance does not make for the health and progress of the party. It is an alliance an cooperation between the second and third tendencies which brought the progress of the last year. The renewal of that alliance and cooperation will assure the future progress of the party," Ruthenberg states.

 

Minutes of the WPA Organization Committee and WPA Executive Council, Meetings of January 19, 1924. The Organization Committee was a standing subcommittee of the Central Executive Committee of the WPA detailed to handle the specifics of personnel assignments, budgetary planning, and so forth. These are the minutes of the first 1924 session of the "Org Com," at which the Foster faction was to hold majority control over decision-making for the first time. However, one of the three members of the Foster majority, Martin Abern, was absent -- resulting in a 2 to 2 deadlock on several personnel matters. This standoff which was broken at the suggestion of Ruthenberg, who advocated the call of a snap session of the Executive Council of the Party for that evening, at which the Foster majority group held a more secure majority. In this way, personnel changes could be made and the party could move forward without Ruthenberg (or Pepper) having to assent to the changes. These moves included: (1) Abram Jakira resigned as Assistant Secretary of the WPA, replaced by James Cannon; (2) the Daily Worker campaign was wrapping up and head of that committee John Ballam (scheduled to become DO1 for Boston) was instead named DO4 [Buffalo]; (3) Foster faction loyalist Charles Krumbein was named DO2 [New York City]; (4) Abram Jakira was unanimously named DO3 [Philadelphia]; (5) Martin Abern and Fahle Burman were named to the committee for the Friends of Soviet Russia, prompting Pepper's resignation from the same. In addition, a three person committee consisting of Foster, Abern, and Ruthenberg was named to work towards execution of the shop nuclei decisions of the recently concluded 3rd Convention of the WPA.

 

"Letter to the Workers Party of America on the Establishment of an English-Language Daily from Grigorii Zinoviev, Chairman of the Communist International in Moscow." [published. Jan. 21, 1924] Congratulatory letter from the head of the Communist International to the newly established English-language daily newspaper of the Workers Party of America, The Daily Worker. Zinoviev likens the fundraising efforts of the American Party to help establish the Daily Worker (the establishment of which also was funded by a large conditional grant by The Comintern) to the fundraising process undertaken by Lenin and the Bolsheviks at the time of the establishment of Iskra. In a line pregnant with implications for the policy of the Pepper-Ruthenberg faction, Zinoviev states that "Whoever wants to help the Communist Party to become, not a guild organization which defends only the narrow class interests of the working class, but a party of proletarian revolution, of Socialist upheaval, of the hegemony of the working class, must, after the establishment of a party of workers, direct its attention also to the winning over of the farmers.... The chief difference between the Russian Bolsheviki and Mensheviki could, in the final analysis, be brought down to the question of the farmers." (Not surprisingly, Pepper directly quoted from this letter in a theoretical article in the party press even before the letter was published!) Zinoviev additionally sets a task for the future agenda of the WPA: "At the first opportunity the American comrades must establish a special mass Communist newspaper designed for hundreds and hundreds and thousands of small farmers."

 

"New York Organization Expels Hendin and Gruss." [Jan. 21, 1924] Brief, unsigned press release announcing the expulsion of Louis Hendin and L. Gruss from the Workers Party of America. Hendin and Gruss were co-signers along with the already expelled J.B. Salutsky of a call for the formation of a "Communist Educational League." Cautioned by the CEC of the Workers Party to disassociate themselves from this group under pain of expulsion, they nevertheless attended the founding meeting and spoke, "attacking the policies of the Workers Party." The matter was referred to the WPA branches of which the two were members, and unanimous votes to expel were the result at the meetings of each. This was depicted in this news release as a "sudden stop" brought to an "effort to create a factional movement inside of the Workers Party, initiated by J.B. Salutsky."

 

"Lenin," by John Pepper [January 23, 1924] V.I. Ul'ianov (N. Lenin) died at 6:50 pm on January 21, 1924, and the nature of politics within the Communist movement was instantly altered. A new word entered the lexicon -- "Leninism" -- and a mad scramble took place within the leadership of the Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks) to define themselves as the most dedicated adherents of this new -ism and to thus wrap up in the mantle of authority of the departed Soviet leader. This article by Hungarian John Pepper, one of the top-ranking leaders in the Communist Party of America at the time, introduces this new intellectual concept to America -- seemingly one of the first uses of the word "Leninism" on the North American continent. What makes this particularly interesting is the verbatim recitation of the definition of Leninism posited by Grigorii Zinoviev: "Leninism is Marxism applied to the present, the final period of capitalism." Pepper lauds Lenin as "the leader of the world revolution" and "our greatest leader." In Pepper's view, Lenin's contributions to Marxism included: (1) the first development of "the centralized Communist Party, the conscious minority which seizes the initiative, but never loses contact with the masses"; (2) discoverer of the central role of state power; (3) discoverer the revolutionary potential of the general strike; (4) first person to recognize the fundamental opportunism of the 2nd International; (5) the first "who saw clearly that the revolution cannot be the achievement of a single class, but that it can succeed" only if in addition to the working class "all other non-capitalist strata are revolutionized" and the capitalist class "is no longer in a position to rule."

 

"An Open Letter to William Z. Foster," by Scott Nearing [Jan. 28, 1924]. This document, first published on May 10, 1924 in the pages of The Daily Worker, is provocative left wing critique of the tactics being followed by the Workers Party of America and its trade union arm, the TUEL. Nearing states that in contrast to Foster, he did not believe there was a widespread revolutionary ferment among rank and file American workers which was being impeded by a reactionary union officialdom. To the contrary, Nearing states that the rank and file had been lined up in defense of the capitalist order by "the most complete system of propaganda, lies, diversions, amusements, excitements, and thrills that the world has ever produced." Public schools, newspapers, and movies had been employed with success "to put their interpretation on events, to suppress information, or to deliberately misrepresent the facts," in Nearing's view. Further, those American workers who did tend to believe in radical change tended to be European immigrants; "the native born American who believes in fundamental change is the exception and not the rule." Thus, outside of certain hotbeds like Butte, Seattle, New York, and Chicago, the revolutionary movement was miniscule and ineffectual. This perspective of the ideology of the American working class had important tactical implications, Nearing strenuously argued: education needed to be conducted, forces marshaled, decisive tests of strength avoided until such time that the battle could be actually won. For, Nearing stated, "an organization cannot stand too many defeats. Napoleon marched only once into Russia, but that once was enough to wreck his fortunes. The radical movement in the United States, following your policies, is marching toward its Moscow. When your front is sufficiently extended, and you are well cut off from your reserves, the enemy will annihilate your, as they annihilated your Steel Strike Organization five years ago." John Pepper and Foster were following a course "based on Russian experience, which is quite unfitted to cope with the situation you confront in the United States, and which you drive your party to ruin if you pursue it," Nearing warned.

 

FEBRUARY

"Parliamentarism," by John Pepper [Feb. 2, 1924] Theoretical article on the place of parliamentarism in Communist theory and practice by the leader of the CEC's minority faction, as published in the Saturday magazine supplement of The Daily Worker. Pepper notes the existence of both Ultra Left anti-parliamentary and Social Democratic opportunist errors with respect to parliamentarism, which he characterizes as "Anti-Parliamentary and Parliamentary Cretinism." He details the Communist International's position on revolutionary parliamentarism at some length. To this he contrasts the position of the CPA. The Communist Party of America had emerged from three primary sources, he notes: the anti-parliamentary AFL trade unions, the anti-parliamentary IWW, and the anti-parliamentary Left Wing of the Socialist Party. Therefore, despite a theoretical acceptance of the need for parliamentary action by the Workers Party of America, anti-parliamentary vestiges remain. Pepper colorfully likens the situation to "the newly-baptized Jew who carries a cross about his neck but still cannot eat pork. Our Party carries the theoretical cross of participation in election campaigns, but its anti-political instincts still reject real participation in election campaigns." He hopes that "thoroughgoing mobilization of the Party for the Presidential and Congressional elections of 1924" will eliminate such latent anti-parliamentarism among the WPA's membership.

 

"Political Activity in Trade Unions," by William F. Dunne [Feb. 2, 1924] A brief exposition of mainstream American Trade Union ideology by Dunne, Labor Editor of The Daily Worker, member of the Central Executive Committee of the WPA, and factional adherent of the Foster-Cannon group. Dunne challenges the assertion made by some (including, not accidentally, John Pepper) that the American union movement had an "anti-political" tradition. Quite to the contrary, Dunne states that the American union movement had been political from its beginnings, serving as the mainstay of the Owenite movement and leading the drive for the public schools system in the country. While the union movement was ideologically confused and tended to follow the liberal candidates of the capitalist parties, this tendency toward tepid and oft-times mistaken action could in no way be characterized as "anti-political," in Dunne's view, but rather were an outgrowth of the weak legal standing of trade unions in America. With the defeat of the railway shopmen's strike by state action and the apparent failure of the policy of "rewarding friends and punishing enemies" on a national level, the stage was now set for coordinated national political action by the unions, Dunne believed. The establishment of the Conference for Progressive Political Action, as imperfect and insufficient though its program may be, thus represented a step forward for the American labor movement. In addition, the left wing of the labor movement had been won over by the slogan of "Amalgamation" and the grounds were readied for further organizational work in the unions and purely "Communist propaganda" for the first time.

 

"Workers' School in New York City Opens Second Term," unsigned news report in The Daily Worker, Feb. 5, 1924. The Workers Party of America established a workers educational school in New York City late in 1923, the director of which was Juliet Stuart Poyntz. In 1925, Poyntz would be subjected to severe criticism for this organization, part of the struggle against "Loreism," which was a tool in the factional fight. This brief news article from the pages of The Daily Worker lists the course content of this party school in its first days, including continuing classes on Marxism, History, Evolution, Public Speaking, and English as well as new courses in European History, History of the American Union Movement, History of the 3 Internationals (conducted by Lore), American Imperialism since 1860, and The Syndicalist Movement in Europe.

 

"Detroit Holds Huge Meeting in Honor of Lenin: 6,000 Workers in Big Demonstration," by Stanley Boone [Feb. 6, 1924] The January 21, 1924 death of V.I. Ul'ianov (N. Lenin) was the occasion for a great mass meeting in the largest auditorium in Detroit -- which was filled to capacity with hundreds more turned away at the door. The gathering was addressed by C.E. Ruthenberg on behalf of the Workers Party of America and Dennis E. Batt, former member of the CEC of the old CPA, leader of the Proletarian Party, and editor of the organ of the Detroit Federation of Labor. Musical accompaniment was provided by Russian and Ukrainian choruses and a Finnish band, which closed the memorial meeting with "The International" and "The Funeral March."

 

"Long Live Leninism, Cry New Yorkers: Greatest Revolutionary Meeting Overflows Garden," by Norman Smith [Feb. 7, 1924] The January 21, 1924 death of V.I. Ul'ianov (N. Lenin) evoked unmistakable sympathy among a certain section of the New York working class. The memorial of Lenin's death provided the occasion for the first of the American Communist Party's mass meetings which packed Madison Square Garden. According to this account, published in The Daily Worker, some 15,000 people jammed the vast auditorium one hour before the meeting was set to commence and another 10,000 were turned away at the door -- some of whom were hurriedly gathered for an auxiliary meeting held at Central Opera House. The Madison Square Garden session was chaired by Benjamin Gitlow and additionally addressed by C.E. Ruthenberg, Ludwig Lore, Moissaye Olgin (speaking in Yiddish), and William Z. Foster. The meeting met with a large portrait of Lenin on the dias over the slogan "Lenin is Dead: Long Live Leninism!"

 

"Thesis on the Present Situation in Relation to Our Labor Party Policy, Feb. 15, 1924," Submitted by C.E. Ruthenberg and John Pepper This thesis was prepared by Ruthenberg and Pepper for the February plenum of the Central Executive Committee, held in Chicago on Feb. 15-16, 1924. William Z. Foster prepared a similar document regarding Labor Party tactics and there was some effort made to combine the two documents in a subcommittee, which seems to have vetoed by Pepper, who did not see the documents as reconcilable. As a result, this thesis was voted down by a vote along straight factional lines, 8-5, and the Foster thesis approved by the same margin. The Pepper-Ruthenberg faction declared shortly thereafter that it would appeal this matter to Moscow and plans were set in motion which would send William Z. Foster (Majority), John Pepper (Minority), and M.J. Olgin (Anti-Third Party Group) to Moscow to plead their cases about six weeks later. This definite statement of the Minority's Labor Party thinking indicates a strong concern over the WPA losing "the influence which it has gained through its Labor Party policy during the past year." With a July 4, 1924 convention of the Conference for Progressive Political Action in the offing and the WPA certain to be locked out of the proceedings by the "bitterly hostile" railroad brotherhoods sure to dominate the CPPA gathering, unless some dramatic step was taken by the WPA in the interim, the organization would be isolated from the dynamic Labor Party movement, which had been injected with new dynamism by the rise of a Labour Party government in England and the discrediting of the old parties by the eruption of the Teapot Dome oil bribery scandal. A June 30 counter-convention was called for by the Ruthenberg-Pepper thesis, to "crystallize" the elements over which the WPA had influence and give the WPA a sturdy basis for negotiation with the anticipated CPPA-based Third Party. "As the representatives of an organized group of a half-million to a million workers, our Party cannot be ignored. It will be a powerful factor which must be considered by the leaders of the Cleveland Convention," Ruthenberg and Pepper declare.

 

"A Lenin Library in America," by John Pepper [Feb. 16, 1924] Announcement by John Pepper in the pages of The Daily Worker that he was to edit a 10 volume selection of the works of Lenin. "The chief aim of the Lenin library is to give a complete picture of Leninism for intelligent workingmen. Lenin was not only the greatest statesman of our period, but at the same time the greatest scholar in social science. Lenin was the only Marxist who added a new story to the magnificent edifice of Marxism," Pepper states. Particularly reflective of the thinking of Pepper are the titles of two of the ten projected volumes -- The Agrarian Question in America and The Working Class and the Farmers. Pepper here defines Leninism as "Marxism applied to the present imperialistic period of capitalist society." "If we want to understand Leninism it is necessary to learn to know Lenin's interpretation of the Marxist method of inquiry," Pepper says. He details the projected contents of the ten volumes of the series -- only one of which ever saw print, and that in 1926, well after Pepper's removal from the American scene by the Comintern.

 

"Minutes of the Central Executive Committee, WPA: Chicago, IL -- Feb. 15-16, 1924." Minutes of the second 1924 plenum of the governing Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America. A decision of the Executive Council to purchase a Chicago building to house party headquarters and The Daily Worker is approved unanimously. The CEC splits bitterly over the question of the WPA's actions in the Farmer-Labor Party movement, with the Ruthenberg-Pepper minority seeking specific direction to build a "class" Farmer-Labor Party independent from the Third Party (LaFollette) movement, with a mandatory call for a May 30th convention -- with or without the participation of outside forces. A thesis by Foster (not included in the minutes) is instead adopted by the majority, which results in the minority declaring that it will immediately appeal to the Communist International for resolution of the matter. Foster, Cannon, Pepper, and Ruthenberg are decided to be immediately dispatched to Moscow to argue the merits of the case before ECCI; Hathaway and Halonen (Foster faction); Bedacht and Manley (Pepper-Ruthenberg faction) are named to the CEC as substituted during the departure of the four leaders, and Alexander Bittelman is elected Acting Secretary of the WPA in Ruthenberg's absence. James Cannon resigns the largely ceremonial post of Chairman; since the post is listed in the constitution, a motion to eliminate it is ruled out of order and William Z. Foster is elected to the position by a vote of 9 to 3 (Ruthenberg voting with the majority group). Bill Dunne is elected a co-equal co-editor of The Daily Worker to join the current (minority faction) editor, J. Louis Engdahl -- this vote like others dividing 8 to 5 along factional lines. Procedure for accepting the anticipated application for membership of Scott Nearing and other "controversial" figures is discussed.

 

"Report of the Directors and Financial Statement Submitted to Second Annual Meeting of Stockholders of the Russian-American Industrial Corporation, Feb. 26, 1924." From the end of 1922 onward, solicitation of funds for Soviet Russia in the United States moved from an orientation of "aid to starving Russia" to one of "technical assistance for Russian industrial development." One of the primary institutions for this sort of fundraising was the Russian-American Industrial Corporation (RAIC), an organization largely backed by the energy and assets of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. The RAIC entered into a financial partnership with the state-owned textile manufacturing trusts of Moscow, Petrograd, and Kazan, which combined to form the All-Russian Clothing Syndicate, in which RAIC invested its funds. The organization sought to capitalize itself to the tune of $1 million with the sale of $10 shares of stock. This is the text of the report of the Directors of the RAIC (including Sidney Hillman and Joseph Schlossberg) to shareholders, detailing the operations of the organization in 1923. A balance sheet detailing assets and liabilities is also provided.

 

MARCH

"Call for the National Convention of All Farmer Labor Forces in the United States: To be Held in St. Paul, Minnesota - June 17, 1924" [March 12, 1924] The convention call which emerged from the March 12 conference of Farmer-Labor groups, held in St. Paul, Minnesota. While the Workers Party of America through the Federated Farmer-Labor Party which it controlled sought a May 30 date for the Farmer-Labor Party's Presidential nominating convention, the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Federation sought a date of June 20. Eventually a June 17 date was decided upon. This convention call details the labor, farmer, and political organizations which were able to send delegates as well as a five point "tentative program" to which all organizations sending delegates must subscribe. This "tentative program" included public ownership, public control of natural resources, restoration of civil liberties, an end to the use of the injunction in labor disputes, and government banking.

 

"Minutes of the Central Executive Committee, WPA: Chicago, IL -- March 17-18, 1924." Minutes of the third 1924 plenum of the govening Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America. The report of Executive Secretary Ruthenberg indicates that progress on the Foreign Born Protection Campaign is proceeding well. Party membership continues to grow, he says, although "at least one-third" of the Party's members are not paying dues regularly. As a result, the Party's financial situation "is not the best," he says, having increased its indebtedness by approximately $1500 since Dec. 1, 1923. A report is given on the June 17th Convention of the Farmer-Labor Party, the date arrived at as a compromise with the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party (the WPA initially seeking a May 30 date -- attempting to stave off a planned July 4 convention that was to link non-communist Farmer-Labor forces to the LaFollette bandwagon). Olgin, Pepper, and Foster are dispatched to Moscow at once to seek the Comintern's decision on the WPA's role in the turbulent American political environment. After factional dancing between the Foster majority and the Pepper minority of the CEC, Ludwig Lore is rebuked for "certain erroneous statements" in the New Yorker Volkszeitung and instructed to write an editorial correcting them. John Pepper attempts to get the CEC to weigh in in support of the Anti-Trotsky decisions of the 13th Conference of the Russian Communist Party, but the Foster majority decides its input is not requested at this time. Ruthenberg is named representative of the WPA to the 3rd Convention of the Workers Party of Canada; Lovestone to the forthcoming convention of the Mexican Communist Party. Moves are made to support the Jewish Federation's desire to appoint the editor of the Freiheit, in all likelihood meaning the replacement of Benjamin Gitlow. Halonen is named to temporarily replace Foster and Bedacht to replace Pepper on the CEC while the two are in Moscow arguing their cases on the American political situation. A motion by Ruthenberg to immediately change the Party name to "Communist Workers Party" is defeated by a vote on straight factional lines, but the CI is asked for its permission on the same.

 

"Statement of Party Activities: A document prepared by William Z. Foster and uanimously adopted by the CEC of the WPA, March 18, 1924." Originally a four page summary of WPA activities, written by Foster and approved unanimously by the CEC after minor amendment at its March 17-18, 1924 plenum. Foster states that the differences in the WPA over "education, organization, and Party strategy" are the result of a failure of the CEC to establish a "clear-cut, well balanced program for the schooling, building, and functioning of our organization." The statement puts primacy on detailing WPA educational work and makes six specific recommendations: (1) Selection of a national Educational Director; (2) founding of "Lenin College," a central school for Party workers; (3) establishment of classes in various cities, organized in circuits and covered by professional teachers; (4) extensive tours for lecturers on theoretical subjects; (5) publication of popular theoretical pamphlets and books; and (6) periodic discussions at branch meetings of current events and decisions of the CEC on Party policy. With regards to WPA organization, the statement is unequivocal: "The Party organization must be gradually and systematically transformed from its present territorial basis to that of shop and factory units." The statement advocates a blend of education and organizational attention to avoid the dual disasters of sectarianism and organizational sterility which are said to result from exaggerated attention towards one or the other of these objectives.

 

"Conflict in the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party" [circa March 1924]. A fascinating document from the Comintern archives apparently prepared as a backgrounder for the Comintern, which was asked to mediate a factional dispute about the line of the Workers Party with regard to the Farmer-Labor Party movement and to electoral participation in the 1924 Presidential campaign. The document seems to have been prepared by a partisan of the Foster-Cannon faction and subsequently edited by a member of the Ruthenberg-Pepper faction and is written in relatively neutral terms. The division of the leadership of the Workers Party between the "trade unionist" Chicago faction and the CEC's New York majority "antedates the formation of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party on July 3, but found militant expression after that date," according to this document. The intricacies of the Farmer-Labor Party policy are explored in depth, including the strategies behind various 1924 convention dates as an intricate ballet between semi-antagonistic trade unions, state farmer-labor parties, the old Farmer-Labor Party, the Federated Farmer-Labor Party, sundry liberals, the LaFollette movement, and the Workers and Socialist parties took place. An outstanding backgrounder to the trends of thought within the WPA during the 1923-24 period.

 

"Letter from the WPA CEC Majority to ECCI Requesting the Recall of John Pepper, March 27, 1924." The Fosterite majority of the CEC of the Workers Party of America addressed this communication to the Executive Committee of the Comintern requesting the recall of John Pepper from the United States. The group of 7 indicated that this subject had come up at the 3rd Convention and that 37 out of the 52 delegates gathered their had approved the CEC making this request. William Z. Foster was authorized to state the case for the group while he was in Moscow seeking the Comintern's support for their program for the WPA with respect to the Farmer-Labor Party. This statement was signed by William Z. Foster, James P. Cannon, Fahle Burman, Earl Browder, Bill Dunne, Alex Bittelman, and Martin Abern.

 

APRIL

"Letter to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from Max Bedacht in Chicago. [circa April 1924] A passionate defense of John Pepper by his alternate on the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party. Bedacht states that while he and Jim Cannon were in Moscow arguing before the Comintern for the legalization of the American Communist Party, the issue was "solved finally by the tactfulness of Comrade Pepper. He not only solved the problem of 'liquidation,' but he also lead the party out of the cave of fruitless scholastic discussions onto the field of political action." Unfortunately, rather than support the new unity in the Party, Bedacht says that Cannon immediately began to cobble together a new factional group to win majority control of the Central Executive Committee. "In spite of the changed situation he never for a moment stopped considering the elimination of the old opposition as a desirable goal. Apparently he saw in this opposition not only the handicap of yesterday but also the stumbling block of tomorrow when opportunist plans were to be carried out," says Bedacht, noting that the New Majority of the CEC elected at the 3rd Convention [Dec. 30, 1923-Jan. 2, 1924] was the ultimate result of Cannon's factional shenanigans. The "New Majority" was an amalgam of the quasi-Social Democratic Right of the party, represented by Ludwig Lore of the New York Volkszeitung, along with the Fosterite "Industrialists," called "Nur-Gewerkschaftler" [Trade Union-Exclusivists] by Bedacht. Foster, " the leader of the present majority [of the CEC] and thus the leader of the party has never yet, in his two years activity in the party, written a political article, nor has he delivered a political speech. The circulus viciosis of his thoughts are the trade unions and the conquest of them," Bedacht charges. The New Majority targeted John Pepper since he was "the best, clearest, and ablest of the minority." Unable to eliminate him due to Pepper's widespread support, a "fable of Pepper the factionalist was invented" so that the CI would eliminate Pepper on behalf of the "opportunists and Nur-Gewerkschaftler," Bedacht says.

 

"Objective Conditions and Shop Nuclei," by Harry Gannes [April 5, 1924]. The year 1924 saw a strong campaign for a restructuring of the structural model of the American Communist movement from one based on primary units established on a territorial basis and subdivided among branches speaking one common language to a model based on primary units in each workplace, without regard to language. These "shop nuclei" were adopted from form of organization used by the Bolshevik Party in pre-revolutionary Russia and were believed to be of fundamental importance in enabling the vanguard party to "reach" the masses of non-party workers with its message. Harry Gannes calls the current party model an "antiquated organizational structure that has prevented it from reaching the very section of the working class that must be relied upon as the motive force of revolution." Capitalism inevitably leads to large, concentrated production units, he argues, many of which are non-unionized, necessitating the formation of party nuclei as the main vehicle for reaching these workers. Gannes cites census statistics in an effort to prove that objective conditions in America are ripe for adoption of the shop nuclei model, that its industry is highly concentrated. He argues that language organization would retain its importance under the new system due to the natural accumulation of certain nationalities in specific trades.

 

"Theses on the Workers Party Policy in the Elections of 1924," by Ludwig Lore & Moissaye J. Olgin [pub. April 12, 1924] The March 17-18, 1924 meeting of the Central Executive Committee dispatched three leading factional figures to Moscow to argue the merits of their programs for the Workers Party of America with respect to a formation of an American Labor Party. William Z. Foster represented the majority faction, John Pepper represented the minority, and M.J. Olgin represented the New York-based "Third Faction" (which was personified by Ludwig Lore on the party CEC). This is a document which Lore and Olgin prepared for the consideration of the Executive Committee of the Communist International explicitly detailing the ideas of the "Third Faction" -- which was known as the "Anti-Third Party Group" in the nomenclature of the day. While Lore and Olgin in this period have long been regarded as committed "2-1/2 Internationalists," this document does confirm the analysis made by Ruthenberg that the "Third Faction" criticized WPA policy from the Left. No support could be given to a third bourgeois party and no United Front campaign run with it, Olgin argues, as such a policy would smack of the sort of political machinations for which the "old parties" were held in contempt by the working class. Instead, the forthcoming June 17 convention should be utilized for the establishment of a firm "class line" "Labor-Farmer Party" which would run campaigns in opposition not only to the Republicans and Democrats, but also in opposition to the forthcoming "third bourgeois party" which was then seemingly being born through the auspices of the Conference for Progressive Political Action at its scheduled July 4 convention. "Only a clear-cut party of labor and exploited farmers, controlled by organized labor and farmers, acting through representatives of workers and farmers, and nominating its own candidates on a definite class program of labor and exploited farmers, can dispel the mistrust of the labor masses, destroy their political inertia and make them fight capitalism through political weapons with at least the same determination as they have hitherto fought capitalism with the weapons of strike and boycott," Lore and Olgin argue.

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg and the WPA Organization Committee in Chicago from John J. Ballam, DO4 [Buffalo], April 14, 1924." Citing family difficulties over which he has no control, newly appointed WPA Buffalo District Organizer John Ballam resigns his post with this April 14, 1924 letter to the WPA's Organization Committee. At the same time, Ballam insists upon his consideration for the post as DO for the powerful Boston District. "You have not a better comrade for the job and you KNOW it," Ballam insists. The arch-factionalist Ballam, a former leader of the Central Caucus faction, may well have elicited mirth and chortling when he asserts "I have been accused of 'factionalism' but you cannot point out a single instance wherein I have acted against the discipline and interests of our party when I accepted its general policy." He graciously adds that "When I disagree with the party's tactics the CEC will be the FIRST to know of it."

 

"Internal Party Problems: Statement of the Central Executive Committee of Workers Party of America." [April 19, 1924]. A rather testy open letter from the CEC of the WPA to the party membership criticizing the "organized opposition" to the CEC which had purportedly manifested itself at recent membership meetings held in Philadelphia and New York. These meetings had been addressed by Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg reporting on the CEC's policies and activities and attempting to rally the rank and file behind the forthcoming June 17 Convention of the Farmer-Labor Party. His appearance had been greeted by "resolutions of the same contents and practically the same wording were introduced at both of these meetings" instructing the CEC to "combat and stamp out the opportunistic tendencies manifesting themselves" in the party and to "take action against Comrade Lore for his alleged attack upon the Comintern." These resolutions (reflective of the perspective of the Pepper-Ruthenberg minority faction) were "of a sort which could have no other purpose than to sow doubt and suspicion in the party ranks against the CEC and thus, by indirection, to undermine its authority, crystallize opposition to its leadership, and generally demoralize the party organization," this CEC statement charged. Final action had already been taken on the subjects of these resolutions and "the CEC feels in duty bound to insist that once a matter has been settled by the proper party authorities, and a call for action issued, the party ranks must close, and every party members must render the CEC the utmost support and cooperation." Members were called upon to put aside their factional differences and work together for the success of the June 17 FLP Convention.

 

"Organizational Problems of the Workers Party," by A. Bimba [April 21, 1924]. This article by Lithuanian Federationist Antonas "Anthony" Bimba criticizes the WPA for failing to coordinate its educational programs with its organizational recruiting practices at mass meetings of the organization. "Through our political activities we have created large spheres of influence in various organizations of workers. Thousands of workers are our sympathizers. They are with us and are working for our program. Ideologically they are ready for membership in the Workers Party. Now the question arises: why are they not in the Party?" he asks. Bimba cites three examples to back up his contention that the party should make more effort to turn sympathizers into party members by moving speakers on this theme earlier into the program. Particularly galling for Bimba is the mishandling of the Feb. 6, 1924 Lenin Memorial meeting at Madison Square Garden: "We had the best speakers. Comrade Foster was to make an appeal for the Workers Party. He delivered a masterful speech. But he was left last on the program, when many of the people were already leaving the hall and bout half of the audience was standing between the chairs. The speech lost its entire effect and the good appeal did not bring the desired results." "If we want to get the workers into our Party we must change the character of the programs of our mass meetings. We must call upon them to join our ranks," Bimba declares.

 

"Workers in Hancock, Michigan Organize Forces for Labor Rule; Will Go to St. Paul on June 17," by T.J. O'Flaherty [April 25, 1924]. In April of 1924 Daily Worker staffer T.J. O'Flaherty went on a speaking tour sponsored by the Workers Party of America on behalf of the June 17 Farmer-Labor convention. This report from the little town of Hancock, Michigan, in the copper country of the state's upper peninsula, provides an interesting bit of local color. Hancock, the town in which the Finnish radical newspaper Työmies was first firmly established, would have seemed to have been a natural hotbed of WPA activity, given that fully 40% of the organization was Finnish in this period. However, O'Flaherty indicates that the 1910 Calumet strike "left a reign of terror in its wake that practically crushed every vestige of trade union organization and prevented any radical movement from lifting its head for several years." Though active and promising, the Hancock WPA branch consisted of just 8 members in a town and environs of 25,000 people. O'Flaherty notes that about half of his audience of 145 were of Irish extraction, their interest piqued by the denunciations of him by the local Catholic priest. "The curses of the priest had no effect on those sturdy trade unionists, and every copy of The Irish People offered for sale at the meeting was disposed of," O'Flaherty notes.

 

"Party Principles and Discipline: A Letter Authorized by the Central Executive Committee Directing the Reinstatement of an Expelled Comrade," by C.E. Ruthenberg [April 29, 1924]. Letter of Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg on behalf of the Central Executive Committee of the WPA to the English Branch of Local Portland [OR}, published for the edification of the party in the pages of The Daily Worker. This letter nominally deals with the case of Otto Newman, ordering his reinstatement to the English Branch after being expelled in March 1924 for violating party discipline by accentuating the necessity of force in the socialist revolution at a public meeting. Beyond this, the document serves as a very useful and explicit official published statement of the position of the American Communist movement on the role of force in the transition from capitalism to socialism. Ruthenberg writes: "We cannot as a Communist Party hide our views on this question from the working masses. We must, where the issue is raised, frankly present our viewpoint. We cannot stultify ourselves because of the pressure of the capitalist state power.... Our Party does not advocate the use of force by the workers today. The whole strength of our Party is being given to the campaign to build a mass political party, that is a Farmer-Labor Party, through which the workers and farmers will enter into the political struggle against the capitalist ruling parties.... Does this mean that we believe that the workers and farmers of this country will through such a Farmer-Labor Party elect their representatives to public office and then win control of the governmental power and proceed by legislative action of the parliamentary institutions of the capitalist government to the abolition of the Capitalist System? Such a viewpoint is an illusion.... No privileged class in past history has given up its privileged position upon the demand of the exploited class without resorting to force to maintain its privileged position..." Ruthenberg cites the recent experience of Russia, Hungary, and Bavaria as evidence that the final conflict "takes the form of a struggle between a capitalist parliamentary government and the Soviets which are the expression of the workers' government."

 

MAY

"St. Paul -- June 17th," by James P. Cannon. [May 1924] An article from the monthly magazine of the Trade Union Educational League lauding the forthcoming June 17th Convention of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party, scheduled for St. Paul, MN. The St. Paul gathering was held in parallel with a July 4, 1924 convention of the Conference for Progressive Political Action, scheduled for Cleveland, which the Socialist Party was not incidentally attempting to steer in the same direction that the Workers Party was attempting to take the FFLP. Cannon's article attempts to explain this dualism. The CPPA's "'sympathy' for the idea of a labor party is a disguise to hide their actual allegiance to the capitalist parties," he states, adding that the CPPA labor leaders are unable to form a working class party "because they do not have a working class point of view. They do not live like the workers and they do not think like the workers." Only the St. Paul convention offered a forum for the participation of the militant working class rank and file, Cannon asserts.

 

"Circular Letter to All Units of the WPA from C.E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary, circa May 1, 1924." This circular letter to all units of the Workers Party of America emphasizes an unpublished ECCI cable -- the content of which may well have originated from the WPA itself and been dispatched as a mechanism for building support of a controversial policy. The cable reads: "Communist International considers June 17th Convention momentous importance for Workers Party. Urges CEC not to slacken activities preparation June 17th. Utilize every available force to make Saint Paul Convention great representative gathering labor and left wing." Thus, Ruthenberg concludes, "the Communist International has spoken" and "the party must respond to this appeal of the Communist International." In the 6 remaining weeks before the St. Paul Convention Ruthenberg urges party members to (1) Distribute the June 17th Convention leaflet in all workers' organizations; (2) Have every member who is a member of a trade union, labor fraternal organization, cooperative, or farmers' organization bring the June 17th call before his organization and have a delegate elected to the convention; (3) Support the call for the formation of state party in support of June 17th; and (4) Raise the unit's quota of the "Farmer-Labor Campaign fund" and send it immediately to the national office of the WPA.

 

"Minutes of the Central Executive Committee, WPA: Chicago, IL -- May 2-3, 1924." Minutes of the fourth 1924 plenum of the governing Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America. The main issue of business of the CEC is setting policy for the forthcoming June 17th Convention of the Farmer-Labor Party, to be held in St. Paul, MN. An extensive set of contingency plans are put forward by Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg and amended by his factional opponent Alexander Bittelman. Notably the call of Ruthenberg to split the Pennsylvania state FLP convention if it is dominated by middle-class elements is defeated by the Fosterite majority of the CEC, which also votes to lend critical support to the Presidential candidacy of maverick Republican Robert LaFollette, should he be nominated for President by the June 17th Convention. With factional leaders Foster and Pepper in Moscow, this meeting of the CEC exhibits a number of votes not rigidly divided along factional lines. A new list of Comintern Congress delegates are approved, including Foster, Olgin, Amter, and Pepper (already in Moscow), Ruthenberg, and a certain Edwards. A Daily Worker Management Committee of 5 is created, and Earl Browder, C.E. Ruthenberg, editor Bill Dunne, business manager Moritz Loeb, and Matti Tenhunen elected. The Executive Committee of the Friends of Soviet Russia is effectively disbanded, the organization placed under the authority of the CEC's Organization Committee. A 3 person Education Committee is established and Alexander Bittelman, Jim Cannon, and Max Bedacht elected. New York Workers School Julia Poyntz is instructed to submit her plan of work to this new committee and to "go to work at once."

 

"Letter to the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America from Peter Hansen and Cornelia Davis in Buffalo, NY, May 6, 1924. In March of 1924, John J. Ballam was appointed District Organizer of WPA District 4, based in Buffalo, New York. He soon thereafter received a 2 month stipend of $150 a month for organizational expenses of the district office and had earned the enmity of the previous District Organizer, Peter Hansen. This is a letter by Hansen to the CEC denouncing the activities of Ballam in Buffalo, charging a failure to keep records, a failure to hold District Executive Committee meetings, a failure to provide financial records to party members in the district, a failure to keep an orderly office, and factional machinations worthy of a machine politician. "He came here with a grouch on against the CEC, and he took it out on those nearest to his hand," Hansen writes. "This man Ballam should not be permitted to come into continuous contact with the rank and file membership of the Party as an organizer. He lacks judgment and common sense. Whatever his abilities in other directions may be, his character is such as to constitute him a menace to the organization in his present capacity. Those who have seen him at work (?) and have not been deceived by his preposterous airs of self-importance, are disillusioned in regard to the leadership of the Party.... His unspeakable pettiness, his malicious, relentless, and cowardly persecution of those who have incurred his dislike, his shameless lying and slandering and falsifying of facts have earned him the contempt of comrades here who asked nothing better than to serve the Party and to be let alone." Includes a very lengthy footnote by Tim Davenport detailing this particular episode in the Buffalo soap opera.

 

"Our Policy in the Farmer-Labor Party: A Letter to a Group of Finnish Comrades," by C.E. Ruthenberg [May 7, 1924]. An open letter from WPA Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg to a group of Minnesota Finnish party members who wrote a letter to the CEC questioning the decision to run explicitly Communist candidates to contest races in the Minnesota FLP primaries. The Minnesota group clearly saw this as a violation of the spirit of the United Front and a strategy that was leading to the marginalization of the WPA by alienating non-Communist members of the FLP. To this argument Ruthenberg responds that "our instructions were, in effect, that while we remain part of the FLP, while we loyally support the FLP in its struggle against the capitalist parties, within the FLP we carry on a struggle to win the workers and farmers for our program of a proletarian revolution, the Soviets, and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat." While doing this is certain to fan the flames of antipathy with a segment of the FLP, Ruthenberg declares that "in place of becoming frightened because we find ourselves in conflict with certain progressives, we should welcome this conflict as the best indication and proof that we are following a Communist policy." Evidence of the shaky relationship between the WPA and the FLP prior to the debacle of July 1924.

 

"A May Day in Prison," by Joseph M. Coldwell [May 8, 1924]. Brief autobiographical snippet of May Day behind bars in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary by Coldwell, a Socialist Party activist who became a founding member of the Communist Labor Party in 1919. Coldwell began serving his sentence later that year, imprisoned by the Woodrow Wilson regime for making the "seditious" public declaration that "war is organized murder." Coldwell writes in a heartfelt manner about a simple May Day celebration held by the handful of political prisoners at Atlanta, a group which included Russian Jewish emigre anarchists, members of the IWW, and Eugene V. Debs. The group gathered by the tuberculosis quarantine area, one of their number drew an artistic "banner" in the sand, and the group sang revolutionary songs, accompanied by a violin. A nice little word picture about May Day behind bars. Includes a biographical footnote on Coldwell and a rare 1922 Workers Party of America leaflet bearing his photograph.

 

"Open Letter to the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party from the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America." [May 14, 1924]. As the pivotal St. Paul Farmer-Labor Party Convention of June 17, 1924 drew near, the political rhetoric about the gathering intensified. This open letter to the governing National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party called upon that organization to "immediately sever its connection with and repudiate" the competing July 4th Convention of the Conference for Progressive Political Action. Contrary to the expressed desires of the Socialists, the CPPA would not yield an independent labor party, the open letter declared. "Even [if] the CPPA through some miracle were to enter into the political arena as a political party standing for independent political action, what kind of party would come out of the CPPA?... Its leadership belongs to the aristocracy of labor. The LaFollette group in Congress which it supports is not the representative of workers and farmers but of small business me, professional groups -- the petty bourgeoisie. Out of the CPPA there could only come a petty bourgeois Third Party, never a Farmer-Labor Party standing for the class interests of the exploited workers and farmers." The CEC of the Workers Party's open letter declared that "If the Socialist Party wishes to retain any vestige of a right to call itself a workers' political organization, it will give heed to this demand. Today it is an enemy of the movement for growing class action of farmers and workers through its support of the CPPA, which denies and opposes such class action and by its policy stands as an obstacle to the development of a great mass movement of workers and farmers..."

 

"Foster's Reply to Nearing: An Open Letter in The Daily Worker," by William Z. Foster [May 17, 1924]. Extensive reply of Workers Party National Chairman and TUEL head William Z. Foster to the Jan. 28, 1924 open letter of Scott Nearing, which was published in the May 10 issue of The Daily Worker. Foster is scornful of Nearing's assertion that the overwhelming majority of the American working class are fully supportive of the established capitalist order, having been trained into such by pulpit, press, and movies and won over by material goods in the present and the hope for better things in the future. Foster declares to Nearing that "your analysis of social conditions is faulty, your facts are inaccurate, and your conclusions are wrong" and proceeds to deconstruct Nearing's arguments point by point. "The weakness of your whole conception is that it is based upon the false assumption that there is no considerable mass revolutionary sentiment in this country," Foster declares, noting that even though formless and barely conscious, popular dissatisfaction was widespread and revolutionary in essence: "It is the raw stuff of which revolutions are made. Revolutions are not brought about by the type of clear-sighted revolutionists that you have in mind, but by stupid masses who are goaded to desperate revolt by the pressure of social conditions, and who are led by straight-thinking revolutionaries who are able to direct the storm intelligently against capitalism." Failure to commit the Workers Party and the Trade Union Educational League to active participation in the daily struggles of the workers would mean consigning the Communist organization to the sterility: "Your conception that the conscious elements are the only revolutionary force leads straight to the isolation of our movement and to its degeneration into a studious, sterile, cloistered Communist sect," Foster scolds. Instead, "the left wing must have a balanced program with education, organization, and action going hand in hand."

 

"Double the Party Membership!" by C.E. Ruthenberg [May 20, 1924]. Despite a process of steady growth during the first 30 months of its existence, the Workers Party of America was in a state of chronic organizational disarray, as indicated by this article by Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg in The Daily Worker. Only 8 of 15 District Organizers had compiled and filed their organizational reports for March 1924, Ruthenberg complains, and even in the districts which filed, only about half of the branches had filed their reports with the DO, resulting in an incomplete report. These reports showed a chronic failure of many WPA members to pay their monthly dues in a timely manner -- Ruthenberg presents figures showing that over 36% of the members of those branches which did report stood from 1 to 3 months in arrears. As a result of this organizational dysfunction, the CEC decided to immediately establish new three person "Membership Committees" of particularly serious and trusted comrades in every branch, City Central Committee, and District Committee. These Membership Committees were to be dedicated to enforcement of dues collections, organization of "persistent campaigns" to attract new members, and the assignment of concrete tasks to each party member. The new "Membership Committees" were to serve as de facto Organizational Committees for each party unit -- a major and system-wide reconstruction of the WPA's network of territorial branches. Ruthenberg expresses the belief that with the establishment of these new Membership Committees, the WPA would stand at 25,000 dues-paying members within two months' time. (An interesting aside: the paid monthly membership of the WPA fell from about 17,400 in April 1924 to fewer than 15,000 during May and June, before recovering somewhat to 16,200 in July 1924.)

 

"LaFollette and the Communists: The Statement of Robert LaFollette on Communist Participation in the Progressive Movement, May 26, 1924." An open letter from the time of Sen. LaFollette's independent campaign for President of the United States decrying Communist participation in the Farmer-Labor-Progressive movement. LaFollette, whose campaign was supported by the Socialist Party to the extent they did not run their own candidate in 1924, here calls the Communists the "mortal enemies of the Progressive movement and democratic ideals" and declares that "all Progressives should refuse to participate in any movement which makes common cause with any Communist organization" -- meaning the forthcoming June 17, 1924, Farmer-Labor Party Convention to be held in St. Paul, MN.

 

JULY

"Leading the World Revolution," by Alexander Bittelman. [July 1924] Summary of the activity of the recently completed 5th Congress of the Comintern by a participant, a factional ally of William Z. Foster. Bittelman states that the Comintern is a "one international party of Communism with disciplined sections in every corner of the world." The decisions of its international congresses are "law," Bittelman says, and that between congresses the Executive Committee of the CI "has unlimited authority and power over the policies and actions of each affiliated organization. In Communist ranks, there is no questioning its sphere of competency or the extent of its directing power. Its word is law, to be taken as given, and carried out with the maximum of efficiency." Despite central direction, the communist movement is anything but a mass of "blind soldiers," Bittelman says, as there is "nothing more foreign" to the spirit of the party than "blind unquestioning obedience." Bittelman also remarks on the emergence of the new term "Leninism," accepting its merit ("a good name") and loosely defining it as the combination of Lenin's "method" and his "certain approach" to handling revolutionary problems.

 

"Workers and Farmers on the Mark," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [July 1924] An account of the June 17-19, 1924, Convention of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party, held in St. Paul, MN, written by the head of the Workers Party of America. The convention, dominated by the WPA, was attended by over 500 delegates, who drew up a program and nominated candidates for President and Vice President of the United States (Duncan McDonald of Illinois and William Bouck of Washington, respectively). The body also elected a National Committee, which in turn elected a National Executive Committee, which included Alex Howat of Kansas as Chairman and Clarence Hathaway of Minnesota as Secretary.

 

"Letter to the Central Executive Committee, Workers Party of America in Chicago from M. Hansen, Secretary of English Branch - Seattle, WPA, July 17, 1924." The July 10, 1924 decision of the National Executive Committee of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party (controlled by 5 WPA members of the 7 member body) to abruptly terminate the candidacies of Duncan McDonald for President and William Bouck for Vice President came "as a bolt from the blue" to rank and file supporters of an anti-LaFollette "real Farmer-Labor Party." This letter from the Seattle English Branch to the center demands an explanation, as the reasons for the abrupt shift advanced in The Daily Worker are said to have "lacked sincerity." Hansen, the Branch Secretary, writes: "There is in Washington a considerable sentiment for a political organization so rooted in the economic life of the organized producers as to be permanent and enduring, and especially is this true of the delegates who attended the Convention, and who were so favorably impressed with the attitude of our Party. They had been convinced thoroughly that they did not want LaFollette, which to them meant the death of their hopes for a real F-L Party. Neither did they hold any hope for reaching any considerable number of the masses through the WP direct. They were enthusiastically behind the candidacy of the men named in the Convention, and the withdrawal leaves them out on a limb with our organization in the position of sawing it off next to the trunk."

 

"Letter to M. Hansen, Secretary, English Branch - Seattle, WPA, from James P. Cannon, Assistant Executive Secondary, WPA, July 22, 1924." Reply of the Central Executive Committee to the July 17, 1924 letter addressed to them by English Branch - Seattle seeking complete and accurate information as to the WPA's rapid change of course with regard to the Presidential campaign of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party. Cannon replies that the reports in The Daily Worker were, in fact, accurate and that the WPA determined that despite its best efforts to create a United Front Farmer-Labor Party, this project was unsuccessful. The two non-WPA members of the FFLP National Executive Committee and a large section of the FFLP's supporters were in the process of going over to the mass independent campaign of Senator Robert LaFollette. Cannon states that after through discussion, "the conclusion we finally arrived at, on the basis of the facts staring us in the face, was that the Farmer-Labor United Front in the present campaign does not exist, with the possible exception of two or three states such as Minnesota, Montana, and Washington." Rather than running a watered-down Farmer-Labor Party campaign, around which there was no mass support, Cannon states that the Communists were duty bound to run a campaign under their own banner, and thus Foster and Gitlow were named as candidates, to run a campaign "on a clearly defined revolutionary basis." "Communists have to approach all these problems from the standpoint of the Communist Party, which is identical with the immediate and ultimate interests of the working class and which is the only Party that stands for these interests.," Cannon says, adding that the comrades of Local Seattle should talk frankly with "such well-informed leaders of the Farmer-Labor movement as John Kennedy and William Bouck" about the reasoning behind the WPA's decision.

 

"Statement of Personal History," by John August Miller [circa July 1924] This is a brief set of autobiographical events scrawled on a single piece of paper by a Latvian Federationist seeking admission to the Workers Party of America. A fascinating set of bare bones details, including membership in the SPA's Latvian Federation from 1907 to 1917, return to Russia after the February Revolution, membership in the Russian Communist Party before the October Revolution, helping to found the Crimean Bolshevik movement, 11 months in an Indian prison after being arrested at the border, a return to America in 1921, and joining the Central Caucus faction in the split of 1921-22 -- of which he says he remained a member until January of 1924 [!!!]. What a great memoir this fellow could have written... Valuable as further evidence that there remained an underground "Communist Party of America" composed of Central Caucus faction irreconcialables (based in the Latvian Federation) at least into 1924. Miller was accepted into the WPA by action of the Organizational Committee on Aug. 5, 1924.

 

AUGUST

"Detroit Central Cans New Party: Refuses to Affiliate with FFLP as Not Representing Farmers or Labor," by Robert M. Buck [Aug. 4, 1923] While the Farmer-Labor Party of the United States generally maintained an almost religious silence towards other political organizations on the Left, the perceived hijacking of the group's July 1923 convention and establishment of a new organization bearing the FLP name was a bitter pill to swallow. A bit of factional mirth can be discerned in this New Majority news report of the new Federated Farmer-Labor Party's difficulty in maintaining adherents. The latest defection was that of the Detroit Federation of Labor, which after a 2 week investigation had overturned the decision of its Executive Board to affiliate. In its official statement of disassociation, the Detroit Federation stated: "The statement has been made that the Federated Farmer-Labor Party was organized by the rank and file of farmers and laborers and not formed from the top down by big officials. An analysis of the representation at the convention would seem to indicate that it was organized from the outside with a view of imposing it upon the labor movement." The claimed affiliated of membership appeared to be inflated, the Detroit Federation stated, adding: "The Detroit Federation of Labor would be very unwise if it would allow itself to be stampeded into an abortive attempt to organize a labor party, the reaction from which is apt to set back the organization of an actual farmer-labor party."

 

"Letter to George Bloxam in Spokane, WA, from John C. Kennedy in Seattle, WA, August 6, 1924." Evidence of the damage done to the WPA's United Front effort in their 1924 Farmer-Labor Party debacle. John C. Kennedy, head of the Washington state Farmer-Labor Party and previously a close ally of the Workers Party's effort to construct a radical mass national Farmer-Labor Party writes to Spokane WPA member Bloxam: "The action of the Workers Party in putting its own candidates in the field and then having its members of the National Executive Committee [of the FLP] disregard the plain intent and desire of the St. Paul Convention [June 17, 1924] and withdraw McDonald and Bouck and in their place endorse the Workers Party candidates, has made it impossible for the Farmer-Labor Party of this state to continue its cooperation with the national Workers Party." The Washington FLP voted to follow the mass movement in endorsing the LaFollette-Wheeler Presidential ticket and to put their own full slate of candidates into the field as well. "Unquestionably the LaFollette movement is the most spontaneous movement of the producers along independent political lines for fifty years. We feel it is our duty to participate in this movement, rather than to stay outside hurling futile criticism at the masses who are beginning to move in the right direction, even though they don't see clearly their final goal," Kennedy notes.

 

SEPTEMBER

Lenin: The Great Strategist of the Class War, by A. Lozovsky; Translated with introduction by Alexander Bittelman. [Sept. 1924] Full text of a pamphlet published in September 1924 as no. 14 of the Labor Herald Library by the Trade Union Educational League. Part of the campaign to formulate and detail the new concept "Leninism," which in the introduction Bittelman defines as "the theory and practice of working class struggle. It is the accumulated experience of the battling armies of the proletariat against capitalism reflected by the mind of a genius." The main body of the pamphlet is written by A. Lozovsky, head of the Red International of Labor Unions (Profintern). Lozovsky characterizes Lenin as self-critical, realistic, an uncompromising enemy of reformism, an original revolutionary theorist, an astute political statesman, a committed internationalist, and a skilled mass organizer. "Lenin was one of those men by whom humanity marks its historical path, concerning whom legends are being told in his lifetime, and the farther we go from the date of his death the clearer will stand before us Lenin's greatness and immortality," Lozovsky enthusiastically states.

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary, WPA, in Chicago from Norman Tallentire, WPA District 12 Organizer in Seattle, Sept. 19, 1924." While historians of the American Communist movement are aware of the importance of the party's "District Organizers" in the abstract, there is surprisingly little in the literature detailing the actual job functions of those individuals. This report to the center by Norman H. Tallentire is particularly valuable in this regard. Tallentire, formerly a District Organizer in D9 [Minneapolis] who moved to D12 [Seattle] to replace outgoing DO William F. Bowman, describes the Washington and Oregon District in utter disarray -- Local Portland in the midst of an expulsion binge with an organization down 70 members to "40 or 50," other Branches disbanded or out of contact with the district office, some key party members gone with remaining members demoralized. He also describes Ruthenberg's National Office as seemingly incapable of handling simple change of address information, noting a chronic tendency to mail to bad addresses in spite of all instructions otherwise, including in one case mailing to a member expelled a year previously as a suspected spy. Tallentire details an impressive list of organizational meetings conducted or planned in his first month and notes the meeting of a Washington state convention and reorganization of the District Executive Committee. Tallentire outlines plans for the organization of new Locals in Washington, pleads with the center for accurate district financial records, and asks that the forthcoming information he provides be used to update the mailing records not only of the national office, but also of TUEL, The Liberator, and The Daily Worker. He is sharply critical of the recent Federated Farmer-Labor Party fiasco, in which the FFLP's campaign for President and Vice President was arbitrarily terminated by WPA decision, an event which Tallentire characterizes as a "grave error" which alienated and embittered the WPA's closest non-party allies in Washington state.

 

OCTOBER

"The Death of the Socialist Party," by J. Louis Engdahl [October 1924]. A final sneer at the Socialist Party from the 1924 campaign. Former editor of the Socialist Party's official organ Engdahl argues that the SP's immersion in the campaign of progressive Republican Robert LaFollette for President of the United States spells the final death knell for the SPA: "When the Socialist Party deserted the 'Labor Party' fight, turned its back on class action, and joined the LaFollette straddle of the two old parties of Wall Street, its members had two choices. They could either join the Communist forces in the Workers Party, or go over into the LaFollette camp. Many did join the Communist ranks, singly and in groups. The rest are going over to the temporary LaFollette organizations that will collapse after the election day has passed.... The Socialist movement has been swallowed up in the LaFollette wave. It has been completely obliterated."

 

"The Bolshevization of the Party," by James P. Cannon [Oct. 5, 1924]. Speech by Jim Cannon to the Workers Party School in New York City headed by Juliet Poyntz, dealing with "Bolshevization" as the process of building theoretical homogeneity through party education as opposed to use of the phrase in terms of structural reorganization upon the shop nucleus basis. During the course of this speech Cannon makes frequent use of the newly coined term "Leninism," and he cites the Comintern definition of this as "Marxism in the period of imperialism and the epoch of the proletarian revolution." Cannon notes the 5th Congress of the Comintern [June-July 1924] had found every Communist Party save the Russian to be deficient in terms of lacking "the Bolshevik discipline, the iron hardness, the capacity for decisive action, the mobile form of organization, and the strong theoretical foundation which a party of Leninism must have" and had consequently launched the slogan "The Bolshevization of the Party!" The Workers School was an important component in this process for the American party, Cannon asserted, as it provided the WPA with "a fighting instrument against all deviations both to the right and to the left, and for the overrcoming of the confusion of the party members" and for hammering Marxism and Leninism into the consciousness of the party in accord with the thesis of the 5th Congress of the CI.

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary, Workers Party of America in Chicago from Antonas Bimba, Staff Member of Laisve, Brooklyn, NY. Oct. 8, 1924. This unpublished letter to Executive Secretary Ruthenberg from Lithuanian-American Communist journalist Bimba is extremely interesting on two levels. First, Bimba is critical of the tendency to issue frequent monetary appeals, in this case for the Daily Worker, and he claims that the constant pleading for funds is disorganizing the party: "...The membership of the party, and especially the members of various language sections, who have to support the language press, are being bled white with financial appeals. Hundreds of members stay away from the meetings just because they know that as soon as they step into the hall they will be asked to give a dollar or half a dollar for this or that purpose. Branch meetings are almost entirely taken up by discussions, fights, and arguments on the constantly flowing appeals for financial help. Our party is fast becoming only a money-getting agency." Second, Bimba reveals how it was that the Communist language press was able to sustain itself, boatloads of Comintern cash not in evidence: "I made a suggestion that the comrades should establish an efficient machinery for doing outside jobs, such as printing of tickets, show cards, throwaways, leaflets, programs, etc. Then an appeal should be made to the party units and organizations under our influence that they should send their jobs to be done by the Daily Worker's printing establishment.... We find from experience that this is a permanent and most important financial resource of the paper. The Lithuanian daily, as such, brings a deficit of thousands of dollars every year, but most of this deficit is being covered from the source mentioned above." Bimba states that he believes the Daily Worker can be made a self-sustaining publication given the size of the party organization if its job printing function is expanded. The document here includes a short biographical footnote of Antonas Bimba.

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg, WPA Executive Secretary in Chicago from Alexander Trachtenberg, International Publishers in New York, Oct. 24, 1924." While International Publishers of New York is today the official publishing arm of CPUSA, its origin was completely independent of the Communist Party, as this October letter from IP head Alexander Trachtenberg makes clear. Trachtenberg states that IP had been in negotiations with the Labour Publish Co. of London for rights to an English edition of Franz Mehring's Life of Marx, but learning the fact that the party was interested in the sale of the book through its Literature Dept. was "sufficient reason for giving up our project." Trachtenberg states that "I would not work for a firm if it should want to injure the party in any way. Com. [A.A.] Heller, I am sure, will discontinue his financial interest in it under similar circumstances. On the contrary, we hope to be of assistance to the party. There are books which the party would like to see published (I have in mind large books) but because of lack of facilities and involved risks, it cannot undertake the task itself."

 

NOVEMBER

"The Workers Party to the Fore," by William Z. Foster [Nov. 1924] A rundown of the political situation in America by the Workers Party's candidate for President of the United States. Foster view of the independent Presidential campaign of Sen. Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin is harsh. While acknowledging the LaFollette campaign to be the "channel into which has been turned the elemental mass movement of disillusioned workers and farmers," Foster argues that it is in reality "the most dangerous enemy of the toiling masses of America today" due to its propagation of "the democratic illusion." This "fake democracy" is of a "treacherous" nature, according to Foster, citing examples in Germany and England of betrayal of the working class by "middle class" movements akin to that of LaFollette in America. Foster states that "in any great struggle of the workers that may arise when the LaFollette movement comes to power, the governmental powers will here also be turned against the workers or turned over to the Fascist elements in the United States."

 

"Torchbearers," by Moritz J. Loeb [Nov. 1924] This article from the WPA's Workers Monthly marks the first anniversary of The Daily Worker, said to have been started through the "collection" of less than $75,000 of a $100,000 target. The party had used the funds to purchase a printing plant in Chicago, used to produce not only its English daily and the monthly magazine, but also the Italian daily, The Young Worker, The Young Comrade, and the various pamphlets and leaflets issued by the organization. "Upon our press depends the rapidity and the healthiness of the growth of our party. Upon the quality of our press depends the education of our membership, the "bolshevizing" of our Party, the making of Communists out of Communist Party members," Loeb declares. Problems remained, Loeb indicates, including small circulation size, the absence of paid advertising, and financial deficits. Loeb calls for the employment of every WPA member as a "cog in the machine" of a distribution mechanism commensurate with the new party printing plant.

 

"Report from William Z. Foster in Chicago to A. Lozovsky in Moscow, November 7, 1924." This is an interesting report from the leading figure in the Workers Party of America in 1924, recent Presidential candidate and majority factional leader William Z. Foster, to the head of the Red International of Labor Unions, A. Lozovsky, in Moscow. Foster reports on the changed conditions which the WPA faced in the aftermath of the 1924 electoral debacle. The Trade Union Educational League, trade union arm of the WPA which Foster headed, was now isolated from active elements in the American working class, due in the first place to an active assault on TUEL members in the unions on the part of the conservative trade union bureaucracy. However, Foster notes, "this tendency toward isolation was greatly increased by the Farmer-Labor split in Chicago, which separated large numbers of sympathizers from the League. But the worst blow of all came with the development of the LaFollette movement. This cut off many of the most valuable sympathizing elements we had in the unions." He added that the WPA's main slogan, "For a Farmer-Labor Party" was a "dead slogan" that was due to be abandoned, except for the fact that the WPA was "divided on this question, the Ruthenberg minority still clinging to the idea of propagating the Farmer-Labor Party slogan, in face of the fact that there is no mass movement for it." TUEL was in a weakened position, the circulation of its official organ had plummeted to 5,000 copies a month, and in Nov. 1924 the magazine was combined as an economy measure, along with The Liberator and Soviet Russia Pictorial to establish a new official organ of the WPA called The Workers Monthly. TUEL was conducting electoral politics within several unions, including the Miners', Carpenters', Machinists', and the smaller Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers, but only in the last-mentioned was any limited degree of success possible, Foster declared. He additionally noted that "the securing of the backing of our own members still remains one of the greatest problems of the League," since "our foreign born workers have very little understanding about working in the trade unions."

 

"Letter to the CEC of the WPA from Jeannette D. Pearl in Long Island, NY Preferring Charges Against Rose Pastor Stokes." [Nov. 10, 1924] An entertaining soap opera scene from the history of American Communism. This letter by Jeannette Pearl (first wife of Louis Fraina, whom he deserted) prefers charges to the CEC of the Workers Party of America against Rose Pastor Stokes. Pearl charges that Stokes had been "publicly declaring that I am a spy. Such a charge against an active comrade when unrefuted by the Party has serious consequences not only to the person against whom it is aimed but also against the Party." Pearl demands a party trial in the matter and further takes a potshot at Stokes' living arrangement with her millionaire husband Graham: "I want you comrades to consider the source from which the charge emanates, a highly neurotic woman openly living with a notorious white guard, a member of the millionaire class, who advocates 'all reds be stood up against the wall and shot.' To that end he is an active Captain in the US Army and no doubt has higher offices, too." Pearl adds that "I had urged Rose to leave him on the ground that a Communist who is the Party's standard bearer has no moral right to be living with a counterrevolutionist while preaching solidarity to the workers" and indicates that this is probably, at least subconsciously, the reason for Stokes' denunciation of Pearl.

 

"Memo on Branch Membership Status in WPA Dist. 9 to Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg in Chicago from DO9 Clarence Hathaway in Minneapolis, Nov. 19, 1924." During the first 3 years of the Workers Party of America, the organization's primary component was the Finnish Socialist Federation, comprising nearly half of the organization's total membership. Nowhere was the Finnish Federation stronger, as a percentage of total membership, than in the WPA's Minneapolis District. This esoteric document from Minneapolis DO Clarence Hathaway analyzing the Minneapolis district branch by branch reveals a great deal about exactly what sort of partner the Finnish Federation was to the central WPA organization during the year prior to the structural reformation of the party under the moniker of "bolshevization." In branch after branch, dues collections as reported by Hathaway to have run several or many months late; dues paid frequently did not correspond to to the (irregularly-filed) reports of members on the books. Dual stamps seem to have been heavily utilized, possibly bordering on abuse, by some branches. Many branches had failed to complete their required industrial registration paperwork (matching up members with the unions and shops they were part of) or were otherwise unresponsive to the communications of the District Organizer. Hathaway's document is not a picture of a disciplined and organized party -- rather the opposite. In short, scholars may well need to examine this document and completely rethink the previous depiction of the "bolshevization" reorganization of 1925 in the literature. So-called "bolshevization" may well have been less an externally-determined and blindly-enforced diktat from abroad than a policy which spoke to rectifying festering conditions of disorganization, with lack of effective transmission belts between center and the branches and a tendency towards rampant "social" Federation membership rather than truly committed participation in the WPA organization.

 

"Letter to the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of America in Chicago from Benjamin Gitlow in Chicago, November 21, 1924." This short letter from Benjamin Gitlow to the governing CEC (of which he was a member) indicates the very real limitations of party discipline and the ability of the CEC to elicit compliance to its decisions. Gitlow absolutely refuses to accept a position as the head of the Broad Silk Weavers' Union, citing the impending collapse of the Paterson Silk Strike -- the conduct of which Gitlow says was discrediting the union. "Anyone who will take over the situation will have to shoulder the burden of all the discredit," he states, in noting that his "appointment at this time to that position is only a move to remove me as a CEC member from an important district prior to a convention." Instead, he once again applies for the post of Industrial Organizer for the Eastern District, a job for which he believed himself to be well qualified, but one to which the CEC has stubbornly refused to assign him, ostensibly for factional reasons.

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg in Chicago from Rose Pastor Stokes in New York." [Nov. 22, 1924] Upon receiving Jeannette Pearl's Nov. 10 complaint against Rose Pastor Stokes, Executive Secretary of the WPA C.E. Ruthenberg drafted a letter to the accused, passing along the specifics of Pearl's complaint. This brought the following answer from Stokes: "I have little to state. As you know, certain circumstances have fired in me the profound suspicion that Comrade Pearl is not square with the party. In a few instances I have voiced this suspicion to a trusted comrade... Since the time I spoke with you about my lack of confidence in Comrade Pearl nothing has happened to weaken or uproot that suspicion." Stokes adds her perplexity at why Pearl would attack Stokes living arrangement with her Right Social Democrat husband Graham, stating that Pearl knew "I live at my home, but not with Mr. Stokes, nor have been for many years." Rose Stokes adds that "Mr. Stokes' principles and mine, as well as our conduct in the class struggle, are diametrically opposed, as the world knows. I am responsible to the party and to the working class only for my own, and not for his, conduct." She tells Ruthenberg that she awaits further instructions.

 

"Letter to Rose Pastor Stokes in New York from C.E. Ruthenberg in Chicago." [Nov. 25, 1924] In this letter, WPA Executive Secretary Ruthenberg answers Rose Pastor Stokes' letter of Nov. 22. Ruthenberg states that "Of course I was familiar with the fact that you had these views in regard to Comrade Pearl and I presume other comrades have the same knowledge, but the issue at the present time is not whether your views were communicated to various comrades in responsible positions, but whether you made a public statement charging Comrade Pearl with being a spy." He adds that "it is inadvisable for us to have any such public statements made in our Party circles unless you are able to make definite charges and prove these charges, and from my knowledge of the facts in the case, I do not think that there is any proof which warrants such charges being submitted." Ruthenberg states that Pearl had been under surveillance by the party in this connection and that "continued observance of Comrade Pearl's activity for a period of time completely dissipated any suspicions which might have been directed against her. Under these circumstances to cast anew suspicions by publicly bringing such a matter into the Party is against the best interests of the Party and is an injury to Comrade Pearl." Ruthenberg asks Stokes to prepare a statement detailing exactly when made public allegations against Pearl and what she had specifically said.

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg in Chicago from Rose Pastor Stokes in New York." [Nov. 28, 1924] Rose Stokes replies to C.E. Ruthenberg's letter of Nov. 25, stating that if Jeannette Pearl's allegations are to be taken literally then "I doubt if they have any basis in fact. To the best of my recollection I have at no time 'publicly declared' that Jeannette Pearl 'is a spy.' It is, of course, not impossible to forget; but, to my mind, it is highly improbable that I'd fail to remember such a "public declaration statement" had I made it." Stokes states that she assumes the CEC will hear both sides of the story before passing judgment. The punch line to this exchange: in 1925 Rose Pastor Stokes obtained her divorce from Graham Stokes and for a time shared an apartment with the former Mrs. Louis Fraina, Jean Pearl. Rose Stokes later married her party comrade Israel Romaine (better known by his pen name, "V.J. Jerome") but Pearl and Stokes remained close personal friends for the rest of Stokes' life. Rose Pastor Stokes died of cancer in June of 1933 at the age of 53.

 

DECEMBER

"Criticism About the Practical Activities of the Party: Statement unanimously approved by the Editorial staff of Eteenpain [Worcester, MA], Dec. 3, 1924." In 1924, nearly 41% of the membership of the Workers Party of America were members of branches affiliated with the party's Finnish Federation. Despite the mammoth size of the Finnish Federation, comparatively little is known about the internal politics and development of this important institution. This editorial from one of the Finnish Federation's daily newspapers, Enteenpain, weighs in on the hotly debated and divisive farmer-labor party question as part of the pre-convention "Party discussion" of the matter. The unanimously approved Eteenpain editorial asserts that the WPA had made solid progress in 1924, with its membership increasing and its press gaining circulation. Despite these quantitative improvements, the WPA is said to be suffering from certain "weaknesses," including both a lack of ideological understanding commitment from rank and file members and a debilitating tendency towards factionalism among the leadership. This endemic factionalism had spilled over to the controversial question of the farmer-labor party tactic, the editorial asserts. While difference of opinion on such a matter was to be expected, "we believe that at the present time there has been no need to draft different sets of theses," Eteenpain declares. The Foster-Cannon-Lore majority had repudiated the farmer-labor party tactic -- a reasonable response to the "boasting and noisy campaign" initiated by John Pepper and his associates for a federated FLP, "a campaign which ate up energy and funds." However, the editorial continues, the error of overenthusiastically endorsing the FFLP was made by both main factions of the party leadership. "Now, when those great hopes have not been realized [the editorial continues], some of them again begin to overestimate that the coming of LaFollette has 'wholly' destroyed and eaten up the farmer-labor movement. This is no more true than the assumptions of a year ago." A falsely rosy view of the FFLP was being replaced by an overly pessimistic assessment. The editorial also complains of the way the CEC of the party was extracting excessive financial assessments from the membership to fund party activities and expanding the size (and financial burden) of the paid party apparatus at every turn. "The next convention should strive to prepare a strict budget of the National Office, because the financial burdens of our party are becoming too heavy," the editorial declares.

 

"Circular Letter to the Finnish Branches and Members of the Workers Party of America from Fahle Burman in Chicago, Dec. 4, 1924." The Finnish Language Section of the Workers Party of America was far and away the largest division of the organization during the first years of its existence. Secretary of the Finnish Federation was Fahle Burman, a member of the WPA's 13 member Central Executive Committee, a loyal factional adherent of the Foster-Cannon majority group. This circular letter from Burman to the membership of the Finnish Federation offers a fascinating new perspective on the WPA's factional war. Burman urges Finnish Federation members to fully participate in the delegate-election process to the forthcoming convention and to thus exert their full influence on the Party's political line and the composition its leading strata. The CEC had decided to join the spontaneously emerging Third Party movement "for the purpose of imbuing it, if possible, with a class character," Burman says, a policy to which the Comintern had given its consent. The Foster-Cannon group initially did not take much interest in this policy, confirming the question in principle, but commenting upon "the erroneousness of the tactics which were to guide us in the control of said movement, as the tactics were mainly based on the endeavor to get mechanical control" of the young Farmer-Labor Party movement -- a top-down conception, Burman states. By way of contrast, The Foster-Cannon group believed "that members of trade unions and other workers' organizations have to be educated in the class spirit and must be encouraged to act independently of other classes, which is tantamount to building up the Party from the bottom." The logic of the Pepper-Ruthenberg Farmer-Labor Party policy would be the establishment of a parallel political organization, with the WPA reduced to a guiding "party of Communist theorists." Burman alludes that the pursuit of this policy would effectively mean a renewal of the parallel Legal WPA/Underground CPA organizations -- a conception which was extremely unpopular among the members of the Finnish Federation. With the failure of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party to emerge as an authentic mass organization and with the Comintern vetoing collaboration with LaFollette, "the majority of the Committee were all but convinced that in the event of LaFollette declaring his candidature at the time of the [CPPA] Cleveland Congress on July 4th, there would be nothing left for us but to abandon the Farmer-Labor Party altogether and to appoint candidates from the Workers Party."

 

"Letter to C.E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary, Workers Party of America, in Chicago from Norman H. Tallentire, WPA District 12 Organizer in Seattle, Dec. 13, 1924." This brief note from Seattle DO12 Tallentire to the center documents the continued existence of an organized irreconcilable holdovers of the 1921-22 Central Caucus Faction as late as the end of 1924. A Latvian named Gus Pudnich is said to have come up to Seattle from San Francisco and was conducting agitation against the Workers Party of America in the Lithuanian and Latvian communities, attempting to "get them to organize in the pure underground 'Communist Party.'" Tallentire seeks multiple copies of the WPA's Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian papers for a month to more effectively "offset the propaganda that these people are putting up when they represent themselves as being the American section of the Communist International."

 

"Young Workers League of New York Endorses Minority, 76 to 45." (Daily Worker) [event of Dec. 18, 1924] On Dec. 18, 1924, a membership meeting of the Young Workers League's New York District was held. Reports were delivered on behalf of the (Foster-Cannon) majority thesis on the farmer-labor party tactic by Oliver Carlson, representing the CEC of the YWL, which endorsed the majority thesis; and on behalf of the (Pepper-Ruthenberg) minority thesis by Jack Stachel, DO of YWL District 2 [New York]. After lengthy discussion of the matter by the meeting, concluding statements were delivered by the two reporters and a vote was taken. The pro-FFLP thesis of the CEC minority handily defeated that of the CEC majority by a vote of 76 to 45. "We favor the application of the labor party policy as a maneuver of the Workers Party in the united front tactics," the adopted resolution of the meeting declared, adding "We condemn the prevalent manifestations of petty factionalism so destructive to our movement." A hastily tacked on final paragraph of the article by a Daily Worker journalist clearly partial to the majority faction notes that the New York District of the YWL included 600 members, of which "only 121 members voted at this meeting."

 

"Political Romancing Must Give Way to Realism," by Alfred Wagenknecht [Dec. 24, 1924] At the end of 1924 and into the first month of 1925 there was an open discussion in the party press on the strategy and tactics of the Workers Party of America -- a period of frank debate that quickly degenerated into finger-pointing and personal denigration that emphasized the bitterly fractured state of the organization. In this article, former head of the Communist Labor Party and United Communist Party Alfred Wagenknecht takes aim at factional leader John Pepper for replacing the period of underground romanticism with a period of opportunistic legal party romanticism. The nature and revolutionary potential of the political movement of the bankrupted farmers has been greatly overestimated by Pepper, Wagenknecht indicates. Pepper's so-called "big success" in establishing what was purported to be a Federated Farmer-Labor Party including over 600,000 rank and file unionists and farmers was revealed to be a chimera, as "the minute we lost a few high officials, the Fitzpatrick group in Chicago, and a few other high officials in various other "strongholds of the labor party idea," the FFLP wrinkled up and died," Wagenknecht states. Wagenknecht asks: "What was our error? We were crazy for a Farmer-Labor Party. We saw immense masses where in reality only single crooked leaders stood. The capitalist crisis was not severe enough to move the workers and farmers towards independent political action." Wagenknecht credits the Comintern's intervention with short-circuiting the opportunistic drive of some in the Workers Party for alliance with the LaFollette movement. Wagenknecht states the moment has passed for the formation of a mass farmer-labor party, and that any attempt by the WPA to forge one out of thin air with the aid of its "near relatives" would "mean nothing but a third debacle and a further loss of the confidence of workers' organizations." Wagenknecht declares that "We must at least realize that the masses of workers are not as politically advanced as we though they were.... The tempo, the decline of American capitalism is not at all abreast of Pepper's imagination."

 

"What the Communist International Thinks of the Different Groups in the Party," by Jay Lovestone [Dec. 26, 1924] Jay Lovestone has long had the reputation of having been a particularly unprincipled and vicious faction fighter on behalf of the Pepper-Lovestone "minority" faction of the Workers Party of America. This article from the Dec. 1924-Jan. 1925 "discussion" of tactics gives currency to that allegation. The Pepper-Ruthenberg faction is characterized as the "Marxian" section of the Workers Party; the Foster-Cannon faction as "superficial, empiric, non-Marxian" group dominated by a primitive trade union consciousness and the Lore group as a "Left Social Democratic group" on the "extreme Right of our party." Lovestone seasons his charges with liberal quotations from Comintern leader Karl Radek and additionally attempts to validate his perspective of the Fosterites by quoting chapter and verse from Iosif Stalin's Foundations of Leninism. Lovestone spends the most ammunition on Ludwig Lore in a clear effort to split the governing Foster-Cannon-Lore-Finnish Federation majority of the CEC. Foster's alliance with Lore is characterized as an "inestimable danger" to the party and a flagrant violation of Comintern wishes to remove Lore from a place in party governance. Lovestone's critique of the Foster group is ironic in retrospect in view of Lovestone's future development as the leading exponent of so-called "American exceptionalism." Lovestone charges that Foster & Co. followed bourgeois economists in seeing an economic boom of American capitalism following the election of Calvin Coolidge and seeking to delay until a more timely moment a political offensive against capitalism. Lovestone charges that for Foster and his co-thinkers "industrial activity and mobilization for the same were an end in itself." To this he contrasts the well-rounded and balanced perspective of the "Marxian" faction headed by Comrade Pepper.

 

"Additional Instructions for the Party's Membership Meetings." (Daily Worker) [Dec. 26, 1924] Anticipating the 4th convention of the organization in the first months of 1925, the Workers Party of America at the end of 1924 initiated a series of open "membership meetings" to debate the future course of the party, centered around the so-called (Foster-Cannon) "majority" and (Pepper-Ruthenberg) "minority" theses on the farmer-labor party tactic. This document reprints from the pages of The Daily Worker "additional instructions" for the conduct of these meetings, which were anticipated to be bitterly fought. The official representatives of the CEC were to be held responsible for the "proper organization and conduct" of the 10 scheduled meetings, to be held in the party's district centers of the East and Midwest -- New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Buffalo, Minneapolis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New Haven. So that balloting on the various theses was fair and legitimate, an even number of "majority" and "minority" tellers to count votes were to be appointed. Factional plurality verging on a two-party system is implied in these and other instructions issued in conjunction with the 1924 membership meetings.

 

"Instructions to CEC Members [re: mass membership meetings of the Workers Party of America]" (Daily Worker) [Dec. 27, 1924] Brief notice in The Daily Worker adding further procedural details for the conduct of the forthcoming 10 open "membership meetings" to debate the competing theses of the Foster-Cannon majority and Pepper-Ruthenberg minority groups on the labor-party question. Very heated gatherings were clearly anticipated, as rules 1 and 2 demonstrate: "(1) The representatives of the CEC (majority) shall exercise active control over the mass membership meetings and enforce the decisions of the CEC regarding the same. They shall be held strictly responsible for the preservation of order and the taking of a fair vote. (2) Should any organized resistance develop against the putting into effect of these decisions, the CEC members shall if necessary call upon the minority representatives to speak, together with such other comrades as may be necessary to preserve party discipline."

 

"My Position Toward the Farmer-Labor Movement," by Ludwig Lore [Dec. 29, 1924] Odd man out in the inner party war of 1924-25 was Ludwig Lore, editor of the New Yorker Volkszeitung and leader of a New York-based section of the party in opposition to the New York-based Pepper-Ruthenberg-Lovestone group. CEC member and Foster ally Lore was allowed unfettered access to the party press, however, and thus was able to chronicle his actual opinions on party tactics -- as opposed to the purported views condemned by his opponents or damned by the faint praise of the Chicago-based Foster-Cannon faction. Lore indicates his alliance with the Foster group is ideological rather than driven by motives of power-politics: "Taken as a whole, I agree with the majority thesis. The farmer-labor movement is dead and is not likely to awaken to a new existence for years to come," Lore says, despite his belief that such a tactic was previously possible and in accord with the WPA's "fundamental Communist conception." Lore indicates that the Farmer-Labor Party line pursued most aggressively by the Pepper minority faction was based upon "a policy of self-deception" in which the WPA projected itself and its close allies of reflective of the interests of the broad working class in the aftermath of a split of the farmer-labor movement in which the farmers bolted the Federated FLP for the insurgent 3rd party candidacy of Robert LaFollette. Lore provides a historically valuable narrative of the events behind the seminal decision in July 1923 to immediately move to the formation of a Federated Farmer-Labor Party, despite the protestations of Fitzpatrick, Nockels, and Buck, the leadership of the Farmer-Labor Party of the US. Lore testifies that he had attempted to avert this grave misstep -- a decision which "placed us in so disadvantageous a position and that prompted the [Foster group] to abandon the Federated Farmer-Labor Party almost at birth, because it feared the active opposition of the trade union movement..." Lore further charges that the Pepper minority faction, for all their posturing about the need for mass action, effectively scuttled the Farmer-Labor Party project by failing to send out organizers to union locals at the appropriate juncture to build the organization. "It would have been possible at that time, in my opinion, to build up, not a gigantic movement, it is true, but a movement that would have enabled us to galvanize large sections of organized labor into political class action, to establish for the revolutionary working class a sphere of influence that would have given it a broad field for active work," Lore declares.

 

"New York Experiences," by Charles Krumbein [Dec. 29, 1924] This article published in The Daily Worker by New York District Organizer and Bill Foster partisan Charles Krumbein attempts to demonstrate the ineffectual nature of the farmer-labor party tactic and the improvements in efficacy generate by the Workers Party running candidates in its own name. The New York local of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party had run 6 candidates for State Assembly and 4 candidates for city aldermen in the fall of 1923, generating $842 in donations and spending $1500 on the campaign -- the Workers Party of America absorbing the deficit. By way of contrast, Krumbein notes that the WPA had first successfully navigated the petitioning process to gain access to the ballot, had raised $16,000 for the campaign, and had in the course of the campaign distributed "nearly 1 million pieces of literature." In the single month of October 1924, the WPA had taken in 180 new party members -- 60 more than the average for the previous 10 months. Mass meetings held during the campaign drew as many as 6,000, and vote totals generated for WPA candidates exceeded the totals for FFLP candidates in the previous campaign. Krumbein neglects to factor into his analysis the detail that the fall of 1924 was a general election and the fall of 1923 was a by-election. Krumbein enthusiastically declares: "We reached the masses as never before and I am sure better than we ever could through a FLP. Many members stated they were glad they could make the fight out and out as against a camouflage, as our FLP was known and called by all our enemies.... Whoever says we can't go to the masses in our own name, but must use a "false face" in face of above facts has another guess coming."

 

"As to the 'Marxian Trunk' of the Party," by William Z. Foster [Dec. 30, 1924] CEC majority faction leader Bill Foster weighs in on the debate over the farmer-labor party tactic which dominated the party press at the end of 1924. Foster notes feeling a "gentle pain" (presumably in his lower regions) over the "high and lofty air of intellectual superiority assumed by the leading comrades of the minority." This Foster attributes to a stylistic holdover from the reign of John Pepper, when it was "quite the mode for the 'intellectuals' of the minority to ridicule with disdain the efforts of the merely proletarian members of the CEC." Foster calls this an "anti-Communist attitude" and asserts that adherents of such a view are nauseating braggarts, whose pretense to Marxian primacy is belied by their befuddled support of the opportunistic farmer-labor party tactic. Foster uses examples of Comintern support of his faction's line as positive proof of his group's Marxist credentials: "We all know that the CI is a real international and that it does not hesitate to reorganize a Central Executive Committee in any country if such action is necessary in order to put the party involved back into Bolshevik control. Now if the claims of the minority were true the duty of the Comintern would have been clear, and we know it would have performed that duty relentlessly by removing the present CEC from power. But the Comintern refused to do this. Somehow it failed to get the point that the minority were the only Communist, Marxian branch in our party. Possibly it may have though there were just as good Communists and Marxists among the majority. But at any rate, and this is the big thing, the Comintern rejected the demands of Pepper..." The minority had subsequently learned that "the proletarians of the majority can at the very least hold their own with the "intellectuals" of the minority, and can puncture their opportunism quite effectively," Foster triumphantly declares.

 

"Ruthenberg's 'Farmer-Labor Audit,'" by Joseph Manley [Dec. 30, 1924] Former head of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party Joseph Manley -- a former adherent of the Pepper-Ruthenberg faction despite being the son-in-law of William Z. Foster -- fires back at the Executive Secretary of the WPA in this Daily Worker article. Ruthenberg's financial summary of the costs of the Farmer-Labor Party campaign is portrayed as a conscious underestimate in an effort to discredit Manley. "It may come as a shock and a surprise to our membership to find Comrade Ruthenberg using his high office to misrepresent facts and figures with the end in view of destroying a political adversary," Manley declares. After detailing several examples of underestimated costs in the Ruthenberg "audit," Manley asserts: "All this is done with a purpose, first, to make me appear a damnfool -- though when I was a member of the Pepper faction he thought me sensible enough to nominated me twice to be the secretary of two of his pet Farmer-Labor Parties -- and, second, to minimize the expense to the Workers Party of that which he was such a devout champion - the Farmer-Labor Party." Manley stands by his previous estimate of $50,000 spent by the Communist movement the Farmer-Labor Party campaign, as opposed to $19,500 asserted by Ruthenberg's report. "The dead hand of the Farmer-Labor Party has lost its grip. Down with the corpse!" Manley asserts.

 

"Finnish Federation Bureau Supports CEC Majority Thesis." (Daily Worker) [Dec. 30, 1924] In 1924, nearly 41% of the membership of the Workers Party of America were members of branches affiliated with the party's Finnish Federation. This unanimous declaration of the governing Bureau of the Finnish Federation places the massive Finnish compliment of the WPA behind the Foster-Cannon "majority thesis" of the CEC on the farmer-labor party question: "The party has now come to the end of the road in its farmer-labor party agitation and organization; in fact the end of the road was reached July 8, last. The question now before the party is: shall we start this farmer-labor party agitation with its reckless maneuvering to follow all over again, in time when there is no actual basis for such agitation in existence? The minority in its thesis says 'yes.' The majority in its thesis says 'no.' We also say emphatically 'NO,' because our first experience does not warrant another trial at this time." There are no shortcuts to Communism in America, the resolution declares, and "our energy and means can be used to a better advantage in building up our own party organizationally and ideologically."

 

"Membership Series by District for the Workers Party of America. 'Dues Actually Paid' -- January to December 1924." Official 1924 data set of the Workers Party of America, compiled from a document in the Comintern Archive. This document shows a average paid WPA membership for 1924 of 17,378. Of these, nearly one-fifth were in D2 [New York], while the "Agricultural District" of North and South Dakota and Eastern Montana averaged just 95 paid members. Note is made that D10 [St. Louis] (consisting of Southern IL, and the states of KS, MO, and NE) was merged into D8 [Chicago] effective July 1, 1924.

 

"Membership Series by Language Federation for the Workers Party of America. 'Dues Actually Paid' -- January to December 1924." Official 1924 data set of the Workers Party of America, compiled from a document in the Comintern Archive. This shows a continued numerical dominance of the Workers Party of America by its Finnish-language federation, averaging a paid membership of 7100 (41% of the entire organization) for the year 1924. Impressive growth is shown by the Yiddish-language ("Jewish") federation, which moved to the third largest language group in the WPA in 1924. The English branches comprised the second largest language group in the WPA, but still remained just 11% of the overall organization. The South Slavic federation (predominately Slovenian and Croatian) was the 4th largest language group in the WPA, topping the Russian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian federations.

 

"Initiation Stamps Sold by District for the Workers Party of America. January to December 1924." Official 1924 data set of the Workers Party of America, compiled from a document in the Comintern Archive. This series shows a total of 8,456 dues stamps sold (which incidentally calculates to a "churn rate" of just 5.4% for the year -- but this is a case of Garbage In-Garbage Out, as initiation fees were clearly not collected from all new members of the WPA). Initiation stamp sales peaked at 2,667 in the first quarter before tailing off to average a shade over 1,900 per quarter for the rest of the year. New York and Chicago showed the largest sale of initiation stamps in absolute terms, while D5 [Pittsburgh] showed the strongest performance of any district expressed as a percentage of membership size, racking up 1091 initiation stamps for a district averaging a paid membership of 1212 for the year. One possible implication of this observation is that the enormous sale of "English" initiations in 1924 may in some way have been related to work among the Pennsylvania miners.

 

"Initiation Stamps Sold by Federation for the Workers Party of America. January to December 1924." Official 1924 data set of the Workers Party of America, compiled from a document in the Comintern Archive. An extremely interesting monthly series in which two unexplained anomalies are apparent: (1) The failure of at least 8 of the WPA's 18 language sections to make more than a token effort to collect the $1 initiation fee and obvious similar behavior (to lesser degree) among branches of other language groups; (2) A preposterously large sale of 5,264 initiation stamps to "English" branches, which averaged a paid membership of just 1909 over the course of the year. Either there was a revolving door in the English branches that was entirely dissimilar to the situation in any other language group of the WPA; or there was some sort of effort to collect initiation fees among "English" workers without organizational follow up; or there was some sort of strange accounting practice used by the WPA in which miscellaneous sales of initiation stamps were lumped into the "English" category (or some combination of these explanations). A perplexing question in raised, with further archival research clearly necessary.