NEW LEADER FORUM
NEW LEADER FORUM IS IT DEFEATISM? BY PAUL PORTER I protest against the cynical defeatism expressed fey The New Leader editor in his reply to Herman Woskow's letter in the Sept. 17 issue. A...
...A conscientious Socialist trade unionist, Comrade Woskow, attends the convention of the New York State Federation of Labor, finds that various nominal Socialists, qualified to sit as delegates, have stayed away and permitted thereby an unchallenged endorsement of anti-Socialist candidates and policies...
...KOA, Denver...
...It isn't a "cynical defeatism" the writer urges but a working class philosophy that avoids illusions which in turn lead to the defeat of an enduring Socialist idealism in the unions...
...He considers the organized worklag class in terms of leadera and I consider that class in terms of the rank and Me...
...This fundamental conception runs throughout their "philosophy...
...To be sure, there are exceptions to this rule where leaders have in some cases usurped power and engaged in racketeering, especially in the building trades...
...Is that vital fact considered by Comrade Porter ? Not at all...
...To be sure, there sre thousands of workers in the unions turning to us because of the breakdown of capitalism...
...Well, he should remember that thousands ef the members of the Socialist Party and local Socialist leadera as well during the years of the frightful war with the Communists "caused them to abandon their Socialist principles'' in sheer disgust...
...he sweeps it aside with a Podsnap flourish...
...Are these labor officials so flabby in their Socialism that their disgust with Communist tactics will cause them to abandon their Socialist principles...
...My view is that of a proletarian...
...I may be asked, "Shall we ignore the leaders...
...William Pickens Joins the Socialist Party William Pickens, field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People, has applied for membership in the Socialist party...
...We are not ae sure that if Comrade Porter had been a member of the party in those years of Communist delirium that he would have continued to fight on in what to many appeared te be a hopeless struggle...
...KFSD, San Diego...
...Is that the way for Socialists to meet the problems of a changing world ? I state that the composition of the membership has also changed...
...Let's have the charges, naming the accused, and present the evidence...
...BY JAMES ONEAL Paul, Porter's letter represents a college type of view that has come into the Socialist Party in recent years...
...Moreover, the Communist wrecking had a similar effect upon the miners and other progressive unions...
...The editor neither denies that certain "Socialist" lsbor officials are indebted to Tammany nor voices one word of criticism against their desertion of their Socialist duty...
...In this State a year ago our cause seemed to be an unhappy one...
...The New Leader has attacked such abuses editorially and otherwise but even in this case its criticism has been with the view of helping the rsnk and file and avoiding an approach that ia difficult to differentiate from the capitalist enemies of the organized working class...
...Fundamentally it is a middle class complex...
...KG A, Spokane...
...The declaration is unworthy of a veteran Socialist like the editor of the New Leader...
...Now to the facts...
...They are important to the rank and Ale but why should that disturb one who thinks of the unions merely in terms of the leaders...
...The high-hat is tipped to middle class "liberals" while the working class get a stony stare...
...Comrade Porter asks: "Are these labor officials ao flabby in their Socialism that their disgust with Communist tactics will cause them te abandon their Socialist principles...
...Does that surprise Comrade Porter...
...KSL, Salt Lake City...
...Would he apply this yardstick to Socialists in political office...
...Educational work among union members has never been mors necessary than now but If it is not carried en in a spirit of proletarian understanding of working class life it will produce dead sea fruit in the end...
...He must have knowledge pf the facts...
...KEX, Portland...
...Gathered here in convention, we send out message to the Republicans in every State of the Union: "Mine eyes have seen the glory , of the coming of the Lord"— In this State, the Empire State, His truth is marching On...
...The Yale Socialist Society will have headquarters in 1056 Chapel Street, where the Thomas for President Club r.ad the League for Independent Political Action have offices...
...It is cold water doused upon their readiness to struggle for a workers' commonwealth...
...The Communists seek te obtain power and put the whole working class under their dictatorship, ruthlessly suppressing all other workers' organisations, and jailing or executing those who persist in thinking for themselves...
...what they aim at is a dictatorship by Communists over the v or king class...
...They are really Anarcho Communists...
...Peter Nehemkis urged the group to raise $150, which is the sum necessary to defray expenses...
...Members of the society will make street corner speeches throughout New Haven and also conduct a house to house campaign distributing Socialist literature...
...The Communists fundamentally have ae confidence in the masses to whom they appeal but consider workers as cattle te be driven with the knout...
...Devere Allen, editor of The World Tomorrow, and Norman Thomas...
...3) important changes in the Industry which have undermined the unions...
...The writer said that the unions in question had fundamentally changed in the post-war period and that the changes are due to a- number of causes: (1) years of Communist wrecking...
...He is only interested in the leaders...
...This is even forecast hi their present physical attacks on street meetings held by other organisations ef the workers, including two outside Communist groups...
...The announcement of the organisation of the club created quite a stir in the university and it Is expected that many more students will take part in the campaign...
...He merely refers to it as a "scapegoat...
...QUESnONS »<l ANSWERS Socialism re...
...When it turns to the organized working class it is harsh in its denunciation...
...Socialism relies upon the education of the masses, their thorough organization and discipline in terms of a self-created workers' democracy...
...Hear ye:' In the ancient world they banished the great Pericles, whose name is the glory of Greece, and sent away the great Aristides because some were tired of hearing him called "The Just...
...Today the Republican Party is on its feet, champing at the bit and ready for the fray...
...We now come to union leaders who are said to be members of the party and whom Comrade Porter declares to be false to their Socialist duty...
...Yale Men Plan Plan Socialist Drive in New Haven ._k NEW HAVEN.—Over 40 Yale students met to form a society to wage an active campaign in New Haven ia behalf of the Socialist party's candidate for President of the United States, Norman Thomas...
...He ignores my fundamental premiss by transforming it into a matter of "lenders...
...For these reasons, I •aid, to think of these unions "in terms of their pre-war Socialist idealism is to ignore much post-war history...
...This middle class attitude extends to a policy of wooing "liberals" and progressives" to the Socialist Party by sweet pleading and tender criticism...
...It high-hats the working class...
...Comrade Porter ignores this and asks, "Are these labor officials so flabby in their Socialism," etc...
...Just because they are turning to us it is important for us to go to them, not as high-hatters but as exponents of a proletarian philosophy...
...I new add that te ignore these changes is to indulge ia illusions...
...Thousands of rank and file workers are turning to tbe Socialist Party, as I know from much assocation with them in recent months...
...No one will more heartily support the expulsion of a member proven guilty than mycelf, but blanket accusations that throw suspicion on Socialist members or leaders in genersl are harmful to a working class movement...
...How far does the editor go in justifying "acute problems of sheer preservation" as a cause for hiding one's Socialist allegiance...
...I agree that any party member, whether he is a member of a union or not, who so conducts himself in any other organization as to violate Socialist principles and ethics should forfeit his party membership...
...KECA, Los Angeles...
...Cheng outlined the program which the club will carry out during the next few weeks...
...A critical attitude toward the unions is consistent with Socialist policy and the writer has exercised it time after time, but he approaches this duty not as a high-hatter but as one imbued with a proletarian philosophy...
...These three organizations sre sponsoring several prominent Socialists who will speak in New Haven in the near future, among them Daniel W. Hoan, Paul Blanahard, secretary of the City Affairs Committee of New York, who will speak on Wednesday night at 8 o'clock in Dwight Hall at the University...
...However, I also insist that any party member who knows of such guilty conduct and does not bring sccusstions In the party agsiast such member la an accomplice in such conduct...
...Please answer in The New Leader...
...Pledge cards were passed out and a total of $48 was promised immediately...
...I mentioned important changes in the industry which, for the unions, bring "acute problems of sheer preservation...
...From thst day to this no public man has been more unjustly abused than our great President, Herbert Hoover...
...Does he deny that the Communist wrecking for years has disgusted many of the rank and file with polities...
...Every one of the sixty two counties of the State where I have either visited or talked to the leaders are in arms and confident of victory...
...Communism I wish yoe would explain as brief as possible the maia differences between Commas*an and Socialism...
...2) a marked change in the composition of the membership...
...That is, thousands of workers are] now members who came in without any revolutionary theories at alL This new type of member and i the old type who became disgusted with politics have changed the composition of the rank and file...
...The meeting was presided over by Charles C. Cheng, Chinese graduate student...
...THE BRAY of THE WEEK Banish Pericles and Ar is tides Bat Don't Can Unhappy Hoover So Unjustly Abused FROM the celebrated "keynote" address of W. Kingsland Macy, permanent chairman of the New York State Republican convention at Buffalo...
...My answer is, that many —how many I do not know—that he identifies as labor officials and who were once Socialists are not Socialists now...
...Pickens, who is one of the leaders of the advanced section ef the Negro race in America, studied a copy of the party's platform, and then mailed iar his application card, with a check for his dues accompanying the application, with the remark: "This platform is something worth fighting for, even if it is not immediately realisable...
...With this attitude is also an assumption that the trade unions will come to tbe Socialist position if we as a white-collar brigade stand on the frontiers of the unions snd continually cry their shortcomings...
...My answer is no, but as a general rule the leaders are to be understood only in relation to the rank and file...
...I am ashamed for them to encounter such shocking and cynical defeatism in a responsible Socialist paper...
...Would he, by any chance, apply it to Socialist papers faced with these "acute problems...
...he charges them with having abandoned their Socialist obligations as the price for Tammany small favors, and rails upon the labor committee of Local New York to investigate their "moral bankruptcy...
...In tiie above statement I considers solely the membership ef these unions...
...Indeed, he defends these deserters by declaring first, that the old scapegoat, the Communists, have "disgusted msny (union) members with political action," and second, that Communist opposition, inevitable changes in membership, and changes within the industry have weakened the so-called Socialist unions until they are faced with "acute problems of sheer preservation...
...They look to Socialists to help them fight their battles—against union machines as well as against political machines...
...They call this a "dictatorship of the proletariat...
...KGR, Seattle...
...Thomas on Pacific Coast Hook-Up SAN FRANCISCO.—Stations on the "Gold" hook-up of the National Broadcasting Company, which will carry Norman Thomas' speech before the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, Friday, October 7, from 12:45 to 1:30 p. m., Pacific time, are as follows: KPO, San Francisco...
...Socialism considers the social revolution as the conscious work of the great majority of the toilers, not the task of a smsll clique that intends to drsg the masses by the hair into freedom by way of tbe jail and the firing squad.—Editor...
...If malign forces of disintegration threaten the life of the unions such trends are not important to him...
...It is the duty of Socialists in the unions to fight for clean and progressive policies and for the party Itself to help the working class in Its fight against the exploiters...
...Tom Marans, Newark, N. J. The differences ere made...
...I state an important fact...
...This, important fact is also swept aside as Comrade Porter is mainly interested in the leaders...
Vol. 14 • October 1932 • No. 15
