Convention. The convention elected A. Wagenknecht executive secretary; and as members of the National Executive Committee, M. Bedacht, of California; Alexander Bilan, Ohio; Jack Carney, Minnesota; L. E. Katterfeld, Kansas; and Edward Lindgren of New York. Alternates, L. K. England, Illinois; Edgar Owens, Illinois. Labor Committee, Charles Baker, Ohio; Benjamin Gitlow, New York; R. E. Richardson, Utah; and Arne Swabeck, Washington. International delegates, John Reed, New York, and A. Wagenknecht, Ohio.

National Headquarters were opened at 3207 Clark Ave., Cleveland, Ohio.

The convention adopted a platform and program for the party. The platform contains the following provision:

"The Communist Labor Party of the U. S. A. declares itself in full harmony with the revolutionary working class parties of all countries and stands by the principles stated by the Third International formed at Moscow. . . . The Communist Labor Party proposes the organization of the workers as a class, the overthrow of capitalist rule and the conquest of political power by the workers. The workers organized as the ruling class, shall, through their government, make and enforce the laws; they shall own and control land, factories, mills, mines, transportation systems and financial institutions. All power to the workers!

To this end we ask the workers to unite with the Communist Labor Party for the conquest of political power to establish a government adapted to the Communist transformation."

The program of the party restates the principles of the Third Moscow International:

"1. The present is the period of the dissolution and collapse of the whole system of world capitalism. Unless capitalism is replaced by the rule of the working class, world civilization will collapse.

"2. The working class must organize and train itself for the capture of state power. This capture means the estab lishment of the new working class government machinery, in place of the state machinery of the capitalists.

"3. This new working class government the Dictatorship of the Proletariat-will reorganize society on the basis of Communism, and accomplish the transition from Capitalism to the Communist Commonwealth.

"4. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat shall transfer private property in the means of production and distribution to the working class government, to be administered by the workers themselves. It shall nationalize the great trusts and financial institutions. It shall abolish capitalist agricultural production.

"5. The present world situation demands that the revolu tionary working class movements of all countries shall closely unite.

"6. The most important means of capturing state power for the workers is the action of the masses, proceeding from the place where the workers are gathered together — in the shops and factories. The use of the political machinery of the capitalist state for this purpose is only secondary."

It must here be noted that the objects and methods advocated in this program are identical with those stated by the Communist Party. A slight difference, however, may be noted in the following:

"7. In those countries in which there is a possibility for the workers to use this machinery" (political machinery) "in the class struggle, they have, in the past, made effective use of it as a means of propaganda, and of defense. In all countries where the conditions for a working class revolution are not ripe, the same process must go on.'

In other words, the promoters of the Communist Labor Party see greater advantage in using the present political machinery of government for the purpose of propaganda in view of present conditions than do their comrades of the Communist Party. The party however is distinctly revolutionary. They state:

"1. We favor international alliance of the Communist Labor Party only with the Communist groups of other countries, those which have affiliated with the Communist International.

"2. We are opposed to association with other groups not committed to the revolutionary class struggle.

"3. We maintain that the class struggle is essentially a political struggle, that is, a struggle by the proletariat to conquer the capitalist state, whether its form be monarchial or democratic-republican, and to replace it by a governmental structure adapted to the Communist transformation.

"5. We favor organized Party activity and co-operation with class-conscious industrial unions, in order to unify industrial and political class-conscious propaganda and action. Locals and Branches shall organize shop branches, to conduct the Communist propaganda and organization in the shops, and to encourage the workers to organize in One Big Union.

"6. The Party shall propagandize industrial unionism and industrial union organization, pointing out their revolutionary nature and possibilities.

"7. The Party shall make the great industrial battles its major campaigns, to show the value of the strike as a political weapon."

A special report on labor organization was made to the convention. In it revolutionary industrial unionism is defined as organization of the workers into unions by industries with a revolutionary aim and purpose; that is to say, a purpose not merely to defend or strengthen the status of the workers as wage earners, but to gain control of industry."

After stating that labor, and labor alone, is industrially responsible, the report makes the following recommendations:

"I. That all Locals shall elect Committees on Labor Organization, composed so far as is possible of members of Labor Unions, whose functions shall be:

"(a) To initiate, or support, the creation of Shop Committees in every industry in their district, the uniting of these Committees in Industrial Councils, District Councils, and the Central Council of all Industries.

"(b) To propagandize and assist in the combining of craft Unions, by industries, in One Big Union.

"(c) To bring together in the centers of Party activity Locals and Branches- delegates from factories and shops to discuss tactics and policies of conducting the class struggle. (d) To propagandize directly among the workers on the job the principles of Communism, and educate them to a realization of their class position.

"(e) To find a common basis for the uniting of all existing economic and political organizations based on the class struggle.

"(f) To mobilize all members who can serve as organizers to fill the demand for men and women who can organize bodies of workers along the lines indicated above.

"(g) To direct the activities of local Party organizations in assisting the workers whole-heartedly in their industrial battles, and making use of these battles as opportunities for educating the workers."

The latter recommendation is of especial significance. It shows the purpose of the leaders of this party to intervene in all strikes; to take advantage of the passions and prejudices which are always engendered by such struggles; to inflame the strikers; to stimulate class hatred; to direct the hatred thus engendered against the government and institutions of this country.

The party platform and program, as well as the special report on labor organization, so clearly state the purpose and objects of this quasi-political party that the Committee deems it expedient to give them in full at the close of this chapter.

As in the case of other revolutionary bodies of this character, persons seeking to become members were required to sign an application card. In the case of the Communist Labor Party the form adopted was very similar to that of the Socialist Party of America. Copy of such card is here given:

APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP

COMMUNIST LABOR PARTY

I, the undersigned, recognizing the class struggle between the capitalist class and the working class, and the necessity of the working class organizing itself politically and industrially for the purpose of establishing Communist Socialism, hereby apply for membership in the Communist Labor Party. I have no relations (as member or supporter) with any other political party. I am opposed to all political organizations that support the present capitalist profit system, and I am opposed to any form of trading or fusing with any such organizations. In all my actions while a member of the Communist Labor Party I agree to be guided by the constitution and platform of that party.

(If a member of a labor organization give name and number.) Street Address

Ward ...

OFFICIAL RECEIPT

This Certifies that

has made application for membership in the Communist Labor Party and has paid the initiation fee of $1.00 and ....

months dues at the rate of 50c per month.

For the COMMUNIST LABOR PARTY,

By

NOTICE TO APPLICANT.- The sub-division of the Communist Labor Party which will consider your application meets Place .. Address. Date.

...

Successful applicants for membership were given red membership cards for the purpose of identification.

In the matter of propaganda the new party was very active. A number of Socialist newspapers and periodicals as well as new organs began to appear as the official organs of the Communist Labor Party. In New York City a fortnightly entitled "The Voice of Labor" which was first issued on August 15, 1919, as the organ of the Labor Committee of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party, edited by John Reed and with Benjamin Gitlow as business manager, became on November 1st an official organ of the Communist Labor Party. From August 30th to October 15th, inclusive, this paper had been published by the Joint Council of Shop Committees, an independent group waiting upon the organization of the Communist Labor Party.

The "Class Struggle" which had previously been an independent Socialist magazine of extremely radical tendency, became an organ of the Communist Labor Party, with a new board of editors consisting of Jack Carney, Ludwig Lore and Gregory Weinstein who had formerly been the editor of "Novy Mir," the official organ of the Russian Socialist Federation, and who is now chancellor of the Russian Soviet Bureau of which Mr. Ludwig C. A. K. Martens is the head.

"The Communist Labor Party News" published in Cleveland, Ohio, was issued as the official organ of the Cominunist Labor Party

Two very strong papers became the official organs of the Communist Labor Party, one published in Duluth, Minnesota,