‘The American Communist Struggle Against Imperialism,’ Resolution Adopted at the 4th National Convention of the Workers (Communist) Party. Daily Worker Publishing Company, Chicago. 1925.
1. THE BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF IMPERIALISM AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.
A. The basic characteristics of imperialism are;
1. The concentration and centralization of industry and capital result in monopolies so powerful that they play the decisive role in economic life.
(a) Nowhere has monopoly developed to the extent that it has in the United States, the classic land of trusts and combines.
2. An immense accumulation of money capital available for in- vestment and exportation, and a tremendous expansion of the credit system into a world credit system where groups of financiers finance first whole backward countries, their industries and governments and later to finance even industrially advanced countries.
(a) The United States leads in the manifestation of this tendency also. More than half of the world’s gold supply is accumulated here. From a debtor, the United States has been converted not merely into a creditor nation but into the investor and usurer nation par excellence. In war debts alone the world owes the United States over eleven billion dollars. The greatest of these debtors is its nearest rival and competitor, the British Empire with four and one- half billion dollars in round numbers.
(b) The world’s total debt to the United States today is more than twenty billions. In the last year alone, the American capitalists increased their foreign investments by almost a billion and a quarter The Dawes plan, the repeated French stabilization loans, the financing of countries like Germany, Austria, Italy and France, etc., and even the British dominions as Canada and Australia (the recent loan of $75,000,000 to Australia) indicate clearly that it is no longer a question of financing backward countries but advanced industrial countries and colonies of rival imperialist powers as well.
3. The centralization of banking capital on an ever-increasing scale, and thru its financing, credit and investment development the fusion of banking capital with monopoly capital and the creation of a financial oligarchy on the basis of the thus originated “finance capital.” In the United States this tendency has gone so far that the federal reserve system has coordinated all banking groups into a single domestic and world financing organization under the control of the most powerful and most concentrated oligarchy in the world — an oligarchy which is personified by two individuals, Morgan and Rockefeller.
4. The basic determinant of world economic and political policy becomes the export of capital and not the export of commodities.
5. There arise international monopolistic unions of capitalists which divide the world among themselves.
6. The territorial division of the world is already completed and each shift in relative power among the imperialist nations is marked by a violent redivision of backward and even industrially advanced countries.
7. The seizure of the sources of raw materials and especially oils and metals and coal is another source of conflict for the redistribution of the already divided world.
(a) The United States is especially favorably situated on account of its great domestic oil and mineral supply. It controls 43 per cent of the world’s output of coal; 64 per cent of the steel; nearly one-third per cent of the petroleum; about 50 per cent of the copper, etc. In addition to the rich supplies of raw materials in the United States the minerals and oils of Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, etc., are increasingly getting under the undisputed sway of the U. S. Thus the U.S. enters into the conflict for European, Asian and African raw material sources with the preponderance already assured in its favor.
8. Imperialism thus broadens to a world base and sharpens the local conflicts, deepens the antagonism between rival national imperialist groups, suppressing internal competition only to intensify world competition.
9. This conflict tends increasingly to a violent form, accompanied by domestic reaction, savage exploitation of subject peoples, an increasingly rapid armament race, and the piling up of ever more explosive materials in the world powder magazine.
10. It provokes increasing revolts of the subject peoples, presently evidenced by the Moroccan and Chinese situations, the growth of anti-imperialist movements in Latin-America, the Turkish and Persian situations and colonial movements generally.
11. An historical alliance is being consummated in the alliance between the revolutionary proletariat and exploited colonial and semi-colonial peoples. This basic strategy of the world revolution, elaborated by Lenin is now being confirmed by history; we are witnessing its conscious application, not locally, not within sectional limits, but on a world-wide scale. The astonished bourgeoisie, which predicted confidently the immutable binding power of nationality over the class interests of the workers in the home countries of imperialism, are being treated to the spectacle of the French Communists openly aiding the heroic Riff tribesmen to throw back the armies of imperialist France, while the socialist party, which has set up its usual “union sacre” with imperialism, is more and more losing the support of the French masses. The opportunist leaders of the British labor party have again declared for imperialism by voting for “imperial preference,” but the Communist Party of Great Britain is cementing its fighting alliance with the national liberation movements of India and Egypt. Enslaved China has turned against its imperialist oppressors; it is the beginning of the surfeited liberation of Asia and the mighty Kuomintang Party of China welcomes and receives the support of revolutionary toilers in England, Japan, France, America — in all the home countries of imperialism. Moreover, Soviet Russia, the expression of the international victory of the working class, is China’s staunch ally.
12. The imperialist struggles on all sides are an indication that the partial and temporary stabilization of capitalist industry, noted at the recent sessions of the Enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International, has brought no real stabilization to capitalism. This is the final stage of capitalism. Bourgeois society is hanging in the balance. It will be buried by the combined forces of the proletarian revolution and the national liberation movements of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples.
2. AMERICA’S IMPERIALIST POLICIES.
13. The days of “national Isolation” in America have been left far behind. The tremendous strides of American imperialism constitute one of the most significant developments of world capitalism since the war. American imperialists have now subjected over three- quarters of a million square miles of territory— but these figures give no real idea of the extent of the American empire, which brushes aside boundary lines and penetrates even into the most highly developed industrial sections of Europe. In his great work on imperialism, Lenin pointed out that it is those countries that possess capital that dominate all other nations, despite the bourgeois-democratic fiction of the equality of nations. The United States is the greatest store-house of capital in the world; capital is being constantly piled up. American export of capital has more than doubled since the war, the total now invested abroad exclusive of war debts to the U.S. government being over nine billions of dollars. The United States is the world’s money-lender; no big financial deal can be put thru without consulting the House of Morgan. To guarantee its investments and to open up new fields for them, the financial oligarchy centered in Wall Street makes ready use of its political instrument, the United States government. Also to monopolize markets and to control sources of raw material. American government officials travel the seven seas to do the bidding of Wall Street. American warships break strikes in Cuba and Central America, patrol Chinese rivers and engage in imperialist demonstrations in far eastern waters.
14. American foreign policy is imperialist policy. Broadly speaking it revolves around three main slogans; the Monroe Doctrine, the “open door” and the Dawes plan.
The Monroe Doctrine.
15. This is the official name for the policy in Latin-America. Latin-America is something more than a field for the investment of capital and a market to be monopolized, altho 44.4 per cent of America’s total foreign investment is in Latin-America. The greater part of our raw material imports come from Latin-America. One of those raw materials is oil, which has become an elemental, vital factor in the life of modern capitalism — a central objective in the clash of rival imperialism thruout the world. Latin-America is therefore considered Wall Street’s eminent domain, where no foreign intervention, other than that of the United States, is to be tolerated. The Monroe Doctrine is a doctrine of “Latin-America for Wall Street.” Native governments are either ruthlessly thrust aside, as in Nicaragua and Santo Domingo, where U.S. marines run amuck, putting the natives to work in chain gangs in the dust and sweltering heat of the public roads; or else the governments are intimidated, as everywhere in Central America; or they are threatened with revolution, as in Mexico and elsewhere; or they are encouraged to pro-American dictatorship, as in Venezuela and Peru. American imperialism has even created special organizations to assist in the domination of Latin-America, notably the Pan-American Union.
16. Out of the 20 Latin-American republics, 11 now have their financial policies directed by appointed officials from the United States. Six of these 11 have their financial agents backed by American military forces on the ground. Four of the remaining nine have their economic and fiscal lives closely tied to the United States thru large loans and concessions giving special advantage to American capitalists.
17. The Monroe Doctrine will not lose its importance to American foreign policy with the development of the American empire to world-wide proportions. On the contrary, it will be pushed more than ever to the fore. Latin-America is the primary foreign base of American capitalism. The plan for a Mexico City-to-Buenos Aires railway is the symbol of American imperialism just as the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway was the symbol of German imperialism.
18. Latin-America is still the principle field of American imperialism and one where its sway is relatively undisputed by rival powers. Its population is almost equal to that of the United States, its territory several times greater and the whole extent of a continent and a third is unified by common language, racial and social origins, traditions and history, culture, and economic and political conditions.
19. There is sufficient homogeneity to permit of the building of a powerful continental movement of the workers and peasants against American imperialism, and sufficient resentment due to the occupation of the Central American and Caribbean countries the sustaining of autocracies such as those of Venezuela and Peru by united aid, the interference in the internal affairs of all of the countries, the system of financial and military advisers, the monopolistic Monroe Doctrine and the robbery of the tremendous natural resources of Latin-America.
B. The Open Door.
20. The “closed door” policy expressed in the Monroe Doctrine is substituted by its exact opposite, the “open door” in the Far East. America came late to the Chinese treasure house. She got her first real foothold during the world war, with the activities of the American International Corporation and the Asia Banking Corporation and since that time has been expanding her interests rapidly. Commerce with the Orient constitutes 25 per cent of all America’s foreign trade. For the United States, China is principally a market and a field for investment — an unbelievably vast one, as yet scarcely tap- ped. The Washington conference of 1921-22 marked the definite orientation toward the Pacific of an important phase of American foreign policy.
21. The “open door” policy is a pretended insistence upon equal rights for all imperialist nations. It was originally expressed in the Hay doctrine on China, but has since been expanded to take in Mesopotamia, Egypt, parts of Europe, etc.; in fact it has become a general slogan of American foreign policy, when not applied to Latin- America. In the Far East, the policy means the playing off of Great Britain against Japan, and an attempt to dislodge both. Because of its hypocritical “open door” policy bringing it into conflict with the directly felt imperialist domination of Great Britain and Japan, the United States has created the illusion among sections of the Chinese people that her purposes are friendly. This dangerous idea must be energetically combated. Our Party should take the lead in educating the Chinese as to the real meaning of the “open door” policy and the purpose of American imperialism.
The Philippines.
22. The bitterness of the Philippine people against American exploitation and tyranny increases daily. Importance of the Philippines as the key to future struggles In the Far East cannot be over-emphasized. The anti-independence movement in the United States and the dictatorial policy of Wood in the suppression of strikes, murdering of natives, etc., make the Philippine situation ever sharper and more nationalist revolutionary in tendency.
23. Our Party has already developed some influence among the Filipinos by its defense of their interests. The American Party should intensify and increase its activities on behalf of Philippine independence (tie this up in the minds of the American workers with the situation in China and the possibilities of war with Japan). The Filipinos should be made to realize that the liberal “independence” movement in the United States is not to be reckoned with as the basis for a spirited fight against American imperialism in the Philippines, but that it must look to the Communist movement and the working class for such a fight.
24. A real effort should be made to organize the Filipino workers in the United States as a step to Communist organization on the islands. The immediate recall of General Wood and an investigation of his regime should be called for. Every atrocity in the Philippines should be the signal for protest meetings and resolutions in the United States. The Party should explain in its propaganda for independence that a “Plattized” independence is no independence at all.
25. The campaign outlined in the Party’s Filipino program is to be prosecuted vigorously.
China.
26. The United States continues to present itself as the hypocritic champion of the “open door” in China. It has held it “open” long enough to get one foot in. It is now trying to get the other in and then kick Japan and later Great Britain out, and close the door in the faces of the other imperialist powers. The hypocrisy of the “open door” campaign must be exposed, the danger of war with Japan and the Soviet Union, the tyranny of the whole foreign intervention policy and its significance in making the East a storm center for a new world war must be kept in the forefront. The subservience of the American Federation of Labor President Green to the American state department has caused him to issue a pronouncement of the same hypocritical tone in the name of the A.F. of L. The Party and the anti-imperialist league should hasten to address and appeal to the members of the A.F. of L. explaining to them the true state of affairs in China and presenting a concrete plan of action on the part of the American working class. (Similar use should be made of the Latin-American pronouncements of Green, the conferences called, etc.) Our Party should intensify its work on the Chinese situation and prepare for a long campaign as the Far East situation will continue perhaps for years in an acute stage. The Party must demand the abolition of the four-power pact, the nine-power pact, extra-territoriality rights, concessions, etc., etc. It must seek fraternal relations with the Chinese working class and especially intensify its relations with the Kuomintang. It must propose fraternal relationship between the American and Chinese organized workers, and mobilize opinion among the American workers against further intervention and in favor of the Soviet policy in connection with China.
C. THE DAWES PLAN.
27. Comrade Stalin characterized the Dawes plan as an attempt to “cover and mask the desperate struggle between England and France for European supremacy, the growing hostility between England and America in the struggle for domination of the world market, the struggle of the German people against the colonial entente oppression.” This was the final, amazing leap of American imperialism in its onward march, made possible by the ruin of Europe in the war and the new strength and consciousness of purpose of the American capitalists. When the after-war boom came to an end, it became apparent that the United States could not continue to hold aloof from European affairs. The tremendously developed industrial capacity of this country was lying idle with the bank vaults bursting with gold (call money was being lent at less than two per cent interest in the “outside market’*), the urge to incorporate Europe with the American economic system and furnish an investment market for American capital became irresistible. The Dawes plan means not more employment for American workers, but less and more uncertain employment. The Dawes plan is an adventure in international monopoly built upon the enslavement of the German workers and tending to force down the standard of living of British French and American workers as well. Together with the Hurley plan for France, the Mellon plan for Belgium, and the various systems of control imposed upon Austria, Hungary, etc. it expresses the insolent bid of American imperialism for world domination. But the plan is doomed to fail. A country like Germany cannot be kept as a colony The attempt to do so means, as Comrade Stalin says, “to place Europe on a charged mine.” Moreover, England and France cannot reconcile their multiple differences with the United States, of which the European situation offers only one phase. Another and an important one is the preponderant position of American capital in Canada, its growing strength in Australia and other British colonies The entire European adventure of American imperialism is in itself an earnest of the approaching collapse of world capitalism. It rests upon a hundred sharpening contradictions. For the American workers it heralds the awful certainty of new wars.
28. Even Before the War With Spain in 1898, American capital- ism had reached the point of development where it could no longer maintain itself without giving up its isolation and being drawn into the current of world events. The West was becoming populated Money was no longer at a big premium for internal developments American capitalists could not count indefinitely upon a constant consumption demand in this country and industry was expanding rapidly. In the United States itself, Big Business had developed to the point where it was able to dictate the entire foreign policy of the government. The launching of the United States Steel corporation m 1900, personified the fusion of banking and industrial capital It was thru the world war and the events subsequent to it that the United States was able to lay the basis for its present expanded policy.
29. American imperialistic foreign policy will now be intensified particularly as the race for oil becomes hotter, as American surplus capital continues to pile up, as the clashes with rival imperialism become more unavoidable. Already Japan and England are engaged on fierce contests with American imperialism— Japan in the Far East England m Latin-America, China, Asia Minor, Europe— over all the world. England is the main competitor, the chief capitalist obstacle in the path of Wall Street. If England could be eliminated or rendered helpless, the United States would have a comparatively free hand with Japan. At the Washington conference the United States succeeded in breaking up the Anglo-Japanese alliance and in forcing England to recede from her age-old position of mistress of the seas, thru the acceptance of the 5-5-3 naval basis. Too weakened to conduct an independent policy of her own, England has been constrained to console herself in recent years with the role of a lesser partner in America’s new imperialistic ventures — as in the Dawes plan in Europe— but England and America are irreconcilable rivals. The present situation in China illustrates the impossibility of reconciling the interests of the British imperialists with those of Wall Street. Our Party must understand the basis of the fundamental conflict between British and American imperialism, and must be prepared for the titanic struggle which is approaching.
30. Another factor that imperialism cannot leave out of consideration is Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia has made the first breach in the circle of world capitalism. She represents the spearhead of the international class war piercing its way into imperialist situations. She has already shown what the far-reaching effects of this may be by her support of China. The United States as the standard-bearer of world capitalism, has of necessity become the rallying center for the battle against capitalism’s mortal enemy. American workers must at all times stand by Soviet Russia in the attempt of the capitalists to wage war against her.
3. AMERICAN IMPERIALISM.
31. This “pacifist imperialism” as it has been called, is essentially warlike. The United States today spends tremendous sums of money on military and naval preparations. Thru the medium of the Citizens’ Military Training Camps, Boy Scouts, etc., the entire population is being drawn into the scheme of militarization. A powerful, centralized armed force is being built up for us against the workers at home, and to crush the movements for freedom in Latin-America, Hawaii and the Philippines—as well as to organize for the next war. “Navy day,” “defense day,” etc., are signs of the approaching imperialistic conflict.
32. The American imperialists know that their struggle to oust Japan from China is one that cannot be settled without war. The United States is ready for that war. Hence the recent maneuvers of the fleet in Far Eastern waters— and its subsequent friendly visit to Australia. American imperialism is prepared to fight England, but she wishes to detach England from Japan at all costs, and evidences of an Australian-American entente, together with the Canadian situation, are calculated to make England think twice before she throws in her lot with Japan. Our Party must conduct a relentless campaign against American militarism, inside the military training camps and out. The spread of Communism in the army, as shown in the cases of Crouch and Trumbull, is of great significance, and it is especially significant that they are stationed in a colonial possession. We must expose the imperialist purpose of “navy days” and “defense days” and we must tear the sham from off such slogans as “the yellow peril,” “limitation of immigration,” etc., so that the working class may respond to our fight against the- coming war.
Imperialism and the Capitalist State.
33. The bourgeoisie develops an evermore powerful state machinery for the execution of its financial schemes, for armament for colonial, for mandated areas and spheres of influence administration, and tor suppression of class conflicts at home.
34. The intervention of the powerful imperialist state machine in domestic labor conflicts (injunctions, use of force in strike breaking, compulsory arbitration, etc.), the growing drain of militarism and colonial wars and occupations, the imposing of the gigantic state apparatus, the sharpening conflicts leading to a new world war the growth of unemployment due to industrial stagnation at home and export of capital on an ever increasing scale, the use of lower wages and living standards and longer working hours among the subject nations and “Dawesified” European workers to depress working standards and wages at home— all these tendencies work counter to the tendency to corrupt the “aristocracy of labor” and identify it with imperialism, and they begin to make clear to the working class the irreconcilable opposition of imperialist opportunism to the general and fundamental interests of the labor movement.
35. Its enormous profits thru the exploitation of backward peoples enables it to bribe and corrupt main leaders of the working class and even create privileged industries and branches of industry thus creating a fairly numerous aristocracy of labor. Thus there is born the union of opportunism and imperialism, which in the United States expresses itself in the imperialist nationalist and class collaboration policy of the leaders of the American Federation of Labor and in Latin-America in the policies of the Pan-American Federation of Labor. The creation of privileged sections of the working class leads to their separation from the broad masses of the workers This splitting up of the working class is very marked in the United States and is an important contributing factor emphasizing the division between skilled and unskilled, organized and unorganized Negro and white, foreign and native, etc.
36. The American capitalists have also succeeded in corrupting with some portion of their surplus profit leaders of the working class in some of the colonial and semi-colonial countries (Iglesias in Porto Rico and the Porto Rican socialist party, Morones in Mexico and the Mexican labor party, De LaSelva in Nicaragua; the leaders of the Central American Federation of Labor; the fascist elements In the Cuban Railway Brotherhood, etc.)
American Imperialism and Labor Aristocracy.
37. In the United States, opportunism is ripe and overripe. The beginnings of a counter tendency are making themselves manifest This is to be noticed in the growth of a labor party movement, the Platonic response even to the abstract amalgamation campaign, the marked tendency of the seamen to break down their isolation, etc.
38. Imperialism develops increasingly its own contradictions which on the domestic field present themselves in the form of a parasitic, stagnating and even decadent form of capitalism. The capitalist is reduced to a coupon cutter. The oligarchy becomes so small and so powerful that it is possible to neutralize whole sections of the former supporters of the bourgeoisie, poor farmer, petty bourgeoisie, etc., and to win away whole sections of the masses that have hitherto followed capitalism.
The Tasks of Our Party.
39. One of the important tasks is to convince the American workers of the living reality of American imperialism, of its menace to them, and of the necessity of fighting against it. This involves intensive propaganda and organization of the left wing in the trade unions, where the labor aristocracy and especially the bureaucratic officialdom are holding the fort for imperialism. The sinister connection between these elements, the capitalists, and the superprofits must be exposed. The imperialist role of the so-called Pan-American Federation of Labor, dominated by the American Federation of Labor machine, must be exposed. It is especially important to make the workers realize the connection between the imperialist policy of the corrupted labor bureaucrats and their whole class collaboration program, such as labor banking and the B. & O. plan. While an entire section of the highly skilled workers (the labor aristocrats) is also corrupted by imperialism, these elements should not be lumped together with the official bureaucracy of the unions; consistent efforts should be made to win the more proletarian sections of the labor aristocracy away from their co-operation with bureaucrats and bosses and into active struggle on behalf of their real class interests. Anti-imperialist work in the trade unions should be linked up with concrete proposals against imperialism. “Withdrawal of troops from Santo Domingo!” “Independence for the Philippines!” “Unconditional release of Crouch and Trumbull!” “Stand by Soviet Russia!” etc.
40. Educational work must go on in our Party to acquaint our members thoroly with the problems of imperialism. The imperialist character of the present epoch must be studied in the works of Lenin, Bukharin, Stalin, Zinoviev, etc. Special effort must be made to promote an understanding of the essential unity between the proletarian world revolution and the national liberation movements in the colonial and semi-colonial countries. Anti-imperialist work in our Party must be concentrated on the independence and anti-imperialist movement in the countries under the heel of American imperialism.
41. The second congress of the Comintern pointed out that “the policy of the Communist International on the national and colonial questions must be chiefly to bring about a union of the proletarian and working masses of all nations and countries for a joint revolutionary struggle leading to the overthrow of capitalism…” This is a tenet which we see working out so splendidly all around us today, and which is ringing the death-knell of the international bourgeoisie. In Latin-America, Hawaii and the Philippines there is a national liberation movement, just as in China and the Riff sections of Morocco. The millions groaning under American imperialist rule have indicated in no uncertain terms that they want their freedom and are willing to fight for it. The Filipinos have voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence. In Porto Rico there is also an increasing sentiment for complete independence from American imperialism. The Cuban people are struggling to throw off the vicious Piatt Amendment, which is strangling them. The Mexicans stand ready to fight American intervention with arms. The Haitians fight to the death against the American military dictatorship. We must give active support to these movements. We must form direct alliance with them. This must be done in close co-operation with the other Communist Parties of the continent, and we must put forth every effort to build Communist Parties in those countries where none now exist.
42. There is a strong tradition of Latin-American solidarity which is a historic force for the unification of the anti-imperialist movements of the various Latin-American countries. This will be an important weapon in the struggle against Wall Street. The All-America Anti-Imperialist League was created as the expression of the liberating movement of all the exploited peoples of the continent. The Workers Party took part in the creation. Represented in the League are also the Communist Parties of Mexico, Central America, and South America, as well as student groups, labor organizations, peasant leagues, and national societies in various countries.
43. For us, the League constitutes an organizational expression of our determination to fight side by side with the exploited peoples of America’s colonies and semi-colonies. While we strive to make the groups affiliated to the All-America Anti-Imperialist League recognize in the Communists and the Communist International, the leaders of the world struggle against imperialism, we must work conscientiously to build up the league itself, to push it into activity and to make of it a powerful driving force for the overthrow of American imperialism.
44. The following is our concrete program of joint action with the exploited peoples for the struggle against American imperialism.
(a) Expose the purposes and methods of American imperialism everywhere.
(b) Demand independence for all American colonies and unconditional withdrawal of American troops from Latin-America, Chinese and other foreign soil.
(c) Actively support Latin-American strikes against American concerns.
(d) Ideological and practical struggle against the doctrine of Pan-Americanism.
(e) Expose and struggle against the so-called Pan-American Federation of Labor as an agency of American imperialism, and the Mexican and American Parties shall work out joint plans for exposing the true character of the Pan-American Federation of Labor and propagate the idea of the formation of a Latin-American Labor Federation with anti-imperialist tendencies.
(f) Interchange of delegates at conventions and close co-operation with the Communist Parties of Latin-America; fraternal relations with the parties of the Far East.
(g) Help build the All-America Anti-Imperialist League into a powerful organization for the overthrow of American Imperialism.
(h) Immediately strive to build up sections of the All-America Anti-Imperialist League in parts of the United States, thru affiliation of resident organizations of Mexicans, Filipinos, Chinese, etc.
(i) Support the proposed plan of the All- America Anti-Imperialist League for an Ail-American Conference against imperialism.
(j) The Machete, organ of the Mexican Communist Party, and El Libertador, organ of the Anti-Imperialist League (published in Mexico) should be circulated among the Spanish-speaking workers of the United States.
The American Labor Movement.
45. The decision of the Communist International on suppressed nationalities must be adapted and applied to the peculiar situation of the American Negro. The Negro, the foreign-born worker, the Mexican workers in the South, and the unskilled workers generally must receive more attention. The division of the working class into Negro and white, foreign-born and native, skilled and unskilled, organized and unorganized, must be a central point of attack for all of our efforts to overcome the labor opportunism of imperialism and unify the American working class. The anti-imperialist work forms an excellent entering wedge in this connection and should be more intimately tied up with the trade union work.
46. Among the organized workers the attacks upon class collaboration, upon the corrupt leadership, etc., should be closely linked with the anti-imperialist work. The rank and file of the labor aristocracy must be won for the class struggle and its leaders exposed in their eyes. The intervention of the powerful state machine in labor struggles must be made the basis of major campaigns. The relation of that domestic machine to imperialism must be made clear.
The Soviet Union.
47. All anti-imperialist campaigns must be tied up with the Union of Socialist Republics, as the living example of a great anti-imperialist proletarian power, and with the Comintern as the world fighting organization of black, yellow, brown and white peoples in a world united front against capitalism and imperialism in all their forms. The solution of the national question by Soviet Russia has not been sufficiently explained to the American working class. Nor has the role of Soviet Russia in Persia and Turkey been sufficiently capitalized. It must be made clear that the war plots and attacks against the Soviet Union are largely attributable to its anti-imperialist policy thruout the world. The “Recognize Russia” campaign must be intensified, and tied up with the struggle against imperialism.
The Fourth National Convention of the Workers (Communist) Party of America. Daily Worker Publishing Company, Chicago. 1925.
Contents: Majority Report on Credentials, Minority Report on Credentials, Rules or Order of the Convention, Report of the Central Executive Committee, (a) The Farmer-Labor Party Campaign, (b) The Election Campaign, (c) The Labor Party Campaign, (d) United Front and Other Special Campaigns, (e) Trade Union, I.W.W. Ind. Unions etc., (f) Agrarian Educational Women’s Negroes’ and AntiImperialist Work, (g) Our Party Press, (h) Membership of Our Party, (i) The Party Publications, Different Languages, (j) Language Sections, (k) Financial Statement of the National Office, Majority Resolution on the Report of C.E.C., Minority Resolution on the Report of the C.E.C., Majority Resolution on C.I. Decision on American Question, Minority Resolution on C.I. Decision on American’ Question, The Present Situation and the Immediate Tasks of the Party, Instructions for Labor Party Campaign, Resolution on Rolshevization of the Party, Resolution on the Liquidation of Loreism, Motion on the Expulsion of Lore from the Party, The Industrial Work of the Workers (Communist) Party, (a) Main Tasks of the Party in the Trade Unions, (b) Necessary Organizational Measures, (c) Shop Committees, (d) Amalgamation and International, (e) Party Policies for Trade Union Work, The International Labor Defense Endorsed, Communist Agrarian Program and Policies, The American Negro and the Proletarian Revolution, (a) The Negro in American History, (b) Negro Race Movements, Communist Work Among Women in the United States!, The American Communist Struggle Against Imperialism, Our Pledge to the Soviet Union, Resolution on the Young Workers League, Resolutions of the Appeals Committee, Building of the Communist Press, Report of the Daily Worker Financial etc., Election of the Incoming Central Executive Committee. 86 pages.
PDF of full issue: https://archive.org/download/TheFourthNationalConventionOfTheWorkerscommunistPartyOfAmerica/Fourthcongress_text.pdf
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