John J. Ballam provides us with a fascinating history of the influential Lettish (Lativan) Socialist Federation on the occasion of the Communist Party’s new Lativan paper, Zihna, in 1926. No language federation of the Party was as consistently Left Wing as the Lettish Federation based in Boston. Helping to give weight and structure, including publishing its paper, to the proto-Bolshevik Socialist Propaganda League, they formed a pillar of the Communist Party of America in 1919. The Latvians were also, with the Russian Federation, key opponents of legal work and unity with the Communist Labor Party, with John J. Ballam, also from Boston, the English-speaking leader of the Leftist tendency which would split briefly before rejoining the mainstream of the movement at the behest of the Comintern. A rump would continue on at the United Toilers of America.

‘Uphold Your Revolutionary Traditions!’ by John J. Ballam from The Daily Worker. Vol. 3 No. 59. March 22, 1926.

The appearance of the Lettish Communist weekly, the Zihna (Struggle) at this period in the development of the Communist movement in America is of tremendous significance for our Lettish comrades and for the Lettish masses in America.

The Lettish comrades have played an important role in the establishment and the unfolding of the Communist movement in America. With the crushing of the revolutionary movement in the Baltic provinces in 1905 thousands of Lettish workers migrated to the United States, bringing with them their traditions of struggle and heroic devotion to the cause of the workers and the organizational training acquired by close contact with the party of Lenin in Russia, these Letts at once affiliated with the Socialist Party and early in the struggle against its reformistic practices and program formed the backbone of its left wing. In 1912-1913 the Socialist Propaganda League was organized in the Lettish Club in Boston which formed the center of opposition to the Berger-Hillquit machine in the Socialist Party. Once acquiring the use of the English language, comrades like Charles Johnson, Jurgis, Berger, and Bernard became active in cooperation with the English-speaking comrades. It was therefore no accident that with the opening of the Russian revolution in 1917 that the left wing organ, The Revolutionary Age, edited by Fraina, should have been issued from the Lettish press and was supported financially by the Lettish comrades.

No history of our movement would be complete without a consideration of the services rendered by the Letts in America.

It is not my intention to write a eulogy of our Lettish comrades — but a criticism. The revolutionary Lettish workers in America have done no more than their duty and it was at once their privilege and their opportunity to give the party in the country the benefit of their experience and training gained in their struggle against Tsarism in the Baltic provinces in 1905 and later.

But no individual or group can live indefinitely upon a revolutionary past. It is a sad but very noticeable fact that our Lettish comrades are no longer responding to the needs of our movement with the same revolutionary fervor and devotion as in the recent past.

Our Lettish comrades are divided into three groups outside the main stream of our movement: (1) The old “underground” section of the old opposition around the Straadnieks; (2) A considerable group which is infected with pessimism and who are no longer active in the movement; (3) A smaller group whose revolutionary spirit has been undermined and sapped by the influence of the prevailing American ideology.

From the last-named group there is little to be expected. These former comrades have succumbed to the “softness” of a comparatively easy existence — farmers who are more or less prosperous; craftsmen that have been corrupted by the wages paid under American imperialism to skilled workers; former workers that have acquired an education in bourgeois schools and are now more “American” than the Americans.

Our old “oppositionists” are less easily understood. These comrades claim to be more “revolutionary” than the Communist International itself. They have not been able to adapt themselves the changing modes of the revolutionary movement either in America or in the world. They maintain their old slogans of 1919 as though nothing had happened in the world since then. They are entirely subjective and do not seem to be able to grasp the changed conditions of the struggle and the need for Bolshevik strategy and understanding. Their old Bolshevik training seems to have evaporated through long years of subjectivism and introspection — by a refusal to meet the realities of the class struggle as it develops from day to day. If they cannot have their revolution according to their own plan and blueprint — well, so much the worse for the revolution. The rank and file of these Lettish comrades are misled by blind leaders who vainly imagine that the hands of the revolutionary clock can be set back to 1921, and that the Communist International will finally recognize its “errors” on American questions. These comrades are valuable elements and every effort should be made to win them back to the movement by extending the friendly hand of comradeship to them at all times. They need but the invigorating influence of mass work to rejuvenate their flagging spirits. By drawing them into the broad stream of the struggle they will overcome their subjectivity and be amongst our most valuable and trusted workers. I have more than once since my return from Moscow appealed to these comrades to unite with us in our common struggle upon the basis of the program of the Communist International. I now again appeal to my comrades of the “opposition” to stop sulking in their “underground” tents, and to come out with us and at least cooperate in united front movements for the protection of the foreign-born workers; for defense and recognition of the Soviet Union; for the creation of a progressive left wing bloc in the trade unions, etc., etc. I again appeal to them to stop dreaming of the revolution and to get out and work for it; to stop contemplating ideal programs and to get down to Bolshevik realism. I ask them to remember the words of Marx, that, “One movement is worth a dozen programs.”

To the pessimists in our movement I can only quote Comrade Lenin’s words from his pamphlet, The New Times and Old Errors in New Form, as follows:

“Those to whom the work is ‘dull,’ ‘uninteresting,’ ‘incomprehensible,’ who turn up their noses and are liable to panic, or who intoxicate themselves with declarations regarding absence of the “old spirit,’ the ‘former enthusiasms’ had better be released from work and retire so that they may not harm the cause, for they do not want to understand, or are incapable of understanding the peculiarities of the present stage of the struggle.”

Of course countless difficulties and innumerable obstacles stand in the road of our party and our cause. It is only by overcoming these that we shall at last develop the strength and tenacity to overthrow capitalism and establish the workers’ rule. Pessimism is the philosophy of opportunism. Pessimism is at the very foundations of the Second International; fatalism at one pole and pessimism at the other. Pessimism is the vice of old age. Courage and struggle; faith in the workers at all times; merciless self-criticism and constant review of our tactics — this is the method of the Communist International, this is the way of Lenin, this is the way of the Workers (Communist) Party of America.

The Zihna comes at an opportune time in the life of the movement in America. All Lettish comrades, and particularly those who accept the line of our party, should rally as one man to its support. Differences of opinion as to the advisability of issuing the Zihna should now wholly disappear. The Zihna can become a mighty weapon for the unification of the Lettish workers in America and for the revivification of their old revolutionary spirit. The Zihna will be the collective organizer and agitator among the Letts and result in rebuilding the shattered and divided Lettish section of the revolutionary movement in America. The Zihna will clarify the issues before the Communist movement and speak boldly and decisively in the name of the Communist International.

The Zihna will breathe hope and spirit into the Lettish masses in this country, recall them to the struggle, rally them to our cause and our party. The Zihna will build up the influence of the Lettish clubs and counteract the subtle poison of “Americanism” and of social reform and all phases of opportunism. The Zihna will speak for a labor party and rally the Lettish workers in the unions behind this slogan as well as for their organization into a left wing in the unions and for all our united front movements.

Every worker who reads the Lettish language should make the utmost sacrifices to maintain and develop the Zihna into a powerful mass organ of the party in the Lettish language.

Support of the Zihna today means to support the propaganda of Communism and the influence of our party among the Lettish workers of America.

Long live the voice of the revolutionary Letts in America!

Long live the Zihna!

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1926/1926-nat/v03-n059-NAT-mar-22-1926-DW-RIAZ-op.pdf