Internal report on the agit-prop work of the 150 or so comrades of the Akron Communist Party in 1935.

‘Agit-Prop Work in the Akron Section’ from Party Organizer Vol. 8 No. 4. April, 1935.

IN THE first week of January, decisions were adopted by the Section Committee in connection with Agit-prop work:

1. The Section Agit-prop, literature and Daily Worker agents to constitute the Agitprop Department of the Section.

2. A class to be organized with selected comrades from all units and compulsory for new members.

3. Unit Agit-prop Directors to meet once a week with the Section Agit-prop and besides the business problems to have a class for one hour.

4. The Unit Organizers’ meeting also to take up one hour and a half for a class on principles of organization.

5. In each shop unit a class to be instituted to be led by leading comrades assigned to these unit, at each unit meeting.

6. We should institute political discussions in the units each week.

7. Once a month all units shall have open unit meetings where sympathizers and others are invited for the purpose of convincing them to join the Party.

8. Y.C.L. class to continue.

9. A special class to be organized to train comrades for leaflets, resolution and letter writing as well as public speaking.

10. We should have the perspective of organizing a class for Unemployment Council members

11. To issue the shop papers every month regularly. We should discontinue the former practice of writing the shop paper from the Section office, but instead involve the shop comrades ta write for the paper and edit it.

12. To organize an open forum.

13. To order more varied literature to be sold at ail meetings and special emphasis must be laid on every Party member reading regularly the Daily Worker, Party Organizer and other Party literature.

After this plan of work was adopted, we set to work. It is necessary to point out that prior to this plan of work the Akron Section did not carry on any agit-prop work within the Party as well as outside. We had an agit-prop director, but the units were not involved in this work. Discussions in the units were not held regularly. There were no classes for over a year. The shop papers were not issued regularly; very little literature was sold; the daily bundle order of the Daily Worker was only 70 and 365 Saturday editions.

Leaflets

Out of a membership of over 150 only one comrade was able to draw up a leaflet, knew how to work a stencil. All leaflets needed by mass organizations, Unemployment Councils and units were made in the following manner: A comrade from these organizations would bring a note to the Party office, stating: we need so many leaflets for such and such an affair or mass meeting; please have it ready by Monday. No one explained that the respective organizations have to assign a comrade to write the leaflet and mimeograph it. As a result, the “crisis” in leaflet writing came when the agit-prop director became sick.

When it was pointed out to be the comrades that we cannot afford to have only one comrade as a “professional” leaflet writer, because we must train many comrades for this work so that our work will not suffer in case a comrade gets sick, or in case of illegality, some of our comrades seemed to be offended and answered that not everyone is educated enough to draw up a leaflet. It seemed a monstrous task. These comrades did not realize that our Party must train comrades for this work. In a department of the Party, for example, the Daily Worker department, if they had to write a letter to the Daily Worker in New York in connection with the Daily, they were unable to do so.

When we looked around and began to change this situation we “discovered” excellent leaflet writers in the mass organizations, including those who know the art of putting out technically an attractive one as well. Today, when a unit needs a leaflet, they are to assign a comrade to draw up the leaflet, bring it to the Section office, the Section Agit-prop or other leading comrade to criticize the leaflet, the comrade mimeographs the leaflet, and thus we are able to teach the comrades how to draw up leaflets and involve them in this work. In connection with this, we shall in the near future involve them in this work. We will, in the near future, have a class on writing leaflets, resolutions, letters, etc.

Educating the Party Membership

As we said before, there were no classes of any kind in this Section for over a year. As a result the political level of the membership is very low. Fluctuation was widespread. With the change of new books for 19385, thirty members were dropped from the Party. Decisions of the Party in most cases remained on paper; trade union work was not part of unit activity; resolutions of the Party were not read and discussed. The Daily Worker and literature were not sold systematically in front of the shops. Contacts with A. F. of L. members were not established. In other words, the units were isolated from the workers and stewing in their own juice, so to speak. This situation has not as yet changed but with the steps taken, we already see some changes.

Today, we have established two classes. One for unit organizers, led by the Section Organizer at unit organizers’ meetings once a week. The other is a Section class, compulsory for new members and selected older comrades. Both classes are beginning to yield results. Through these classes we are aiming to bring about the following results:

1. To get comrades in the habit of reading Party literature.

2. To make out of each comrade a reader of the Daily Worker, Party Organizer, The Communist International, etc.

3. To activize the comrades in the units.

4. To develop leading forces.

The Section class is based on Bittlelman’s pamphlet: The Communist Party in Action. The unit organizers’ class is based on outlines on Party organization. Both classes are conducted in the following manner:

1. Question and answer form: We find that through this method, instead of lecture form, the comrades are taught to take the floor and express themselves on various subjects; second, it forces the comrades to read; third, We are able to judge the understanding of each individual comrade attending the class; fourth, it creates discussion in the class among the Party members: fifth, when the comrade himself takes part in the discussion, he is interested in coming again.

2. Questions to be answered the following week are assigned together with the reading material on these questions. In the Section class we will add to the questions five positive or negative statements, such as: “The Communist Party must be based on discipline,” etc. These statements are to be answered in writing and submitted to the instructor the following week.

We are also beginning a class in the Y.C.L. on Y.C.L. organization and structure.

Work of Unit Agit-Prop Directors

We have elected unit agit-prop directors in our Section who meet every Saturday afternoon. At these meetings, we check up on literature sales, Daily Worker drive, attendance of classes, unit discussions, etc. At the same time we also have a class. This class deals with the topic for the coming unit meeting discussion. In this way we are orientating to unit discussions regularly each week. We dealt so far with discussions concerning our campaigns, Lenin Memorial, literature, etc., in a political manner. Now we are taking up the C.C. resolution of January 15. We divided this resolution into three parts, to be discussed in the units at three consecutive meetings; 1st week on Trade Union; 2nd week on United Front; 3rd week on the Labor Party. We find that those units represented at agit-prop meetings lead discussions in the units,

Literature

Before we took over agit-prop work we sold only $50 worth of literature for a period of 5 months, i.e., an average of $10 a month. Now in the month of January alone we sold $32.18. This increase is due to the weekly agit-prop meetings, where we check up weekly on sales in units as well as outside, debts, etc. We also sold our quota of 300 copies of Foundations of Leninism.

From now on we will prepare a short outline on a particular pamphlet for the agit-props for each unit meeting and make a drive on this pamphlet. In the coming week we will discuss An Architect of Socialist Society by Karl Radek. We are undertaking to sell 300 copies of this pamphlet. We have already ordered 100 copies.

Open Unit Meetings

All of our units had open meetings prior to the Lenin Memorial meeting. Through these meetings we were able to recruit 12 members into the Party. At these meetings a comrade from the Section Committee led a discussion on Lenin and Leninism; questions and discussion followed. At the end a strong appeal was made for membership. We will continue these open unit meetings and hold them once a month.

Although the advances made so far are not much to speak of, nevertheless we will carry through our plan of work 100 percent. We have only indicated the progress. In other articles we will indicate the weaknesses.

Akron agit-props expect other Sections to write as to what they are doing.

NOTE: Not long ago the Akron Section was characterized by an unhealthy, almost demoralized condition. The units received no real guidance or leadership from the Section Committee. Good forces were ignored or kept from developing. The initiative and the development of the membership was stifled. In such a situation, the political and organizational education of the membership constitute a big part in bringing about a decisive change and improvement. This is the significance of the report.

This report, although a beginning, clearly shows what conscious and systematic agit-prop work can do to help overcome looseness, raise the morale of the Party, involve the Party in active work and at the same time improve the political quality of the Party members. There is still a long road to travel. The Section agit-prop commission must also take immediate steps to re-issue its shop papers, especially in the present explosive rubber situation. Further measures for the development of the Party’s mass agitation are also urgent, as for example, the issuing of neighborhood papers and the reaction to pressing issues by means of leaflets, special meetings, etc.

We urge all Sections to study this report and to send in their own reports on the agit-prop work in their Section.

The Party Organizer was the internal bulletin of the Communist Party published by its Central Committee beginning in 1927. First published irregularly, than bi-monthly, and then monthly, the Organizer was primarily meant for the Party’s unit, district, and shop organizers. The Organizer offers a much different view of the CP than the Daily Worker, including a much higher proportion of women writers than almost any other CP publication. Its pages are often full of the mundane problems of Party organizing, complaints about resources, debates over policy and personalities, as well as official numbers and information on Party campaigns, locals, organizations, and periodicals making the Party Organizer an important resource for the study and understanding of the Party in its most important years.

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