On the winding road to a united Communist Party in the U.S. What was in fact the founding conference of a new Communist Party of America formed after a split in the underground Communist movement over the formation of the above-ground Workers Party in December, 1921 by the large majority of Third Internationalists. Centered in Boston, Philadelphia and New York led by three minority members of the old Party’s Central Executive Committee, John J. Ballam (Moore), Charles Dirba (Dobin), and George Ashkenudzie (Henry). The main issues were around when and how to create a legal organization in the context of still-raging US government repression, relations with the Socialist Party’s Workers Council group, and estimates of revolutionary possibilities. Also referred to as the Central Caucus Faction, by the name of its own legal arm ‘The United Toilers’, or by its paper, the Workers’ Challenge group, this Communist Party lasted just a short while. Its constituents were mostly, though not exclusively, the Language Federations and included the Workers’ Defense Conference of New England, the Alliance of Polish Workers of America, the Ukrainian Association, the Lettish Publishing Association, the Polish Publishing Association, the Lithuanian Workers’ Association, the Woman’s Progressive Alliance. The Communist International ordered the group dissolved and to rejoin Workers Party of America, which the group rejected until its position could be heard at the full Comintern Congress. However, by the time of the Second Bridgman Convention later of August, 1922 most had. A rump organization resisted merger and continued as a tiny sect into the 1940s as the United Toilers of America.

‘Emergency Convention: The Fifth Convention of the Communist Party of America’ from The Communist (C.E.C. Faction). Vol.  1 No. 7. February, 1922.

The Emergency Convention of the C.P. of A., held January, 1922, represented the climax of the struggle to prevent the liquidation and destruction of the Communist Party as planned by those centrist and semi-centrist elements within the communist movement in this country. These semi-bourgeois intellectuals, who had become politically homeless with the breaking up of the Socialist Party in 1919, never felt comfortable in the underground Communist Party. For more than two years they had been seeking an opportunity to stab the young communist movement of this country in the back. Their intrigues with the Soviet Bureau here and their false representations to the Comintern, are too well known to be recounted here. With the centrist cry for “unity” always upon their lips, they sought to unite with the C.P. of A. only for the purpose of destroying it. Soon after the factitious unity of the U.C.P. and the C.P. of A. brought about by the Joint Unity Convention last May, 1921, the real purposes of these centrists became apparent. No sooner had they come into possession of the machinery of the “united” party, then they at once began to make overtures to their fellow centrists–Engdahl, Salutsky, Lore & Co. For six months following the Unity Convention, these traitors deliberately sabotaged all the work of the C.P. of A., destroyed its press, disrupted the foreign language federations, broke up the C.P. nuclei in the unions, and by conducting a carefully planned campaign of slander against the leaders of the Bolshevist faction of the C.P. of A. succeeded in partially breaking down the discipline and morale of the party.

After six months of this sort of preparation these traitorous centrists felt that the time was ripe to reap the fruits of their campaign. With all the machinery and funds of the C.P. of A. in their possession and its membership helpless (as they thought), they carried out their coup and launched the Workers’ Party, thus uniting into one camp all the menshevik elements in the American movement.

During this time the leaders of the Bolshevist faction were not idle. As soon as the purposes of the mensheviki became clear, caucuses were organized in every district under the guidance of a National Central Caucus, and the defensive battle to save the C.P. of A. was begun. Up to the time of the issuance of the Joint Convention Call to organize a new party, the bolshevist caucuses in the C.P. of A. confined their fight to preventing a split in the ranks of the C.P. of A. by demanding the calling of an emergency convention and by exposing the plans of the centrists on the former C.E.C. The seven traitors on the former C.E.C. had secretly conspired with the centrists outside the party and had jointly issued their call for the formation of a new party to be known as the Workers’ Party. By this act the centrist leaders and all those who were misled by them had left the C.P. of A. and the Central Caucus issued a call to all districts to hold elections for sub-district and district conventions and to elect their delegates to a National Conference of the Communist Party of America, in order that the entire membership of the C.P. of A. could take action in this emergency in which the very life and future existence of the Communist Party was at stake.

This convention was held last January with 38 delegates present, representing a membership of 4408. (This is a very conservative figure as subsequent reports to the C.E.C. since the convention by Federations and districts show the present membership of the C.P. of A. to be more than 5500. The districts reported membership as follows: Dist. 1–630; Dist. 2–1091; Dist. 3–445; Dist. 4–338; Dist. 5–628; Dist. 6–515; Dist. 7–125; Dist. 8–30; Dist. 9–72; Dist. 10–228; Dist. 11–256; Dist. 12 included in report of Dist. 5. This total of 4408 represented only those members of the C.P. of A. who had participated in the elections and who had paid the convention assessment of 50 cents per member. The reports of the delegates showed that out of the former membership of 10,000; 5000 had remained loyal to the principles of the Comintern and to the C.P. of A.–2000 were “neutral” or undecided, while not more than 3000 members had left the party and joined the Workers’ Party. The Federations reported on membership as follows: Jewish–150; Lettish-630; Lithuanian-1-100; Polish –400; Russian–900; Ukrainian–1000. Total federation membership represented–4180.

Immediately following the reports of the delegates the following motion was introduced: “That this body act as the emergency convention of the Communist Party of America, Section of the Communist International.” This motion precipitated a general discussion in which the whole situation of our party, its past and future was reviewed and discussed. Every delegate voiced his determination to maintain the continuous existence of the C.P. of A. Every delegate read the instructions which he had received from the rank and file members whom he represented to maintain our party at all costs and to keep up the fight to expose and discredit the American mensheviki and to drive them from their holes and thrust them out of the Comintern. Upon a roll call vote the motion was unanimously carried. After the debate upon this motion there could be no doubt as to what these delegates and this convention would do. From this time on its character and its purpose was determined. No self-appointed “leaders” could sway it from its aims; no clique or caucus could control it. Here was exemplified the revolutionary fervor of the comrades in the ranks who were making the real sacrifices for the communist movement; here was that elemental proletarian spirit, the working class determination to surmount all obstacles that carried the Russian Revolution through to success and established the first Proletarian Government. Here were no professional, bourgeois intellectuals but instead men fresh from the grime and smoke of the factories; men who are at grips with the every day struggle of the workers. No “machine” could steam-roller this convention as was done at the centrist Workers’ Party convention. The delegates of the C.P. of A. had come to solve their own problems–not to have them predigested by “fighting leaders” for them. The party intellectuals and careerists had deserted us in the fight as they had so often done before, and the delegates realized that out of the body and bone and blood of the proletariat must come the future leadership of the Communist Party in America.

The Secretary of the National Central Caucus made a complete report and read extensive extracts from the C.C. minutes. This report was unanimously adopted after considerable discussion. The financial report of the Central Caucus was as follows: Received $1339.19; Paid $920.24; Balance $418.95. No officers were paid by the C.C. and after auditing by the Financial Committee the Convention accepted the report.

A lengthy report of the three minority members of the former C.E.C. (Moore, Henry and Dobin) was read and adopted.

The committee on legal work brought in an outline of plan for a legal organization which was adopted as reported by the committee with minor changes. The discussion which developed finally adopted in considering this plan and the unanimous vote by which it was adopted give the lie to the accusation made by the mensheviks that the C.P. of A. is a leftist and sectarian party. The problem of legal work was taken up in earnest. Every delegate realized the necessity for establishing a legal organization through which the C.P. will maintain constant contact with the broad masses. The convention adopted a plan for a centralized legal organization to be the legal apparatus of the underground C.P. of A. entirely under the control and direction of the illegal party by means of which the C.P. of A. will unify and direct the workers in their every day struggles; formulate slogans adapted to each immediate question agitating the workers; consolidate their movements and convert their spontaneous actions into carefully planned struggle; and through its nuclei and its legal machinery the C.P. of A. will identify itself with the masses of the proletariat in the unions, in strikes, in all their movements and struggles against their oppressors. According to the plan adopted by the convention the legal activities of the C.P. of A. will be centralized in order to formulate and present practical plans for direct action and to teach the backward, vacillating masses how to fight and make a stand for the necessaries of life; to lead the immediate struggles of the workers; promote their conflicts; and to form the centre and rallying ground for a wider mass organization through which the C.P. of A. will win over the proletariat establishment of the proletarian dictatorship in the form of Soviet to the struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeois state and the power. This centralized legal organization will be the legal machinery of the C.P. of A.–the directing centre of the workers struggle–so constructed and controlled so as not to vitiate the program and the aims of the Communist Party, which will thru its press, its nuclei, and all its illegal machinery, keep in the fore ground the necessity for, and the inevitability of, the violent overthrow of the capitalist state through mass action and armed insurrection, and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat based upon Soviet power, as the only means to emancipate the working class from the horrors of capitalism and for the introduction of the Communist Society.

A complete plan for participation in the coming parliamentary elections was worked out and adopted by the convention. The C.P. of A. will enter its candidates in the elections upon a working class program against the candidates of all other parties through its special elections machinery. Again the malicious and mendacious charge that the C.P. of A. is a leftist party was repudiated by the attitude of the delegates towards active participation in the elections. After a few minor changes the committees report was unanimously adopted.

The Committee on Constitution brought in and presented many important changes which were adopted and are printed in this issue on another page. The discussion on the constitution was a lengthy one. The delegates had learned much from the mistakes made in the past and their self-criticism and their determination to avoid and correct them in the future augurs well for the organizational life of our party. Much more power was placed in the hands of the District Conferences and the D.E.C.s. The changes were all in the direction of democratic centralization as contained in the Theses of the Third Congress. All officers of the party are elected including the D.O.s. who are to be elected by the District Conferences subject to the approval of the C.E.C.

After a report on the Y.C.L. a resolution was adopted as an instruction to the C.E.C. to the effect that all efforts should be made to develop the Y.C.L.; that it shall not be split upon party differences; and that the work in the Y.C.L. shall be conducted upon the basis of “organizational neutrality.”

The resolutions adopted appear upon another page in this issue.

A former delegate to the Comintern elected at the Joint Unity Convention was admitted to the Emergency Convention to read a communication from the E. C. of the C.I. to the C.E.C. of the C.P. of A. This was a long ten page document of a secret nature and bears out the position of the C.P. of A. on legal activities. The E.C. of the C.I. is unalterably opposed to the liquidation of the C.P. of A. and commands the C.E.C. of the C.P.A. to call the convention of the illegal party before establishing the legal organization. The C.P. of A. has accordingly conformed to the orders of the E.C. of the C.I. It will not be long before the mask will be torn from the faces of our American mensheviki who have been masquerading as communists.

The Financial Committee reported convention Receipts–$2468.02; and Expenditures–$1310.82; Balance–$1157.20. On party wages the convention decided to pay single comrades without dependents $25 per week; and married comrades or comrades with dependents $35 per week.

The Convention elected a Central Executive Committee of seven; and five alternates to be called in a given order; an Auditing. Committee of three and three alternates; and an International Delegate.

The Emergency Convention lasted five days, and the delegates were in continuous sessions lasting from 11 A.M. to 12 P.M. The C.P. of A. has held many conventions but none in which more was accomplished or more serious and important in its nature. Let us be frank. The task that confronts our party is a colossal one. So-called leaders have deserted our party and have gone over into the camp of the mensheviki. We will remember them–those who have betrayed their trust–those who have deserted and gone over to the enemy for their own personal advantage. We are poor in trained writers, we have few intellectuals. But we are rich in enthusiasm and the determination to carry on the work of our party; we have many stalwart proletarian fighters. Out of our own ranks, out of the bone of our bone and the flesh of our flesh, out of our own proletarian elements we must develop the trained leadership to fill the needs of our party. Upon these do we rely. We shall find and develop our editors, writers, speakers, and organizers, among the rank and file of the C.P. of A.

Every comrade must put his or her shoulder to the wheel. On with our communist tasks!

All centrists have united in one party.

Let all communist draw together in closer unity.

The battle is on! Close the ranks! Build up the Communist Party of America. Strengthen the American section of the Communist International.

Down with the traitors and betrayers of the communist movement.

LONG LIVE THE PROLETARIAN WORLD REVOLUTION! LONG LIVE THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA! LONG LIVE THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL!

A CALL TO ACTION

TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA BY THE C.E.C. OF THE C.P.A.

COMRADES: The Emergency Convention of the C.P. of A. has completed its sessions laid down the basis for future work, and elected the C.E.C to carry out its mandates. In spite of the attempt of the centrist and semi-centrist members of the former C.E.C. to betray and destroy the C.P. of A. not more than 3,000 former members have left the party to unite with the centrists of the Socialist Party: 2,000 are undecided: while 5,000 comrades have answered the call of the three minority members of the former C.E.C. to maintain the C.P. of A. and to uphold its principles as the American Section of the C.I. The conspiracy of the seven members of the former C.E.C. to betray and sell out the C.P. of A. to their fellow centrists of the Socialist Party has failed.

The conditions of the fight to save our party made it necessary to employ purely defensive strategy. We were compelled to build up a hastily constructed machinery in the form of caucuses, under the leadership of a Central Caucus, with which to withstand the blows of the centrists who had come into possession of the entire party machinery, its press and its funds. The centrists within our party have been driven from their hiding places and forced into the open. These centrists and opportunists are now united with others of their kind in the Workers’ Party. The immediate task of the C.P. of A. is to rapidly consolidate its forces and to prepare for and carry on the fight to expose and destroy the Workers’ Party as completely as we smashed its prototype the Socialist Party of America.

We have defeated the centrists within our ranks in a defensive battle. We must now take the offensive and carry the battle to them. WE MUST TEAR THE MASK OF COMMUNISM FROM THEIR FACES AND HURL THEM OUT OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL.

This is our supreme duty to the Communist movement in America. This is our immediate communist task.

Your C.E.C. calls upon all members of the C.P. of A. to prepare for battle; we are engaging in a life and death struggle with the mensheviki of America. Upon the outcome of this struggle depends the future, not only of our party, but also of the communist movement in this country.

In this struggle let no member shirk his or her duty. The major tasks of our party cannot be successfully carried out until we first remove the menace of the centrist swamp.

Our party is being tested now as it never was before. We must prove by our work that the accusation of “leftism” and “sectarianism” are false, malicious slanders. The Emergency Convention has outlined a complete plan for legal organization and legal work. Your C.E.C. is carefully working out details and will instruct the membership how to carry out this important work. On the parliamentary field, preparations are being made to contest the elections against the candidates of all capitalist, bourgeois-reform, and centrist parties. The industrial department of the C.E.C. will present complete plans for the C.P. nuclei in the unions and other workers organizations. Our press will be re-established. The work of the C.P. of A. will be carried on. Where some of the members of the party have deserted and left their posts, others will take up the tasks in our party. Your C.E.C. calls upon every member of the C.P. of A. to take up the work in the party for which he or she is best fitted and to devote all their energies to their communist tasks.

The C.P. of A. as the American section of the Communist International is under the discipline of the E.C. of the C.I. Before the E.C. and the Fourth World Congress the whole American question will be finally decided. There can be no doubt that when the position of our party is made clear by the course of events and by thorough investigation, the E.C. of the C.I. will adopt toward our American opportunists and centrists the same attitude that they adopted in their decisions on other parties. The E.C. of the C.I. will say to America as it said to Italy “Here is Communism; there is Reformism! Whoever is not with us, is against us and with the bourgeoisie!”

On International Relations your C.E.C. will keep the membership informed of every development. Therefore it is the duty of all members of the C.P.A. to ignore malicious rumors spread by the centrists in order to demoralize our forces.

Comrades To work! Down with the Betrayers of Communism.

LONG LIVE THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA! LONG LIVE THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL.

Central Executive Committee, C.P. of A.,

J. Davis, Executive Secretary.

This ‘The Communist’ was a short-lived paper Led by Charles Dirba, George Ashkenudzie, and John Ballam. The so-called Central Caucus faction split from recently The Communist Party of America in late 1921over resistance to Ruthenberg’s leadership, the need for continued clandestine work, the unity with the Communist Labor Party among other issues. Numbering around 4000 comrades and centered on the Language Federations, they wished to retain the Party’s clandestine work. The Communist International ordered the group dissolved and to rejoin Workers Party of America. which most did at the disastrous Bridgman, Michigan ‘secret’ convention in September, 1922. A rump organization resisted merger and continued through the 1920s as the United Toilers of America. The above-ground paper of this group was ‘Workers’ Challenge’.

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