Satchel was head of Organization for the C.P. as it tried to go fully to the nuclei system of workplace organizing. Here is a valuable report given by him to the May, 1928 Organization Conference on the results of the move in the party’s factory work by geographic district and major industry.

‘Our Factory Nuclei’ by Jack Satchel from Party Organizer (CPUSA Internal Bulletin). Vol. 2 No. 5-6. May-June, 1928.  

NOTE: The article below is from the report of Comrade Stachel to the Organization Conference held May 28. In subsequent issues of the Party Organizer we will print the discussion, speeches and the concluding remarks of Comrade Stachel. The Org. Conference was attended by all District Organizers, the Org. Secretaries of the most important districts, representatives of other departments (women, agitprop, etc.), the National Field Organizer and a number of functionaries of the New York District, among them Section and Factory Nuclei Organizers. Comrade Amter, District Organizer of the Cleveland District, acted as chairman of the Conference.

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NO more than 10 per cent of our Party membership at this time is organized in shop nuclei. The questions we must ask ourselves are: Why so few, are we making progress, are we going backwards, what are the problems, and the means with which so solve them?

Of course, when we first reorganized, we organized a large number of nuclei. How did we do it? Wherever we had two comrades in a shop, we added a third one and we had a shop nucleus. According to that, we had 200 shop nuclei in New York alone, which were not really shop nuclei. Where there were two comrades who happened to work in the same shop in which there were 10 or 15 workers employed, we organized shop nuclei throughout New York and other sections of the country.

At this time we have no more than 100 real shop nuclei throughout the country, with an approximate membership of 1500. In January, 1928, we had about the same number of shop nuclei with 11000 members. In May, 1927, we had 158 shop nuclei with 1524 members.

The districts where the bulk of our nuclei are organized at this time are: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Kansas. The industries are: mining, automobile, steel, rubber, metal industries, railway, textile, shoe, needle trades and packing houses.

In Pittsburgh at this time, there are 24 shop nuclei according to the latest report, covering the last four months, with 500 members in the district. In January they reported 22 nuclei with 168 members. In May, 1927, there were 510 members, 26 nuclei with 250 members. From May to January, there was a decrease and from January to May, 1928, an increase. The total membership is now over 800.

In Cleveland, May 1927, there were 496 members and 18. nuclei January, 1928, 528 members in district, 23 nuclei with 170 members. Today, there are 654 members, 25 nuclei with 200 members.

In Detroit, May, 1927, there were 600 members, 12 nuclei with 350 members. In January, there were about five hundred some members, with 215 in nuclei. In May, 1928, 700 members, 12 nuclei with 300 members.

In Chicago, May, 1927, there were 18 nuclei with 200 members and 1100 total members in district. In January, 1928, there were 9 nuclei with 150 members and 1100 members. Present report not received.

In the Kansas District there were in May, 1927, 9 nuclei with 68 members and a total membership of about 150. The present membership is 275 with 11 nuclei and 100 members.

In these five districts there are 1300 members in shop nuclei, with a total of approximately 85 shop nuclei. That means that the bulk of our shop nuclei and shop nuclei membership is in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit Chicago and Kansas Districts. As we see in all of these districts with the exception of Chicago (report not received) comparing May, 1928, with May, 1927, there is an increase in number of nuclei, the number of members in nuclei and accordingly an increase in membership. Pittsburgh, 500 to 800; Cleveland 496 to 654, Detroit, 600 to 700, and Kansas 150 to 275 members.

The membership figures given here include only those in good standing or no more than three months in arrears. The actual membership is much larger. Our experience shows that from 65 to 70 percent of our membership is less than three months in arrears at any given time. Figuring on this basis our membership is, no doubt, even greater, if we take into account the general unemployment.

District 1: Not a single shop nucleus at the present time.

District 2: We had in May, 1927, 50 nuclei with 400 members. January, 1928, there were 14 nuclei with 200 members. May report not received. Very few actually functioning, less than 14 at this time; about 6 to 8 or so.

District 3: May, 1927, 550 members in district, 4 nuclei with 38 members. January, 1928, 2 nuclei with 18 members. May 1, 1928, 6 nuclei with 50 members, among them 38 mining nuclei in the anthracite.

District 4: 1 shop nucleus with 9 members, in a shoe factory; 150 total members, May, 1928.

District 9: 700 members and no shop nuclei at present time.

District 10: 11 shop nuclei with about 100 members.

District 12: January, 1928, there were 3 nuclei with 32 members, total membership of 580. May, 1927, there were 3 nuclei with 15 members. May 1928, report not yet received.

District 18: May, 1927, 439 members, 2 shop nuclei with 11 members. In January, 1928, there were 514 members, 6 shop, lumber and farm nuclei with 56 members.

District 15: No, shop nuclei.

Agricultural District: In May, 1927, there were a total of 109 members, 27 in 8 farm nuclei. Present membership is 125.

We see, therefore, on the whole the following: We see in May, 1927, 158 nuclei with 1524 members, averaging about 10; out of these we have 400 members in New York district. In January, 1928, there were about 100 shop nuclei with 1112 members and out of these there were 200 in New York. In May, 1928, there were 1500 members in nuclei with about 100 nuclei, 85 of which totaling 1300 members, being in districts 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10. In January, 1928, the average was 11, in May, the average is 15 for every shop nucleus.

We see an increase in districts 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10, and a falling off in the other districts, as per reports for May 1928, thus far received. We see a greater average number of members in each nucleus. This tendency is good for our Party. It shows that while the increase is not great, while as a matter of fact in real numbers a decrease since May, 1927, yet the nuclei in districts 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 form the bulk of nuclei, the actual membership is increasing to 15 average instead of 10, even though the actual membership is not so great. The nuclei are becoming more stabilized and the great bulk of them are in heavy industry and in very large plants. Excluding the mining nuclei that are in mines averaging 500 to 1500 workers, 90 per cent of the nuclei are in plants of 1000 workers or more, the average in the plants where our nuclei are located being 4000 workers. The total number of workers in all plants where we have shop nuclei is about 350,000.

On the other hand, this situation is quite unsatisfactory. In fact we can say it is the most important organization problem with which the very life of our Party as a Communist Party is bound up.

I will take up certain problems, economic and political which modify certain statements which I will now make, but the fact remains that we have no basic reason for so few nuclei in comparison with street nuclei, in spite of objective difficulties. In fact, there is no energetic and systematic effort on the part of the D.O.’s, district committees and organization secretaries in this work. No amount of excuses, no amount of explanations will alter the fact that this is a basic reason. We can have many more nuclei with many more members if our districts would give the proper and necessary attention to this phase of activity. This criticism remains first and foremost: only 10 per cent of our Party members in factory nuclei.

Of course, while I think the comrades will agree with me that we have sent on the average at least one letter a month to the districts telling them to increase factory activity, colonization, concentrating on a definite number of factories, directing them how to work in the formation of shop committees, etc., yet in spite of all these instructions, I want to say that the center has not given sufficient attention to this work. Insufficient personal attention was given by the C.E.C. Organization Department, although good beginnings have been made through the touring of Politbureau members to the various districts, for the purpose of stimulating organization work in connection with our mass campaigns.

Now I want to analyze from a political and economic point of view why we have so few shop nuclei organized; why since we have built many new nuclei, we have not increased the total membership of our nuclei, and the number of our nuclei.

Needle Trades Struggle

This no doubt affected our nuclei. Where were our nuclei in New York in the needle trades? In the large factories, naturally. We ourselves liquidated them in the small factories where we had originally formed them in plants of 10-20 workers. Now the question of registration conducted by the right wing. The right wing had control in the large factories. Who were the leaders against registration in these factories? Communists, with the result that most of our comrades after a short period were expelled from these registered factories. We are not here to discuss the problem of the policy toward this registration, but must take into consideration the effects of it. Dozens of our nuclei in the garment industry were liquidated and our comrades driven to look for work in small plants.

Shoe Industry

During the later part of 1926 and 1927, we succeeded in a period of a few months to build up 12 nuclei in Brooklyn with 150 members. Only 5 per cent of the members were not in shop nuclei, while 95 per cent were in shop nuclei. Our Comrades built the union, the Shoe Workers Protective Union. The union had nothing practically when we began to work. Our comrades built up that work, established contacts, went into factories and in a few months took 150 members in Brooklyn shoe factories into the Party. Many strikes, injunctions, fights took place. The union was attacked also by the International officials. Heavy defeats took place. Our comrades were leaders in all these struggles and were the first to be victimized.

Food Industry

In the food industry we had 100 members in nuclei. We had one nucleus with 27 members in a large place employing a number of hundreds of workers. The union was under our leadership with thousands of members in its ranks. Today there are not more than 600 members. You can realize what that meant; a strike was lost, many shops lost. In this process many of our comrades, the leaders of the union, were driven out of the shops, blacklisted in the larger shops. The large shops are in a position where they can use the blacklist most effectively and, of course, only in these large plants could we build our nuclei. There must also be mentioned here that the industry in this period saw a feverish merger which, naturally, made it more difficult for the union to resist, and more easy for the employers to carry out their blackest policy.

The pulk of the nuclei in New York were in needle, shoe and food industries.

Mining Industry

Between January, 1927 and 1928, two great factors in the mining industry were: unemployment and the strike in the bituminous fields. This drove many of our comrades into other regions; many comrades left the coal fields for other fields. This also affected our nuclei. Of course, had we paid greater attention, the loss would not have been so great.

Many of our nuclei at the beginning were established through colonization. Districts in selecting comrades to colonize factories, chose those comrades who were habitually unemployed. This was not the best thing to do. They took the line of least resistance, and this is not the element to depend upon. We sent some of them in. They stirred up things for a few weeks, they left, and things collapsed. We must increase our colonization work a hundred-fold but must choose reliable comrades.

We established many nuclei and these nuclei engaged in open struggle prematurely, and some were dissolved and destroyed because we did not have the necessary experience to carry on our work and reduce victimization to a minimum. The question is, are we going to learn from these mistakes or are we going to repeat them?

Then, we must not forget the first general unemployment since the reorganization. In most districts, our comrades were affected heavily.

Now, mistakes that are not excusable: Too much eagerness to dissolve nuclei which did not function, and a practice of combining them. We always warned against that.

We had many changes in the districts, and after a change, less nuclei were reported. Some new districts organizers are too eager to say that they do not have very many, and to start with a clean slate. This question must be borne in mind for the future. When a nucleus does not function, do not dissolve it. Your job is to make it function.

Language Difficulties

In the anthracite, we have one mine nucleus of South Slavs, one of Lithuanians. The comrades limit their work to the fraternal organization, and do not work sufficiently in the mines. Many times the nucleus is dissolved because the comrades are of one language only and claim that they cannot conduct the mass work. We must overcome this through colonization and other means. Our DEC’s do not pay any considerable attention to organization questions. Wherever there is an organization secretary, they feel that they should let him worry about it. In the future, this must be remedied. The proposals of the CI Org. Dept. on this question were very helpful but not carried out sufficiently.

Districts must pay more attention to organization problems, placing it on the agenda of the leading committee. (Polcom, Secretariat.)

Build Up the Organization Department as a Real Functioning Department.

You must now systematically, as you have been instructed in the past, choose a number of factories in large scale industry, consider the question of colonization, and then draw the comrades from light to heavy industries; follow up, give them instructions, see that units are formed, and give attention, guidance and direction. D.E.C. members must be given jobs to see that the nuclei function. The functioning of the units must be given the greatest attention. The C.I. org. dept. letter to our Party, printed in the first issue of the Party Organizer, must again be studied by our functionaries and made plain to every Party member. The analysis as to the reasons for the large turnover contained in the Dec. 1927, issue of the Party Organizer must also be studied and the suggestions made carried out.

Shop Papers

Today we have 27 shop papers. From May to August, 1927, 25 shop papers with 58,000 circulation were recorded.

There were a number of mistakes. In one instance, instead of 200 to 300, the printer said 2,000 to 3,000. The Ford Worker had 29,000 copies at one time, according to the report. A report made to the Profintern only recently read 40,000 and this report was circulated throughout the country. This is not to the credit to our Party. A report is made that 40,000 copies of the Ford Worker was circulated, when not even 20,000 copies were circulated. Once only, two separate issues of 10,000 each came out in one month. Not all were distributed. A report I received immediately after the convention said: In October and November 1927, less than 5,000 were circulated, but of course, there was unemployment at that time. There never was a 20,000 circulation. We do not want such reports. These do not bring our Party any credit but demoralizes our Party. After the convention, we found that we had 15 papers with about 25,000 to 30,000 circulation. Since January 1928, we have again succeeded in bringing the number up to 27, established one additional bulletin in District 1, in textile plant, one in New York, in the Rolls Royce auto plant in Long Island, one in the Philadelphia district; Bethlehem Steel, one in Rochester: Kodak; one bulletin in Detroit: Buick plant, one additional in Cleveland, two additional in Chicago. One paper has been revived in district 10, in a packing industry and one new paper in district 15 at the Winchester Arms, and one in California (railroad). Some new bulletins have been issued only two or three times, and we must give a great deal of attention to see that they continue. The 27 papers issued at the present time have a circulation of about 40,000, the Ford Worker circulation being only 6,000.

A few words on shop papers from the point of view of contents. Our shop papers did not have any political contents. At first they were very bad. It was always said that they were so that we could not distinguish them from trade-union papers. There was a marked tendency to make them trade-union papers. There was a tendency not even to print the name of Communist, but to state, “printed by workers in X factory.” Every bulletin today says “Communist nucleus” of etc. Originally they said nothing about political problems; today they discuss politics. In this sense we have made progress. But there are two things to be overcome in this respect. One—our bulletins are still full of many theoretical errors, and very often fail to connect up the immediate demands with our final aims and (2)—the political problems are treated in such a manner that they appear completely divorced from the problems of the workers in the factories where the shop bulletin is published. Both of these problems must be given the greatest attention. Also, the bulletins do not advertise the Party sufficiently; some do not advertise the Daily Worker, and the bulletins very seldom take up any international question of vital importance to American workers as well as workers over the entire world. They do not even talk sufficiently about the Soviet Union. They could compare the life of the workers in the Soviet Union and that of the workers in the United States employed in the same industries. This is not being done but should be done at once. They should also bear upon the larger aspects of the Soviet Union.

To sum up, we have made progress away from the purely trade-union paper by devoting attention to political problems. We must now complete the process by attaining the higher form, namely the correct Communist treatment of political problems and their organic tying up with the factory problems.

Some of our papers are too good and some are too poor.

When the bulletins are too good, the workers wonder where we get the money to publish them; when they are too poor, the workers ask how they are expected to read them. While in many instances distribution must be mainly from the outside by comrades who do not work in the factory as they will not expose themselves, yet at every factory a certain amount can be distributed inside. This is not being done in many instances.

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.

PDF of issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/party-organizer/v02n05-06-may-jun-1928-Party%20Organizer.pdf