Jay Lovestone answers member questions on the transformation of the Communist Party’s organizational structure from the old S.P.-linked electoral districts to the shop and street nuclei.

‘Towards Party Reorganization’ by Jay Lovestone from The Daily Worker Magazine. Vol. 2 No. 186. October 25, 1925.

At the Chicago conference of party functionaries there were asked many questions involving the problems of reorganization. Very likely these problems will be faced by the comrades in the other districts. Their solution is, therefore, the concern of the party membership throughout then country.

Some of these questions and answers follow:

Question: What is to become of the branch property and the money which some of the branches have in their treasury?

Answer: Upon reorganization every branch secretary should bring

all his or her records up to date and turn these over to the District Organizer.

Every branch, before it disbands as a party unity, that is, before its members are organized into shop and street nuclei, should liquidate all its debts to such party institutions as The Daily Worker, the district and national offices, etc. If there are any funds after such debt settlements, the remaining money shall be divided as follows: 50% to The Daily Worker; 25% to the district office, and 25% to the national office of the party.

In cases where branches own property, like buildings, the present party members of the particular branch in question shall constitute a body for taking over the property, into which body only party members shall enter as bona fide members, irrespective of their nationality. In cases where non-party members are co-owners of branch club rooms, etc., our party members should form a Communist fraction in the owning body and thus serve to control and own this property, under the instructions and as agents of the party.

Question: Some of our members do not live in Chicago, although they pay dues to our branch here. Where will they be attached to?

Answer: After our party is reorganized on the basis of shop nuclei, no one will be allowed to live and work in one city and be a party member in another city. Every comrade will hold his membership either in a shop nucleus, that is on the basis of being connected with a party unit in his place of employment, or in a street nucleus, that is, on the basis of his being connected with a party unit in the residential section where he happens to be living. No one will, after reorganization, be permitted to attach himself to the party on the mere basis of having friends in or fond recollections of a particular party unit.

If a member neither lives nor works in a city he will not be able to be a party member in that city. Everyone will have to be a member of a party unit located in the section where he works or lives in a particular city.

Question: How will migratory workers hold their membership in the party?

Answer: The following shall be the rules for migratory workers

who desire to belong to the party:

1. They shall be considered as national office members of the party, being connected with the party center and working under instructions of the CEC through one or several special departments.

2. These migratory worker-party members shall immediately notify the party District Organizer of the territory in which they happen to find themselves at any time.

3. After such proper and prompt notification of the District Organizer by the migratory worker-member, the latter shall fully exercise all his party membership rights in any unit of the district in question. Likewise, this migratory worker-party member shall then be prepared to discharge all duties and tasks which may be assigned to any party members of the districts at the time in which he finds himself there.

Question: Will the international branch be based solely on residential or shop location?

Answer: The international branch is simply another name for the street nucleus. The street nucleus is to be based solely on residential area. It is the shop nucleus which is to be based solely on the industrial area, the place of employment.

Question: What about those who work in the transportation industry

Answer: If a comrade works as a chauffeur or truck driver, he will become a member of a shop nucleus in his place of employment, provided that there are three or more party members employed there. Otherwise the comrade in question maybe attached to another shop or to a street nucleus.

If a comrade works as a railway shop hand, maintenance of way man, locomotive fireman, or locomotive engineer, etc., in the transportation industry, the procedure will be along the same general lines. The roundhouse, the railway or freight station is to be the point of organization for the party members employed in any capacity on a particular railway or system of railways.

Question: In my particular place there are three party members. Are we to go into a shop nucleus or a street nucleus?

Answer: Of course, you are to go into a shop nucleus. Don’t wait for anybody to come around and try to organize you. It is your job to take the initiative and proceed to organize yourself at once into a shop nucleus. Immediately get on the job and make your nucleus active. The first task is for each of you individually to get one or two new members into the nucleus. You will see how your shop nucleus will grow, how much new blood you will add to your group through your being active, in accordance with the instructions given in the CEC reorganization plan.

Question: Is the present division of Chicago into six sections supposed to be permanent or temporary? Is this division on an industrial or on a parliamentary basis?

Answer: The present division is temporary. This does not necessarily mean that this division may not be permanent. Our analysis and classification of the information gathered from registering our membership will decide the final lines of subdivision in the city.

The present, or temporary, subdivision is based on the location of industry, on transportation facilities, and on a recognition of the existing parliamentary subdivisions in the city. In organizing our shop nuclei and in setting up new sections we must not totally disregard the need for our apparatus functioning in election campaigns. That is why we must in subdividing the city into certain industrial sections also take into account the parliamentary lines so that, as much as possible, our subdivisions based on the industrial sections will enable our party to function effectively in election campaigns.

Question: The prestige of our branch in the (name of nationality of language branch is omitted) colony is great. The disappearance of the branch as such will have a bad impression on the colony. May we not, then, after reorganization maintain the present branch and call it the (language) branch or fraction of the Workers Party?

Answer: Under no circumstances should any of the existing language branches maintain themselves as branches, in name or in fact, after party reorganization. The only party units, in name as well as in fact, after party reorganization are the shop and the street nuclei.

The present language branches are to become fractions of the party in the workingmen’s clubs which they are to organize. These workingmen’s clubs will consist of non-party proletarians as well as party members. These workingmen’s clubs will not be units of the party. These workingmen’s clubs will serve as rallying centers for our party, as recruiting fields where the members of our party speaking a particular language will have additional opportunities to win over for Communism, to draw into the party, workers of their own nationality.

If we were to call such workingmen’s clubs branches of the Workers Party we would be wrong on two scores. First of all, we would be giving the impression that this club containing non-party members is a unit of the party. Secondly, we would be narrowing the basis of organization for these workingmen’s clubs. These clubs are not to consist only of those proletarians who are Communists, the constitution of these clubs is to be much more inclusive, much broader. Any worker who accepts, in general, the idea of the class struggle, regardless of how little he knows about or how unready he happens to be at this time for party membership, is eligible for membership in these clubs. In fact we must strive to draw as many as possible such non-Communist workers into these clubs so that we may have the chance to propagate Communism amongst them.

Obviously it is impossible to call publicly such workingmen’s clubs party fractions of a particular nationality. Such methods will not draw to us the non-party elements we must have in these clubs. How can we ask a non-party member to join a party fraction? If a worker is not a member of the party he cannot be a member of the party fraction. The principle of Communist fraction work applied in the trade unions, in the benefit societies, in the cooperative societies, and in

other working class organizations is to be strictly adhered to in the work of the Communist fractions in these workingmen’s clubs. The party members of a particular language group in this country should win their prestige for Communism through their work for the party, though their activities for Communism.

Question: Our branch is to register at a membership meeting of section so-and-so at this-or-that date. Will our branch have any more meetings at all after this registration date?

Answer: Upon classifying the information gathered at the registration meetings of a particular section the comrades of the branches in the section in question will be assigned as follows:

1. If possible, they will be immediately organized into shop nuclei and will start functioning immediately as such.

2. The comrades may be organized as street nuclei members.

3. Where it is impossible to assign the comrades to either a shop or a street nucleus, the section being registered, then they may be asked to appear again at the registration meeting of the section where they work and there become members of a shop nucleus in the plant where they work or attached to some particular shop nucleus in the industrial section, in case less than three comrades work in their place of employment.

At most one branch meeting should be held after the section registration meeting has been held. This meeting should be given over completely to disposing of the affairs of the branch as a branch; for example, bringing up all accounts to date, settling debts with party institutions, putting the records in order for the district office, etc.

The Saturday Supplement, later changed to a Sunday Supplement, of the Daily Worker was a place for longer articles with debate, international focus, literature, and documents presented. 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.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1924/v02a-n186-supplement-oct-25-1924-DW-LOC.pdf