The reorganization of many newly formed Communist Parties, moving away from the electoralist and politically contradictory organizational model of the Socialist Parties they had emerged from, began immediately. In many places those changes were as inspired by various syndicalist and industrial union experiences as they were by that of the Bolsheviks, particularly true in the U.S. All wings of the U.S. Communist movement emerging from the 1919 splits in the Socialist Party adopted new organizational norms. Over the following years, discussions and mandates by the Comintern would introduce and codify a number of changes. Early on, the most important change was to place of the Party’s basic units in the shops or in working class neighborhoods, i.e., among the working class where it lived and worked. In 1924, around the Fifth World Congress, many changes, increasingly modeled on the Bolshevik experience–pre- and post-Revolution and seeking a uniform ideology and practice–were directed as part of the ‘Bolshevization’ process–a process with several positive outcomes alongside the negative ones. Here, U.S. Communist Party Secretary Ruthenberg introduces the 5th Party Congress resolution on ‘A Party of Factory Nuclei’ (a topic of constant discussion among U.S. Communists for the previous five years). However, there was a particular U.S. problem given the large memberships of the Language Federations, constituting a significant majority of the national Party, organized beyond job and geography, and by language and ethnic identity.
‘Reorganization of the Workers Party’ by C.E. Ruthenberg from The Liberator. Vol. 7 No. 10. October, 1924.
ΤHE resolution of the Fifth Congress of the Communist International on the reorganization of the Communist Parties on the basis of Shop Nuclei represents a definite step toward the Bolshevization of these parties. Once such a reorganization is accomplished the parties will have their basis in the shops, among the masses of the workers, who must be influenced and moved into action in the Communist struggle against capitalism.
For the Workers Party this transformation in the organization basis of the party presents a particularly intricate problem. Our party must not only transform an organization based upon territorial units into one based upon shop nuclei, but it must also deal with the fact that the party is now organized into seventeen language sections, and must safeguard the indispensable organization for propaganda in the many languages represented among the American workers in carrying out the transformation of the party into a Bolshevized shop nuclei party.
In spite of the difficulties of the problem, the party must attack it energetically and find the ways of making the transformation without weakening the party. This is being done. The first experimental steps are being taken. Through these experimental efforts the forms are being worked out which will preserve what is needed of the present language sections while at the same time creating the shop nuclei. No quick transformation can be achieved, but as the right forms are worked out, the party will gradually be rebuilt on the shop nuclei basis. The complete transformation may take a year or more, but the time is coming when the Workers Party will be able proudly to declare that its organizational form is that of a truly Bolshevik Party.
C.E. Ruthenberg.
***
Resolution of the Communist International
1. The fundamental difference between the role and activity of the Communist party and the Social-Democratic party also finds expression in the difference in the organization of the two parties. The Social-Democratic party, which bases itself wholly upon reformist activity within bourgeois democracy, and especially upon activity in the parliamentary elections, is accordingly constructed on the basis of electoral districts and residential organization and has made the local groups the ground work of the organization of the party. The Communist party, however, which leads the broad masses of the working class into the revolutionary struggle for the overthrow of capital and the seizure of power, must have a different organizational structure. The basis of organization of the Communist party lies among the working class masses themselves, in the factory, at the place of work. The construction of the party on the basis of Factory Nuclei permits it to establish a close and lasting contact with the masses. It permits the party to keep itself at all times in touch with the needs and moods of the working masses and to react to them. It permits the organization of the revolutionary fight against the employers, fascism, the capitalist state; it permits the struggle for power. This organizational structure enables the party to secure a correct social composition and to guarantee its proletarian character. It makes possible, and this is of especial importance to the Communist party, a real fight for the control of production and, after seizure of power, the management of production in the factory. The slogan of Lenin was: “Every factory should be a stronghold of the Communist party.”
2. The Third and Fourth Congresses of the Communist International distinctly indicated the necessity for the reorganization of the party on the basis of Factory Nuclei; the Fourth Congress laid down that “no Communist party can be regarded as a serious and solidly organized Communist mass party if it does not possess strong Communist nuclei in the factories, workshops, mines, railways, etc.” Experience in the struggle of the Communist party since the Fourth Congress has completely corroborated this attitude and has proved that the resolution of the Fourth Congress is a vital necessity for the Communist party. One of the lessons of the German events is that the construction of the party on the basis of the factory nuclei is an indispensable condition of the victorious struggle for power.
It is, therefore, necessary, by profound, energetic and systematic work to carry out the decisions adopted by the Executive of the Communist International in January, 1924, in furtherance with the decision of the Fourth Congress on this subject, and which the Fifth Congress hereby confirms. The congress regards it as one of the important tasks of the Communist party in the near future to effect a reorganization on the basis of the Factory Nuclei.
3. The Congress desires to refer especially to certain points which have arisen in the practice of the parties since January, with regard to which some emphasis or indication of policy is required.
There must be no misunderstanding; the decisions of the Third and Fourth Congresses and the January resolution demand, not certain superficial changes in party structure, but an actual fundamental reorganization on the basis of the Bolshevik party. Reorganization should be carried out systematically and carefully, so that the party may not lose any of its strength. It must, however, be carried out energetically, and the old party structure (local groups, method of collecting contributions, selection of leading organs, registration, etc.) should be altered so as to make the factory nuclei the future organization.
It has to be admitted that in practice this idea has hitherto not been pushed with sufficient energy. In many cases the party nuclei were not regarded as the foundation of the party organization, in the direction of which the party structure had to be changed, but as a side branch of organization, appended to the old organization. Accordingly, in many cases, Factory Fractions with limited duties created instead of factory nuclei; this is to be discountenanced. A tendency has often been displayed to give the factory nuclei exclusively trade union functions.
In opposition to this, the role and standing of the factory nuclei as the foundation of party organization must be clearly and decisively emphasized and carried into practice. The factory nucleus has all the rights of a party organization. It discusses and takes an attitude on all party questions. This must also be applied in the organization activity of the Factory Nuclei. The factory nuclei must recruit and accept members, collect the contributions of its members, retain percentage of the contributions, register its members, and so on. The factory nucleus gives each member some definite work and makes it his duty to carry out the work entrusted to him. It is obvious that the activities of the factory nuclei must extend to all the sections of the activity of the party.
4. It is part of the meaning of the resolution on the reorganization of the party on the basis of factory nuclei, and one of its most important features, that the present social composition of the party membership must be changed and improved, that the absolute majority consist of industrial proletarians, so that the overwhelming majority of the party members may be included in the factory, workshop and farm nuclei. When this aim has been achieved, and the party nuclei become sufficiently numerous and strong, the street nuclei will become superfluous. Thereupon the members who are not embraced by the factory councils, must be attached to the factory nuclei. As a temporary measure, before the organization of the party has reached this stage (which may vary from country to country, and from district to district) street nuclei may be considered as one of the various possibilities of organizing and apportioning work to the party members who cannot be embraced by the factory nuclei. In view of the incorrect idea which has arisen as to the importance of the street groups, the Fifth Congress lays down that wherever the street groups are set up, they must not be allowed to injure the factory nuclei and must not be placed upon a footing of equality with the factory nuclei. It must in no case be said that the factory nuclei and the street groups (street nuclei) are the two principles of party organization. The Factory Nucleus alone is the principle of party organization; the street groups are a side branch. Emphasis is to be placed upon the factories and the factory nuclei.
5. At the beginning, reorganization must be concentrated mainly on the industrial districts, and here again on the most important localities and the strongest organizations. In each place the leading organs should begin reorganizing at once in the most important sections. This does not mean, of course, that the other party organizations are, in the meantime, to be neglected in the practical work of organization. Reorganization should be carried on steadily from the lowest sections of the party organization upwards.
6. On the question of the young Communist factory nuclei the congress lays down that the party should strive to secure that as many members of the young Communist factory nuclei as possible must also be members of the Communist Party nuclei, and that close co-operation and mutual representation should exist between the two nuclei, but that apart from the party nucleus, a special young Communist factory nucleus is essential, for this is the principle of the organization of the whole Young Communist League, which has a special organization apart from that of the party.
The Liberator was published monthly from 1918, first established by Max Eastman and his sister Crystal Eastman continuing The Masses, was shut down by the US Government during World War One. Like The Masses, The Liberator contained some of the best radical journalism of its, or any, day. It combined political coverage with the arts, culture, and a commitment to revolutionary politics. Increasingly, The Liberator oriented to the Communist movement and by late 1922 was a de facto publication of the Party. Max Eastman would sell the paper to the Party and In 1924, The Liberator merged with Labor Herald and Soviet Russia Pictorial into Workers Monthly. An essential magazine of the US left.
PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1924/10/v7n10-w78-oct-1924-liberator-hr.pdf
