J.P.C.

Editorial Notes

The Opposition on the Eve of Great Advances

(December 1931)


Written: December 1931.
Source: The Militant, Vol. IV No. 35 (Whole No. 94), 12 December 1931, p. 4.
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In the beginning of the year that is now drawing to a close the Communist League began an upward swing under the sign of a planned program of expansion. The plan worked out in almost every detail. The re-establishment of the weekly Militant, the organization of our publishing house, the strengthening of full-time staff, the publication of the International in English, the placing of organizers in the field, and the national lecture tour – all these projects of the plan are today a reality. And as a result of these achievements the American section of the Opposition is not exactly the same as it was a year ago – it is stronger in organization, more fortified in principle and more confident of its future. Only one item of the expansion program remains unfulfilled – the theoretical magazine. Our failure by approximately five hundred dollars to collect the estimated two hundred dollar fund compelled us to cross the project off for the time being. In all other respects the program was realized.

In the meantime new developments and new advances – the fruit of our systematic planed work of the year – are crowding upon us unannounced and urging a reorientation of our work with a still broader and more optimistic perspective. The planned program of expansion besides attaining its immediate objectives, is already beginning to bear fruit in tangible advances which were not planned, nor even hoped for in so short a time. A number of new achievements, which were not directly contemplated, confront us now as imminent realities.

The first of these – first chronologically and first in importance and significance – was the establishment of Young Spartacus, the voice of the Opposition youth, the first youth paper to make its appearance in the entire international organization of the Left Opposition. The founding of Young Spartacus, and simultaneously with it the organization of the Marxian Youth Club under the aegis of the Opposition – there are the true signs of the invincible vitality of the Marxist wing of the movement.

To this will soon be added two more evidences of Opposition progress in other fields. The 15th of December will mark the first appearance of Communistes, official organ of the Communist League in the Greek language; and following that, the publication of a Jewish paper is scheduled for January 1st. The enormous significance of these two events needs no elucidation. They are the first concrete indications of the slow but steady growth of our influence among the foreign language elements of the Communist movement. The roots of our movement are spreading wide and going deep. In all these developments we see the proof that the conditions are maturing for a transformation of the form and character of our organization. There is reason to believe that we are on the way toward breaking out of the narrow confines of a purely propaganda body. At any rate we are moving in that direction. That is what these events foreshadow.

But we must see the whole picture, which is by no means a one-sidedly optimistic one. These expanded activities in themselves involve the organization in a crisis which expresses itself most acutely on the financial side. It is a crisis of growth, to be sure, but it effects our. work most seriously at the moment just the same. The new advances are well grounded in all the circumstances. They cannot be postponed. But they also impose additional burdens and responsibilities on the still limited number of our supporters. These obligations cannot b postponed either. Everything depend upon our comrades understanding this and meeting it with the necessary additional activity and sacrifice.


Last updated on: 22.2.2013