It took big working-class struggles to win the social gains that were codified in the Social Security Act of 1935, and expanded in the 1950s and '60s as a result of the civil rights movement. The Communist League of America, 1932-34 by James P. Cannon is one of several books from Pathfinder Press that describe how socialist workers participated in these battles and put forward a program of uniting working people, employed and unemployed, in the fight for jobs and social security. Below are excerpts of a March 6, 1933, speech by Communist League leader Cannon to a conference on the fight for unemployment insurance and relief in New York City. The excerpts are from The Communist League of America, 1932-34, copyright 1985 by the Anchor Foundation, reprinted by permission. Subheadings are by the Militant. BY JAMES P. CANNON

Comrades and fellow-workers:

We meet here in the fourth year of the crisis which has brought the most appalling misery and privation to the masses and which is profoundly affecting the entire working class. The terrible and unprecedented conditions are undermining the workers' accustomed standards of life. They are destroying all their security of existence, such as it was, and are putting before them, in ever more categorical terms, the necessity of seeking a way out by new methods and means. In such a situation this conference of 346 delegates from 248 workers' organizations can serve as a starting point in a significant movement of working-class resistance, or it can remain a mere episode soon passed over and forgotten....

The movement which is on its feet and attempting to struggle against conditions of the crisis remains, in the fourth year of the crisis, primarily and almost exclusively a movement of the class-conscious vanguard. The composition of this conference, called together after the most extensive preparation and agitation, is the most eloquent testimony to this fact. In this there is nothing fatal if we recognize the fact; if we do not deceive ourselves with illusions about a united front movement which does not as yet exist in reality....

The crisis is preparing the ground for a great resurgence of the American working class. The cynical indifference of the capitalist rulers to the plight of the hungry masses, the paltry relief doled out as charity, the savage wage cuts and other aggressions on the one hand, and the bankruptcy of all the capitalist panaceas for overcoming the crisis on the other - all this is producing in the depths of the working and unemployed masses the most profound resentment and dissatisfaction. The necessary conditions for the transformation of the psychology of the working class, for its political awakening and its emergence as a class on the road of the class struggle, are maturing rapidly; to a certain extent they have already matured.

The furious resentment of the workers is accumulating to the breaking point, preparing the way for a great explosion of working-class protest. Of decisive importance to facilitate this are the program, the tactics, and the perspective. The present conference has to be conceived not as the culmination but rather as a point of departure in the struggle to get a real class movement of the working and unemployed masses on foot.

The hesitation of the masses to express their profound resentment at the terrible conditions imposed upon them in the crisis in aggressive struggles on a broad scale, which up to now has been one of the most outstanding characteristics of the situation, has certain causes. The mass unemployment overwhelmed the employed workers with a sense of insecurity and helplessness, and served as a deterrent to actions on their part. In addition to that, the absence of any organized movement of the unemployed on a sufficiently large scale, and the disunity in such movements as have existed, have operated to paralyze the development of a real class movement. All this does not preclude the possibility of a change in the attitude of the workers, and that in comparatively short time.

Program to unite workers
The program for the translation of the mass discontent and resentment of the employed and unemployed workers into class actions on a broad scale and for the fusion of their interests and their actions in a common struggle, centers around the following main demands:

1. Immediate relief.

2. Unemployment insurance, to be paid for by the employers and the government.

3. The six-hour day and the five-day week without reduction in pay.

4. Long-term, large-scale credits to the Soviet Union, as a means of unemployment relief for the American workers and the cementing of fraternal bonds between the American and Russian workers. This implies the demand for the recognition of the Soviet government and the establishment of trade relations with it.

The tactic by means of which the scattered, separate movements can be welded into one, and the still inactive masses can be drawn into the struggle, is the tactic of the united front. The united front tactic aims to bring about common action of various workers' organizations, trade unions, and parties. It proposes their joint action in a common movement for immediate aims. It is addressed to the official organizations as well as to the rank-and-file members, and puts the leaders to the concrete test of struggle.

Without this tactic, the reformist leaders who disrupt and sabotage the movement escape unpunished, they continue to deceive large masses of workers with empty phrases and to thwart their desire for united struggle. On the other side, without the tactic of the united front, the actions organized under the leadership of the revolutionary workers remain isolated vanguard actions; they do not succeed in reaching the less awakened workers and drawing them into the fight; and, consequently, they fail to exert the necessary class pressure on the capitalists and their government....

The actions of the impoverished and hunger-driven masses, which can follow with accelerated speed and accumulating force from the program and tactic laid down above, must now primarily take the form of demonstrations which really unite wide masses in struggle. The appearance at the state legislature must not be conceived as an end in itself, but as a means of popularizing and stimulating these mass demonstrations.

Such demonstrations, in the next stage of the movement - to the extent that they really involve broad masses and bring a class force to bear - can put upon the capitalist rulers a pressure which they have not felt up till now. These demonstrations can force concessions from the capitalists and compel them to pause before further onslaughts on the workers out of fear of giving a further stimulus to the movement. Moreover, such united demonstrations, increasing in size and militancy and gaining visible results in the concrete cases (as, for example, in Chicago), will enormously strengthen the morale of the masses, increase their self-confidence, and lead, in turn, to broader, bolder, and stormier demonstrations.

On this road, the hesitating mood of the masses and their more or less passive discontent can be rapidly transformed into the impulse for active resistance all along the line.  
 
 
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