The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 8, 1924, Page 11

‘between the Germar The Trade Union Movement in HE last year was for the trade union movement in Poland a pe- riod of exceedingly hard struggles against capital. The enormous de- preciation of the Polish mark in con- nection with the general financial catastrophe, caused by the reaction- ary policy of the ruling classes— capitalist and landowners—forced large masses of the working class, even those under the influence of the opportunist and conservative leaders to enter the fight for existence. The last year, therefore, has witnessed such- big and! stormy strikes as in- dependent Poland had never exper. ienced before. There were the heroic struggles of the workers of Lodz, Warsaw, the Dombrovo coal district, Upper Silesia, and others, which be- gan merely as demands for higher wages to keep up with the ever ris- ing costs of living, and ended with big political demonstrations and regular battles with the police. The apex of these fights was the Cracau revolt of the railroad workers with the assistance of the entire working class and a part of the army. The workers were victorious, inasmuch as the old historical capital of Poland was in the hands of the workers up to the minute when the exprienced social-traitors of the Polish socialist party handed over to the reationary government the position acquired in blood. Economic Situation Grows Worse. After all these hard struggles and betrayals the labor movement weak- ened. The economic situation of the country is getting worse. The ex- change rate of the dollar grew from 3,600,000 in November to more than ten million in January. The inflation, mainly under the in- fluence of the reforms for stabiliza- tion, took on. such proportions that not only did it rob the laboring masses of a big part of their income, but it even undermined production. The wages, whose real value falls continually with the rise in the cost of living, were lower in December than in November, rise in the cost of living, according to the reck- oning of the central bureau of statis- tics, in the two halves of the month of _December, amounted to 51.06 per cent and 53.67 per cent, respectively, in December, 66.89 per cent and 62.50 per cent, Bas ype ng The wages fell consid ly more where- ever the bosses regulate them monthly, as, for instance, in Stara- chovitze. Still more dangerous for the la- boring masses is another outcome of the present period of inflation—un- employment. The impoverishment of the internal market as well as the considerable rise in the price of in- dustrial products as a result of the expensiveness of raw material and foreign machinery, and the high risks, with a Pog mage tie — mark, and finally, po! 9 financial economy—all this produced further curtailment of production. This holds true especially of the ex- port branches of industry, mainly in the textile industry, as well as those _ branches of production which are de- pendent upon financial economy, such as the metal industry, the tobacco industry, ete. Unemployment Increases. In the textile industry unemploy- ment gradually affected a number of small factories in Lodz and Bielsk. More than a thousand work- ers altogether are unemployed there, and more than half work from two to five days a week. In the metal industry those factories were affect- ed which worked on government or- ders (mainly railroad cars), as these orders were in part cancelled and in part curtailed. There has been a shrinkage of work also in the Upper Silesian coal and steel district. As a result of the move to lease out the tobacco monopoly the crisis has also affected the private tobacco industry. The deterioration of the market made itself evident also in branch of industry which has area a tt ’ bP turnover tax was reduced by 26 cent on Upper Silesian and by as 22.5 per cent on Dombrovo coal, and|has not been ke despite the fact that the tax was by the law; not BE eo eent for|in Parliam Pic yg er . lowered further by The Dusseld | capitalists, which brought increase in the préduction the Ruhr area, creates new & coal difficul- ginal pu se of the Com We the le as per oka a y peop about -an | British ties for the development of the Pel- ish coal industry. The standard of living of Me workers, which is very low as it is, hag lately sunk still lower. The tremendous increase in the! cost of living, the proposal and adop- tion of the stabilization of taxes. ; together with the phenomenal fall in the rate of exchange forced the question of the stabilizaf}n of wages on the order of business. All taxes must be paid in Polish marks according to the value of the French franc. The merchants are demand- ! ing francs for their merchandise, but they do not want to pay the workers “stabilized” wages. In various branches of industry the workers put up concrete demands as regards wages, based upon pre-war wages in old. . Trade Unions Weakened. A sharp defensive fight was waged | only in cases of curtailment of work, as this threatens the existen*e «+f thousands of workers’ families. The trade unions were weakened numerically and otherwise by their feeble activity as well as the tactics. of the opportunists, who failed to co-ordinate the individual struggles, and prevented decisive action. It was in this way that confidence in the trade unions diminished. The existence of the trade union is being undermined still further by the financial crisis. The trade union? are no longer in a position to satisfy their most elementary needs, they cannot, for instance, pay their secre- taries, traveling expenses, or cost of publications; they have to ask the local unions to pay even for postage. In order to meet the financial crisis the opportunist Central Execu- tive Committee of the trade unions simply raises the dues, regardless of the fact that there is a great drop in membership. The Left Wing pro- poses the increase in the number of dues payers rather than the amount of the dues. Raising the fighting spirit of trade unions, gaining back the confidence of the masses, set- ting up of factory councils which would embrace the broadest masses —that is the only and durable means, in the opinion of the Left Wing, to bring about the salvation of the unions and to increase their funds. Besides raising the dues in keep- ing with the rise in wages the left wing of the trade unions favors as an immediate measure the abandon- ment of the present apparatus of officials and instituting elections for the leading positions.. In addition to thesgeneral causes for the weakness of»the trade unions The Government of India, By by B. W. Huebsch, New York. ical organizations by the govern- ment. And this interrupts their normal activity from time to time. There is only one representative of the lefts at present in the Central Committee of the Trade Unions, and a second one is prevented from tak- ing part in the meetings. Individual unions are being massacred. In De- cember there was not a single new trade union registered. What is more,.a law was promulgated that a trade union which has once been closed could: not be opened again. Left Wing Active. As a result, the situation of the left wing of the trade unions is very difficult, but still it has been able to hold its own, and even to make some advance, as, for instance, in the building trades, among the chemical and lumber workers. In Lemberg |the left wing received more votes in the last elections in the trade unions than ever before. In Upper Silesia the left wing brought about a union of the Free Trade Unions (of a left tendency) which came into existence under the influence of the Polish so- cialist party, with the Central Com- mittee of the German radical trade unions. Provision is made for a greater unity campaign; and by the time of the Congress the left wing is assured of about half of the places in the Central Committee of the Free Trade Unions. The hardest fight for the left wing was in those organizations which are of great political significance, prin- cipally in the Warsaw Central Com- mittee of Trade Unions. Since the November strike certain Polish so- cialist party elements are doing their utmost to destroy the influence of the Left Wing, and are going so far as to persecute the Left Wing. This sort of action was occasioned by the meeting called by the central committee on December 16 to discuss economic questions (minimum wage, weekly regulation of wages). On the day before, on December 15, the Witos government fell, and it be- came apparent that the meeting would assume a political character, For this reason the meeting was_at- tended by the deputies of the faction of the Union of City and Vil- lage Proletariat. Socialists Are Betrayers. Their presence focused the atten- tion of all the thousands at the meet- ing upon them, ially as there were workers present who had been delivered up to the bosses and the government by the Polish socialist party. The crowd did not allow the chief speaker, De Gardetzky, to finish his spech, for he attempted to there is also the persecution of rad-| put all the blame on the workers for BOOK REVIEW J. Ramsay MacDonald, published HIS book gives considerable information on the political machinery of the British government in India and at the same time gives a good pic- geen: beyond the seas, won a reputation for progressivism and pacifism, but his attitude toward India is not clearly distinguishable from that of an avowed Tory, and on one of his first a er ERNE RET Se genannten tee nr his coming into the office of premier, moves was to order the construction of seven warships. This is a novel form of pacifism but—that is Ramsay MacDonald. The British—to judge from Mr. MacDonald’s book—were forced by an : = the alleged radical Ramsay MacDonald. The premier of Great Britain, and the unkind fate to assume political dominion over India. the British Empire did not desire “a feot of territory.” The Queen said in 1858 when assuming sovereignty no Do were pe rep hors Com- 's possessions “We Tre no ex- ef of our present territorial agg aspen How like Lloyd George n the early days of the world war? Another quotation may give our readers an insight into Ramsay Mac- Donald’s imperialistic mind: have indicated, at a very early time ‘the British nation regarded the trans- ‘actions of b+ beg ter in gee Fem: being som more than ing affairs. WE felt we were undertak- political responsibilities and con- sequently the long drawn out history of the relations of the Company and the Government tells the py Py how the nation’s sense of its obliga- en to overshadowed the erned - . » « India we t by the sword but a ear but by trust en “ onumental charlatan, posing speaks the language imperialism more ere 0 than Lord Curzon, The Sepoy Mu- sey i. gosubt: ovat.’ We 00d mith This a8 a@ soc’ “Ag 1|P In 1858 as in 1914 ing of the blowing of Hindoo rebels from the mouths of cannons. This hypocritical specimen of the most slimy, canting, robber-ruling-class in the world “carries the white man’s burden” and exalts the pirate traders and buccaneers of old England to the status of saviors and leaders of backward races, into the paths of rogress, The fate of the countless millions of Indians who have starved in the midst of plenty while British lunderers at the point of the sword glarized their country does not arouse MacDonald’s righteous wrath but the blessings of Parliamentarism are held before the beggared Hin- doos as the Sacred Cow of the New Dispensation. We do not quarrel with Mr. Mac- Donald’s facts. We rebel against his conclusions. This may not be a re- view of his book but it is a brief glimpse at the real MacDonald, That is of greater importance than the beok. aioe of our readers may be in in MacDonald or the Bri Labor 's achievements. win hay ef shout MacDeusla. By J. LENSKY the bad conditions. The socialist offi- cials seized this opportunity to close the meeting without having discuss- ed the new government. The left wing was blamed ffor it, ar|i a resolu- tien was published by the central committee charging that the left wing had broken up the meeting, and condemning the Communist Deputies of the ‘Seym and the Com- munist Party. But the representa- tives of the Left Wing retorted with a strong ‘resolution protesting against such high-handed ‘methods and calling for an impartial inves- tigation, The resolutjbn of the Left Wing representatives ended with. an appeal to the membership of the trade unions to preserve the unity endangered by the leaders of the Polish socialist party. Lately there has been a tendency in a certain part of the Polish social- ist party toward splitting the trade unions. This is due to the sharpen- ing of the social conflicts, and to the effort of the Polish socialist party to Prevent mass action. The Polish socialist party is intent upon de- stroying the influence of the Left Wing in the trade unions at a time when the Polish socialist party has time and time again gune over to the support of the capitalist govern- ment and participation in it. Those members of the Polish so- cialist party in the trade unions who realize that splitting the trade unions with their present internal weakness and their financial crisis would re- sult in their complete downfall are of a different view. As the creation of separate, red trade unions under present ecandi- tions cannot be successful _(diffieul- ties with the police and indifference of the masses) and as such action harbors the danger of curtailing the Party’s area of activity and the dan- ger of the slackening of the tension in the economic struggles, it is our duty to come out strongly for the defense of the unity, of the existence and the power of the trade uniors. It is our duty to reveal the real mo- tives of those who are for the split and to make it easier for those in the Polish Socialist Party who are for unity of the trade unions to win a majority. Left Wing Demands Unity. A strong resolution for unity was passed on December 29 by the Trade Union Department of the Commun- ist Party. It reads in part: “The principal tactic of the Left Wing shall continue to be the unity of the trade unions, : “The most important perequisite for this unity is full freedom ef criticism and agitation for the left wing within the general frame work of organization of the unified trade unions.” With the view that the agitation for the formation of factory coun- cils hangs together with other prob- lems, the trade union department links this agitation with the current trade union questions. In view of the weakening of the trade unions it becomes a pressing necessity to re- cruit new masses, and the surest way to do this is to use the factory councils as a support. At the same time, this policy breaks down the op- position of the opportunists who sense in the factory councils a dan- | gerous competitor; the chairman of the Warsaw Central Committee of Trade Unions, Gardetzky, came out decisively against the factory councils. In order to plant the ideas and ex- istence of the factory councils in the masses we must defeat, not only the opposition of the opportunists, but also the indifference of the masses. Wherever such factory com- mittees exist in their modern form —in Upper Silesia—they are domin- ated by a Polish or German oppor- tunist majority and the masses have as little confidence in them as in the opportunist trade unions. The role played by the central executive com- mittees formed during the November strikes proved amply what the fac- tory councils can be, if revolutionary workers stand at their head. The task of the left trade unions is to transform the existing factory coun- cils into actual fighting organiza- tions, 3 Our Advertisers help make this Paper possible. Patron- ize our Advertisers and tell them you saw their Ad in The Daily Worker.