The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 16, 1924, Page 5

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. The Labor Conference at Geneva N the 21st of June last there com- menced at Geneva the sixth in- ternational labor conference. These conferentes constitute the parliament of the Labor Bureau. The present conference was given tremendous ad- vertisement in the bourgeisie and So- cial Democratic press of all coun- tries, Every day there apepared long reports over the “arduous labors” of the conference. Great rhetorical duels were “fought” and a terrible “struggle” took place over the eight hour day. The great’ masses are thereby purposely deluded into believ- ing that in Geneva the interests of the working population are actually being preserved and promoted. But those who are in the know, and es- pecially the capitalists and the re- SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. AUGUST 16, 1924. in those states which have “recog- nized” and “legally introduced” the eight hour day, more than eight hours a day are-being worked. This swin- dle is revealed in the most glaring manner by the fact that on the same day on which the representative of the Polish government, Count Akrzyn- ski, solemnly delivered the official declaration of his government that Poland had recognized: and legally car- ried thru all the thirteen conventions, jincluding the eight hour day, the tele- |graph conveyed the news, that the twelve hour day had been introduced /in the Polish mines and smelting in- dustry. One after another, M. Thomas, |Jouhaux, Mertens, Poulton, the “la-| | bor” representatives of the Entente, ,expressed their enthusiastic apprecia- | tion to the Poles for their “great act jin the interest of humanity.” But that at the same time the proletariat and also in resporfse to the pressure of their workers, the employers of other countries partially followed suit with the introduction of the eight hour day. But all of these states cau- |tiously avoided recognizing the Wash- |ington decisions. With the restrength- ening of the German capitalist class and the defeat of the proletariat, |thanks to the German Social Demo- crats, the eight hour day was abol- jished in Germany de facto by a de- leree of the 23rd of December, 1923. \“In principle” it still exists, but in |practice 54.7 per cent of all proletar- lians in Germany already work over agricultural laborers, all of whom are working longer hours. This fact is \disturbing the Entente capitalists, especially those of France and Eng- land, in the highest degree. They leight up to 16 hours daily, these fig-| ures do not comprise the miners and | SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. By A. ENDERLE. that this control has as its object that no longer than eight hours a day shall be worked in Germany. And the correspondent of the capitalist “Vossische Zeitung” was able tri- umphantly to declare: “As a result of the efforts of the German trade union-representatives, it has been possible to have the point |}directéd against Germany deleted from the wording of the resolution.” It would hardly be possible for the jinternational proletariat to gain a |clearer glimpse into the wretched na- ture of the Amsterdam trade union international and the purely capitalist character of the Labor Bureau, than |thru the debates on the eight hour jday which have taken* place in Gen- eva. Once, again have the Amster- |damers, on an occasion where the ac- tual interests of labor were at stake, formist wire-pullers, are chuckling to|of the mining and smelting industry, |stand in fear of the unfair competi-|4iVided into national groups and in- THE EMPLOYER themselves, for they know that the Geneva “comedy” is only being played for “the common people;” that there, instead of the welfare of labor being promoted, there is only being con- ducted a collaboration policy between the trade union leaders and the capi- talists on an international scale, with the sole object of diverting the prole- tariat from the class war and from revolution. If any one should doubt these facts he need only examine the composition and the deliberations of the confer- ence a little more closely. The con- ference is composed of three equally large categories of representatives of governments, of employers and of la- bor (so called). As the governments of all the participating states are purely capitalist ones, there exists already with the government and em- ployers’ representatives a two-thirds capitalist majority. But even the re- maining third, the “labor” represen- tatives, are such faithful henchmen of capital that there is never seen at the conference a proletarian front op- posed to a capitalist front, but in most cases there prevails the sweet- est harmony among all participants, or in so far as there are any differ- ences, whatever they are of a national character. ¢ There lay before the conference a printed report on the activity of the Labor Bureau, the numbered of affli- ated states and those states which have ratified the so-called Washing- ton Convention. One learned from this that 54 states are affiliated to the Labor Bureau. The bulk of these be- long to the League of Nations; yet Germany, which is not a member of the League, is affiliated to the Labor Bureau. The report mentions that among the important states not affili- ated are America, Russia, Mexico, Turkey and Egypt. It is “hoped” that Russia will soon affiliate. The decisions (Conventions) of the Washington Conference of the- year 1910 regarding the eight hour day, un- employed, sick, accident and old age benefit, as well as regarding: regula- tions for the prevention of accidents and sickness, night work, children’s and women’s labor, etc. are, accord- ing to the report, only fully “recog- nized” by one state, Poland, while the eight hour day is only “recognized” that is, legally introduced, by Greece, Bulgaria, Czecho-Slovakia and—don’t laugh—by India. One percieves by this that in spite of the five years existence of the La- bor Bureau, which, as Oudegeest de- clared in Vienna, is a child of the Amsterdam Trade Union Internation- al the Washington decisions have not yet been recognized by a single grea capitalist state. But even if this were the case it would not alter the posi- tion of the workers in the least, for besides. hundreds of thousands of workers in other professions in Po- land, are compelled to work a twelve hour shift, was wisely not mentioned by these “labor” representatives, not to speak of raising a protest against Mee Hs And in spite of this these arch- scoundrels have the brazenness to carry on the world-comedy in Geneva, and to devote four days of eager de- bate over the eight hour day alone and to exhibit great differences as if they were fighting in all seriousness in order to obtain the eight hour day for the exploited proletarians of the whole world. But in spite of all the cunning of this crowd they were un- able to conceal what are the actual differences with regard to this ques- tion. The whole concern of all dele- gates is nothing else but the profit of the capitalists. It is true that after the conclusion of the war and as a result of the pressure of the révolu- tionary. masses, Germany was the rst country to introduce the eight’ hour day. On grounds of expediency, By Rudolf Schlichter tion of Germany. And having regard to the well known ruthlessness with which the German employers have always éxploited their wage slaves, in which they are backed up by the Ger- man state power with police clubs and machine guns in their attacks against the workers, the fears of the English and French capitalists are not un- founded. In this respect, the “labor” representatives and the employers’ representatives of France and Eng- land are proceeding arm in arm and delivering wonderful speeches on the utility and human necessity of the eight hour day. Their sudden love for the eight hour day is based on a very real capitalist demand, i.e. upon the control of, German industry. On this point cordiality ceases for all German representatives. Not only the German government representa- tive, Leymann, and the representative of the German employers, Vogel, but also the German Amsterdamers under theeleadership of the Social Demo- erat, Hermann Miller, protest against this control, It is well understood 1 |stea@ of standing in one proletarian front against capital, have taken sides with the capitalists of “their father- land” in the national competitive riv- alry of capital. On the other hand this incident has proved to the whole international proletariat that the Geneva Labor Bureau and the labor conferences convened by it, are noth- ing else but councils at which plans are concocted for the better preserva- tion of capitalist profits and for the most advantageous exploitation of the proletariat. If it were otherwise, then the Amsterdamers of every country would in this case have been able to do no other than stand together and to have torn the hypocritical mask from the face of the whole interna- tional capitalist class and mobilized the proletariat of all countries against the gang of capitalist exploiters. But who Would expect anything of this sort from -these hirelings of the em- ploying class. Up to the momept of writing no final decision has been come to re- garding the eight hour day, but one has no need to be a prophet in order to predict that in the end a compro- mfSe resolution will be unanimously - adopted and that in every country the working day will be prolonged. It would be superfluous to go more closely into the other items of the la- bor conference, because here also it is the same, i.e. beautiful speeches are delivered and decisions are adopted which decieve the workers somewhat but do no harm to the capitalists. As an example, there need only be men- tioned here that the question of unem- ployment was dealt with at great length. The conference, according to the “Vorwarts,” came to a “heroic” decision in which all governments are recommended to work out “memo- randa” (!!) on the problem of unem- ployment which shall contain propos- als as to remedies. A “magnificent” help for the unemployed! The Amsterdamers have nothing particular to boast about as to their deeds in Geneva. They therefore make the more fuss over the exclus- ion of the fascist trade union repre- sentative from the conference. The Amsterdamers wish by this means to give evidence of their “fight” against the fascists. Even, this bit of “fame” is very doubtful, for this fascist had been allowed to take part in the sit- tings for ten days without being chal- lenged and only at the moment when the shares of Mussolini and Co. had sunk to zero in Italy, did the brave heroes of Amsterdam adopt the decis- ion to exclude this fascist labor repre- sentative from the conference. This was a great act of injustice, for even if the Amsterdamers are not fascists of the type of Mussolini they are no less as zealous representatives of cap- ital.as the former.