The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 3, 1925, Page 5

first” gress -held’ between January 7-14,, “The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. Comrade Zinoviev’s Speech. OMRADES, all of-us are still un- der the impression. of the celebra- tion of the “sevénth anniversary of ‘our revolution... One naturally recalls some of the events at the beginning of the Yeyolution, particularly . the All-Russian. Trade Union Con- 1918, which ‘tod, I addressed on be- half.of the céntral committee of our party. ‘Everybody was then - drunk with’ the recent victory, But at. the. Same time all the delegates of the congress were full of alarm and un- certainty as to the next day. At the congress itself we had to struggle against the mensheviks and _ social revolutionists who were still holding some important positions in our trade union movement. One naturally feels like contrast- ing the present situation with that of the past. Of the alarm, uncertainty, and fear for the next day not a trace is left. The trade union movement of our country, which has passed thru several difficult stages during these years, has finally entered on a wide road, has finally assumed its proper place in the system of organizations effecting the proletarian dictator- ship, has completely finished with the hesitation of menshevist and social revolutionary character, has grown and matured to an unusual degree. [f we compare the present situation not only with that of the first congress, but even with the situation at the fifth congress, which took place two years ago, we see confident and com- paratively rapid progress. At the fifth congress we were all ased to alin ting Riis Sod 90 yet ‘producing 25-27 per cent of the pre- War amount. We noted this as the first relatively important success. Now at the sixth congress, our state industries have reached 50 per cent and in some places have even moved beyond this limit. For the first time at the thirteenth congress of our par- ty we were able to state that it was time to think of leaving the pre-war level behind. A the fifth congress the wage ques- tion was one of the nicst troubling ‘questions. .The mensheviks and their sympathizers were moving about and around this question on tiptoe, hop- ing that the trade union movement of our country would be tripped up on this question. This is still a very delicate question; two years ago -it stood out very sharply. Our trade un- jon movement has marched past these difficulties in a large measure, and has overcome the fundamental obstacles. Our formula at the fifth congress was slow, but sure and steady raises of wages. During the past two years the trade unions have worked in line with this formula, and now the entire mass organized in trade unions can see that it did not main merely on paper. ‘ The autumn of 1924 was the first tumn in our history without any economic conflicts even of a local na- ture. This is of tremendous signi- ficance to the destinies of our coun- try, and it is one of the fundamental and most significant proofs that the trade unions have worked well, that the party directing the Communist activities of the trade unions was fol- lowing the true course. Since Febru- ary, 1923, the trade unions have changed to voluntary membership. The party and the non-partisan tr unionists have put into this campaign all the energy and all the enthusiasm that was necessary for a solution of these problems. I heard some statements to the effect that the present congress is not face to face with any serious ques- tions of principle. This is both true and untrue. There are no serious questions of principle in the sense that we do not have to discuss anew SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. January 3, 1925. ‘Sixth All-Russian Trade Union Congress the role and importance of the trade unions. The place of our trade unions in history has been fixed and verified by the experience ahd collective wis- dom of the. advanced section: of the working class: But this.does not: in the least mean that the present con- gress is not faced with a large num- +} ber of extremely important questions of principle. I shall take the liberty of touching upon some of them. «I think that the most important of these questions is primarily the ques- tion. of international unity in the trade union movement. ‘This ques- tion is most intimately inter-linked with the present international situ- ation, and vitally affects the working class of our country. We have all of us become convinced, during the last few years, that international matters cannot be considered as lux- uries, third courses, as questions that ought to interest only the heads. Not a bit. Every rank and file worker sees that the international labor movement has entered such a stage that where the events taking place in one country most vitally affect the interests and struggle of the workers of the other countries. That is why to us the international unity of the trade union movement is not a desert or a question within the jurisdiction only of the leading heads. No! This is one of the fundamental questions most closely related to the everyday problems of the workers’ life and to the basic questions of the trade un- ion struggle. What we are going thru now is the beginning of a new phase of world bourgeois reaction. Only very recent- ly the fifth congress of the Comin- tern produced an exact photographic Picture of the period that has been dubbed as the “democratic-pacifist era.” MacDonald was in power in England, Herriot in France; Vander- velde was expected to assume power in Belgium, and Davidovitch in Jugo- Siavia. Similar changes appeared to be imminent in a number of other countries. The Comintern was right when it stated that that was the be- ginning of a certain democratic paci- fist wave. However, the fifth congress did not stop there, but prophecied that this “era” is nothing but a his- toric masquerade of the bourgeoisie that stakes its money one day on the social democrats and the next day on the fascists, with equal suc- cess. Some of us were tripped up by this “democratic-pacifist era,” tak- ing it for something genuine and im- agining that we would have to change the tactic of the international labor movement. Now the facts have de- oo overthrown their point of ew. What has taken place during the last few days is the beginning of a new wave, this time not of pacifism, not of democracy, but of the black- est bourgeois reaction. If only sev- eral months ago the bourgeoisie was Playing pink, it has now again chang- ed to black. The victory of the black hundred republican party in America headed by Coolidge, the victory of the black hundred conservative tories in England, headed by Baldwin, repre- sent the beginning of a new chapter of the blackest world reaction. There is not the least doubt that we will future. One need not be a prophet to foresee that Herriot’s star in France is already setting and things will happen this way: either he him- self will turn black (laughter) which is quite possiblé, or some black lit- tle fellow will be moved to his place. The first is more probable. We see similar processes in the small states. There are a number of countries representing the vassals of the big capitalist powers. They want Delivered at the Sixth All-Russian Trade Union to be in everything like their mas- ters. Especially characteristic in this respect is Jugo-Slavia. You remem- ber that.as soon as the democratic- pacifist’ .wave was victorious in France and England, it was reflected in Jugo-Slavia.by ‘the advent of the more or less democratic Davidovitch ministry. Now the reverse is. true. The bosses had hardly come to- power, hardly put their stake upon” black, when a black hundred government, headed by Paschish, appeared in Jugo-Slavia. We observe the same in a number of the central European states which live by the reflection of the big imperialist powers. We are thus facing the beginning of a new phase of world politics, of the darkest imperialist reaction. Yes- terday the capitalists put their stake upon the social democrats and men- sheviks, today they are again staking upon the blacks, which will not pre- vent them, of course, from staking again upon pink-yellow or yellow- pink, or some similar color (laugh- ter). Th.s shows the serious insta- bility of the capitalist regime. It is no longer what it used to be before the war, when one alice the same capi- talist party ruled for decades, and when what is now considered a storm in a tea cup, a change of liberals by conservatives, or vice versa, was con- sidered an event of tremendous ‘mo- ment. The characteristic feature of the present phase consists of the fact that the bourgeoisie of the most re- spectable countries, such as England, are forded to rule by such extremes; today they stake upon pink, tomor- row upon yellow; today they admit to power mensheviks, almost work- ers, tomorrow the most inveterate tories. This, doubtless, is a symptom of degeneration, of the instability of the capitalist system. All these chang- es in policy do not of course, pass with impunity to the bourgeoisie, tho outwardly things appear rather smooth. See how “easily” MacDon- ald was superseded by Baldwin. At 4 p. m. MacDonald was invited to Buckingham Palace and he person- ally announced to the king that now that the elections are taking place he resigns. The king said: “Alright, your resignation is accepted.” (Laugh- ter) At 5 p. m. Baldwin was invited and asked whether he would not agree to form a new government. He kindly agreed. “Alright, I'll form a new government.” (Laughter). The change of government passed painlessly for the bourg: oisie, but among the people all these perturba- tions pass very far from painlessly or tracelessly. The workers took it au very seriously, and have develop ed a real appetite for power. We see how the English workers behaved during the election campaign. True, they have not yet got used-to Russian methods (applause), but I hope they will get used to them (applause). However, they behaved, to tell the truth, not quite like gentlemen as is the custom in England; at some meetings the workers were putting their fists before the lords, express- ing quite an unambiguous desire to make some corrections in their physi- ognomies. (Applause, laughter). This is something new in British history, and it shows that not only in the election cimpaigns are the broad working masses Wecoming imbued with strong passions, and that among them events do not pass off so smoothly as in Buckingham Palace. The richest bourgeo:sie in the world, that of Great Britain, finds it impossible to rule any longer by the old methods. Our business, the busi- ness of the leaders of the working class, is to watch these ep‘sodes, to watch how the bourgeoisie passed SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. Congress. from one extreme to another, and to take’ corresponding measures. The diplomats of the Second Inter- national have often ‘tried to stir up distrust for. the: Russian trade unions and for .owr.party. They ask why do the: Russian Communists and trade unions all ofa sudden evince a de- sire for the unity.of the world trade union movement. Comrades, I think that were there even no other rea- sons, the one that I have mentioned at least exists. The new phase of the blackest world reaction is a suffi- cient reason why every honest work- ing class militant should say that under this situation international unity of the trade union movement is as necessary as the air that we breathe. If from America and Eng- land, from these mighty imperialist countries, a new eruption of reaction- ary lava is bursting forth, if there the masks have been removed, if the mas- querade with the “labor government” has come to an end, and black clouds are directly moving upon us, is it not natural that the advanced elements of the working class respond to it, first of all by a hearty, flery desire to unite the entire world proletariat on a minimum program, in order to have a united international trade union movement and be prepared to put up the united front against the world bourgeois reaction? The riddle is easily solved. For us the tactic of the world labor movement is deter- mined first of all by the class strug- gle. We did not for a moment be- lieve in democratic-pacifism, that has become a favorite in some circles. In the midst of this “era” we said: “Comrades, see they are presenting you with a cake, only in order to re- place it with a whip. They show you pink today, but tomorrow they will show you the blackest reaction.” We know that this democratic pacifism is a brief episode, we know that the bourgeoisie would show its teeth, and this has now taken place/ And now, our militant cry to all ‘the honest workers, irrespective of views and tendencies, to all the devoted sons of our class, is: Let us unite, in order to fight this black reaction, to meet this pressure, to break the black line, to deal a blow into the heart of the enemy, and to make the great- est strides along the path which in our opinion would unite the workers of the world. (Applause). This is our answer to the question why we are so powerfully stressing the slo- gan of international labor unity, that has so unequivocally been formulated by the Comintern and by recent congress of the R. I. L. ua hope that it will meet with the same mighty response at your congress, as was evoked from the best workers of the entire world (applause). It appears to me that the biggest obstacle in the way of international unity is represented by the social democratic leaders of the German trade unions, the most inveterate trade union bureaucrats of Germany. In them lies the chief obstacle. Of course, there are plenty of secondary obstacles. M. Jouhaux is not one whit better than the German bureau- crats; still the main group that knows just what it is doing, that knows for what object it is splitting the international trade union r.ove- ment, that does not act blindly, but pursues deliberately the tactic of the bourgeoisie, are the lesders of the German trade unions. And we address the British workers in the first place, in order that they might know that if any one prevents international unity, that if anyone represents the chief obstacle, it is the German so0- cial democrats, the bureaucrats of the German labor movement, who are ready to do anything and everything (Continued on page 8)