The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 21, 1925, Page 8

Red International Message to L W. W. Speech of Harrison George to the 17th Gen ELLOW WORKERS: The Red In- ternational of Labor Union, com- prising some 12,000,000 organized re- volutionary workers, extends thru you to the membership of the Industrial Workers of the World, its fraternal greetings and good wishes for the best results of your deliberations. You are gathered here at a time which marks a turning point in the history of the world labor movement. This is reflected not alone in the in- ternal conditions of the I. W. W., but in the intense ferment going on in the world labor movement, arising from profound changes in capitalist society as a whole. No organization can set itself outside. the current of these changes. MPERIALISM, the final and deca- dent stage of capitalism, is striking its fangs deeply into the vitals of the proletarian movement in a partial and temporary stabilization of its power to rule, using the most brutal and cun- ning weapons of naked force and in- ternational chicane. Capitalist rule in Germany has been halted at the edge of revolution and “saved” for a time—at the expense of utter enslavement of the workers. In Poland, Esthonia, Hungary, Bulga- ria, Reymania, Jugo-Slavia, Italy, Jap- an and other countries, the revolution- ary workers’ movement is drowned in blood. Fascist counter-revolution is openly arming to crush with viol- ence the great strikes of British labor coming in the spring. India seethes under British rule. Great and savage wars are being waged by France against colonial peoples, while in China a gigantic upheaval for nation- al liberation, led by the workers, threatens the foundations of imperial- ist exploitation of the Far East. HE imperialism of the United States is perhaps the strongest and most cunning of all. Dominating world credit,.it has laid hands upon the wage and hour scale of every worker in Germany, dictating intern- al changes in the constitution—from the eight to the ten hour day; lectur- ing France, challenging England, holding a dozen nations in pawn, in- serting and asserting its leadership in the plunder of the Orient, while in Latin-Ametica Wall Street banks have their rule guaranteed by the Monroe doctrine, backed by the army and navy of this country. What have we to do with all this? Most of us have never seen these countries and they mean nothing to us—if we forget or disregard the fact that capitalism is international, and that capitalist imperialism connotes an equal subjugation of the proletar- iat of the imperialist country itself, as well as the oppression of the sub- ject nations and the so-called “back- ward” races, OME workers of America may not consider that the question of German reparations has anything at all to do with us. But we are due for rude awakening when German work- ers, enslaved by the Dawes plan and with cheap commodities paying in- creasingly large sums of repara- tions, throw millions of American producers out of work and open the way for such a wage cutting and union smashing drive.as this land has never seen. The same may be said of the foreign debts, about which Morgan,s Guaranty Trust Bank has said the following: ks “The payment of foreign debts must inevitably be made largely by the export of goods from the debtor countries. This injects into the domestic markets of the creditor country, foreign competi ition, That there must be hardship upon individual industries in this process of debt payment and read- justment is clear.” This process is already at work in America, for example in the textile industry, while in England it threat- ens the very life of the unions. In ad- dition, the tremendous export of capi- tal from America to stimulate produc- tion in other countries inevitably ends in sharper competition with goods produced here, and American bosses will surely use this to reduce the American workers’ hitherto favored conditions. OR is this all. For imperialism is the age of monopoly.and inten; sively developed technique of. produc- tion. The astounding combination of corporations} and trusts into super- trusts, and the increasing proportion of constant to variable capital, simul- taneously strengthen the power of the employing class and weaken the resistance of the working class with unprecedented and chronic unemploy- ment. How are the organizations which aspire to speak for and lead the work- ing class going to solve this histori- PL te eee ne TS 2 deeper and more permanent? Not alone, surely, by giving the growing armies of unemployed the excellent advice to organize on the job; not by schematic dreaming that by some mechanical means—without the inter- vention of the starving and oppressed workers—capitalism will “collapse” and the workers will inherit the earth, peacefully, bloodlessiy and struggle. ont We trust that,:the: convention: .will emphasize, as did the British unions with “their” imperialism, that the I, W. W. is the mortal foe of Ameri- can imperialism, that it recognizes that the working class, employed and unemployed, nationally and interna- tionally, must be united upon a pro- gram of implacable struggle to over- throw the rule of capitalism and set up the rule of the workers—and that the first step toward revolution is the unity of the workers’ unions. without VNEGMONDE BF bron HE I. W. W, still suffers from in- ternal disunity, particularly in the Lumber Workers No. 120 and Con- struction Workers No. 310, has the poison of those traitors who appealed to the enemy class for injunction, spread disintegration among the mem- bership. We trust that the convention will strive to win back by all fair and honorable means consistent with re- volutionary principles, those mem- bers of the rank and file who were lost for a time to the emergency split thru misunderstanding the issues in- volved and—strangely enough—while at the beginning the I. W. W. press of general circulation failed to explain the situation. « The fact that large sections of the membership did not see anything es- pecially wrong in Raddock, Rowan and company applying to the capital- ist courts, is proof of two things; first that it was necessary to come out against the E. P. in the papers which really reach the membership; and, secondly, it was a mistake ever to have closed the column’ of this press to so-called “controversy.” The sen- timent favoring Rowan grew up un- der a stupid censorship, supposedly against Communists, but which shut out necessary, even if controversial, discussion of revolutionary principles. If such disaster is to be avoided in the future, censorship must be wiped out, Particularly must the G. E. B. be made to understand that its legitimate “control” of the press does not mean a blanket right to exclude members from using the papers they support when such members’ opinions, are not those of the officials. The turnover in membership should be eR een ne en nei » cal crisis, which will become— -be- workers to aid the imprisoned victims tween short waves of relief, ever capitalist dictatorship, of whom the eral Convention of the I. W. W. (Nov. 17) considered, and if the papers had been open to theoretical controversy such things as the members seeing no harm in appealing to capitalist courts for control of labor unions would not have happened. HE Red International Affiliation Committee is proud to say that from the first day it led the attack against the injunctionites and split- ters, fighting for unity on the basis of revolutionary principles, aiding the organization to overcome the an- archist tendencies. .that influenced Tany members, some in position they used..to betray..uninformed members into the E. P, We point out that while the gen- eral organization was unable to send its best forces against the injunction- ites in the northwest, where the struggle was most vital, able adher- ents of the Red International were speaking night after night on the skidroads of northwestern cities, fight- ing the leadership of the E. P. and saving hundreds of otherwise unin- formed members for the L W. W. The R, I. A, C, has earned the enmity of the emergencies, and we are proud of it. HE. Red International Affiliation Committee has given unequivocal and whole-hearted support as well to the M. T. W. in their recent fight against the shipping trust, it has strived with some success to unite all I. W. W. furnishes so many; and we ask you to witness that these facts are incontrovertible. proof that those who say the R. I. L. U. desires to “liquidate” the I. W. W. are either mistaken or wilfully lying. Among. those who have done all they could to aid the I. W. W. in the crisis, are those who in the past were expelled from the organization by the finks na ts who have found their We gat ind es tdees of the split. “The cénvention sould restore membership to such expelled fellow workers, who have not wavered in their loyalty to the I. W. W., even when it unjustly excluded them. ee is one point of misunder- standing we take up here because it deals with the buncombe about “liquidation.” Anarchist elements who were in close touch with Berlin, have carefully spread the falsehood that if the I. W. W. affiliated to the R. L L, U., the members would all be driv- en into the A. F. of L. and the I. W. W. “liquidated.” Our adherents have made clef, and we reiterate, that the R. IL. L. U. recognizes that the I. W. W. has the position of the lead- ing union in several important indus- tries. We mean to encourage the unor- ganized in these industries to join the I. W. W., but where other industries are dominated by other unions, A, F. of L. or independent, and the I. W. W. has only a propaganda group, we think that a sense of realism and a desire to advance revolutionary indus- trial unionism, demands that such groups should, under the joint’ super- vision of the general organization and the Trade Union Educational League, work whole-heartedly in co-operation with the revolutionary left wing to revolutionize the existing unions in both ideology and structure. But it is not required that even one I. W. W. should give up his red card. We are glad to say, also, that the present conviction of, we think, the majority of the membership, that the solidarity of the I. W. W. internally does not depend on a_ universal finance system which enforces crip- pling limitation on industrial unions that face different . conditions, has been materially aided by agitation of adherents of the Red International. We hope the convention will act con- structively on this subject so as to aid not only the industrial wnions, but furnish more funds to the general or- ganization and retain and strengthen the necessary centralization. UT while the R. I. L. U. adher- ents have done all in their power to aid the I. W. W. in its struggles against employers, the persecution of capitalist government and the an- archist splitters, they have also—and properly—pointed out the weakness- es of the I, W. W. program, criticized sharply as was deserved, the anar- chist tendencies of influential mem- bers whose tendencies were the same tendencies as the leaders of the emer- gency split, and brot out for the pur- pose of. clarification, the differences between the policy of the R. I. L. U. and the prevailing views in the 1. W.-W. Yet the R. I, L. U. holds that these differences, while sharp and often ap- parently irreconcilable, are more up- on the tactics of the struggle than apon its fundamental line and aim. We agree absolutely that the work- ers must ultimately base their unions on the industrial form to fight effec- tively—the R. I. L. U. pointing out, however, that there is nothing magi- cal in this form which might serve as a substitute for a militant policy of struggle. Some industrial unions may have very .conservative policies and thus fail to defend the workers, while some craft unions, despite their seri- ous lack of structural perfection, may be militant and defend their mem- bers’ interests the best their limita- tions allow. Content, as well as form, is important, E agree upon industrial unionism, then. We agree that capitalism must be overthrown. We agree upon the use of revolutionary direct action by the workers. Many, if not most I. W. W. agree with the R. I. L. U. that, during and immediately follow- ing the seizure of power by the work- ers, the capitalists will not acknowl- edge defeat and will use every means, including the enlistment on their side in armed counter-revolution, of the ignorant and backward throngs we see about us on every hand. Most fellow workers will agree that during this period, before ‘the-bour- geoisie is completely broken, absorb- ed into the working class and their ignorant followers are thoroly en- lightened— whether this transition period be long or short, of years or decades—that the workers must rule with an iron hand as a dictatorship of the proletariat. But at this point our difference in views appears—owing to the steady permeation of the I. W. W. in previ- ous years by the anarcho-syndicalist illusions; first, that the dictatorship is unnecessary and “morally” wrong; secondly, that if it is necessary, the unions alone can begin and cafry it out to completion. N the view of the R. L. L. U., the facts of life and the unanswerable lessons of the Paris Commune and the Russian revolution prove that the proletarian dictatorship is necessary. And if it is necessary, then we can dismiss the bourgeois quibbles as to whether it ‘be right or wrong. The second question involves not only the capacity of the unions to accomplish by themselves the whole revolution from the start to finish, but poses, as well, the question of why there are political organizations of the working class (or,-for that mat- ter, of any class) with the same re- volutionary aims. It poses the ques- tion, also, of the relationship between the political organizations and ‘the economic organizations of the work- O start with, we say emphatically that the I. W. W. has by degrees and with some historical influences, veered away from the plain line of Marxism at the point where, the eco- nomics of the forces of production— the machines, materials and so on— blend naturally and inescapably with (Continued on page 7) ’