The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 16, 1926, Page 11

Lenin and the Trade Unions Great Revolutionary Chief was Best of All Trade Union Leaders, Says American Communist. By WILLIAM F. DUNNE. o_o unionists are considered by themselves, by certain sections of the capitalist class with whom they come into conflict on wage questions and by the so-called intelligentsia, to be eminently practical people. They are supposed to have little knowledge of and less use fors.theory, to be wholly absorbed in.the Concrete. qués- tions arising from their daily ‘strug- gles. : To some: extent -this conception is true and just to the extent to. which it is true are the trade unions weak. LADIMIR ILYITCH’ LENIN was’ also an eminently practical. per- son as the world’s capitalists, whose armies and economic blockades failed to crush the young Russian revolution guided by Lenin and the Russian Communist Party, are able to testify tearfully. The Russian trade unions became the foundation of the Soviet power mainly because the Bolsheviks, fol- lowing the policy of Lenin in the trade unions, were able to correctly estimate the role of the trade unions and by correct tactics transform the daily struggles of the unions into a conscious struggle against Russian ezarism and capitalism. Lenin’s trade union practice was the result of the application of a cor- rect theory. Lenin himself said: “Without a correct theory, correc’ practice is impossible.” ~~ RECISELY because of the neces sity which forces trade unions to expend their energy in solving prac- tical problems, just because of their “role as the protectors of the living ‘standards of the workers and because this brings them into combat with the employers in dozens of different ways, ranging from the veiled struggle of negotiations to the most bitter and bilcody Strikés> tradé unionists should study the writings of Lenin. They will find trade union questions given the most extensive treatment by the greatest leader the working’ class has ever had, they will find that Lenin noted, considered and solved every question of strategy and tactics which confronts the trade unions today. -| Dureaucracy—the agents of imperial- tS ea was the world’s greatest trade unionist, altho he never be- Ionged to one, because it was Lenin who first understood clearly the tre- mendous potential power of the trade unions—the mass organizations of the workers—and set for himself the task of bringing that power into play, ex- tending it and consolidating it in the struggle against the capitalists* and the capitalist state. Lenin rejected the theory that the trade unions were mere “bread; and butter” organizations altho he never underestimated their importance even in this respect. Instead he showed that in the period of imperialism, the final stage of capitalism, the apparent- ly insignificant demands of the unions for slight wage increases and better living conditions, when thege develop a mass character, bring the unions into conflict with the capitalist state because, as the instrument for the suppression of the working class, the state must and does, in the interest of the capitalist class, fight against the mass demands of the workers. fora Lenin every struggle of the workers for organization, for bet- ter working conditions, for wages, had deep significance. The story is told of Lenin that in 1903 the strike of some Petrograd workers, for whom he had written a simple program of immediate demands, to obtain an in- crease in the tea ration, indicated an awakening and a will to struggle which later developed into the great revolution of 1905. “The “practical” bureaucrats and the middle class advisers of the trade unions who attempt to keep the minds of the trade unionists fixed only on the ‘dafly struggles as ends in them- selves, appear “practi¢al” only be- cause .this: doctrine fits in with the needs and desires of the. capitalists. ~ Such practicality is the practicality of bootlickers who kiss the dust from the footwear of the bosses because they can thus show their loyalty while doing some practical menial la- bor at the same time. Such practicality degrades both the bootlickers and the trade unions, S Pigsivnabe practicality. was a revolu- tionary practicality. He asked but one question when considering trade union struggles: “How can the struggle. be conduct- ed so as to:hest serve the immedi- ate needs of the workers and in- crease the power of the working class as against that-of their Op- pressors?” f In finding an answer.to this ques- tion Lenin rendered to ‘the trade unionists of ‘the world and to the whole Working class’ one of his .great- est services. ‘It is’ characteristic of Lenin’s method; the’ Marxian dialect- ic method which considers all prob- lems of the class struggle as part of the whole, that the treacherous role of the trade union bureaucracy. in the present period, was made clear in Lenin's analysis of imperialism as was the the revolutionary role of the colonial and semi-colonial labor and veasant movements as allies of the working class in the daily and revolu- tionary struggle. t hppa bureaucrats, said Lenin, are part of the apparatus of imperial- sm together with certain privileged ‘ipper strata of the trade unions. The “eninist strategy and tactics in the ade unions are based on the now ompletely proven fact that thes: roups, because they are bribed and ‘ebauched by a portion of the super- rofit sweated from the conquered olonial peoples, hamper, betray and livide the labor movement. In the Inited States that section of the vorkers and the bureaucracy which ofits from banking and insurance chemes, which accepts and encour- ges the installation of the B. & O. lan and-other--forms---of-—-company ‘nionism, are participating in the ‘uper-profits of imperialism and be- raying the class interests of the trade ‘nions and the whole working class. T ENINISM in practice in the Amer- AMuican trade unions becomes an uncompromising struggle against the ‘sm in the unions. This struggle is necessary not only because of the counter-revolutionary character of the bureaucracy but because it sabotages even the struggle for increased wages, shorter hours and. a higher living standard for the. great mass of organ- ized workers. : It wars on the most conscious and militant section of: the organized workers with the aid of the bosses, the state and the police. It tries to lead the whole trade union movement into the capitalist camp. President Green of the A. F. of L., speaking before the chamber of com- merce in Newark, Ohio, a few days ago, said that “there is no room for class hatred or the class struggle in America. The American labor move- ment has accepted the existing order.” An this policy of surrender Leninism mobilizes the masses of the trade unionists. Precisely be- cause of the reactionary character of the trade union officialdom, their role of imperialist agents and because of the function of the trade unions as centers of resistance of the workers under capitalism, mass organs of struggle during the revolutionary period and as, organizers of produc- tion-and the basis of the working class government after the revolution, in alliance with the exploited farmers and farm workers, Lenin insisted and proved that it simply plays into the hands of the capitalists and the offi- cialdom for the masses to leave the trade unions. The trade unions must be won for | the class struggle, said Lenin, in spite of the efforts of the bureaucrats to split and disrupt them and this ean be done only by staying in the uniéns and exposing, in: the course of the struggle, the true character of the bureaterats ds saboteurs of the class struggle. : 6 tg Lenin the trade unions were not something to be separated from he Communist Party and the rest of he working class, view now accepted by millions of He set forth the onscious. and militant workers as follows: “The engine is the party, its cogs ~grip-the-cogs of the trade union wheel and set them into motion, the trade unions set in motion the greater masses.” “That the unions are made up of workers is not enough. They re- present an organization of their class only if they pursue a class line, a class policy.” Following whe teachings of ‘Lenin, incorporated into the policy and pro- gram of the Communist International which Lenin organized, and led until his death, the Workers. (Gommunist) Party of America;-in its -work .inithe trade unions, strives°always to imbue the unions with knowledge of the theory and tactics of the class strug- gle as formulated by the world’s great- est exponent and champion of the class interests of the workers—Vladi- mir llyitch Lenin. TERROR By J. S. WALLACE. HE radiant mind, The flaming heart, The iron arm, The furious fist. ‘ The leaping plan, The launching word, ‘The urgent eye, The stopless step. The underfed, The overworked, The sought and shot, The Bolshevik. Bubbles, bloated to bursting, Toadstools, towering to noon, Lords of our little era, He will confront you soon— Samson, shaking your cities, Vulcan, burning their base, What will you do when he leaves .. And meets you, face to face? Leading a host behind him, All of the world’s unfed, All who have worked beyond their need To dine beyond the dead. All of the mutilated, All of the spirit-starved, The scars of all. your centuries Upon their faces carved. How will you fight or flee him, How will you stay his wrath, Who holds your power, in all its height, A pebble in his path? ed