The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 24, 1927, Page 10

~The Minority Movement in Great Britain =m XE all previous conferences of fa-the Minority Msvement, the 4 Fourth Annual Conference ex- ceeded all expectations in the number of delegates present. That there should be 711 dele- gates representing 800,000 work- ers sent officially by trade union eanches, district committees of the unions, local trades councils, cooperative guilds, ete., in face of the determination of the trade union bureaucrats to stop delegates being sent at all, proves how deeply the revolutionary principles of the Minority Movement have penetrated the masses. It is true that the representation was less than the last annual ecnference held last August during the miners’ lock- out and after the great betrayal of the General Strike, when over {0 delegates representing 957,- 000 workers were present. There are factors, how- ever, which offset in importance the decreased dele- gation. In view of the determined opposition of nearly every national trade union official, this conference represents the minimum of a solid and reliable left bloe within the British trade union movement. It is also safe to say that the bloc is much stronger and larger when we consider the crises within the mining, metal and steel industries and the poverty within the local trade union branches, which have made it financially impossible for delegates -to be sent from the provinces to London. A quotation from the Executive Committee’s re- port shows the development in membership and influence: “The stronger we grow the more severe the at- tack made upon us. Many trade union executives forbid their branches to send delegates to our con- ferences. Others, like the National Union of Gen- eral and Municipal Workers have definitely sus- pended both branches and officials for having dared to attend Minority Movement conferences. The N. U. G. M. W. being led by democrats like Mr. Thomas and Mr. Clynes, has actually issued a document which all candidates -for official positions must sign, certifying amongst other things, that they are not members of the M. M. and do not believe in its policy. “Yet reviewing the position as a whole, we can record in spite of the above facts, an increased mem- bership and vastly increased influence compared with what we had last year.” The Executive Committee’s report reviewing the general attack upon the Trade Union and Labor movement can ‘be divided into ‘two parts. The first shows that the Trade Union and Trade Dispute Act, the Poor Law Reform Bill, the Blanesburgh Report, to which could be added the proposals to “reform” the House of Lords, make impossible any serious “constitutional” ehange or attack upon British capi- talism'as the abor Party so ignominiously proposes. The second part: correctly points out’ ithat the war ion China and the preparations for war upon, and the attempted encirclement of the U. S.'S. R., are both parts of the same struggle of the British em- ployers and their tory government against the work- ers of the British Isles and the colonies. The first series of acts are intended to: (a) make the trade unions impotent in struggle; (b) reduce wages and lengthen hours by giving the tory government power to remove constitutionally elected workers’ representatives to prevent them from giv- ing adequate relief to the poor to an extent which would result in decreased competition for jobs; and (c) reduce unemployment insurance benefits of single men and make heavy reduction for women and the youth, in order to further intensify the existing poverty and competition, to lower prevailing trade union rates, and to force the youth into the army or to emigrate to the colonies. The conference endorsed the view that the British imperialists would attempt to crush every strike or rising of colonial workers as they are now doing in China, and as they desire to do in the U. S. S. R. because of the proletarian control in the Soviet Union which is an inspiration to the working class of the whole world. To meet the certain attack made inevitable by the further decline of British capitalism, the conference adopted a fighting resolution as a lead to the Edin- burgh Trade Union Congress which had a thesis attached explaining this decline. The thesis, among other phases, shows a decline in the total produc- tive industries “from 1913 level (100) to only 65.5 per cent in 1926 with a corresponding decline in the volume of trade. In the normal year of 1925 the total production was only 80 per cent of the total of 1913°" It shows that the United States is gradually invading the foreign and colonial markets of Britain. In view of the céntinued preparations of the em- ployers and the Baldwin government, the conference demanded that the Edinburgh Trade Union Congress to be held next week take definite action: (1) to organize the workers 100 per cent; (2) to form shop committees in accordance with the resolution passed at Scarborough; (3) to reorganize the Trades Councils into all-inclusive Local Trades and Labor By GEORGE HARDY (Natienal Organizing Secretary of Minority Move- ment in Great Britain) bodies to act as covrdinating centres; (4) affiliation of Unemployed Workers’ movement to the T. U. C. and.the Trades Councils to have representation on the General Council; (5) reorganization of trade unions upon a basis of one union for each industry; (6) all power to the General Council of the T. U. C. which must be elected and nominated by the dele- gates present at each Trade Union Congress; (7) to fight for one trade union international centre by the General Council initiating propaganda through the Anglo-Russian Joint Advisory Committee for an international conference, and (8) the creation of Workers’ Defense Corps. There are also a series of demands regarding the youth, women and coopera- tive movements. The resolution on the Trade Union and Trade Dis- putes Act contains a strong demand for the non- operation of the act and for the use of the general strike against the government in defense of the first union attacked for refusing to change its con- stitution to conform to this anti-working class law. The General Council is condemned for its lack of policy which leads to confusion, as already the Pos- tal Workers’ Union is withdrawing from the Labor Party and the T. U. C., and while the National Union of Railwaymen has decided to change its rule to conform to the law, the Transport Union has de- cided not to operate the act. The resolution which was passed unanimously declares “this policy to be suicidal” and calls upon the union “to ignore the act by collecting the political levy as before.” Comrade Tom Mann, the chairman of the con- ference, had delivered to each delegate a lengthy report on his visit to China, which explained the significance of the Chinese struggle arising from the horrible conditions imposed by foreign imperial- ism, of which the British were “the worst exploit- ers.” It tells of the huge suecesses of the interna- tional delegation of which he was a member. Re- garding the Chinese trade union movement, he says: “Evidence of the growth of the workers’ trade unions is seen by the following entirely reliable fig- ures. In May, 1925, the total affiliated to the All- China Labor Federation was 1,200,000; in May of this year it was 3,000,000, The peasants’ unions had made even greater progress having grown from three million to ten million.” He further states: “I have listened to fully 500 speeches apart from in- terviews and on the strength of this experience, I am warranted in saying that the Chinese trade union movement is 95 per cent for a national revo- lution and fully 75 per cent elear-minded as to the Chinese national revolution being a part of the world revolution.” ‘ The resolution “calls upon the General Council and the British labor movement to force the Baldwin government to withdraw their forees from China, and pledges the minority movement to work un- ceasingly for the support of the Chinese workers and peasants in their struggle against militarism and imperialism.” = There were two resolutions on the international trade union movement; one dealing with the I. F. T. U. Paris conference and the other with the Anglo- Russian committee. The first condemns the General Counci!’> inference resolution as a “viglation of the agreement with the Russian unions” and also condemns them for not taking a determined and decisive stand to cali for an unconditional interna- tional unity conference between the I. F. T. U. and the R. I. L. U., but now asserts that “international unity will never be achieved through the leadership of the Amsterdam International,” and therefore de- mands that “the Edinburgh T. U. C. arrange for an international conference between the British and Russian unions, so that these two sections . shall themselves take the initiative in convening a world conference to create one united Trade Union International,” It can clearly be stated that the delegates were absolutely hostile to the attitude of the British dele- gation at Paris, especially in view of the anti-work- ing class utterances of George Hicks, in stating “that socialism was the antidote of Bolshevism and fascism,” and intimating that the whole British delegation were opposed to Russian methods, inter- ference, etc. The delegates were also well aware of the fact that the “left” display of the British did not mean any serious change of policy, but that they were primarily voicing the view of the British Labor Party in its endeavors, after the successes of the ©. I. and the R. I. L. U. in the colonial and semi-colonial countries, to get closer to the colonial workers with a view to making it easier to control them by the next Jabor government in Britain, and as a means of protesting against their continued and extended isolation within the I. F. T. U. In fact the whole British delegation gave the impres- sion that they were half-hearted and insincere in their attempts to display “leftism,” The Anglo-Russian resolution says: “Had there been any real intention to fight for unity on the part of the General Council, a world conference could have been held. ..”; and that “... the in- effectiveness of the Anglo-Russian Joint Advisory Council caused by the attitude of the General Coun- cil, encouraged the conservative government to in- crease its attacks upon the British and the Russian workers, This could have been prevented had the General Council been a real fighting instrument, mobilizing the workers of both countries against the present government.” It also asks the delegates to the Edinburgh T. U. C. to condemn the General Council’s sabotage of International Unity, and “its attitude towards the Advisory Council” while, at the same time calling for the maintenance of the Anglo- Russian Committee and the carrying out of the London agreement of April, 1925. A resolution was passed calling for the formation of a seamen’s section of the Transport Union as the only effective means of organizing British, sea- men, and for the expulsion of Havelock Wilson’s company union from the T. U. C. because of his treachery during the general strike and support for blackleg non-political miners’ unions. Another reso- lution dealt with the abandonment of political nen- trality of the International Cooperative Alliance. | Each conference that has been held,, Whether en- nual or special, has proven in the past to have con- ezived the correct estimate of the economic and political situation and we can safely say that the lead at this Fourth Annual Conference is one which will affect the whole labor movement and lead io a strengthening of the minority movement which js a preliminary to strengthening the unions, and io obtaining the leadership of the British trade union movement. The unanimity with which the resolv- tions were passed confirms the leftward tendency and the clearness of vision existing among the rank: and file who are already accepting the leadersh of the minority movement. By Wm. Gropper The Four Jacks: Walker, Mussolini and the Pope. i as & Sen ¥ SDR & pp NSE ME ae TON