The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 15, 1930, Page 4

RATES: si ing Boroughs ot six mons. 34.60 SUBSCRIPTION Sy mati everywhere: Une year $6; six months $3; two nionths $1; ex Mathattan and Bronx, New York City, and foreign. which are: One yr prodaity Publish N y Telev the [vil orker 1 checks to The Party | and economic organs using the native lan guage, for general education and for voca- | the necessity of the cultural advancement of | slander, and dissociated himself from such non- Til. e Party | gage, saahat athe native orence We tional instruction.” the non-Great-Russian peoples of the Soviet | sense. Is it possible that our worthy oppor- = tay : Maer oleae ahs i ; ‘ Inion, of the necessity of general compulsory | tunists are going to follow in the f eee iy ‘obbing them of the possiblity of | with the mentality and habits of life of the Is it not clear that Lenin fully and defi- | Union, o 8 low in the footsteps ndiy, Lenin never said that the abolition | would mean robbing them of the possiblity 0 ’ education for these peoples, and means aban- | of the “federation”? ement 2 of the nationalities was equival- clition of national differences. We | hunting for a pseudo-internationalism, have sud cutee! ean gene i ah tions given by the dictatorship of the prole- of the argumenis of our opportunists?. Noth- sbessigs ve I 9 ae yoantl ry. Gri 01 . to organize and develop ing but a juggling with the 31 ij / ay with n.tional oppression, We | fallen into the hands of the reactionary Great mother tongue Pde ‘ * s ing but a juggling with the banner of inter- e way with n.tional opp a epinsirehenkive network of courses of in not clear that the rejection of the | national culture under the rule of the bour- | 7 oticnalism and a calumniation of Lenin, ' the national privileges and es- lity of national rights. We have , frontiers in the old houses and customs offices 1e peoples of the Soviet Union. shed the unity of the economic sts of the peoples of the nd customs, ete.? It is ean this. But if the national maintained—language, culture, then not clear that territories in the present histor- onary, and opposed to the orship of the proletariat? yortunists not grasp that to abolish republies and territories at this ense | and the unification of | icipation in the work of building up So- Russian chauvinists, and have completely for- gotten the slogan of the cultural revolution in the period of the dictatorship of the prole- tariat, which applies equally to the whole of the peoples of the Soviet Union, both for the Great Russians and the non-Great-Russians. Thirdly. Lenin never said that the slogan of the development of national culture under the conditions of the dictatorship of the prole- tariat was a reactionary slogan. On the con- trary, Lenin invariably advocated that peoples of the Soviet Union should be aided to develop their national culture. It was under the leadership of Lenin, and of no one else, that at the X lution on the national question was drawn up and passed, in which we read: “It is the task of the Party to help the working masses of the non-Great-Russian peoples to overtake advance! central Rus- sm? Is it not clear that our opporcunists, | the | Party Congress the reso- | | native population; (c) to develop their press and schools, theatres ,clubs, educational struction and schools, in their native lan- Rinunist Porty U.S.A —— - © approved the slogan of the necessity of developing national culture under the condi- xan of national culture under the prole- tarian dictatorship involves the rejection of doning them to mental enslayement under re- actionary nationalists? geoisie as a reactionary slogan. Could this be otherwise? What is national culture under the rule of the national bourgeoi This culture, bourgeois in content and national | | | | | Lenin actually did designate the slogan of | | | | The Political Report of the Central Committee to the XVI. Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union — Comrade J. Stalin’s Address on June 27, 1936 in form, has for its object the poisoning of | the masses by means of nationalism, and the firmer establishment of the rule of the bour- geoisie. What is national culture under the dictatorship of the proletariat? This culture, socialist in content and national in form, has for its object the education of the masses in the spirit of internationalism, and to establish more firmly the dictatorship of the proletariat. How can these two fundamentally differing trends be combined without violating Marx- | ism? Is it not clear that Lenin, when com- bating the slogan of national culture under the bourgeois regime, aimed his blows at the bourgeois content and not at the national form? It would be foolish to suppose that ce ee protested vigorously in his wo S against thie After all this has been said, what. is left Those who deviate in the direction of Great Russian chauvinism are greatly mistaken when they believe that the period of the bnild- ing of Socialism in the Soviet. Union is a period of the decay and liquidation of national | cultures. The reality is exactly the contrary. In actual fact the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the building-up-of So- cialism in the Soviet Union is: a period in which national, culture—socialist in content, and national in form—flourishes. The fol- lowers of this deviation obviously do. not. grasp that a national culture is ‘bound to .develop with fresh power with the introduction and establishment of general compulsory education in the mother language. They do not grasp that the backward nationalities ean be made to take part in the building up of the socialist structure only by means of the development. neture would mean depriving the masses of | sia; to help Chem’ (8) 1 See ae ene Lenin regarded socialist culture without any | of their national culture. They do, not grasp the peoples in the Soviet Union of the possibil- solidate the So nidgarecne pee national factor, without this or that national | that here precisely the basis of Leninist pol- y ation in their mother tongue, of joan Lara i ae Suiits to she ie form. The members of the “Federation” did | icy lies in the aid and support given to the sii own schools, courts of justice, ad- tional habits and customs of these peoples; attribute ‘this nonsense to Lenin for a time. | peoples of the Soviet Union in the develop- n, and other public organizations titutions, in their own language; that it (b) to develop and consolidate the powers of the courts of justice, the administrative Ten Years of Red International ot Labor Unions By A. LOSOVSKY. 1 the middle of the year 1920, in the ryention and blockade, the foun- Red International of Labor even among the Communists fire of the Unions were laid, dations some argued, there is still a trade union inter- national which unites 28 million workers; it not be better not to create our own world anization of trade unions, in order not to lay ourselves open to the accusation of splitting the worker But the Comintern our Par dismissed these objections, were based on the fear that “some- bad might happen,” and determinedly pursued the course, through the medium of the Central Council of the Trade Unions of the Soviet Union, of founding and forming an international revolutionary trade union center. The negotiations for the founding of this body commenced upon the initiative of the Comintern already in June, 1920. The first negotiations were participated in by the “left” representatives of the English Trades Union Congress, Robert Williams and A. Purcel, who immediately after their departure from the Soviet Union forgot the pledges and promises given by them, After long discussions with the representatives of the Italian Confedera- tion of Labor, D’Aragona, Colombina and oth- ers, and with representatives gf the Spanish Confederation of Labor, the anarchist, Pes- tanha, an agreement was arrived at on the founding of a provisional International Coun- cil of Trade Unions. The main question in dispute in this period was the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the mutual relations of the Comintern and the R. I, L. U. We should not have succeeded at that time in founding the provisional International Council if the Com- intern had not intervened and brought pres- sure to bear on the Italian socialist party and if, on the other hand, Lenin had not inter- ested himself in this question and advised that we must in the first place found the Center, and the exact formulation of the platform of the new international ¢ould be undertaken later. ‘At the time of the founding of the R. I. L. U. the yellow Amsterdam International had more than million members. . Now, at their Stockholm Congress, at which the social fas- cist bureaucrats come forward as open repre- sentatives of their movements, they number only 13 million. In these ten years the R. I. L. U. has de- veloped from an_ international Propaganda Committee embracing only a few European countries, into a world organization uniting the revolutionary trade unions and the revolu- tionary minorities of 55 countries. The way of the R. I. L. U. is the way of unrelenting fight in every factory, in every work place, not only against capital but also against its agents among the working class. In these years the R. I. L, U. has grown far beyond the frontiers of Europe and, step by step, won the trade unions of new countries where the labor movement has arisen only in the last few years. At the present time the R. I. L. U. has organized trade unions, minor‘ or groups in all important coun- tries of Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Australia, while four-fifths of the organizations affiliated to the Amsterdam International are European organizations. The work of the sections of the R. I. L. U. and of the R, I. L. U, itself has consisted in the carrying out of Communist policy in the trade union movement, in winning the masses for the Communist Party and the Comintern, in spreading the influence of Communist ideas to ever fresh sections of the workers. While in the first period the chief danger was the remnants of anarcho-syndicalism, in the next period—to the extent to which the reformist trade unions became auxiliary or- gans of the bourgeois state and of the em- ployers’ organizations—the Right danger be- came the chief danger, for it sought to con- vert the united front with the masses into a united front with the leaders; the united front for the fight against the capitalists into a pact of non-aggression between reformists; the united front of the class struggle ,into the united front of reconciliation with reformism. The Right danger became particularly con- spicuous after the Ninth Plenum of the E. C. C. 1. and the Fourth R. LL. U. Congress (March, 1928). At that time the Comintern mobilized all its organizations for the fight against this danger—the advance of the Rights would thing ! voices of doubt were to be heard. It | and the Conciliators in the Comintern and in the R. I. L. U. was repelled. The Rights in the R. I. L. U. reckoned very much on the former right-opportunist leader- ship of the Central Council of the trade unions of the Soviet Union, some leaders of which, at the Fourth Congress of the R. I. L. Uy formed a united front with the Rights in the C. P. of Germany® But the trade union move- ment of the Soviet Union did not prove a fa- yorable environment for the growth of right- opportunist tendencies. The right-opportunist leadership was removed from the Soviet trade unions, which meant at the same time a severe blow to all right groupings in the Comintern and in the R. 1. L. U. The decision of the Ninth E. C. C. I, Plenum and of the Fourth R I, L. U. Congress has now no longer any open opponent in the R, I. L. U. There are Right tendencies; there is also sabotage of the line of the R. I. L. U. and of the Comintern (this was to be seen in the factory council elections in Germany); but these opportunistic tendencies are sub- jected to a sharp fire from all sections of the Comintern and of the R. I. L. U. Does this, perchance, mean that the Right deviation is already defeated, that it has already disap- peared? No, it still exists, and in many coun- tries even in an organized form (France). It is a great danger, for the essence of the Right deviation is reconciliation with the social dem- ocracy under the plea that the social demo- eratic party is also a workers’ party and that the social democrats are “misguided brothers.” In the course of the fight waged by the Comintern and the R. I. L. U. for the line of “Class against Class,” for the independent leadership of economic struggles, in the fight against the least attempt to find a middle path between Communism and reformism, “Left” sectarian tendencies made their appearance in the R. I. L. U., involving the danger of estrangement from the masses. The essence of this “Left” tendency consists in lumping together the social fascist leaders and the workers who follow them; in not knowing how to work—often not wishing to work—in the reformist trade unions for the realization of the united front from below; it consists in employing methods of command and of setting up “Left” slogans (permanent general strike, armed strike and such like) which merely re- main on paper. Before the R. I. L. U. ‘there now stands the question of the fight on two fronts, the ques- tion of the fight for the correct Communist policy in the trade union movement, against Right opportunism as the chief danger, and against “Left” sectarianism. The R. I. L, U. would not have arisen, nor would it have been able to acquire any con- siderable influence over the masses if it had not received constant ideological, political and organizational aid from the Communist: In- ternational. This leading role of the Comin- tern has found expression during the whole of the ten years existence of the R. I. L. U., not only on the occasion of working out the main line of the international revolutionary trade union movement, but also in the practical carrying out of this line. The R. I. L. U. em- phasizes the leading role of the Comintern not only in its decisions, but this leading role is realized in actual practice in the fights against the enemies of the working class, The R. I. L. U. unites a great number of va- rious organizations; to it there belong trade union federations as well as minorities, illegal and semi-legal trade unions, But the. variety of the forms is no hindrance to the unity of the political line, to the unity of the tactics which are determined in the international rey- olutionary trade union movement by the role. of the Comintern as leader. From the historical standpoint ten years is but a short time. But for the organization this time is quite sufficient in order to show in actual fact what it really represents. The R. I. L. U. has shown in practice that it is a world organization, in spite of the many weaknesses and shortcomings which have ex- isted in its work and which will form the sub- ject of discussion at the Fifth R. I. L. U. Congress, The most important of these faults are: the lagging behind the mass movement, and the disproportion between political influence and the organizational consolidation of this influ ence. But in spite of these faults, in spite of the many failings, inspite of the fact that in a number of countries the followers of the R. I. L. U. have not yet learned how economic struggles must be conducted, have not yet All War Funds For Jobless Insurance! BY BURCK. ~The Economic Crisis By EARL BROWDER (From a Speech Delivered at the Seventh Con- vention of the C.P.U.S.A.) Now on the question of the crisis, Conirade Smith (fraternal delegate from the C. P. of Canada) is alarmed by the fact that the re- porter for the Central Committee maintained the possibility of the liquidation of the eco- nomic crisis and at the same time he does not understand why our thesis begins with the eco- nomic crisis and not with the third period. Of course the third period is in our thesis. Per- haps we do not mention the third period in every paragraph, This I think is one of the signs of development of the Party, that we can deal with the third period in concrete terms, as we do in our thesis, and do not de- pend upon the use of phrases. I think we have succeeded in this and one of the achievements of the pre-convention discussion is that this convention dealt with certain concrete aspects of the third period with special attention to the sharpening expression of the third period, the economic crisis. Is it not correct for us to take the economic crisis as the starting point? Yes, it is cor- rect, because it is precisely the economic ¢ and the specific feature of it in the United States today, as well as in the capitalist world generally, which determine, and in specific rec- ognition of which we must work out, a pro- gram of action; and discuss and apply this program of action in the thesis of the con- vention. Then the next question brought out by Com- rade Smith: Is it correct for us to refer to the economic crisis as a cyclical crisis? Cer- tainly, here we must also say that the Party thesis is correct, and Comrade Smith wrong. We say it is a typical cyclical crisis occur- ring in the period of the general decline of capitalism. It is not true that when capital- ism begins: to decline the classical cyclical drawn their conclusions from the collective decisions adopted by the R I. L. U. Congresses —in spite of all this the R. I. L. U. has ac- complished a great work in uniting, rallying and ideologically welding together the forces of the international revolutionary trade union movement. Lenin on the R. I. L. U. Lenin foresaw this role when in 1921, in his message of greeting to the first Congress of the R. I. L. U. he wrote: “It is hard to find words to express the full politicacl importance of the international congress of trade unions, The winning of the members of the trade unions for the idea of Communism is proceeding steadily forward in all countries, in-all the world; not evenly, not regularly, but unevenly, overcom- ing a thousand’ hindrances, but nevertheless marching _ steadily forward. The inter- national congress of trade unions accceler- cates this movement. Communism is gaining the victory in the trade unions. No power crisis is wiped out and launchehd into a general decline of capitalism, This question was raised in the Third Congress of the Communist. In- ternational where some comraeds came forward with the idea that in the period of the decline of capitalism there could be no ups and downs, and the THird Congress very definitely rejected, and @liminated from the political life of the Communist International, the idea denying the recurrence of the capitalist cycle in the period of the decline, The cycle is a fundamental law of motion of capitalism. As long as capi- talism as a system is operating, the capitalist cycle will also operate. For ihe benefit of those comrades who, want to have their conviction on this point supported by word from the C. L, I want to quote from the concluding speech of Comrade Manuilsky in the enlarged presidium meeting published in No. of the Inprecorr. Regarding the cyclical crisis, Comrade Manuilsky summed up as follows: “One of those who spoke here declared that questions such as that of the character of the present crisis and of its nature are academic, and that tactical conclusions may be drawn independently of whether this is is or whether it represents an pression of the general crisis of capital- Such a way of putting the problem is absolutely wrong, for the question of revis- ing Marx’ teaching on the subject of crises is for every Communist a far from academic question. It is a question to which every Communist must give the reply. Secondly, to say only that the present crisis is purely the expression of the general world crisis means to say either too much or too little. It is too much because, after all, it is not absolutely beyond the bounds of possibility that after the present world crisis, which is deepening the general world crisis of cari- talisn, the capitalist world will live through a new wave of capitalist rationalization, that is to say, a new period of restoration of in the world will be able to stay the. col- lapse of capitalism and the victory of the working class over the bourgeoisie.” The ten years existence of the R. I. L. U. confirms the correctness of this prediction made by Lenin, The development of the revo- lutionary trade union movement is proceed- ing not regularly nor evenly; it is overcom- ing thousands of difficulties; but it is march- ing steadily forward, that is the chief thing. Therefore, the proletariat of the Soviet Union, engaged in the task of building up Socialism in the land of the proletarian dictatorship, in sending its greetings to all revolutionary workers fighting in the ranks of the R. I. L. U,, expre the firm ceonviction that, in the approaching hard political and economic strug- gles in the capitalist and coclonial countries, the R. I. L. U. and its sections will know how to lead the masses under the flag of the Co- mintern in the fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat and for the victory of Com- munism in the whole world, It is, however, a well known fact that Lenin ment of their national cultures. Unions Are Of, By and For the Workers in the USS. R. - This is the fifth in a series of short arti- cles which attempt to tell the workers of America something about the conditions of workers in the Soviet Union. Matthew Woll and his monarchist friends talk of Russian labor which is “forced” and “indentured.” It is not “free,” he says. To answer such astounding lies the Daily Worker asited the Labor Research Association to prepare sev- eral articles dealing with various phases of Soviet life. The millions of workers all over the world who unite with the 12,000,000 Soviet Union workers in the Red International of Labor Unions already well know that Woll is lying. But, on the tenth anniversary of that R.I.L. U., and on the date of its Fifth World Con- gress, it is fitting to give the figures and facts about conditions in the factories of the land where workers have won the victory over capitalism and are consolidating their gains.—EDITOR. x be By ROBERT DUNN. tTESs any factory in the Soviet Republics and you can see for yourself how the trade unions operate at the “point of production.” Here, for example, is a big cotton mill spin- ning yarn and weaving shirtings to cover the backs of the Russian farmers and workers. A car from the center of Moscow will take you to it in 15 minutes. Some 8,000 workers, car- ders, spinners, doffers, weavers, loom fixers, winders and warpers, are on the job in this plant. When I first visited the plant in 1923, their hours were 8; in 1927 they still worked eight. Now they are seven. The Five-Year Plan and the building of Socialism brings shorter hours to the workers. Get off your street car and enter a building opposite the big weaving shed, a two-story building formerly occupied by a boss in the old days when bosses were rich and arrogant. There are no private mansions for bosses in the new Russia. The Factory Committee. Go up the stairway to the second floor. There you find one door marked “Protection of La- bor Committee,” another “Culture and Educa- tion.” Then there is a door marked “Factory Committee” which is the main committee. The other committees are its subordinates. —— OOOO basic capital, whch will bring in its train a* feverish temporary boom in industry and in commerce. Further, this way of putting the problem says too little also because it leaves quite out of account the specific peculiarities of the present situation.” Now, comrades, what are the logical conclu- sions that naturally flow from the rejection of the description of the economic crisis as a typical cyclical crisis occurring in the period of the decline of capitalism? From this is drawn the idea of a “bottomless” crisis. This results in the rejection of the subjective role in the revolution of the Communist Party and the actions of the revolutionary class. It leads to the idea that the revolution will be made by the automatic processes of capitalism, This is opposed to the Leninist theory of the revo- lutionary role of the Communist Party. This is our answer to all those who raise the cry of opportunism against those mentioning the reaching of the bottom of the crisis, of the pos- sible liquidation of the economic crisis, Two Forces Comrades, the forces that are moving toward the revolution are of two kinds. One is the ob- jective situation, including the economic crisis, including the disintegration of the capitalist rule, the machinery of capitalism, the base of the ruling class and its passing over more and more to fascist methods of rile. These ob- jective factors in the development of the revo- lutionary situation are moving in every capi- talist country very fast. Another factor is the subjective revolutionary factor—the conscious- ness of the working class, its ‘degree of radi- calization and the degree of leadership :f the Communist Party over these forces. It is these subjective factors which will be decisive in determining the question: Will the capitalist class be able to get out of this criss? The ac- tivities of the working class can give the an- swer to this question and no other answer ex- cept the degree of organization, the degree of militancy and struggle under the leadership of the Communist Party by the working class and its allies. The moment one tries to get away from this as the basis for the answer, that comrade has got himself over to the grounds of opportunism and not to the grounds of Janisiem. This factory committee is elected by the | workers of the factory. For union organization is on the basis of the factory local. This fac- tory committee is one of the basic units’in the Textile Workers Union, one of the 23 industrial unions in the country. And this headquarters for the “local” union is provided by the man- agentent of the factory. The Labor Code of the country requires this. The Labor Code of a workers’ country has a habit of favoring the workers, A primary organ of the union is, therefore, the factory committee and its functions, briefly stated, are: 1—To safeguard and protect the interests of the workers in the factory. 2—To do everything possible to improve the social and economic conditions of the workers. 8—To represent the workers in their rela- tions to the employer or employing state trust as well as in their relations to the government and the various public authorities. 4—To enlist members, collect dues, and do all the other jobs performed by a local union in any country. Keys to Power. ; The factory committees or its sub-commit- tees are the keys of the workers’ power. The workers bring to them all complanits about wages, housing, medical service, social insur- ance payments, and hundreds of other matters that come up in the daily life in the plant or that are in any way related to the plant. The activities of the sub-committees may be summarized; The committee on the protection of labor helps in the enforcement of labor legislation, the prevention of accidents and the provision of health protection for workers. Such maters as housing, operation of day nurseries, guarding of machinery, and similar measures come under its jurisdiction. It supervises the expenditures for factory laundries, communal baths, and children’s homes, and encourages workers’ cooperatives, The educational and cultural committee cares for every sort of work intended to raise the cultural level of the workers, supervise tech- nical education, clubs, libraries, physical cul- ture, the sending of members to workers’ high schools, the selling of reduced rate tickets to theatres, the organization of movies, the edit- ing of “wall newspapers,” and-campaigns to do away with illiteracy, The “wage-conflict committee” is actually a joint committee composed of an equal num- ber from the factory committee and the man- agement of the plant. It helps to settle wage scales and to adjust disputes of all kinds re- lating to wages. It helps to solve-questions arising out of the enforcement of the labor law and the collective agreements made be. tween the union and the state textile trust that operates the plant. Finally, a sub-committee on production has for its chief aim the improvement of the tech- nique of the factory. It enlists the inventive: ger’.s of the workers and their fullest co- operation in carrying out the production pro- gram set for the particular factory. “Activists.” There‘ are, besides, in this cotton plant hundreds of activists—those who take part in some kind of active union work serving on some regular or special committee, acting’ as dues collector or as delegate or-member of some departmental bureau. In the trade unions of the Soviet Union from 10 to 25 per cent of the workers are included in the activist class. This is in marked contrast with unions in Mr. Woll’s Federation where a couple “business agents” are paid big salaries to run things while the average member. does nothing but pay dues and obey the orders of the handful of bureaucrats at the top, The factory committees in the U,S.S.R. are very important not only because they are the foundation stones of the union structure but because they attract so many new workers into active participation in the union, The factory committee is the primary organ of workers! democracy in a government and an industrial system operated for and by workers. Compared with these Soviet trade unions! the American unions are the real “compan; unions” serving as they often do, the interest: of the private capitalists. The. American unions are “sharing” im the job of producing more profits for the corporations. In the U.S.S.R. the workers share in the benefits of every development or improvement of the socialized industries, 5 F On the basis of’ these faéts ‘let the reader decide whether he prefers Mr. Woll’s type of union that collaborates with the capitalists or the Soviet type of trade union that fights cap: italism and helps in the building of socialism in the first workers and farmers republic. Othe n }