This 60-point resolution from the first Profintern congress is an important document for many reasons. Of all the arenas of class struggle, labor unions have the richest traditions on which present activists can draw and this document is rich. A survey of the pre and post-war international labor movement and the varied effects of Russia’s revolution on it, the thesis attempts to cohere lessons in service of the continued struggle for the emancipation of our class. The thesis also makes clear that the original Communist movement developed in a negotiation, and struggle, with the other most potent force in the revolutionary workers movement of the era, syndicalism.

‘Resolution on Tactics’ from The Red Labor International: Resolutions and Decisions of the First International Congress of Revolutionary Trade and Industrial Unions. Published by the Voice of Labor, Chicago, 1921.

I. The General Situation of the Struggle

1. The problems and tactics of the trade unions are determined by the conditions and intensity of the class struggle on an international and national scale. As a starting point we must take the irrefutable fact that modern society has entered upon a stage of decomposition and of breaking up of the old capitalistic relations and bonds and, faces ultimate collapse. The symptoms of this decay are revealed by the enormously grown national indebtedness; temporary prosperity in some branches of industry rapidly followed by a sharp industrial crisis; by the wars still being fought, on many fronts by the economic instability in many of the oldest capitalistic countries of Europe; by the atrocious industrial crisis raging throughout the world; by the enormous growth of unemployment; by slackening of agriculture; by the mountains of goods piled up in some countries while at the same time there is a total lack of commodities in others; by the inevitability of new wars for the extraction of conditions of labor, and finally by the absolute impossibility of re-establishing economic stability and political and social equilibrium by the normal methods of capitalistic exploitation.

2. On the background of this growing economic crisis and the unparalleled devastations caused by the long years of war, the social struggle grows sharper in all countries, acquiring a severity never yet seen. Strikes of unusual size are breaking out in one country after another, the proletariat attempts by means of them to maintain its position against the assault of capital. But the proletariat is conducting its struggle in scattered, isolated groups thus condemning its best organized ranks to a total defeat and destruction.

3. The struggle of the working class and its organization is complicated by the fact that the bourgeoisie has availed itself in full of the lessons of the war and the revolution—and is strenuously creating and strengthening its organization for the material destruction of the revolutionary movement. There is not a single bourgeois country which besides the usual, normal organizations for repression (such as the army, police, department of justice, etc.) has not created new organizations, voluntary bodies of representatives of the ruling classes for the armed suppression and prevention of the uprising of the rebellious workers.

4. In this struggle against the increasing dissatisfaction among the masses, the bourgeoisie presents a united front, throwing into this fight the whole of its economic organizations. It realizes perfectly that only the highest degree of unity and concentration of forces, centralized organization, and the normal and material support of its state machinery and the creation of special militant organizations can save it from defeat or at least put off the approaching social revolution. The bourgeoisie never separates politics from economics.

5. The problems of the unions in the period of peaceful organic development of capitalist society consisted in raising through mass organizations the standard of living among the workers, in improving the conditions of labor, and, relying upon the gains already obtained, in gradually moving forward towards the realization of socialist society. The reformist unions consider a slow and gradual transition from capitalism to socialism possible by means of the transformation of the bourgeois democracy into a socialist democracy. The revolutionary unions old that without the overthrow of capitalism by force the working class cannot abolish the system of wage slavery.

6. The revolutionary unions always aimed at the consolidation, the disciplining and training of the mass as their basic tasks. This problem is especially important in the present period of disintegration of capitalist society. The labor union is the school and the workshop of communism. Its problem is to prepare the workers for the overthrow of the capitalist system.

The main question consists in how and on which basis of the everyday struggle this preparation and consolidation of the masses will take place. The problems must be put before the working class and how to organize its everyday struggle and link it up with the general problems of the working class bringing it up to the ultimate grapple with its class enemy. The conditions of this struggle have become considerably complicated at the present time.

The interrelations of its many elements are entirely different than they were before the war or during the war. Therefore the task of the unions is different and the methods and means of struggle must also be different.

II. The Labor Unions Before the War

7. During the latter half of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century there were three main groups of labor union movements: Anglo-Saxon (trade unionism); German-Austrian (social democratic reformism); French-Spanish (revolutionary syndicalism). These three groups in the international labor movement differed from one another in method as well as in character. They presented three different ideologies and programs of action.

8. The basic feature of Anglo-Saxon trade unionism was the narrow craftism and political neutrality with regard to socialist parties, concentrating its entire attention upon the immediate concrete problems of the day; trade unionism accepted the social struggle only from the narrow point of view of craft unionism, and from this angle they approached the solution of all the economic and social problems. The trade union movement included chiefly the aristocracy of the working class. The very philosophy of trade unionism is the philosophy of labor aristocracy.

Capital and labor were considered by the theoretical and practical exponents of trade unionism not as two deadly class enemies but as two factors of mutually supplementing each other. They contended that the development of society entirely depends upon the harmony between capital and labor and the just distribution among them of the social and public wealth.

9. The German-Austrian trade union movement which appeared later than the Anglo-Saxon one, having formed under different circumstances, had from the start been invested with socialist ideas. The social democrats of Germany and Austria stood at the very cradle of the trade union movement, thus transmitting to it the social democratic spirit. But the social democratic program and tactics in-regard to the trade union movement have assumed a character of reformist socialism. The trade unions of Germany were the cradle of reformism, the very substance of which may be reduced to the following: they advocate gradual and peaceful development through democracy to socialism; they obscure working class interests; they fear revolution and white terror hoping at the same time that the development of democratic forms would automatically bring about socialism without any revolutions or social conflicts. With reference to the purely trade union field their intentions are to keep them out of the political and revolutionary struggle; they advocate neutrality towards revolutionary socialism and are closely bound with reformist socialism. Apart from that, they extremely overestimate the benefit of collective bargaining and the system of conciliation boards. In this manner they expect to establish such social relations, under which the workers would enjoy in the political and economic domains equal rights with the capitalists, while the system of exploitation is maintained.

10. Revolutionary syndicalism which developed as a reaction against the opportunism of the French Socialist party had as its basis a certain number of revolutionary points. It advanced the idea of direct action, immediate struggle of the masses, advocated the general strike, and forcible overthrow of capitalism; conducted anti-militarist agitation and propaganda and created the anti-government theory. It also created a theory according to which the trade unions are the only organizations which will bring about the revolution and will themselves build up the socialist society.

The theoreticians of revolutionary syndicalism pretended that it is the synthesis of Proudhonism and Marxism. —

11. Revolutions syndicalism has brought to light a number of ideas—and this has been its merit—which placed it high above all the other forms of the labor union movement and brought it into close contact with revolutionary pressure of the masses upon capital and revolutionary pressure of the masses upon capital and state, abolition of capitalism, propaganda of the social. revolution—all this must be placed to the credit of the revolutionary syndicalists and gives the positive side of revolutionary syndicalism. On the other hand we find in syndicalism the principle of independence and neutrality. towards all political parties; including the political party of the proletariat, the negation even of proletarian state, the overestimation of the general strike and a wrong attitude towards the palliative demands of the workers. Economics and politics are two different things for the revolutionary syndicalists, although it is quite clear that “politics is nothing but concentrated economics.” These latter ideas, in spite of their seeming revolutionary character, are as a matter of fact, being made use of by the bourgeoise, although the latter has never made any difference, in its own fighting, between politics and economics.

12. The labor union movement grew up and took shape chiefly during the period of peaceful, organic development of capitalist society and it therefore possessed the features, which permitted the bourgeoisie to utilize it, especially during the war, for the benefit of its class interests.

These peculiar features—the narrow craft unionism, the exclusiveness of the trade unions, the fight of some unions against women’s labor, deep devotion to the Fatherland and national industry, etc.—found their maximum expression during the war, when class interests clashed with national interests.

3. The Labor Unions During the War

13. The world war resulting from the antagonism of national zest of capitalists, demonstrated to the full extent the influence of the bourgeoisie upon the working class and its organizations. The trade unions in most of the largest countries of Europe, immediately on the declaration of war ceased to exist as militant class organizations and turned at once into military imperialists organizations, whose task consisted only in assisting the government and bourgeoisie, to smash its competitors for the world market by joint efforts and at any cost.

The old alignments of the trade union movement have disappeared. The leaders of labor unions of every country, with very few exceptions, despite the fact that they were fighting on the opposite sides of the firing line, have found a common language with their own bourgeoisie; the interests of the national bourgeoisie triumphed over the class interests.

14. The period of the world war was a period of moral decay of the labor unions in all capitalist countries. The overwhelming majority of the leaders of the trade union movement were the agents of the government.

They take upon themselves the function of smothering all attempts of revolutionary protest; they repeatedly sanction measures which render the conditions of labor worse, to please the capitalists, the leaders have many times sanctioned the imprisonment of the workers in the factories; they permitted the privileges gained by years of struggle to be annulled. In short they executed submissively all the commands of the ruling classes.

15. The opposition to war and the movements of masses that grew out of it were nipped in the bud primarily by the very leaders of the old trade union movement. The fear of revolution which for many years had kept back the ruling classes from war and military adventures had disappeared, for not only the bourgeoisie, but the workers, organized in trade unions, were against the revolution. This conversion of the leaders of the trade union movement into watch dogs of capitalism is the greatest moral victory of the ruling class and at the same time the greatest defeat of the working class during the world war.

16. The nationalist activities of the trade union leaders caused deep dissensions in the masses. Instead of the gospel of class struggle and class solidarity, the only appeal of the leaders, to the working class, which was heard for years was that of urging the workers to strain all their forces against their national foe, the appeal for the defense of fatherland, for their sacred unity of the classes. This treacherous work carried on with the support of the bourgeois press and the financial aid of the government was the principal reason of the prolongation of the war and of the innumerable human sacrifices, which the working class was compelled to make as a result of the international slaughter.

The war was the manifestation of the unparalleled bankruptcy of all the three forms of the labor union movement. The leaders of the trade unions of England and America, of Germany and Austria, and the revolutionary syndicalists of France rallied on the platform of the betrayal of the interests of the working class.

5. The Labor Unions After the War

17. The postwar policy of the labor union leaders in various countries had the same basic features as their policy in time of war. It consisted in the prolongation of the “sacred unity” of classes concluded during the war, intending to subject the interests of the working masses to the interests of the re-establishment of the capitalist economic order.

18. In France this policy assumed a most disgusting character because its advocates are the revolutionary syndicalists of yesterday, anti-statists and anti-militarists.

The leaders of the General Confederation of Labor are strenuously striving for the honor of sitting in the committees which are preparing the Versailles Peace Treaty. They take the initiative of making the German workers pay to France indemnities for the losses inflicted by the war, of breaking up the revolutionary strike movement. Side by side with the government and the bourgeoisie they are fighting against even the idea of social revolution. They proclaim the principle of the reconstruction of capitalism upon the basis of collaboration of all the vital forces “of present day society,” the workers, the bosses and the government representatives. This policy inside the country leads the bourgeoisie to greater arrogance, corrupts the proletarian consciousness, and leads to the disappointment of the masses in revolutionary slogans and appeals. The more the General Confederation of Labor is subjected and dependent on the bourgeoisie, the more it cries about “independence” and “autonomy” of the labor union movement, with regards to communism, referring to the “Charte d’Amiens.”

19. On the basis of this unheard of treachery and shameless betrayal of the elementary revolutionary and class principles, a strong movement has grown up in France which expressed itself in the organization of the central committee of revolutionary syndicates.

The revolutionary opposition has already consolidated about half of the members of the General Confederation of Labor but in spite of its numerical growth it is weak because of insufficient internal unity.

The entire opposition is united in its struggle against both obvious and secret treachery of the interests of the working class. But while the opposition is conducting this struggle and is even gaining victory, owing to its single front, still it has not yet made quite clear the concrete problems, the program and its militant slogans. The opposition consisting of anarchists, revolutionary syndicalists and communists, proclaims the slogan: “Back to the Amiens Charter.” This slogan is already therefore insufficient, as the majority of the General Confederation of Labor is also referring to the Amiens Charter.

20. The Amiens Charter, which was the result of the workers’ protest against the opportunism of the socialist parties, cannot be considered as a basis of activities not only because it was written fifteen years ago, before the war and the revolution, but chiefly because it did not even at that period answer all the questions that stood before the working class.

The world war, the disintegration of capitalism, the revolution, all taken together, absolutely dictate to the minority of the General Confederation of Labor of France, not to stay within the frame of the antiquated Amiens Charter, but to draft a new charter in accordance with the new circumstances.

21. The leaders of the German labor unions have played after the war essentially the part of saviors of the German bourgeoisie and the German military clique. The revolution of 1918 has so much scared the German bourgeoisie that it turned to the trade union movement for protection against the transformation of the bourgeois revolution into a social revolution.

The leaders of the labor unions have concluded an agreement with the German bourgeoisie for creation of labor conciliation boards composed of equal numbers of workers and employers, on which the entire post-war activities of the German trade union movement are based. The principle applied to discussion of social reforms was the basis of the agreement. The result of this class co-operation philosophy was the economic and political domination of the bourgeoisie. Breaking down revolutionary movement of the masses by the active aid of the labor unions was the consequence of this agreement.

The leaders of the German labor unions forgetting the working class interests, have taken up the work of restoration of capitalism, and have even not stopped SUE DORE the bloody reprisals against the working class.

22. This counter-revolutionary part played by the trade union bureaucracy which, thanks to the misery caused by the war, became the leader of many millions of working people, had caused big protests among the workers.

This protest inside the labor union movement has found its expression in the formation of opposition nuclei of Communist groups within the unions which, spreading like network all over Germany, have assumed the character of a mass movement.

The hopeless view on trade unions found its expression in the slogan “smash the trade unions,” which is contrary to the working class interests of the social revolution. Besides the opposition in the old trade unions, there are a few groups outside of them (Free Labor Union of Gelsenkirchen, General Labor Union, Syndicalist Union). Each of these bodies is working its own way, without conducting any coordinated struggle against the capitalists and their supporters from the ranks of trade unions.

To these groups have been added the expelled unions, since the trade union bureaucracy, being terrified by the growth of the opposition within the old labor union movement and of the Communist nuclei have started to expel from the centralized union branches, districts and locals in a body as well as separate individuals.

23. The trade unions of England immediately after the war, began to carry on a stubborn struggle to improve the conditions of labor and retain the position they conquered.

The great strikes of the coal miners and other trades show the strength and obstinacy of the English proletariat in the struggle. The period after the war has shown to what extent certain leaders in the labor movement in England are connected with the bourgeoisie. Each clash, each great conflict, has met with resistance first of all inside the organization itself, as well as in other labor unions.

These peculiarities of the English labor union movement accompanied by unquestionable growth of revolutionary, though vaguely understood, ideas are very characteristic. The English labor movement in comparison to the pre-war period has undoubtedly made a great step forward.

24. During the war the Shop Stewards’ and Workers’ Committees sprang up which became comparatively very effective during the years 1917 and 1918, after that time they lost their former influence, though the recognition of the necessity of a revolutionary struggle and revolutionary ideas generally have grown to a considerable degree among the masses of England. The weakness of the opposition elements of England is due to the fact that they did not co-ordinate their work among the masses. The unity of all these revolutionary elements could be accomplished by the widening and deepening of the activity of the shop stewards and workers’ committees.

The problem under such conditions is not to take individual prominent members from the mass of workers, from the unions in order to create certain extra— union organizations, but to see to it that most conscious, revolutionary active elements should work organically in the very thick of the working class; in the factories and shops, in the lowest nuclei of the unions, striving to secure responsible, leading positions in the labor union movement from top to bottom.

Only such a method—systematic, unremitting and steady work—can bring real and permanent results in a country with as gigantic a labor movement, saturated with old traditions and conservatism, as the English labor union movement is.

25. In America, as in no other country, the labor unions and their leading elements play the part of direct agents of capital. For- Gompers and his clique, who are at the head of the American Federation of Labor, even the Amsterdam International is considered too revolutionary and they find it impossible to participate in it on account of its “excessive revolutionism.” The A.F. of L. puts all its hopes in the righteousness of the bourgeoisie and refuses to listen to the feasibility of a revolutionary struggle for a new order.

This is the most typical, classical example of merging of the leaders of the labor movement with the bourgeoisie and the American millionaires is the main reason why these Gompersites talk so much and so loud about autonomy and independence in the labor union movement.

The A.F. of L. serves as a most reliable tool in the hands of the bourgeoisie for suppressing the revolutionary movement. But it, too, is drawn into the struggle, for the bourgeoise is not satisfied with its devotion —the capitalists want to extract from the A.F. of L. greater benefits than they have done so far.

And if the A.F. of L. does not yet enter the struggle itself, then separate detachments of it, local organizations, are getting more and more into conflicts with capital and machinery of the state. If not in point of organization then in point of ideas they are more and more receding from the basic principles upon which the A.F. of L. rests.

26. The Industrial Workers of the World, an independent organization in America, is too weak to take the place of the old labor unions. The I.W.W. have a purely anarchistic prejudice against politics and political action, being divided into supporters and opponents of such a cardinal question as proletarian dictatorship. Besides these two organizations there are independent unions, only formally independent of the A.F. of L.; many of them are independent in their ideological turn of thoughts as well as in practice of their counterrevolutionary leaders. Therefore the question of creating revolutionary cells and groups inside the American Federation of Labor and the independent unions is of vital importance. There is no other way by which one could gain the working mass in America, than to lead a systematic struggle within the unions.

27. In Italy the circumstances are very peculiar. A great majority of the Italian proletariat accepts the revolutionary struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The leaders of the general Confederation of Labor have no faith in revolutionary methods and are nearer in their theory and practice to opportunism than to revolutionary socialism. Alongside with the General Confederation of Labor exists the Syndicalist Union—and independent unions which, contrary to those of America, are saturated with a deep revolutionary, communist spirit. They practically accept the program of the Third International and the International of Revolutionary Trade and Industrial Unions.

28. In the rest of the European countries and in America the labor movement has moved swiftly forward. Inside of many old unions, in many countries, there have been formed important opposition minorities (Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, etc.), in other countries (Bulgaria, Jugoslavia, Norway, etc.), the majority is in favor of the social revolution and of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This peculiar state of the labor movement in all countries shows the deep significance of the change the working masses have undergone. The lessons of the war and the Russian revolution were not lost for the large masses. The revolutionizing of the unions is a result of the objective development of events. The aim of the leaders of the Red Labor Unions is to facilitate the process of crystallization of this consciousness and the organization of this growing elemental revolutionary movement for a decisive battle against the bourgeoisie for the workers’ dictatorship.

5. Neutrality, Independence and Socialism

29. Socialism has ceased to be merely a matter of theoretical discussion; it is a practical question of the day. Therefore each labor organization must take a definite stand on the subject. The failure to answer the imperative class requirements makes the labor organization a passive onlooker in the present class struggle, in other words such an attitude indirectly assists the enemy. Each union must decide which way to turn —to opportunism or to the revolutionary socialism, that is communism. Herein lies the fault of neutrality and “independence.”

30. The aims of the revolutionary unions are the destruction of capitalism and the establishment of a socialist order. The proletarian revolutionary party, the Communist party, is aiming toward the same goal.

Because the aim and the basic methods of struggle are the same, the political and economic organization of the proletariat cannot exist side by side without crossing one another in the struggle. Their daily struggle is interwoven. No single campaign can be carried through with any degree of success, without. mutual aid and ever-increasing contact. Isolated action is foredoomed to failure and defeat.

31. The revolutionary trade unions, therefore, were always opposed to that idea of neutrality and the independence of the trade unions from the revolutionary party of the proletariat. They knew that such ideas were only a cloak for the scheme hatched by bourgeois reformers who divided the economic struggle of the proletariat from the political struggle with the object of weakening and corrupting the working masses. Political neutrality and independence of trade unions from revolutionary socialism always has been, and still is, the motto brought forward by the most backward sections of the labor movement of all countries.

During the last few years, the closer were the ties binding the trade union leaders of all countries to the League of Nations, and the more these leaders are being controlled by the bourgeoisie of their respective countries, the louder and stauncher has become their championship of the idea of independence of the trade union from the Communist International. This idea must, therefore, be decidedly and totally rejected.

32. The task of the trade unions is to fight the neutralists’ views and mentality which bring decay and corruption into the labor ranks and organizations. Any trade union drops its neutrality and independence to the extent it participates in the social struggle and fight against capitalism and capitalist domination.

The present situation imperatively dictates that the revolutionary unions and the communist party should act together in fighting for the social revolution and for the dictatorship of the proletariat. But such concerted action is the best practical refutation of the thoroughly worn out and purely theoretical view upon neutrality and independence—a doctrine that has never been carried out in actual practice.

33. Under present conditions, every economic struggle inevitably takes political significance.

The struggle itself under such conditions, whatever the numerical strength of the workers involved in a given country may be, can be really revolutionary and be carried out with the greatest benefit for the working class as a whole, only when the revolutionary trade unions will march shoulder to shoulder in the closest cooperation and unity with the communist party of the given country.

The theory and practice of splitting the struggle of the working class into two independent halves is utterly detrimental, especially at the present moment.

Every mass action requires the utmost concentration of forces, which is possible only when the entire revolutionary energies of the working class are strained to the utmost, i.e., when all its revolutionary and communist elements are brought into play. Independent revolutionary action by the communist party and the revolutionary red unions is foredoomed to failure and ruin. That is why unity of action, organic connection of Communist Parties and trade unions, is a necessary requisite for the successful struggle against Capitalism.

VI. The Amsterdam International

34. The anti-class war policy of the trade-unions of the belligerent countries caused the break-down of all the international connections that had existed prior to the war, such as the International Secretariat headed by Legien, as well as all the independent international federations (of textile workers, metal workers, etc.). They broke up—according to their respective locations —into pro-Ally and pro-German units.

35. The general misery bred by the war, stronger class antagonism, insecurity, uncertainty about tomorrow, growing unemployment, and utter disappointment with the results of the war, acted as a great impelling force in driving the masses into the trade unions. The war brought to the surface the lowest strata of workers, aroused them, made them distrust their own individual efforts, and forced the most backward worker to do some hard thinking on the causes, and the consequences of the disaster which all mankind is now living through. The feeling of. international solidarity, so long repressed during the war, awoke with new force in the working masses that had been torn up by the war into national units; this new feeling called for the rebuilding of the international connections, the necessity for which is instinctively. felt even by the most backward sections of the working class.

36. Hence the efforts of the bankrupt leaders of the trade-unions in taking the initiative in rebuilding the International and getting at the helm of the movement. Having attempted to create a trade-union International of the Entente type (Leeds, 1916), the leaders of the Entente unions began, immediately after the war, to “restore” the international connections by taking part in some of the labor commissions organized for the purpose of working out supplementary articles to the Versailles Treaty. In this way they have sealed, on an international scale, the treacherous work which they had carried on within their respective bourgeois countries.

37. The victory of “democracy” in the international slaughter was signalized by creating the Labor Bureau as a part of the League of Nations, which represents the highest revelation of the idea of peaceful development and class collaboration. This Bureau, made up of six labor leaders, six employers, and six representatives of bourgeois governments has for its object not only to study the struggle, but also to steer this struggle along the channels of peaceful development and amicable solution of the conflicts between Labor and Capital.

38. In Berne (February, 1919), and in Amsterdam (July, 1919) the trade-union International was formally restored. This International is the continuation of the nationalistic policy on an International scale. The new International began its work by declaring itself in favor of the International Labor Bureau and tightly connected its leaders with the world imperialism. Its program is peaceful development, co-operation of classes, gradual growing into socialism, and the deadly fear and hatred of the revolutionary movement of the masses.

39. Such international treason of those who for many years have been selling the workers of their countries, wholesale and retail, was quite natural and logical, but this was in full contradiction with the fundamental interests of the homeless proletariat. We see that simultaneously with the creation of this international bulwark of the bourgeoisie a movement of protest again the line of war imperialism is growing in all directions and in all countries. This protest, rendered more acute by the growing socialist struggle, had not at first its own international central organization. Such a center was created at the initiative of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions in July, 1920, represented by the International Trade Union Council. The birth of this center for revolutionary trade unionism is the starting point for an implacable war within the bounds of the trade union movement of the world carried under the slogan: “Moscow or Amsterdam.” Cleavage within the old organizations is proceeding at a rapid rate in proportion to the economic crisis growing more intense and the prospects for peaceful development growing more hopeless for the proletariat.

40. The very fact of the appearance of the Red Trade Union International gave a tremendous impetus to the ceaseless growth of the number of those who side with the Red International. This fact, and the formation of various groups in the trade union movement of the world on one side, and the constant decay of the Amsterdam combine on the other hand, puts before the revolutionary trade unions of all countries the question of the future methods of organization of their own forces, as well as of the methods to be used in attacking international capital and the yellow leaders who are at the head of the Amsterdam Trade Union Combine.

VII. Methods of Struggle.

41. The Revolutionary Unions will be able to defeat the old leaders only when the revolutionary and the most class-conscious elements will not consent to detach themselves for a moment from the masses and their daily needs and hopes. The work must be carried on the battle ground of the conflicts by which the masses are deeply stirred. The contemptuous and haughty attitude towards the daily struggle for the material interests of the union members will detach the vanguard from the masses and create a gulf between them and the compact columns of the proletarian army. Therefore the swift response to the daily struggle and ability to utilize it from the standpoint of our final revolutionary aim is, in conjunction with the general trade union struggle for the proletarian dictatorship, the most important question of union tactics.

42. The basis for enlarging our influence must lie within the economic struggle. Questions of wages, of securing relief for the war victims, social insurance, unemployment, women and child labor, sanitary conditions in industrial establishments, high prices, the housing question, etc., taxation, mobilization, colonial schemes, financial combinations—all these must be utilized as daily material for organization and militant socialist education. The adherents to the Red Trade Union International must in no case remain out of the labor organizations, must not influence the workers from the outside. Our task is to work insistently and systematically within the trade unions, giving the large labor masses practical lessons in the revolutionary spirit, self-sacrifice and communism.

It is necessary to conduct a systematic and stubborn propaganda among the workers in factories) workshops and concerns generally, getting them interested in the Red International of Trade Unions. This same question—for or against Moscow—must be raised within the reformist unions; for this purpose the followers of the Red International of Trade Unions must make use of all the union meetings, congresses and conferences, opposing in practice and struggle, revolutionary socialism against reformism and class-cooperation.

43. We shall be able to conquer the masses, and consequently the trade unions only on condition that in the attack or resistance we will be at the head in the first ranks of the working class. This standpoint shall in no case be construed that a call to action under any and all circumstances is advisable. The supporters of the Red Trade Union International must not only be model revolutionists, but also models of sustained action and coolheadedness. The whole gist of success consist in the systematic, efficient and stubborn preparation of every move, of every mass action; rapidity and sureness of action must go hand in hand with a detailed study of each situation and its conditions, as well as of the organized strength of the enemy forces. In class struggles, as well as in battles at the front, we should not only know how to attack; but also how to retreat in orderly and compact formation. Both in offensive and defensive warfare it is always necessary to have the sympathy of the large proletarian masses and the entire social and political atmosphere i in ‘which the struggle takes place. 

VI. Program of Action

44. Departing from the above stated principles, the conditions of the international trade union movement, the economic crisis, the acuteness of the class struggle, the growing social conflicts and the necessity of leading the trade unions towards the social revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat—the first International Congress of Trade and Industrial Unions adopted the following program of action:

45. The fundamental policy of the Trade Unions is the direct action of the revolutionary masses and of their organizations against Capital. All conquests of the workers are in direct proportion to the degree of revolutionary pressure they have exerted. By direct action it is understood every form of immediate pressure of the workers upon the employers and the State, such as: boycott, strikes, street uprisings, demonstrations, seizure of factories, violent resistance against the removal of goods from factories and stores, and other revolutionary activity leading the working class to the overthrow of Capitalism and consolidating the working class in the Struggle for Socialism. The task of the revolutionary class-conscious Trade Unions consists in transforming all the expressions of struggle into an instrument for the social revolution of the working class and its militant training for the social revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

46. The last years of the struggle have shown with a peculiar vividness the inability for strictly trade union organizations, to meet the situation. The fact that the workers in one concern belong to different craft unions weakens their efficiency in the struggle. It is necessary—and this should be the starting point of an implacable struggle to pass from a strictly trade union organization to an organization along the industrial lines. “All the workers employed in one concern must belong to the same union—this is the militant motto regarding the structure of the organization. The fusion of related unions into one union should be effected in a revolutionary way, putting this question directly before the members of the union in the factories and industries, as well as before district, regional bodies and national conventions.

47. Each factory and each shop should become a citadel of the revolution. Old forms of communication between rank and file members and the union itself such as money collectors. representatives, proxies and others are insufficient; it is necessary to strive towards the building up of the union on the basis of shop-committees. This committee must be elected by the workers engaged in the given factory, independently of the union they belong to and the political creed they profess. The task imposed upon the supporters of the Red International of Labor Unions is to draw all the workers of a given concern into the election of their representative body. The attempt to elect the shop committees exclusively among adherents of the same party; casting aside the non-party rank and file workers, should be severely condemned. This would be only a nucleus and not a factory committee. The revolutionary workers should influence, through these nuclei, Committees of action and through their rank and file members, the general meetings and the elected Shop Committee.

48. The first question to be put before the workers in the shop committee—is the maintenance of the workers discharged on account of unemployment, at the expense of the bosses of the given branch of industry. Workers should not be permitted to be thrown out on the streets without the employers being in the least concerned with the further existence of the discharged workers. The owner must be compelled to pay full wages to the unemployed. This should be put before the unemployed, and especially to the workers engaged in the factories explaining to them at the same time that the problem of unemployment is not to be solved within the capitalist regime, and that the only way to abolish unemployment is the social revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

49. The closing down of concerns and shortening of the working hours are the most efficient means with the help of which the bourgeoisie compels the workers to accept lower wages, longer hours, and the abolition of collective bargaining. Lockouts take a more and more definite form of direct action on the part of the employers against the organized workers. Therefore the trade unions must carry on a fight against the closing down of factories and for the right of the workers to investigate the causes of such shutting down. For this purpose special committees should be organized with regard to the control of fuel, raw material and orders, for the purpose of verifying the available amount of raw material, necessary for production, as well as the financial resources of the concerns in the banks. Especially elected controlling commissions must investigate in the most careful manner the financial correlation existing between the given factory and other factories for which purpose it is necessary to place before the workers as the timely practical problem, the putting of an end to the secrecy of business transactions.

50. One of the ways of battling against the closing of concerns for the purpose of the reduction of wages and lowering of the standard of life, should be the taking over of the factories and mills by the workers and the proceeding with production by themselves despite the owners will.

Owing to the lack of goods, it is highly important that production should continue and the workers should therefore oppose the premeditated closing down of factories and mills. In connection with local conditions and the condition of production, the political situation, the tension of the class struggle—the seizure of the enterprises may and should be followed by other methods of pressure upon capital. On taking hold of the concern the management of the same should be given to shop committee representatives and the union delegates specially appointed for the purpose.

51. The economic struggle should follow the slogan of “increase in wages, the improvement of labor conditions and the defense of the fundamental interests for the workers.” The exhaustion of the working class during the period of the war must be compensated by an increase in wages and the improvement of the labor conditions. The reference of capitalists to foreign competition should by no means be taken into consideration: the revolutionary trade unions are bound to approach the question of wages and labor conditions not from the point of view of competition between rapacious capitalists of different nations, but solely from that of the preservation and the defense of the working power.

52. The employers are making use of any means in their power to bring about a split in the ranks of the labor movement. They have fully made use of women’s labor during the war and continue to use this cheap labor power for the purpose of cutting down men’s wages. Instead of fighting the employers, the workers insist, in a number of countries, upon the removing of women from industry and expelling them from the unions. This policy should be met with decided resistance from the revolutionary unions, which must fight for equality of labor conditions for both sexes and for equal pay under similar conditions of work.

53. When the tactics of wage reduction are resorted to by the capitalist class during an economic crisis, the problem of the revolutionary trade unions consists in defeating wage reduction in capitalist industries, in order not to be defeated piecemeal. The workers engaged in the basic industries such as mining, railroad, gas concerns and others, should make their struggle simultaneously, in order that the struggle against the onslaughts of capital should touch the very nerve of the economic organism.

It is necessary to have recourse to every means of resistance, from the intermittent strike up to a general strike embracing the key industries on a national scale. Such efficiently appropriated actions might become a strong weapon against the reactionary bourgeoisie of all countries. The trade unions must attentively follow the world situation selecting the most favorable opportunity for their economic attack, without forgetting for a single moment that any action on an international scale can only be possible by the creation of true revolutionary class-conscious: international trade unions having nothing in common with the Amsterdam International.

54. The belief in the sanctity of collective bargaining propagated by the opportunists of all countries must be met with a resolute and decided resistance on the part of the revolutionary trade union movement. Collective bargaining is nothing more than an armistice. The owner always violates these collective contracts whenever the slightest opportunity presents itself. The respect toward collective bargains only proves that bourgeoisie conceptions are deeply rooted in the minds of, the leaders of. the working. class. The revolutionary trade unions without, as a rule, rejecting collective bargains must realize their relative value and clearly define methods which will abolish these contracts when it proves to be profitable to the working class.

Therefore, every large strike should not only be well prepared but, simultaneously with its declaration, special forces should be organized to prevent scabbing and to counteract provocative moves on the part of white-guard organizations, encouraged by the bourgeoisie and the government. The Facisti in Italy, the Technical Aid in Germany, the civil white guard organizations consisting of ex-commissioned and non-commissioned officers in France and in England—all these, identical their aims though different in form of organization, pursue the policy of disorganizing and forestalling all activities of the workers, with the purpose not only to replace the strikers by scabs, but to destroy their organizations and to kill the leaders of the labor movement. Under these conditions the organization of special’ strike militia and special self-defense detachments is a question of life and death to the workers.

56. These militant organizations should not only resist the attacks of the employers and the strikebreaking organizations, but take the initiative by stopping all freight and goods on their way to and from the factory; in such cases the transport workers should play a specially prominent part; the transportation of freight which is their duty to stop can easily be accomplished—by the unanimous support of all the workers of a given locality.

57. All the economic warfare of the working class in the next period should center around the slogan “Control of Industry.” This control must be effected without waiting until the governments and the ruling classes have started a fake control. We must conduct a stubborn war against all attempts on the part of the ruling classes and reformists to create labor associations in which labor and capital cooperate, or control commissions shared jointly by workers and employers. This control of industry must be brought about by direct action; only then will this control give definite results. The revolutionary trade unions must come out with determination against the tricks and fraudulent schemes. paraded as “socialization” by the leaders of the old trade unions and with the co-operation of the ruling classes. All the talk on the part of these gentlemen about peaceful nationalization have for their sole object to sidetrack the workers from revolutionary work for the social revolution.

58. To divert the attention of the workers from their immediate revolutionary task and to awaken in them petty bourgeois aspirations, the capitalists and reformists are bringing forward the idea of profit sharing, i.e., to return to the workers a really insignificant part of the surplus value produced by them. This plan of corrupting the workers should be met with severe and merciless criticism. Not “profit-sharing,” but “to do away with capitalist profit”—this is the slogan of the revolutionary trade unions.

59. In order to paralyze and nullify the fighting force of the working class, the bourgeois governments militarize, under pretext of defending the vital interests of protecting the national welfare, separate concerns and even whole branches of industry. Under the cover of preventing, as far as possible, economic crisis, they introduced, in the interests of capital, obligatory courts of arbitration and conflict commissions. Still in the interests of capital, some countries introduced the direct tax on earnings with a view of throwing the weight of the war wholly on the shoulders of the working class, the tax-collectors being the employers themselves. It is incumbent upon the trade unions to lead against these state measures, exclusively serving the interests of the capitalist class, a ruthless and merciless battle.

60. While conducting the fight for the improvement of the conditions of labor, raising the standard of life of the masses, and establishing workers’ control over industry, we should always keep in mind that it is impossible to solve all these problems within the frame of the capitalist system. For this reason the revolutionary trade unions, while gradually forcing concessions from the ruling classes, compelling them to enact social legislation, should put before the working masses a clear-cut idea, that only the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat can solve the social question. For this reason not a single case of mass action, not a single small conflict should pass, from this point of view, without leaving a deep mark. It is the duty of the revolutionary trade unions to explain these conflicts to the workers, leading the rank and file always toward the idea of the necessity and the inevitability of the social revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The Red Labor International: Resolutions and Decisions of the First International Congress of Revolutionary Trade and Industrial Unions. Published by the Voice of Labor, Chicago, 1921.

Contents: Introduction by International Secretary, Manifesto Issued to Workers of the World, Resolution on the report of the Provisional Council, Resolution on the Relationship between the R. L. U. I. and the C.I., Resolution on Italian Question, Resolution on Tactics, Resolution on Workers’ Control, Resolution on Shop Committees, Resolution on Organization, Constitution, Resolution on Women’s Question, Resolution on Unemployment, Resolution on Victims of the War, Resolution on the Labor Movement in the Near and Far Eastern Countries and the Colonies, Appeal against White Terror, Manifesto to the Workers of the United Kingdom, Appeal to Spanish Proletariat, Greetings to Russian People. 96 pages.

PDF of original pamphlet: https://archive.org/download/redresolutionsdecis00redirich/redresolutionsdecis00redirich.pdf