‘The Communists in the Trade Unions’ by James P. Cannon from Voice of Labor (Chicago). Vol. 12 No. 2. October 5, 1923.

It was no accident that John L. Lewis should turn over to the capitalist press his 101 lies against the Communists, and it was no accident that these open-shop, anti-union newspapers should play them up and express general editorial approval. The labor leaders of the Lewis and Gompers type are hand in glove with the capitalists. They are nothing more nor less than the agents of the capitalists in the labor movement. This is the real explanation of their shameful conduct. This is the reason why they are against the Communists, and it is also the reason why the Communists are against them. The conflict is fundamental and irreconcilable. The fight of Lewis & Co. against the Communists is in realty a fight against the rank and file workers in the labor movement, against the interests of the working class as a whole.

What are the aims and purposes of the Communists in the trade unions? Lewis tries to paint us as fanatical disruptionists whose whole activity is designed to disrupt and destroy the unions. But this silly charge belies itself when it comes from such a source. The destruction disruption of the trade unions is the greatest danger to the working class; and it is precisely because we understand it clearly, and strive with all our power to prevent it, that we bring upon ourselves the combined persecution of the capitalists, their government and their “labor lieutenants.”

We look upon the trade unions as the basic, and elementary organizations of the exploited workers, the first line of defense against the exploiters. And our sole endeavor is to build and strengthen them, to implant in them a sound proletarian outlook, to wrest them from the control of treacherous officials and make of them mighty weapons in the struggle for the daily interests of the workers and for their final emancipation from the degrading rule of capitalism.

There are hundreds of thousands of workers in America who already stands on this platform. There has always been a tremendous sentiment amongst the rank and file of the United Mine Workers, as well as the other big unions, against the corrupt and reactionary officialdom, its futile policies and its domination by the ideas of the capitalist class. Time and time again this rank and file revolt has risen up in mighty waves only to be beaten back again. The officials are well organized and know exactly what they want. It has been easy for them to thwart and defeat the radical workers because they have had no rank and file organization and no uniform program.

The Communists supply the one element lacking to the victory of the rank and file because the part which the Communists play in this situation is to assist the rank and file workers to organize their revolt and to formulate their program. This is what is taking place throughout the labor movement today. The rank and file workers, together with the Communists, are beginning to put up a systematic, organized and carefully-planned fight for the regeneration of the unions. But without a Communist party there can be no victory of the rank and file over the corrupt officialdom, and there can be no victory of the working class over capitalism.

In order for the most militant and conscious workers to give a clear direction to the fight and exert maximum influence on the movement, the it is necessary for them to have a party of their own. This party is the Workers Party. It is a disciplined organization which makes heavy demands upon its members. Any worker who is willing to concern himself with the problems of his union and of the working class as a whole, who stands for the revolutionary goal of the struggle and who is willing to work and fight in the front ranks day after day is gladly welcomed into the party.

This party fights side by side with all other elements in the labor movement who want to go forward. Every single proposal for the betterment of the trade unions gets the hearty support of the Communists. In fact, it is becoming the general rule for constructive measures of every kind to be sponsored by the Communists first.

There are three basic weaknesses of the American trade unions today which render them practically helpless before the onslaught of the bosses. They are: First, the antiquated craft form of organization. (The U.M.W. of A. is an exception. It is an industrial union, and that is one of the principal reasons it has been able to offer better resistance to the open-shop drive than the other unions.) Second, the lack of a labor party to organize the workers for the political struggle; Third, the domination of the entire movement capitalistic-minded leaders of the type of Gompers and Lewis.

The Workers Party fights against these weaknesses with all its power and energy. It is making the whole movement ring with its slogans of Amalgamation, The Labor Party and honest, militant leadership. Every class-conscious worker knows that these slogans are constructive, not. destructive; that they spell new life and power for the labor movement.

The Voice of Labor was a regional paper published in Chicago by the Workers (Communist) Party as the “The American Labor Educational Society” (with false printing and volume information to get around censorship laws of the time) and was focused on building the nascent Farmer-Labor Party while fighting for leadership with the Chicago Federation of Labor. It was produced mostly as a weekly in 1923-1924 and contains enormous detail on the activity of the Party in the city of those years.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/vol/v12n02-oct-05-1923-Voice-of-Labor.pdf