Fritz Reussner on the relationship between sport and unions, the RSI and the Profintern.

‘The Sport Movement and the Red Trade Unions’ by Fritz Reussner from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 4 No. 63. September 4, 1924.

1. General Remarks.

The movement for sport and physical culture has, during the war, but chiefly in the post-war period, made enormous progress. The reason for this is that the ever-larger circles of the population who are being drawn into industry are compelled to turn to sport and gymnastics in order to counter-act the effects of the cramping one-sided work in the factories. On the other hand, capitalism has recognised the importance of sport and physical culture and uses them for its own ends. The bourgeois sport organisations form the best reserves for bourgeois militarism. They are at the same time political instruments to distract the workers from politics and trade unionism.

The sport movement has become a mass movement to which we must devote our attention. The more a country becomes Industrialised, the greater is the participation in sport. England and America take the lead in this respect. At a football-match near London there were 160.000 spectators. The like is also to be seen in America. In Berlin there were 65.000 spectators at a bourgeois football-match. Thus we see to what an enormous extent the people are interested in sport.

2. The Bourgeois Sport Movement.

The bourgeois sport movement is a long way ahead of the workers’ sport movement. The capitalist states finance with large sums these mass organisations, which serve to maintain the capitalist system. The most recent example, the bourgeois chauvinist Olympiade in Paris, shows that the capitalist states are generous supporters of chauvinist sport. France has given 18 million francs for this Olympiade; in addition to this special stamps were issued by the post-office for this affair. Germany was excluded from participation in this Olympiade on account of the opposition of France, which clearly demonstrates its chauvinist character.

In some countries, as for example, Sweden, England and America, no workers’ sport organisations have as yet been formed. Here the bourgeois sport movement enjoys practically a monopoly, so that one is bound to admit that the members of the trade unions and workers’ political organisations are members of these bourgeois sport clubs. In Sweden the bourgeois sport league has in the course of twenty years increased its membership from 5000 to 140.000. The leadership of this organisation is partly in the hands of officers of the Swedish army.

According to statistics, 75% of the members are workers. In Germany the bourgeois sport movement embraces about 3/2 million members, whilst the workers’ sport organisations have about 112 million members. It would be possible to quote similar figures from every country, from which it would be clearly seen that the greater portion of the trade union organised workers are active members of the capitalist sport organisations.

The bourgeois sport movement is an open and concealed enemy of the labour movement. In Norway, during the great strike of 1920, the bourgeois sport league mobilised its members to carry on strike breaking work. The chairman of the bourgeois national organisation, who is now also a member of the olympic committee, is one of the chief organisers of the fascist organisations of Norway. Fascism makes use of sport in general for its own purposes. We see that Mussolini is one of the most eager promoters of the Italian sport movement and is often personally present at the opening of great sporting fètes and competitions. He claims that sport will strengthen the Italian nation and preserve it from deterioration. In Germany the bourgeois sport organisations are for the greater part merely a cloak for military fascist organisations.

Bourgeois militarism dominates the greater part of the sport organisations. In France, Belgium and other countries the war ministers are patronizing these organisations. In Hungary, as a substitute for the forbidden military service, a law for compulsory participation in sport has been passed which renders possible the militarising of the youth.

In recent years a new form of the sport movement has developed, i.e. the workshop sports clubs. These clubs are chiefly to be found in the big industries. The industrials have taken in hand the initiative in founding these clubs, prompted thereto by a purely capitalist interest. The chief aim is to divert the workers from political and trade union life. The employer thereby obtains more efficient workers for his workshop and in the third place he can invest his surplus capital in his own sporting grounds. The workers in the workshop sport clubs are becoming completely corrupted and converted into spies of the employers. These workshop sport clubs are spreading mostly in America, England, France, Italy, and Germany. The trade union functionaries in the factories must devote great attention to these workshop sport clubs and attempt to get them out of the clutches of the employers.

There are even cases where bourgeois sport organisations have made it a direct task for their members to agitate against the trade unions, as for example the German Gymnastic School in Czecho-Slovakia, which at the same time is forming the foundation for a future fascist movement.

3. Proletarian Sport Movement.

The workers’ gymnastic and sport movement has been formed in order to oppose the bourgeois sport movement. The workers sport movement comprises two wings: the reformist and the revolutionary movement. The reformist movement is gathered round the international league for workers’ sport and physical culture, that is, the Lucerne Sport International; the revolutionary movement centres round the Red Sport International. The Lucerne Sport International works in the spirit of the Amsterdam Trade Union International. Its numerical strength is about 2 million members. It comprises three tendencies: a revolutionary wing, which works in close contact with the Red Sport International (Italy, Alsace-Lorraine, Finland) a vacillating wing (Switzerland, the German district of Czecho-Slovakia and Germany) and a right wing (Belgium, France and the Czechish part of Czecho-Slovakia, England and Lettland). In Austria the Social Democrats have set up a united front with the exclusion of the Communists. In all organisations there exist fractions which work for the Red Sport International, so that the Red Sport International has gained considerable influence.

The Red Sport International comprises five sections: Russia, Czecho-Slovakia, France, Norway and Uruguay. The organisations in Bulgaria and Esthonia have been destroyed by the white terror. Attempts are being made in various countries to form independent workers’ sport organisations. The task of the R.S.I. consists in freeing the proletarian elements from bourgeois sport, to place sport and its attractive power for the masses at the service of the revolutionary class struggle: further, to promote the physical efficiency of the proletarian youth in order to render them fit for the military tasks of the class struggle, and in addition to fight against militarism and fascism. Besides this, sport is closely connected with political and economic life. The capitalist offensive, the robbery of the eight hour day, touches the immediate interests of the working class sportsmen, so that they are very susceptible to political and trade union propaganda. The trade unions have therefore in this field a direct connection with the sport organisations. Hence it is necessary to draw the workers’ sport organisations into the economic and political defensive struggle of the proletariat, to conduct propaganda among the workers belonging to the bourgeois organisations by calling attention to their economic needs. As a result of a strong opposition in the reformist sport International, the secretariat of this body has approached the R.S.I. with a proposal as to uniting these two Internationals. Before this step was taken the R.S.I. had carried on a propaganda for the united front within the reformist sport International, so that the members of the reformist sport International and individual sections have submitted resolutions demanding that the R.S.I. be invited to the I. International Workers’ Olympiade, which is to take place next year at Frankfurt on Main. In order to placate its members the International Secretariat had to consent to submit this proposal to the R.S.I.

In the International Sport movement there is a similar situation, only with other relations of forces, to that which exists in the International Trade Union movement. The R.S.I. will be prepared to set up the international united front of the workers’ sport movement. The R.S.I. is numerically as strong as the reformist sport International.

4. The Trade Unions and the Sport Movement in Russia.

The great importance of the workers’ sport movement is to be seen in Russia, where it is greatly encouraged by the trade unions. Trade union sport clubs have been established in nearly all the factories. The trade unions are represented in the High Council for physical culture. In Russia, sport is one of the most active means for raising the cultural level. The members of the sport clubs know that it is necessary to bathe, to clean the teeth, to sleep with the windows open and to observe cleanliness in general. The workers and peasants have never been taught these requirements under the tsarist system. The health of the workers plays a great part in production, particularly in the proletarian state. Its importance must also not be forgotten in regard to training a sound and vigorous youth for the proletarian army. In the proletarian state the positive side of sport is most clearly demonstrated. For this reason the trade-unions in the capitalist countries must give heed and seek to influence this movement.

5. The Tasks of the Trade Unions.

In the first place the trade unions must see to it that their members sever their connection with the bourgeois organisations. The trade union functionaries in the workshops must carry on a suitable work of enlightenment, pointing out that bourgeois sport is opposed to the interests of the proletariat. The capitalist workshop sport clubs must be controlled by and affiliated to the existing central workers’ sport federations. The bourgeois sport organisations must be combatted by the trade unions, the trade union press must expose the injurious tendencies of bourgeois sport. In those countries where no workers’ sport organisations exist the trade unions must create such together with the political parties and youth organisations. The so-called neutrality and non-party character of sport are to be opposed in the same way as we oppose them in the trade-unions. The proletarian sport movement must be made use of for the revolution as a portion of the whole proletarian movement.

The III. Congress of the R.I.L.U. has discussed this question and adopted appropriate resolutions.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

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