A PICTURE OF TRADE UNIONISM deviation from its classical policies—- conscription I of the working class for ers. This allowed some misunder- By Earl R. Browder collaboration in the capitalist parties war and industry, a vehicle for float- standing to occur, so that the confu- NOTE—The following article by com- . and strict craft autonomy, ing war loans among the porkers, slonist leadership continued to dom- syndicalist rade Browder was originally writteni The tendency in the a machine for delivering rebellious inate the organization. The result aftd world movement has published as a preface to thei its counterpart workers to the Department of Justice was that thousands of the best rank in America in the English edition of a recent book by Industrial Workers —in short, to take its place as an and file militants left the I. W. W. in A. of (I. Losovsky. the World W. W.) Arising as open section of the ruling class—with- disgust at its propaganda against Sov- protest against the book is the stenographic re- a antiquated struc- out losing its control over the masses, iet Russia. The full effects of the ure and class policies any port of a series of lectures, deliv- collaboration or creating considerable organ- favorable reaction towards the Rus- THIS of the A. F. of L., on hand, ered by A. Losovsky, General Secre- the one ized opposition. sia revolution on the part of the I. | end against the cretin- tary of the Red International of LaSor parliamentary ✓Upon the I. W. W., the war had a W. W. membership thus failed to ob- sm of the Socialist Party the oth- Unions, before the school of the Rus- on hattering effect. Permeated by mili- tain expression in the organization as er, this organization played sian Communist Party in Moscow, a consid*«»ant rebels who actively fought uch. erable role in the ideological develop- against, participation in the world during July and August, 1923. It | •• Most profound was the effect upon was went of American published in pamphlet form in the, revolutionists, slaughter, it brought down upon itself the Socialist Party of the Bolshevik though a much Russian language early year, [ smaller one in the ill the wrath of American capitalism. upheaval. The split which took place this and (lass struggle is herewith presented English./ itself. Dominated at Hut because it was dominated by ayp- in 1919, the formation of the various in ts birth by a leadership ( the most important imbued with icalist prejudices it was completely Communist Parties and groups, and Marxism, yet early it adopted Body characteristic of Losovsky’s lec- the inable to form such a well-knit neir later integration under the in- PROBABLY i nti-political theories of syndicalism. tures is that, for the first time, there of men and ideas as could survive fluence of the Communist Internation- ' Although the form of this syndicalist period suppression is available a comprehensive picture such a of and al, brought a profound change into ' doctrine was largely molded by the emerge stronger than of the trade union movement from the ever on account the left-wing conception of trade syndicalist schools Europe, was world viewpoint, which deals not so ot it of it. After hundreds of its leading union strategy and tactics. At the actually based in the social eco- much with the statics (the unillumin- and nilitants had been sent to prison, the same time this split eliminated the nomic conditions of the western mi- I. W. W. rapidly developed ating details of organization and the into a pa* Socialist Party as even the shadow of gratory worker of America, the only cifist, non-resistant million variations of program organization. It an independent factor. Since 1919 and! element of labor that has per- problems) but rather with the vital' been list not only the bulk of its mem- the S. P. has steadily and consistent- manently in the I. W. bership living influences at work within the i W. On its but, more important, it sur- ly gone to the right, abandoned all positive side the I. developed up labor movement, the tendencies, the , W. W. rsndered its position held until the pretense even of opposition to Gomp- i a complete theory of industrial union- war, of the most of relation of forces and, especially, with | militant section ersism, and today suffer silently from ism, an ideal plan reorganizing the tremendous struggle developing for the American working class. the insults which “the Grand Old the labor top throughout the world since the war movement from to bot- When America was thrown into the Man” heaps upon them the while he tom. It is this concept of industrial • by the forces of revolutionary strug- war, the Socialist Party was again orders them about. unionism, necessarily applying by gle, crystallized in the Red Interna- cen- torn its inner contradictions. The The Birth of Left-Wing 1 tralized organization, which is the the American tional of Labor Unions, against the St. Louis convention in 1917 was dom- chief between the I. W. W. Movement. class collaboration policies of the old difference inated by the anti-war elements. But and European syndicalism. During Within the trade unions there had bureaucracy, organized the right-wing was still in almost in the Ams- the pre-war period for years been a small group of revo- terdam International (International j the I. W. W. un- complete control of the Party, with doubtedly represented lutionists attempting to develop a Unions). | the most mili- the1 result that its practical activity Federation of Trade revolutionary wing therein. In 1912 viewpoint upon It is this world-wide this group organized the Syndicalist which the lectures are -based that League of North America, which ex- gives the book its greatest value. PRODUCTIVITY OF LABOR IN RUSSIA pressed the general tendency of syn- Such a comprehensive outlook is es- dicalism but in flat opposition dual specially to needed in the American lab- DURING YEARS organization, opposing or movement. The trade union 1922-23 thereto the move- idea of revolutionary ment in this country, originally-among nuclei in the During 1922-23 productivity of labor steadily grown month unions. the most militant and isaernational has from mass This movement after in to month, and while 1921-22 the growth of labor productivity lagged a short but active life, subsided, to its attitude, has forty years t&r been behind the increase in wages, during this year the situation was re- appear again in 1916 the Inter- stifled by narrow nationalism, as as Jlxe versed. national Trade Union Educational welljjj"by the jealous craft spirit Taking daily productivity the of one worker, for October 1922 as League, which, however, soon expired within the limits of the nation, of the 100, its growth will be expressed follows: as in the war atmosphere of the time. ''reactionary officialdom headed by October, 1922 100 In 1920 the Trade Union Educational Samuel Gompers. To see and to un- November, 1922 104.5 League formed, marking time derstand that the fundamental prob- December, 1922 113 was for part, while lems of the trade unions throughout January, 1923 116.8 the most it endeavored to bring about unity of program among the world are essentially the same February, 1923 118.1 as our own, an understanding which March, 1923 124 all the left-wing elements. April, study Losovsky’s 1923 122.8 It was at this time that the full a of book will cer- May, 1923 tainly 132.3 of give, is to lay the firmest pos- June, 1923 139.1 effects the Russian revolution upon sible foundation—the only possible the American labor movement gener- Thus during eight months the productivity of labor increased a by ally began to show themselves. one—for broad and powerful revo- 39 per cent. Un- lutionary organization in America. der the leadership of the Communist American Trade Unionism International and later also of the Before brought The War. tint and class conscious section of |i the S. P. few of the benefits Red International of Labor Unions, the American proletariat. L)f a fighting anti-militarist If we were to attempt an adequate | stand. On the revolutionists of America were The Socialist Party as a force in r he other hand, the St. Louis resolu- review of developments within the |" freeing themselves from the peculiar- the trade union movement, has played ; after causing the split away of American labor movement, as com- tion, ly American dogma of dual unionism no dominating role in America. an insignificant group of socialist jin plete and comprehensive as that giv- which had rendered their efforts When it came upon it goes, (Spargo, Walling, al.), en by Losovsky for the International, the scene found et sterile for a generation. The the trade unions already established, brought the S. P. up against the solid result it would require another book of al- was the coming together in a great witl* a crystallized leadership that wall of Gompers’ ironclad control of most equal dimensions. In this brief campaign of left-wing organization was hostile to Socialism. The impa- the trade unions. The socialist lead introduction it is the purpose only to and the clarification of program, in tience of the Socialist with this reac- ers in the labor movement quickly suggest some of the main points of the Trade Union Educational League. ionary trade unionism led not only made their peace wth Gompers. The * comparison. From the mass to the dual unionism which culmin- ideological and organizational strug- trade unions came In the pre-war period of American hundreds of militants hitherto unat- ated in the I. W. W., but also divided gle within the S. P., between the rank trade unionism, three main tenden- tached to any revolutionary on he socialists themselves on the trade and file militants who stood for ac- body cies may be distinguished; they may account of the old dual union union field. The split which divided tive anti-militarism, and the right- notions. be classified as Trade unionism, syn- From the I. W. W. a group the Socialist Party from the Socialist wing leadership that wished to ac- came of dicalism, and socialism. Each of workers who embodied Labor Party, one of the issues of commodate itself to “reality,” pre- all the fine these tendencies, although corre- traditions of which was the latter’s policy of dual pared the ground for the later disinte- the best revolutionary sponding in a general way to their days of that unionism, did not leave the Socialist gration of the Socialist Party. organization. From the analogous foreeß in the European Communist groups split Party free to develop as a power In Effects that away movement, varied in many respects of The Russian Revolution. from the the trade union so- Socialist Party and were from their counterparts in other coun- movement. The The Russian revolution crashed in- later cialist left-wing became militant ad- unified in the Workers Party tries. to this situation, upsetting all the old of America, vocates of the I. W. W„ while the came the full current of Trade unionism, as a distinct phi- inertias and balances. The masses in American revolutionary right-wing, which stood for working experience losophy of the labor movement which the unions responded to it with the ideology. within the trade unions, incap- and In the Trade Union concerns itself exclusively with the was most widespread and effective* for- able of developing a real opposition Educational League all these ele- immediate economic struggle, is ad- ward movement yet seen. Great to Gomperism. , ments, comprising every healthy equately characterized by Losovsky While the Socialist strike after strike shook the country. Party remained, oppo- American left-wing tendency, in dealing with the world situation. “His Majesty’s Hltherto-unorganized millions were flooded fused together into the first effective In the International sition” in the court of Samuel Gomp- . into the unions. For the movement this during op- first time mil- left-wing trade union tendency largely ers the pre-war period, Its j leadership upon movement in is represented by itant a large scale this country, the the British and American position was at almost all times very . able to above American section unions. was appear the stifling vr*. of the Red*vvu lUICIInternationaluauuuai of Labor Un- ineffective, pro- ui uu- One important difference in the pre- it had no trade union Gompers bureaucracy, as in the steel gram, entirely incapable, ions. war development of the two Anglo- and was strike. The masses in the trade gained Saxon movements, however neces- even when its members con- unions had been profoundly stirred. The Red International In America. trol of large unions, of effecting the sary to an understanding of many In the I. W. W. the Russian In the brief years of its work the general course of American trade revolu- present problems, is that while in j tion had been greeted with great ac- Trade Union Educational League has unionism. wrought Britain the trade unions (and trade claim. With the development of civil a profound clarification in unionism as a system of ideas) had Effects of the World War. war and the accompanying struggle the entire labor movement. Starting entered a period of change and devel- The entry of America into the against anarchist and Menshevik ide- out with a great campaign from coast opment even before the war, in Amer- world war brought profound ology in Russia, a division took place to coast and in every labor union, for ica this process had started much lat- < changes in all thesß groups and ten- in the I. W. W. The anarcho-syndical- amalgamation and a labor party- er and under different world condi- < dencies in the American labor move- ist tendency which, combined with a slogans expressing the two deepest tions. Thus while the British labor i ment. The trade unions, during the bastard pacifism, was in control, be- and most fundamental needs of the movement, reformist to the core ’ war and the years immediately fol- came definitely antagonistic to the American labor movement—the T. U. though it was, yet was developing in- lowing,1 made great strides forward revolution; at the same time a large E. It. has reached the minds of hun- dependent political action in the Brit- i in membership. The officialdom was number of the clearer elements defin- dreds of thousands of trade unionists ish Labor Party and embarked upon largely1 incorporated into the govern- itely began to shed their anti-political and influenced the decisions of at least projects of amalgamation that broke l mental machinery and occupied a dogmas and to assimilate the lessons 2,000,000. From the broad slogans that up the hard and fast concepts of t semi-privileged status. “War prosper- of the Russian revolution. The de- stir the masses, it has Intensively de- unionism, craft in this same period i ity” delivered an enormous power in- velopment of this Communist wing in veloped the issue of revolutionary un- the American Federation of Labor t to their hands. The bureaucracy was I. W. W. was retarded by the im- ionism until today it represents the stood solidly against the slightest an jthe i able to become instrument for the I |'prisonment of many of its best lead- (Continued on Page 6.)

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