BourgeoisieCapitalismCominternCommunismCommunist PartyRadekSocialismSyndicalismWorking Class

2.
THE COMMUNIST PAGE SEVEN repeat again: our differences with within the old unions, conducting an agiComrade Radek are not of principle but tation for Communism and mobilizng the limitations of the old unions, is expressed of emphasis. But the Russian comrades revolts against the trades union bureau organizations, but also in the creation of not only in the formation of extra union must realize the new and variegated forms cracy and the limitations of trades union industrial unions, whether independently of unionism that are developing; must structure.
realize that in our country unionism is or by mass splits in the old unions. The industrial unions co ordinate with the extraa much more vital factor in the Revolution The attempt to revolutionize the trades that in their Revolution.
union organizations for unions merely by the capture of the buunited action. feel that at These tendencies must be expressed and the next Congress we shall agree. reaucracy, which is practically immovable, imposed upon the masses and a barrier used by the Communist Party in accordance with the objective conditions and The Minority Theses on Unionism to action, even if successful, would not necessarily transform the trades unions the maturity of the revolutionary struggle.
into organs of revolutionary action.
IV.
The Communist International must con The re creation of the unions, in tendsider the question of Unonism not simply ency now apparent in the agitation for The Communist Party, while its object from the standpoint of winning the masses and construction of industrial unions, will is the conquest of political power, realizes in the unions for Communism, as a field be completed in the Revolution and after, that the means developed out of the ecofor Communist propaganda; we must also under the centralized direction of the Com nomic action of the workers. Under the formulate a Communist conception of the munist Party and faciliated by the proleta pressure of a general crisis, this action forms and functions of the Unions as rian state.
assumes the form of general political Unions. In addition to the general Com struggle for power.
strikes, developing the direct revolutionary It is a mistake to think that the labor munist agitation it is necessary to create union organizations alone can conquer means within the Unions for action in Therefore: capitalism, and that a Communist Party dependent of the bureaucracy and union The Communist Party must organis unnecessary.
limitations.
ize Communist groups or branches in the It is equally a mistake to regard the This takes the form of extra nion shops, mills and mines.
unions as merely appendages of the Party organizations (Shop Committee, etc. The Party must have Communist (although the Party should dominate. within can not only carry on the struggle fractions within the trades Union branches, The unions, particularly as industrial daily fight of the workers against their against the bureaucracy and wage the committees, etc. the extra union organunions, can become active means of revo employers, but also familiarize the workizations and the industrial unions. These lutionary struggle and organs of the refractions, while relentlessly carrying on ers with the industrial union form of construction and management of industry organization and provide means for the particularly express the requirements of the Communist agitation in general, must after the conquest of political power.
direct expression of the mass revolts of the immediate struggle of the workers; II.
the proletariat.
they must participate in and develop all The Communist conception of unionism During the period of the revolutionary movements calculated to break the power of the union bureaucracy, and re create develops itself as a three fold problem: crisis and struggle, when the capitalist sabotage production in order to disorganthe union as means of revolutionary strug. The mobilization of the masses for ize the working class by means of starv gle and organs for the management of revolutionary action to liberate the ation and unemployment, the Shop Com industry.
masses from the petty bourgeois ideology mittees, while emphasizing their character Communist Party should, and practice of trade unionism as means of struggle against the union where conditions permit, build its district The struggle against the union bureaucracy and union limitations, also organizations, according to the geographicbureaucracy to break the power and apexpress the demands of the workers for al distribution of industry, that is to say, control of industry. There arises an open paratus of this bureacracy.
a district organization groups itself around struggle against the employers for con a particular basic industry (while not To reconstruct the unions as in trol in the factories, during which the neglecting ample and intense contact with dustrial unions either by transforming Shop Committees usurp functions of the general mass of the exploited. the old or building the new, as determined management. The bourgeoisie energeticby objective conditions to adapt Union ally oppose this movement, and the strugThis does not mean that the Party beism to the integration of industry and the gle for workers control over production comes an industrial organization, but that tasks of industrial management after the necessarily leads to the seizure of political it concentrates its agitation upon the proconquest of power.
letariat in the basic industries, the action power by the proletariat.
of which determines the action of the III.
After the seizure of power the Shop masses as a whole.
Committees become the first managers of The manner in which this problem is to The industrial district basis of the be solved depends upon the stage of the industry, force the development of the Party organization allows: unions until they are merged in the strucdevelopment of unionism and the revoluture of industrial unions, the organs for a) Making our agitation direct to the tionary struggle itself.
the management of industry.
industrial proletariat (as against the old But although the revolt of the workers The movement of the masses toward Socialist appeal to the public. takes varied forms, in general this revolt expresses itself at first in economic action industrial unionism, caused primarily by b) Feeling and responding immedithe construction of industry, is now asand the economic organizations. It is on ately to the development of the struggle the basis of this fact that the Communist suming a greater importance because it in the basic industries as a means of Party must act in order to secure influence expresses the crisis in the old unions and unitying and developing the general strugover the masses and direct them to larger facilitates the mobilization of the masses gle.
revolutionary action.
for revolutionary action.
c) Preparing special programs of imThe Communist Party must work The revolt of the masses against the mediate action fo reach basic industry The