In the Amalgamated Worker on Hillmanism Belgian Group Splits For more than a year, the development of the Belgian Opposition has been seriously held back by a serious crisis. The disputes were already distinguishable during the confiict around the Chinese Eastern railway, in connection with which the Executive Bureau adopted a position which was rejected by the International Opposition.
where the cause of Justice is involved. But this suggestion is made as a mere gesture to please some radicals. The author eyes are turned in the direction of pure impartial men and women who have no philosophical theories to prejudice them and whese sole purpose in the movement is to serve justice, seeing the guarantee for it in constitutional by laws.
The practical remedies proposed in the book, being of an idealistic or abstract nature are not only worthless but even harmful to a degree, because they are misleading. Some of them could at best be of some use only as secondary demands or slogans and then only on condition that they are subordinated to the major aims, but not as remedies for the evils against which the author is conducting his struggle. These evils can be removed only by an organized struggle of the class conscious workers guided by revolutionary trade union principles. If justice for organized workers is to become a fact the workers must strive not for constitutional or paper guarantees but for real control of their unions for the reorganization of their economic foundations.
Notwithstanding all the defects of the book we recommend it to our readers. ALBERT ORLAND ATTENTION!
JUSTICE FOR ORGANIZED WORKERS, by the liberal ideology of the writer which Louis Kirshbaum, Post Office Box 200 bursts through every line of the book and Station Brooklyn partly to his ignorance of the general laIn simple narrative form the writer bor movement.
of this booklet, a rank and file member of False Remedies the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union The writer lays too much stress on the gives an account of his experiences with differences between the immigrant unions the officialdom of the union, of the condi and the unions of native Americans tions in the shops of the policies of the which are more imaginary than real, and organization and the existing regime that he overlooks the specific conditions in the makes the maintenance of these conditions industry that are of economic origin. Likeand the continuation of these policies pos wise, the writer in spite of his rich exsible.
perience in the which should have The facts dealt with in this book are taught him the proper lessons in regard to not of the out of the ordinary type with methods to overcome the evils against which the membership of the is which he is fighting, arrives at false connot familiar. If such facts as are men. clusions and suggests remedies whose adoptioned in the book were recorded by every tion without a correspondly radical change member of this union they would fill vol in the policies and leadership. would just umes. But just for that very reason, they help to perpetuate these evils by thickening are of importance and significance The the mask and complicating the system of average member of such unions as the deceit which the has so carefully has been accustomed to the rotten elaborated, and to which his own failures actions, and practices of his officials that his are largely attributable.
sense of justice has ben dulled or atrophied The writer sharply criticizes the exand he endures them indifferently without tremists and philosophers contending that protest. This condition is in a great meas they are blind to facts. But the facts he ure responsible for the persistence of the cites in his little book have been known to evils in the trade union movement, and for the extremists long before the writer that matter in all labor organizations. came into contact with them, and it is on Ten Year Struggle the basis of these facts that their theories The writer of this booklet appears be.
were formed, while the writer after a defore the reader as a brave fighter for juscade of sruggle and study emerged as contice and a defender of the elementary rights fused and ignorant in regard to solutions as of the rank and file in the trade union orthe average worker who is not class conganization. For a period of ten years he scious. His vague liberal ideology inclines carries on his struggle against the him in the direction of parliamentary and officialdom and their treacherous policies.
legal reforms which are always used as a The struggle starts with a minor official of oover for false economic foundations. He a Brooklyn local for his arbitrary settlefails to see the roots of the evils ravaging ment of a grievance in the shop where the the labor movement. These roots lie on writer was employed whereby the workan economic plane and not on a parliameners suffered a loss of from ten to fifteen tary one. true militant union, based on dollars a week; it expands to the higher class struggle policies is the only guaroffices until it involves the entire machine antee for justice for organized workers. of the administration, including leadership that truly represents such polthe socalled impartial machinery and the icies will not resort to methods used by Unemployment Insurance offices, the official a reactionary bureaucracy. Methods must press of the union, and even the general correspond to aims, and the aims of a press. All these struggles are carried on trade union organization, which are its in a legalistic manner on a constitutional bases are economic.
union basis and with the writer as the The author suggests a series of remparticipant and victim. In the end he suffers edies of a constitutional nature, forgetting a crushing defeat. He is summarily susthat he himself fell victim to these constipended and deprived of all chances to contutional by laws. because they were either tinue his fight within the organization.
used against him or disregarded in cases The facts brought out in this fight prewhere they could be used in his favor. If sent to us a picture of the most rotten all the suggestions of the writer were adtype of a reactionary union, steeped opted the machine would be greatly graft and corruption functioning in the instrengthened and the struggle more comterests of the bosses and the fat boys of plicated. If impartial chairmen can be the machine. demoralizing the workers bribed and lawyers neutralized and courts and ruining their lives. Graft and corrup intluenced. as the author clearly shows tion permeate the organization from the in the book in what degree would the cause very bottom to the very top, from the inof justice be enhanced through a multipli.
ner circle of the favorite supporters cation of laws courts, judges and other the local machine to the highest offices paraphernalia of class rule? It is clear of the union and the impartial chairman.
that the cause of justice would be harmed It is a vicious ring of conspirators and bein the degree that these laws, courts etc.
trayers of the clothing workers in which were increased, so long as the foundations the officials of the and the bosses of the union remained untouched, because are linked through numerous offices and graft, corruption and deceit would increase.
institutions: an intricate network in which The author, however, is thoroughly the interests of the officials and bosses are consistent in his line. His suggestions are closely interwoven and where the workers no mere slip but an elaborate system of are entrapped and mercilessly exploited. reforms of a purely political character The official is the boss, the union the adwhich to be realized, must be completely ministrator, the judge and the executioner torn away from a class basis. He sugand from his arbitrary rule there is no gests, for example, as one of his major redress and no escape as long as the workremedies the creation of an Industrial er is in the industry.
Forum for impartial investigation of the But all this is done not in the open truth about the aims and methods of the and in public but under the cover of pro labor movement. Does the author seriousgressiveness. militancy realism and ly think that the betrayers of labor like by a fine system of organized publicity that Hillman Green or Woll would participate is deceiving not only the outside world but in such forums? Would the impartial even the membership of the which chairman and commercial lawyers become makes the fight against it the more difficult pure idealists?
and complicated. It is worth while menThe Fantasy of a Forum tioning here the vulgar phrase company The writer complains pathetically that union. so frequently heard from the lips there is no means of learning the truth of the official Communists to denote the at present because of the absence of such The ACW is a thousand times a forum. Does not the writer thereby adworse than a company union but just be mit that he has not learned the truth in cause of that more harmful and the meth spite of his experience or that he also ods to be used against it are therefore also wants Hillman and his conspirators to more complicated.
learn the truth, or perhaps to expose the The booklet of Louis Kirschbaum is a truth about themselves to others. Surely, most valuable contribution in this respect. he does not mean that. Whom he possibly It helps tear off the mask of the conspira has in mind in connection with a Forum is tors and traitors and gives the lie to the individuals in the labor movement who are hypocrites and pen prostitutes in the liber not connected with union offices. But does al and progressive ranks among whom he presume that these individuals are at we find so prominent a personage as the present not seeking and investigating the editor of the official organ of the truth and doing all in their power to The Advance.
spread it?
However, in spite of the great merits There is one suggestion by the author of the book for which we recommend it which might be constructive and that is to every worker, it contains ideas and no his appeal to the individuals of all groups hat are confusing and misleading. in labc moveme belongin to ditThese ideas and notions are partly due to ferent political schools to unite in questions Members of the Communist League and its sympathizers who have received the Christmas ten cent coupons are urgently requested to send in their collections to the national office as fast as possible.
All branches of the League are asked to put the Christmas campaign on the agenda of their next meeting. Find out through a roll call how many members received the coupons, and how many remitted to the national office. Those who have not sent in their collections should account at the branch meeting. Those who have not received any coupons should make contributions. The national office is working under great handicaps and every individual member is personally responsible for deficiencies in the administrative work. Each member must take it upon himself and herself to make the Christmas campaign a financial success so that the necessary improvements can be made at the center which will enable us to function more efficiently by increasing the staff.
No organization can function properly without the necessary staff at the center.
At present we have only one member on the staff. This is an intolerable condition, and must immediately be remedied. It is up to each individual member. We must each take upon ourselves the personal responsibility and the duty to make the urgent improvement without further delay.
Collect on the Christmas campaign and send your collections to the national office or through your branch secretary at once.
For some time the workers grouped around the Charleroi Federation of the Opposition demanded of the leadership a militant Communist struggle which has not as its objective to destroy on an international scale the official Communist Parties and the Communist International, but to lead them back, under the pressure of the just criticism of the Opposition and the pressure of the revolutionary workers, to a really Communist policy by readmitting the Left Opposition into the Comintern.
They vigorously attacked the policy of the leadership and of Van Overstraeten, and fought their deviations which, by their unstable and temporizing attitude, drew the Opposition on to the path of a second Party set it up in reality against the Comintern, renounced in fact the policy of the united front with the Communist workers, abandoned the revolutionary defense of the and suppored the anti Communist pure syndicalists. The false policy of the Executive Bureau was based on the refusal to take a genuine and clear position and the Soviet Union. One of the results of the work of redressing the International on this course was the alienation of the Executive from the workers in the ranks, the development of what was becoming a purely national base, so far as relations with the rest of the International Opposition were concerned.
This false policy led not only to stagnation but to the constant decline of the Belgian Opposition which, at the time of its foundation, grouped together the elements of a serious political development.
In the eyes of the Belgian workers, it distorted the countenance of the Opposition which should appear to them as the healthiest and most active force in the Communist movement.
The oper discussion between the at Brussels and the Charleroi Federation took place in the columns of the central organ, Le Communiste, for a number of weeks. In the discussion, it became clear that the Executive Bureau had only deepened the wrong lines in its course. In the trade union question, it adopted the false position of the autonomists. in the question of perspective, it proposed to drive for the constitution of a second party; in the question of the character of the Soviet State its position was very little distinguishable from that of Urbahns and the ultra Leftists: in its attitude towards the International Opposition, it adopted the position of a very cold, distant cousin. The discussion led to the meeting of the Cen.
tral Committee at Brussels, where a delegate from the International Bureau was present and supported the position adopted by the Charleroi Federation which was identical with that of the International Opposition.
It was clear during the meeting that the discussion could produce no more results. The Charleroi comrades demanded the convocation of a Congress for the entire organization to be called upon to express itself. The leaders of the opposed this alleging that the position had already been taken.
This refusal consummated the rupture.
The Brussels leaders have made clear their opposition to the work of Communist redressment of the International Opposition. can only lead them, as it did to their progenitors, Urbahns and Paz, to extinction or to an anti Communist orientation.
The Belgian Left Opposition, under the vigorous impetus of the Charleroi Federation will now be able to take up the huge tasks before it in the ranks of the Belgian workers, betrayed by the social democracy and poorly served by the small clique of Stalinists around Jacquemotte. The most active elements of the Opposition at Brussels, Gand, Verviers, Malines Anvers and Liege, will rally to its ranks. Our International Bureau has decided to support it in achieving its aims and conducting its work. The clarification of aim and per spective in Belgium will lead, as it did in France and Germany, to the advancement of the movement. 0 HOW STALIX PROTECTED THE BLOOD OF BUCHARIX In his concluding remarks to the Fourteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1925) Stalin declared in answer to the Left critics of Bucharin and the Right wing. Are these facts known to the Opposition? Of course they are. Why, then, do not these comrades cease raising a clamor against comrade Bucharin? How much longer are they going on with their talk about comrade Bucharin mistake? know the mistakes that certain comrades made for instance, in October (November) 1917, and they are so great that the mistakes of comrade Bucharin are hardly worth speaking of in comparison.
These comrades did not merely go astray at that time but they had the impudence to infringe on two occasions extremely important resolutions of the Central Committee, resolutions adopted under Lenin leadership and in his presence. Neverthe less, the Party condoned these errors as soon as the comrades in question admitted their mistakes. In comparison with the comrades of whom am speaking, comrade Ducharin mistake was a trifle. He did not infringe any resolution of the Central Committee. Why, then, all this indisnation against Bucharin? What do they really want of Bucharin? They are out for his blood! That is what comrade Zini oviev demands when, in his concludiwords, he returns to the Bucharin question with so much acrimony. You want Bucharin blood? Well, you won get it. Applause. So much for comrade Bucharin mis.
take.