Onthe Slogan of «Rank and File Leadership»
STRIKE STRATEGY by LEON TROTSKY no leaders. of the rank and Ale leading are searching for some kind of strike FILE CONTROL with had to a certain extent fell victim to tempting to accomplish the same designarty bureaucrats and made use of it PAUK CHE MILITANT SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1932 ganization means, in the last analysis, rank and file control. But the Commun ists who think things out and fromulate their ideas clearly do not speak merely some questions have arisen about the Conference of the Needle Trades Left of democracy. The organization form remarks in a recent issue of The Mili. wing, September 12 13 14, 1926 the idea they advocate is democratic centralism.
And what does that mean? On the one tant on the slogan of Rank and Fille is expressed as follows: Laedership which deserve a somewhat It is only through a strike machin band it means democracy in the organl.
extended answer. The idea has been exery thoroughly representative of the xation. On the other hands against the anarchistic and idea of no In the sphere of the trade unions the Communist composed in the past one of the most important supity it is only a restatemen of the old strike activity. Therefore, foremost function of leadership. This leadership, leadership has entirely confused the party. The com ports of the social democracy. At present, these elelsts really has some merits, that in real ship can effectively be mobilized for leaders. It means recognition of the democracy, and that in any case the the democratization of the strike mach kind of clerical staff or Information parallel trade unions. The presupposition was that Socialists. They are capable of drawing in their wake, roneous in all respects, and only add machineryeras provided in this programability to lead But and herein lies the zations and that the organs of the The Red the labor aristocracy. In this direction, National our opinion such views are entirely er. the democratization of the whole wnion and powers, that is, it is given the pos the mass movement would surge over the old organi if they haven already begun to do so, a stratum of (1) that the general strike committeen distinction from bureaucratism the lead. Trade Union Opposition) would become the initiative Socialism is penetrating into the proletariat from has a considerable importance nothing and heads of the strike be elected by ership Selected by the Fonk and committees of the economic struggle. mere trifle above.
Considerably more dangerous, howevr, is its possible direction in the trade union struggle whops and responsible to them. 2) that yais, is controlled by the rank and alle was lacking for the realization of this plan: the mass scoilected hat Democratie centralism, the Communist movement. During floods in springtime, the waters penetration from below, through the unemployed. No be worth while. The negative manner legally due to this strike committee, to organization principle, therefore presup carry away many a fence. Let us try removing the class can long exist without perspectives and hopes.
in which the slogan was discussed in the expended only for strike purposen: poses rank and file control, but excludes fence, decided Lozovsky, perhaps the tloods of spring The unemployed do not represent a class, but they alprevious treatment, without reference to (3) that secret diplomacy be done away confusionist and demagogle demands for will then rise!
ready compose a very compact and substantial layer, an alternative formulation, also came in with and negotiations with the employeru rank and file leadership. The 1925 program of the needle trades Left wing was The reformist trade unions have survived. The Com which is vainly striving to tear itself away from infor criticism and perhaps gave ground be conducted on an open basis.
for misunderstanding. The present ar. Have these demands, so clear, so pre permeated through and through with this munist party succeeded in getting itself thrown out of tolerable conditions. If it is true in general that only ticle, therefore, will undertake to deal cise and consistent with the whole rounded conception. The slogan of to the factories. Thereupon partial corrections began to the proletarian revolution can save Germany from diswith the latest trade ankom slogom seneral program of the left wing for wärtis improvisation tries to smooth be introduced into the trade union policy. The Com integration and decay, this is especially true as regards rounded fashion the on in over the fundamental contradiction. She munist party has refused to call upon the unorgan the millions of unemployed.
and suggest a positive alternative.
of democratic centralism anything Alongside of the impotence of the Communist party ANARCHIST CONCEPTION OF common with the latter day mumbling has had a lot of practice at that sortized workers to join reformist unions. But it likewise of business.
has taken a stand against workers leaving the trade in the factories and in trade unions, the numerical LEADERSHIP about rank and fille leadership of Is runk and ale leadership new striken? Are the stallnlsts perhapu now article on behis questione confused what unions. While creating parallel organizations it has growth of the party resolves nothing. Within a totdemand of the left wing or is it sim. saying, or trying to say, the same thing to y contrasting the rank and tie engendered the slogans of a battle for influence within tering nation shot through by crisis and contradicply the restatement of an old one? There in a different way?
agitation of the Stalinists in the trade the reformist unions. The whole mechanism repre tions, an extreme left party can find new supporters are two answers to this question. It is CONTROL OF LEADERSHIP?
union to their bureaucratic regime in sents an ideal self sabotage.
in tens of thousands, especially if its entire apparatus an old idea that permeated the needle In reply to this question it is only the Party. The party, it is urged, is not trades Left wing more less before the necessary to ask: If they mean the same the same as the trade union, and there.
Die Rote FAHNE complains that many Communists is directed to the sole purpose of capturing members, emergence of the Communist leadership thing that the left wing meant in 1925, tore the comparison is inappropriate consider meaningless the participation in reformist in the line of competition. Everything depends uprevive the old push cart. on the interrelation between the party and the class.
thing new one of the many stalinist and correct formulation of that time for between the political organization of the they declare. And as a matter of fact, why? If one single employed Communist who is elected to the Innovations which are in reality or the present self contradictory mlah mash? vanguard and the economic organiza intends seriously to fight for the control of the old Factory Committee or to the administration of a trade rowed from anti Marxist schools fore the rise of the Communist influence enough the aims are different now and fundamentally in many ways, including unions, one should appeal to the unorganized that they union bears a greater significance than a thousand in the needle trades the Left wing was the slogan has a different meaning in organization forms, but a coording to the enter them; it is precisely the new strata that can new members, picked up here and there, who enter the heavily tainted with the prejudices of 1925 the left wing was fighting inside Lenin doctrine the organization principle supply the backing for the backing for the Left wing party today in order to leave it tomorrow.
anarchism and syndicalism in their var the union with the aim of wresting of each is the same. Rank and ille But in that case one cannot build parallel unions, e. lous forms. The defeated or out of the strangling grasp of the releadership is an absurdity in either create a competitive agency to enroll the workers.
But the individual influx of members into the party ganizationally in the needle trades, suc actionaries. In 1932 the Left wing, un caso: rank and file control is ultimately will not at all continue indefinitely. If the Communist ceeded nevertheless in grafting a part of der the influence of the prooonsuls of necessary in both.
The policy that is recommended from above for party continues any longer to delay the struggle units ideology onto the militant section of Stalin, are still monkeying around with TROTSKY ON RANK AND work within the reformist unions rests on the same til that moment when it shall have entirely pushed out the rank and dle. The brilliant idea of the theory of company unlonlam and heights with all the other hodge podge. Die Rote the reformists, then it will learn for certain that after the rank and fle which is just another organization outside the existing union.
Note the remarks of comrade Trotsky FAHNE on January 28, laced it into the Communist a given point the social democracy will cease losing way of saying rank and file leadership Euled a certain sympathy from the hotel als to treat these or meaning, and Militant: As the first condition of the because they issued the slogan War without mercy ists will begin disintegrating the unemployed who are The fact that they hit upon slogan on this point in the Junonissue of the members of the Metal Workers Union of Duesseldorf its influence to the Communist party, while the Fasewurde uercebo were in revolt agalust the that fatly contradicts Marxist concer put be pontrol of the party mass over against the participation of trade union leaders in the chief support of the Communist party. Failure bureaucracy.
tions of organization favor of Wobby.
The leaders of the company unionism, is nothing to be surprised at. They the apparatus. These words will bear the support of the Bruening government. Such op to utilize its forces for the tasks that spring from the did not begin their treacherous work a careful reading several times. To portunistic demands are disallowed because they pre entire environment never passes scot free for a polityesterday. The workers had good reason, always do something like this when they to learn about it even before 1919. The experiment with theory. short while shout for rank and file leadership in the suppose. that the reformists are capable of refusingical party.
old movement against the bureaucrata ago it was independent leadership of Ale control in the party is a double miss this smacks of vicious horse play! DIE ROTE FAHNE WHAT IS RED UNITED FRONT unton and soft polal about rank and to support Bruening and his emergency decrees. Truly, which had not yet thought out its pro cracked their heads on the rocks strike struggles. After they had take a howling inconsistency all the In order to clear the road for the mass struggle, blems and formulated a clear program, this formula, they quietly dropped it. wnton fakers, it seems, snatched up our allows their being subjected to a political test by strikes. The successes in this sphere have not been way around. Some of the Right wing deems it sufficient to call the leaders names but dis the Communist party strives to stimulate sectional had a tendency to identify the idea of Now, with a new slogan, which is quite criticism of the inconsistency of the the masses.
with the ruling clique and different in appearance, they are at.
great. As ever, the Stalinists devote themselves to this nihilistic conceptions on the question of that failed before, namely to find a means invalidate the criticism. The cor unions that an exceptionally fruitful field is now open. We haven yet learned how to And all the while, it is precisely within the trade self criticism, We are as yet incapable of organizing attract.
ists and the In this respect, midst of a strike regardless of the at rective for such perasitic exploitation for action. While the social democratic party still We haven as yet learned how to capture. What but other hot an bhe khada en el seu citude of the majority of the workers we zight wing is not to keep silent about hullaballoo, the trade unions are confronted by the The theory of the March days in 1921, of blessed the needle trades Left wing.
But ten years or more ago the Com. and ale leadership, and no doubt aluo exert some rank and file control in The 200, 000 300, 000 workers who are now organized trify the proletarat by means of the offensive activhave brought against the slogan of rank correct them. Let the Party members impasse of capitalism as by a hopeless prison wall. memory, is being resurrected, which proposed to elecmunists came to the front and soon gain. stimulated by the poor reception that this respect in their own Party: The in independent Red untons, could serve as a priceless ities of the minority: But the workers are in no need ed the decisive loadomhlp of the Lett received from the rank and Ale at same task in the trade unions will then leaven within the reformist brotherhoods.
wing movement by virtue of their sup tempts are being made to interpret the be greatly simplified and facilitated.
whatever of being electrified. What they want is erior policy. One of the first positive slogan in a different way than was origthat they be given a clear perspective, and be aided steps of the Communist Left wing was Inally intended. Rose Wortis, for exam. the trade unions today, and to fortify CRITICISM AND SELF CRITICISM In order to wage an effective fight in to clear up the muddled ideology of the ple, who strives to avold obvious absurd.
Towards the end of January there was held in in creating the bases for a mass movement.
In its strike strategy the Communist party is obruleb ish Which had paralyzed the strug watching can speaks and the Daily Worket must have consistent slogans allt allons Berlin a Communist conference of the factory commitflestand strengthened the position of the tor May 31st about a real strike for those prineiples and organization whiched the report, The factory committees are welding interpreted by Manuilsky or Lozosky. As a matter tees from the entire country. Die Rote FAHNE print viously motivated by isolated citations from Lenin as reactionary bureaucrats. Rank and Ale union conditions under rank and file demagogy and formlessness in the dom. control. Our emphasis. will govern the union when it comes the Red Workers Front (February 2, 1982. But of fact, there had been periods wherein the mensheviks ain of organization gave place to the under the control of the left wing. It you would seek in vain for information regards the fought against the strike frenzy. while the BolsheThus it would appear, according to must practice in the Left wing unions conception of democratic centralism. The the Wortis version, that rank and file under its leadership that same methods composition of the conference, the number of indusviks, on the contrary, took their place at the head of old and outworn reformist method of In contradistinction every new strike, drawing into the movement ever inleadership and rank and file control are which it demands in the reactionary un tries and workers represented.
workers organization makes an articla synonomyous expressions. But this is ons where it congtitutes and opposition to Bolshevism, which painstakingly and openly marked creasing masses. This was in response to the period bership on the one side and the ruling by no means the case, either in the neid it the Left wing fails to do this, if it every change in the correlation of forces within the of the awakening of new class strata. Such was the of organization or the dictionary. shuttles back and forth with bureaucrats on the other. This state of in every democratie organization the of expediency on every occasion, it will working class, the German Stalinists, following in the tactic of the Bolsheviks in 1905; and during the inaffairs created the conditions for anti oldmate control of the rank and sle is lose its principle guiding line, and with footsteps of the Russian, play hide and seek. They dustrial upward trend in the years preceding the war; leadership prejudices to gain The Lenin idea of democratic centrallet pre supposed; but the selection of the it the power to shape and lead a victor are loth to admit that the Communist factory commit and during the first months of the February revolufuses the leaders with the masses and leadership and its functions remain a tous movement of the masses. tees compromised less than per cent as against 84 tion.
This is what has been happening in per cent of the social democracy! In this correlation mento per le round hilor contrasting the the role of leadership can solve the recent years under the direction of full is summed up the balance of the third period. Sup ginning with the July clash of 1917, the tactic of the But in the period directly preceding October, beone to the other. This idea gained the problem for themselves by a reference blown Stalinism. The results speak for of the most important reasons why its hegemony in the left wing, and was one to control. Wortis, for example, was themselves; and in the catastrophic sita pose one does call the isolation of Communists in in Bolsheviks assumed another character: they held back fighting capacities grew by leaps andership consisted in maneuvers to escape trade leader, but three fourths of her lead. uation of the left wing in the needle dustry, the Red United Front. will this really help strikes, they applied the brake to them, because every bounds. From a chaos revolving around this rank and file control she tallesforce and clarity.
an exceptional further the matter?
large strike had the tendency to turn into a decisive one spot the Left wing became a real about.
contender for power in the unions, and ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN to be of the party and the rett Wing the propetamine the most virulent and dangerous line yet matured.
The prolonged crisis of capitalism induces within battle, while the political postulates for it had not as in some case achieved it.
STRIKES AND UNIONS However, during those months the Bolsheviks conit down and balts its progress at every of demarcation: between the employed and the unemInhaltsstruggle to break the backbone Leadership is a necessary condition step. The general night to liberate the ployed. Through the circumstance that the reform tinued to place themselves at the head of all strikes of the bureaucracy which was throttling for any common action, says the reso, merement from this paralyzing Influence Ists control the industrial centers while the Commun which flared up, despite their measures of precaution, the undous the communistic Left wine lution of the Third World Congress liceo has to be supported by a concrete strus ists control the unemployed, both sections of the pro chiefly in the more backward branches of industry questions fons, including the organization does not at all exclude rank and flu which contributes to the defeat of the letariat are being paralyzed. The employed are in (among textile workers, leather workers, etc. Communists formulated their aghting ever a selection of persons for leading and fle leadership is one of these er are more impatient. At present their impatience bears stimulated strikes in the interests of the revolution, strength. The control of the leadership, Implies bow Left wing workers. The slogan of rank a position to bide a while longer. The unemployed While under some conditions the Bolsheviks boldly Blogs Oba precisely and accurately and to functions. And it has the same force rors, the harmfulness of which is clearly a revolutionary character. But should the Commun under other conditions, they, on the contrary, reorganization. Confronted, then as now, sional leaders or rank and Ale workers with the subotaging role at the bureau elevated to leading positions or coramitise with such an polies. The rent op: struggle as would unite the employed and the unem In this sphere as well as in others, there is no ready There can be no ground for compromist party fail to find such forms and slogans for the strained from strikes in the interests of the revolution.
to leap over the difficulty by denying action the question arises at once, and position, by its criticism, has driven the ployed and thereby open the perspective of a revolu made formula. But in every given period, the strike the necessity of an official leadership. inescapably: Who is going to lead? You Stalinists from more than one false posl. tionary solution, the impatience of the unemployed tactics of the Bolsheviks always composed a part of On the contrary, they formulated a ger can answer, this group or that group: the effort to do the same in this case, tion. It must not halt for a moment will inevitably react against the Communist party.
the general tactics, and to the advanced workers the eral demand applicable to the unlon as this committee or another. But if you correction of this error requires no a whole, and a subordinate one, consist wish to be taken seriously, do not say new wisdom. With the aid oleme siento party and the rapid development of the revolution, the clear.
In 1917, despite the correct policy of the Bolshevik connection between the part and the whole was always out with it, applicable to the manage the rank and Ale is going to lead the rank teaching the Left wing solved the pro more badly off and the more impatient strata of the How do matters stand now in Germany? The emment of HISTORY OF THE SLOGAN problem or with a statement that the blem in question in ita program of 1925. proletariat, even in Petrograd, began between Septem ployed workers do not resist wage cuts because they On the one hand the Communist Left rank and Ale will control. That is not what is needed now is a return to the ber and October, to look away from the Bolsheviks to are in fear of the unemployed. Small wonder in the wing raised the demand for honest, mill the same thing.
1925 formulation.
tant leaders in the union in place of. JAMES CANNON.
wards the syndicalists and anarchists. Had not the face of several million unemployed, the ordinary tradeIn every organization certain persons the corrupt, reactionary fakers. In har are selected for leading functions or October overturn broken out in time, the disintegration union strike, so organized, is obviously futile. It is mony with that, and consistent with the committees. By that fact they become within the proletariat would have becume acute and doubly futile in the face of political antagonism THE MILITANT organization program whien the Left leaders. regardless of whether they Published weekly by the Communist would have led to the decay of the revolution. In tween the employed and unemployed. This does not wing would apply when it gained the have had previous experience or not. Such control of the unton, it demanded the leaders, under the principle of democratic Langue of America (Opposition)
Germany there is no need for anarchists; their place exclude sectional strikes, especially in the more backdemocratization of the union, and parti. centralism, are inseparably fused with at 84 East 10th St.
can be taken by the National Socialists who have ward and less centralized branches of industry. But cularly of the strike machinery. At the rank and fle, they are accountable EDITORIAL BOARD wedded anarchist demagogy with conscious reaction it is just the workers of the more important branches that time, you see, the Left wing was to and controlled by the rank and Ale Martin Abern James Cannon ary aims.
of industry who, in such an environment evince a leannot conducting temporary excursion Max Shachtman Maurice Spector The workers Arne Swabeck immunized once for ing toward heeding the voices of the reformist leaders.
into the reactionary unions; it was to confuse the leadership with the mass, aiming to conquer them, step by step. or to contrast one to the other people November 1028, at the post ometer and the petty bourgeoisie represent coupled recept strike struggle, without changing the general situation Entered as second class mall matter all against the influence of Fascism. The proletariat The attempts of the Communist party to unleash a ingly. The Left wing did not bluster presents a muddle which no one can Under the act of acles, especially under the present conditions, when the within the proletariat, lead only to minor guerrila about rank and fille leadership. it de understand and for which everyone can March 8, 1870.
manded rank and Ale control. Moreoevr, have his own interpretation.
SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1932 reserve army of workers cannot but effuse petty trad operations, which, even if successful, are left without it formulate this demand precisely, so DEMORATIC CENTRALISM Vol. No. 24 (Whole No. 120)
rs and hawkers, etc. while the bankrupt petty bour a sequel.
that everyone could understand Just IN UNIONS Subscription rate. 12. 00 per your; torgeoisie effuses proletarians and lumpen proletarians. TROTSKY.
what was meant.
Leadership is one thing, control of the olga 50. Hvecento per copy.
Salaried employees, the technical and administra. From WHAT NEXT Vital Questions for the In the program adopted at the Third leadershdp is another Democratic or Bundle rates, cento per copy. tive personnel and certain strata of the functionaries German proletariat)
policy foothola.
they speak with This is undo any no