This is a summary of the Labor Conference workshop on “The Struggle Within the Unions.”
The importance of this question can be seen in the fact that the trade union is the starting point for all of our labor work. It is the most comprehensive form of organization the working class has, arising spontaneously under capitalism as the basic method of worker organization.
In their development in the U.S., the trade unions grew out of the various craft and skilled tradesmen’s organizations and finally, with the rise of the CIO, began to draw into their ranks large sections of the “basic proletariat.” Throughout the development of the unions in this counrty, communists and revolutionaries have played the leading and decisive role.
The birth and development of the trade unions was met on two fronts by the capitalists. First, with open terror, i.e., murder, jailings and beatings, the companies tried to destroy them altogether. But the might and power of the working class could not be beaten down. Realizing that the unions were here to stay, they began to rely heavily on the “labor aristocracy” along with the gun.
By the labor aristocracy, we mean the bribed section of the working class. As Lenin said, ”Imperialism which means the partition of the world and the exploitation of other countries, which means high monopoly profits for a handful of very rich countries, creates the economic possibility of bribing the upper strata of the proletariat, and thereby fosters, gives form to and strengthens opportunism.”
Today, it is the job of this bribed strata, which is represented by such “leaders” of labor as I.W. Abel, George Meany and Leonard Woodcock, to keep the rest of the working class chained to the capitalist system, divided and weak. In exchange for this, they are elevated above the basic conditions of misery and exploitation which the overwhelming majority of the working class faces each day.
It is within the ranks of this strata that the ideology of white chauvinism emanates and understandably so, because if it were not for the plunder and oppression of the people of color throughout the world, these parasites could not exist as they do. The ideology that this small, but influential section spreads within the working class is one of privilege, “serve yourself” and patriotism, as characterized by such slogans as “Be American, Buy American!” These ideas run counter to the basic ideology of the proletariat, “An injury to one is an injury to all.”
The consistent struggle against opportunism and more precisely, against the influences of the labor aristocrats, is the cornerstone of our trade union work. Our objective must be to isolate and finally overthrow this leadership from their positions within the trade unions and bring the trade unions under the leadership of the revolutionary forces.
By stressing the fact that the union is the most comprehensive form of organization, we don’t mean to say that the unions are inherently revolutionary or socialist organizations. Even under socialism, the trade unions will still exist as organizations which encompass the broadest sections of the middle and backward sections of the working class as well as the most advanced sections. What this does mean however is that communists must not abandon the work within the unions through various dual unionist or syndicalist schemes. It also means that we must take the lead in the struggle to organize the unorganized. We cannot skip over the stage of union organization.
Dual unionism is an “infantile disorder” within the workers movement that has continuously plagued it since that movement began in this country. In its “left” form, it means trying to build “pure revolutionary” unions in order to draw workers out of the existing trade unions. This policy was soundly criticized by Lenin in his book, “Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder.” Lenin said:
“If you want to help the ’masses’ and win the sympathy and support of the ’masses’ you should not fear difficulties, or pinpricks, chicanery, insults and persecution from the ’leaders’ (who being opportunist and social-chauvinists, are in most cases directly or indirectly connected with the bourgeoisie and the police), but must absolutely work wherever the masses are to be found.
The fact that this “left” policy is right in essence can be seen by the splitting, dualist policies of the Teamster Leadership towards the United Farm Workers.
Syndicalism is another disease which keeps the workers’ struggle on the economic level, ignoring the political question of state power and seeing the unions as the socialist form of organization. Both syndicalism and dual unionism reflect a petty bourgeois outlook and stand in the way of a revolutionary policy towards the labor movement.
This revolutionary policy consists of forging a united front of the working class forces in alliance with the nationally oppressed peoples under revolutionary leadership. The cornerstone of this united front is the unity of workers of all colors and nationalities. This unity must be built within the trade union movement by winning the unions to a consistent fight for the democratic rights of the Afro-American, Chicano and other minority people.
It also means taking an active role in support of the struggles of the farmworkers, textile organizers, Farah strikers and woodcutters, who, in their efforts to organize have come directly into a battle with the labor aristocracy and its racist line that “only white people can build a union.
By basing our work within the trade unions, the organized sector of the working class, and lending all our possible efforts towards organizing the unorganized section especially the minority workers’ struggles, we can build the core of the united front and in the process, expose the opportunist policies of the labor aristocracy. At times (increasingly so as the crisis sharpens) we will have to con« front the power and influence of the revisionist CPUSA, which has firmly entrenched itself within the labor bureaucracy. In many ways, the revisionists are even more dangerous than the reactionary union leadership because they have disguised themselves as “communists” and therefore must be exposed, not through name-calling, but through the practice of building the workers’ struggle and strengthening the trade unions.
As this is done, we will be attacked as “outsiders” by both company and union leadership, and the CPUSA. We can combat this by rejecting ultra-leftist, anti-union policies and by forging deep roots at the point of production.
While the workshop only began to touch on some of the questions involved in the “struggle within the trade unions” it laid the foundation for further study and a higher level of trade union work.