DISCUSSION
OF ZINOVIEV’S REPORT ON THE TRADE UNION QUESTION
BERGMANN
(MEYER): Comrades, yesterday, in his report, comrade Zinoviev
insisted on the fact that the question
of attitude vis-a-vis
the trade unions has a preponderant importance for the development, for the progress of the revolution. We know that the conquest of
political power must be on all fours with that of economic power,
and, to tell the truth, its not solely a question of the acquisition of political and economic
power; we must, even now, prepare ourselves
for the fact that with the conquest
of power one has done nothing if one does
not create the preliminary conditions to be in a
position to next consolidate and preserve this power. Such is the problem
to which we must find a solution. In the past phase of the revolution at the
scale of different states, certain
regions in certain countries have often already come to take power; but,
to some diverse degrees, these revolutions have
not united to consolidate and build this power once conquered. And in most cases, one has failed, as in 1918 at
the time of the eruption of the German revolution, because one has not united,
once political power was conquered, to establish economic power. Comrades, it
is necessary to test the dimensions of this cause. Communists must examine what
is to be done in order to eliminate
these errors and find the means by which
such setbacks will not be reproduced in the future. We cannot and must
not, in the highly developed capitalist countries, rely on occasional possibilities and yield to the
illusion that all will be well. We must insofar as this is possible
within capitalist society, concretely seek to create some organs that can
appear at the instant they are called
on to complete their tasks. In his report, yesterday comrade Heckert analysed the tasks that had
been posed for the old trade unions,
and he showed us how they tried to realise them within capitalist society. Likewise
comrade Zinoviev clearly and distinctly outlined for
us what the trade unions have to do
in the revolution and how – just as I have already stated -- they must next aid
in building and consolidating economic
power.
When we consider the task and the structure of the trade unions of the capitalist period, we see, above all in the highly developed capitalist countries, that their task was to ameliorate the life of the working class within capitalist society. This task which was posed to the trade unions is no longer to be resolved today, no longer to be accomplished. On this subject, no difference of opinion can prevail among us. In spite of this, we see many trade unions still trying today to accomplish their old tasks, which was correct and good in the pre-revolutionary period, whereas they can no longer resolves them when actions are openly engaged. These trade unions have become the second weapon of the capitalist state.
Comrade Zinoviev told us yesterday that presently the capitalist states hold the working class in subjection, not only by the sword but by the lie. And this apparatus, this state apparatus of the lie that still lastingly maintains the working class in oppression is constituted today by the old trade unions.
Thus, they have become today, we see it above all in
Comrades, you believe you are able, at the present time, to conquer such organisations, to transform them into instruments of
the revolution. On this subject the opinion of the KAPD -- and not uniquely its opinion, as
it appears here -- diverges from that of the majority of parties that have been admitted into the Communist International. I say that the KAPD is not
alone in defending
this
point of view: the shop stewards In England, the IWW in the United States, the syndicalist
organisations In France, Spain and
Italy show us that they are of the same opinion; with the aid of the counter-revolutionary
trade
unions, in undertaking their conquest, one cannot revolutionise the working masses;
one cannot
transform
them into instruments of the revolution. We see this process unfolding and perfecting itself
in
Even today, the entire line of the old trade unions is on this position. Comrades,you seek to replace the open struggle of the working masses by a semblance of combat. Thus, in 1918 the German workers, taking as their model the Russian revolution created workers' councils; the council idea more and more asserted itself in the German proletarian masses and did not allow itself to be either buried or trampled then, that is to say, up till April-May 1919, the trade unions practiced a weather vane policy. From the very first, they sharply fought the idea of workers' councils, suppressed it in a most brutal fashion, by force of bayonets. But then this idea emerged again. It was then with the aid of these trade unionist satellites of the state that the law on the councils was created which had to supposedly assure the working masses influence over production, consumption, above all the economic movement in general. In this epoch broad working masses allow themselves to be deluded, they truly believe that such a law gives them an influence over later development. But it has been demonstrated little by little that this law is so finely constructed that it signifies, in the worst sense of the term, the gagging of the revolution. Today we see the working masses who in days past through [threw?] themselves onto this hook, now completely freeing themselves.
It is not necessary to hear thereby that all the workers have already
seen through
this
patent fraud. But we see today broad layers of revolutionary workers starting to
struggle against this apparently
revolutionary, in reality reactionary law. The councils that were elected and
formed then are not instruments of
the masses' revolution, but only instruments of reaction, in the worst sense of
the word. We observe it at the time
of each struggle, great or small. One example only: when, in March of this
year, in central
HECKERT: That's an absurdity:
BERGMANN: Come now, comrade Heckert, I know better than you the facts of Leuna, and I know how they unfolded. It was a comrade of the VKPD and a comrade of the KAPD who revoked the council after a fight, and Tuesday morning a revolutionary action committed was elected by the workers in the enterprise.
It was like that wherever the workers marched into combat. Comrades
we must now carefully examine
whether this development can and must continue. If we see that the workers can
have no confidence in these factory councils created by the law on councils, we must then force ourselves to
otherwise regroup the workers, we must give them some other councils
which, then, when the revolution triumphs, will effectively enjoy the confidence of the broad masses of the industrial proletariat. How can
this be brought about? Is it possible or not within the old trade
unions, which have shown us, through their action, that they have become
a part, and truly a very strong part, of the capitalist state. We
see everywhere, not only in
In the course of the revolution they, have begun then to constitute cells which, when they showed themselves, were very quickly brought to report that the trade unions, taken in all their elements, could not remain one whole, but that some German federations were expelled, not only some cell members, but even some entire organisational bureaus. To have today some places where all the members who belonged to these cells have been expelled. Better yet some entire organisations, solidly united, were also; what is thus realised is in fact the destruction of the trade unions. When one side of the old trade union bureaucracy [… affirms?] what I said here, that is to say that the trade unions are destroyed and dispersed by this kind of activity, the comrades of the VKPD affirm then that this is not the case, that they construct cells with a view to maintaining the trade unions. They believe that you can animate with a revolutionary spirit the unions that have become the solid bastions of the reaction.
Comrades, it has already been said yesterday that the oppression of the Class is realised
thanks to the sword and the revolver
and thanks to deceit, that is to say on one side the army, on the other the
trade union bureaucracy; we have likewise seen-- and on this subject there can
exist no difference of opinion—that one cannot animate the standing army with a
communist spirit. No more than one can
make the standing army a
tool of the revolution, can one make
the organs of deceit -- the trade unions -- instruments of the revolution.
Everywhere we see things developing like that; everywhere the
development arises in this way
and, because of this, the slogan of communists
must not be: conquest of the trade unions,
but destruction of the trade
unions, and, at the same time, construction
of new organisations.
Comrades, we must recognise and demonstrate from, this day on, by making a rigourous outline, the forms the proletariat needs to hold well and affirm its power after having carried off the victory. For this it is necessary, above all in the highly developed western European countries, that, from this day on and as broadly as possible, we bring the masses of proletarians to create for themselves the organs that will then be sole to direct production. Heckert said here yesterday: the cells that must cover the enterprises must be developed outside of the enterprises in organisations of industry; this goal, outlined, it is true, in a most rigourous fashion, is the goal of primary importance pursued by the associations of different tendencies that were born in the course of the revolution in Germany.
The old workers’ association of the miners, which alluded
to a little while ago, showed, in
its nature and the entirety of its tendency, another direction than that
of the old organs of the previous
period. It found itself in clear-cut struggle with reaction, with
The General Workers’ Union of Germany which, since its
origin, worked in close connection with the KAPD, has explained and recognised that the unions are taking another road today, that they must be constructed
differently, that they must
struggle and fight with other means. The General Workers' Union consistently opposes the means of struggle that were
adopted by the trade
unions in the past, in the point
of its statutes that concerns adherence
to the factory organisation, one finds, in the first place, as preliminary condition, the demand that
members be partisans of the dictatorship
of the proletariat. In these statutes it
is further indicated that members
must oppose the old rusty weapon of the political domain: participation in elections to
parliament. It creates in its ranks, beginning
with its organisation in the factory, the councils
that must be the organs exercising power
the day of the struggle and behind which the
proletarian masses will stand. These
councils, comrades, are not councils in the style of the counterfeit
councils that we saw born in
Comrades, the international workers' movement, the international communist movement, will have to have this principally in view, it will have to if it doesn't want to commit an error, if it sees clearly how things happen, enters upon this course, if it must be possible to hold the power conquered in the capitalist countries. We see that the task of the old trade unions consists more today in disguising the contradictions that arise, in smoothing them over, in lying to the workers, in defeating them. We have doubly so the task of showing the workers in practice that it is possible to create now the practical organs that show the working masses the other road, that show what a council system means, what their task is, how they must be made. This cannot be the case within the old unions. The trade unions, as we envisage them, are structured by factory organisations in the enterprises, at the source of production, where the working masses find themselves united, where they form a great whole; there, each worker has the most chance of being involved, on the basis of the same labour, in the constitution of some workers' organisations, in such a way that he has a interest in the general development, to the body of labour itself. Comrades, this cannot happen if we create some trade unions in which there is a central dictatorship of the high towards the low. On the contrary, it is necessary that the will of the highly developed industrial working masses succeeds in echoing from the bottom to the top. The source of this force is in the enterprise itself. It is there, in the process of production, that we must lift up and train the worker, so that he becomes himself an instrument of the revolution. In these conditions, centralism from the top cannot be the principle of construction of the trade unions; development must happen in the reverse. We guide the body of the workers into the factory organisations. In the enterprises the workers elect their councils, their organs that represent their interests. Comrade Heckert said yesterday that we, the communist workers party, refuse to 'intervene in the questions of daily struggle, that we always have only the great goal in sight, straight off. We have the task, as communists, not of launching slogans for daily struggle amongst the working masses, but these slogans must be laid down not […?] the working masses in the factories. We always have to indicate to these working masses that the solution of these daily questions will not ease their situation and that in any case it can not lead to the decline of capitalist society. As communists we have the task of always putting before the broadest masses the great goal, the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of communist society. We have, we communists, [the task?] of participating in this everyday struggle, of marching at the head of these struggles. In this way, comrades, we oppose the daily fight, but in this daily fight we place ourselves in the forefront of the masses, we always show them the path, the great goal of communism.
Such is the task of the communist party, of the communist organisations, in these workers organisations.
We know, however, that these economic organisations
can easily
fall into opportunism. We see everywhere the danger that they do not recognise the goal.
We do not only see it in the
German trade unions, but also in the trade unions which have already broken from the central federations
and struggle with some revolutionary means.
We have seen it in
SCHULZ: What percentage of Dittman hides
in these thoughts?
BERGMANN: I do not understand, comrade
Schulz, how we can compare this with Dittmann. When
we see the organisations of different countries, united today at
the international congress of red trade unions, penetrated by the same idea:
force the revolution in the world, fill the
masses with revolutionary spirit, destroy capitalist society, then we must find the means to assemble the most possible of
these masses on a fundamental unitary line, and in such a way
that it leaves the broadest margin of
action in each country, conforming to its different structure. The movement is not identical in all countries, we do not observe
the same tendencies or the same possibilities
of development. We see that the American
IWW finds itself in the old trade
unions; it is possible that perhaps it cannot do otherwise in
Things are not presented in the same way in
The revolutionisation of the trade unions in the countries where they have become the firm support of capitalism is today an absurdity. To believe that one could accomplish this is to miss at the first throw. The 9 to 10 millions trade unionized Germans could, if they were revolutionised, if they constituted the organ of the revolution, effectively take power today; they could, if we had them on our side, profit by the situation, each day, at each hour, in order to destroy capitalist society in Germany, to fire the revolution there and, thereby, to push the world revolution forward. We see these organs fail everywhere, and they must fail, and because of this, in the interest and service of the revolution, we must, call for their destruction. As we have had to destroy, to crush the political parties of the pre-revolutionary period, so we must destroy the organs of economic organisation, the trade unions, before coming to the victory of the revolution.
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Comrades, if the destruction of the trade unions, if the struggle in
the trade unions
in the highly developed capitalist countries has not shown enough
violence up to now, if today on
our side the accent is not placed
enough on that, it is because the beginning of the revolution took more of
a political than economic
character.
We see at the present time that
the economic question is placed a
little more on the primary
plane, that the economic basis of the
struggle arises in a sharper way, and because of
this decomposition and destruction
more take the upper hand in the trade unions. In England and in Germany, although
the trade union bureaucrats may be covered at
least in proportion to their sins as
the political parties of the pre-revolutionary period, we see that the
decomposition of the trade unions has not progressed as quickly, because the
demand for their destruction has not been put forward in as strong a way.
Comrades, I do not want to put forward that thereby the political organizations
have already fulfilled their tasks.
I would not want it to seem like that. But we see everywhere, as I said before, that
the economic question attains a more
elevated degree, that it pushes itself onto the primary level. The trade
unions of the pre-revolutionary epoch
cannot resolve the tasks of the revolution, whence their destruction.
Comrades,
we find ourselves, on the subject of the trade union question, in open disagreement
with the majority of comrades present
or represented here. If we have arrived at this conception,
if we hold on strongly to this thought, it is not because it is an idea
that has no basis for us, but because through the march of the revolution in German and
also in other countries -- presently
in England —- we have seen that we must create, even now, organs that
will be called to take charge of
production. We find ourselves on this terrain: in the service of the
revolution, for its continued development;
and we must regain there, we must persevere in this viewpoint if
we do not want the revolution
to regress in these countries. From the
given economic situation of
a country we recognise things such as they occur; we draw our conclusions and
we act in conformity with them. If we
see the situation in such a precise way, if we recognise
it and organise ourselves in this manner, we can really render some revolutionary
service, really create the
organs that on the day of the revolution will be the bastion on
which the dictatorship of the
proletariat can be erected. It will
not be otherwise; this is not leaving
the old counter-revolutionary organisations in
existence and seeking to decomposing them from within, but in creating new organs for the destruction of capitalism and, at the same time, of
construction of communism that the victory of the revolution will have assured.