THE SELF-MOVEMENT OF THE MASSES !
 b) Extension of the movement One of the first functions which take root in the thinking of the struggling masses is the extension of their movement. Today this question is still vehemently contested, but clarity on this point will be introduced mainly by the power which the movement develops. For a movement either grows rapidly into a genuine mass movement, or else it is suppressed in the very act of getting under way. The old labor movement knows two methods by which a movement is extended. Either the trade-union leadership decides as to whether and in what measure this is to take place, and to that end sets the organizational apparatus in motion, or else various parties by means of leaflets etc. issue a call for solidarity on the part of the workers of other enterprises and occupations. In either case the extension is here not a function of the striking workers, but of the "labor movement". A struggling mass that comes out on its own is first concerned with the taking over of this function. And then not in the sense that the "self-styled" strike leadership issues a call to the other industrial groups, but in the sense that the striking mass itself visits the other enterprises in order to urge their class comrades to solidarity. Besides, it is quite conceivable that the workers still on the job fail to follow the exhortations of other organizations. The organizations are continually engaged in a struggle among each other, because each organization wants to increase its own membership at the expense of the others. So that the mutual struggle of the organizations is rooted not only in the difference of conception regarding the tactic to be employed, but is also a matter of organizational interests. No worker can finally fail to be aware of this, and so he lends no ear to the slogans of other organizations. But when the striking workers themselves come up and appeal to the solidarity of the other workers, the matter takes a different aspect. The conflict between organizational discipline and class allegiance then assumes for each individual worker a sharper form, and the "danger" of a fraternization becomes more probable. The ruling class will therefore do everything in its power to prevent this fraternization; to every attempt of the masses to carry out the extension themselves, it will reply with strict military measures. For the present, a strike movement can accomplish nothing in the face of this military power, so that it appears senseless to seek extension in this manner. And yet it is not senseless. For the workers who then still refuse to take part in the movement are forced to work under military protection. The military state power which they hate has to protect them against their own class comrades. In this way the psychological conflict between trade-union discipline and class solidarity is sharpened and new possibilities for the extension won. Even today, that is, in "normal times", when the horizon reveals not a cloud of aggressiveness on the part of the workers, the functioning of extending the movement through the agency of the workers themselves must be placed on the order of the day. Wherever workers come together, this principle must be given the central position. Looked at superficially, this has no direct, practical significance; and as a matter of fact we are not in a position to determine in what measure this principle will find a response -- that can only be ascertained in practice. But the practical application of the new principle can only be facilitated by an intensive preliminary work and preparation. A truly revolutionary propaganda does not, then, consist in the ever renewed calls to "revolution" or in the "release" of all possible conflicts. It consists in the constant, unremitting preparation of the possibilities of extension, so that the inevitably coming class conflicts may embrace the greatest possible number of workers. |