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Arne Swabeck

N.R.A. and the Trade Unions

Question of Policy Is Decisive in the Present Stage

(August 1933)


From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 39, 12 August 1933, pp. 1 & 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).


We are entering a new stage in working class developments. This s verified not merely in the appearance of the N.R.A. and the new methods of capitalist co-ordination which it attempts to put into life, but primarily in the new relationship of forces created by the new economic conjuncture. These new methods of co-ordination express the efforts to find new ways of chaining the change in relationship of forces and maintain it with in the old bounds.

It is a stage of developing economic struggles over a far flung field which is unfolding before us. At the present moment we see only its small beginnings, however, with a sharpness and acuteness fully indicative of the gigantic tremors which will ensue as these struggles enlarge their scope and intensity. The role that trade unions will play in this next chapter, to be recorded by history in this period, will become one of paramount importance. In the same measure, we can say confidently, will the question of trade union policy be the decisive question of the immediate future. Communists least of all can afford to overlook or ignore this.

No promises can be held out for the upward economic conjuncture. It can be expected only to be of a cumbersome, contradictory nature and heralding deeper plunges into prolonged and more turbulent crises. But that is a quetsion of perspective for which the workers needs to prepare in this present stage. Meanwhile the sharper the present change the sharper the action of the masses. The fact of the reduction of unemployment will correspondingly increase the self-confidence of the workers. Even a small change of economic conjuncture in one direction or another does not take place without leaving its mark. The change which is expressed in new workers being, hired by the factories breeds a spirit entirely different from the one of the continual layoffs.

With all the efforts of capitalist co-ordination of its economic structure, of creating a gigantic monopoly, the competitive warfare does not cease. It only becomes elevated to a higher stage. On the other hand the workers find themselves in increasing measure united by the process of production. Their interests become constantly hammered down to a more unified level. In this sense the relationship of forces is changing in favor of the workers. The intolerable conditions, however, of the extremely low standard of living imposed upon them during the years of the crisis press ever harder for readjustment. But readjustments are not at all contained in the N.R.A. all demagogic palaver of higher nominal wages and shorter working hours to the contrary notwithstanding Readjustments mean struggle. That is what we see initiated today.

It is characteristic that the greatest of the strikes, that of the Pennsylvania miners grew from the demand for the right to union organization. That can be said also to hold true to a more or less degree for other strikes of a smaller scale. In other words under the N.R.A. the workers are taking advantage of the change toward a more favorable relationship brought about by the turn in conjuncture. The elementary instinct of the workers is to translate the fact of their being united by the process of production into unity in organization. Everywhere there is manifested the tendency of workers seeking organization and it is to be assumed that the new conditions created will immensely further and develop this tendency. But in connection therewith the important question arises: Towards which unions will this working class stream gravitate, towards the conservative unions or towards the so-called revolutionary unions, or will it seek new and independent forms?

It should not be difficult to answer this question. The answer depends in the main upon the political maturity of the American working class. And, in this respect we know that we cannot speak of a working class politically mature of having a tradition of socialist consciousness behind it. As a matter of fact we are not here concerned merely with the smaller section of skilled trades but with the broadest strata of the working class. It is the politically undeveloped workers, who are yet, at least to an extent, captivated by illusions of the N.R.A. who are just breaking away from their former capitalist ideology; it is these workers who are being set into motion and who are gravitating toward the unions. Their direction will inevitably be toward the conservative unions. That is already indicated in the Pennsylvania strikes. They cannot be expected as yet to take the step all the way to militant unionism, nor as yet to seek new independent forms.

Will this not imply a revival and growth of the American Federation of Labor? Undoubtedly it will. Moreover, to a certain extent it will change its basic character in that it will record an influx of proletarians from the heavy industries. What will emerge will be an A.F. of L. altered in composition and compelled to make certain organizational readjustments in order to measure up to new conditions. To a certain degree it will be compelled to give way to pressure from the ranks. Furthermore, a pressure in a militant direction will inevitably assert itself as the struggles grow and stand as a heavy counter-weight to the capitalist ideology and policy of the leadership. The continued castigation of the A.F. of L. as a company union, and conclusions drawn accordingly, as performed by the official Communist party leadership, in no way solves the problem of attitude to this union. It only adds further confusion and isolation to the militants. It will be said, and well founded upon past experience: The A.F. of L. leadership will continue its policy of betrayal, it will continue its service as labor lieutenants of capitalism. True enough, one cannot hold out any hope for a change of outlook in this respect. But betrayals have been facilitated essentially by being left unchallenged from the militants voluntarily remaining on the outside. Under such conditions the reactionary policies of the leadership remains entirely dominant over the mass movement. And, on a whole, that is just the salient fact, the leadership is still dominant in the movement and determine its ideology. The problem is to effectively challenge this leadership and infuse the mass movement with a new militant ideology and lead it to political consciousness.

This poses the old problem again before the Communist movement, but in a new and more pressing form. The place of the Communists first of all is within the mass movement. It is therefore necessary to say to the leaders of the official party that now an end must be made to the suicidal and fatal T.U.U.L. policy. It is a splitting policy. It must be substituted by a unity policy. Trade union unity is becoming the paramount issue. The opportunities for its being carried into life are at hand. No one would, propose an outright liquidation of all T.U.U.L. unions in disregard of the question of relationship of forces. But the general orientation must be for unification, away from the revolutionary paper unions and for the Left wing to function within the mass movement.

The prospects are excellent for the workers struggles to deepen and broaden in the coming period.

It will mean also an opportunity to instill Socialist consciousness into the masses. That is the task of the Communists. Only the Communists can lead in that direction. But it is not sufficient to proclaim the abstract right to this leadership; it is necessary to attain it by deeds. It cannot be accomplished only within the very limited frame of the party controlled independent unions but on the whole field of the class struggle. The essential starting point at this moment, however, lies within the mass unions.


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