The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-04-02
Gentlemen


! have received the letter you sent
me, written on behalf of the Amster-
dam Trade Union International. AS
you requested me to do, / COM
municated the contents of your letter
to the Executive Committee of the
Communist International.
You say that you speak on behalf
Of thirty million organized workers,
no more and no less. Gentlemen, /
do not believe you, You have no
more right to say that you speak in
the name of thirty million organized
workers than has Millerand to speak
in the name of the forty million in
habitants of France, or Ebert in the
name of the sixty million inhabitants
of Germany.
No, gentlemen, you will no longer
succeed in deceiving anyone. In reali-
ty, you speak, not on behalf of
thirty million organized workers but
only on behalf of a little group of
Trade Union bureaucrats, group
which lends its support to the bour-
geoisie against the workers when
any fundamental questions arise.
In your letter you ask US, while
criticising your attitude, to give Gre
dit for honest intentions and sin
cere desire to safeguard the interests
of the working class; but ir spite
of our desire to be fair to you, gent
lemen, we regret to say that we
cannot concede you this point.
There may be of course, within
your "yellow" International Of AM
sterdam, some leaders whose actions
are disinterested, and who honestly
believe that they are serving the in
terests of the working class. But
these leaders are not those. who in
fluence is greatest within the AM
sterdam International.
Capable business men, such as AL.
bert Thomas, Jouhaux, the late Le-
lgien, the English Minister Hender-
son, Vandervelde, Troelstra, Brant-
ing, or even Renaudel himself with
in the Labor movement, as conceived
by the Amsterdam international
such men know very well what they
are doing. 1t is impossible that you
all, with your varied experience, you
that have been ministers in more
than one bourgeois government, at
times when the bourgeoisie was con-
fronted with social difficulties and
found it absolutely necessary to
shed the blood Of the workers--it
is impossible for you not to know
lwhat you are doing.
Some of you have come from the
ranks of the workers, but have long
since passed over body and soul into
the camp of our mortal enemies, the
bourgeoisie.
This is becoming more and more
obvious to the more conscious Sec
tions Of the workers. And this is
why one after the other, the Trade
Unions in France, Germany. and else
where are abandoning the Amster-
dam international, and are linking
up with the international Council
of Red Trade Unions established at
Moscow.
You are alarmed because you find
the ground giving way beneath your
feet. Just as, during the last two
years, the workers political parties
have, one after the other, left the
camp Of the Second International, so
the Trade Unions are leaving the
camp of the "Yellow" Amsterdam In
ternational. 1t is as inevitable as
that the dawn should follow the
night. II is as inevitable as the VIC
tory Of the proletariat over the bour-
geoisie.
The first World Congress of the
Red Trade Unions has been fixed for
May 1, 1921, at Moscow. It has been
convened by the International Coun-
ell of Workers Unions, acting in con-
junction with the Executive Commit;
tee Of the Communist international.
All those Unions which really want
to fight the bourgeoisie are invited
to this Congress. We only lay down
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