The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-30
A few remarks on the Congress Of
the Red International Of Labor Union
(Profintern.)
BY MoIssAYE J. oLcIN.

geois by social position and bour-
geois by the grace OF social reform
ism, calls US Communists, utopians,
dreamers. This is what the Russian
philistines called the Russian revolu-
tionaries twenty years ago here, in
this estate of the tzars, in this "holy"
Moscow where most of the graves of
the one-time respectable" and "prac-
tical realists (graves, physical and
politicaD are now rotting away in ig-
nominious oblivion. When you travel
the width of U.S.S.R. Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics OTIS about time
we knew what these initials mean)
and observe the new forms of free
proletarian life sproutIng on virgin
revolutionary soil, you laugh deris.
lively at those clever ones who deem
to annihilate you by the bombshell
dreamer. But if you were to spend
two weeks at the Congress of the
Profntern (Red International of La
Dor Unions-R. l. L. W with it's de-
tailed reports and mastery analysis
of the world trade union movement,
you would say that it is the "respec-
table" social reformists of the Am
sterdam International who are tht
actual utopians, whereas the move
ment represented here, in this Hall o
Columns of the House Of the Unions
is movement of shrewd and circum
spect practiciens who study the so
cial forces of post war society, under
stand the trend of history, know the
nature of the approaching enormous
conflicts, and prepare the working
masses for the role allotted to them
by the development and decay of cap
italism,-the inevitable and unavoid-
able struggle for power
There, lazy acquiescence in imper-
ialist Vaccinations; in most cases,
actual aid to the forces that are rob-
bling the working class of its subsis-
tence minimum and preparing a new
horrifying world catastrophe; at best
a pious hope that oily democracy
will turn a cure-all for the "evils" of
society and lead us painlessly and
OudFCtJy lnlO Tic ndNGu VI SOCidllSIu.
Here, a pitiIess search for the truth,
a keen application of past expert
ences to the solution of complicated
problems, a courages facing of conse-
quences, however difficult, a readiness
to fight in world where nothing can
be gained without organized, consis-
tent social warfare.
Who are the dreamers?
In certain respects the Profintern
congress, less numerous and less
sparkling than the great world con
gress of the Communist International,
was even of a more fascinating ma
ture than the latter. Here was
dealing with the everyday actuaIities
Of the workingmen's life. Here was
felt the breath of that incessant strug-
gle which the industrial worker is
compelled to lead for his daily bread,
a struggle that is the daily bread of
the working class. There were
mostly men from the ranks of the la.
Dor unions, men who went thru the
hell of shop work, strikes and lock-
outs for years and decades. Here the
question of the united front of labor
assumed a more vivid aspect than
even in the field of political struggle.
And the enemy, the immediate en-
envy of the working class,-the social
traitors who are often more danger
Gus to the workers because not so
easily recognized and not so readily
guarded against, than the bourgeoisie
itself appeared here as something
tangible, something that stands every
where between the worker and his
accession to power. II one may say
so. here was felt more keenly the
odor Of the earth. A practical appli-
cation of one of the principles formu-
lated by the Comintern congress, the
Profintern discussion were more abb
sorbing in the same way as is every
application Of a general principle to