The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-26


Strategy of Strikes worked out cor
responding resolution and submitted
it to the Central Council. Taking into
consideration the complexity of the
question, and the lack of sufficient
data, the Central Council decided to
have the question discussed by all the
r. /. L. U. organizations, and only
after adequate data shall have been
collected, the question thoroly dis
cussed in the press and number Of
proposals made, shall it be taken up
by the next Congress of the r. 1. L. u.
We are forwarding herewith all our
available material and the draft reso-
luton of the Committee. The Execu-
tive Bureau urges you to pay most Sc
rious attention to this question. You
know, Of course, that the strike move
ment, in which millions of workers
take part every year thruout the
world, has been studied very little.
The weapons created by the work
ing class in its spontaneous struggle
for emancipation, the methods which
frequently bring the workers victory,
have not yet been made common to
the entire international proletariat.
The great strike experiences have not
yet been studied or utilized. The ques-
tions relating to strike strategy, have
never yet been on the Agenda of any
national or international congresses.
In this, as well as in many other
respects, the working class is far be-
hind the bourgeoisie. 1t will suffice
to compare the comprehensive study
of the war and military conflicts made
by the bourgeoisie, with the studies
of the class battles. Hundreds of in
vestigations have been devoted to
each petty diplomatic conflict, to each
armed crash, to each battle. Every
country has its own rich military
schools and academies, where every
thing that might in any way throw
some light on the forms, methods and
conditions of military conflicts, is
infinitely studied.
What, on the other hand, have we
in regard to the study of the strike
movement? Practically nothing. Scat
tered articles, reporters notes, ex-
ternal descriptions of the strikes in
the union organs, and few books and
pamphlets-that is all, and it is alto
gether insufficient.
Yet is not the strike of 100000
British minerss which shook the gigan-
tic British Empire, as important from
the point of viewof historical develop
ment, as the battle of Sedan? Is not
the strike wave which swept the en-
tire world in 1890, arousing tens of
millions of toiIers to the realities of
life, worthy Of study in every detail,
and is j. possible for the working
class to win unless we account for
every bit of energy spent by it, every
thing carried out in the struggle?
Strategy is a very complicated
thing, and our proletarian class
strategy is immeasurably more in
tricate than war strategy. In war
we have clear cut lines Of action, a
definite front. Everyone knows where
the enemy is. 1t is quite different
in the class war, in which we have to
realization of the existence of the
class front. There are yet millions
Of workers in the reformist organiza-
tions who follow the lead of their
general STATS, in spite of the fact that
these stats are dominated by con-
scious and unconscious agents of the
bourgeoisie.
If the adherents of the r. /. L. u,
in each country will give greater at
tention to strikes, if they will study
the causes of the strikes. the charac-
ter and form of negotiations, the or
CARNATIONS which aid the strikes dur
ing the struggle, the conflicts with the
authorities, the methods of struggle
against strike-breakers, the role of the
bourgeois press during the conflict.
the methods for the moral mobiliza-
ton of the strikers, the role of the
family in weakening the intensity of
the strike, the pickets, boycotts,
spontaneous sabotage, corruption of
the leaders, the organizations of the
employers and their resistance to the
workers, etc.-if adequate material
should be collected on all these ques-
tons, and If this material is thoroly
studied and classified. 1t might serve
as an inexhaustable source for the in
Standardization of our tactics and
for making the experience Of one the
knowledge Of all.
You can thus see the Importance of
these questions raised by us and we
feel confident that you will take all
necessary steps in order to lay the
foundation for the serious study of
the many-sided experiences Of the
strike struggle and for the crystalli-
cation, by common effort, of a strike
strategy.
Fraternally yours,
Executive Bureau Of the
Red international OF Labor
| Dnioac