The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-11-01
the Soviet Union

II we add to this the complete isola
ton Of the opportunist tendency in
the Russian Communist Party, then
the picture becomes complete. The
Fifth Congress of the Comintern only
consolidated the victory Of the revo-
lutionary wing in the main section of
the Comintern.
No doubt the mistakes of the op-
portunist leaders have played very
important role in the acceleration of
the Bolshevization OF the Western
Communist parties. But it is just as
doubtless that other deeper reasons
also operated here: the successful
capitalist offensive Of the last few
years, the lowering Of the workers
standard Of living, the presence Of a
huge army Of unemployed, the gen
eral economic instability of capitalism
the growth Of revolutionary unrest
among the great working masses. The
workers are moving towards the revo-
luton and they want revolutionary
leaders.
Conclusion. The process Of the
final formation of genuinely Bolshe-
visit parties in the West, to serve as a
basis for the coming Revolution in
Europe has begun. This is the sum
mary of the developments during the
last half year.
Even more difficult and peculiar are
the conditions of the development OF
the western trade unions. Firstly
they are narrow in their tried" craft
practices and are hostile to socialism,
for having arisen before the socialist
parties and developed without their
aid, they have become used to faunt.
ing their independence" to put their
craft interests above class interests
and to recognize nothing but penny
raises. Secondly, they are conserva
tive in spirit and hostile to all revo
lutionary beginnings, for they are
headed by an old, mercenary, bour
geois-fed trade union bureaucracy
always ready to put the trade unions
at the service Of imperialism. And
finally, they, the trade unions, being
united around the Amsterday reform
lists, represent the very same million
strong army Of reformism upon which
the present capitalist system leans
OF course besides the reactionary
Amsterdam unions, there are also
revolutionary unions affiliated to the
r. /. L. U. But firstly a considerable
part Of the revolutionary unions, anx
ious to avoid splits in the labor move
ment, remains within the Amsterdam
Federation and submits to its discip
line; secondly, in the most imprtant
European countries (England, Ger
many, France), the Amsterdamers
still represent a majority Of the work
ers. 1t should not be forgotten that
Amsterdam has no less than IA mil
lion organized workers. To think
that the proletarian dictatorship
could be established in Europe
against the viii of these millions OF
workers is to be sadly mistaken, to
move away from the ground of Lenin-
ism, to doom oneself to inevitable de.
feat. Therefore what we must do now
is to win these millions over to the
revolution and Communism. to free
them from the influence Of the reac,
tionary trade union bureaucracy, OF
to get them at least to assume a posi-
ton Of benevolent neutrality towards
Communism.
This was the situation until very
lately. However, the last years have
seen a gradual change for the bet
ter. The homo Of isolated reactionary
trade unionism In England, which had
once been the Industrial Colossus OF
the world. The collapse Of British
monopoly was connected with the de.
velopment Of financial capitalism,
which has been marked by q struggle
of the biggest countries for colonial