The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-01-16
BY WILLIAM F. DUNE.

tuSHhSelf6S, ny CERTAIN SeCLlOuS VI
the capitalist class with whom they
come into conflict on wage questions
and by the so-called intelligentsia, to
be eminently practical people. They
are supposed to have little knowledge
of and less use for theory, to be
wholly absorbed in, the concrete ques-
tons arising from their daily strug-
giles.
To some extent this conception is
true and just to the extent to which
it is true are the trade unions weak.
VLADIMIR ILYITCH LENIN was
' also an eminently practical per
son as the worlds capitalists, whose
armies and economic blockades failed
to crush the young Russian revolution
guided by Lenin and the Russian
Communist Party, are able to testify
tearfully.
The Russian trade unions became
the foundation of the Soviet power
mainly because the Bolsheviks, fol
lowing the policy of Lenin in the
trade unions, were able to correctly
estimate the role of the trade unions
and by correct tactics transform the
daily struggles of the unions into
conscious struggle against Russian
czarism and capitalism.
Lenin's trade union practice was
the result of the application of a cor
rect theory. Lenin himself said
without a correct theory, correc-
practice is impossible"
DRECISELY because of the neces
4 sity which forces trade unions to
expend their energy in solving prac-
teal problems, just because of their
role as the protectors of the living
standards of the workers and because
this brings them into combat with the
employers in dozens of different ways,
ranging from the yelled struggle of
negotiations to the most bitter and
bloody strikes, trade unionists should
study the writings of Lenin. They will
find trade union questions given the
most extensive treatment by the
greatest leader the working class has
ever had, they will find that Lenin
noted, considered and solved every
question of strategy and tactics which |
confronts the trade unions today.
r ENIN was the worlds greatest |
~ trade unionist, altho he never be-
longed to one, because it was Lenin |
who first understood clearly the ire |
mendous potential power of the trade |
unions-the mass organizations of the |
workers-and set for himself the task |
of bringing that power into play. ex-
tending it and consolidating it ii the |
struggle against the capitalists and |
the capitalist state.
Lenin rejected the theory that the |
trade unions were mere ''bread, and |
butter" organizations altho he never |
underestimate their importance even
in this respect Instead he showed |
that in the period of imperialism, the |
final stage of capitalism, the apparent /
ly Insignificant demands of the unions
for slight wage increases and better
living conditions, when these develop
a mass character, bring the unions
into conflict with the capitalist state
because, as the instrument for the
suppression of the working class, the
state must and does. in the interest
of the capitalist class, fight against
the mass demands of the workers.
L,OR Lenin every struggle of the
4 workers for organization, for bet
ter working conditions. for wages,
had deep significance. The story is
told of Lenin that in 1908 the strike
of some Petrograd workers, for whom
he had written a simple program of
immediate demands. to obtain an in
crease in the tea ration, indicated an
awakening and a will to struggle
which later developed into the great
revolution of 1906.
The practical bureaucrats and the
middle class advisers of the trade
unions who ATTEMPT to keen the minds