The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-09-03
Tasks of the Left Wing in India

| demonstrations, ETC., nevertheless,
they have committed mistakes some
of which we should mention here.
First of all, the Left Wing fails
to draw a sufficiently sharp ideologi-
cal line between itself and the ma
tionalist reformists of the j. Nehru
type, thus failing to prove to the
masses: (a) that the nationalist re-
formists are sacrificing the in
terests of the workers for the in
terests of the nationalists bour-
geoisie; (b) that they are eo-opera-
ting with the Right Wingers On.
JOSH & Coz in order to undermine
and disrupt the Left Wing trade
unions; (c) that the nationalist re-
formists should be discarded as Ia
\ Dor leaders.
Secondly, owing to this theological
confusion our comrades do not al
ways initiate and lead the mass
struggles but rather find themselves
at the tail end of developments.
Thus the great Indian Railway
Strike was postponed time and again
though the workers pressed for the
strike call. A great Indian Railway
Strike at that time, combined with
the simultaneously going on strikes
of the South Indian Railway and the
Bombay Textile Workers, would
have been a strike of far-reaching
effect and consequences.
Thirdly, the application of the
united front tactics by the left wing
in India was utterly wrong. For
instance, during the Bombay textile
strike last year the left wing lead
ers, even though the striking work
ers were opposing it, agreed to form
strike committee with the right
wing bureaucrats on fifty-fifty ba-
sis, and practically turned over the
strike leadership to the labor trai-
tors with the result that the strike
was lost. At the same time the left
wing leaders signed an agreement
jointly with the right wing bur eau
Gratis that the disputed questions
shall go to arbitration as proposed
by the capitalists. Evidently, oul
comrades failed to grasp the signifi-
canoe that the united front must not
be effected from the top but from
below, namely, that reaI assistance
to the striking textile workers ear
only be rendered by the rank ana
file of the trade unions, or the work
ing masses in gen. ral. Our COM
rades failed to grasp sufficiently
clea" that no reformist leaders o1
burcaucrats should he tolerated in
STRIKE committees Tor agreements
should be signed iGIotly with them
The failure to emphasize that the
united front rust be effected from,
below and not from the top is also
contained in tie Trale Union Reso-
luton adopted by the hll-Indis
Workers and Peasants Party Con-
ference in December. 1923.
Fourthly, a no less serious short
coming is that the left wing does not
always consolidate it's ideolog ica, in
fluence organizationally. Thus, TIC
left wing had strong influence. IN
the Tata steel strike, the Lil'iah
strike, etc, but failed to ehtrench
itself organizationally with the re-
suit that the pett:' bourgeois poll
tirl9ns :. intclle-: ,a's a., L. cor
trrl " 5tr organic IT; -;
Lastly, still more serious short
coming is that the left wing trade
unions are insufficiently co-ordinated
and connected up under centralized
leadership, and effective struggle
against imperialism and reformism
is impossible.
Therefore, in view of the Irrent
situation, the most important tasks
of the left wing trade unions in In
dia are as follows:
The strikers must be better pre-
pared for, co-ordinated, the wide
masses attracted and direct leader.
ship undertaken by the left wing
Under no circumstance vaci..atinp
leaders and reformist or right wing
bureaucrats should be elected or toll
Grated in strike committees. The
strike demands should he discussed
and popu!acized among the masses
For the success of the strikes il is
absolutely necessary that the uncr.
ganized masses, the workers in in.
dustries not yet or slightly affected
by the strike wave, such as trans.
port, mining, plantation workers
ETC., should be more and more drawn
into the strikes. The strikes must
not. only be widened in scope but
also deepened in content.
ITO Be Continued)