The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-02-04

The Lessons Of the Strike Struggles of the
Past Year and the Tasks of the r. l. L. U.
Speech of COmrade Kuusinen (Comintern)
The question now is no longer whether strikes
can be carried on during period of crisis. Elk
perience has shown that strikes can and should
be carried on. The question is how they are to be
prepared better and how more correctly to carry
them out, and how on the basis of the struggle
to extend the united front from below and to win
a majority of the working class. From this point
of view every strike is valuable for us, regard
less whether it had a material success or not
The necessary condition, however for the success
of a strike, not only from a material but also
from political point of view, is that serious
fight is to be carried on for the every day de-
mands of the workers, however small. Naturally
we learn by the experience of victorious strikes
the strategy and tactics of the struggle. But
side by side with this, we must study also the
experience of lost strikes, so not to repeat the
mistakes and so as to correct the defects which
have come on the surface.
The strike of the Warsaw tramway workers
has shown us that it is necessary to formulate
the demands of the workers and the slogans of
the struggle. We know of many strikes which
were unsuccessful because much too general de-
nands we're put forward The Warsaw comrades
organized number of meetings at which the
workers of the corresponding factories brought
forward and discussed the demands Of the
struggle. In particular, a demand was put for
ward to discharge an engineer, who had become
notorious for his rationalising innovations, which
were aimed directly against the workers. This
demand was unanimously supported by all the
workers and served as the starting point for the
development of the struggle.
On the experience also of this strike it is pos
sible to convince oneself of the tremendous role
played by the strike committees, elected by the
masses of the workers themselves in the struggle
1t would appear as though this was clear and
that it required no proofs. But do we not know
of such cases, as in South Wales England,
where huge masses of miners were on strike,
and where the central strike committee" was
elected at a conference of adherents of the Mi
nority Movement at which 40 persons were pres
ent? This shows that not all the adherents of
the r. I. L. U. have given sufficiently deep
thought to the question or to that of how the
appropriate decisions of the v. Congress should
be applied in practice
Another important question: how and when
to take into our hands the initiative Of the
struggle 1t is true, this does not always depend
upon us We know of cases when comrades do
not even attempt to seize the initiative, as was
for Instance the case in France at the time of
the great strike of textile workers, or in Great
Britain at the time of the miners strike in South
Wales The strike of the Warsaw tramway work
ers teaches us how strike must be prepared
and how the initiative must be taken into our
hands in time. For this object they held not one
but several meetings and were able to rouse the
workers for the struggle. The workers felt that