UC-NRLF 
 
 6415 
 
 SMD 
 
 
Workers of the World, Unite t 
 
 Red International of 
 Labour Unions 
 
 World-Congress 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 & DECISIONS. 
 
 19 November to 
 2 December 1922 
 
 PRICE SIXPENCE 
 
RESOLUTIONS 6r DECI- 
 SIONS OF THE 2ND 
 WORLD - CONGRESS OF 
 THE RED INTERNATIONA 
 AL OF LABOUR UNIONS 
 
 SESSION 19 NOVEMBER TO 2 DECEMBER 1922 
 
 Workers of the World, 
 Unite ! 
 
 RED INTERNATIONAL OF LABOUR UNIONS, 
 
 3, .Wellington Street, Strand, London, W.C.2. 
 
'7^Z7i 
 
 ' V? . 
 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 1. Resolutions on the Report of the Executive Bureau. 
 
 2. Organisational Problems of the Adherents of the 
 R.I.L.U. 
 
 3. The Capitalist Offensive and the United Front. 
 
 4. The R.I.L.U. and the Comintern. 
 
 5. The High Cost of Living and LTnemployment . 
 
 6. The Struggle Against Imperialism and Militarism. 
 
 7. The Trade Unions and the Co-operative Movement. 
 
 8. The Trade Union Movement in the Colonial and the 
 Semi-Colonial Countries. 
 
 Appendix 
 
 (a) Constitution of the Red International of Labour 
 Unions. 
 
 (b) Manifestoes, Appeals and Telegrams of the Second 
 Congress. 
 
 
Resolution on the Report oFthe 
 Executive Bureau 
 
 HAVING heard the report of the Executive Bureau, the 
 Second World Congress of the Red International of Labour 
 Unions declares that the E.B. has fulfilled the tasks imposed 
 upon it by the First International Congress of the R.I.L.U., and 
 resolves : 
 
 1. To approve of the activity of the Executive Bureau directed 
 towards the establishment of the United Front for the purpose 
 of counteracting the advance of capital and of uniting the working 
 class for the preparation of the proletarian offensive. 
 
 2. The Congress approves of the repeated appeals of the 
 Executive Bureau to the Amsterdam International for joint action 
 against the bourgeoisie, and declares that the fact that joint 
 action has not been taken is entirely due to the Amsterdam Inter- 
 national, which has preferred co-operation with the bourgeoisie to 
 co-operation with the revolutionary workers. 
 
 3. . The Congress approves of the attempts of the Executive 
 Bureau to draw all the anarcho-syndicalist organisations into the 
 R.I.L.U. for the joint struggle against the bourgeoisie and against 
 reformism. 
 
 4. The Congress approves of the position taken by the Exe- 
 cutive Bureau towards the attempt to split the revolutionary trade 
 union movement under the banner of an " Independent/' but in 
 reality an anarcho-syndicalist International. 
 
 5. The Congress wishes to emphasise that some of the anar- 
 chistic groups working in the trade union movement, in the reaction 
 against the R.I.L.U. very often form a united front with the re- 
 formists and the bourgeoisie against the revolutionary Russian 
 proletariat and against the Russian revolution. 
 
 6. Considering the necessity of strengthening by all means 
 the influence and the role of the International Industrial Propa- 
 ganda Committees, the Congress charges the newly elected Execu- 
 tive Bureau to strengthen, on the basis of a concrete programme of 
 action, their practical organisational and propaganda activity 
 directed towards the concentration of all the revolutionary forces 
 in the trade union movement along industrial lines on an inter- 
 national scale. 
 
 7. Stating that up to now the organisations affiliated with 
 the R.I.L.U. have not been connected with the centre to a suffi- 
 cient degree, the Congress considers it as the most important task 
 of the Executive Bureau to establish regular and systematic con- 
 nections with all the organisations, and to extend and to strengthen 
 the work of agitating and uniting the masses in order to build 
 up militant and hardened experienced unions, for the overthrow of 
 the bourgeoisie and for the establishment of the Dictatorship of 
 the Proletariat. 
 
ORGANISATION PROBLEMS 
 
 OF THE ADHERENTS OF THE R.I.L.U. 
 
 General Part. *WM 
 
 The trade unions have come into being as organs of resistance 
 to the exploitation of labour. At a certain stage of the develop- 
 .ment of the capitalist contradictions, the trade unions turn from 
 organs of resistance against separate employers, into organs of 
 attack against the capitalist system as a whole. The difference 
 between the reformist and the revolutionary unions consists in 
 the following : while the former wish to fight against the negative 
 sides of capitalism, the revolutionary unions put forward the over- 
 throw of capitalist rule as their main object. While for the 
 Amsterdam unions, reforms are an aim in itself, for the revolu- 
 tionary unions, reforms are a subsidiary result of their struggle. 
 
 2. During the great war the machinery of the trade union 
 headquarters grew into organs of the bourgeois state. The trade 
 unions became the basis and support of the bourgeois dictatorship. 
 The post-war crises, unemployment and impoverishment of the 
 masses, called forth spontaneous discontent and fermentation 
 amongst the masses which forced the governing classes to pro- 
 claim' the era of social reforms. At this stage the trade union 
 bureaucracy acted as the bearer of social reformism, which ends 
 together with the first ebb of the revolutionary wave. 
 
 3. The ebb of the labour movement is the beginning of a 
 well thought out, well shaped, systematic attack of capitalism 
 upon the essentials of the workers' attainments. As a result of 
 this systematic pressure on the part of the bourgeoisie, the trade 
 unions internally reconstruct themselves. In the first place they 
 shrink. A certain proportion of the workers, disappointed with 
 the futile activity of the trade unions and their helplessness to 
 render some kind of resistance to the attacks of capitalism, split. 
 The most active leave the old positions, and thus a continuous 
 movement from right to left is going on among the rank and file 
 a move from' the reformist positions to the revolutionary. While 
 the leaders are organically connected with the 'bourgeois state, 
 the masses are spasmodically searching in the revolution for a 
 way out from the deadlock in which the working class finds itself 
 at present. 
 
 4. Thus, within the old trade unions, a deep fermentation and 
 regrouping of forces is going on. The move of the masses towards 
 the left imperils the position of the trade union bureaucracy and 
 their whole policy. Therefore, simultaneously with the deep fer- 
 mentation within the masses, and the search of the trade union 
 bureaucracy for a way out, the revolutionary elements are being 
 pressed in order to destroy the organisational centres in the trade 
 unions, which could set clear aims and tasks for the revolutionary 
 energy of the masses. The expulsion of the left wing elements 
 is becoming the most important method of struggle on the part 
 of the reformists, as this is the only means of retarding their fall 
 as well as the fall of the whole capitalist system. 
 
 5. The more acute the struggle between labour and capital 
 becomes, the clearer becomes the aim of the revolutionary wing 
 of the labour movement. The trade unions must transform them- 
 selves from organs of self-defence within the capitalist system 
 into organs for th(e overthrow of the capitalist rule, and the 
 
 6 
 
establishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The mor 
 clear these practical tasks become to the working class, the more 
 aggressive becomes capitalist conservatism, not only against our 
 aim, but also against our methods of attaining the object in front 
 of us. This conservatism finds its best expression in the reformist 
 trade unions. 
 
 II. The Struggle for Strengthening the Trade Unions. 
 
 6. The ruin which the capitalist offensive has produced in the 
 trade unions represents the greatest danger to the working class. 
 Therefore, the most important task of the near future is to rally 
 the split workers, to increase the forces and the power of the 
 unions, and to draw the large masses into the trade union organ- 
 isations. Not a single worker should remain outside the trade 
 unions such is our watchword. Therefore, the most vigorous 
 opposition should be shown to any attempt of the workers to leave 
 the unions, whatever the motive may be for such action. 
 
 7. It is particularly necessary to carry on the struggle against 
 the theory of leaving the unions due to would-be revolutionary 
 motives. There is still a considerable group of workers who think 
 that the quitting of the reformist unions is a sign of their being 
 revolutionary. They declare the trade unions hopeless, and they 
 think of bringing nearer the social revolution by the creation of 
 small unions. But however revolutionary these people may be in 
 spirit, their advocacy must be met with the most resolute resist- 
 ance. In the best case they raise the weakness to a principle. 
 If the reformists' mass unions are hopeless, this necessitates the 
 giving up for the time being of the social revolution, because 
 without the workers organised in trade unions the social revolu- 
 tion is impossible. 
 
 8. The struggle for strengthening the trade unions may bring 
 out essential results, only if it is carried on upon the basis of a 
 practical programme but not on the basis of abstract principles. 
 The attraction of the masses to the trade unions may be achieved 
 only in consequence of a steadfast, systematic struggle for the 
 daily demands and needs of the workers. Thus, the best method 
 of strengthening the trade unions is the initiative in the practical 
 struggle in the formulation and realisation of a concrete programme 
 of action. 
 
 III. Partial Demands and Final Aims. 
 
 9. The formulation of a programme of action for each 
 country and for each industry should be the most important task 
 of the adherents of the R.I.L.U. A vigorous struggle should be 
 carried on against the attempt to represent the struggle for partial 
 demands as a decline from revolutionary principles. Revolution- 
 ary action does not mean a mere repetition of revolutionary 
 phrases, but it means revolutionary methods in carrying out the 
 outlined programme. The same partial demands will be carried 
 out by the reformists and the revolutionary unions in various ways. 
 While for the reformist unions the partial demand is an aim in itself, 
 they are for the revolutionary unions just means of consolidating 
 and organising the masses for the further struggle. The struggle 
 for partial demands does not turn us away from the goal, but 
 brings us nearer to it. We should fight against the anarchist 
 prejudice, that the struggle for partial demands are below our 
 revolutionary prestige. This is harmful verbosity, which handi- 
 
caps the organising of the masses and the preparations for revolu- 
 tionary action. 
 
 10. The object of the adherents of the R.I.L.U. is to carry 
 on the whole work for the partial demands, having in view our 
 final aims. Contradiction between the partial demands and our 
 final aims arises when we cut off one from the other. Abstract 
 propaganda of our final aims may weaken the trade union organ- 
 isations which embraces 1 the w6rkers : of various currents of 
 thought. On the contrary, practical action by our organisations, 
 a concrete programme, a systematic and steadfast struggle for 
 the daily needs of the workers, will draw to> our ranks an ever new 
 stratum of workers who, passing through the school of the elem- 
 entary class struggle, will rise to Communist class-consciousness. 
 
 IV. Struggle against the Expulsion of the Adherents of the 
 R.I.L.U. 
 
 1 1 . The ever-growing revolutionising of the masses forces the 
 trade union bureaucracy to mechanically suppress the opposition. 
 The trade union bureaucracy resorts to various forms and methods 
 of struggle, according to countries and inter-relation of forces, 
 from the expulsion of separate persons and groups, up to the 
 exclusion of thousands of workers. The tasks of the adherents 
 of the R.I.L.U. in this respect is quite clear. The most violent 
 struggle should be carried on against the expulsions of the oppo- 
 sition. The struggle should be carried out by all methods. 
 
 12. It is necessary to make clear to the masses the causes of 
 these expulsions. At every workers* meeting, in every workshop 
 and in every factory, the question of the re-admission of those 
 expelled ' should be raised. The question should be referred to 
 the judgment of the large masses. Discussions in small circles 
 on this subject are quite futile. The opposition is being expelled, 
 not because it is breaking class solidarity, not because it refuses 
 to partcipate in the joint struggle against the bourgeoisie, but 
 because it hampers co-operation with the bourgeoisie. 
 
 13. Those expelled should not remain isolated for one day. 
 The forms of their organisations may change in accordance with 
 local conditions. But whatever the form of the organisation of 
 the expelled may be, they must carry on a steadfast struggle for 
 their re-admission, strengthening their organisation, on the basis 
 of practical struggle against the employers. 
 
 Y. The Minorities of the Old Unions and the Independent 
 Revolutionary Unions. 
 
 14. Great numbers of the adherents of the R.LL;U. ; are 
 within the, old reformist unions. In some countries they are 
 organised in Communist groups, in others, in an opposition, and in 
 some, as propaganda leagues, etc. Owing to their various organ- 
 isational forms, and the fact that they remain within the old 
 unions, they do not represent well-shaped organisations, and 
 therefore, it is very hard to register them. But there is no doubt 
 that their numbers are growing daily, and they carry on ever so 
 much s.erious work, handicapping the Amsterdam politicians in 
 their treacherous policy. Thus, a great number of revolutionary 
 workers are connected with Amsterdam in organisation, but in 
 ideology and in the political field, with Moscow. 
 
 15.- The task of the minorities affiliated to the R.I.L.U. is to 
 shape themselves, and to exactly number their members. In a 
 number of countries it is very hard to define the sphere of influence 
 
 8 
 
of the minorities affiliated to the R.I.L.U. This lack of registra- 
 tion has very serious political consequences, because the adherents 
 of the R.I.L.U. in these countries do not know exactly their forces 
 and possibilities. The methodical unification of the adherents of 
 the R.I.L.U., the exact registration of the membership, the elab- 
 oration of a single line of action, preliminary constant conferences 
 dealing with the main questions of the labour movement, are pre- 
 requisites of any revolutionary action. The adherents of the 
 R.I.L.U. should pay their main attention to the winning over of 
 the masses in the main branches of industry and the main indus- 
 trial districts. Every factory, every workshop, should become our 
 base. 
 
 1 6. Apart from the minorities which are only in ideology 
 united with the R.I.L.U., there are, nearly in all countries, inde- 
 pendent revolutionary organisations also affiliated to the R.I.L.U. 
 The most important task of the adherents of the R.I.L.U. wherever 
 they may be, is co-ordination of action, close co-operation, and 
 constant mutual support in the struggle against reformism and 
 capitalism. The minorities in the old unions, and the Independent 
 revolutionary unions should form a United Council of Action, for 
 constant work and joint co-operation. 
 
 VI. Centralism and Federalism. 
 
 17. The conditions of the modern struggle of the working 
 class demand the maximum of strain and concentration of its 
 forces. The process of unification (amalgamation) is going on 
 even in countries where old sectional traditions and a disruptive 
 trade union movement exists. But this process of unification of 
 kindred trade unions remains considerably behind the demands 
 of the struggle. Old habits and traditions have a strong hold 
 even in the minds of many revolutionary leaders. 
 
 1 8. Under the flag of autonomy and federalism, small unions 
 and federations continue their miserable existence, having neither 
 strength nor means to fight against capital, and yet refusing to 
 amalgamate with kindred trades. Such sectionalism, under the 
 flag of federalism, exists in France, Spain, and other countries. 
 The task of the adherents of the R.I.L.U. is to carry on a vigorous 
 struggle against this covered sectionalism which greatly harms 
 the struggle of the working class for its emancipation. A vigor- 
 ous struggle should be carried on for the creation of centralised 
 industrial organisations. It is necessary to strive towards con- 
 centration of the means and the methods of the struggle, for a 
 national utilisation of all the forces of the working class. Under 
 present circumstances such federalism, greatly handicaps the 
 development of the working class movement, and it should be met 
 with a most vigorous resistance. 
 
 19. A strong movement towards the fashioning of a united 
 organisation has arisen in many countries, as a result of the con- 
 tinuous sectional egoism within the working masses. This move- 
 ment is a healthy protest against the disruption of the working 
 class into small sectional organisations. In its development, this 
 sectional movement assumed in some countries the form of one 
 big union, which has one executive and one fund together with 
 the industrial sections. Such ail organisational form, which 
 entirely destroys the industrial unions is irrational and does not 
 correspond with the present conditions of struggle. This is a 
 form which the unions will adopt in consequence of the long 
 struggle for the unification of the kindred unions, and after the 
 
 * 9 
 
.triumph of the social revolution. The immediate transition from 
 sectional unions to one big union may bring about internal strife 
 among the revolutionary unions, and therefore, such organisational 
 measures should be adopted with great care. The most impor- 
 tant task is the creation of centralised industrial unions, and 
 centralised general trade union headquarters for each country. 
 
 VII. The Struggle for Factory Committees. 
 
 20. The creation of Factory Committees is the most impor- 
 tant preliminary and most important weapon of the revolutionary 
 class struggle. The reformists have well appreciated the signi- 
 ficance of the Factory Committees, and in those countries such as 
 Germany, Austria, and Czecho-Slovakia, where the rule of the 
 bourgeoisie has been threatened, the Factory Committees have 
 been driven, with the assistance of the reformists, into the limits 
 of law. And thus the first stage of the struggle for the creation 
 of revolutionary Factory Committees has been broken up. The 
 most important tasks of the adherents of the R.I.L.U. is the 
 struggle for utilising and revolutionising the present Factory Com- 
 mittees, and to create new ones. 
 
 21. The Factory Committees are the primary organs of unity 
 of the working class. This is the most natural representation of 
 the workers of a factory or a concern, and the activity of the work- 
 ing class can manifest itself only when it possesses such an organ- 
 isational nuclei. The Factory Committee should embrace all the 
 workers of this or that concern. The greatest danger for the 
 revolutionary trade union movement are talks on Factory Com- 
 mittees, without a serious and consecutive struggle for the realisa- 
 tion of this watchword. The adherents of the R.I.L.U. should 
 unceasingly propagate the Factory Committees, and should soon 
 set to the fashioning of such, whenever there is the slightest possi- 
 bilitiy to do so. 
 
 22. It is particularly easy to create such Factory Committees 
 during conflicts and periods of fermentation among the masses. 
 As soon as a strike breaks out in any factory or concern, apart 
 from the creation of the Strike Committee, a Factory Committee 
 should be elected by all the workers for connections with the Strike 
 Committee and with the union. This Factory Committee should 
 be the intermediary between the rank and file, the union, and the 
 Strike Committee. This representation of the workers fashioned 
 in the process of the struggle, will gain a place in the labour move^ 
 ment. Even after the strike the workers will always resort to the 
 Factory Committee in all serious stages of their struggle. 
 
 23. The struggle for the Factory Committees should not bear 
 an abstract propaganda character. It should be based upon the 
 concrete position of the working class in a given industry. The 
 Factory Committees themselves should have concrete and well 
 defined aims. Therefore the programme of action formulated by 
 the general trade union centre, and by separate unions, should 
 contain definite practical items, and practical tasks with which the 
 Factory Committee of the given industry is faced. The struggle 
 itself for the creation of the Factory Committees will draw in the 
 non-organised workers, force them to react to the oppression of their 
 leaders, and will weld the vanguard of the working class with the 
 whole mass of the workers. The struggle of the creation of 
 Factory Committees and the revolutionary work within them will 
 bring the adherents of the R.I.L.U. in the closest contact with 
 
 10 
 
the masses and will be the best surety against bureaucratism which 
 eats up the workers' organisations. 
 
 VIII. Our Tasks in the Most Important Countries. 
 
 24. In Germany, where the work of the adherents of the 
 R.I.L.U. is centred mainly round the old unions, the main task is 
 to increase the work and to organise, the masses which have, in the 
 political field, turned to the left. The revolutionary groups should 
 exactly count their real forces. In all questions referring to the 
 trade union movement they should in due time rally all class-con- 
 scious elements in the struggle for the concrete objects. The 
 groups of the industrial unions should unite more closely locally, 
 and on a national scale. In order to prepare the ideology and the 
 organisation of the masses for the transition to the system 1 of 
 industrial unions and also for the co-ordination of action of the 
 separate idustrial groups during conflicts, regular co-operation is 
 necessary between the various trade union groups and the factory 
 groups within the industrial groups. The methods of propaganda 
 and organisation of the opposition should be elaborated accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 25. The revolutionary members of the trade unions should 
 carry on a resolute and well-thought-out struggle for the 
 strengthening of the trade unions, especially in cases where the 
 reformists are undermining their unity. The expelled groups 
 should preserve their organisation, keeping in the closest contact 
 with the masses who have remained in the trade unions, and unit- 
 ing with the other expelled groups, with the independent revolu- 
 tionary unions, and with the organised opposition. 
 
 The Union of Manual and Brain Workers should pay their 
 utmost attention to the winning over of the miners, which is the 
 most urgent task of the whole revolutionary trade union movement 
 in Germany. The Union of Manual and Brain Workers should 
 create a considerable militant fund and should become an impor- 
 tant support of the Workers' Council. 
 
 26. The Workers' Council should act as a representative of 
 the whole opposition, carrying on its work independently and on 
 a well-thought-out plan. The Workers' Council should carry on 
 a resolute struggle ag-ainst the disruptive policy of the Amster- 
 damers and for the unification of all the workers organised in the 
 trade unions. It should establish in each separate case the most 
 rational method of organising the expelled. 
 
 All organisations united in the Workers' Council should assist 
 each other in their daily struggle. The R.I.L.U. will, under no 
 circumstances, tolerate strife among them. The Union of Manual 
 and Brain Workers and Union of Seamen as members of the 
 Workers' Council should lend active support to the opposition 
 within the independent unions and assist it in its difficult task of 
 revolutionising the masses organised in the trade unions and 
 should carry on its work and its general policy in accordance with 
 this principle. On the other hand the opposition should help to 
 strengthen the Union of Manual and Brain Workers and the Union 
 of Seamen externally and internally. 
 
 27. In France the G.C.T.U. does not differ in organisation 
 from the reformist organisations. Forty federations still exist 
 under the flag of federalism and autonomy, the greater part of 
 which is quite impotent in view of its weakness. A vigorous 
 struggle should be carried on for the fusion of the kindred federa- 
 
 U 
 
tions for the concentration of the forces, for the creation of the 
 Industrial Union as well as the creation of Factory Committees. 
 Agitation and propaganda should be centralised and a struggle 
 should be carried on for the increase of membership dues to the 
 G.C.T.U., so that its work could be extended. The immediate 
 task of the G.C.T.U. is an active propaganda campaign and an 
 intensive struggle for winning over the non-organised masses to 
 the trade unions and the absorbing by the G.C.T.U. of those elem- 
 ents which are still following the instructions of the G.C.T.U., as 
 well as the workers in the unions of other currents of thought. 
 
 28. TKe G.C.T.U. should be the bearer of unity of the whole 
 trade union movement in France. In so far as there are in the 
 reformist unions organised minorities in sympathy with the 
 G.C.T.U., the latter should not create any rival organisations. 
 
 The adherents of the R.I.L.U. should systematically organise 
 their groups within the reformist unions and should carry on a 
 struggle for unity within and without. 
 
 A resolute struggle should be carried on against the methods 
 of organising action inherited by the G.C.T.U. by the old reformist 
 organisations. 
 
 It should be noted that the first steps in this direction have 
 been made already (International Conferences, the election of an 
 Executive Commission by the National Congress, the United Propa- 
 ganda Committees, etc.), but evidently in order to overthrow 
 capitalism it is necessary to strive towards the maximum of con- 
 centration of all revolutionary forces, united in the G.C.T.U. 
 
 The anarchist federalism, hampering the creation of a power- 
 ful organisation, is a sign of weakness of the working class move- 
 ment. The trade union movement, founded on a federalist basis, 
 will never be in a position to defeat the centralised bourgeois state. 
 This type of organisation is adapted to defeats, but not to 
 conquests. 
 
 29. The disintegration and federalism of the French trade 
 union movement have created in certain organisations a tendency 
 to solve this question on a local scale. In Alsace-Lorraine, a 
 single union has been formed which unites all industries. By this 
 the local movement is cut off from the national federations. Such 
 an isolation of the Alsace-Lorraine proletariat should be 
 condemned. The more is such a local solution of the problem in- 
 admissible because it may bring about the pitting of the workers 
 of various nationalities against each other. 
 
 30. In England, the organisation of the opposition is yet in 
 its infancy. Our most important task in England for the near 
 future is to organise, on a national scale, all oppositional groups 
 and unions. This can be accomplished only by a national con- 
 ference of the opposition, which will found general headquarters. 
 The activities of the adherents of the R.I.L.U. should be directed 
 towards this aim. 
 
 31. The struggle for the Factory Committees in England has 
 almost stopped now. The Factory Committees which came into 
 being during the war have entirely disappeared, and neither the 
 party nor the opposition of the trade unions devote their efforts 
 to the creation of real revolutionary Factory Committees. How- 
 ever, in this country, the question of creating revolutionary Fac- 
 tory Committees is the most important issue of the day, which 
 should not under any circumstances, be put on the shelf. The 
 whole activity of the 'adherents of the R.I.L.U. for the near future 
 
should be concentrated upon the most important industries, such 
 as the mining industry, the metallurgical, and transport, and only 
 after the opposition will strengthen itself in these unions can it 
 extend its influence upon other organisations. The work of the 
 adherents of the R.I.L.U. should be of a more concrete practical 
 character. Not one mass movement, especially the movement of 
 the unemployed, should remain without the influence of the Com- 
 munists and the adherents of the R.I.L.U. 
 
 32. In Italy, the unity of the proletariat is the nearest task 
 of the adherents of the R.I.L.U. The attempt to unify the Com- 
 munists and the. socialists opposition as well as the adherents of 
 the R.I.L.U. into the Union of the Italian Syndicalists and into the 
 Union of the Railwaymen upon a united platform should be con- 
 tinued. A constant and persistent struggle should be carried on 
 for the unification of all trade union organisations. The events 
 through which Italy is passing now are quite favourable for the 
 work of unification, and they should be utilised in this direction. 
 
 33. In view of rhe existence of well organised Communist 
 groups, the adherents of the R.I.L.U. in Italy should carry on a 
 vigorous struggle for the reorganisations of the trade unions upon 
 industrial lines, and for the winning over of the Union of Transport 
 Workers. The fact that part of the leaders of the Union of 
 Seamen went over to the side of Moussolini makes it easier for 
 us to work among the transport workers. We must seize the 
 Federation of Transport Workers from the influence of the Fas- 
 cisti politicians. 
 
 34. The adherents of the R.I.L.U. should devote their utmost 
 effort to the creation of an Alliance of Labour with local branches 
 as a transitional form of unity. In order that the Alliance of 
 Labour should actually reflect the mood of the workers, the com- 
 position of this alliance should be constructed on the basis of 
 direct representation *of the masses. 
 
 In view of the fact that there is in the Fascisti trade unions 
 a considerable number of town and agricultural workers deceived 
 by demagogy and drawn into those organisations by force it 
 should be the task of the adherents of the R.I.L.U in Italy to 
 develop among them an intensive agitation and propaganda work 
 in order to free this stratum of workers from the influence of 
 patriotic nationalism and to draw them in into the channels of the 
 working class movement. 
 
 35. In Czechoslovakia, owing to the disruptive and provo- 
 cative policy of the Amsterdamers, the trade union movement has 
 been disintegrated. A revolutionary trade union centre with 3 
 single guiding headquarters and with separate industrial sections 
 have been formed. The main task of the new centre is to unify 
 the disintegrated organisations. Owing to the peculiarities of 
 the Czecho-Slovakian political life the unions of this country are 
 divided by the national principle. A struggle against the national 
 unions and for the class unions should be carried on by all neces- 
 sary means. The one big union should be constructed upon the 
 basis of the financial, organisational, militancy and self-activity of 
 the industrial sections. 
 
 36. The task of the new trade union centre is to unify the 
 whole Czecho-Slovakian proletariat. In accordance with this the 
 adherents of the R.I.L.U. in Czecko-Slovakia should increase their 
 work among the masses who have remained in the old reformist 
 unions. The creation of new organisational forms should not 
 
 13 
 
hamper their work, and it should not handicap the restoration of 
 the necessary unity in the future. The organisational require- 
 ments of all separate parts of the whole Czechian proletariat of 
 various industries and nationalities should be satisfied within the 
 limits of the international, single Czechian organisation. 
 
 37. In the United States, where the Trade Union Educational 
 League and the Independent Revolutionary Unions exists, it is 
 necessary to strive towards close co-operation between these 
 organisations. This co-operation should be based upon jointly 
 carrying out a single practical programme of action, jointly 
 formulated. 
 
 38. The Trade Union Educational League which has carried 
 out extensive work during its short existence should strive to base 
 its support upon a collective membership. The right course taken 
 by this League against disruption and for the winning over of the 
 trade unions should not be carried to organisational fetishism. 
 It is necessary to fight disruption, but it should be borne in mind 
 that there is a great number of organised left-wing workers outside 
 the American Federation of Labour, and that the great majority 
 of the American proletariat is outside any organisation. 
 
 39. Contact should be established in the work of the adherents 
 of the R.I.L.U. in all trade union organisations in America. A 
 position here exists of rival organisations, which declare their 
 affiliaiton to the R.I.L.U., but which do not wish to unite among 
 themselves, in the general leadership of the work, out of some 
 local or personal consideration, cannot be tolerated. A Council of 
 Action should be fashioned for co-ordinating the work of the 
 minorities in the American Federation of Labour, the I.W.W. and 
 the Independent unions. 
 
 40. In Spain, regardless of the fervent desire for unity among 
 the working masses, the trade union bureaucrats have expelled 
 many organisations. The expelled unions should not remain 
 isolated. They should devote their efforts to return to the union 
 from which they were expelled, but if they cannot succeed in 
 being re-admitted they should affiliate to another trade union 
 centre. The R.I.L.U. has strong oppositional minorities in both 
 trade union centres of Spam, in the General Union of Workers 
 affiliated to Amsterdam and the National Confederation of Labour 
 of the Anarcho-Syndicalist current of thought. Both minorities 
 should co-ordinate their activities through the mixed Council of 
 Action, the main tasks of which is the creation of one trade union 
 centre, which should unite all workers and propagate the principles 
 and methods of the R.I.L.U. This Council should also strive to 
 form relations with the independent unions which do not belong to 
 either of the present trade union centres, in order to connect them 
 directly with the struggle for trade union unity. 
 
 With regard to the employers and the police unions, which are 
 known in some towns of Spain under the name of free unions, the 
 adherents of the R.I.L.U. should occupy a definite expressed 
 position, and should undertake a resolute campaign against them, 
 exposing them before the masses as a weapon of the hostile class, 
 and condemning every attempt of even temporary agreement with 
 them. 
 
 41. In the Balkan States, with the exception of Bulgaria 
 where the trade union movement is united and affiliated to the 
 R.I.L.U., the work of restoring the unity of the trade union move- 
 ment has again to be resumed. The most difficult work is to be 
 
 14 
 
accomplished in Yugo-Slavia and Roumania, where the revolu- 
 tionary trade unions were destroyed in 1920-21 by the White 
 Terror and the violent reaction on the one hand, and by the 
 disruptive policy of the reformists on the other. The more ener- 
 getically the unions strive towards unifying the working masses 
 for the defence of their daily interests and for the struggle against 
 the offensive of capital, the quicker and the more successfully will 
 these difficulties be overcome. 
 
 In Greece, where the Confederation of Labour stand actually 
 on the platform of the R.I.L.U., the task of the adherents of the 
 latter should be to carry on a resolute struggle against the 
 treacherous policy of the handful of yellow nationalistic leaders in 
 order to seize from their influence the remaining trade union 
 organisations which still belong to them, and, in particular, the 
 Dockers' Union, which should be united within the ranks of the 
 General Confederation of Labour. 
 
 In Turkey, where the workers are mainly organised in separate 
 national unions (the Turkish, Greek and Armenian) the chief task 
 of the adherents of the R.I.L.U. should be to increase the work 
 of unification of these unions into General Industrial Unions on 
 the basis of the active class struggle, regardless of their belonging 
 to this or that nationality. 
 
 In view of the close economic and political dependence of the 
 Balkan States upon each other, joint concerted action of the 
 trade unions of all Balkan States is the most necessary condition 
 of success of the proletarian struggle. Therefore, the most 
 urgent task of the adherents of the R.I.L.U. in the Balkan States 
 is the creation of the possibility for such action, for which 
 purpose the trade unions of the Balkan States should form a 
 United Council of Action. 
 
 42. In the Scandinavian countries the number of the 
 adherents of the R.I.L.U. grows unceasingly, and this growth 
 would be still more rapid if there were no hesitations on the part 
 of the Norwegian unions in their attitude towards the R.I.L.U. 
 These hesitations are kept up by the Press of the Amsterdam 
 International and its' adherents in Norway, threatening that should 
 the affiliation to the R.I.L.U. take place, the International Indus- 
 trial Secretariat would expel! the corresponding Norwegian unions. 
 The Amsterdamers are trying by these demagogic threats to 
 frighten the adherents of the R.I.L.U., who have not once declared 
 that they wish to remain within the Industrial Secretariat. The 
 revolutionary elements of the Norwegian trade union movement 
 should strive to attain the final affiliation to the R.I.L.U. without 
 breaking their connections with the National Scandinavian Federa- 
 tions, and with the International Industrial Federations affiliated 
 with the Amsterdam International. 
 
 43. In view of the fact that the centre of gravity of world 
 politics has been transferred to the shores of the Pacific, the 
 creation of revolutionary trade unions and their connections with 
 the R.I.L.U. in the countries lying near the Pacific, is becoming of 
 particular importance. The most important work in this direction 
 should be carried out by the revolutionary unions of the imperialist 
 countries, which should establish close and indissoluble connec- 
 tions with the trade unions of the colonial countries for joint work 
 against the oppression and exploitation of the backward and 
 weak peoples. 
 
 15 
 
IX. International Industrial Trade Union Federations. 
 
 44. The International Industrial Secretariats affiliated wh 
 the Amsterdam International keep on systematically to expel te 
 revolutionary trade unions in general, and the Russian unions n 
 particular. Despite the continuous declaration of the revoi- 
 tionary trade unions despite their wish to join the Internatioal 
 Industrial Secretariat the Amsterdam International, carrying n 
 its policy of disruption, systematically refuses admission of te 
 revolutionary trade unions to the International Federations. Ths 
 the revolutionary trade unions are faced with the practical pro- 
 lems of the struggle against expulsion and disruption, and for te 
 formation of united International Industrial Trade Unin 
 Federations. 
 
 45. The International Industrial Propaganda Commit 
 formed upon the decision of the First International Congress of te 
 Red International of Labour Unions, have done an enormos 
 amount of work in consolidating and rallying the revolutions 
 forces. Their aim has been to carry on propaganda and agitat 
 to establish connections among the revolutionary unions, and 
 strengthen these connections upon the basis of a united practicl 
 programme of action. In some trades, such as the buildin, 
 wood-working, transport, mining, metal and leather, the work hs 
 greatly progressed, and the Propaganda Committee has succec- 
 in rallying upon a general platform, a considerable number : 
 unions, partly in the Amsterdam Secretariats, and partly remai- 
 ing outside the Secretariats. 
 
 46. In order to rally, on an international scale, the disi- 
 tegrated revolutionary forces, the unions expelled by the Am 
 darners for their revolutionary tendencies and not admitted t< 
 Amsterdam organisations, or which are outside any organisatio, 
 should unify round the International Propaganda Commit i 
 These Propaganda Committees should yeate International Feder- 
 tions of all above-mentioned organisations. The Second Congres 
 of the R.I.L.U., confirming the decision of the First Congres, 
 considers it necessary that the Propaganda Committees, aprt 
 from their propaganda work, should also develop their activ 
 in the field of mutual assistance and solidarity, and should c 
 on an energetic struggle for the reunification of the Internation; 
 trade union movement on the basis of a well-elaborated concre! 
 programme of action. These organisations will become of mo? 
 importance if they do not restrict their activities to Europe alon, 
 as the Amsterdam Secretariats are doing, but they will exten 
 them to the unions outside the European countries (the near ari 
 Far East, America, Australia, the Colonial and semi-Colonu 
 countries), thus creating a real International. 
 
 47. Taking into consideration the growth of the new imped- 
 list conflicts on the Pacific, the Congress instructs workers in th 
 countries which lie near the Pacific in particular. With this objec 
 in view, special Port Bureaus should be organised, which shoul 
 link up the revolutionary seamen of the whole world. Th 
 adherents of the R.I.L.U. in England, America, Holland, an 
 France are charged with the task of strengthening the work 
 rallying the workers to the banner of the R.I.L.U. 
 
 X. The Work Among Young Workers and Women. 
 
 48. Capitalism exploits in the first place the young workei 
 and the women as the weakest part of the working class, an 
 
 16 
 
begins e^ry attack upon the material position of the adult from 
 the dete.-jration of the position of the women and the young 
 workers. 
 
 In vicv of this the adherents of the R.I.L.U. should strengthen 
 the ecormic programme, adopted by the International of the 
 Young Vjrkers and by the International Women's Secretariat, 
 and shoul fight for its realisation. 
 
 The oung workers and the students should be admitted to 
 the trad unions as members with full rights, and they should be 
 educatec there as future class-conscious fighters. When taking 
 action, te greatest attention should be paid to the demands of 
 the youn workers (sufficient wages, six hours' working day, main- 
 tenance )r the unemployed, continuation of education, etc.). 
 
 The dherents of the R.I L.U. should also fight for the full 
 economi equality of women workers with male workers, and for 
 the real rotection of the health of women and mothers. 
 XI. Th Trade Union Press and Literature. 
 
 49. The creation of a serious trade union Press and special 
 literatur on the trade union movement is the most urgent task 
 of all o^anisations affiliated to the R.I.L.U. For this purpose 
 the gencal trade union organisations affiliated to the R.I.L.U. as 
 well as 'ie largest federations, should have at least one weekly. 
 Special mall libraries, containing literature on various questions 
 of the rvolutionary trade union movement, which would interest 
 the mases organised in trade unions, should be formed in each 
 country The Congress instructs all organisations affiliated with 
 the R.I-.U. to systematically distribute the central organ of 
 the R.I...U. by compulsory subscribing to it. 
 
 XI. Irormation and Connections. 
 
 50. The experience of the past I 5 months has proved that 
 the conections between the R.I.L.U. and the organisations 
 affiliate to it are not sufficiently close. Each organisation affili- 
 ated to he R.I.L.U. should regularly inform the central head- 
 quarter on the position in their respective countries. Such reports 
 and miutes should be of regular periodical character, and these 
 reports should not only touch upon the immediate work of the 
 organistions affiliated to the R.I.L.U., but upon all questions 
 which ppear in the process of the struggle against capitalism 
 and refrmism. 
 
 51. The Congress instructs the Executive Bureau to publish 
 in the aost important European languages, Bulletins for the 
 regulaiand systematic information of the organisations affiliated 
 to the ^.I.L.U. on the most important questions of the interna- 
 tional ibour movement, and on the activities of the Executive 
 Bureau The Congress recommends the organisations affiliated 
 to the R.I.L.U., mutually to inform each other. Only such 
 mutua] regular and thorough information, can make possible 
 collect'e discussion of the most important problems of the inter- 
 natiom working class movement, and solve them in the right way. 
 
 Condition. 
 
 Th. Second Congress of the revolutionary trade unions, 
 appro\ng of the programme of action formulated by the First 
 Congres, charges all organisations affiliated to the R.I.L.U. to 
 distribte as widely as possible this programme among the 
 workin; masses, which represents the concentrated experience of 
 the revlutionary labour movement of all countries, The Congress 
 
 17 
 c 
 
finds it necessary to declare that the revolutionary workers are 
 striving by increasing their work to consolidate the working class, 
 and to unite the world trade union movement, upon the basis of 
 revolutionary class struggle, for the overthrow of capitalism and 
 the establishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. 
 
The Capitalist Offensive and 
 the United Front 
 
 I. The Causes of the Offensive of Capital. 
 
 1. Capitalism has entered the phase of its historical crisis. 
 Since the end of the war it cannot find a basis for its normal 
 development. The crisis which we witness now in all capitalist 
 countries has very little in common with the temporary crises 
 that were usual before the war. Capitalism has reached a phase 
 when its further development is in direct contradiction to the 
 requirements of the large masses. It has been transformed from 
 being the factor for developing the industries into an obstacle 
 which handicaps their development. It is not in a position any 
 longer to maintain the main element of its industries the working 
 class. Despite the partial revival of trade in some countries, 
 the economic crisis in the whole world is yet, though slower than 
 before, intensifying. Capitalism has entered the phase of crisis 
 which is the beginning of its end. 
 
 2. The capitalists are striving by all means to save their 
 undermined economic system. If they are unable to succeed in 
 securing an advantageous application of their capital by extending 
 the world market, they will be forced to look for new sources in 
 order to secure their profits. Only one opportunity in this case 
 is left to them that is to increase the exploitation of the working 
 class. The bourgeoisie has taken the last course it has taken 
 the offensive against the proletariat. 
 
 3. After the liquidation of the war the bourgeoisie was forced 
 to make concessions, because the working class, disappointed by 
 the war, represented then a strong armed force which could at 
 that moment break any opposition of the capitalists to improved 
 conditions of life of the workers. This was augmented by new 
 difficulties which arose in connection with the adaptation of the 
 industries to peace conditions. The insufficiency of orders 
 enabled the capitalists to give in on the question of the eight-hour 
 working day, just as the illusionary revival of trade enabled them 
 to increase wages. The bourgeoisie was disorganised, it needed 
 time to gather its forces in order to disarm the proletariat. The 
 crisis became more and more intensified and the restoration of 
 the capitalist system met with unsurmountable obstacles. The 
 proletariat was gradually disarmed, the bourgeoisie organised 
 itself, and thus the offensive against the working class became 
 not only possible but inevitable. 
 
 II. The Beginning of the Offensive and its Methods. 
 
 4. With the change of the economic situation in the spring of 
 1920, started the offensive of the employers against the workers, 
 which turned into a general offensive of capital. This offensive 
 was mercilessly carried out by the bourgeoisie. It utilised not 
 only the weapons of its own economic power, but also the retaker 
 positions of the State machinery, as well as the special organisa- 
 tions which it formed for this purpose, such as the Fascisti, the 
 Civil Union, the Orgesh, etc. The aim of this offensive was to 
 transfer the burdens of the war and the crisis on to the shoulders 
 of the working class by abolishing the eight-hour working day, by 
 
 19 
 
decreasing .actual wages, by raising the productivity of labour, 
 etc. 
 
 5. In the countries with a high currency wages were reduced 
 on the ground that this was necessary so as to enable those 
 countries to again have the opportunity of competing in the world 
 market. Not taking into consideration the rise of the cost of 
 living, the capitalists decreased wages from 20 to 40 per cent. 
 The resistance of the workers was met with lock-outs, the closing 
 down of factories, the creation of vast armies of the unemployed, 
 who affected the level of wages, and also by mere force or by 
 applying legal arbitration (Arbitratory Courts, etc.), In countries 
 with a low currency the question of the reduction of actual wages 
 was solved in a more simple manner. Regardless of the reduction 
 of the buying capacity of money, the employers refused to increase 
 wages, aiming at the same time to equalise the prices of the home 
 market with those of the world market. Such a policy enabled 
 them to preserve the capacity to compete in the world market. 
 
 6. The abolition of the eight-hour working day in each branch 
 of industry began by the employers exclaiming that this abolition 
 was demanded by the specific features of this or that branch o f 
 industry. Under the slogan of restoring the industries the bour- 
 geoisie demanded the removal of all obstacles which prevented un- 
 restricted exploitation. In spite of general unemployment in the 
 industries important to the economic life of the country, as well 
 as in separate industries of important economic significance the 
 policy of compulsory overtime work was introduced and was 
 strengthened by special agreements (in Czecho-Slovakia, America, 
 and France). In those cases where the employers were suffi- 
 ciently strong they attempted to fully abolish the eight-hour 
 working day, and demanded the establishment by law of a longer 
 working day for a number of years. 
 
 7. A huge growth of misery and mortality amongst the work- 
 ing population, especially of the most exploited and unprotected 
 elements of the working class the women workers, the young- 
 workers and children the decrease of their working capacity, the 
 impoverishment of the middle class, the dying off o>f the invalids 
 of labour and the war are the results of the present situation. 
 Another consequence of low wages in many countries is the 
 deterioration of the technical industrial machinery. 
 
 8. The employers lead their attack upon the working class 
 along the line of the least resistance. They try particularly to 
 utilise the weakness and the non-organisation of the socially back- 
 ward stratum of the working class the women workers and the 
 young workers in order to lower their conditions of labour in the 
 first place, and after, to lower the level of the whole working 
 class. Utilising the machinery of State compulsion, the capitalists 
 limit the right of the workers' unions, sometimes dissolve them 
 entirely, or destroy them by violence with the aid of armed bands 
 (in Poland, Italy, Jugo-Slavia and Spain). The State employees 
 are either entirely deprived of the right to strike (Germany, Swit- 
 zerland), or the courts pass sentences upon them for coming out 
 on strike (America), etc. 
 
 III. Class Go-operation Causes the Inability of the Workers to 
 Resist. 
 
 9. At the .present time the working class is disarmed in the 
 
 ?o 
 
face of the attacking capital. It is not able to organise a well- 
 thought-out defensive campaign and reply to the offensive of 
 capital by a counter-offensive. The causes of this impotency lie 
 in class co-operation and in the agreement which the reformist 
 leaders of the trade unions have concluded with capital. The 
 Amsterdam bureacracy acts as if the interests of the economic life 
 would be common for the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and in 
 the preservation of which both parties are equally interested. 
 They, sacrifice the inteiests of the proletariat on the altar of saving 
 the capitalist state. They do not desire the class struggle. They 
 are the sworn enemies of the revolution (Black Friday, in England, 
 the appeal of the German Trade Union Federation against the 
 railwaymen's strike, etc.). 
 
 10. The methods applied by the Amsterdamers in their lead- 
 ing of the labour movement brings to the working class one defeat 
 after the other. They encourage the bourgeoisie to make new 
 attacks upon the working class. Every resistance of the workers 
 against the deterioration of their position contains within itself 
 revolutionary consequences. Consciously evading these conse- 
 quences, the Amsterdamers become counter-revolutionary and 
 voluntary agents of the bourgeoisie. 
 
 11. Every action in the spirit of class co-operation binds the 
 Amsterdamers more and more with their national bourgeoisie. 
 They fight against their own revolutionary proletariat and against 
 foreign competition in union with the bourgeoisie. They make 
 every international action of the proletariat impossble ; they 
 handicap the struggle of the workers, .directed towards the pre- 
 servation of the present conditions of labour, and assist the world 
 bourgeoisie to gain ever new victories over the working class. 
 
 IV. Disruption of the Trade Unions to Save Glass Co-operation. 
 
 12. A continuously growing section of the workers have pro- 
 tested against this policy of class co-operation and have demanded 
 the organisation of counter-action to the offensive of the capita- 
 lists. The wider becomes the protest of the revolutionary workers, 
 the more grows the resistance of the workers against the policy 
 of the Amsterdamers and the more grows for the latter the danger 
 of either finding themselves in a position which will compel them 
 to give up the reformist policy, or to lose their power over the 
 working masses and the leadership in the working class organisa- 
 tions. By this they lose every value for the bourgeoisie. 
 
 1 8. The fact that the Amsterdamers are losing their positions 
 m the bourgeois society causes their great hatred towards the 
 revolutionary workers. Co-operation with the bourgeoisie is more 
 important to them than the unity of the working forces. In the 
 name of preserving this co-operation they sacrifice not only the 
 class interest of the workers, but even destroy their organisation. 
 In order to silence the opposition they resort to the expulsion of 
 its constituents. If this does not work, they expel whole local 
 groups not hesitating even to split the trade unions and to destroy 
 the working class movement. France, Czecho-Slovakia and 
 Germany represent an example of this policy. The trade union 
 bureaucracy does not care that by such tactics thousands of 
 workers become indifferent and that they lose the attainments 
 which they have won by 50 years of struggle. They consider the 
 disruption of the trade unions as the lesser evil. 
 
 21 
 
V. Of What Purpose is the United Front? 
 
 14. While the Amsterdamers are compelled to split the 
 working class and its organisations in order to be able further to 
 continue their policy, the revolutionary workers, on the contrary, 
 should strive towards the United Front and towards the unification 
 of the workers' unions. Every disruption of the workers is a 
 victory for the capitalists. In order to turn the present defensive 
 struggle into an offensive the United Front should be created in 
 the first place. There can be no victory over capital without 
 the United Front. 
 
 15. The workers have grasped that with disintegrated forces 
 they are disarmed against capital. They wish the United Front 
 those who speak to them of the disruption of the trade unions 
 they consider as their enemies. Every policy which leads to the 
 disintegration of the trade unions should be rejected. No con- 
 cessions should be made to the impatient comrades to whom the 
 process of winning over seems too long and who find it necessary 
 to create new organisations. The movement for leaving the trade 
 unions should be combatted in the same resolute manner. The 
 tactics of winning over the trade unions as formulated by the First 
 International Congress of the R.I.L.U. has been met with 
 sympathy by the class-conscious part of the proletariat, and where 
 it has been correctly applied it has brought success. 
 
 1 6. If the workers will not succeed in attacking capitalism 
 by the United Front, they will not only suffer new defeat, not only 
 greater misery and slavery will await them, but they will even 
 lose their organisations and remain completely disarmed. 
 
 In the present situation the task of the revolutionaries is to 
 prove to all the workers and to the office employees and the civil 
 servants that they are prepared at any moment to fight with them 
 jointly in order to break the offensive of capital and to assist the 
 organisation of a counter-offensive against the capitalists. 
 
 VI. How is the United Front to be Created. 
 
 17. In accordance with the above the Congress advances the 
 following principles : - 
 
 (a) The adherents of the R.I.L.U. in their daily struggle put 
 it as their aim to methodically organise and resolutely to carry 
 out the counter-action of the workers to the offensive of capital. 
 
 (b) In their attempts to extend and internally strengthen the 
 revolutionary organisations they should always bear in mind that 
 their chief task is to organise concerted action' of all workers' 
 organisations. 
 
 (c) The fundamental condition of the creation of a general 
 trade union United Front is unity of will and a united disciplined 
 activity of all the revolutionary forces. All present differences 
 on separate questions of a national and international character 
 should be left aside. Every rivalry of the revolutionary forces 
 strengthens reformism. 
 
 (d) The United Front can only then have a strong basis if it 
 is the result of intensive work among the masses, of the work in 
 the primary nuclei of the organisations and in the workshops, but 
 not as a result of agreements of the trade union leaders. 
 
 (e) The united bloc of the workers' organisations can only 
 then secure success in the struggle of the proletariat if it is in a 
 
 22 
 
position to indicate the concrete aims and methods binding for 
 all adherents. The struggle for the United Front will only then 
 be successful if at the basis of this United Front will lie the Factory 
 Committees. 
 
 VII. The Tasks of the United Front. 
 
 1 8. In order successfully to combat the offensive of capital 
 the following elementary tasks should be carried out : 
 
 (a) The struggle against the reduction of wages regardless 
 of the fact whether this reduction is a result of the direct reduc- 
 tion of wages or the increase of the cost of living. A resolute 
 struggle for equal wages for equal work for women. 
 
 (b) The struggle for the unconditional preservation of the 
 eight-hour working day, and against the prolongation of the work- 
 ing day in those trades which, owing to their peculiarities, require 
 a shorter working day. 
 
 (c) The struggle for the economic demands of the young- 
 workers and counter-action to the attempts of the capitalists to 
 utilise the young workers for the reduction of wages of the adult 
 workers. 
 
 (d) The struggle for the protection of labour attained by 
 the workers and for the extension of the protection of labour to 
 women workers and to maternity, as well as for the transfer of 
 the burden of social insurance to the State, 
 
 (e) Resistance to all attempts of the capitalists upon the 
 rights and the attainments of the working class and upon its 
 authorised representatives and Factory Committees, upon the 
 right to organise especially for the State employees and the 
 workers in the industries vital to the industrial life of the country. 
 
 (f) The struggle for securing maintenance of the unemployed 
 during the whole period of unemployment. Equal unemployment 
 benefits for the unemployed men and women. 
 
 (g) An organised systematic struggle against all strike- 
 breaking organisations of the bourgeoisie and the States, such as 
 the Technical Aid in Germany, Klu-Klux-Klan in America, the 
 Civil League in France, and also against all yellow unions (the 
 Christian and nationalistic organisations). 
 
 (h) The struggle for arming the proletariat in order to 
 repulse the attacks of the armed bands of the bourgeoisie and to 
 counter-attack the origin of Fascism. 
 
 (i) A merciless struggle against all military strivings and 
 measures of the bourgeoisie. 
 
 (j) A struggle for breaking off the capitalist peace treaties 
 and against all attempts, whatever form they may take, upon 
 Soviet Russia. 
 
 (k) A struggle against exploitation and the enslavement of 
 the working masses in the colonies, without distinction of race. 
 
 VIII. The Struggle against the Harmful Methods of Policy. 
 
 19. The carrying out of these elementary demands during 
 the period of the breakdown of capitalism necessitates entering 
 into the struggle : 
 
 (a) Against the conclusion of wage agreements for a long 
 period. 
 
 (b) Against the substitution of the trade union struggle by 
 Arbitration Courts and Commissions, with an equal number of 
 Both parties. 
 
 23 
 
(c) Against the conclusion of such wage agreements which 
 correspond with the interests of small privileged groups of 
 workers, and which do not pay attention to the interests of the 
 proletariat as a whole and the needs of class solidarity. 
 
 (d) Against the methods of the Amsterdamers who are 
 striving, under the pretext of observing discipline, to defeat the 
 desire of the workers to strike by applying bureaucratic strike 
 rules. 
 
 (e) Against the artificial localisation of strikes applied by 
 the trade union bureaucracy in the interests of preserving the 
 principle of co-operation. 
 
 (f) Against the untimely liquidation, out of fear of revolu- 
 tionary consequences, of actions which promise to be successful, 
 and which have a tendency to spread further. 
 
 (g) Against the resistance to the spreading of real solidarity 
 of the proletariat outside separate trade unions and whole sec- 
 tional federations, and against the growing indifference of the 
 workers to the struggle of their class comrades. 
 
 IX. Preparation of Action. 
 
 20. The successful carrying out of every separate action 
 requires the consolidation of all forces of the proletariat, its trade 
 union and political organisations, and the active participation of 
 the trade unions in the struggle against capitalism as a system. 
 The strike is an important trade union weapon of the struggle. 
 In order to successfully apply this weapon the following is 
 necessary : 
 
 (a) A well-thought-out leadership of all economic actions 
 during which all existing proletarian forces should be utilised and 
 the present position and possibilities of success should be taken 
 into consideration. 
 
 (b) Vast solidarity, which should be expressed in moral and 
 material support to those in the struggle by the remaining prole- 
 tariat, from this particular industry up to action on an international 
 scale. 
 
 (c) To take info consideration the fact that every strike, 
 particularly a general strike, can be successful only if its aim is 
 well understood by the masses, if it is the expression of the will 
 of the masses, if it is well prepared, and if the leaders of this 
 strike are in constant contact with the masses. 
 
 (d) That during a general strike the masses should observe 
 an iron discipline, that the leaders and the masses should well 
 remember that during the general strike the working class is every 
 minute threatened by an armed attack of the bourgeoisie, they 
 should be prepared for it, and they should have all necessary 
 means to repulse such an attack. 
 
 (e) To take into consideration that in countries in which there 
 are several trade union headquarters, every action of the workers, 
 particularly in the event of the general strike, is threatened with 
 great danger, if the trade unions will not fight jointly. Therefore, 
 the revolutionary trade union officials should take upon themselves 
 the initiative to create the United Front. 
 
 2 1 . Only if the revolutionary workers will observe these main 
 rules during mass actions, will they be in a position to form the 
 United Front and successfully to carry out the defensive struggle 
 against the offensive of capital and prepare for the triumph of 
 the working class over capitalism. 
 
 24 
 
R.I.L.U. and the Comintern 
 
 Taking into consideration : 
 
 (1) That the object of the R.I.L.U. is to unify all the revolu- 
 tionary workers for the joint struggle against capitalism and for 
 the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. 
 
 (2) That this aim can be attained only on condition that all 
 the fighters for the social revolution will be permeated with the 
 Communist spirit. 
 
 .(3) That the triumph of Communism is possible only on an 
 international scale, which requires the closest contact and co- 
 ordination of the acitivities of the Comintern and the R.I.L.U. 
 
 (4) That there are groups of workers of the revolutionary- 
 syndicalist current of thought who are sincerely striving towards the 
 creation of a United Front with the Communists, and who con- 
 sider that the mutual representation between the Comintern and 
 the R.I.L.U. established by the First Congress, does not corre- 
 spond with the traditions of the working class movement of their 
 countries. 
 
 (5) That the G.C.T.U. of France, representing the above 
 view, expresses itself most emphatically for the militant co- 
 operation between the Comintern and the R.I.L.U., and for con- 
 certed action in all defensive and offensive struggles against 
 capital. 
 
 The Delegations of the trade unions of Russia, Germany, Italy 
 and Spain, standing on the platform of the urgent necessity of 
 the leadership of the Communist Party in each country, and of 
 the Communist International on an international scale, proposes, 
 nevertheless, to meet half-way the revolutionary workers of France, 
 and to accept the proposal of the G.C.T.U. in order to strengthen 
 at ,this Congress the bloc of all sincerely revolutionary elements 
 of the international trade union movement, who rally under the 
 banner of the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of 
 the dictatorship of the proletariat. 
 
 25 
 
The High Cost of living and 
 Unemployment 
 
 (i) Unemployment, the high cost of living, reduction of wages, 
 and deterioration of the standard of living of the working class, 
 are the inevitable consequences of every crisis of the capitalist 
 system. They grow and turn into a direct threat, endangering 
 the very existence of the working class, as capitalism is nearing 
 the limits of its developments. And the clearer it becomes that 
 the present economic crisis is the last crisis of the capitalist epoch, 
 the more aggressive becomes the attack of the bourgeoisie which 
 tears away by violence millions of workers from their livings, and 
 which throws the large masses into the abyss of impoverishment 
 and degeneration. 
 
 (2) The colossal economic crisis has affected the working 
 class in two ways : in countries with a high currency it has caused 
 unprecedented unemployment ; in countries with a low currency, 
 chiefly in the defeated countries of Central Europe, the crisis is 
 accompanied by a disastrous fall of the subsistence minimum of 
 the workers doomed to semi-starvation. In the first case, as well 
 as in the second, the results are equally ruinous for the 
 proletariat. 
 
 (3) The bourgeoisie is not any longer in a position to secure 
 the subsistence minimum for the worker, even as the object of its 
 exploitation. But it intensively struggles for its further existence. 
 It has .mobilised all the forces of the old system to defend the 
 holy foundations of the bankrupt system of private property. The 
 reformist leaders of the trade unions stand on the platform of 
 restoring the capitalist industries. They cannot, and do not wish, 
 and will not carry on an active struggle for the liquidation of un- 
 employment, or even for relieving the misery which it causes. 
 They play the last role in the counter-revolutionary army. They 
 take up the fatalist viewpoint of the bourgeois learned men, who 
 consider the present crisis as " normal " in the history of capita- 
 lism, and which can be overcome by intensifying the industrial 
 energy of the proletariat. Thus the bourgeoisie, and together 
 with it the reformist lackeys, are trying to transfer the burden of 
 the economic consequences of the " great " war of the bour- 
 geoisie upon the shoulders of the proletariat. 
 
 (4) All this proves that every struggle for the improvement 
 of the position of the working class and the unemployed at the 
 present phase of the development of capitalism must inevitably 
 turn into the revolutionary struggle against the very system of 
 capitalism. Unemployment can be liquidated only with the 
 liquidation of the capitalist system ; and it is just the latter that 
 the Amsterdamers strongly oppose. They advance miserable 
 government alms against unemployment, and they fight by the 
 old trade union methods against the horrible high cost of living,, 
 advancing the theory of the sliding scale, etc. They consciously 
 deceive the working masses, weakening their class consciousness, 
 and drawing them away from the active struggle. 
 
 (5) The revolutionary trade unions of all countries should 
 make clear to the large masses the essence of the methods of the 
 bourgeois and its henchmen, the Amsterdamers, and should unify 
 
 26 
 
these masses under the watchword of a concrete struggle. These 
 watchwords are as foTiows : 
 
 (a) The restoration of solidarity between the employed and 
 the unemployed ; this will be possible if the workers will take 
 action for absorbing all unemployed in the industries and for ic- 
 opening the factories that have .been closed down. 
 
 (b) The struggle for unemployment benefits should be carried 
 on under the watchword of " The right to exist. * The attempt 
 to decrease the State benefits should be opposed by advancing the 
 demand of increasing these benefits to the normal level of wages. 
 The capitalist State and the exploiting classes should shoulder the 
 burden of maintenance of the unemployed. 
 
 (c) The Red Trade Unions should work in full accord with 
 the " Unemployed Committees " in those countries where such 
 exist. Their tasks in the old Amsterdam Unions should be the 
 organisation of groups of unemployed, together with which they 
 should fight against the trade union bureaucracy, forcing it to 
 take resolute action for the improvement of the position of the 
 unemployed. 
 
 (d) The organisations of the unemployed should have an 
 equal vote in the trade unions and other workers' organisations. 
 Not a single member of a trade union who loses his work should 
 be expelled from his organisation because of his inability to pay 
 his membership fees. 
 
 (e) In the question of the high cost of living, the struggle of 
 the revolutionary trade unions should be carried on under the 
 watchword of " Control over articles of primary* necessity," 
 [< Workers' .control over regulation of prices and distribution," 
 " Down with the currency speculative Baccanalia." 
 
 (f) The Second Congress of the R.I.L.U.. calls upon the 
 workers of all countries to close up their proletarian ranks and 
 unite for the overthrow, by mutual efforts, of the capitalist 
 system, which is rotten to the core. This is the only method 
 which can liquidate the very question of unemployment and the 
 high cost of living. 
 
The Struggle against 
 Imperialism and Militarism 
 
 At the present time it may seem that capitalism in some 
 countries has improved its economic position, particularly in 
 America, England, and France. But, actually, it is moving 
 towards its breakdown. Inevitable bankruptcy is in store for it. 
 
 In all countries the balance of the national industries and the 
 social life is lost ; life is becoming intolerable for the workers, 
 owing to the financial instability and the greedy appetites of the 
 speculants, who are fleecing the workers. The class contradic- 
 tions are intensifying as the insolence of the imperialists is 
 increasing. 
 
 The differences of the Entente Powers over the terms of the 
 Versailles Treaty are growing, though they have together signed 
 this Treaty ; every Power is pursuing its own imperialistic policy, 
 which creates precedents for new wars. The Grecian-Turkish 
 war is but a result of this policy. 
 
 The oppression of the colonial peoples continues, and is grow- 
 ing to an extent that it causes upheavals, which are being sup- 
 pressed in the most ruthless manner. In Egypt, India, Ireland, 
 Morocco, Tunis, Transvaal, unceasing revolutionary uprisings are 
 taking place, which prove how great are the strivings of these 
 masses towards emancipation. 
 
 Militarism* crops up everywhere, increases and causes further 
 extension of armaments. A new world slaughter is being pre- 
 pared on the shores of the Pacific, on which the imperialists are 
 ready to stake everything. Having tried all methods by arms to 
 defeat Soviet Russia, which is the expression of the world 
 proletarian revolution, and having experienced defeat in this armed 
 struggle, the impatient States are transferring their struggle to 
 the economic field. At the present time they are negotiating with 
 the Proletarian States. The bourgeois diplomats are intriguing 
 and skillfully manceuring as, for instance, at the Lausanne Con- 
 ference. Mussolini, the most authoritative representative of the 
 world re-action and leader of the Fascisti, is attempting, and 
 insists, that Russia should be admitted to the Conference with 
 equal right as other States. 
 
 The re-action against the working class is raging everywhere, 
 though in a different degree. The attainments of the working 
 class are in great peril. The right to strike and the freedom of 
 the Unions are being challenged. The eight -hour working day is 
 being abolished, wages are being reduced, regardless of the high 
 cost of living and the rise in prices, and regardless of the losses 
 caused by the instability of wages. The most ruthless repres- 
 sions are applied to the revolutionaries whom re-action is killing 
 and throwing into jails. The Civil Leagues and the Fascisti bands 
 are breaking strikes, plundering and burning down the buildings 
 of the workers' organisations, and are shooting the workers. 
 
 The revolutionary proletariat should keep on the watch more 
 than ever, should be organised and disciplined. 
 
 At the present moment two forces are opposed to each other 
 in the whole world : REACTION, SUPPORTED BY THE WHITE 
 GUARD DICTATORSHIP (FASCISM) AND COMMUNISM, 
 
WHICH REPRESENTS THE WORLD REVOLUTION AND IS 
 SUPPORTED BY THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT. 
 
 The aim of , the revolutionary workers is to make clear to all 
 workers that their first duty is to support Proletarian Russia, 
 which embodies the revolutionary theory and revolutionary actions, 
 because the economic development of the proletarian state weakens 
 the world capitalism. 
 
 The revolutionaries should expose the bourgeois pacifists arid 
 social patriots who deceive the masses by their anti-militarist and 
 platonic declarations, not being in reality in a position to handicap 
 the imperialistic war in which they will take the most active part 
 as soon as it is declared. 
 
 They should also' expose the impotency of the League of 
 Nations, which is but an association of the Entente imperialists, a 
 Union of the conquerors against the conquered and which, neither 
 by its composition nor by its spirit, can give peace to the nations. 
 
 The revolutionaries should strengthen their class organisations 
 in order to increase their influence upon the working masses, and 
 thus increase their militancy. It is necessary to submit to strict 
 and rational discipline, in order to pit against capitalism the 
 United Eront, capable of defending the proletariat from the violent 
 attempts of the capitalists and their henchmen. In order to 
 hamper the militarist propaganda and to remove the threat of the 
 imperialist war, it is necessary to prepare the working class 
 opinion by means of meetings, leaflets, placards, and the period- 
 ical press, in order to cause an unanimous mood against the 
 bourgeois militarists. 
 
 Propaganda and organisation groups should be formed in the 
 army and in the capitalist militant organisations or institutions. 
 
 In case the imperialists send the workers to a new slaughter, 
 the revolutionaries should direct all their efforts so that the 
 workers in the countries interested should reply by united efforts 
 to the declaration of war, by a general strike and revolution. 
 
 Finally, in order to secure the attainments of the proletarian 
 revolution, the revolutionaries should widely advocate the principle 
 of the dictatorship of the proletariat, because capitalism can be 
 completely overthrown only by the organised efforts of the work- 
 ing class. 
 
 29 
 
The Trade Unions and the 
 Co-operative Movement 
 
 THE revolutionary trade unions in their relation to the workers' 
 co-operative movement pursue the following aims : 
 i. To assist the class self-definition of the working 
 class co-operative movement. 
 
 2. To draw the working class co-operative movement and the 
 masses which it organises into the general struggle of the politi- 
 cally and trade union organised proletariat for its daily interests 
 and for its final aim the reconstruction of the commonwealth 
 upon a Communist basis. 
 
 3. To utilise the co-operative machinery and the masses 
 which it unites in the struggle against high prices (the movement 
 for Workers' Control). 
 
 4. For this purpose to assist the unification within the co- 
 operatives of all revolutionary elements standing on the platform 
 of the class struggle. 
 
 In connection with this the revolutionary trade unions should 
 so strive that : 
 
 (1) All members of the trade unions should join the corre- 
 sponding workers' co-operatives. 
 
 (2) The elements organised in trade unions should strive 
 within the co-operatives that all members of the workers' co-opera- 
 tives should belong to the corresponding unions. 
 
 (3) The unions should take a most active part in all cam- 
 paigns of the working class co-operative movement. Reports on 
 co-operative work should be submitted to all trade union con- 
 gresses and the representatives of the trade unions should take 
 a most active part in the congresses of the co-operatives. 
 
 (4). The members of the co-operatives organised in the trade 
 unions should combat by propaganda " the independence " and 
 " the neutrality," PITTING AGAINST THEM THE PRINCIPLE 
 OF UNITY OF THE WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT AND THE 
 NECESSITY OF THE CLOSEST CONSOLIDATION AND THE 
 MUTUAL ASSISTANCE OF ALL ELEMENTS IN THE CLASS 
 STRUGGLE OF LABOUR AGAINST CAPITAL. 
 
 5. In all countries where the struggle is carried on for the 
 restoration* of the United Front of the workers against the offen- 
 sive of capital, the working class co-operative movement should, 
 in an organised manner, be attracted to this struggle, being one 
 of the factors of the working class movement. 
 
 6. The working class co-operative movement should partici- 
 pate in all international and national actions of the working class 
 against war imperialism, in the struggle for higher wages, for the 
 eight-hour working day, against white terror and in support of 
 Soviet Russia. 
 
 7. The workers' co-operatives should be drawn into the 
 work of creating militant strike funds, the necessary financial 
 means for the revolutionary proletarian press, the relief work for 
 the victims of the white terror, imprisoned victims of lock-outs, 
 etc. 
 
 8. CONTACT SHOULD BE FULLY SECURED BETWEEN 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY TRADE UNION MOVEMENT AND THE 
 REVOLUTIONARY CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT BY MEANS 
 
 30 
 
OF MUTUAL REPRESENTATION AND MUTUAL SUPPORT on 
 a national and international scale. 
 
 9. The revolutionary trade unions, together with the Com- 
 munist groups, should support the struggle OF THE REVOLU- 
 TIONARY ELEMENTS WITHIN THE CO-OPERATIVES FOR 
 THF PURPOSE OF WINNING OVER THE MAJORITY OF THE 
 MASSES AND THE ORGANS WHICH ARE LEADING THEM. 
 
 10. The revolutionary trade unions should carry on a struggle 
 through their members within the co-operatives AGAINST THE 
 CO-OPERATIVE BUREAUCRACY AND FOR CARRYING OUT 
 THE 'PROLETARIAN DEMOCRATISM IN THE DAILY PRAC- 
 TICE OF THE WORKERS' CO-OPERATIVES. 
 
 1 1 . The trade union should support the cause of the co-opera- 
 tive structure by giving to it their native workers, by investing 
 their funds in the co-operative banks and also by participating in 
 the organisational and social control life of the co-operatives. 
 
 12. The conditions of the office employees and the workers 
 engaged in the concerns and in the offices of the co-operatives 
 should be under special control of the trade union organs. , 
 
 Resolution on the Industrial Co-operative Associations of the 
 Trade Unions among the Workers. 
 
 (The Building Guilds, etc.). 
 
 1. The revolutionary Trade Unions should carry on a determined 
 struggle against the substitute and the very idea of socialisation which is 
 one of the most important links in the general struggle of the working 
 class for the seizure of the political and economic power. The move- 
 ment of co-operative industrial associations (the Building Guilds of the 
 Unions, etc.) which are aiming, in the opinion of the reformist leaders of 
 the Unions, peacefully and gradually, by means of co-operative self- 
 activity, (by collecting pecuniary means for socialisation) to partially 
 waive the question of socialisation within the limits of the capitalist 
 system, in leality however creates, at its best, harmful illusions. 
 
 2. Repudiating every economic co-operation with the bourgeoisie, 
 exposing the harm of this co-operation to the working class, the revolu- 
 tionary Trade Unions should combat the tendency of drawing away the 
 Unions as militant organs of the proletariat from the direct and real 
 struggle for socialisation, the more so that the real results of the above- 
 mentioned movement (the Building Guilds, etc.) within the capitalist 
 system are absolutely and relatively not essential. 
 
 3. As experience proves the reformists at their best are only 
 in a position at the expense of the material means and forces of 
 the militant trade union organs to set up a number of small limited 
 companies, which are being drowned in the general system of the 
 capitalist economic life and which are only nests of petit bour- 
 geois competition and egoism. 
 
 Observing that the international bourgeoisie shows exclusive 
 interest towards the movement (the attraction of the German and 
 French reformist unions to the restoration of the devastated dis- 
 ricts in France) and that in this movement the bankruptcy of 
 reformism is graphically demonstrated and the illusion is testified 
 to relieve the position of the working class by such means -in the 
 
 31 
 
period of the breakdown of capitalism, the revolutionary trade 
 unions consider it as their chief aim to* lend the struggle of the 
 working class for the transfer of all means of production of the 
 working class, which only can be the result of the daily attraction 
 of the masses to the mass movement both in their daily interests 
 and their final aims. 
 
 The Commercial Go-operative Activity of the Trade Unions. 
 
 1. The congress considers it harmful and irrational from the 
 view-point of the revolutionary trade union movement to make in 
 any way the work of the trade unions complex by placing upon it 
 the tasks of the consumers' co-operative movement, as, for 
 instance, the present case in Germany and in a number of other 
 countries. 
 
 2. The trade unions should do their utmost in supporting and 
 utilising the co-operative working class movement, but not in 
 directly taking over its economic functions, which would draw 
 away the mass militant organisations from their tasks and 
 struggle. The more is this tendency inadmissible in the revolu- 
 tionary trade unions in view of past experience, especially in Ger- 
 many where the direct economic activity of the national trade 
 union federation brought about the subsidising of the unions by 
 the bourgeois state, which results in the increased dependence of 
 the reformist trade unions on the bourgeoisie. 
 
 32 
 
The Trade Union movement in 
 
 colonial and semi-colonial 
 
 countries 
 
 (1) Colonies and semi-colonial countries are an integral part 
 of the present imperialist countries whose existence as such is 
 impossible without them. 
 
 (a) Colonies are a source of direct State income, drawn out 
 by the Metropolis by the pressure of taxes and a system of 
 government monopolies. 
 
 (b) The colonies supply armies, which together with the 
 " national " armies, make possible the rule of the imperialist 
 bourgeoisie, both in the colonies and outside of them (England 
 in India, Persia, Mesopotamia, France in Africa and in Germany). 
 
 (c) The colonies are large markets for the cheap manufactures 
 of the Metropolis. 
 
 (d) The colonies are a field for investment (in the railroads, 
 ports, electrical stations, tramways, colonial banks). 
 
 (e) Finally, the colonies are a source of raw materials and 
 fuel for the metropolitan industries. The last factor is of growing 
 importance now, because the struggle for raw materials is one 
 of the principal factors, deciding the policies of the imperialist 
 States. 
 
 (2) The plundering of the colonies and semi-colonies is car- 
 ried out by political and economic measures. Politically, by means 
 of concentrating the entire military, legislative and administrative 
 power, in the hands of the government agents and of a small clique 
 of large landowners and capitalists, chiefly from among the in- 
 vaded state. Economically, by means of retarding the industrial 
 development of the colonies through legislative, administrative 
 customs, tariffs, and other measures. Not only did these measures 
 prevent the development of native industry, but very often led to 
 the retrogression of the previously existing industries of the coun- 
 try : colonies which had been manufacturing and exporting goods 
 have consciously and systematically turned into purely agricultural 
 countries, exporting only raw materials and consuming manu- 
 factures of the Metropolis (India). 
 
 For the purpose of greater exploitation the imperalistic bour- 
 geoisie consciously keeps the great toiling masses of the colonies 
 in ignorance, robbing them] not only economically, but also intel- 
 lectually, and depriving them of the opportunities of social and 
 cultural development. 
 
 III. While enriching the bourgeoisie, the colonies have 
 had a negative effect upon the labour movement of the Metrop- 
 olis. Work in the colonies is paid for incomparably worse than 
 in the Metropolis. Owing to the lack of native industries, owing 
 to the breakdown of the artisan industries unable to compete with 
 the cheap manufactures imported from the Metropolis, owing to 
 the impoverishment and decrease in the holdings of the pea-santry 
 in consequence of the policies of the Metropolis, the colonies are 
 becoming centres of cheap labour, ready, in view of the general 
 low standard of living and the undeveloped trade union organisa- 
 tions themselves, to work under any conditions and for pay in- 
 sufficient to sustain life. This enables the capitalists to make 
 
 33 
 
tremendous profits in the colonies, not only profits, but super- 
 profits. 
 
 At a time of prosperity in the Metropolis, where the demand for 
 labour, especially for highly skilled workers, is great, the capita- 
 lists of the Metropolis are able to share part of the super-profits 
 made in the colonies with the labour aristocracy of their country, 
 making them superior to the great masses poorly paid, splitting 
 and disorganising the labour movement of the Metropolis, and 
 turning a certain part of the working class into the willing servants 
 of the imperialist machine. This is Responsible to a certain degree 
 for the reformist tendencies of the 1 labour aristocracy of Europe 
 and America. And it is not, of course, by accident that reformism 
 has gripped the upper layer of the working class of these 
 countries in whose economic life the super-profits, derived from 
 the colonies, play an important part (America, formerly Germany, 
 Holland, etc.). 
 
 Even greater was the demoralisation of the white worker (as 
 well as the Japanese in Korea) in the colonies : the difference 
 in wages and in the entire standard of living on the one hand, the 
 frequent strike breaking activities of the white workers during 
 strikes of the native workers, as well as their general leaning to- 
 wards capitalists on the other hand., and rivalry of the white and 
 native workers hampering the development of class solidarity. 
 
 IX. The war has made considerable changes in the economic 
 and political position of the colonies and semi-colonies. The sharp 
 drop in imports during the war, the great dependence upon the 
 colonies in a financial and military sense (England, France), the 
 keen rivalry between the imperialist states, gave the native capital 
 the opportunity to free itself from under the imperialist guardian- 
 ship pf the metropolis, and resulted in the rapid industrialisation 
 of the colonies and semi-colonies (India, China, Egypt), and in the 
 rise of a numerous industrial native proletariat employed in con- 
 cerns of European and American type, and concentrated in large 
 masses in great industrial centres. This newly born proletariat 
 at once gave great breadth to the movement which came into being 
 at the end of the war and which has shaken the entire East. 
 
 5. The young labour movement of the colonies has its 
 peculiarities : 
 
 (a) The number of organised workers, while large in absolute 
 figures, is small in proportion to the entire proletariat, embracing 
 only an insignificant minority. 
 
 (b) In addition to the establishment of trade union organ- 
 isations which has recently come into being, there sprung into 
 being a number of organisations of a temporary nature arising 
 suddenly during a strike and vanishing soon after. 
 
 (c) The trade union organisations are often permeated with 
 the artisan spirit, with sectionalism, provincialism, local patriotism 
 (China), and when there are no strikes how very little have con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 " (d) Under the conditions of the anti-imperialistic, national- 
 istic movement, which has spread to all countries of the East, 
 the young labour movement of the colonies and semi-colonies easily 
 becomes influenced by the bourgeoisie and its leaders who are 
 striving to utilise the mass movement of the workers in their 
 interests ; the trade unions are often headed by bourgeois public 
 workers, and even by capitalists (China, India). 
 
 These peculiarities are due, on the one hand, to the fact that 
 
 34 
 
the rapid growth of the native industries took place under con- 
 ditions of a patriarchal feudal system where the usurious commer- 
 cial capital was prevailing, characteristic under all differences of 
 structure, of all the colonial and semi-colonial states ; and on the 
 other hand, to the yoke of imperialism which gave the bourgeois 
 national movement an easy opportunity of utilising the racial 
 caste, and national peculiarities, traditions and prejudices of the 
 unconscious proletariat, overwhelmed by the peasantry. The 
 bourgeoisie all the time deceived the masses by the slogan of : 
 " The fight for independence," betraying the workers all the time 
 and directing the class movement of the toilers into the channels 
 of the nationalistic, democratic, emancipation movement against 
 the rule of the invaders. 
 
 6. The problems of the trade union movement in the colonies 
 and semi-colonies are in their main features everywhere the same, 
 namely : 
 
 (a) To create industrial unions based upon the principle of 
 class struggle which should act quite independently of the bour- 
 geoisie, aiming to defend the class interests of the proletariat, for 
 which purpose it will be necessary to carry on in the majority of 
 countries (not excluding Turkey), a constant struggle for the 
 legalisation of the unions, for the right of organisation, etc. 
 
 (b) To carry on a systematic and persistent struggle for the 
 equalisation of the conditions of labour of the native workers in 
 wages, working hours, and in general conditions with those of the 
 white workers* emigrated from the metropolis. 
 
 (c) To carry along with it a struggle against the racial, 
 national enmity between the white and native workers, which is 
 very advantageous to the capitalists and is mainly responsible for 
 the slow development of the labour movement in the colonies and 
 semi-colonies. The native capital of the newest formation is par- 
 ticularly interested in maintaining and deepening the hostility 
 which it utilises in two directions : (i) to split the labour move- 
 ment itself, and (2) to draw the great masses into the struggle 
 for national freedom advantageous to the interests of the native 
 bourgeoisie. 
 
 (d) While watchfully guarding its class interests, the prole- 
 tariat of the colonies and semi-colonies should at the same time 
 participate directly in the entire anti-imperialist movement, which 
 in the colonies and semi-colonies assumes, inevitably, a quite 
 national emancipation character, without overthrowing the rule 
 of the imperialists who are anxious to derive super-profits from the 
 colonies, the working class of these countries cannot attain a real 
 improvement in their conditions of labour. 
 
 But while participating in the general national emancipation 
 struggle, the workers should take a foremost and independent 
 position in the anti-militarist front, exposing the hypocrisy, the 
 half-heartedness of the bourgeoisie and petit-bourgeoisie and 
 their parties (No-Min-Dun in China, Ghandian in India, Kemalism 
 in Turkey), and insufficiencies of their agrarian programme. The 
 proletariat of the colonies should strive to seize the leadership of 
 the peasantry and the agrarian revolution, without which the liber- 
 ation of the colonies and and semi-colonies is unthinkable. 
 
 (e) The special task of the trade union movement of the 
 colonies and semi-colonies is the organisation of the tremendous 
 mass of the agricultural labourers, who make up in some Eastern 
 
 35 
 
countries (Korea, Persia, Turkey) a very considerable part of the 
 population, and also the numerous artisans who are beginning to 
 leave the patriarchal craft system and are being drawn into the 
 struggle of the proletariat. 
 
 7. These problems are of the utmost importance, not only 
 to the colonies, but to the labour movement of the entire world, 
 and the R.I.L.U. should come to the aid of the young trade union 
 movement of the colonies and semi-colonies in the following way : 
 
 (a) The revolutionary national federation and the minorities 
 of the countries which possess colonies (England, France, America, 
 Holland, Italy, Belgium, Japan, etc.) affiliated to the R.I.L.U., 
 should organise special bodies to keep up connections with the 
 trade union movement of these colonies. Japan, which is very 
 close to its colonies and semi-colonies (Korea, China, etc.), must 
 particularly play an important part in this work. The grade of 
 development of the labour movement in these countries will solve 
 the entire problem of the Pacific. 
 
 (b) In order to work out a concrete programme of action for 
 each country and colony in accordance with the actual situation, 
 the Second Congress of the R.I.L.U. decides to call simultaneously 
 with the next Congress of the R.I.L.U. as far as possible a large 
 conference of the revolutionary trade union organisations in the 
 colonies and the semi-colonies of the whole world. Preparations 
 for such a conference should begin immediately. 
 
 (c) In order to establish before the convocation of this con- 
 ference, the best relations between the revolutionary trade union 
 movement of the West and the East on the one hand, and the 
 countries of the East between themselves on the other hand, a 
 number of Port Bureaux should be established in the most impor- 
 tant ports. The choice of the particular port and the formulation 
 of the immediate activities of this Port Bureau should be left to 
 the special conference of the transport workers in which the 
 R.I.L.U. is to participate. 
 
 36 
 
APPENDIX 
 
, - - 1 , 
 
 > ; 
 

 APPENDIX 
 
 Constitution of the Red 
 International of Labour Unions 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 The class struggle has now reached such a degree of develop- 
 ment and acuteness that the working class, in order to successfully 
 conduct and complete its struggle for emancipation, must fight 
 as a solid revolutionary class power, not only on a national but 
 also on an international scale against the bourgeoisie, who, despite 
 the severe competition on the world market, is closely united in 
 its hatred of the proletarian revolution, and solidly welded against 
 the slightest attempt of the proletariat to free itself from exploita- 
 tion. Since the exploitation is international the fight against it 
 must have an international character. All internationals of 
 labour unions, which existed up to the present moment, at best 
 were but international statistical bureaux for mutual information. 
 The International Secretariat of Labour Unions before the war 
 was merely an information agency, it did not pursue any militant 
 class aims. The Amsterdam International of Labour Unions is 
 even less fit to deal with the issues at hand than its predecessor. 
 The first was but an information office ; the latter occupies itself 
 with politics of the worst kind, with anti-proletarian, bourgeois 
 politics. It sets forth the idea of class co-operation, social peace 
 and peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism. In its 
 essence it is an international of counter-action to the struggle for 
 the emancipation of the working class. Against this international 
 of impotence, confusion, subservience to the bourgeosie, such as 
 the Amsterdam International is, we must oppose an international 
 of revolutionary vigour, of class activity, an international which, 
 together with the Communist International, will organise the work- 
 ing class for the overthrow of capitalism, the destruction of the 
 bourgeois state and the establishment of the Dictatorship of the 
 Proletariat, an international which will seize all the means of pro- 
 duction and establish the Communist commonwealth. 
 
 Such a militant labour union international can be built up only 
 by revolutionary class unions, conscious of the purpose and 
 methods of the defensive and offensive struggle against the class 
 enemy. The problem history has put before the revolutionary 
 unions requires the utmost concentration of power, unexampled 
 intensity and the greatest self-sacrifice of> the conscious vanguard 
 elements of the working class. 
 
 I. Name. 
 
 The International Congress of: revolutionary, class conscious 
 trade and industrial unions, which unites the revolutionary labour 
 union organisations of all countries, decides to create a permanent 
 international organisation under the name : THE RED INTER- 
 NATIONAL OF LABOUR UNIONS. 
 
 II. Aims and Purpose. 
 
 The Red International of Labour L'nions has for its aims : 
 I. To organise the large working mass in the whole world for 
 the overthrow of capitalism, the emancipation of the toilers from 
 
 39 
 
oppression and exploitation, and the establishment of the socialist 
 commonwealth. 
 
 2. To carry on a wide agitation and propaganda of the prin- 
 ciples of the revolutionary class struggle, social revolution, the 
 dictatorship of the proletariat and revolutionary mass action for 
 the purpose of overthrowing the capitalist system and the bour- 
 geois state. 
 
 3. To fight against the corruptive ulcer, gnawing at the vitals 
 of the world labour union movement, of compromising with the 
 bourgeoisie, against the ideas of class co-operation and social peace 
 and the absurd hopes for a peaceful transition from capitalism 
 to socialism. 
 
 4. To unite the revolutionary class elements of the world 
 labour union movement and carry on a decisive battle against the 
 International Bureau of Labour attached to the League of Nations 
 and against the Amsterdam International Federation of Trade 
 Unions which by their programme and tactics are but the bulwark 
 of the world bourgeoisie. 
 
 5. To co-ordinate and regulate the struggle of 'the working 
 class in all countries and organise international demonstrations 
 each time the situation demands them. 
 
 6. To take the initiative of international campaigns about 
 prominent events of the class struggle, to open subscription lists 
 for the benefit of strikers in great social conflicts, etc. 
 
 III. Membership. 
 
 Any revolutionary economic class organisation is eligible to 
 membership in the Red International of Labour Unions if it accepts 
 the following conditions : 
 
 1. Endorsement of the principles of the revolutionary class 
 struggle. 
 
 2. Application of the principles in its daily struggle against 
 capitalism and the bourgeois state. 
 
 3. Recognition of the necessity of the overthrow of capitalism 
 through the social revolution and the establishment of the dicta- 
 torship of the proletariat for the transition period. 
 
 4. Recognition of and submission to the international prole- 
 tarian discipline. 
 
 5. Recognition and application of the decisions of the Con- 
 stituent Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions. 
 
 6. The rupture with the Amsterdam Yellow International. 
 
 /. All organisations, members of the R.I.L.U. should realise 
 unity of action according to existing conditions with all revolu- 
 tionary organisations and the Communist Parties in all defensive 
 and offensive actions against the bourgeoisie. 
 
 IV. International Congresses. 
 
 The International Congress of revolutionary class trade and 
 industrial unions is the supreme organ of the Red International of 
 Labour Unions. Congresses take place as often as possible and 
 at least once a year. They determine the general principles, pro- 
 gramme, tactics and statutes ; elect the directing organ and decide 
 all the questions connected with the orientation of the Red Inter- 
 national of Labour Unions. Extraordinary Congresses are called 
 by the decision of the Executive Bureau or at the demand of organ- 
 isations representing no less than one-third of the members of the 
 Red International of Labour Unions. 
 
 All trade and industrial unions which accept the programme 
 
 40 
 
and are following the directions of the Red International of Labour 
 Unions have the right to send delegates to the congresses. 
 
 The representation is distributed as follows : 
 
 Every national organisation of trade or industrial unions, having 
 less than 10,000 members, receives I consultative voice at the 
 Congress; having from 5,000 to 20,000 receives I decisive vote; 
 from 20,000 to 50,000, 2 decisive votes ; from 50,000 to I 50,006, 
 4 decisive votes ; from I 50,000 to 300,000, 6 decisive votes ; from 
 300,000 to 500,000, 8 decisive votes j'from 500,060 to 700,000, 10 
 decisive votes; from 700,000 to 1,000,000, 12 decisive votes; hav- 
 ing over 1,000,000, receives i additional decisive vote for every 
 additional 500,000 members ; international revolutionary class 
 organisations by trades or industries have the right to 2 deciding 
 votes each. 
 
 Organised minorities in countries have the same representation, 
 but all the organisation of a given country affiliated with the Red 
 International of Labour Unions make up a single delegation, inside 
 of which the votes are divided proportionally to the membership of 
 the respective organisations. Organised minorities and fractions 
 have representation on the congress only in those cases where the 
 general labour union organisation of that country is not affiliated 
 with the International of Labour Unions. 
 
 V. Organs of the Red International of Labour Unions. 
 
 The Red International of Labour Unions has two organs : The 
 Central Council and the Executive Bureau. 
 
 The Central Council. The Central Council is composed as fol- 
 lows : National Federations having from, 5,000 to 50,000 members, 
 send one representative with a decisive vote; from 50,000 to 
 300,000, two delegates with decisive votes'; frbm 300,006 to 
 700,000, three delegates with decisive votes ; from 700,000 to 
 2,000,000, four delegates with decisive votes; having over 
 2,000,000, send six delegates with decisive votes. International 
 organisations by trades or industries have one representative with 
 a consulting voice. 
 
 The Central Council directs all the work of the Red Interna- 
 tional of Labour Unions from congress to congress; takes all 
 decisions necessitated by the circumstances ; represents the Red 
 International of Labour Unions before the whole world; acts in 
 its name; gathers in its hands all the materials and documents 
 concerning the international labour movement ; manages all funds, 
 including the International Fund of Militant Solidarity; publishes 
 papers and magazines in different languages in short, is the organ 
 invested with the power to direct the work between the world con- 
 gresses. 
 
 The Central Council meets at least twice a year dealing mostly 
 with the clearing up of questions of principle, and leaving all cur- 
 rent work to the Executive Bureau. 
 
 The Executive Bureau is elected at the Congress, and is com- 
 posed of fifteen members, representing the following countries : 
 Russia, three members ; Germany, one member ; France, one 
 England, one; America, one ; Scandinavian countries, one; Balkan 
 States, one ; Czecho-Slovakia, one ; Spanish-speaking countries, 
 one; Poland, one; Australia, one; Eastern countries, one. 
 
 The elected members of the Executive Bureau can be called off 
 or substituted by their substitutes only with the agreement of the 
 Executive Bureau. 
 
 41 
 
The Executive Bureau directs all the current affairs of the Red 
 International of Labour Unions. It regulates the work of the 
 departments and sections ; publishes the official organ of the Red 
 International of Labour Unions ; represents the Red International of 
 Labour Unions ; and the Central Council wherever and whenever it 
 is necessary ; and prepares all the questions for the sessions of the 
 Central Council. The Executive Bureau meets at least once a 
 week. 
 
 VI. Unity of Action and Unity of Organisation. 
 
 Minorities of general labour unions and of national centres 
 affiliated with the Red International of Labour Unions and separate 
 organisations affiliated with it must co-ordinate all their actions. 
 If in a given country the general federation of all unions affiliates 
 with the Red International no other separate organisations can 
 affiliate with it. The revolutionary organisations endorsing the 
 stand of the Red International must join the general labour union 
 organisation of their country. 
 
 VII. Funds. 
 
 1. The adherents of the Red International of Labour Unions 
 who represent a minority in the trade unions, not affiliated with 
 the R.I.L.U., pay monthly contributions in the shape of propa- 
 ganda stamps. 
 
 2. The headquarters of the opposition in each country collects 
 these membership dues. 
 
 3. Five per cent, of the whole sum of these dues is sent to 
 the Executive Bureau of the Red International of Labour L/nions. 
 
 4. The national federations and organisations, affiliated to the 
 Red International of Labour Unions pay one per cent, of all incom- 
 ing membership dues of the local funds. 
 
 VIII. International Fund of Militant Solidarity. 
 
 The International Fund of Militant Solidarity is made up of a 
 special one per cent, of the general income of the funds of the 
 organisations affiliated to the Red International of Labour Unions. 
 
 This fund is also augmented by voluntary collections. 
 
 IX. Connections with the International trade and Idustriat 
 
 Organisations. 
 
 The Red International of Labour Unions admits to member- 
 ship not only general labour union organisations by countries, but 
 also international organisations by trades and industries, and 
 International Propaganda Committees. International trade and 
 industrial organisations establish their connections with the Red 
 International of Labour Unions, through their special representa- 
 tives of the International Congresses and in the Central Council of 
 the Red International of Labour Unions. 
 
 The international trade and industrial organisations work in 
 close co-operation and under the direct control and leadership of 
 the Executive Bureau of the Red International of Labour Unions. 
 The conferences and the congresses organised by the International 
 Propaganda Committees take place upon a preliminary agreement 
 with the Executive Bureau of the Red International of Labour 
 Unions. 
 
 X. Relations with the Communist International. 
 
 For the purpose of co-ordinating the struggle of all revolutionary 
 organisations, the Executive Bureau can, if circumstances require 
 it : 
 
 I . Conclude agreements with the Executive Committee of the 
 Third Communist International. 
 
 42 
 
2. Arrange mutual sessions with the Executive Bureau of the 
 Third (Communist) International for the purpose of discussing the 
 most important questions of the working class labour movement, 
 and for the organisation of concerted actions. 
 
 3. Issue appeals jointly with the Communist International. 
 
 XI. Expulsion and Membership. 
 
 Organisations affiliated with the Red International of Labour 
 Unions which, by their action have violated the decisions of the 
 congresses, or do not obey the decisions of the Central Council, 
 can be expelled by the decision of the Central Council on condition 
 that the motion of expulsion must be carried by not less than a 
 two-third vote. 
 
 If the violation is done by the central organs of a given organ- 
 isation, the Central Council of the Red International of Labour 
 Unions must call upon the membership of that organisation to 
 consider, at a special conference or congress, the dispute at issue 
 between their leading organ and the Red International of Labour 
 Unions. The question of expulsion is taken up by the Central 
 Council, only after the conference or convention of that organisa- 
 tion has reached a decision on the question at issue. The expelled 
 organisation has the right to appeal from the decision of the Cen- 
 tral Council to the next international congress, which may endorse 
 or annul the expulsion. 
 
 XII. Internal Structure. 
 
 The Red International of Labour Unions is designated to direct 
 the struggle of the proletariat and to inform its members of the 
 situation in different countries who must adapt its apparatus to the 
 work it must perform. For this purpose the Central Council 
 develops its apparatus by creating such sections and departments 
 as shall be necessary. 
 
 For the normal conduct of affairs and close contact of the 
 Red International of Labour Unions with the labour union organ- 
 isations of different countries, the Red International must establish 
 regular reports of all the organisations affiliated with it and 
 periodical trips to the most important Countries by the members 
 of the Central Council, especially in connection with the coming 
 big economic conflicts. 
 
 XIII. Magazine, Bulletin and Information. 
 
 The Red International of Labour Unions publishes its official 
 organ in four languages (French, German, English, and Russian), 
 and a bulletin in the same languages. Besides those two organs 
 for systematic information and idealogical leadership, the Central 
 Council of the Red International, shall turn their attention to the 
 system of circular letters and visiting trips to organisations. 
 
 All organisations affiliated to the Red International of Labour 
 Unions are bound at their own expense, to distribute among their 
 members a corresponding number of copies of the central organ 
 of the Reel International of Labour Unions. 
 
 XIV. Auditing Committee. 
 
 The Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions elects 
 an Auditing Committee of five persons which supervises the correct 
 income and expenditure of the funds and submits periodical reports 
 to the congresses. 
 
 XV. Location of the Red International of Labour Unions. 
 
 The permanent location of the Red International of Labour 
 Unions is decided by the congress. The time and place of the 
 congress are designated by the Central Council. 
 
 43 
 
Manifestoes, Appeals 8? Telegrams 
 of the Second Congress 
 
 To the Revolutionary Workers of All Countries 
 
 At the time when the First International Congress of the Red 
 Unions commenced its work, the White Terror and the offensive of 
 capital were raging in many countries. From all corners bf the 
 world, from America, Canada and the East, the groaning of the 
 oppressed and tortured working class was heard. Sixteen months 
 have passed since, and we still hear these dreadful echoes. In 
 Jugo-Slavia, Rumania, Spain, Holland, in America, gaols are over- 
 flooded with fighters of the working class. The monstrous 
 processes of the bourgeoisie against the best defenders of the 
 workers cause throw the latter into the hands of the hired hang- 
 men; hundreds of our comrades are falling under the merciless 
 blows of the henchmen of the bourgeoisie. The suffering of the 
 working class has reached the highest point in Italy. The workers' 
 organisations are being destroyed and burnt down ; the lives of 
 the workers who stand in the vanguard of the movement are in 
 the hands of the wild Fascisti bands who have succeeded in seizing 
 power. 
 
 The Second International Congress of the Red International 
 of Labour Unions before commencing its work, honours the memory 
 of the dead who fell in the cause for the emancipation of the work- 
 ing class. It sends its fraternal greetings to all comrades 
 languishing in the dungeons of capitalism. It is in full solidarity 
 with them and binds itself to bring them back to the battle-field 
 of the working class. 
 
 The Congress declares the unshaken will of the working class 
 to continue to the end the struggle for its emancipation and for 
 the overthrow of the power of the bourgeoisie. The White Terror 
 which is reigning in a number of countries does riot testify to the 
 virility of the capitalist system, on the contrary, it emphasises 
 with particular strength its impotency. Capitalism is scenting 
 its approaching death, and is attempting by repressions to create 
 barriers to keep back the final emancipation of the working class. 
 But the proletariat is breaking through all barriers on its way 
 towards the establishment of the Communism system. Neither 
 prisons nor deportations, nor death can keep it back. Fully confi- 
 dent of the emancipation and future of the proletariat, the Second 
 International Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions 
 calls upon the revolutionary workers to rally under its banners to 
 organise the final attack against the last strongholds of capitalism. 
 
 Long live the Red International of Labour Unions ! 
 Long live the World Revolution ! 
 
 PROTEST AGAINST TURKISH BRUTALITY 
 
 The Second International Congress of the Red International of 
 Labour Unions, having heard the report of the two Turkish revo- 
 lutionists who escaped from prison in Turkey, most determinedly 
 protests against the shameless and terrible persecutions to which 
 the revolutionary workers of Turkey are subjected. The struggle 
 of the Turkish people against imperialism found a sympathetic 
 
 44 
 
response in the hearts of millions of toilers in the entire world. 
 The senseless, criminal persecution of the most active revolutionary 
 part of the Turkish people cannot but call forth deep indignation 
 in the hearts of all the revolutionary workers who are true friends 
 of the down-trodden and suppressed peoples. The Turkish gov- 
 ernment which wants to deprive the working class of that country 
 of its best and more revolutionary elements by means of jailing 
 and torturing them, is following in the steps of Abdul-Hamid, and 
 will meet with the fate of its predecessors. 
 
 Down with persecution and barbarism ! 
 
 Long live the revolutionary proletariat of Turkey! 
 
 Long live the revolutionary struggle of the toilers against world 
 imperialism ! 
 
 TO THE 2nd. T.U. CONGRESS OF ESTHONIA 
 
 Comrades, 
 
 The Second International Congress of the R.I.L.U. conveys 
 its heartfelt greetings to its member, the Esthonian .Federation 
 of Trade Unions, wishing it every success in its hard work. 
 
 Being attacked by the reactionary newly-made bourgeoisie and 
 the grey barons , working under hard conditions, nearly driven 
 underground, you have raised the banner of the R.I.L.U., and you 
 are defending it with great determination. It costs you great 
 efforts and many sacrifices. Your thorny path is covered with 
 prison trials and the shooting of your best comrades. But you 
 should know that behind you is the solidarity of the revolutionary 
 workers of the whole world, who are watching with satisfaction 
 your heroic work in the cause of the emancipation of the working 
 class from the yoke of capitalism. 
 
 Long live the Esthonian Detachment of the Red International 
 of Labour Unions ! 
 
 TELEGRAM TO BOHEMIAN MINERS ON STRIKE 
 
 The Second Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions 
 conveys its sympathies to the striking miners of North Bohemia 
 and wishes them success in their Struggle. 
 
 Telegram to the N.A.C. of the British Unemployed Workers' 
 Organisation (N.U.W.C.M.) 
 
 Comrades, 
 
 The representatives of the Red International of Labour Unions 
 gathered together at the Second World Congress, sends your mem- 
 bers fraternal greetings. 
 
 We have noted the effective nature of your protests against 
 the heartless offensive of British capitalism. We are pleased that 
 the organisation has made the unemployment question a real live 
 issue, and we congratulate your members on the successes of the 
 nation wide demonstration. 
 
 The yellow leaders of Amsterdam will no doubt understand 
 the determination of the workers to be fooled no longer by specious 
 promises. Please to convey to all who took part in the march of 
 endurance our pleasure at the success of their feat of determin- 
 ation. 
 
 ON BEHALF OF THE RED INTERNATIONAL OF LABOUR 
 UNIONS! 
 
 45 
 
TO ALL ANARCHO-SYNDICALISTS 
 
 The Second Congress of the R.I.L.U., having adopted the 
 motion of the Unitary Confederation of France regarding the rela- 
 tions between the Comintern and the R.I.L.U., appeals to the 
 workers in the radicalist organisations to follow the example of 
 the Unitary Confederation of Labour, and to immediately affiliate 
 to the only revolutionary centre of the world trade union move- 
 mentthe R.I.L.U. 
 
 The Second Congress proposes to the Conference of the Syndi- 
 calists, which is to be held in Berlin on December 26th, to give 
 up all attempts of splitting the revolutionary trade union move- 
 ment, and to join the R.I.L.U. 
 
 The Congress is fully confident that all sincere revolutionary 
 workers, regardless of their political creed who are really anxious 
 for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of the 
 rule of labour, will join the R.I.L.U., fight together with their 
 leaders if they will be in favour of this, or against them if they 
 will handicap the creation of the united international revolutionary 
 trade union movement. 
 
 THE SECOND CONGRESS OF THE RED LABOUR UNION 
 INTERNATIONAL. 
 
 To 3rd Congress of Hindu Trade Unions, Lahore. 
 
 The Second Congress of the International Trade Unions which 
 unites the revolutionary trade union movement of the entire world 
 gathered in Moscow, is sending its brotherly greetings and wishes 
 success to the Third Congress of the Hindu Trade Unions meeting 
 at Lahore. The proletariat of all countries warn their Hindu 
 brothers against the attempts of the bourgeoisie to get hold of 
 the trade unions of your country. Fight the foreign exploiters, 
 but do not forget for a moment your own national exploiters who 
 are attempting to becloud your class consciousness by national- 
 istic slogans. A consistant class struggle is the best means of 
 liberating labour from the rule of the foreign and native capitalists. 
 
 Protest against the persecution of the Hungarian Trade Unions 
 
 The workers of the entire world are admiring the heroic 
 struggle of the Hungarian workers against their oppressors. The 
 Hungarian proletariat has received very hard blows from its bour- 
 geoisie since the overthrow of the Soviet rule in Hungary. Hard 
 were also the blows which the Hungarian workers have received 
 through the loss of their best fighters. 
 
 During the entire period of the Hungarian counter-revolution 
 the workers organised in trade unions have offered strenuous 
 resistance. They not only have retained their old unions, but even 
 developed them, in spite of all the persecutions. The Hungarian 
 workers are fig-hting bravely against the offensive of capital and 
 resist it splendidly. The trade unions of Hungary are at present 
 the only war theatre where the revolutionary forces are concen- 
 trating and preparing for the struggle. The Hungarian trade 
 union movement is growing rapidly, while Horthy's government is 
 organising a campaign against them. Trade unions are prohibited 
 by the government, locals are not allowed to organise, the existing 
 local unions are being closed down. The Congress of the Unions 
 of Agricultural Workers has been forbidden; Horthy's government 
 
 46 
 
has recently announced its intention of passing a law directed 
 against trade unions. A law in favour of strike breakers is also 
 expected, also laws which will make the trade unions a prey of 
 the police and other government organs. Under pretence of the 
 extension of the political activities, the government wants to 
 present itself with authority to disband trade unions and to confis- 
 cate their property. 
 
 The Second Congress of the International of Red Labour 
 Unions protests against these crimes of Horthy's government. 
 The representatives of the revolutionary workers of the entire world 
 gathered in congress hope that the Hungarian proletariat will have 
 sufficient power to resist the assault of Horthy's government upon 
 the trade unions. The Congress assures the Hungarian prole- 
 tariat of the solidarity of the revolutionary proletarians of the 
 entire world. 
 
 Long live the struggling Hungarian proletariat! 
 
 To the Congress of the Factory Committees, Neuewald, Berlin, 
 Neukoln. 
 
 Dear Comrades, 
 
 We are watching your movement with the greatest tension. 
 In a difficult moment are you gathering at your Congress in order 
 to show to the German proletariat a road upon which it should 
 enter to carry on the struggle against impoverishment and misery. 
 The capitalists are extending their offensive day by day. Its 
 main attack is now directed against the eight-hour working day. 
 The social democratic leaders and the trade union bureaucracy 
 are actively and passively assisting the capitalists in their attack. 
 They sabotage the work of the proletarian defensive more than 
 that. They are splitting the trade union movement in the interests 
 of the capitalists. The present moment dictates the creation 
 of a well moulded proletarian front to defend the eight-hour work- 
 ing day, to secure a decent standard of living of the workers, and 
 to enable the workers to take control of the industries, and to 
 resist the German Fascism by creating organs of workers' defence. 
 Responding to the urgency of the moment, the Fourth World Con- 
 gress of the Communist International, and the Second World 
 Congress of the R.I.L.U. will address an open letter to the Second 
 and Two-and-a-Half Internationals, as well as to the parties and 
 trade unions affiliated to them with a proposition that they partici- 
 pate in the general fight for the materialisation of the above-men- 
 tioned demands. 
 
 Comrades, continue steadfastly the fight which you have 
 started. 
 
 The movement of the Factory Committees should become a 
 centre around which the forces of the workers will rally for the 
 offensive struggle. This movement must organise and carry out 
 the defensive struggle on a large scale. If, regardless of all diffi- 
 culties, you still succeed in forming a single front, you will create 
 by this the first condition for a successful defensive and even 
 conditions for taking the offensive. 
 
 We, the representatives of the revolutionary workers gathered 
 from the whole world, are wishing you decisive success, and are 
 conveying to you our revolutionary fraternal greetings 
 
 THE FOURTH WORLD CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST 
 INTERNATIONAL AND THE SECOND CONGRESS OF THE 
 R.I.L.U, 
 
 47 
 
Telegram to the Spanish Trade Union Federation 
 
 Having learned of the disruptive activities and provocations of 
 the reformists, as well as on the sad events which followed, the 
 Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions expresses its 
 full sympathy and solidarity with the revolutionary minority of the 
 General Confederation of Labour. 
 
 C. LONG & Co. 
 T.U. Printers 
 
 No. 168 
 Camberwell 
 Rd. S.E.5 
 
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