KAPD on the unions

The Union Issue

Report from the General Assembly of the Greater Berliners workers' councils

According to a decision of the Executive Council, the trade unions, i.e., those organizations that have so far fought the council system most decisively, are to be entrusted with the conduct of the new elections for the workers' councils. Only a few weeks ago, [Carl] Legien [-president of Trade Union International-] and his associates openly and fundamentally opposed the council system, and if they are now in favor of "works councils," they only want to give them such meager powers that they do not even deserve the name. Above all, however, it is wrong to appoint the trade unions as representatives of the workers' councils so long as these same trade unions form working groups with the employers. The workers' councils that want to realize socialism cannot rely on trade unions that serve the employers as henchmen against the revolutionary workers.

Kampfblätter der KPD. No. 3. May 6, 1920.

KPD. and USP. - against the unions

The defeat of the Greater Berlin proletariat, which can be traced back to the failure of the workers trade unions, gives the proletariat the clear lesson that only forces with a common revolutionary will can lead to a revolutionary struggle can be joined together.

The organization and leadership of the decisive struggles of the proletariat against capital must be carried out by officials of the proletarian revolution who are elected and can be recalled at any time. The organization of these struggles can only take place on the basis of the factories. In this form, the proletariat must be brought together into unified fighting formations, the construction of which must take place immediately and comprehensively across the entire economic area of ​​Germany.

The struggle of the working class for socialism must take place under the slogan: all power to the councils, the foundation of which must be these revolutionary fighting formations.

For this reason, the General Assembly declares that within the framework of these fighting organizations for the pure council system there is no room for organizations of the proletariat which are not means and expressions of the pure council system, but which cling to the old and ineffective forms of the proletarian class struggle.

This resolution was adopted unanimously.

From a general meeting of the Greater Berlin Workers' Councils shortly before October 1920.

"Out of the unions!"

By Paul Frölich.

The trade unions have in fact no tasks to fulfill either now or in the future. They have become an obstacle to the revolution and must therefore be destroyed.... creating the necessary organization for the revolutionary struggle through its own factory organization is the task of the KPD!

Communist Council-Correspondence 

The noose around the neck of the working class is the unions!

The resolution you have proposed mentions the International Trade Unions. This resolution states twice that the International Trade Unions should not be destroyed. God forbid! Yes, in this resolution you can read that the Communist International is making itself impossible by the demanded destruction of the International Trade Unions. The demanded destruction of the International Trade Unions would also destroy the entire proletarian liberation movement. (Very true! From the right.) Now, we want to examine whether that is very true, or whether it is not very true, but simply true. (Laughter.)

What is the trade union international now? It is a fragment of the collapsed Second International. (Very true! From the left.) The trade union international in Amsterdam is the Second International. (Dittmann calls out: You are making a bogeyman for us!) I maintain that the trade union international in Amsterdam is currently the only bulwark of the bourgeoisie. (Very true! From the left.)

Comrades, the bourgeoisie cannot fight against us and win now, because the workers have already awakened. It can only do something against us if it relies on a section of the working masses themselves. Politically, the Second International has collapsed, but in terms of trade unions, the Second International is still there. Politically, it is nothing but a zero, a corpse. But the so-called trade union international is unfortunately still something, and it is the bulwark of the international bourgeoisie. (Shout from the right: Nonsense!) Who are the leaders of this so-called international? That is Legien. (Shout: No!) That is Jouhaux. And everyone knows that this Legien is an agent of capital, that this Jouhaux is an agent of French capital. (Heckling, unrest.) It is a question of not about people. It is about politics, comrades and workers who are sitting on the right. This International is a noose around our necks and around the necks of the working class. (Stormy applause from the left. Shout from the right: Nonsense! Big noise.) Around your necks too. (Shout from the left: Yes, sir!) Yes, around your necks too."

From: G. Zinoviev: The World Revolution and the Third Communist International. Speech at the USPD Party Congress in Halle on October 14, 1920.

The unions are worse than the Orgesch!

The international bourgeoisie cannot simply come to you and say: Beware of the revolution! You would not trust it. But the so-called trade union international can come with it. It has often been said here: They want to separate themselves from us, their own class brothers. (Call from the crowd: They want that!) Yes, we want that, because they do not want to break with the traitors from the trade union international. (Very true! Very true! Stormy applause.) Yes, comrades, we maintain, and you yourself have agreed, that the main task of our days, our epoch, our historical hour, is to orient our class spiritually. (Call from the right: We do that every day!) That is the only precondition for the victory of the proletarian revolution. But can that be achieved in the trade union international, which is led by yellows, by agents of international capital, by people who have the London and Paris stock exchanges in their back pockets? (Shout from the right. A whistle. Shout from the left: Shame on you!) If you whistle to this, you do so out of ignorance. Every day you can see that the so-called trade union international is a weapon of the international bourgeoisie, and the sharpest and most dangerous and I would add, the only effective weapon that the bourgeoisie now has against us. (Lively applause from the left. Shout from the right: Nonsense!) All these militias, these Orgesh, these White Guards. They are not very pleasant people, of course, but I must say that they are much less dangerous to us than the leaders of the so-called International Trade Unions. (Bravo! Stormy applause from the left. Great unrest.) Yes, comrades, the reason for the riot is precisely because it was the truth. (Great noise. Clapping from the left. Shouts of bravo. Objection from the right. Shout from the right: Slander! Great unrest.)

From the same speech by Zinoviev.

The unions are counter-revolutionary!

The Amsterdam Trade Union International is part of the Second International. Do you really think that this branch of the Second International is the best part? No, comrades, it is the worst, it is precisely the worst part of the Second International. And you are outraged when I say that it is counter-revolutionary?

From the same speech.

Why do you think we are saying "Join the unions" today?

Have the "yellow" Amsterdamers changed? Everyone will answer this question in the negative! So the Communist International has sunk to the level of Amsterdam. It has thus joined the front of the "counter-revolution".

Back to the unions

We must support those who have left the unions ten workers gather under the single slogan:

Back to the unions! Yes, back to the reactionary, counter-revolutionary, human-swiss union, back into the unions, which were still under the leadership of social democrats! Back into these unions to create a center for the unification of our forces.

If we do not make this demand and do not carry it out, then we are revolutionary chatterboxes, then we will never overthrow the bourgeois order, then we will never seriously win over the majority of the working class. This is not the place to joke, we do not believe in the truth of the words of the representative of the Schumacher trend, who said: "We do not advocate leaving the trade unions."

Zinoviev on the trade union question at the Fifth World Congress.

So put a rope around the workers' necks!"

On which platform?

One of the speakers explained that I had proposed a united front tactic only from above... Act from above and from below, you will achieve a result when you understand how to mobilize the masses around your slogans... Some comrades explained here, when we raised the question of the Amsterdam International, that we could only negotiate with the Amsterdamers if they accepted our platform. But if they accepted our platform, we would no longer be negotiating with them, but with ourselves. That is clear, then the question will be decided. But this is no answer to the question of the unity of the international trade union movement, which is and must be on the agenda... The second precondition for organizing international action is the fight against reformism, which must be increased not by a hundred but by a hundred thousand percent.

Losowski on the III. World Congress of the R.G.I.

This is of course “not reformism.”

The united front!

To the international proletariat!

The real cause of the struggle, however, is the long-planned general push to rob the workers of the eight-hour day and to force them to pay starvation wages to impose the ten-hour day. The prize-winners of this initiative, who wanted to be the aniline kings, the French occupation authorities, the German authorities and the Amsterdam trade union leaders have formed a front to crush the striking workers. The authorities are taking the most brutal action against the strikers and the Amsterdam trade union leaders are refusing to support this fight in defense of the eight-hour working day and the strikers.

Rote Fahne No. 549 of December 12, 1922.

So: aniline kings, French occupation authorities, German authorities, Amsterdam trade union leaders, a united front, a front of the bourgeoisie! Moscow wants to join this front through the Moscow-Amsterdam connection!

"United front"

Precisely because the most important tasks will fall to the working class after the war, the commonplace idiocy of unity must be rejected, the workers determined to fight seriously must free themselves of divisive elements, and eliminate from their ranks all conscious or unconscious secret or open allies of the Kirdorfs. Any leniency, any rhetoric of unity based on phrases, would be a crime; the result would perhaps be a longer sword for the workers, but one made of cardboard instead of brass.

From: Karl Liebknecht. Fight against Legien or Kirdorf in Political Notes".

What is "union unity"?

1..... the view of some Czech comrades that we may achieve unity with the social democratic trade unions, but not with the National Socialist and Christian Socialist trade unions, is fundamentally wrong.

2..... In the United States, the most reactionary unions exist, which openly advocate unity with Coolidge. There, the struggle for joining the Amsterdam International, the fight against the corruption of the trade union bureaucracy took on revolutionary significance.

3.....We must...form a coalition with the left wing of Amsterdam in the struggle for unity.

Debate on trade union unity in the Rote Fahne of April 3, 1925.

Conclusion: coalition with the left-wing Amsterdamers. The counter-revolutionary front thus extends from the Nationalists to the SPD, and from there through the coalition with the left-wing Amsterdamers to the KPD. This closes the circle of counter-revolutionary parliamentary parties.

The attacked fortress. Stalin's air strike against the revolutionary besiegers of the Soviet Union

The trade unions can really be compared to a besieged fortress, whose garrison must be constantly on guard against the offensive advances of a determined proletarian troop. Because this is the case, Stalin attacks the revolutionary besiegers of the organ trade unions as follows:

There are still individual communists in the West who are still peddling the anti-proletarian and anti-revolutionary slogan: "Out of the trade unions." It must be said that no one can do as much damage to the communist movement in the West as these and similar "communists." These people want to "attack" the trade unions from outside, considering them to be an enemy camp. They do not understand that with such a policy the workers are naturally regarded as enemies. They do not understand that the working masses still regard the trade unions, whether they are good or bad, as their fortress, which helps them to maintain wages and the working day, etc. They do not understand that such a policy does not facilitate the connection of the communists with the millions of the working class.

The situation

What is the essence of the present period of capitalist society? It is that production is constantly being reduced. Capitalism is no longer expanding production. But if Marx has already told us that in a period where capitalism is expanding production, the task of the proletariat is to gather forces and overthrow capitalism, how much more is this the task of the proletariat in the present period, where the essence of capitalism is such that it is stopping production. Even if we now see the development of the trusts, it is not true that they are rebuilding the economy; it is a slow and systematic destruction that is now taking place. Hence the crisis.

Results of the conquest

The organizations are different and the situation is different. A scheme is not enough for us: expansion of the movement or a 40 percent wage increase, but we have to adapt our demands to the daily situation. That is extremely difficult. Our comrades have not yet learned that and that is why we have so many misfortunes in our movement, because we make good comrades into leaders of the unions, but one day it turns out that they have fallen into the wake of the reformists because this general scheme that we gave them does not fit at all.

From the speech by Heckert. Bulletin No. 11 of the 10th Party Congress of the KPD, July 23, 1925.

Three quotes from a short speech. And the moral of the story: the unions are superfluous, the crisis of capitalism is here, and yet people work in the unions to turn communists into reformists. H. provides the proof here: the path of Lange, Dißmann etc. is the path of all "conquerors".

The 2nd Class Members

Kassel, June 23, 1924.

The General Assembly of the Central Association of Employees decided by 60 votes to 40:

The Association Congress approves the decision of the Association Executive Board and Advisory Board of 24 February 24 and adopts it as its own. After the Communist Party has instructed its members to sign their reversion against good faith. The Congress of the Association determines that members of the Communist Party and those who work in its interests cannot be association officials.

Red Flag, June 25, 1924.

Despite this degradation and the kicking of Giebel, Urban and the like, one reveals one's lackey soul, for one protests most strongly, but one will "fight" within the association until the last moment.

Eight-hour day and the KPD.

The German working class, largely through the fault of the KPD, surrendered the eight-hour day to the employers without a fight.

From: On the situation in the KPD. Inprekor. No. 3, January 19, 1924.

The right point of view

Despite all the pacifist-democratic embellishments, the capitalist contradictions are increasing at a rapid pace. Every attempt to solve individual sub-questions, including those of trade union life, leads to the realization that they are insoluble in the capitalist system.

Thus, in the epoch of capitalism’s decay, both the productive forces (through non-renewal) and the labor force (through low wages) are destroyed.

These two questions alone prove that no haggling and no compromise between labor and capital can bring about an increase in wages or a reduction in working hours.

It is clear that, given the current tendency of German capital to paralyze large parts of various branches of industry that are not capable of being sold, the struggle can only be carried on a broad basis. Only the sharpest class struggle, which directly threatens the existence of the capitalist system, can improve the situation of the working class.

This state of affairs clearly shows the insoluble contradiction of the reformist trade union policy. The reformists believe that they can continue their old policy of improving wages and working conditions without touching the foundations of the capitalist system. More than that. They see their real task as working with all their might to rebuild the economy, i.e. the capitalist economy. The consequence of this is that in every situation in which the bourgeoisie gets into difficulties, they have to renounce an improvement in the living conditions of the workers and repeatedly agree to a further reduction in the standard of living of the workers. The theoretical contradiction of the reformist wage policy resolves itself in practice into a permanent betrayal of the workers' interests, into a renunciation of the class struggle in favor of maintaining and re-establishing the rule of the bourgeoisie.

Excerpts from: Some thoughts on reformist trade union policy, in The Communist Trade Unionist, Volume 4, No. 16, November 1924.

A brilliant argument for the necessity of the General Workers Union. [Max:  Translated from the title Allgemeine Arbeiter-Union, referred to most commonly as the AAU/AAUD]

Karl Liebknecht on the Trade Unions and Social Democracy

The German social democracy and trade union movement, with their leaders, soiled from head to toe, wading in the mire of capitalist servility, ministerialist lackeyship, rotten to the core of their bones, corrupted, discredited before the whole world. Every serious class fighter, every honest internationalist, every sincere socialist turned away from them in disgust. The once proud edifice of the socialist workers' organizations collapsed. The workers movement is faced with the necessity of a murderous internal struggle that will last for years.

This struggle, however, will neither paralyze nor weaken the revolutionary forces of the proletariat; for the forces of the stormy elements, detached from the discipline fetish, the organizational bureaucracy and the tactical traditions that have become dull, will accelerate the revolutionary movement and drive it forward to unbridled ruthlessness.

From: “The prison sentence against K. Liebknecht”, p. 142.

Therefore: Allgemeine Arbeiter-Union

The Union is coming closer to the proletarian council system in its structure and practical work. While in the trade unions, as capitalist organizational structures with their private property ideology, the members are the playthings of a group of professional leaders, in the A.A.U. the initiative and the implementation of the political line are in the hands of those involved in the economic process. Through control from the bottom up, the development of self-confidence and the release of all proletarian forces, the opposition between mass and leader is actually overcome here.

The General Workers' Union is the mortal enemy of the bourgeois order and knows no compromise between capital and labor. Its goal is the communist economy based on needs. In order to achieve this form of economy, it stands on the basis of the dictatorship of the working class. The bearers of this class dictatorship are the proletarian councils. The dictatorship of the proletariat is a means to an end and is necessary until the resistance of the overthrown bourgeois classes is completely broken. The AAU is not only a sharp sword of the propertyless in the struggles of the proletarian revolution, but also a constructive instrument of the victorious working class.

From: Trade Unions or General Workers Union. P. 22.