19.—World Labor Unity—Russia
Events at Scarboro really turned on the campaign for International Trade Union Unity and on the relations between the British and the Russian Labor Movements. Feeling centred there. There, if anywhere, the real tug-of-war would come.
Through 1924 and 1925 Fred Bramley and the other British delegates to the International Federation of Trade Unions had insisted on the necessity for World Labor Unity. Steps in this direction were the Russian Fraternal Delegation to the British Congress at Hull in 1924, the British Trade Union Delegation to Russia in November and December, 1924, and the exhaustive printed Report on Russia issued by the British Delegation. Other steps were the lone hand in favor of a conference between the Russians and Amsterdam played by the British Delegation at the International Federation of Trade Unions Council meeting in February, 1925, and the Anglo-Russian Unity Conference held in London during April, 1925. The General Council had moved deliberately but consistently, in the face of a hostile press, of attacks from within the British Labor Movement and of systematic opposition from the Continental leaders of the International Federation of Trade Unions.
M. Tomsky, President of the All-Russian Federation, was sitting among the fraternal delegates at Scarboro and the Congress was asked to approve a resolution which read: "This Congress records appreciation of the General Council's efforts to promote international unity, and urges the incoming General Council to do everything in their power towards securing world-wide unity of the Trade Union Movement through an all-inclusive International Federation of Trade Unions."
Fraternal delegates spoke on Thursday morning. A. Adamski of the United Garment Workers and E. J. Evans of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers spoke for the American Federation of Labor, J. F. Marsh of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, for the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada, and M. Tomsky for the All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions. Never was a contrast more striking. The three comfortable-looking, businessman-like American delegates talked of high wages, short hours, the stabilization of industry, super-power, labor banking and collaboration with the employers in the enforcement of the workmen's compensation laws. M. Tomsky, an undersized, stooping product of European proletarian life, spoke of the class struggle and of revolution.
Russian workers, said Tomsky, for the first time in history had proved that "the workers could grasp the helm and manage the state."
The Russians, he added, had been accused of hiding their real ideas under certain forms of propaganda. But this was untrue. The Russians were not ashamed of their ideas. "It was in the name of these ideas that in October, 1917, they gave up criticising the capitalist class by resolution and began criticising them by arms. They set free the bankers from the burden of the banks; they set free the employers from the burden of conducting the factories; they set free the landowners from the burden of the land; and on that basis they hold power and have built up a working-class State."
Tomsky asked the delegates to give up mutual accusation and to assist in setting up one united Trade Union International, Russia, he said, was prepared to join such an International. The entire house rose at the word; the "International" pealed forth from the organ; and the delegates spiritedly joined in the song.
Fred Bramley on behalf of the General Council moved the Unity Resolution. He pointed out the need for an International Federation of Trade Unions strong enough to meet the international offensive of the bosses and sufficiently elastic to include, the Labor Movement of all countries. It was with this object in view, he said, that the British General Council had been negotiating with Moscow and with Amsterdam. The resolution before the Congress provided for the continuance of such negotiations.
Russian problems, Bramley said, must be judged in relation to the past history of Russia. Otherwise they could not be correctly interpreted. He went on:
"The Russian Revolution was the first revolution in history aiming at, and securing, the overthrow of economic exploitation. It was also the first great national experiment in working class control. Russia is a Socialist Republic, and I wish to call your attention to the fact that it is the only revolution, the only economic change, that has received the universal condemnation of the exploiting classes.
"The Russian experiment and what has arisen from it hav demonstrated one important fact. You can cut off the heads of kings, abolish royal families, imprison emperors, promote world wars leading to the devastation of whole countries and their inhabitants. Still you can be forgiven and accepted into the comity of nations. But if you disturb the landed interests of a country and abolish the exploitation of the wage earners you will have to face what Russia has had to face and is facing now—isolation, international boycott, and persecution.
"Russia is a nation at bay. Its economic system is controlled by the working class movement, and we consider it our duty to stand by the working classes of Russia."
Bramley sat down. The delegates were cheering. The seconder of the motion took the floor. No sooner had he finished his address than the delegates began shouting "Vote! Vote!" Not a delegate rose to oppose the resolution. The Chairman put the motion and it was carried by acclamation.
On the following day the capitalist press stated that the Chairman had "smothered discussion." The statement was false. If there was one manifestly unanimous action of the delegates during the whole Congress week it was the passing of the Unity Resolution.
A resolution condemning the British banking interests for their activities in preventing the reopening of active trade with Russia and calling upon the Government to apply the Trade Facilities Acts to the Russian markets was carried without discussion.