Page:Solomon Abramovich Lozovsky - The World's Trade Union Movement (1924).pdf/121

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
WORLD'S TRADE UNION MOVEMENT
117

tendencies, Fimmen and Williams, consider it necessary to unite with us, and, in the right wing, are the British and French reformists, opponents of the United Front with Communists.

The remaining 65 per cent of. the Amsterdam International are not a unit within their national groups because of inner,jealousies and competition; and also along political lines because there are serious disagreements over the question of the immediate means and methods of the class struggle. It is natural that under those conditions it is easy to say whose organization has the greater specific gravity, the Amsterdam International or the Profintern.

For that purpose we can depend on the Amsterdam International itself. A sketch of the Communist influence on the world's trade union movement happened to fall into our hands. This sketch was made by the Central body of the German trade unions and was proposed to the Amsterdam International for publication. But the latter decided not to publish it in order not to advertise the Profintern and Comintern. In this chart the Comintern and Profintern are painted in the form of a spider covering the whole world in its web, capturing the trade unions, the unions of ex-service men, the unions of unemployed, the workers' athletic associations, co-operatives, factory and shop committees, the youth movement, the union of war victims, invalids, the tenants' movements, mutual aid societies. Thus, the Communist web is covering all forms of the labor movement, All this is very well drawn in a detailed way, which is characteristic for the German bureaucrats.

This is an estimation of our activities by our opponents, and as long as they are not interested in magnifying our forces, but in the contrary, we need no better compliment for our work.

There is another thing to which we should pay attention. The fundamental question is the tendency for development. If the status of the world's trade union movement, external, statistical expression is against us so far, what is the dynamic feature of this movement? In which direction does it develop?

Here we may refer to definite historical facts. We organized three years ago. The Profintern has no old traditions. It is a new organization. What are the results of the three years of work? We were blockaded for a long time. We are still blockaded because the Profintern cannot develop legally in Europe. In Hungary, Roumania, Jugo-Slavia, Finland, Italy and other countries the police terrorizes and smashes the organizations affiliated to the Profintern; and, in spite of this colossal apparatus of the bourgeoisie, which is aimed at the revolutionary trade unions, in spite of the fact that all opportunities are on the side and in the hands of the Amsterdam International, in spite of all that, there is a steady lessening of the influence of it and, at the same time, a steady growth of the influence of the Profintern.