creating political parties, as in England, Norway and Belgium. In Norway, one and the same meeting elects two committees, one for the trade union and one for the party. We have also other forms of relations between the party and trade unions, but these are the fundamental ones.
Where do these types lead, historically? To the strengthening of separatism or to some kind of unity? There is no doubt that the existence of these parallel organizations is a temporary character of the international trade union movement. The more it will develop and the more the masses will come to revolutionary consciousness, so much closer will be the relations between the different forms of the labor movement, and, at the proper moment, all these lines will come together into a united organizational form which will unite all the different organizational groupings, political, trade union, etc.
Thus, the historical development of the labor movement is toward a synthesis a blending, of all forms of labor organization. If we correctly consider the development of the labor movement, we will have to oppose strongly the idea of separatism, which is trying always to preserve existing relations. We have to remark that not only on account of these causes are we opposed to separatism—to independence; but also because separatism as well as neutralism does not exist in fact. There cannot be a trade union organization which would stand aside in case of definite class conflict. Neutralism and independence are also "politics" but a bad anti-labor politics.
The Destruction or the Winning Over of the Unions?
Another question which also defined the tactics of the revolutionary labor movement was the question of our attitude towards the old, reformist trade unions. In the Red International we collected all that was revolutionary in the trade unions: Independent unions, separate national centers, revolutionary minorities in the old unions, etc.
We had to give an answer to the question: Are we going to create new trade unions, or fight for the winning over of the old unions? At present this question is not of such importance as it was at that time. At that time we had to state clearly: Are we for the destruction of the reformist unions, or for the winning of them over to us?
Our First (Constituent) Congress gave a reply: Not for the destruction but for the winning over of the old trade unions. Why did that question arise at all? It was because at the end of 1918, the German Communist Party at its First Congress in Heidelberg, decided to call upon the workers to leave the old unions and create new ones. Thanks to this decision a small union was created in Germany which tried to replace the powerful organism of the reformist trade union movement which embraces about ten million members.
