Page:The Lessons of the German Events (1924).djvu/79

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Expelled Members Leagues and the union will work in close co-operation with the National Committee of the Factory Councils. Under these conditions, the party must carry on its work with special care, energy, and system among the unorganised and non-party masses, in order to prevent the break-up of the working class which is the aim of the trade union bureaucrats.

The United Front from Below

In refusing to negotiate with the leaders of the reformist trade union movement as well as with the leaders of the Social Democrats, who are actually allies of the bourgeoisie and of Fascism, the Communists must understand how to carry out the United Front from below in the trade unions by allying the masses of the proletariat organised in the trade unions with those yet unorganised, on the basis of their every-day struggles, and by winning over to this struggle those sections of the working class which have not yet broken away from the Social Democrats. In this connection, the negotiations and agreements between the Communists and the local trade union organisations (local groups, cartels, &c.) in the interest of the struggle, not only do not contradict the tactics of the United Front from below, but on the contrary, provide an important weapon against the trade union bureaucracy and the reformists.

In those cases where the Communists work in co-operation with the Social Democratic workers in the factories and in the organisations, it is the duty of the Communists, in addition to co-ordinating their practical activities, to advance their fundamental standpoint, and ruthlessly criticise the mistakes, the indecision, and the inconsistency of the demands of the Social Democrats.

The Communist Party must openly and clearly explain to the workers:

(1) That the crisis through which the trade unions are passing is the logical result of the whole history of reformist trade unionism, and of the tactic and policy of civil peace.

(2) That the working class can emerge from the present economic situation not by means of the ordinary trade union struggle, but only by the overthrow of the capitalists and by means of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

(3) The Communist Party must make use of every labour organisation, especially anti-reformist organisations, in the fight against the reformists. In this connection, the Weimar Conference was important from the fact that anti-reformist elements were brought into alliance against the trade union bureaucracy on the basis of a definite programme of action. This was also the case in the leagues of expelled members, in the Union, and others.

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