The Threat to the Labor Movement/Section 34
Proof of Guilt from Official Statements.
FROM our survey of the forces organized against the left wing, their public statements, the statements of the capitalist press in support of the right wing, the twin-like character of the capitalist program for the unions and the program of officialdom-worker-employer co-operation, the joint demand of labor officialdom and capitalist spokesmen for definite increase in production in return for slight wage increases, the assertions of both trade union officialdom and socialist party leaders that the unions are and must remain only economic organizations, from the fact that the attack on the left wing centers now in unions which have fought and won strikes after rejecting the worker-employer co-operation policy, from the extension of the fight into all broad mass movements of a militant working class character we can say that the premises laid down in the introduction to these articles have been proven. They have been proven by the statements of labor officialdom, capitalist apologists, socialist party leaders and government officials.
Against the offensive of the united front of reaction the Communists and left wing represent the interests of the masses of the workers and fight for the right to strike, the right to free expression of political opinions in the unions, the right of the rank and file to make decisions without intimidation from gangsters in the pay of the official machine.
It is not for "the preservation of the trade unions" that officialdom is contending, but for trade unionism in name only—a lifeless, impotent organization managed in the interests of the bosses and resembling trade unionism only in that it supports an officialdom which talks of trade unionism—with its tongue in its fat jowl.