Scott Nearing

“ In my opinion, in the struggle between Amsterdam and Moscow there must be neither victors nor vanquished. There must no longer be any talk of Amsterdam or Moscow, but only of a united international which shall embrace all peoples and all countries, of a great trade union movement which must stand on the basis of irreconcilable class war. ”

“ There is but one power that can save mankind from being plunged into another universal catastrophe. There is but one power which can defend the workers of all countries against political and economic oppression and tyranny. ”

“ National boundary lines throw additional barriers across the activities of the labor movement by making "enemies" of men engaged in the same trades, simply because they happen to live and work on different sides of a river or a range of mountains. So powerful is this force of nationalism that during the World War workers all over the world placed their loyalty to the nation above their loyalty to their fellow workers. ”

“ Revolution in Russia, Germany, Hungary, and Italy forced the leaders of labor opinion to take sides. Older men and women, who had received their training before the Great War was dreamed of, sided generally against the revolutionary movements. But the war period had produced a new group—militant and determined. These men saw the world through new eyes. For them the issue lay between revolution on one hand and destruction on the other.
During the post-war years the conflict grew sharper. Its development was accentuated by the organization of the Red International of Labor Unions. ”

“ The burden of these lying stories was that the Soviet workers were starving and enslaved, that their women and children were nationalized, that the whole experiment was a savage plot of a few butchers to destroy civilization, and that it would fail anyway in a short time. But years passed, and in spite of ostracism and opposition, the Soviet government did not fail, but grew stronger and stronger. Then the workers in other countries began to stir themselves. They had been relying for the facts about Russia upon their economic masters, or else upon Communist propagandists. ”

“ Our aim, and, as we believe, the aim of the majority of the class-conscious workers of all countries, is the creation of a single International of the organised workers of the whole world, standing for the point of view of the class struggle and the final emancipation of the working class from the capitalist yoke. ”

“ That in every country where capitalism has had a chance to develop, it has brought into existence a working class, yoked to the wage system, victimized by capitalist wars, and regimented into its mines and factories. ”

“ At any period in economic and social development the Labor Movement will probably be as sectional and as local in character as the community in which it exists—perhaps a little more so, since the masses are likely to lag behind the march of economic and social forces. Great distances, differences in race, and customs, differences in trade and industry, and differences in nationality all serve to keep workers apart. ”

“ Labor has not found itself. It is not united. The workers have no idea of their organic power. Only here and there, in Russia, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and a few other countries has the labor movement taken any leading part in public life. The great unorganized masses in the remainder of the world work and suffer silently. ”

“ The labor movement is young, fragmentary, and sadly dis-united. A decade ago there were only about twelve million organized workers in the world,—most of them in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and the United States. (See page 32.) Even today labor organizations are largely confined to the major capitalist countries and to the Soviet Union. The germs of labor unionism are scattered across the world, but most workers still are unorganized. ”

“ Meanwhile the developments in China and Morocco, the unemployment in Britain, the continued stagnation in world trade, the cutting of wages, and the war of the masters on the Labor Movement have acted as additional stimuli to the workers. Their own impotence and dis-unity in the face of the growing solidarity of the capitalists are forcing the issue upon the masses. ”

“ A peasant or a worker can by his own energies rise in his or any other profession with the aid given to him by the system. The pathetic feature in our own civilisation of wasted and dormant talent, the slave of circumstance, owing to the absence of all possibility of outlet or instruction through lack of means, seems likely to become very rare among the workers of Russia. ”

“ The working class uses the machinery of production and accepts the authority of school, press, and state. Out of the product created in the industrial process the workers receive a subsistence. The owners of the system enjoy surplus and leisure.
4.That the workers as a whole can no longer hope to gain by co-operating with the owning class. The struggle between the owners has reached too acute a stage. Class collaboration merely means that the workers are assisting the owners to prepare for another world war and thus to destroy what the workers have produced by their labor. ”

“ Equally serious, as a source of labor dis-unity, is the economic gulf that lies between the workers in exploited nations and workers in exploiting nations. Imperialism necessitates the exploitation of foreign workers by the capitalists of the imperial nation. Therefore, if the workers in the imperial nation support their government, they make themselves a party to the exploitation that is taking place. The workers of the United States vote for a Republican administration and thus back the Standard Oil Company in a policy which leads to the exploitation of Mexican workers ”

“ The labor movement has grown up in less than a century as one of the many products of the industrial revolution.
Where the labor movement has become conscious of its destiny and of the immediate tasks which it faces, it understands:
1.That human life is now organized on a world scale. Individual nations can no longer contain within their boundaries the economic and social pursuits of their citizens. The ends of the earth are tied together by the exchanging of raw materials and of finished products; by the activities of investors; by the migrating masses of workers ”

“ Had the war brought peace and liberty, as some of its more ardent and unenlightened advocates hoped, these labor leaders might have had at least a temporary justification for their position. But the war ended with intensive exploitation and active preparation for the next conflict. Consequently the men who had put their shoulders behind the imperial war found themselves quite out of sympathy with the sharply defined class conflict that followed the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. ”

“ Peace and reconstruction were the watchwords of capitalist imperialism. Instead of turning their energies toward the prosecution of a struggle against the exploiters and imperialists, the leaders of the I.F.T.U. devoted themselves to a fratricidal struggle with the Moscow International. ”

“ The blind faith that inspired the workers to fight for their respective Governments in the universal catastrophe in which millions of their class were killed and maimed has been shattered. After the greatest sacrifices and the severest sufferings, they are now faced with little prospect of a better life for the workers. ”

“ Against this international of impotence, confusion, subservience to the bourgeoisie ... we must oppose an international of revolutionary vigor, of class activity ... an international which will seize all the means of production and establish the Communist commonwealth. ”

“ Workers of France! You are faced with this alternative from which there is no escape. You will either pay dearly for the error of your divided forces, and will allow still heavier chains to be loaded upon you. Or else, by Trade Union Unity, you will be able first to stop the criminal war in Morocco, and then to forge the weapon which the workers need for their final emancipation. ”

“ Purcell, President of the British Trades Union Congress during 1924, head of the British Delegation to Russia, and President of the I.F.T.U., declares, in an article on "The Burning Question of International Unity": "Unorganized coolie labor abroad will force us, is now forcing us, to coolie labor at home. ...
"One way there is, and one only, by which improvements can be achieved. That is, by everywhere building up a strong trade union movement and by fighting for trade union conditions throughout the world. ”

“ World Labor Unity is no utopian dream. It is an immediate pressing necessity which awaits the will of the workers for its realization. The economic basis for its accomplishment is already laid. Upon the militants of the present generation rests the task of forging the scattered Trade Union forces of the world into one International Federation of Trade Unions. ”

“ Trade unions in Russia are well housed. Their membership has been continually increased, At the 1924 Congress it was 6,300,000. "Being largely freed from their main function elsewhere of protecting the workers against exploitation by the wealthy, and of preventing the public service of the workers from being prejudiced for private profit, the Trade Unions have been able to engage in educating the workers as citizens and rulers." [3] The unions participate actively in the control of labor, in the determination of wages, and in the general direction of social life. ”

“ Either we have to re-organize our trade unions into real live fighting organizations on behalf of the down-trodden working classes, or be content to allow them to be simply a medium for co-operating with and stabilizing capitalism, with the resulting enslavement of the working classes. ”

“ Through the economic paralysis of Europe caused by the world war, millions of workers are unemployed and with their families are being driven into the depths of despair, starvation, and degradation. Wages, never sufficient to maintain a decent standard of life for the workers, have been reduced by 20 per cent, 30 per cent, and in some cases over 40 per cent. ”

“ Dis-unity prevails inside such labor movements as exist within the great capitalist countries, where the first loyalty of the workers goes to a craft or industrial union. Since the war many of these sectional differences have been disappearing in the face of more general problems. With the exception of Britain and the Soviet Union, however, disunion is more prevalent than union among the various national labor groups. ”

“ French workers support French capitalists in their exploitation of Morocco; British workers back economic and political policies which enable British owners to exploit the workers of India; Japanese workers play the same role toward the workers in Korea. In such cases, by giving their political support to the government, the workers in a powerful imperial country assist the imperial class of that country to exploit the workers among the subject and "inferior" peoples. ”

“ The Joint Conference affirms that national and international unity must be recognised as the first essential condition to enable the Trade Union Movement to defend effectively the present position of the workers against attack and to achieve the social and political aims of organisedLabour, as set forth in the declarations made by the workers of many countries. ”

“ In nearly every country, in consequence of the growing power of the capitalist class and the lack of unity among the workers, advantages gained in the direction of reduced hours of labour and increased wages have been lost. ”

“ That out of the capitalist order, which has made its contribution to the world and is rapidly disintegrating, there is arising a new social order based on labor and co-operation instead of ownership and competition. The standard bearers of this new order are the organized workers. ”

“ We have not even built the bridge which unites us, but we must do so. It seems as if our hate is greater against those workers who are not of the same political opinion as us than it is against our common exploiters. ”

“ The representatives of the British and Russian Trade Union Movements herewith declare their intention to do what they can by joint means to bring about international unity. The need and importance of international unity is recognised by millions of organised workers throughout the world. ”

“ Since landlords and capitalists are in control of the press, the schools, and the other channels of public opinion throughout the world, they have been able to tell the masses of workers daily lies about the Soviet Republic. ”

“ This is shown by the continued persecution of leading Trade Unionists, who in the exercise of class prejudice on the part of employing interests are suspected, persecuted, thrown into gaol, and even tortured by those in power.
3.In the industrial and economic field the capitalists of all countries are forming their united front—a united front for the exploitation of workers all over the world. The workers in the meantime remain divided, and in some countries are formed into antagonistic groups. ”

“ There is little difference of opinion regarding the immediate steps that must be taken to unify the Labor Movement. Five distinct aspects of the problem demand attention. First, there is the necessity of organizing each shop, mine, department or factory—each unit of occupational activity—and having it under the direction of a shop committee. Second, there is the task of organizing by trade or industry or occupation, within each country, and internationally. ”