Solomon Abramovich Lozovsky

“ It is our aim to prove to the workers that without the creation of a class-militant army, without declaration of decisive war against the bourgeoisie, the workers cannot liberate themselves, they cannot conquer. Thus, the struggle against the whole nationalist ideology, the struggle, against the idea of defending "our" country as such, and the advocacy of the necessity of war for the defense of a socialist country, for our own proletarian state—this is the foundation of our anti-war tactics. ”

“ The military ideology of the labor movement brought great changes in the relation of forces. The modern war is not a war of small groups, or small armies. Modern war is a war of masses, a war of nations in the real sense of the word. It is a war of industry against industry. The tactics of the working class in this war, the tactics of its unions, the methods of struggle, play a decisive role in the modern war. ”

“ In reality, neutralism or its essence is supposed to keep the trade tunions aside in times of political struggles. But what is political struggle? It is not merely parliamentary speech-fighting. In the political struggle the working class places itself in opposition to other classes. The working class cannot stand aside from the class struggle. If the working class will not conduct a class struggle it will lose those positions already gained. The tactics of political sterility play into the hands of the bourgeoisie and by no means are to the interests of the proletariat. ”

“ In the program of the Russian Communist Party there is a very excellent definition of "politics." It is stated: "Politics is concentrated economics." And, in reality, what do we understand by "political struggle?" We understand such a clashing of class forces in which—instead of separate detachments of the workers coming to blows with separate detachments of the bourgeoisie—a class as such meets the other class. Thus, every step of ours, in which the general class formation and methods of struggle are reflected, is in fact, a political struggle. ”

“ If you think that Czarism and Bolshevism are one and the same thing, you should call for the overthrow of Bolshevism. This is logical. But such a call is impossible, because these reformist organizations are full of workers who are instinctively in sympathy with Russia. There was an attempt to help Soviet Russia, even to attempt a boycott against Poland, and there was more or less aid in the time of the famine, all on the background of repudiating the revolution.
The whole reformist labor movement finds itself in this contradiction. ”

“ Beside creating the self-defense groups and active agitation and propaganda, we advocated the creation of anti-Fascist Committees of Action. These Committees of Action, according to our opinion, had to embrace the workers of all tendencies, because, war and Fascism are of equal interest to the working class as a whole and to all its political groupings. But this idea of creating Committees of Action, the strong agitation and propaganda, the pressure of the whole international proletariat against Fascism—always meets with opposition from the Social-Democrats. ”

“ All this brought about pessimism and despair in the more revolutionary and impatient German workers, From that was created a whole theory: The old trade unions are rotten through and through; they are reactionary, and in order successfully to fight the bourgeoisie it is necessary to destroy them completely. If this colossal apparatus is being used against the revolution, if it is so entwined with the bourgeois state, it is necessary to destroy it before the power of labor can be established. ”

“ We see the power of resistance of our enemies, We see the fact of existing footholds in our ranks of the bourgeoisie, and we have to work out methods of future struggle.
No one can tell how long it will take until we will win over this numerically gigantic mass, and will bring it to consciousness of its own interests. The only thing that we Marxians may reply to is the question: Does the labor movement really proceed on the line of eliminating from its body all that now clogs it? ”

“ It is at once trying to adapt itself to capitalist society and trying to destroy it. Thus Communism and reformism taking their origins in the working class, reflect the different stages of its development, the different tendencies of that class which day by day shows more and more of that side which leads to the destruction of bourgeois society. It would have been a mistake if we would have considered the war period from the point of view that because Legien and Jouhaux have been the representatives of the working class, the class itself was filled with war ideology. ”

“ In this way, the overthrow of capitalism was not the aim of these unions, but the gradual change of society. And this development of, socialism from a capitalist society they visioned as a developed form of democracy, a developed democratic society which spreads its democracy to the maximum. It is the development from political democracy, gradually becoming an economic and social democracy. This is the basis of the theory of the social-democratic trade union movement. Socialism, from their point of view, is the legal son of democracy. ”

“ This peculiarity of the post-war period of the trade union movement, we should remember in order to understand our tactics of winning the unions, our opposition to the splits, our desire to win over the organization as a whole, for we consider the trade union organizations not as a union of privileged, individuals, but as an organization which unites if not the majority, at least a great part of the workers of a given industry. ”

“ A philosophy was created of collaboration in all the economic and political life of the country, philosophy of equal participation by the workers and employers in the administration of things. But philosophy is one thing and life is quite another: To run industry in collaboration is impossible. As long as these collaborative commissions have been the political expressions of the shifting powers within the labor masses, as happened the moment the revolution began, so much did they play, from the start, a conservative role. ”

“ And why did they, in the first post-war period, follow these reformists? With the end of the war although there was enough energy and hatred accumulated within the working class, there was no willingness to fight. The war brought about a great fatigue, a tiredness, and a revolution would, in effect, mean a new civil war, a new demand for expenditure of energy, a new and bloody period. This frightened the wide masses, who still lived in hope of getting all promised them during the war, without new colossal sacrifices, to get something real. ”

“ There are no great differences between Fascism and reformism: Both of them recognize the necessity of saving capitalist relations, and the methods of doing it is a question of secondary importance. But the social basis of both is one and the same. As long as we have in fact a desire to save the capitalist system, all that is against this system, all that undermines this system—and Communism surely does play an "evil" role—is very dangerous and a bitter war against it should be conducted. ”

“ We are against war, and therefore, we are for disarmament. And here the reformist theory of disarmament is for us something entirely strange, for according to its purpose, forms, and methods it is in entire contradiction to the way we approach that problem. The hope of disarmament through the League of Nations by solving problems of international jurisdiction, all that is pure nonsense which proves the political short-sightedness of the leaders of the reformist trade union movement. ”

“ Now, what did the Amsterdam International as an organization do in order to fight against the capitalist advance? First of all, in the present economic struggle, trade union lines are too narrow; the struggle goes beyond national borders and that is why the International exists, to internationalize the struggle itself. We find ourselves in such a phase of the development of society, in which only on the international scale is it possible to attain a victory even in the purely economic sphere. Even in the question of wages, the international market regulates the price. ”

“ And, at a time when the Communist Party is raising an alarm about the danger of Fascism in Germany, the Social-Democrats are raising the alarm about the danger of Communism. Here they also have the formula: "No Fascism, no Communism, but democracy!" But "democracy" does not in any way oppose Fascism, because the first to recognize the Fascist government were the liberal governments of France, England and the United States, while, although the Soviet government has been existing for six years, the latter country has not recognized it. ”

“ Capital played a big role in making it an international movement, if not by creating the same conditions of labor, as least by the same forms and methods of exploitation, which were the forerunners of the creation of international organization for the working class. Thus, the necessity of creating international organization—Internationals—was growing as long as, capitalism was expanding into new countries. It was growing also because capitalism itself has been becoming more international and called forth as a power against itself the international labor organization. ”

“ When we speak about a temporary dictatorship, we do not mean that the dictatorship will last five or ten years, but we mean a whole historical epoch. The dictatorship will end when there will be no more classes. The end of the dictatorship means the disappearance of all the apparatus and organs of state enforcement. While the transition from the dictatorship into the Communist society is going on, there is going on a gradual blending of the economic organs of proletarian dictatorship and the trade unions. A new synthetic organization is being created which directs all production. ”

“ But the German revolution has already shown that the Factory and Shop Committees appear not only where there are no trade unions, or where they are weak, but also where the trade unions are strong and where they have a great influence on the masses.
Thus, their appearance and development does not depend on the existence or non-existence of trade union organizations, but is explained by entirely different reasons. It is plain that the Factory and Shop Committees have some different kind of functions which even the strong trade unions cannot fulfill. ”

“ The beginning of demobilization created before the working class an array of very important problems, and before the wide masses arose the question of how to retain and safeguard their interests. Individual workers, during the war, felt themselves somewhat independent, although of course the more conscious part joined, the unions. But the masses, the millions, did not go to the unions. At the end of the war the general uncertainty, the threat of loss of war-time gains, created an atmosphere which stimulated the joining of any organization where they might collectively decide their problems. ”

“ Firstly, a United Front is possible only if it is a purely labor front, and this it is that differentiates us fundamentally from the reformists, who are for a United Front of Labor with capital. Thus, the first distinction of our United Front is its purely labor character, independently of the political views or beliefs of separate workers or groups. Further, the purpose of this United Front is to fight against the bourgeoisie. By that you can see that the United Front is aimed at our class enemy. ”

“ Fascism not only tries to base itself on some sections of the working class, but is also trying to create its own Fascist labor organizations, and this does represent a greater danger. In Italy has been created a confederation of Fascist trade unions which is trying to capture the whole labor movement. It is natural, therefore, that the struggle against Fascism, besides the usual methods of struggle against reaction, must bear a special character fitted to this special form of reaction. ”

“ The bureaucracy was able to become an instrument for the conscription of the working class for war and industry, a vehicle for floating war loans among the workers, a machine for delivering rebellious workers to the Department of Justice—in short, to take its place as an open section of the ruling class—without losing its control over the masses, or creating any considerable organized opposition. ”