Georgi Dimitrov
The United Workes' Front
First Published: May 1, 1923, in
Rabotnicheski Vestnik No. 259
Source: Georgi Dimitrov, Selected Works
Sofia Press, Sofia, Volume 1, 1972, pp. 118-112
Transcription/HTML Markup:
Mathias Bismo
Online Version: Marxists Internet Archive
(marxists.org) 2002
Even on the eve of the European War the unity of the proletariat in the
key countries of the world was not complete. With their reformist policy,
their tactics of class collaboration and their nationalist ideology, the
Second Socialist International and the Trade Union International were
incapable of creating a united workers' front against capitalism either in
the individual countries or on an international plane.
However, the disgraceful and treacherous betrayal committed by the
staffs and the chief leaders of these two international proletarian
organizations and of their affiliated trade unions and parties, at the
declaration and during the whole course of the imperialist war, in
proclaiming and maintaining a so-called civil peace, i. e.
siding with the bourgeoisie of their own countries and placing the
organizations they led at the service of the defence of the capitalist
homeland, ultimately destroyed what feeble unity of the workers'
masses had been attained up to that time.
But even after the end of the war and the glorious triumph of the
proletarian revolution in Russia, instead of quickly re-establishing a
united front of the long-suffering and seething workers' masses, in order
to secure the triumph of the revolution throughout Europe, the treacherous
socialist leaders and trade union bureaucrats once again sided with their
national bourgeoisie, helped it to preserve its class domination and to
start along the road of restoring capitalism which was shaken by the war
and tottering in its foundations, at the expense of an even fiercer
exploitation and enslavement of the proletariat, exhausted and bleeding to
death.
For five years now the reformists and Amsterdam bureaucrats have been in
alliance, in one way or another, with the bourgeoisie in their countries
and at a time when it has recovered, rallied its forces, and started a
rabid drive to lengthen working hours, reduce real wages and deprive the
workers of all their prewar gains, when it is planning new military and
imperialist adventures. These heroes of highsounding phrases against
capitalism and war are backing the offensive of capital by all possible
means, paving the way for fascism, justifying the aggressive actions of
their national imperialism and preventing the establishment of a united
workers' front against capitalism and imperialism, against fascism and
war.
While voting loud protests and long resolutions at their international
congresses in Rome and the Hague, against the intention of the French
imperialists to invade the most important German industrial area (the
Ruhr), and for the preservation of peace, while threatening to organize an
international general strike in case of such an invasion and danger of
war, the leaders of the Amsterdam Trade Union Federation not only failed
to contribute to the creation of the first prerequisite for the success of
such a serious action, a united workers' front but, on the
contrary, they brought about a split in the General Confederation of
Labour in France and in the General Trade Union in Czechoslovakia and, by
persecuting and expelling from trade unions the oppositional elements and
sections, they are methodically preparing a split in the German Trade
Union.
At the same time, they have stubbornly rejected every proposal of the
Red Trade Union International and the Communist International for a
general international conference or an international workers' congress,
with all workers' parties and trade unions represented, in order to
successfully organize an action against the Ruhr invasion, against the
offensive of capital, against fascism and the new imperialist war
threatening the world.
All along the line and in every country, the reformists and Amsterdam
leaders are working with a diligence worthy of a better fate against the
unity of the proletariat, against the building of a united workers' front,
all the time with a view to keeping intact their alliance and their
community of purpose with the bourgeoisie.
The heroes of the Second Socialist International and the Amsterdam
International Federation are ready to form a united front with Mussolini
and his fascist bands in Italy, with Poincaré in France, with the
government of Cunow and Stinnes in Germany, with the bourgeois reaction in
Czechoslovakia, with the Serbian hegemonist bourgeoisie and its police in
Yugoslavia, with the bloc of factory-owners, bankers and profiteers in
Bulgaria (in joint electoral tickets with the leaders of the Populist and
the Democratic parties, as it happened yesterday), but they refuse to
adopt a united front with the communist and revolutionary proletariat, to
fight capitalism, to fight against war and for peace.
And when the French imperialist armies invaded the Ruhr and Europe was
threatened with a new war, when therefore the time had come to proceed
with the implementation of the loud resolutions for an international
general strike, the Amsterdam men of the Entente countries virtually sided
with the French invaders and oppressors, while the secretary of the
Amsterdam Trade Union Federation, Edo Fimen, declared in a tearful voice
that the Federation was incapable of carrying out its resolutions and
with unprecedented cynicism blamed the workers' masses themselves for it
who, he said, were indifferent, intent on their own selfish daily
interests and reluctant to fight for major issues.
At the same time, the most immediate interests of the
proletariat of all countries, the interests of its self-preservation and
self-defence, of repulsing the rabid offensive of capital, of securing its
bread, shelter and freedom, as well as its major class interest -
its final liberation from the chains of capitalist exploitation, both demand
imperatively the immediate formation o f a united front in the trade union
and political struggle, on a national and international scale.
History now places the proletariat of all countries and of the whole
world before the dilemma - either, in spite of everything, to restore its
united front in the fight against the offensive of capital or, if it is
not equal to this, to abandon itself to the mercy of an insane and savage
gang of capitalists and imperialists and be turned into cattle for decades
to come.
And the latter would inevitably happen, were it not for the sound class
instinct of the proletariat itself, were the latter unable to draw the
lesson from its past bitter experience, were it not for the Communist and
the Red Trade Union International, and the Communist parties, the
revolutionary trade unions and the opposition wings in the reformist trade
unions, who are all working with perseverence and devotion for the
formation of a united workers' front.
We must state now that new and considerable successes are scored every
day in this respect.
Already powerful workers' opposition trends are being formed within the
Social Democratic parties and the reformist trade unions themselves,
resolutely standing for a united front. The masses down below are already
joining hands, regardless of differences in political opinion and
organizational affiliation, for a common struggle through the factory
councils in Germany and France, in Italy and Czechoslovakia and many other
countries.
The International Workers' Conference in Frankfurt (Germany) in March
this year, the purpose of which was to organize a united international
action of the proletariat against the Ruhr invasion, against fascism and
against the new imperialist war now being planned, testified most
convincingly to the growing popularity of the idea of a united workers'
front. Although the conference was boycotted again by the staffs of the
Second International and the Amsterdam Trade Union Federation,
representatives of the factory councils in Germany, France, England, etc.,
among whom there mere many Social Democrats and Amsterdam men, did
take part in it, together with the representatives of the Communist
International, the Red Trade Union International, of the communist parties
and the revolutionary trade unions of various countries.
The break-up of the coalition of the Social Democratic Party with the
bourgeoisie in Saxony and the forming of a socialist government1) with the
support of the communists and with a workers' programme, drawn up by the
Saxon factory councils, also showed that the united workers' front, from a
slogan rallying the proletariat, is becoming more and more of an actual
fact, and assuming the important role of a key factor in the political
development of Germany which is now heading for a final rupture of the
alliance between Social Democracy and the bourgeoisie and the setting up
of a workers' government. Only such a government could cope with
the terrible crisis which has befallen the German people after the
occupation of the Ruhr by the French imperialist armies, and the
responsibility for which lies precisely with the bourgeoisie and the
reformist staffs.
Today we can safely say that amidst the international proletariat no
idea is more popular than that of the united workers' front, for the
workers' masses are realizing every day more clearly that the key to
the solution of all problems concerning the bread, peace, freedom and
future of toiling mankind, lies exactly in a realization of the united
front of the proletariat in each country, in Europe and the whole world.
Neither the repulsion of the offensive of capital, nor the elimination
of savage fascism, nor the staving off of the new imperialist war, nor,
lastly, the triumph of the liberating proletarian revolution, would be
possible without a united workers' front, and the joint action
of all proletarians and working people in town and village. This is why
the united workers' front is to be the first great and historical
slogan of this year's May Day demonstrations in all countries.
The Bulgarian proletariat, on its part, under the leadership of the
Communist Party and the General Trade Union, is following boldly and
persistently the tactics of the united workers' front in all aspects of
its struggles and is daily building its indestructible union with the rest
of the toiling masses in town and village. On May Day it will once more
scornfully reject the divisive attempts of the ideologically and
politically bankrupt bourgeoisie, of the raging demagogues and oppressors
of the Agrarian Union, of the RightWing Socialist careerists who have sold
out to the bourgeoisie, and of the handful of confused anarchists, and it
will manifest powerfully its firm and unshakable will to be united,
and in a sound and lasting alliance with the masses of small
owners in town and village, in the struggle against the urban and
rural bourgeoisie, for its own self-preservation and self-defence and for
setting up a workers' and peasants' government - the real government of
the working people in Bulgaria.
NOTES
1)
A Workers' Government was set up in Saxony on October 11, 1923, following the mass revolutionary movement which spread throughout Germany as a reaction to the Ruhr occupation by French and Belgian forces. It included five Social Democrats and two Communists; the latter, pursuing a weak-kneed policy of compromices, together with the left-wing Social Democrats, impeded the arming of the proletariat and put a brake on revolutionary development in Germany. On October 30, 1923, German army units overthrew the Workers' government.
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