An independent rank-and file workers movement must be organized through caucuses.
It must be as organized as possible with a clear set of principles of unity and admit the most trustworthy workers. The principles of unity should include as much as possible positions on various important social issues; such as the question of the unemployed, war in Indochina, etc. even though a part of its principles of unity should be demands of day to day character in the place of work.
It should be a class organization for mutual aid – to help each other out in difficulties.
It should develop an independent rank and file newsletter with maximum participation from the rank and file, to assess, follow and expose every sell out move of the trade union misleaders and the bosses or government. It should also serve as a forum for the discussion of current events and various social issues.
Members of the caucus should with the aid of this newsletter, agitate, inform our fellow workers and arouse them in struggles.
In our day to day immediate struggles, we should unite as many as possible, with as broad a section of the workers as possible. Through discussion before, during and after each and every struggle we should raise our fellow workers’ consciousness as the nature of capitalism and how particular problems are part of the manifestations of capitalism.
Through protracted, life long and meticulous work and sum ups – we should strive to throw out misleaders and turn trade unions into real fighting organizations for the working class. We should strive to run and take leadership at all levels of the union.
Our key tactics is to mobilize as many workers as possible around us in our day to day struggles. Rely on mass mobilizations rather than negotiations, even though they should be used also to further our struggle, to educate our fellow workers, as a respite, etc.
Our rank and file caucuses should not limit themselves to any trade, industry or locality. We should link up with the unemployed movement and community struggles. We should link up with the struggle of oppressed minorities; the struggle against wars of aggression and fascism, etc. We should link up with the struggle against sexism.
One of the weaknesses of the U.S. labor movement in the past has been that of forming dual unions: instead of struggling with and exposing the sell-out union leadership, some militant workers would pull out of the official unions and form alternative, more “progressive” unions. One example was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was formed in reaction to craft union policies of the American Federation of Labor (AF of L), and because of the need to organize minorities, immigrants, women and unskilled labor. Those workers who began the IWW did not see that the struggle to meet these needs was not something to be carried out by them alone; that other workers had to be convinced of this too. In the process of winning over the other workers, the sellout policies of the union leadership could be exposed, and it would then become clear who the real enemy is - the capitalists. We could also show that our struggle is not just for day-to-day economic demands, but for political demands as well, and that the only way our demands could be met is through overthrowing the capitalist system and setting up a socialist society. The IWW failed because they isolated themselves from other workers, and because they did not see beyond the immediate demands of the moment.
Throughout the history of the working class movement in the U.S., the ruling class has always tried to “divide and rule”. They have always tried to split the oppressed minorities from the white workers. When industry was expanding in the early days of this country, more and more cheap labor was needed. Blacks were “freed” from their servitude, only to become wage slaves; immigrants were lured in from Europe, China, Mexico, all over the worldto bring cheap labor for their expanding industries, and to break the working class movement that was developing against the oppression of capitalism. It was these immigrants, these aliens, these minorities (our forerunners) that were blamed for why jobs were scarce, why wages remained low, etc. Throughout its history, the capitalists, with the aid of the Trade Union misleaders, have used this to pit us against each other for workers to fight workers. Today, these same tactics are being used. The scare of the “illegal” aliens taking away our jobs. The call to buy “American” blames the foreign workers in Korea, the Philippines and other countries for the “runaway” shops instead of the bosses’ own scheme to exploit the cheap labor and resources there. Capitalism doesn’t respect any national boundaries or sovereignty of other countries. American industry has expanded world-wide, controlling industries throughout the Third World and Europe. It exploits people throughout the world, sucking every bit of energy, every breath of life, every cent we and our class brothers and sisters have. We must recognize this common exploitation we face as workers. All these chauvinist, national prejudices they push and whip up are attempts to break our unity, to pit us against each other so that capital can expand more and more while we are busy blaming each other and ripping each other apart.
Marx once said “no nation can be free if it oppresses another.” The strength the American bourgeoisie derives from exploitation of other countries serves to tighten their stranglehold on the American working class.
With the expansion of industry – conquering labor, resources, and markets abroad – a large sector of the skilled and privileged workers were bribed. Big sellout misleaders like Meany are “patriots.” But, they are actually paid agents of the capitalist, paid by a little crumb squeezed by U.S. imperialism abroad, to dupe and mislead us as to our real interests which are the same as the Vietnamese, or 3rd World people world over and workers in other capitalist countries. Thus, to fight social-chauvinism, we must expose labor misleaders’ collaboration with imperialism.
The trade unions are necessary forms of organization for us. And we must turn them into real fighting organizations of the working class. However, struggles against capitalism are not sufficient to change the society fundamentally. While we can wrest some gains from these struggles, these gains are not long term solutions to the problems caused by capitalism. We must organize to overthrow capitalism and replace it by a system of revolutionary socialism. This struggle must be legal and illegal, open and closed, parliamentary and armed. Trade union organizations, as fighting organizations of the working class, will play a key role in this life and death struggle. It is a key link between the vanguard party and the working class. It is a transmission belt, so to speak, of the vanguard party to the working class. However, we must have a vanguard party – a revolutionary communist party to guide our struggle. We need a headquarter to direct our struggle and Trade Unions are no substitute for this headquarter. This vanguard party, this headquarter of the proletariat, must be composed of the best sons and daughters of the working class – the most advanced, far sighted and stable within our class. It has to be the most organized and most disciplined detachment of the working class to lead us through the twists and turns of events and stormy sea of class struggle. It has to be a detachment with the embodiment of will and unity of the entire class. Trade unions are class organizations. The Party, however, has to be the political leader of the entire working class and all the oppressed classes. It has to be the sum total and General Staff of the entire proletariat. For these res sons the party is a higher-organization to direct struggles at all fronts. The trade union is one place where the party draws most of its cadres from. Thus, today, as we work in trade unions and wage class struggles in different fronts we should realize we don’t have a party. This is the single greatest shortcoming of our working class movement. That is why to build an anti-revisionist party is the principle task for all today’s communists and advanced elements – and we must reach out to the most advanced elements within the trade unions to consolidate them through study of Marxism-Leninism Mao tse tung Thought – the ideology of the proletariat – and through experience in day to day struggles.