Page:Resolutions and Decisions of the Third Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions (1924).pdf/19

 The Congress of the R. I. L. U. states that insufficient attention has been given by the revolutionary unions to the organization of shop committees. Yet the shop committees and farm workers' committees may become the principal factor in the creation of genuine unity of the labor movement and one of the bulwarks of the working class in the struggle for proletarian dictatorship.

A real winning over of the masses can be accomplished only when there is a basis in the form of shop committees organized in every establishment, particularly in the most important of them.

The shop committees must become a centre uniting all the workers of the establishment without exception, irrespective of whatever union they belong to or of whether they are organized at all.

The defense of the eight-hour day, the prevention of wage cuts, the struggle for higher wages and for better conditions—these are the most important tasks of the shop committees.

The shop committee is an organ for the protection of the interests of the workers of the particular establishments. It meets the employer in every important conflict. It must be an active participant in every strike.

The shop committee must react to all the issues confronting the working class, to all the questions of the everyday life of the workers in a particular establishment.

The question of the right of the shop committee to particpateparticipate [sic] in the settling of who should be employed or discharged must also occupy a central place in the work of the shop committees. We must see to it that not a single worker is hired or fired without the sanction of the shop committee.

The shop committee can and must become a revolutionary factor in the realization of the slogan of workers' control.

In defending the interests of the workers, the shop committee must get acquainted with secrets of the management. It must know the entire life of the establishment, both the economic and the technical side of it, the commercial affairs of the employers and their profits. The shop committee must therefore struggle for workers' control. In conducting this struggle, the shop committee will become the centre of the struggle for the reconstruction of the unions on an industrial basis. The struggle for the creation of shop committees uniting all the workers of the establishment, is at the same time a struggle for the creation of an industrial union.

The shop committee must see to it that the young workers and the working women should be drawn into the shop committee movement through their representatives.

To resist counter-revolution and Fascism the shop committees participate in the organization of proletarian self-defence detachments in the establishment.

The shop committees must also strive to establish permanent connection between the factory workers who serve in the army and those workers who remain in industry. The connnectionconnection [sic] is made by the sending of letters, of information concerning local events, changes in the working conditions in the factory, developments in the class struggle, the national and international political and economic situation.

It is also necessary to render material assistance to the workers serving in the army and to send them newspapers and pamphlets published specially for this purpose.