Page:Resolutions and Decisions of the Third Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions (1924).pdf/50

 unrelenting energy, because the organization of the many millions now outside of the unions is one of the supreme tasks confronting the working class as a whole and the left wing movement as representing the real interests of the working class. "Organize the Unorganized" is not a temporary slogan that may be cast aside when industrial depression sets in. It must be continued constantly in good and bad times, until the masses are organized. In periods of prosperity this slogan builds the union and during the industrial depressions it holds them together. The campaigns should take the following general forms:

1. To stimulate the A. F. of L. unions to take in the unorganized.

2. To build up the present independent mass unions.

3. To support the foundation of new unions wherever practical, by utilizing the Workers' Party industrial nuclei, local branches of the League, shop committees, and such other connections as can be made use of. No one of these methods should be used to the exclusion of the others. All must be employed as expediency dictates. Every means must be utilized to create mass organizations. Special attention must be given to the organization of the agricultural laborers.

d. Labor Party. The league shall take an active part in the building of the labor party. This movement not only teaches the workers their first lesson in class political cation, but it also furnishes a favorable ground for the left wing to fight the trade union bureaucracy and to bring about trade union progress generally. The league must take full advantage of the favorable situation created by the labor party movement.

e. Unemployment. In the industrial crisis now developing in the United States and Canada, the league shall take an active part in organizing the unemployed into national and local councils, and other necessary formations. Wherever possible, these bodies shalt work in close co-operation with the trade unions. The league shall stir up the trade unions everywhere to interest themselves in the question of unemployment. However, when the trade unions are unwilling to take up the organizing of the unemployed, or wherever they offer a resistance, the league shall create unemployed councils, etc., and conduct the work of the unemployed independently. It shall demand that the employers and the government shall provide work and funds amounting to full maintenance of the workers. It shall also demand that the unions themselves share their funds and work with those of their members who are unemployed.

f. Amalgamation. The amalgamation campaign is not a temporary one, to be abandoned in periods of industrial depression; it must be continued relentlessly and until the various craft unions are consolidated into industrial unions. Organization by industry instead of by craft, is a burning need of the workers in good times and bad. Under the flag of autonomy small unions and federations continue their miserable existence, having neither the strength nor the means to fight against capitalism, and yet refusing to amalgamate with kindred trades. A vigorous struggle should be carried on for the creation of centralized industrial organizations. It is necessary to strive towards concentration of the means and methods of struggle for a national utilization of all the forces of the working class. The independ-