Page:William Z. Foster - The Revolutionary Crisis of 1918-1921 (1921).djvu/21

 of this dualistic program was one Wolfheim, a member of the American I. W. W. But the keener leaders were quick to see the folly of this policy, which more than anything else, has paralysed the American labor movement. They perceived in a few months' time (though our militants cannot see it even after thirty years' bitter experience) that it operated only to pull the militants away from the masses and to isolate them into little sterile outside groups, thus leaving the conservatives in undisputed control of the old unions. Then they began their present campaign of organizing within the trade unions. It is true that the Communist Labor Party still adheres to the dualistic policy, but it is by far the smaller of the two Communist Parties in Germany, and very much the weaker in influence. At the 1921 Congress of the III International at Moscow, its general program was condemned, and it was ordered, on pain of expulsion, to amalgamate with the United Communist Party. Such an amalgamation would, of course, necessitate the giving up of its Utopian policy of dual unionism.

Naturally the old conservative leaders do not take kindly to the Communists' organized efforts to win over the trade unions. They have expelled thousands of revolutionaries—the figure is said to be as high as 80,000. All of which convinces the Communists that their proper place is in the trade unions, and makes them redouble their efforts to stay there and work. And in spite of all hindrances they are succeeding. They now have the support of at least 2,500,000 members of the big German Socialist unions. They condemn as counter-revolutionary the cry "Heraus aus der Gewerkschaften!" (Out of the trade unions!), raised by