Page:William Zebulon Foster - Strike Strategy (1926).pdf/24

 masses. They are altogether unfitted to lead the American working class in the great struggles lying ahead of it. This is because they are wedded to the capitalist system and are in reality the agents of the capitalists in the ranks of the workers. They are poisoned with graft and petty bourgeois selfishness.

Our strike strategy must aim at the elimination of these misleaders and the creation of a body of militant, fighting leaders. These must be able to sway the masses, to develop their fighting spirit. They must be honest, courageous, resourceful. Especially they must be honest and courageous. Nothing inspires the workers so much as loyal and brave leaders. Note the wonderful popularity of Alexander Howat among the miners because of his unwavering devotion to their interests under any and all circumstances. Though such leaders may make a hundred mistakes the workers will trust them and follow them.

But in developing such a body of militant fighters a menacing danger exists in the tendency of budding left wing trade union leaders to lose themselves in the maze of everyday detail work and to neglect to give themselves the necessary theoretical training. This must be checked at all costs. Only those who understand and apply Marxian and Leninistic principles can hope to be trade union leaders of the highest type.

The future great task of the left wing lies primarily in mobilizing the masses of the now unorganized workers and leading them into battle against the employers. And it is exactly in this work among the unorganized that the greatest demands are made upon individual leadership. Leading strikes of long-organized, highly-disciplined workers is quite a different matter from leading strikes of the unorganized.

In the first case the workers tend to look more to the organization than to individual leaders to conduct the struggle (although the recent spectacular rise of Ben Gold among