Page:William Zebulon Foster - Strike Strategy (1926).pdf/56

 Then the vital, necessary discipline will prevail among the strikers. The workers will respect their leaders and follow their directions in the battle.

The strike strategist, in an important strike, must look upon labor's forces pretty much as a military strategist does his army; that is, as active fighting troops and various classes of reserves. It must be his aim at all times to maintain his active fighting force at its maximum strength and to utilize his wide variety of reserves to the utmost.

Considered from this angle, strike reserves are of several classifications. First, there are those active reserves, the workers who are economically most closely related to the strikers and who can often be drawn directly into the struggle. In previous pages we have said much about the mobilization and activization of this class of reserves, so nothing further is necessary here. Then, there is another great class of reserves, less fluid and less available, the broad masses of organized and unorganized workers, economically not closely related to the strikers, who cannot be got to actually take part in the struggle, but who, nevertheless, can be made to help in various ways.

The strike strategist must know how to draw fully upon these important strike reserves. This he can do through financial contributions, protest meetings, the boycott, etc. If the strike is of especially great importance or is of the highly international type, such as of seamen, miners, etc., he must undertake to draw similarly upon the strength of the world labor movement. The left wing must understand always to utilize these demands on the labor movement at large for the purpose of establishing itself ideologically and organizationally among the masses.

An important class of strike reserves which must be