Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Bankruptcy of the American Labor Movement (1922).djvu/60

 Rh The present Trade Union Educational League was organized in Chicago in November, 1920. For about a year it lingered along more dead than alive, due as usual to the dualistic attitude of the militants generally. But in the latter part of 1921, after the Third International and the Red International of Labor Unions had condemned dual unionism so categorically and advocated the organization of nuclei within the mass unions, it took on sudden vigor and importance. With the hard shell of dualism broken, the militants, particularly those in the extreme left wing, came with a surprising change of front to see in it exactly the type of organization they needed. One after another, the Communist Party, the Workers' Party, the Proletarian Party, and the United Toilers went on record officially in favor of its general policy. Hence the League rapidly extended its organization and sphere of influence. In the early part of 1922 it put on a drive, sending out an elaborate series of circular letters to hundreds of militants (later blasted by Mr. Gompers as the "1,000 secret agents" seeking to destroy American civilization) in that many towns, calling upon them to organize groups of rebel unionists in their respective localities. As a result branches of the League were set up in all the principal unions and industrial centers of the United States and Canada. In March, 1922,, monthly official organ of the League, was launched.

The working theory of the Trade Union Educational League is the establishment of a left block of all the revolutionary and progressive elements in the trade unions, as against the autocratic machine of the reactionary bureaucracy. Thus, so that these various elements of the different political persuasions can co-operate together, the policy of the organization must be essentially industrial in character. Except for condemning the fatal Gompers political policy and advocating the general proposition of independent working class political action, the League leaves political questions to the several parties. Its work is primarily in the industrial field.

At its first National Conference, held in Chicago, August 26–27, 1922, the League laid out a broad revolutionary industrial policy, upon the basis of which it is uniting the militants and carrying on its educational work in the unions. Of this program the principal planks are: (1) abolition of capitalism and establishment of a workers' republic, (2) repudiation of the policy of class collaboration and adop-