Reflections on the Organizational Problem

The process of destruction in the workers' movement that has now come to light is not just the work of August 4, 1914, but extends beyond the beginning of the war.

After a brilliant development of the workers' organizations - brilliant in terms of membership numbers and financial resources - a setback occurred a few years before the outbreak of the world war. The workers' organizations in their current form had outlived their usefulness; their internal expansion had not kept pace with economic development. This was because the modern banking and share system, with its high concentration of capital, and the strong corporate sector with its cartels and trusts, meant that workers were still divided into political and trade union organizations and professional organizations.

The political party was no more than an electoral association whose members waited for economic development; the trade unions shrank back from the struggle and increasingly saw their main task in the cultivation of collective agreements and harmony politics. As a result, the workers lost confidence in the organizations and turned their backs on them in large numbers.

The members who remained loyal to the idea of organization now looked for ways and means to strengthen the organizations' capacity for action. The elements pushing forward demanded a thorough change in the tactics of struggle and, furthermore, the organizational form corresponding to this change in the tactics of struggle: the political-union unitary organization. However, the bureaucratically managed workers' organizations could not rise to such a radical change of programme and so, at the outbreak of the World War, what was bound to happen was the complete collapse of the Workers' International.

The old official organizations failed and are still failing today. But slowly the working class awoke; although still isolated, the call for a unitary organization was already clearly audible and noticeably gaining strength.

The leaders of the Independents responded to this call with the demand not to turn their backs on the trade unions, but to ensure within the existing trade unions that the unions were placed on a sound footing and imbued with a socialist spirit.

This position of the leaders of the Independents proves that they have learned nothing from the collapse of the workers' organizations and from what happened during the World War. It is a complete misjudgement of the circumstances and a clinging to tradition to assume that the existing trade unions can be put on a sound footing and imbued with a socialist spirit. The lack of democracy in the trade unions stands in the way of this. The coffers, the press and other institutions in the hands of the bureaucracy are a means of forcing the workers to adopt the policy desired by the employees. It is completely impossible for the opposition to gain decisive influence in the trade unions. The events in the party alone should serve as a warning example.

But apart from this, the trade unions are incapable of being imbued with a socialist spirit due to their tradition and constitution. The work of the trade unions amounts to the mere representation of professional interests. Every organization places the representation of the interests of its members in the foreground. As a result, the struggle for the interests of the working class as a whole is neglected and ultimately eliminated. How petty the work and successes of the trade unions before and during the war now seem. It should not take much effort to convince the workers that the old methods of struggle and the old form of organization do not serve the workers.

However, workers should also recognize that the existing trade unions serve as pillars of the capitalist order. The capitalist economic order is based on the free play of forces, on the clash of interests of all against all. The tactics of the trade unions are based on the same principle. The special professional interests are placed above the interests of the workforce as a whole. This strengthens the egoistic instinct of the workers and enables business to play off one class of workers against the other. Since such tactics cannot create a true sense of solidarity among the workers, it was easy to play off the workers of one country against the workers of another at the outbreak of the World War. Thus the trade unions provided the psychological conditions for the possibility of world war. Therefore, for a thinking worker, there can be no more expansion and reorganization of the trade unions, but it is necessary to build on the basis that corresponds to the state of economic development.

By not realizing this, the independents are committing suicide. The psychology of the trade unionists is favorable to government socialism, the trade union leaders consciously and energetically support government socialism, but the independents call on the workers not to turn their backs on the trade unions. This attitude of the independents makes the clarification process among the workers very difficult and one need not be surprised at the election defeats in Potsdam, Niederbarnim, Zwickau etc.. The independents are thus their own gravediggers. There is no more room for half-measures in these iron times, and if the independents do not change their attitude, they will be worn down by the right and the left.

But the organization of the future will be: The unitary political-union organization!

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Note: Much has already been written about the unitary organization. Now is the time to act. Let our comrades found local associations wherever possible. For what can the so-called “party” or the trade union be to the workers today? What do both do for their members? Nothing!