Leon Trotsky on the Trade Unions. Part I, Communism and Syndicalism, Part II, Problems of Union Strategy and Tactics. With prefaces by Farrell Dobbs, Merit Publishers 80 pages. Price 8/6. Available from Pioneer Book Service, 8 Toynbee Street, London E.1.
Between 1960 and 1967 there was a semi-annual average of 780 strikes in Britain. This figure jumped to 1,000 in 1968 and to 1,300 in the first half of 1969 and probably reached 1,500 in the last half of 1969. Most of the strikes were unofficial, Key areas of industry were involved along with more traditionally conservative sectors like the teachers and the dustmen. The strikes are a powerful echo of the rising struggle in the rest of Europe which brought France to the brink of revolution in May 1968 and currently holds Italy in a prerevolutionary period. In France, the upsurge was smothered by the traditional leadership in the Stalinist-led General Confederation of Labour (C.G.T.). The Italian upsurge is also breaking its head against the bureaucratic wall. Here in Britain, the General Council of the Trade Union Congress is now moving into action against its 155 affiliates to restrict rank and file and shop steward initiative with its procedural "guidelines" to fill the breach for the Wilson government which is unable to enforce its incomes policy and the state restrictions outlined in "In Place of Strife."
The numerical strength and awesome power of tens of thousands of workers taking initiatives to defend their living standards against the vicious inflationary spiral stands in bold contrast to the tiny size of the gang of trade union bureaucrats who spend their time in Transport House offices and plush negotiating rooms. Yet their ability to contain and crush movements of thousands of workers is obvious. What the source of this power is and how it is to be destroyed is the key question facing not only revolutionary socialists and militants but every worker caught in the squeeze of the British economy.
In this context the publication of Leon Trotsky on the Trade Unions is most timely. The book, a collection of letters, articles and notes by Trotsky as leader of the Left Opposition, which spans the early twenties up to the eve of the second World War, deals with this central problem. Can the trade unions be instruments of socialist revolution or have they become part of the state machine of capitalism? Can unions within capitalism be independent or politically neutral? Will the trade union bureaucracy be bypassed? What should revolutionaries do in the trade unions? These questions are posed and answered by this book in some of Trotsky's most incisive and prophetic writings.
The first section deals with the experiences of British and French Communists. In letters to leaders of French syndicalism, Trotsky argues for the decisive role of the Communist Party in giving leadership to the working class as a whole in the struggle against the reformist social democratic leadership, through the open and independent intervention of Communists in the organised sectors of the working class - the trade unions. Trotsky underlines this when he deals with the disastrous experience of Stalinist opportunism in Britain where communist subservience to the "left" trade union bureaucrats of the Anglo-Russian Committee and the Minority Movement resulted in the defeat of the 1926 general strike and the Minority Movement.
The second section dealing with trade union strategy and tactics outlines a clear perspective for revolutionists in the trade unions. It includes a section from the transitional program from the 1938 founding conference of the Trotskyist movement and a conversation with an American CIO organiser and notes found on Trotsky's desk after his assassination entitled "Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay."
This last contribution on the central question of unionism of our time, "the complete and unconditional independence of the trade unions in relation to the capitalist state" is the most powerful. Within imperialism, Trotsky explains, there can be no politically neutral or independent trade unions. Either they become secondary instruments of imperialism for disciplining the working class and blocking revolution or they can become instruments of socialist revolution. It is enough to look at the TUC's procedural guidelines, Barbara Castle's policies and Rochet's CGT in France to have a concrete understanding of this.
But an understanding of the position of the trade unions within imperialism is not enough. Truly independent unions within capitalism need a revolutionary, that is, a Trotskyist leadership. Again and again, Trotsky emphasises that it is this leadership which will crystallize a mass left wing against the Feathers, Woodcocks, Scanlons, Wilsons and Castles. It is this leadership which will be forged within the organized working class through the active intervention of revolutionary socialists fighting for independent democratic unions struggling with a transitional program for a socialist society.
Is this book relevant for today? A survey of the British left shows the lessons outlined by Trotsky have yet to be understood by some claiming to give revolutionary leadership. The Communist Party, hanging on to the coat-tails of the labour "lefts" continues the opportunism of the days of the Anglo-Russian Committee. The failure of International Socialism to come to grips with the role of the revolutionary party is reminiscent of the French syndicalism Trotsky fought against. The attempt of the Socialist Labour League to counterpose the All Trades Union Alliance to the reformist controlled TUC brings into the 1970's the sectarianism of the Stalinist third period.
Leon Trotsky on the Trade Unions is a must for every militant serious about the prospects for social change in Britain.
John Phillips