Stopping a War/Chapter 5
5. The Committee of Action
French working class groups opposed to the Riff campaign began their offensive by organizing the Central Committee of Action, Originally this Committee was composed of representatives from the General United Federation of Labor, from the Communist Party, from the Republican Association of Ex-soldiers, from the Communist Youth Movement, and from the Tenants' League.[1]
During the Labor Anti-war Congress held in Paris on July 4–5, 1925, under the auspices of the Committee of Action, the Committee was reorganized. Members were added representing the peasants, the colonials, the organizations of women, the General Federation of Labor, and the Socialist Party. In this form the Committee represents the nearest approach to a united front that the French workers have been able to establish since the war.
The Committee of Action has branches or sections in most of the principal industrial centres of France. There are local branches, district or regional branches, and departmental branches. Each time that a labor congress is held in a locality or in a department an effort is made to have it organize a local or departmental Committee of Action.
Behind the Committees of Action and affiliated with them, a movement is under way to organize a Committee of Proletarian Unity in each factory, shop, station, and mine. All workers who desire to establish proletarian unity are included in these Unity groups. No distinction is made regarding political beliefs. They are the product of a widespread desire to get the working class together.
The Central Committee of Action, to use the words of its Secretary, "is not an organization. It is a grouping together of organizations for common action. The Committee does not levy on affiliated organizations. It is supported by voluntary contributions. It is a united front for a specified object—the Moroccan War campaign."
The Committee of Action was directed by the Paris Congress of July 4–5 to establish local bodies throughout France; to agitate for the organization of similar committees in England, Spain, and Italy; to issue a series of appeals to working women, to young workers, to soldiers, to sailors, to the middle class, to the peasants and to the colonial peoples. The Committee was also authorized to convoke another Congress whenever this might seem desirable.[2]
Vigorous and straightforward pronouncements have been issued by the Committee of Action. Here, for example, is a part of its appeal to colonial peoples:
"Comrades of the Colonies!
"French capitalism, in order to increase its immense reservoir of human energy and in order better to exploit it, will, after it has conquered you, deprive you of all the political and economic rights enjoyed by its own working class, in order to deprive you of the means of defence."
Then follow special paragraphs directed to the workers in Algiers, Tunis, Black Africa, Madagascar, the Antilles, and Indo-China. Another paragraph warns the colonial workers against race hatred which is used by the master class to keep the workers divided. The appeal concludes:
"Working comrades of the colonies—
"You must join hands with the French workers in order to combat the capitalist manœuvres to divide us. … You must join with the workers of France in order to stop the bloody imperialist expeditions like that which is now being directed against the valiant people of the Riff.
"Uphold the French workers.
"Sustain their Committee of Action against the Moroccan War.
"Join them in demanding peace with the Riff Republic and the evacuation of Morocco.
"Long live the liberation of oppressed peoples!
"Long live the brotherhood of races!
"Down with colonialism!"[3]
Later in the campaign, when it had been decided to attempt a 24-hour general strike as a protest against the Moroccan War, the Committee of Action published a statement that read, in part: "The financial disaster, which will plunge the working classes into abject poverty is held back only by an understanding with the bankers, who, wishing the riches of the Riff, will sustain the Government while it continues the war."[4] Following this statement there is a list of the unions that have already agreed to participate in a general strike.