World Labor Unity/Chapter 4
IV. The Red International of Labor Unions
(R.I.L.U.—Moscow)
The R.I.L.U. was founded in 1920 as the "International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions." Its genesis was thus explained by M. Tomsky, its president, in his speech before the Anglo-Russian Unity Conference, April 6–8, 1925:
"In 1917 the Russian working class overthrew capitalism and took power. In January, 1918, the first Trades Union Congress unanimously decided that the Central Council of the Russian Trade Unions must establish connections with the Trade Unions of the West. We twice tried in the only way open to us at that time—the period of the blockade—namely, by wireless messages to all Labour organisations. After a time we managed to get a few letters through from Russia but did not receive a single reply during the whole period. In 1918, if my memory does not fail me, the first International Congress of Trade Unions after the war took place at Berne. The defeated countries met under the leadership of the German Trade Unions. Although that was many months after the Revolution, no word of Russia was uttered, no desire to discuss with the Russian Unions was expressed. With the British and French Unions matters stood even worse. They were still more difficult for the Russian Unions to approach. We stubbornly repeated these attempts in 1919, but nothing came of it. In 1919–20 The International Labour Office appeared to be becoming the centre of the International Trade Union Movement, and, in spite of all their efforts, the Russian Trade Unions could not get anyone to talk to them. Capitalism was blockading us by armed force; the Trade Unions were in effect blockading us by not replying to our correspondence.
"That situation forced the Russian Trade Unions in 1920 to set about the formation of a new Trade Union International of their own."[1]
It was in July, 1920, that the new organization—the International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions—was formed with the Russian Unions dominating the group.
The efforts of the Russian Unions to establish relations with the Unions of western Europe did not cease at this point. "Every one of the twenty-three Executives of the Russian Trade Union Movement has applied, and continues to apply, for membership of the International Secretariats of their appropriate trades. Only one reply has been received all the way through, and that was to the effect that until our Trade Union Movement enters the International Federation of Trade Unions and accepts the Constitution and Rules of that body, and changes its tactics, no one will have anything to do with us."[2]
Following these ineffective attempts to gain admission to the Western Unions, the Russian Unions, in 1921, through the International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions, called a world congress, at which the name of the organization was changed to the Red International of Labor Unions. At this conference a constitution was adopted which began with the words: "The class struggle has now reached such a degree of development and acuteness that the working class, in order to successfully conduct and complete its struggle for emancipation, must fight as a solid revolutionary class power."[3] The preamble to the constitution continues with a statement that "the International Secretariat of Labor Unions before the war was merely an information agency, it did not pursue any militant class aims. The Amsterdam International of Labor Unions is even less fit to deal with the issues at hand than its predecessor. … Against this international of impotence, confusion, subservience to the bourgeoisie … we must oppose an international of revolutionary vigor, of class activity … an international which will seize all the means of production and establish the Communist commonwealth."
During its early days the tactics of the Moscow International were based on the idea that there would speedily be a world revolution. Soon, however, it became apparent that no such revolution was taking place. Consequently, the third session of the Central Council of the Moscow International in 1923 declared that "the attitude of the R.I.L.U. toward the Amsterdam International remains unchanged; i.e., merciless struggle as before against reformist theory and practice; also against cooperation of classes as practiced by the Amsterdam International. But we are ever ready to create a united front for fighting our class foes."[4]
In April, 1922, the Executive Committee of the three political internationals had held a meeting in Berlin and appointed a Committee of Nine for the purpose of bringing about unity between the two trade union internationals and the three political internationals. The Committee never functioned, and until 1924 the pronouncements of the Moscow International in favor of a united front had produced no tangible results.