Published by
Revolutionary Political Organization (Marxist-Leninist)
October 1987
Lenin's pamphlet "On Strikes" was written in 1899, addressed to Russian workers. Russia was then a tsarist autocracy, in which the workers and other people had no political rights. Trade unions and strikes were illegal, and demonstrations of the working people were severely repressed. The tsar and his government represented the most reactionary section of the big landlords and capitalists, who exercised their dictatorship over the working people. These exploiting classes ruled until the October Revolution of 1917, when the Russian workers overthrew them and set up their own rule.
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There are certain differences in conditions between tsarist Russia and the U.S. today. However, all the main points in Lenin's pamphlet about capitalism and the role of strikes still apply to us. It is true that, legally, we have the right to form trade unions, the right to strike and freedom to demonstrate. But in actuality the government and its agents use all means at their disposal to undermine the workers' movement and break strikes. These means include anti-strike legislation, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, or the Federal Railway Labor Act that was used to force the Long Island Rail Road workers back to work after their strike in January of 1987. They include court orders restricting mass picketing, such as injunctions that were invoked against Steelworkers locals in the 1986-87 strike against USX. The police are regularly used to escort scabs through picket lines and attack strikers. And troops and the National Guard are called out when necessary, as was done against the Phelps Dodge copper miners in their strike of 1983-84 and against the Hormel meatpackers in their 1985-87 strike. The government attacks strikers and breaks strikes because, as in all capitalist countries, the government is a servant of the capitalists. Although its form is bourgeois democracy, its class essence is rule by the capitalists -- the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
There are many examples of the long militant and revolutionary history of the U.S. working class. Its struggles have frequently been under the leadership of communists. Large numbers of trade unionists formed workers' militias to fight against the Southern slavocracy in the Civil War. Marx's associate, Joseph Weydemeyer, led some of these workers. The celebration of May 1 as International Workers' Day began in the U.S. in 1886, when hundreds of thousands of workers struck to demand the eight-hour day. And during the Great Depression of the 1930s, massive strikes, many led by the Communist Party U.S.A. (CPUSA), were instrumental in building the main industrial unions (auto, steel, etc.) that formed the CIO.
Despite some sharp economic struggles immediately after World War II, however, a period of lull in the working class movement set in by the early '50s. This lull was brought about by major changes in both material conditions (the objective factors) and the conscious movement of the workers (the subjective factors).
U.S. imperialism (monopoly capitalism) achieved increased hegemony world-wide. Although it suffered important defeats, particularly in Eastern Europe and China, U.S. capital, beginning with the Marshall Plan, was able to bring much of Western European industry under its control. It also expanded immensely into the former European colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, turning most of them into U.S. neo-colonies. The huge super-profits that the U.S. monopolists were able to extract from the super-exploitation of the peoples of these countries enabled the U.S. bourgeoisie to bribe and expand the labor aristocracy, including the trade union bureaucracy. These strata were able to consolidate their dominance over the working class as a whole.
Together with these changes in material conditions was the dominance of revisionism (opportunism in the guise of revolutionary communism, Marxism-Leninism) both internationally and in the U.S. After Stalin's death, the Soviet Union abandoned genuine socialism -- the dictatorship of the proletariat. The workers' rule was overthrown and the leaders of the Soviet Union proceeded to restore capitalism, opening the country to the imperialist world market.
In the U.S., the CPUSA fell under revisionist leadership and even dissolved itself during World War II. Although it reconstituted itself at the end of the war, it never reestablished Marxist-Leninist positions. It tried to deceive the workers with the myth that there could be a "peaceful path" to socialism. Today the CPUSA tries to head off the necessary and inevitable socialist revolution with schemes of reforms to patch up the decrepit capitalist system.
Thus the working class was left without revolutionary leadership in its fight against the bourgeoisie. In the post-war period of repression (the McCarthy Era), the CPUSA capitulated to the attacks of the ruling class by renouncing the revolution. Revolutionaries were thrown out of the majority of the trade unions (many of which the CPUSA had been instrumental in building), leaving the way clear for the domination of the trade union bureaucrats and reformists. These elements made a deal with the monopoly capitalists that, in return for huge salaries and other privileges, they would ensure class peace. They would sabotage and undermine strikes, separate strikers from revolutionary ideas and strive to keep communists out of the unions and away from the workers' movement. At the same time the bourgeoisie sought to dampen the revolutionary struggle of the workers by granting some concessions to those in certain key industries. These concessions included recognition of unions, relatively decent wages and benefits such as health and pension plans, etc.
This period of relative peace between the capitalists and the working class as a whole lasted through the mid-'70s. Of course there were tremendous revolutionary struggles during this period. The '60s and the early '70s witnessed a huge upsurge in the movements of the oppressed nationalities, particularly the Afro-American movement. There were heroic urban rebellions in major cities throughout the U.S. during this period. There was also the rise of a powerful anti-war and anti-imperialist movement, particularly among the students, soldiers and oppressed nationalities. But the multi-national working class as a whole, with some significant exceptions, was still relatively quiet. And also, despite many important attempts, a new genuine communist party was not formed during this period.
Since the mid-'70s, the period of relative class peace has been coming to an end. The imperialist system has been in increasing crisis. The victories of the Indo-Chinese peoples in their armed struggles weakened U.S. imperialism politically and economically and smashed the myth of U.S. invincibility. U.S. imperialism has been confronted by a new and powerful adversary, Soviet social-imperialism. The U.S. faces increasing contradictions with its allies, as witnessed by its conflict over trade with Japan. It is constantly trying to stem and overturn the struggles of the oppressed peoples, as in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Lebanon. This is leading to increased militarization of U.S. society.
The U.S. monopolists have been losing markets, both because of revolutions in the neo-colonial and dependent countries and because of increased competition from the other imperialist countries, particularly the Western European countries and Japan. They have faced repeated overproduction crises, which are inevitable under capitalism. These crises have heightened the general crisis of the imperialist system. This had all led to a decline in super-profits. So the monopolists have a reduced fund from which to bribe and pacify sections of the working class compared to what they had in the earlier post-World War II period.
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In order to protect their profits, the U.S. monopoly capitalists have launched a broad political and economic offensive against the U.S. workers and the oppressed nations within the country. The standard of living and political rights of the whole working class have been under attack. And the reforms won by the Afro-American and other oppressed nationalities through mass struggles (voting rights, affirmative action, etc.) have been seriously eroded. Since 1973, the real wages of workers have fallen. In years of high inflation, wage increases have not kept up with the rise in prices, while in years of low inflation there have been actual wage cuts. Frequently both man and woman have to work for a family to live at the same standard as before, and the woman generally earns only about one half of what the man earns. Unemployment has soared. The official rate of 6 to 7% to which unemployment has "fallen" would have been considered high earlier. And this rate is greatly understated, as it excludes those who have given up looking for work or who work part time. Millions of poor and working people have been thrown out of their homes and have nowhere to live. Drugs, alcoholism, divorce, homosexuality, child abuse and all other signs of social decomposition are rampant. These are all evidence of the parasitism and decay of monopoly capitalism.
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The workers' resistance to these attacks has been growing. Among the first signs of this upsurge were the militant miners' strike at Sterns Kentucky in 1978, the national coal miners' strikes in 1977-78 and 1981, and the meatpackers strike against Iowa Beef Processors in 1982. These strikes saw sharp clashes as workers blocked scabs, and the government used brutal force against the strikers. The national coal strikes were particularly significant because the miners rejected contracts that had been negotiated by the reformist "leaders" Miller and then Church. To prevent the spread of such militancy, the Reagan administration tried to intimidate the workers. In 1981, 15,000 air traffic controllers, members of PATCO, went on strike. The Reagan administration responded by firing the traffic controllers and disbanding their union. This was an attack on some of the most privileged workers. It brought home the intention of the state to undermine all workers' organizations and attack their living standard.
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However, this attack did not dampen the workers' spirit. Indeed, since then there has been a noticeable upsurge in the workers' movement. There have been important strikes of Greyhound bus drivers in 1983, Phelps Dodge copper miners in 1983-84, TWA airline flight attendants in 1986 and Hormel meatpackers beginning in 1985. The Watsonville cannery workers, led by rank and file militants, won an important victory in March of 1987 in their 18-month strike against concessions. In these struggles, particularly in the miners' strikes and the Hormel strike, the role of the trade union bureaucrats in trying to sabotage the workers' movement has become especially clear. The workers have developed the perspective of militant mass struggles, mass picketing, self-defense against the company, scabs and police. There have been important examples of workers' solidarity, where workers in other industries have joined in massive demonstrations in support of the striking workers, even though these demonstrations have frequently been under the leadership of the trade union bureaucrats.
The workers, through their own experience in both setbacks and victories, have learned many important lessons. But they have generally not yet learned the most important lessons of all. These are lessons that do not come just from direct experience in the factory, but from an understanding of scientific socialism. These lessons are that as long as the capitalists continue to own the means of production, the factories, mines, etc., all of which have been built by the labor of the workers, the workers have no alternative but to sell their labor power to the capitalists. The workers must learn that they must ultimately fight to defeat the capitalists, not only in strikes over terms of sale of their labor power, but by overthrowing the whole system in which the capitalist class lives by exploiting the labor power of the working class. They must smash the state power of the capitalist class by revolution and establish their own rule, the dictatorship of the proletariat. Only in this way can the workers emancipate themselves and all those who are oppressed by the brutal rule of the capitalists. And in order to do this, the most advanced, class-conscious workers must forge their own vanguard political party, a genuine Marxist-Leninist party. Only such a party can lead the whole working class and all the oppressed in the complicated battles on the road to victory, can keep the end in sight through the many skirmishes that will lie along the way.
We have seen that the increasing crisis over the last period has led to the beginnings of a revival of the working class movement. This is bringing to the foreground increasing numbers of advanced workers who are willing to take up the struggle for socialism and can bring these ideas to the masses of workers. There are many who falsely claim to be socialist. But their opportunist and revisionist nature can be seen from the fact that they refuse to bring these socialist ideas to the workers. They, together with the trade union bureaucrats, tell the workers that theirs is a struggle against "Reaganism", not a struggle against capitalism. They also frequently confine themselves to "supporting" strikes, instead of organizing strikes and connecting them with revolutionary aims. They refuse to bring revolutionary organization to the working class. In their work, the opportunists cheer on the workers' militancy (which the workers learn on their own), but refuse to bring up the need for socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat (which the workers do not learn on their own).
All workers who
are seeking a solution to their conditions and the increased attacks of the
capitalist class must examine and grasp socialism. And all genuine communists
must bring socialist ideas to the working class. These include the need for
socialist revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the
proletariat, the expropriation of the means of production from the capitalists
and the organization of centralized production for the material and cultural
interest of the working people. It is the need to see beyond the fights with the
individual capitalists and to link the struggle to one against the entire
capitalist class that is one of the main points put forward in Lenin's pamphlet
"On Strikes." It is for this reason that we are reprinting this
pamphlet. We call upon all workers to read, study, grasp and distribute it as a
part of their fight for emancipation.
Jim Rosenbaum
October, 1987
We have not included the text of Lenin's "On Strike" which is available elsewhere on the Internet.
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