Page:Trade Unions in Soviet Russia - I.L.P. (1920).djvu/55

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on the lack of technical knowledge. Soviet Russia can only solve the colossal problems of her national economy, and be victorious on the peaceful front of labour, if she creates strong armies of workers with special technical knowledge.

Appeal to the Workers of All Countries.

The text of the Appeal issued by the Congress is as follows:—

"Comrades!—

Cables, wireless and press (the powerful weapons of Capitalist deceit) have told you over and over again that labour in Soviet Russia has been militarised. The servants of Imperialism are making use of this statement for two purposes—to discredit Socialist Russia, and also to justify the methods which they employ towards the workers in other countries. The 1,000 delegates of the Third Russian Congress of Trade Unions representing more than three million organised industrial workers ask you to be on your guard against both the praise and the abuse which Bourgeois opinion bestows on the methods employed by the Soviet for the organisation of labour. The imperialist war, the cruel and inhuman blockade, and the ceaseless attacks of the mercenary bands employed by Clemenceau and Churchill have ruined our economic organisation. It is only by superhuman efforts and the use of all our resources that we can save the country from the disasters and misery of the present situation. Every honest and class conscious worker must do all he can for the safety of the Socialist Republic. What is called the militarisation or labour is the discipline laid down for labour, and thorough organisation in carrying out our economic plans. We have no kings surrounded by Ministers, no landowners and capitalists with their agents. We workers have put on ourselves the heavy and difficult tasks which we feel it to be our duty to assume for the revolution and for the sake of future generations. Workers of all countries, in the midst of our struggle and the feverish efforts of our tremendous task, we send you our fraternal greetings! We await with firm assurance the time when the workers, throughout the whole of the Capitalist world will have driven out their oppressors and made all the world a public property belonging to the human race. Long live the world wide alliance of Labour!

Third International.

The Congress voted for adhesion to the Third International in the following resolution:—

"The International Working class movement is fighting, not for an improvement in the Capitalist system but for its complete destruction. In this revolutionary struggle all the conscious revolutionary elements are joining the Third International, which embodies the world movement of the Workers' revolution. The Russian Trade Unions which, by the side of the Communist Party, have fought the Capitalist system, cannot remain outside the Third International, and their Congress declares for adhesion to the Third International, and invites the revolutionary Trade Unions of the whole world to follow the example of the organised workers of Russia."