urged by the congress to become active in the trade unions and to make their influence felt there. The members of the American I. W. W. were specifically recomended to join the A. F. of L. unions in their respective callings. Communists have no use for idealist dual unionism.
Many other matters of importance were handled by the congress, including the questions of the relations of the III International to the Red Trade Union International—the congress was for a close affiliation, the tactics of the Russian Communist Party, the establishment of a Red Co-operative International, and the means to be used in developing world organizations of women and Communist young people. Although much heat was shown in the debates, little real factionalism developed. The congress exhibited genuine unity in the international Communist movement.
A most interesting phase of the congress was the Russian revolutionary leaders. Many of them were in attendance, including Lenin, Trotzsky, Zinoviev, Radek, Bukharin, Dzerjinsky, Lossovsky, Lunarcharsky, Rykov, Kollontai, etc. They are indeed a capable body of men and women. A favorite argument of the opposition, when any developed, was that the Russians were unacquainted with the situation in other countries. But when all was said and done. usually the Russians came out on top. Time after time Radek and others met and routed in intellectual combat delegates from other countries when the latter's own movements were in question. This is not remarkable, as most of the Russian leaders have been exiles wandering from country to country and learning the labor movements as they went. They know every angle of the struggle through practical experience, from the tamest kind of tame trade unionism and milk-and-water Socialism, to the roughest kind of revolutionary activity. Ordinarily they speak from three to five languages apiece, and they all follow closely the movements of the countries they have lived in. The Russian leaders are by far the best informed, most cosmopolitan body of labor men in the world. They are real internationalists.
The congress came to an end in striking fashion—trust the Russians to exploit the dramatic possibilities of such a situation. Zinoviev, again elected to the Presidency of the III International, closed the debates
118
