AN ANALYSIS OF THE DRAFT PROGRAM OF THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R001300020004-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 6, 1998
• Sequence Number: 4
• Content Type: REPORT

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE DRAFT PROGRAM
OF THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS
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An Analysis of the Draft Program
of the World Federation of Trade Unions
Part One: The Draft Program
1. The executive council of the World Federation of Trade Unions,
meeting in Prague on 23-26 June 1961, approved a draft program for
submission at the fifth world trade union congress to be held in Moscow
in December 1961. The program is set forth in seven sections.
a. Introduction and Section 1, nineteen paragraphs, describe,
from the Communist point of view, the status, power, and problems
of the working class in the world situation and relate the problems
to the fifth congress.
b. Section 2, seventeen paragraphs, justifies and describes
the tasks of the trade unions in the Communist peace campaign.
c. Section 3, twenty-two paragraphs, justifies and describes
the tasks of the trade unions in the anti-colonial struggle.
d. Section 4, seventeen paragraphs, describes in glowing
terms the status, power, and achievements of the trade union
organizations of the Soviet bloc as an ideal-ma model toward which
all trade unions should be moving.
e. Section 5, twenty paragraphs, justifies and describes
those trade union tasks in the advanced capitalist countries necessary
for the enhancement of the power and influence of trade union organi-
zations in political and economic decision-making.
f. Section 6, twelve paragraphs, justifies and describes
those trade union tasks that must be carried out to weaken the
position of anti-Communist trade union leaders and to aid in the
recruitment and indoctrination of trade union members.
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g. Section 7, twenty-one paragraphs, discusses the problems
encountered by Communist-dominated trade unions in their unity of
action efforts and spells out the tactics through which unity is to be
achieved and the main opponents of the trade union unity between
Communists and non-Communists discredited or destroyed.
2. Although there is no explicit reference to either the Moscow
6 December 1960 declaration of 81 parties or other such declarations
of the Communist parties of the world, the draft program is completely
consistent with the Moscow declaration of 6 December 1960. Those
sections dealing with the advanced capitalist countries are also
completely consistent with the November 1959 declaration of the seventeen
European Communist parties.
3. The program calls for militant mass struggles and action
programs at the national level throughout the world rather than for
conferences or parliamentary and organizational maneuvering, The
draft program merges the two major programs (international develop-
ments and the present activities and tasks of trade unions; the contri-
bution of the trade unions for the struggle against colonialism) sub-
mitted to the 11th session of the WFTU general council at Peking in
June 1960 in the reports by Marcel Bras and Ibrahim Zakaria. But,
on the question of the peace campaign, the WFTU draft program is
harder than the,Bras presentation. For example, amendments
incorporated at the last moment in Peking in the Bras report included
the argument that the achievement of peaceful coexistence would make
it possible for the more developed countries to divert resources to aid
economic development in other parts of the world, and also contained
the assurance that the people of the underdeveloped countries were
"capable of distinguishing between aid given by the bloc and aid rem
ceived from the major capitalist states." These rationalizations have
disappeared .in the draft program.' The economic benefits of
These amendments are representative of the outer limits of the
soft Soviet line of the period before the signing of the 6 December 1960
statement. The Chinese explicitly attacked the first of these two
arguments and it was not included in the Moscow statement.
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disarmament in the capitalist world are now described in terms
appealing to the workers of the capitalist countries alone. Aid
to underdeveloped countries from the capitalist world is condemned
and the generous and disinterested character of bloc aid is ag-
gressively stated.
4. Despite the disappearance of the rationalizations mentioned
above, the program is clearly a victory for the CPSU. The preser-
vation and strengthening of peace and the prevention of a new world
war are described as "the vital problem of our age, " and the first.
specification of tasks for all the trade unions of the world consists
of seven specific demands under this general heading of peace. The
treatment of anti-colonialism also reflects Soviet principles, for
the draft emphasizes that the importance of the anti-colonial struggle
lies in its potential for contributing to peaceful coexistence, and it
asserts that achieving peaceful coexistence will help national liberation
struggles to be completed successfully. It also asserts that the .
achievement of peaceful coexistence will strengthen and make easier
the class struggle in advanced countries.
5. The program is anti-imperialist. It condemns the United
States as the leader and main bulwark of imperialism but it emphasizes
flank attacks on imperialism rather than direct struggles. The only
cases in which it calls for direct anti-imperialist campaigns are
Algeria, South Africa, Angola, Laos, and the Congo. Its flank
tactic is to call rather for struggles against monopolies-=international,
foreign, and national monopolies--which it describes as the source
and inspiration for imperialism. This general line takes two forms.
For the countries of Africa, Asia; and Latin America, the campaign
against international foreign monopolies clearly encompasses anti--
USA campaigns and is. the WFTU application of the program for
national democracies as set forth in the 6 December 1960 statement.
In the advanced capitalist countries the attack is directed against
national monopolies and all imperialist monopoly forces, without
singling out those of the United States.
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6. The general approach to unity of action also appears to
have hardened. The draft is more doctrinaire, furthermore, in its
attacks on splitters of the trade union movement than were the
reports submitted to the 11th session of the general council at Peking.
Bras at Peking recounted failures in the WFTU approach to the
ICFTU for unity, and.Zakaria characterized the ICFTU leaders as
pro-imperialist in their thought and action and derided ICFTU
claims to be anti-colonialist. The new draft program explicitly
calls for attacks on and exposures of ICFTU leaders for their anti-
Communism, for their support of splits in the working class at the
national and international levels, and as reformist advocates of
class collaboration. It places great emphasis on the ICFTU leaders
as capitalist tools and instruments of the monopolies. At the same
time, instead of announcing the successes achieved in unity operations
directed at the ICFTU affiliates, it calls for a more vigorous
prosecution of unity from below on class questions, at both the
national and international levels, as a means of discrediting and
eliminating anti-Communist leaders.
7. After appealing to all trade unions and their members
to persevere in the struggle for peace, the WFTU program assigns
all workers, peasants, artisans, and intellectuals the following
seven tasks.
a. Obtain universal and complete disarmament with
strict international control.
b. Prevent the resumption of nuclear tests and ensure
that the manufacture of atomic weapons is stopped.
c. Prevent weapons of mass destruction being put'at
the disposal of the German and Japanese militarists and obtain the
abrogation of the Japanese-American military treaty.
d. Impose the speedy conclusion of a peace treaty with
the two German states and obtain the transformation of West Berlin
into a free, demilitarized city.
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e. Obtain the solution of all international disputes by :
peaceful means through negotiations.
f. Ensure the dissolution of all military blocs, the
removal of all military bases on foreign soil, and the evacuation.
of all troops from the territory of other states.
g. Ensure genuine respect for equality between states,
prevent aggression against the Cuban revolution, and end foreign
intervention in the Congo and Laos.
8. To accomplish "the complete and final eradication of
the colonial system", which "is a primary task for the. peoples
and for all forces of peace and progress in the world," the
WFTU program outlines three sets of tasks.
a. The first enjoins upon all workers and trade unions
an anti-imperialist struggle for four things.:. support for the
heroic struggle waged by the Algerian people for the national
independence and integrity of their national territory, and for an
end to the war of aggression waged against them; support for.
the campaign by the South African people for freedom and equality;
support for the patriots in Angola against ruthless repression;
nd freedom for all peoples still suffering under the colonial yoke
by putting a final end to colonialism and by thwarting imperialist
adventures against young independent states such as the Congo
and Laos.
b. In the second place the WFTU program calls upon
the workers in newly independent countries to struggle, pre-.
sumably against the bourgeois leaders and governments, for the
following things: higher wages, guaranteed payment of agreed
wages, and .a guaranteed minimum wage; shorter working hours
without loss of payl the establishment and extension of social
security and social insurance; the right to work; the introduction
and general application of a system of collective agreement, the
annulment of all individual contracts, and trade union participation
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in the settlement of problems arising between. employers and wage-
earners; the stocking of markets with food and essential products.
and the reduction of'their prices; the introduction of paid holidays;
vocational training; and the ending of wage, hiring, and dismissal
systems enforced by colonial regimes.
. c. The third set of tasks applies when and where trade
unions of the underdeveloped countries have already achieved
strength and influence, and are capable of exerting pressure for
political go4ls. These are:
(1) The nationalization of foreign monopoly under
takings, the building and development of a national industry and
a state sector, and the expulsion of foreign monopolies from these
countries.
(2) Agrarian reforms benefitting the peasantry,
particularly poor peasants and agricultural workers, abolishing
colonial ownership and the remnants of feudalism, and providing
the poor peasants and agricultural workers with assistance for
increasing production.
(3) Democratization of the state, making it possible
to mobilize all national forces in the struggle against imperialism
and for social progress, and against military dictatorships and
undemocratic rq.easutes hostile to the people and endangering
national independence.
(4) A policy of cooperation with all countries and
the organization of state control of foreign trade in order to safe-
guard it from imperialist domination and interference.
(5) Fully independent participation by workers and
trade unions in the preparation and organization~of economic plans
and programs for developing the national economy.
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9, In the struggle for unity in the trade union movement,
for the unity of all working class forces, the WFTU program urges
all workers and trade unionists to increase their efforts to give a
devastating answer to all those who hope to continue the cold war
in the international trade union movement and who are trying to
deepen and lengthen the break in it;. to develop and strengthen,
fraternal relations"between the trade unions of all countries in the
spirit of proletarian internationalism; to make their struggle for
the vital interests of the workers more active on the basis of .
united action; to strengthen continually the fraternal international
solidarity of the workers in all countries; and to widen the struggle
for the unity of the trade union movement nationally and inter-
nationally in . each branch of industry and in each undertaking.
10. In addition to the tasks for all trade unions in struggling
for peace, eradicating the colonial system, and unifying all the
working classes, the WFTU program calls upon the workers in the
advanced capitalist countries to demand the following.
a. Increased wages, the guarantee of wages, and a
guaranteed minimum wage.
b. The liquidation of all paternal forms of work
remuneration.
c. A real increase in wages.
d.. Establishment of trade union control over the setting
of the wages of workers.
e. The reduction of hours of work without loss of pay.
f. Extension of guarantees against unemployment and
dismissal.
g. Extension of the right of negotiations over collective
agreements.
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h. The negotiated settlement of better classifications
in relation to the actual trade qualification and the nature of
production methods.
i. Development of a professional training independent
of the employer.
j. The formation, improvement, and extension of social
security and insurance.
k. The improvement of labor safety under the control
of trade unions.
1. Increase in paid holidays.
m. Lowering of the retirement age.
n. The end of all: discrimination of race, age, sex,
religion, opinion, and nationality in employment pay, trade training ,
and promotion; All these demands are justified by the WFTU as
necessary to the strengthening of working class influence within
essentially bourgeois societies; and the tasks are consistent with
those unity missions accepted by the seventeen European CP's
in their joint declaration of November 1959.
11. To achieve these economic demands, the WFTU program
asserts, a bitter political struggle for the protection and extension
of trade union liberties is necessary. The trade unions must, there-
fore, work against discrimination and to extend tirade union: freedom
to places of employment by demanding recognition of the trade union
and its right to conduct at the place of employment organizational
activity, propaganda campaigns, and collection of dues without
interference or retaliatory action by either the employer or the
government. The trade unions must also organize for the defense
of persons arrested or imprisoned for their trade union activity
and provide moral and material assistance to such imprisoned
leaders and their families.
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Part Two: The Soviet and Chinese Positions on the Program
12. The WFTU draft program was treated in a three-quarter
page article in Trud and other Soviet papers on 26 July, and Tass
broadcast in English a summary comment to Europe on 25 July. On
6 August the People's Daily in Peking carried an editorial on the
draft program, and NCNA broadcast in English to Asia the highlights
of the editorial. The two broadcast comments have been compared
with the full text of the draft program and the conclusions expressed
below are based on this comparison.
13. The Soviet andChinese comments both embodied expressions
of approval and support for the draft program, but differences, primarily
a matter of emphasis given to specific sections of the program, are
apparent. There are also, on the Chinese side, some rephrasings of
certain key statements.
14, There are differences in.emphasis on the main task of the
WFTU, on the vital problem of today, on United States imperialism,
and on the task of eradicating colonialism.
a. The main task of the WFTU. The Chinese noted first
the draft program's statement that the WFTU's main task is to wage
a decisive struggle for unity, and editorially endorsed the struggle.
They implied, however, that this task in Chinese eyes involves the
extension of the influence of the WFTU. The Soviet treatment of this
point noted that the WFTU program calls for the constant exposure
of the foes of unity, for the extension of contacts between trade unions
of all countries, and for the united struggle for the vital interests
of the working people.
b. The vital problem of today. Tass, like the draft
program, defined the vital problem as "to preserve and strengthen
peace and prevent a new world war. " The Chinese broadcast,
however, stated that the most pressing task is "to Appose imperialist
aggression and defend world peace." The Soviet treatment gave
the peace struggle primary emphasis and quoted from the draft
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(paragraph 33) on the necessity of.mobilizing "the workers and
trade unions in the struggle to ensure that the principles of
peaceful coexistence between states with different economic and
social systems may triumph.," _ The Soviet broadcast also quoted
the seven specific peace tasks of the trade union movement and
made no reference to the .anti-colonial tasks set forth.in Section, 3
of the draft. The Chinese broadcast, in contrast, made no
reference to paragraph 33 or to peaceful coexistence.
c. U. S. imperialism. The Soviet broadcast made no
mention of the aggressive role of U. S. imperialism although
accusations of this role appear in many places in the draft-program.
The Chinese, on the other hand, made repeatedreference to U. S.
imperialism and devoted.most of their broadcast to the tasks,spelled
out .in the draft program for Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The
Chinese also made explicit reference, as does,the draft program,.
to the leaders of the ICFTU as enemies of unity and agents of
monopoly capital in the working class movement.
d. Eradicating colonialism. In speaking of Section 3
of the draft program,'. on the task of eradicating colonialism, the
Soviets emphasized the WFTU support of and political solidarity
with the peoples of colonies in newly liberated: countries. The
Chinese, basing. themselves on paragraph 48 in that section of the
draft, emphasized that trade union action in the anti-colonial
struggle should retain its character as a class organization and
should agitate at the national level for workers' demands, trade
union rights, and democratic rights, a reflection of the Chinese
mistrust Of. non-Communist nationalist leaders.
15. These differences in emphasis show that the USSR and
Communist China have not resolved the differences over policy that
have, existed between them for some time now, both on the score .of
the WFTU and the larger score of the world s.ndpeace or war. The
Chinese, in brief, want to ;use the WFTU and the national trade union
movements aggressively and openly to advance the Communist
revolution throughout the world; the USSR wants to make the WFTU
conform to its more flexible and less belligerent strategy for world
conque st.
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