Conclusion¶
Core Argument¶
This concluding chapter mounts a rigorous defence of the tactical line advanced in the preceding Industrial Bulletin editorial, clarifying the relationship between immediate trade-union struggles and the broader strategic objective of revolutionary power. The core argument is that the slogan “no sackings first” is a tactical manoeuvre, not a strategic abandonment. It is a defensive operation, to be employed only when the party is too weak to prevent dismissals, and its purpose is to preserve the trade-union organisations themselves as a base for future advance. To refuse such a tactic on grounds of principle, the chapter argues, is to cede the initiative to the employers and allow them to strangle the workers’ organisations.
The key distinction drawn is between recognition and responsibility. To recognise that sackings are taking place, as a matter of objective fact, is not to accept responsibility for unemployment or for the crisis of capitalism. The chapter invokes Trotsky’s method: it is precisely because the international leadership recognised the “crisis of capitalism” that a Transitional Programme and a military tactic could be developed for the masses, while sectarians remained isolated. The polemical target is therefore those critics who confuse tactical recognition of reality with political capitulation, and who, by refusing to engage in defensive battles, leave the workers’ organisations exposed.
The chapter draws heavily on the Transitional Programme itself, quoting its insistence that the Bolshevik-Leninist stands in the front-line trenches of all struggles, even those involving the most modest material interests. The struggle for the closed shop during periods of redundancy is presented as falling directly within this framework: it strengthens the unions and raises their militancy, and is subordinate to, not in contradiction with, the strategic slogans of the transitional programme. The relationship is one of part to whole.
The conclusion addresses the changing conjuncture. The recent period of labour shortage had made trade-union work easy, but a period of mass unemployment is approaching, demanding a different milieu of struggle. The chapter closes with a quotation from Trotsky’s Their Morals and Ours, urging comrades to learn the rhythm of history and to subordinate their subjective impatience to the objective laws of the class struggle. The door is to be closed against any accidental confusion or misunderstanding of the editorial’s meaning.