TRADE UNIONS............INTERESTS 185
unity of purpose and unity of action. If you cannot organize a separate union of your own you may join any one of the existing unions. But you must take care that the union does not use you for its purposes. There is great danger of such a thing happening. It has happened in Bombay where invariably strikes have been called in the interests of the weavers and the spinners have been used to support the cause of the weavers. To avoid this you must insist upon two conditions. Firstly you must insist upon a special rep resentation in the executive of the union so that your special problems will receive the attention and support of the union. Secondly you must insist upon some part of your contribution to the union to be ear-marked for being used if necessary for fighting out your grievances. These must be two essential conditions on which you should join a general union of all workers if you do not decide to have a separate of your own.
There is no question that you must organize a union for trade purposes. But that is not enough. You must also organize for political purposes. Experience has shown that trade unionism by itself cannot help the labourers to win in their struggle against the masters. The question whether trade unions should enter politics is a question on which there can now be no two opinions.
Trade unions must enter politics because without political power they cannot protect purely trade union interests. Even for the purpose of securing such reforms as standard rate, normal day, common rule, minimum living wage, collective bargaining are aims which cannot be secured merely by organizing unions. The power of unions must be strengthened by the force of law. This cannot happen until in addition to organizing yourselves into unions you also begin to play your part in the politics of the country.
The protection of purely trade union interests cannot be the only reason why trade union must enter politics. To confine your attention to trade unionism is to mistake the immediate task for the ultimate goal; it is to assume that slaving for others is a destiny which the labouring classes cannot escape. On the contrary your aim should be to replace this system of wageslavery by a system which will recognize the principles of liberty,