CURRENT COMMUNIST LABOR TACTICS: (II) THE WFTU LINE FOR WORK IN RURAL AREAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000300020001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 9, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 1, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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CURRENT COMMUNIST LABOR TACTICS: (II) THE WFTU LINE FOR WORK IN
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B. THE WORLD CONFERENCE OF AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY WORKERS . . . 1
1. Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Preparatory Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4. Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
a. The Importance of Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
b. Organizational Methods and Principles . . . . . . . . . 5
c. Organization of United Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
d. Organizational Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
e. Ways and Means of Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. Results of the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7. Administrative Changes Made at the Conference . . . . . . . 10
C. CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . 10
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CURRENT COMMUNIST LABOR TACTICS: (II) THE WFTU LINE FOR WORK IN
RURAL AREAS
Immediately following the Third World Congress of the WFTU, the
Trade Union International of Agricultural and Forestry Workers (a WFTU
Trade Department) held a'World Conference of Agricultural and Forestry
Workers in Vienna, October 24+-28, 1953. This conference was planned as
an adjunct to the Third World Trade Union Congress; its ostensible pur-
pose was to. develop, on the basis of the conclusions of the earlier meet-
ing, an action program for the improvement of the economic and social
conditions of workers in agriculture and forestry.
This chapter is devoted to the events which transpired and the
specific directives which were formulated at the Agricultural and
Forestry Conference. These policies and programs of action have been
designated by the WFTU as of utmost importance, because it is through
the organization of the peasants and agricultural workers that the WFTU
hopes to gain a foothold for Communism in the "colonial and underdeveloped
areas." As has been shown in the chapter entitled "The General WFTU
Line," these "colonial and semicolonial areas" of the world have become
a primary target of the international Communist movement.
B. The World Conference of Agricultural and Forestry Workers
1. Purpose
This conference represents the first major step taken to
organize the peasants and farmers in accordance with the
WFTU policy regarding "colonial and semicolonial countries"
announced at the Third WFTU Congress. Although this TUI
has been in existence since December 1949, it has not been
considered one of the major WFTU trade union federations.
It has assumed importance only within the past 2 years, as
the struggle between the Communist and non-Communist blocs
for the allegiance of the "neutral" areas of the world has
intensified.
Since 1951, the WFTU has devoted more and more of its re-
sources to the extension of its influence over the labor
movements of Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
At the same time, its influence over Latin America has been
maintained by the Latin American Confederation of Labor
(CTAL), under the direction of the WFTU Vice-President,
Vicente Lombardo Toledano. These are the areas which the
"Wammmmm
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Communists call "colonial and semicolonial"--the areas where
the agricultural and raw-material-production industries are
the basis of the national economies and where heavy industry
has not yet been developed as a major economic factor.
2. Preparatory Activities
The basic decision to hold the Agricultural and Forestry
Workers Conference was made at the meeting of the WFTU
Executive Bureau held in February 1953. More definite plans
for the holding of the conference were then made at a meet-
ing of the Administrative Committee of the TUI held in Vienna,
July 27-28, 1953. Even before this July meeting, letters had
been sent to labor leaders throughout the world informing them
of the forthcoming conference, and propaganda publicizing
the conference had been distributed.
Included in this material was "An Appeal to Agricultural and
Forestry Workers," dated March 10, 1953. After listing some
of the topics to be discussed at the conference, the appeal
called on all who read it to set up Sponsoring Committees
for the preparation of the World Conference and to call
meetings and rallies to "discuss and work out programs of
local demands corresponding to the most urgent needs and to
the specific possibilities for achieving them." It urged the
agricultural workers to elect delegates in their villages,
estates, and places of work, and to collect the necessary
funds to cover their traveling expenses. In addition, the
peasants were encouraged to "strengthen organizations, set
up new trade union branches, recruit new members, and form
Small Peasants Associations." Persons requesting additional
material on the preparation of the conference were urged to
write to the Trade Union International of Agricultural and
Foresty Workers, 19 Via Boncompagni, Rome, Italy.
Participation
The WFTU claims that the Conference of Agricultural and
Forestry Workers was attended by 200 delegates and observers
from 146 organizations and-61 countries of Latin America,
Asia, the Near and Middle East., Africa, and Europe. Those
representatives allegedly spoke for more than 22,000,000
workers--foresters, peasants, migratory agricultural labor,
plantation hands, and small landholders.
During the conference it was announced that 10 agricultural
workers' organizations had joined the TUI--those of Ceylon,
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Indonesia, Jamaica, British Guiana, Guatemala, Argentina, and
the Gold Coast. More significant, however, is the claim
made by Pravda that "122 delegates and observers representing
organizations not embodied in the International Alliance of
Agricultural and Forestry Workers" were present at the
conference.
There is some evidence that, as a result of their attendance
at the conference, several of these non-Communist delegates
were convinced that there were benefits to be derived from
linking their organizations to the WFTU. It has been reported
by a reliable source that when the conference ended a few of
the delegates from India, who are non-Communist and influential
among the peasantry, pledged the affiliation of their unions
to the TUI. These persons, who were brought to the conference
atWFTU expense, saw in the efforts of the TUI of Agricultural
and Forestry Workers to "assist" the peasants of the "colonial
and semicolonial" countries a parallel to their own struggle
to improve the living standards of the Indian peasants. The
need for immediate and effective aid for their countrymen is
so great that it makes these Indian representatives consider
the threat of Communist domination or manipulation to be
extremely remote.
Despite the WFTU's claims that this was arepresentative con-
ference,.open to all who wished to participate, both Com-
munist and non-Communist, the meeting was more carefully
controlled and limited in participants than was the Third
World Trade Union Congress. In recent months, the Communists
have followed the practice of inviting members of the non-
Communist press to their international meetings. A definite
effort was made to encourage the non-Communist press to send
reporters to the Third WF"I'U Congress, and every meeting listed
on the agenda was open to the press. This was not the case
at the Agricultural and Forestry Workers Conference, from which
non-Communist newsmen were barred. In addition, special
security measures were taken at the meeting site in the
Schwechater Hof, located in the British Sector of Vienna.
Fifteen engineers and laborers from a local electric com-
pany, carpenters, and other workmen spent 8 days decorating
the hall and installing special security equipment. All
doors and windows in the vicinity of the conference room
were locked and covered with soundproof material. All
scraps of paper, notes, and other waste was collected by
special personnel after each meeting. Guards were posted
around the meeting hall to prevent unauthorized persons
from entering, both during the meetings and while the hall
was empty.
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4+. Agenda
The agenda for: the conference was decided upon at the WFTU
Executive Bureau meeting held in February 1953, and was
printed and distributed in its final form in March 1953.
It contained the following points:
I. Report on The Present Situation of the Agricultural and
Forestry Workers and the Struggle for their Economic
and Social Demands.
(Reporter: Ilio BOSI--Italy)
Speech on the Economic Situation of Plantation Workers.
(Reporters: HUTOMO--Indonesia; M'BILLA--Cameroons)
II. The Strengthening of Aid to the Farm Laborers in the
Struggle for their Interests.
(Reporters: Renato VIDIMARI--Italy)
Speech on the Organization of Latin American Farm
Workers.
(Reporter: Luis RAMOS--Guatemala)
III. The Importance of Organization and Tactics in the
Struggle of the Agricultural and Forestry Workers.
(Reporter: Maurice CARROUE--France)
5. Resolutions: Projected Lines of Action
During the conference, five committees were elected to dis-
cuss and work out resolutions. Generally, these resolutions
followed the same pattern as the resolutions of the Third
World Trade Union Congress on the development of trade unions
in colonial and semicolonial countries, and on the general
tasks of the WFTU in the "unity" campaign.
There is one resolution, however, which merits detailed
elaboration. This is the "Resolution on the Problems of
Organization" of agricultural workers, forestry workers, and
peasants. The important points contained in this resolution
will be discussed below and in a form which parallels the
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original document published by the TUI of Agricultural and
Forestry Workers:
a. The Importance of Organization
The WFTU has decreed that the main role of the trade
union organization is to "unite the workers," to enable
them to draw up their demands and coordinate action to
achieve them, to enable the peasants to fight for fair
prices for their crops, to find markets for them, and
to possess their own land, to educate the workers, and
train new and militant leadership to ensure the perma-
nency and continuity o$ the organization, and to ensure
that the workers are represented at all congresses,
conferences, and similar gatherings.
b. Organizational Methods and Principles
Here, the TUI of Agricultural and Forestry Workers warns
its members that in order to achieve the best effect,
the following points must be kept in mind:
(1) Agricultural and peasants' organizations must be
"mass organizations, aiming at the inclusion of
the majority if not all of the workers."
(2) Special organizational and propaganda steps must be
taken. in order to attract women and young workers
into the group.
(3) "The organization and functioning of the trade
unions and other organizations must be based on
democratic principles of organization and leader-
ship." Regular conferences must be held by the
union, and the leadership must be elected; "leader-
ship should be collective but the leaders should
have individual responsibility."
(4) "The trade unions must be so organized as to be
closely linked with the life of the workers. This
demands organization on a trade basis (trade unions
of horticultural workers, lumberjacks, clerical
workers in agriculture), on the basis of the agri-
cultural enterprises, the plantations, settlements,
villages, with, if necessary, trade union branches
in the enterprises or sections."
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(5) The trade unions are to be absolutely "independent
of the employers, governments, and political
parties." However, independence from political
parties is not to be interpreted to mean that the
unions are to ignore or avoid political problems.
This means, of course, that the trade unions should
create the impression of being "independent" and
conceal their Communist ties.
(6) The TUI points out that the trade union organiza-
tion must pay serious attention to financial problems,
and in addition to income from ordinary trade union
dues, must seek income from other sources such as
"collections in cash and kind at harvest time," and
by cultural and social activities.
(7) "The Conference stresses that leadership of trade
union and peasant organizations in certain countries
by active workers not in agriculture can be only
transitory and temporary, corresponding to the
first period of trade union formation. Policy must
be directed with determination toward finding,
training, and promoting leaders who come from the
agricultural workers."
c. Organization of United Action
The conference called on "all militant workers to use
every means to organize and develop unity of action so
as to unite all the workers, irrespective of the trade
union to which they belong, in the struggle for their
demands."
"Unity must be organized from below, on the job, and,
if possible, at local, district, provincial, regional,
and national levels."
Proposals must have "definite, limited, concrete objectives,
with clear demands corresponding to the needs of all
the workers and able to draw them into the common fight,
i.e., demands for wage increases, better working condi-
tions, some piece of social legislation."
"Proposals for unity must be made publicly, so that the
workers can realize who are for and who are against their
interests."
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"Proposals for united action must be made not only to the
leadership but above all to the rank and file. The
workers should be called upon to take into their hands
the cause of unity and elect their united action com-
mittees from below, to control and guide joint activities
so as to prevent separate negotiations and the betrayal
of the workers' interests by agents of the employers
or government inside the trade unions."
"Proposals for united action must be free from sectarianism."
The parallel with the general WFTU organizational line is
clear.
d. Organizational Forms
Because of the varied conditions of agricultural and
forestry work, "organizational forms cannot be of a
rigid, uniform, and unchangeable character."
(1) The main organizational effort is to be directed to-
ward the wage earners, whatever the type of work
(i.e., farm laborers, clerical workers in agriculture,
plantation and forestry workers). Special categories
such as migrant workers and workers employed partially
in agriculture and partially in other trades (such
as sugar refinery workers or seasonal laborers) should
have organizational forms peculiar to their local
situation.
"Agricultural wage earners' trade unions must be
independent, or at least their administration and
leadership must be independent, of the peasant
organizations."
(2) "The sharecropping agricultural workers of various
types (those who receive a share of the harvest as
payment but who are not independent of the owner)
can be organized in sharecroppers' trade unions and
belong to a national center and through this to the
WFTU."
(3) The organization of the peasants presents a special
problem. There are many conditions and a variety of
problems, most of which are merely local phenomena.
"It is necessary to find the best temporary or per-
manent organizational forms--trade unions, peasant
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unions, leagues, various kinds.of united action com-
mittees, cooperatives, etc." The conference, how-
ever, recommends "that the peasant organizations
should take measures to preserve the class character
of their movement ...."
"In view of the need to ensure the alliance of agri-
cultural and industrial workers, channels of con-
tact should be established in every country by agree-
ment between their organizations."
(1i) Trade unions must be organized in district, regional,
provincial, and national federations. Those not af-
filiated to the TUI are asked to join, either directly
or through a national federation. "In countries where
trade union organizations are illegal, the agricultural
workers should make use of all possibilities, (friendly
societies, cultural and sporting associations, etc.)
so as to meet and defend their rights. Supporters of
the WFTU should also work within government and
'company' trade union organizations to see that the
interests of the'workers are defended and fight for
the democratization of these organizations."
e. Ways and Means of Organization
The Conference appealed to all the National Centers and
industrial workers' organizations to help in setting up
agricultural workers' organizations in countries where
they do not exist and to strengthen them wherever they
are weak.
The conference urged the organizations to supervise the
training and development of trade unionists by organizing
various kinds of schools, courses, classes, lectures,
etc. on trade unionism and by publishing special material.
The conference stressed "the importance of the trade union
press, the organization of its distribution, a whole
network of distribution with reading groups in the coun-
tries where illiteracy exists; it urges the publication
of bulletins, the workers' own local newspapers, posters,
etc." It urged the TUI to publish pamphlets on the most
urgent questions: "agrarian reform, work on the planta-
tions, social security, etc."
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The conference stressed "the importance-of organizing
national and regional conferences and congresses, as a
means of.study, allowing the detailed working out of
programs of demand, methods of organization, and means
of action."
6. Results of the Program
In the months following the Agricultural and Forestry Workers
Conference, there has been an increase in the activities of
Communist Parties and labor unions in the agricultural field:
In November 1953, at a meeting of officials of the Argentine
Movimiento Obrera Communista, the possibility of publishing
an agricultural magazine was discussed.
In December 1953, it was reported that Communist influence
among Sudanese farmers had increased considerably in recent
months. Local Communists, operating principally through the
Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation, a WFTU affiliate, were
reported to be carrying on an intensive campaign to establish
a "cultivators'," or peasants, bloc which would parallel
and work with the Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation.
Efforts were directed at breaking the hold of the Gezira
Tenants Association, a non-Communist peasants' group, over
the local farmers. According to this report, a defection
of 25 of the 50 elected members of the Tenants Association
to the Communist-led group had already occurred--necessitating
new elections in the Tenants Association in the near future
and raising the possibility that the Tenants Association would
be completely taken over by the Sudan Workers Trade Union
Federation.
At the Third Congress of the Communist Party of India, a
great deal of emphasis was placed on the organization of
agricultural labor, with the warning that agricultural
workers must be organized separately from the peasants--a
warning which had been expressed earlier in the "Resolution
on Organization of the Agricultural and Forestry Conference."
In Italy, the agricultural unions affiliated to the CGIL are
sponsoring a project which will produce a history of the
labor movement in agriculture--the first such history to be
written.
In February 1954, a reliable source reported that the
Chilean Communist Party, having become concerned over its
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lack of influence in labor in the rural areas, planned to
increase its propaganda directed toward rural workers.
7. Administrative Changes Made at the Conference
The fourth item on the agenda of the Agricultural and Forestry
Conference was the election of new officers and the executive
bodies of the TUI. In September, prior to the conference, it
was revealed that the TUI planned to increase the number of
officers who would be permanently employed at the TUI Secre-
tariat, located in Rome, Italy, at 19 Via Boncampagni. At
this time Ruslan Widjajasastra, Indonesian delegate to the
Third World, Trade Union Congress, wrote to the Central Bureau
of SOBSI (the Indonesian trade union federation affiliated to
the WFTU) informing it that a special secretary in charge of
Asian affairs was to be appointed and that the special secre-
tary would work at the headquarters in Rome. The new secretary,
it had been decided, was to be an Indonesian with a mastery
of either French or English. In addition, the candidate was to
possess a "comprehensive knowledge of the peasantry." In view
of this decision, it is not surprising to find an Indonesian,
Tjugito, listed as the new President of the TUI of Agricultural
and Forestry Workers. Other officers elected during the con-
ference are: General Secretary--Ilio Bosi of Italy; Vice
Presidents--Maurice Carroue of France, Sun Tchuan of China,
S.V. Yegurazdov of the U.S.S.R., M'Billa of the Cameroons,
and. an as yet unnamed representative of Guatemala.
The importance of the Agricultural and Forestry Workers Conference,
attended by less than 200 trade union representatives, is indicated by the
information outlined in the preceding sections. Only the Third World Trade
Union Congress, which preceded it, outranks it in importance within the in-
ternational Communist labor movement. It was, in fact, planned as an inte-
gral part of the Third World Trade Union Congress in order to put into effect
the "line" laid down at that meeting concerning the extension of the Com-
munist trade union movement iQ the "colonial and semicolonial" areas of
the world--Southeast Asia, Africa, the Near and Middle East, and Latin
America. In these areas, where approximately three-fourths of the popula-
tion is engaged in agricultural pursuits, the influence of Communism can
be extended only by a program which appears to answer the needs of the
peasant, the plantation workers, the farm laborer, and the small landowner.
Organization of agricultural and forestry workers and of peasant movements
under the WFTU banner thus serves to broaden the Communist labor "base" and
strengthen the international labor "front."
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