Trade Unions Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from The International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions Trade Unions arose as organs of the working class to counter balance the growing exploitation. In its early form the trade union was a union of workers in a certain craft, having for its object to assist its members employed in a definite category of labor. As the capitalist system grew and developed so the form of organization of the trade union changed also, and with that the scope and character of its work also changed. It is necessary to observe, however, that the form of organization of the trade unions always lagged behind the form of organization of capitalism which during the last nine years has developed such powerful organizations, like trusts and syndicates, the competition among which, as is known, led to the world war. While capitalism in the course of its development assumed new forms of organization which facilitated it in exploiting labor and subjecting to itself the apparatus of the State, the trade unions lagged behind like a shadow, in many countries preserving the old forms of organization, with all their close corporative character, narrowness and limitations. In counter acting the increasing exploitation, in striving to raise the standard of living, to improve the conditions of labor, andsecure the principle of collective agreements the trade unions always acted on the basis of capitalist relations, and as the unions grew and became internally consolidated the idea of an unbreakable tie between the trade unions and the existing order of things became stronger. The older the trade union move ment became and capitalism the more powerful the more clearly and definitely did the idea become of the necessity for the existence of capitalism and the co-operation of classes as a condition for the improvement of the standard of living of the workers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.