6732 
 
 3 415 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL 
 
 OF 
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR 
 
 RELATIONS 
 
 AT 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
w W> 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924054513415 
 
Trade Unions 
 
 IN 
 
 Soviet Russia 
 
 A Collection o! Russian Trade Union 
 Documents compiled by the I.L.P. 
 Information Committee and the 
 International Section of the Labour 
 Research Department. 
 
 Is. 6d. 
 
 The Labour Seuarch Oepartiuent, 3*, Booleiton Bquan, UndoB, S.W. 1. 
 The I.L.P. iBfotmatien Oonnaittee, 5, York Bld^i.. Idelphi, tondon, W.C.2. 
 
Trade Unions 
 
 IN 
 
 Soviet Russia 
 
 A Cc^ection of Russian Trade Union. 
 Documents compiled by the IX.P. 
 Information Committee and the 
 Intemationad Section of the Labour 
 Research Department. 
 
 The liftboiu Reieaveh DepArtment, 31, Bccleiton Bquan, London, S.W. 1. 
 The I.L.P. Information Committee. S, York Bldgs , Adelphi, London, W.C. 2. 
 
THIS collection of documents. -should be of' 
 exceptional interest to the British Trade Union 
 Movement. It traces the growth and develop- 
 ment of the Trade Unions in Russia, and shows the 
 responsibilities which have been thrown upon them 
 as a consequence of the revolution. Their ideas axd 
 policy and their hopes of the future are expressed in 
 their own words. 
 
 The documents are taken exclusively firom first 
 hand Russian sources in the translations issued by 
 the All Russia Council of' Trade. Unions. The 
 collection has been compiled by the Independent 
 Labour Party Information Committee and th« 
 International Section of the Labour Research 
 Department. 
 
 November, 1.920. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Trade Unions in Soviet Russia ; their development 
 
 and present position. By A. Lozovskv (Member 
 
 of Executive of All Russia Central Council of 
 Trade Unions) — 
 
 The Early Period ... ... ... 5 
 
 The Revolution of 1917 ... ... 11 
 
 Trade Unions in the New Social Order ... 19 
 
 Structure and Policy .>. m.. 35 
 
 International Policy ... ... 42 
 
 Third General Congress of Russian Trade Unions, 
 
 March, 1920 ; Summary of Proceedings ... 48 
 
 Lenin's Speech at the Third Congress ..: ... 55 
 
 The AM Russia Metal Workers Union : By A. Ourevitch 
 
 (Secretary of the Central Committee of the Union) 65 
 
 The All Russia Agricultural Workers Union (Issued by 
 
 the Central Committee of the Union) ... ... 78 
 
 The All Russia Trade Union of Civil Servants, Shop 
 Assistants and Clesks (Issued by the Board of the 
 Central Committee of the Union) ... ... 84 
 
 The All Russia Union of Art Workers (Issued by the 
 
 Central Cofnmittee of the Union) ... .. 89 
 
 PROPERTY OF LIBRARY 
 
 NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL 
 INOUSTfJAl AND LABOR RELATIONS 
 
(5) 
 
 Trade Unions in Soviet Russia: 
 
 TKcir development and present position. 
 
 By A. LOZOVSRY 
 
 (Member of the Executive Committee of the 
 All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions). 
 
 I. The Early Period. 
 
 Trade Unions as fighting organs of the working class 
 against the capitalists arose in Russia only after 1905. B'uc 
 the first hints at labour o/rganisation could be traced to 
 periods considerably before the first revolutionary 'mass conflicts 
 between the workers and the autocracy. Among these early 
 forms of working class organisations must be included all 
 kinds of benefit societies, mutual aid societies, burial societies 
 and other organisations aim,ing at elementary mutual aid. 
 These forms of mutual aid societies were particularly wide- 
 spread in Poland and the Baltic Provinces. In 1898 there 
 were in the Baltic Provinces 98 workingmen's benefit societies 
 and 113 burial societies including members of all classes. 
 Several of these societies date back; to the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century (1821). Similar societies also existed in 
 the UxA.1 region. Reference must also be made to the benefit 
 societies among printers, compositors and lithographers founded 
 in 18'38 in Petrograd and to the printers' benefit societies in 
 Moscow. In the eighties and nineties eleven printers' mutual 
 aid societies existed in a number of towns in Russia. 
 
 Side by side with this there arose craftsmen societies 
 and in 1898 there were 15 of these in Russia, besides 54- 
 b^rial societies including all classes. The most widespread 
 organisations previous to the first revolution were shop assis- 
 tants' societies, and very often the employers were honorary 
 members of these. Mutual aid societies among factory workers 
 did not develop before the middle of the nineties. All these 
 organisations were founded for the purpose of granting financial 
 benefits to the sick, supplying medical assistance and funeral 
 benefit, assistance to invalids, to widows and orphans, and loan.s 
 and assistance to the needy. These organisations had no rela- 
 tion whatever to the economic struggle. The tsarist policy 
 jealously took care of that. The ru,les of the factory benefit 
 funds were confirmed by the Minister of Finance, the rules of 
 other mutual aid societies had to be confirmed by the Minister 
 of the Interior and permission for the establishment of such 
 societies in Poland had to be obtained from the Tsar on the 
 representations of the Cabinet of Ministers. 
 
(6) 
 
 All these societies, benefit funds and burial societies could! 
 only serve an insignificant section of the workers and in no case 
 could they satisfy the need ofi the workers in a.fighting organisa- 
 tion. As the whole machinery ofi the State was directed to 
 crush the slightest attempt at organising a union in Russia, 
 illegal trade unions began to arise which were part of illegal 
 social-democratic organisations. 
 
 Illegal Strikes. 
 
 Strikes in Russia were prohibited and were regarded as 
 crimes. As clause 318 of the Criminal Code of 1874 declares: 
 " Persons accused! of belonging to societies having the aim or 
 rousing hostility between employers and workers as well as 
 provoking strikes are liable to imprisonment, for 8 months 
 with deprivation of rights and property and exile to Siberia." 
 This law did not remain a mere dead letter; tsarism 
 undeviatingly put it into force and severely persecuted every 
 organised action of the workers and every attempt at improving 
 their position. But repressions never could abolish the class 
 struggle and since the seventies the strike movement in 
 Russia has developed side by side* with the development of 
 capitalism. The sharp elemental strikes of the seventies com- 
 pelled the government to pass the law of the Ist of June, 1882, 
 prohibiting the employment of children below 12 years of age 
 and limiting the employment of children between 12 and 15 
 to 8 hours a day. In the eighties the central industrial dis- 
 tricts were overwhelmed by a wave of strikes which took a par- 
 ticularly sharp form in Orechov-Zouev due to the , imposition 
 of fines. As a consequence of this a law was passe^d on June 
 3rd, 1886, referring to the hiring of workers in factories and 
 one (in 1885 prohibiting nightwork for .women in 'several 
 industries. 
 
 In spite of imprisonment, exile and savage persecution of 
 strikers the strikes broke out in one, centre after another. In 
 
 1896 a strike of 35 thousand textile workers broke out in 
 Petrograd, which made a tremendous impression not only upon 
 the Government but upon the working classes themselves. The 
 Government, after a series of repressions, issued the law of 
 
 1897 which, for the first time in Russia, limited the working 
 •day for adult factory workers to Hi hours for day work and 
 10 hours for night work. We see therefore that all our factory, 
 legislation is closely connected with the large strikes and that 
 in order to avoid discontent, as Professor Tugan-Baranovsky 
 points out, the Ministry of the Interior and the Police Depart- 
 ment undertook the task of factory legislation. 
 
 Socialists and Trade Unions. 
 
 The economic strikes were so obviously connected with 
 politics that the first illegal socia,list groups that arose in Russia 
 after the defeat of the Narodniki devoted particular attention to 
 the organisation' of the economic struggle. The first strike 
 funds were established as far back as 1888 in Vilna among 
 stocking knitters, tailors and the workers in the paper and boot 
 tj;ades. In 1894 the Jewish workers' federation of Warsaw 
 organised such funds in several trades. In Minsk 4 illegal 
 
trade unions were organised with 220 members. In Vilna 12 
 funds were established. Altogether in Vilna. there were 850 
 organised workers belonging to 27 trades and in Minsk 
 870 workers belonging to 15 trades. These strike' funds 
 played such an important part in the development of the Labour 
 movement that when in 1897 the Jewish Labour League ot 
 Lithuania, Poland and Russia (the Bund) was established, 
 these strike funds were its foundation istone. The part played 
 by these organisations can be seen from the following figures : 
 in 1900 of the total number of local Jewish -workers in 
 Bielostock 20 per cent, were organised in these societies, in 
 Vilna, 24 per cent., in Gomel nearly 40 per cent; and in Minsk 
 35 — 40 per cent. 
 
 In the nineties unions for fighting for the emancipation 
 of the working class arose in Central Russia and illegally, con- 
 ducted strikes and assisted strikers. In several Petrograd 
 factories illegal fighting funds were established of whicli one 
 fourth of the members' contributions were devoted to strikes, a 
 half for mutual aid and the rest for books. Inl 1895' a Labour 
 Union was established in Ivanovo-Voznesensk which established 
 funds and a library. In 1897 a .Central Fund was set up in 
 NLkolaeflf, half of the income of which was devoted for strike 
 purposes. All these strike funds and labour unions were 
 created by the Social-Democrats who, in this manner, stood, 
 so to speak, at the cradle of the trade union movement in 
 Russia. These illegal fighting funds and strike funds 
 undoubtedly were) embryonic forms of trade unions. In 1898 
 all unions for the emancipation of the working class united into 
 a single Social-Democratic Labour Party which in Central 
 Russia relied upon illegal groups and organisations and in 
 Poland and the Western provinces on the illegal purely party 
 trade unions. The Russian trade union movement from the 
 moment of its birth bound itself up with the political labour 
 movement. This particular feature of the Russian labour 
 movement manifests itself up to the present moment. 
 
 Unions Organised by the Police. 
 
 The accentuation of the economic struggle which took the 
 form of political demonstrations against the autocracy suggested 
 the idea in police circles of creating legal labour organisations 
 for the purpose of combatting the harmful influence ot the 
 Social-Democrats. The Chief of the Moscow Police, Trepoff, 
 and the Chief of the Moscow " Okrana " Zubatoff were engaged 
 on this question. Trepoff, in one of his reports, states that 
 " success in the struggle rouses a confidence in their strength, 
 teaches them to adopt practical methods of fighting, trains and 
 brings to the front able leaders, convinces the workers of the 
 possibility and the utility of collective action and develops a 
 consciousness for the necessity of the class struggle " and urges 
 the necessity for creating an antidote to the political influence 
 of the Social-Democrats. In Moscow, in 1902, a mechanic 
 $ociety was organised under the direct leadership and protection 
 of the Okrana. In Minsk the Chief of the Police, Vassilev, and 
 in Odessa, Shaevitch, set up similar well intentioned organisa- 
 tions. All the efforts of the Okrana were directed towards 
 concentrating the attention of the working class upon mutual 
 
(8) 
 
 assistance and diverting them from political questions; but 
 they had quite an' unpleasant experience. As long as these were 
 small closed organisations they were quite harmless but as 
 soon as the broad labour masses began to join, they became 
 centres of the economic struggle. The historian of this police 
 device, Professor Oseroff, declares that as soon as the weavers, 
 for instance, on the initiative of the Okrana, organised a mutual 
 aid society they sent delegates to the factories with a demand 
 for an increase of wages. The union created in Odessa was the 
 initiator of large strikes in which tens of thousands of workers 
 participated. The attempt of the Okrana to protect the 
 economic organisations roused protests on the part of the 
 manufacturers who regarded this as an attempt or the feudal 
 government to save itself by stirring up the workers against 
 the bourgeoisie. Complaints flowed from Moscow to Petrograd, 
 the Minister of Finance took the side of the .employers and 
 Zubatoflf was transferred to Vologda. 
 
 But as the labour movement was growing unrestrainedly 
 a fresh attempt was made by the Police in 1904 to create 
 support among the workers. A meeting of the Russian factory 
 workers under the protection of the Minister of the Interior, 
 Plehve, and the Metropolitan Antonius, formed a society for 
 the purpose, as the rules state, of "arousing and strengthening 
 national consciousness of the workers." AX the head of this 
 society stood Father Gapon who organised 11 branches. These 
 branches in spite of their police origin became the centre of the 
 labour movement in Petrograd. A series of strikes and demon- 
 strations took place which ended in the bloody shambles 'of 
 the 9th January (old style) . This tampering of the police with 
 the workers resulted in the defeat of the autocracy. 
 
 The Revolution of 1905. 
 
 Bloody Sunday served as a starting point for a trerhendous 
 revolutionary impetus.' In the course of several months more 
 than 500,000 workers struck. Strikes broke out one after 
 another. Economic strikes took the shape of political strikes. 
 The pressure was so great that tsarism had to look through its 
 fingers at the " illegal " activity of the workers. Simultaneously 
 with the bloody January days and the strike wave roused by 
 these events the work of organising the trade unions was 
 proceeding. The first union to be formed was that of the 
 printers. Immediately after a union of clerks and book-keepers 
 was formed. At the same time a semi-legal union of shop 
 assistahts and a union of druggist assistants began to organise. 
 At a secret meeting' held in May, 1905, unions of watch makers, 
 tailors, tanners and boot and shoe makers were formed. 
 
 A number of unions were formed in Moscow in the spring 
 of 1905. The illegal printers' union which existed in Moscow 
 since 1903 for improving the conditions of labour and which 
 accepted the programme of the Social-Democratic Party,, 
 carried on since 1905 an economic struggle. But in September, 
 1905, a printers' strike broke out in Moscow and advantage 
 was taken of the occasion to create a council of printers" 
 delegates for Moscow which, in fact, became a trade union. In 
 the spring, of 1905 the Bolsheviks organised a party union of 
 bakers, the founders of which practically became the leaders of 
 
(9) 
 
 "the then trade union movement. Similar attempts at forming 
 "unions in this improvised' manner were made all over Russia ^nd 
 became more frequent as the end of 1905 drew near. In 
 September a new strike wave broke out over the whole ot 
 Russia which led to the great strike and famous demonstration 
 of October, 1905.' The labour movement in Russia broke 
 through the barriers erected by the autocracy. 
 
 First Trade Union Conference, 1905. 
 
 The sporadic and spontaneous manner in which the trade 
 unions developed resulted in their composition and organisa- 
 tion being very diverse, but the demand for a common centre 
 "was S9 great that as far back as 1905 at a meeting of repre- 
 sentatives of local trade union organisations in Kharkoff, it was 
 decided to call a national conference. On September 24th and 
 October 1st, 6th and 7th was held the first conference of trade 
 xmion representatives. At this conference 26 Moscow unions 
 and labour groups, and ten unions from other towns were repre- 
 sented, and the fundamental question which concerned the con- 
 ference was the organisation of preparatory work in connection 
 "with the convening of a national conference. The question arose 
 -as to who could participate in the conference in ,yiew of the 
 ■fact that there were no definitely formed unions. The 
 •conference decidedi that " the right to participate in the con- 
 ference belongs to such mutual aid societies and trade unions 
 -as are composed of wage workers oi all trades of a pro- 
 letarian character, and are directly or indirectly aiming 
 -at fighting capital." With regard to mixed societies it was 
 decided that only the proletarian section of such organisations 
 could have the right of representation. No access to the con- 
 ference was to be given to the Zubatov organisations. Thus, 
 from the very birth of the unions just emerging .from the 
 mutual aid society stage, the struggle assumed a purely class 
 character. In undertaking the struggle against > capitalism 
 these unions immediately reached a higher level than many 
 western European and American unions, who, ,even to-day 
 still regard as their only function the improvement of the 
 conditions of labour. The October days in 1905 gave a 
 tremendous impetus to the trade union movement. At the end 
 -of that year there was not a single large towni in Russia where 
 a trade union had not been formed. The October political 
 strike gave rise to a number of economic conflicts which, in 
 "their turn again, were converted into political conflicts. 
 -Everywhere, initiative groups, commissions, strike committees, 
 ■trade iinions, workers' delegate councils were formed and all 
 "these organisations,! taking advantage of the period of libertyl, 
 ■extended their influence over ever newer sections of the workers. 
 In spite of the series of defeats suffered by the workers in 
 November and December, 1905, the trade unioiLS continued 
 to grow and increase in numbers and when, at the end of 
 -February, 1906, the second conference of trade unions was 
 ■convened, Russia could count 200,000 organised workers. 
 
 Second Trade Union Conference, 1906. 
 
 The second conference decided in favour of the sporadic 
 formation of trade unions independently of the permission of 
 
(10); ^ 
 
 the authorities. The conference carried a number of resolutions 
 in connection with the pressing questions of that day and again 
 decided that the practical task of the moment was a iconvocation 
 of a national conference of trade unions. It worked out the 
 standing orders, of such a conference, the agenda, and elected 
 an organisation committee for convening a national con- 
 ference. The organisation bureau was elected to serve as a. 
 national centre until the meeting of the conference and it was, 
 the function of this bureau not only to maintain connectioa 
 with trade unions in Russia, but also to establish connection 
 with the European trade unions. In defining the character ot 
 organisations which would be eligible for representation at the 
 national donference, the conference declared that only those 
 societies would be permitted which stood on the tactics of the 
 " modern labour movement." One can hardly regard this 
 formula as sufficiently clear, nor yet the statement of the 
 conference that the "trade unions are the most perfect form 
 of organisation for conducting the' struggle of the wage workers, 
 organised by trades against the capitalists for the _ improve- 
 ment of the conditions of labour," as complete. This caution, 
 and vagueness in the formulae are the consequence, on the one 
 hand, of the police conditions and the impossibility of speaking 
 out, and, on the other hand, the undoubtedly great influence 
 of the moderate wing of the Russian social democracy, aa 
 influence which was inversely proportional to the progress ot 
 the revolution. 
 
 The Period of Repression. 
 
 From the defeat of the first revolution to the revolution 
 of 1917 the trade union movement, as a mass labour movement,^ 
 did not exist in Russia. The tsarist government conducted 
 a policy of ruthless extermination of the trade unions. The- 
 unions were prohibited from assisting strikers ; they were closei 
 down for attempting to intervene in the great strike movement,, 
 members of the executives were arrested and exiled to Siberia,^ 
 funds were confiscated and books taken to the police stations ; 
 police were present at all meetings which were closed. down on. 
 the slightest pretext, and, very often, without any reason at all.. 
 The trade unions were considered dangerous enough for the- 
 department of police to issue special circulars and instructions, 
 on the way to fight sedition. The iron fist of the victorious, 
 reaction ruthlessly crushed the labour organisations at their 
 birth. 
 
 According to the statistics of the Police Department, 
 104 trade unions were closed down in 1907. The reasons lor 
 closing down these unions, as formulated by the Police Depart- 
 ment, were: violation of rules, participation of non-members, 
 of the union in the management of the union, participation in 
 strikes, attacking employers in the press for dismissing a union 
 member, a boycott by a union branch against a firm and an, 
 employee taken on by that firm to replace a dismissed member 
 of the union, a boycott by means of the press: against a shop- 
 keeper who refused to employ union men, threatening to boycott 
 an employer and his non-union employees, advocating strikes, 
 activity likely to becorae a public danger, political unreliability 
 of certain members of the society, participation of members of" 
 
(11) 
 
 the executive in political propaganda, organisation of strikes 
 •and distribution of revolutionary manifestoes, carrying 
 resolutions criticising the law of Novendber 15th, 1906, on 
 trade unions, making anti- government speeches ^t meetings, 
 discovery in dining-room of society of socialist manifestoes, 
 telegram to the second Duma promising to rise in its defence, 
 agitation for the purpose of securing .the election of a certain 
 •candidate to the State Duma, socialist propaganda, discovery 
 of bombs on the premises of the society, opening of libraries 
 without previously obtaining permission, relations with strike 
 ■committees led by the Bund, relations with the social-democratic 
 organisations, passing; resolutions for celebrating the 1st of 
 May, greeting the social-democratic fraction in the State Duma, 
 -convening general meetings without previously obtaining per- 
 mission, political unreliability of members of the trade union, 
 -collecting money by sale of tickets without previous notification, 
 for unknown reasons, etc. 
 
 In spite of the police persecution .and repression, the 
 reaction could not destroy the trade unions; the dispersed unions 
 would again re-form, maintain connection illegally, and the 
 workers would take advantage of every opportunity to emerge 
 irom underground life and conduct their work openly. The 
 iirst few years after the suppression of the 1905 revolution the 
 trade unionsi were crushed to such an extent that they almost 
 ceased to show signs of life.' But, in 1912 and 1913 there was 
 a boom in the labour movement, the trade unions again revived 
 and the work once again went on feverishly until the beginning 
 of the war. The war for " liberty " began in Russia'^ with the 
 annihilation of the still weak trade unions. Russia entered her 
 -second revolution without any trade union organisations. 
 
 II. The Revolution of 1917. 
 
 The overthrow of tsarism by the workers in revolt was the 
 beginning of the feverish development and growth of the trade 
 "unions. While the armed struggle was proceeding in the streets 
 of the capitals and the provincial towns, while the workers were 
 -organising their councils of workers' and soldiers' deputies, as 
 pillars of support in their struggle, trade unions were being 
 organised at the same time. On March 15th, 1917, twenty- 
 two trade union boards me^t in Moscow and created their 
 Council of Trade Unions. At the same time a , Council of 
 Trade Unions arose in Petrograd. Simultaneously with the 
 organisations of trade unions according to trade and industry, 
 inter-union organisations were being established which, in the 
 first period of the Russian revolutic^n, bore the name of 
 " Central Bureaux." 
 
 The Councils of Workers' Delegates. 
 
 The need among the masses for organs to guide them in 
 the economic struggle was so great and the unions were as yet 
 so young and unorganised that the Councils of Workers' 
 Delegates acted side by side with* the unions, and often in sub- 
 stitution of them. The overthrow of the autocracy served also 
 as the starting point of a grand economic offensive against' the 
 
(12) 
 
 pmployers. There was not a single industry, not a single 
 factory or large works where the workers from the first days 
 of the revolution did not put forward a number of economic 
 demands such as : increase of wa^es, reduction of the working 
 day, payment for period of strike, etc. The Councils oi 
 [Workers' Delegates organised Conciliation Boards, Dispute 
 Committees, .Labour Exchanges, established an 8-hour d^v and 
 adopted repressive measures against employers. In a word, 
 they played a very energetic part in the economic struggle or 
 the working class. 
 
 The Councils pf Workers' Delegates, while often taking; 
 the initiative in the settlement of economic conflicts, also took 
 the initiative in convening a national conference for the purpose 
 of establishing an All-Russian" centre. The first conference of 
 82 Councils of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates, which was held 
 at the beginning of April in 1917, in Petrograd, .passed a 
 number of resolutions on the question of economic policy. The- 
 Conference carried resolutions on general labour policy, an. 
 8-hour day, a minimum wage, freedom of organisation, con- 
 ciliation boards, labour exchanges, factory inspection, control 
 and organisation of industry, compulsory military service,, 
 importation of labour, social insurance and unemployment. All 
 these resolutions bore the imprint of the moderate socialists, 
 who at that time had the overwhelming majority in the Soviets. 
 As the resolution on general labour policy says — " the struggle- 
 between labour and capital must conform with the conditions, 
 of an as yet incornplete revolution and th.e menace of war 
 from without which must define its form." The Conference- 
 advocated labour exchanges with equal representation of" 
 capital and labour, and declared for government pressure on 
 the employers, thus striving, as far as possible, to smooth' over- 
 the class antagonism of the first period of the Russian Revolu- 
 tion. In connection with .industrial organisation the Conference- 
 accepted a resolution in which it called upon the workers, 
 energetically to build trade unions, recommended the organisa- 
 tion of local, regional and national organisations and considered, 
 it the immediate duty of the trade union movement to convene- 
 a national conference of trade unions. The Conferences 
 instructed the Department of Labour of the Petrograd Council 
 of Workers' Delegates, together with the central bureaux of 
 Petrograd and Moscow, to convene a national congress of trade 
 unions. On April 17th an organising commission was set up- 
 which sent out representatives to the largest centres of Russia, 
 and, on June 20th, towards the end of the fourth month of 
 the Russian Revolution, the third national trade union conference 
 met in Petrograd and laid the foundations for the AU-Russian 
 Trade Union movement. 
 
 Third Trade Union Conference, 1917. 
 
 The Third Trade Union Conference, for the first time jn- 
 the history of Russia, drew together representatives from' various 
 parts of this enormous country. At this Conference there were- 
 present 220 delegates with povver to vote and 27 in a con- 
 sultative capacity; these represented 967 unions and 51 central 
 bureaux with' a total membership of 1,475,249. The business 
 of the Conference was to lay( the foundation of an All-Russian. 
 
(13) 
 
 ^^ntre, to work out a uniform type of organisation, to indicate 
 the general plan of work and to determine a uniform' economic 
 policYi ..The Conference only partly carried, out its task, not 
 ■drily because! the Russian trade union movement was still too 
 young, but thiefly because the right wing of the socialist parties 
 had the preponderance at the conference. This section led the 
 Trade union movement along the same path into which they were 
 directing the general policy of the Russ-ian Republic. ,Two 
 blocks were competing at the Conference, the left— (the 
 Bolsheviks and Internationalists), and the right— the Men- 
 sheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bund. The right block 
 had 15 to 20 more votes than the left. Three questions par- 
 ticularly agitated'' the working class of Russia — the war, coalition 
 "with the bourgeoisie and the control of industry. None of these 
 radical questions of the Russian Revolutign Were decided at 
 this Conference and in so far as it gave any reply vat all to 
 them, that reply was anti-revolutionary. The left block pro- 
 posed " to condemn every attempt to narrow down and subject 
 the trade union movement to the interest of the ruling classes," 
 to proclairn that the unions " remain foreign to every idea of 
 ■class conciliation, of any possibility of co-operation with the 
 bourgeoisie of its country," and to declare, in the name of 
 the Conference, that the trade unions will only support that 
 socialist party which 'will take action for the speediest liquidation 
 of the war by means of a mass revolutionary struggle against 
 the ruling' class of its country. All these resolutions of the 
 left block were rejected by the Conference as well as a resolution 
 proposing to commence an energetic campaign for workers' 
 control. Workers' control was understood as a strict 
 subordination of the employers to organs of state regulation in 
 which the majority is guaranteed to the labour organisations, 
 and the granting to the factory committees the right of 
 appointing controlling commissions to check and stop decisions 
 and measures of the factory administration. Why did the 
 Conference reject the proposals of the left block? Because 
 the majority of the Conference held the view that it was the 
 duty of the working class to seek agreement with the advanced 
 sections of the bourgeoisie and, in order to secure this agree- 
 ment, the greatest caution was necessary in handling questions 
 affecting fundamental capitalist relations. The Conference 
 ■declared for increased taxation of the profit-making class, for 
 the standardisation of prices of important articles, for control 
 of industry, for direct State control in the most important 
 branches of industry, for the strict control of banks, for com- 
 pulsory State centralisation of industry, for the reorganisation of 
 government regulating bodies and for securing in these a 
 predominance of representatives of revolutionary democracy. 
 But the Conference found it necessary to emphasise the tact 
 that " the process of this control is too difficult and complicated 
 for the proletariat to undertake the .entire or even the greater 
 part of this control." From this it follows that " the proletariat 
 must not take upon itself alone the responsibility for the progres? 
 and outcome of the struggle with the economic disorganisation 
 of the country, and that it is necessary to do everything possible 
 to attract all the productive classes of the population to the 
 solution of the economic problems confronting the country." 
 These vague formulas sufficiently show the desire of the majority 
 
(14) 
 
 of the Conference to continue the coalition with the bourgeoisie- 
 so " happily " commenced from the first days of the February 
 revolution. 
 
 In spite of the theoretically incorrect light throvm by the- 
 third Conference on these questions and the bias towards 
 coalition, this Conference /played an important role m the 
 unification of the trade unions of the whole of Russia. Itie 
 Conference advocated; the industrial principle of organisation, 
 decided on the subordination of the factory committees to- 
 the union, passed a number of resolutions on female labour, 
 unemployment, conciliation boards, industrial courts, labour 
 secretariats, factory inspection, municipal policy ot the trade 
 unions, national sections, educational activity, proletarian co- 
 operative societies, trade uriion press, 8-hour day, and, hnally^ 
 established an AU-Russian centre of the Trade Union movement : 
 the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions. Much in 
 these resolutions is incorrect; as, for instance, .when the Con- 
 ference advocated joint labour exchanges, participation of the- 
 unions in the establishment .of an unemployment fund instead 
 of State insurance against unemployment; but, nevertheless,, 
 these resolutions were of tremendous importance for the Russian. 
 Trade Union movement, because whether good or bad, they gave 
 a certain summing up of the economic struggle and because 
 they were the first resolutions of a real AU-Russian Conference. 
 
 The Economic Struggle Reopens. 
 
 The Third Conference, while stating a number of economic 
 problems, failed to indicate a mosti vital thing, viz., how to put 
 these resolutions into practice and, at the same time, maintain 
 a cautious attitude towards the other " productive classes " of 
 Russia. In the meantime the Russian bourgeoisie, thrown into 
 confusion in the first weeks of the February revolution, 'and 
 retreating before! the sudden pressure of the working masses^ 
 rapidly began to organise and seized the most important 
 strategic points in the class struggle — the government institu- 
 tions and the State machinery. Before the Revolution the- 
 Russian bourgeoisie was excellently organised, the manufac- 
 turers' Societies, the Chambers of Commerce, Manufacturers' 
 Councils, Bankers*' Councils, Syndicates, trusts, etc., alk these 
 were created long before the Revolution and all these were put 
 into use against the workers from' the very first days of the 
 February Revolution. The economic battle surged round ques- 
 tions like those of taking on and dismissal of workers, 8-hoiyr 
 day, sickness insurance funds, increase in 'wages, rights of the 
 factory committees, and their control over factory administra- 
 tions. Making concessions in politics, agreeing to the most 
 democratic electoral rights and the proclamation of all liberties, 
 the bourgeoisie, with all the greater energy, fought every inch, 
 of the ground for their economic rights and privileges. N,ot 
 being able to defeat the proletariat in open battle, the 
 bourgeoisie commenced a policy which, in Russia, accquired the 
 name of sabotage, the essence of which consisted in ddiberately 
 disorganising factories^ and other undertakings for the purpose 
 of driving the workers to starvation. The revolutionary intro- 
 duction of an 8-hour day roused the mad hatred of the 
 employers, but, nevertheless, they were compelled to reconcile 
 
(15) 
 
 themselves to this. But under no circumstances could they 
 reconcile themselves to the appointment and dismissal of workers 
 by the factory committees and the control of factories. On the 
 outcome of the struggle they staked their all. This was a 
 violation of the most fundamental right of the employers and 
 the sharpest conflicts during the course of the first period ot 
 the Russian Revolution revolved round the question as io who 
 was the master of the factory. .The employers were led by the 
 metal works owners. In vain did the Provisional Government, 
 in the sharpest period of the social conflict, attempt to reconcile 
 the hostile sides. When the Minister for Trade and Industry 
 asked the representatives of the management of the Bogolovsky 
 Mining region (Ural) where a confliict was proceeding between 
 the workers and the administration, whether the management 
 ■were willing to dismiss employees and workers through the 
 ■conciliation boards, the representative of the employers, Zeidler, 
 •declared that " the management does not and will not recognise 
 any committee or board; it is the master of the works and 
 therefore will do as it desires. As to the State Public Control 
 the industrialists do not and will not recognise any such thing." 
 The metal works owners were not alone in this aggressive 
 attitude towards the workers. The union of Baku petroleum 
 ■owners declared that the masters would never agree to the 
 hiring and dismissing of workers through the factory com» 
 ■mittees. The same declaration was made by the union of the 
 united industries of the central industrial regions, who would 
 not even permit the thought that the textile workers could 
 control the uncrowned cloth \ings. The attitude of the mine 
 owners' union of the South of Riissia and other employers' 
 organisation was no less stern against the " crimi^ial claims " 
 of the workers. 
 
 The Employers take the Offensive. 
 
 In August, 1917, an All-Russia conference of employers' 
 organisations took place in Petrograd on the initiative of the 
 Petrograd manufacturers' association, at which the largest 
 employers' associations representing 2,000 businesses and 
 1,500,000 employees were represented. At this conference an 
 All Russia League of Manufacturers' Associations was formed. 
 The object of this new League, as Mikhin, the chairman of 
 the council of the metal industry conference, explained, was to 
 " unite the employers in defence of their interests," and to 
 establish " guarantees for the execution of the orders of the 
 League by its branches." Bimanoff, the chairman of the con- 
 ferenqe, declared that the league will work out " guiding rules 
 for the abolition of interference of the factory comimittees in' 
 factory management." 
 
 The employers and their Organisations raised their head? 
 particularly high after the defeat of the Petrograd workers ih. 
 July, 1917. This defeat gave birth to th^ conviction in the 
 employers' circles that the most dangerous period of the 
 Russian Revolution was over and that it was possible to pass 
 from the defensive to the offensive. July, August, September 
 and October were months of colossal economic conflicts, when 
 hundreds of thousands of workers (the leather workers of the 
 Moscow Government, the miners of the Don Basin, the textile 
 
(16) 
 
 Workers of IvanovQ-Vosnessensk, etc.) put forward their social 
 demands. The attemp,ts of the Provisional Coalition Govern- 
 ment to find some middle course of conciliation only .served ta 
 rouse greater feeling on both sides. 
 
 Disillusionment with Coalition Government. 
 
 The sharpening of the economic conflict long before the 
 October revolution confronted the trade unions with the 
 necessity for a violent overthrow of the Coalition Government. 
 The largest unions— the metal workers, textile workers — the 
 chief centres of the labdur movement — Petrograd, Moscow, and 
 Ivanovo-Vosnessensk— had already at the third conference 
 spoken out for. a determined revolutionary struggle against the 
 coalition. When in August, 1917, the Kerensky Government 
 called the State Convention where an attempt was made at 
 fraternisation between the Social Democrats, Mensheviks and 
 Socialist Revolutionaries on one side and the Liberals on the 
 other, the Moscow Trade Union Council was the initiator of 
 the strike of protest against the continuation of the comedy. 
 .500,000 Moscow workers struck and hurled their battle-cry at 
 the Provisional Government " All power to the Soviets."' 
 The Ural conference of Trade Unions, embracing 145,000 
 workers, passed a strong resolution of protest against " the 
 displacement of the Revolutionary Government of Russia by 
 the Moscow convention of the counter-revolutionary forces of 
 the country." In connection with the Korniloff revolt, a series 
 of demonstrations of the largest trade unions took place 
 demanding the immediate break-up of the coalition, workers' 
 control and all power to the Soviets. The Petrograd Council 
 of trade unions asserting that the provisional government " are. 
 sacrificing the interests of peace and of the masses to the^ 
 Allied and Russian imperialists " demanded at the end of 
 August the establishment of a special committee for the defence- 
 of Petrograd against counter revolution. The Moscow metal 
 workers declared that " there are no separate conflicts of 
 metal workers, textile workers .and leather workers, there is 
 only one great national conflict between labour and capital," and 
 the All-Russfa conference of textile workers which took place in 
 September promised " the fullest support to the Soviets in their 
 struggle for power, for only such power can sa^ve the country 
 ' from economic and political ruin and "improve the position of 
 the' working class." ' 
 
 Trade Unions Moving Left. 
 
 The extent to which the accentuation of the economic 
 struggle forced' the trade unions to the left, is seen from the- 
 fact that at the Democratic Convention which took place in 
 Petrograd in September nine-tenths of the trade union delegates. 
 representing 1,893,100 workers, were against the coalition and 
 that 70 of the 117 delegates/ .belonged to the Bolshevist party. 
 The trade unions, their local organs, the factory icommittees, 
 played an important part in the sharpening of the class struggle. 
 The whole of September >and October, 1917, passed amidst 
 sharp conflicts between the unions and the employers during 
 which the workers put their resolution into force by means of 
 
(17) 
 
 their own red guards. Thus when the .conflict ^ between th^ 
 Leather Workers' Union and the Leather Manufacturers' Asso- 
 ciation dragged on in many factories, !the employers were driven 
 away and the factories seized by the factory committees. On the 
 5th of October, 1917, the Moscow Regional Metal Workers' Con- 
 ference, at which 138,000 workers were represented demanded 
 ■■ an energetic campaign for a radical change in the basis of 
 economic policy, the nationalisation of the larger syndicated 
 petroleum, coal, sugar and metal industries, also of the Banks 
 and of the means of transport." 'The Conference further 
 recommended to carry out and to " encourage the initiative in 
 the localities for the speediest realisation! of workers' control oP 
 industry." Everyone can understand what to " encourage 
 initiative for workers' control" meapt in this sharp class struggle. 
 Affairs reached the stage of violent and immediate introductiorf 
 of workers' control. On the 9tb lof October 1,000 delegates, 
 representing 200,000 textile iworkers in the Moscow region, 
 promised support to the Soviets and called them to determined 
 action in fighting against the sabotage of the employers and 
 the treacherous conduct of the provisional government. The 
 situation became more complicated. Here and there local 
 strikes broke out which led to nothing. The excellently 
 organised employers deliberately provoked the workers to local 
 strikes in order to defeat them separately. 
 
 In the factories a fight was proceeding for the right to 
 control the economic resources of the country. The working 
 class of Russia, by the logic of the class struggle, had come 
 right up to the conquest of government power. The social 
 tangle could not be unravelled, it could only be cut, and this 
 was done by the October revolution. 
 
 The October Revolution. 
 
 The furious contest between the trade unions and the 
 employers, as we saw, proceeded in every factory and works 
 long before the October revolution. The trade unions and 
 their organs, the factory committees, convinced themselves 
 by practice and experience of the necessity of a violent over- 
 throw bf the bourgeoisie. It was for that reason that they were 
 in the front ranks of the battle in the October revolution against 
 the provisional government and the coalition. 
 
 The unions and the factory committees formed a red guard. 
 They posted armed detachments for fighting against the, govern- 
 ment as well as for the protection of the factories. The unions 
 and the Councils of Trade Unions had their representatives in 
 .the military revolutionary committees, their premises were used 
 'by the staffs of revolutionary troops, (the staff of the Moscow 
 revolutionary troops were for some time situated on the premises' 
 of the Moscow Metal Workers' Union) ; they formed red cross 
 detachments and were the first to place their technical staff and 
 machinery at the disposal of the new Soviet government for the 
 management of the State. 
 
 In those great days of severe and sharp fighting the trade 
 unions had to fight not only against cossacks, junkers and the 
 bourgeoisie, but even against several trade unions which at that 
 decisive moment stood on the side of the Provisional Govern- 
 
Vl8) 
 
 ment. The overwhelming majority of the trade unions were for 
 the October revolution, only an insignificant section being 
 against it. All the unions uniting factory workers like the 
 metal workers, textile workers and leather workers were for the 
 October revolution, while the commercial and bank eniiployees- 
 unions were against it. In those unions which united higher 
 and lower employees like railwaymen and post and telegraph 
 workers, the lower grade employees were for the October revolu- 
 tion, while the office staff and the higher officials were against 
 it. The only exception of a purely proletarian union being 
 against the October revolution were the printers, who canae out 
 actively in defence of the Provisional Government and the 
 " freedom lof the Press," understanding by, that the freedom of 
 the bourgeoisie and government press to continue at the most 
 acute moment of armed conflict to pervert the consciousness of 
 the masses. 
 
 The Fight Against Sabotage. 
 
 The struggle between the workers and the employees 
 assumed an extremely sharp form particularly when the notorious 
 sabotajge of the officials began which expressed itself in stopping 
 work in all government institutions and the deliberate dis- 
 organisition of the State and administrative technical machinery- 
 Here the struggle went on not ' merely between unions, but 
 "within the government and commercial employees' unions, 
 where the workers and the lower staff concentrated all their 
 efforts to restart work in the departments., The word sabotage 
 became the most shameful word among the Russian proletariat, 
 because the strike of the officials 'was practically directed against 
 the working class and- its frantic efforts to extricate itself 
 from the political and economic cul-de-sac. The unions were 
 confronted with the question whether strikes were permissible in 
 a period when power was passing into the hands of the working 
 class, and the unions through their largest organifations answered 
 — no. The Moscow Council of Trade Onions at the beginning of 
 November, 1917, carried a resolution which says " the unions 
 consider that while a proletarian government is in power a 
 political strike is to be considered as sabotage against which 
 the most determined measures must be taken. To take the plac^ 
 of workers refusing to work, for that reason is not blacklegging, 
 but a means of fighting sabotage and counter revolution.'.' The 
 trade 'union movement as a whole adopted the same point oi 
 view that no strike directed against the socialist revolution and 
 its upholders, the working class, could be permitted. A strike 
 of employees and officials usually began when a commissary pf 
 the new Soviet government appeared. The strikes, morally and 
 materially supported by the partisans of the overthrown 
 Kerensky government, rendered the relations between the 
 technical intellectuals or employees and , the worker^ $o. 
 strained that even at the present moment there are traces 
 of 'estrangement between the workers and the employees, the 
 latter being distrusted. Thus, from the first days of the October 
 revolution, the trade unions had to submit the question of the 
 right to strike for reconsideration. The experience ot the 
 struggle led the Russian trade unions, to the following practical 
 conclusion: — to strike against the bourgeoisie is the sacred 
 
(19) 
 
 right .of the proletariat in its fight against the exploiters. Jo 
 strike against the workiers' revolution is an act «of hostility, 
 against the working class and is therefore a crime against 
 Russian and international sodialism. The strikes of the 
 bourgeoisie and the backward sections of the workers against 
 the proletariat and its authority will never be permitted by the 
 trade unions. This was the first lesson of the October 
 revolution. 
 
 Back to Work. 
 
 As for the strike wave roused by the October revolution 
 itself and directed against the 'bourgeoisie as a means of 
 destroying the bourgeois apparatus, immediately the victory of 
 the workers became apparent the leading organs of the trade 
 unions called upon the workers to set the factories and works 
 going immediately. In its manifesto ot the 28th October, the 
 Petrograd Council of Trade Unions declared that " strikes and 
 demonstrations of workers in Petrograd only do harm to the 
 working class," and proposed " that all economic and political 
 strikes immediately cease and that everybody commence work 
 and carry it on in complete order." The same happened in 
 other towns and particularly in Moscow, where the Council of 
 Trade Unions on October 28th called upon the workers to strike 
 and to armed battle; but on .November 4th, as soon as the 
 struggle ended, it proposed to the workers immediately to 
 end the strike called out by the active participation of the 
 workers in the armed conflict, and to return to the factories and 
 commence work. 
 
 181. Trade Unions in the New Social Order. 
 
 The October revolution was victorious under the battle- 
 cries of " peace," " land " and " workers' control.' The demand 
 lor peace and land' we can understand, but what is this "workers' 
 control," which was one of the most popular demands on the 
 eve of the October revolution? The idea of workers' control arose 
 in the first days of the February revolution. It aimed at sub- 
 jecting the whole private, commercial, industrial and financial 
 apparatus to the control and influence of the labour organisa- 
 tions. It meant that the factory committees and the responsible 
 -Union would keep under observation the state of the factories, 
 the supply of raw material and the financial side ot the 
 businesses, and would control the quantity of materials that 
 came in and went out of the factories. This i\yas the first 
 attempt in history to dimit the independent authority of the 
 employer in his undertaking. 
 
 The Demand for Control. 
 
 The idea of workers' control arose directly out of the struggle 
 of the workers with the bourgeoisie as a weapon against flie 
 deliberate attempts to bring the factories to a standstill and 
 disorganise production for the .purpose of defeating the pro- 
 letariat by starvation, and thus retard the revolution. In 
 practice, workers' control meant that the factory committee jn 
 
(20) 
 
 ■every factory elected a special control corrimission! which would 
 vigilantly watch the management of the employers, and, m the 
 ^vent of the employers declaring that there was no raw material, 
 no money, etc., the workers would check, the correctness or the 
 statement by the books and by reference to the bankmg 
 accounts. The workers would veto any suspicious' operation, and 
 if the employers continued their scheming the workers would 
 compel them to submit to their will by force of arms. In many 
 places the employers fled from their factories and deliberately 
 concealed themselves, hoping by this means to bring industryto 
 a standstill, but, in such cases, the workers took the factories 
 into their own hands and continued working. 
 
 This form of attack on capital acquired the definition of 
 " workers' control." On the eve of the revolution the introduc- 
 tion of control was carried out, .without any plan and was quite 
 spontaneous. For that reason on the morrow after the October 
 revolution the Trade Unions were confronted with the difficult 
 task of introducing a uniform system of labour control and ot 
 working out a practical programme of action. 
 
 The question was complicated by the severity of the 
 struggle in the factories, and, in several places the tendency 
 was observed for the workers to drive the owners from the 
 factories and take the latter in their own hands. In place of a 
 single owner there was a collective ownership represented by 
 the workers employed in that factory. From the first days of 
 the revolution the trade unions put up a determined resistance 
 against this disintegration of the national industries. " The 
 factories and works," we said, " are the property of the working 
 class as a whole and not the property of the workers of a given 
 factory, ,and for that reason workers should under no circum- 
 stances assume ownership of any factory." Labour control is 
 only a part of State regulation of industry and therefore all 
 local control committees must become the agents for carrying 
 out the general economic plan and uniform economic policy. 
 
 The Decree of Workers' Control. 
 
 Workers' control in the form that it developed directly, 
 after the October revolution was not yet the abolition of private 
 ownership of the means of production, but merely a consider- 
 able limitation of the rights of the owners over the means of 
 production and exchange. This is evident from the following 
 paragrapns of the decree on workers" control w.iich was drawn 
 up in conjunction with the trade unions and issued on November 
 27th, 1917. 
 
 The Workers' Control organs have the right to supervise production, establish 
 the minimum output of the undertaking and take measures to ascertain 
 the cost of production of articles. 
 The porkers' Control organs have the right to control all the business corres- 
 pondence of the undertaking ; owners of undertakings concealing 
 correspondence are liable to prosecution. Commercial secrets are 
 abolished. Owners are obliged to submit their books and accounts for the 
 current year as well as for previous years to the control committees. The 
 decisions of the Workers' Control organs are binding upon the owners and 
 can only be altered by an order of the higher Workers' Control organs. 
 
 From this decree, issued directly after the October Revolu- 
 tion, it is evident that the task of control, as it was formu- 
 
(21) 
 
 lated in the resolution on " Workers' .Control " .at the fir$t 
 Trade Union Congress, was to " put an end to autocracy in the/ 
 :sphere of economics in the same way as it had beem abolished 
 in politics," from which it follows that " Workers' control is 
 not tantamount to the socialisation of the means of production 
 and exchange but a preliminary step towards it." 
 
 This cautious apprpach and estimation of workers'' control, 
 the greatest act in the history of the world, arises from the 
 practical estimation of economic possibilities by the trade unions, 
 ■and the consciousness that socialism cannot be constructed in 
 a week or a month, but is the work of long" years and decades. 
 A wedge had been driven into th_e capitalist system of produc- 
 tion : the working class had approached right up to production 
 and its secrets and it wks proved that "constitutional 
 monarchy " was impossible and that however complicated a 
 modern factory naay be the owner is a useless cog in the 
 mechanism. This is the second logical conclusion which 
 arises from the October Revolution. 
 
 New Problems of the Trade Unions. 
 
 The October Revolution converted the working class into 
 the dominant class and the bourgeoisie into the subject class — 
 this completely overturned the former relations between the 
 workers and the employers and confronted the trade unions with 
 new problems. Directly after the October Revolution the 
 economic strikes came to an end. The workers formulated their 
 demands and submitted them to the trade unions and, upon the 
 trade unions sanctioning them, these were put into force 
 by the State. If the employer refussd to submit, then prisons 
 and other means of compulsion, prepared by the bourgeoisie 
 itself J were brought into use. For the first time in the' history 
 •of humanity a government intervened in strikes in favour of the 
 workers, imprisoned employers for failing to satisfy the demands 
 •of the trade unions and by means of decrees introduced wage 
 rates worked out by the trade unions, and confiscated businesses 
 ■of obstinate factory owners. The October Revolution did not 
 merely imply a transfer of political power to the proletariat 
 but also the transfer of economic power into the hands of the 
 'working class. All former relations were destroyed. The trade 
 unions developing on the basis of capitalist relations and as 
 fighting organs were converted into part of the machinery of 
 the labour government (resolutions of the 9th Congress of the 
 Russian Communist Party), and this compelled the trade unions 
 to reorganise their ranks, to change their tactics and to put 
 torward questions which have never before confronted trade 
 unions of other countries. 
 
 First All Russia Trade Union Congress. 
 
 These new problems, arising out of the commencing social 
 revolution were formulated by the first All Russia Trade Union 
 Congress which met in the beginning of January, 1918, in 
 Petrograd. In the first place the trade unions had to define : 
 (1) their attitude towards the October revolution, (2) whether 
 ■the organised proletariat could preserve neutrality in the acute 
 
(22) 
 
 class war, (3) what should the workers support — bourgeois 
 democracy or labour democracy, i.e., the Constituent Assembly 
 or the Soviets and, finally, what were the practical problema 
 confronting the labour unions in the period of proletarian 
 dictatorship. 
 
 The First Trade Union Congress held the view that th& 
 victory of the workers and the poorest peasants in October 
 " leads us simultaneously towards the beginning of international, 
 socialist revolution and to the victory over the capitalist system 
 of production." Everything else follows from this fundamental 
 view of the character of the October Revolution. 
 
 Resolution Supporting Soviet Government. 
 
 "The idea of ' neutrality ' of the trade unions "—saxs 
 this resolution— " was and remains a bourgeois idea. There is 
 and 'there can be no neutrality in the great historical fight 
 between revolutionary socialism and its opponen-ts. Support of 
 bourgeois policy and betrayal of the interests of the working 
 class was al.ways concealed beneath the mask of neutrality. 
 Least of all in Russia, a country going through a great revolu- 
 tion and which has overthrown the bourgeoisie, could the trade- 
 unions be ' neutral.' All the questions arising in the process 
 of the revolution (Constituent Assembly, nationalisati9n of 
 Banks, the fight against the bourgeois press, the repudiation of 
 loans, etc.), directly affects the interests of the trade union 
 movement. In all these questions the tfade unions must giv& 
 their entire support to the policy of the Socialist Soviet Govern- 
 ment, as conducted by the Council of Peoples Commissaries." 
 
 By this resolution the Congress, in the name of two and 
 a half million workers, firmly and undeviatingly stood for the- 
 soviet system, for labour democracy as against bourgeois 
 democracy, and thus linked the fate of the trade union movement 
 in Russia with the fate of the soviet government and the 
 socialist revolution. Expressing itself in favour of the dictator- 
 ship of the proletariat and for " the close co-operation and 
 inseparable connection between the trade unions and the pro- 
 letarian political organisations and, chiefly with the Soviet of 
 iWorkers' Delegates " the first conference resolved that " the- 
 centre of gravity of the trade union movement at the present 
 momtent must be transferred to the sphere of national adminis- 
 tration and organisation. The Trade Unions must undertake- 
 the work of organising production and restoring the under- 
 mined forces of the country." How did the Unions carry out 
 this, resolution? By the creation of special economic organs in 
 conjunctibn with the Soviet, organisation of workers' control, 
 estimation and distribution of labour power,, participation in the- 
 transference of war industry to peace production, by fighting 
 against sabotage, by the introduction of obligatory labour, etc. 
 The problems submitted by the Congress to the Trade Unions 
 of Russia were — organisation of labour and organisation of 
 production. 
 
 Resolution on Workers' Control. 
 
 The First Congress paid particular and detailed attention to- 
 the question of workers' control and the regulation of 
 
(23) 
 
 industry. In this sphere the Russian proletariat had to cut a 
 new path, for history^ knows no example of the organisation of 
 national economy being approached from the point of view of 
 society as a whole and not in the interests of individuals or 
 groups of exploiters. The First Congress understood perfectly 
 well that the economic problem could not be solved at a single 
 blow and it definitely indicated the road which the trade unions 
 should follow. The Congress emphasised the fact that " worke^fs' 
 control is inseparably connected with the general system of 
 regulation of national economiy, that it is the basis of State 
 regulation, that the unions must carry out the idea of cen- 
 tralised workers' control and the merging of the small controlling 
 imits into larger organs which correspond to the modern 
 methods of production as well as to the- actual structure of 
 labour organisations." In the resolution on the regulation of 
 industry the Congress advocated the syndication and!^the trusti- 
 fication of the most important branches of industry like coal, 
 petroleum, iron, chemicals and also transport, as a jjreparatory 
 stage to the nationalisation of industry. The regulation of 
 national economy in the interests of 'the whole country^ can only 
 be carried out under the guidance of a class whom llistory. has 
 chosen for this responsible task, i.e., the proletariat. The part 
 to be played by the trade unions in this great work of the 
 reconstruction of society consists not only in the defence 
 of the interests of the working class but in preparing it for 
 the role of industrial organisers during the transition from 
 private monopoly to State monopoly, from the latter to 
 nationalisation and from that last to socialism. 
 
 The Development of Factory Committees, 
 
 In defining the role and the functions ot the trade unions 
 in the organisation of production it was, necessary to pajr very 
 serious attention to the factory committeesi and their role in the 
 general system of our economic organisation. The factory 
 committees arose in Russia in the first days of the February 
 revolution and were the first organisations created '.in the 
 struggle of the workers against their employers. These 
 organisations embraced all the workers in a given factory, 
 whether they were members of the union or not, and from their 
 very rise, played a double role. On the one hand they serve'd 
 as a support to the Soviet of Workers' Delegates, carrying out 
 the Soviet's political instructions in the factories and, on the 
 other hand, they settled conflicts and conducted strikes, etc., 
 thus taking the place of the trade union in the first period of the 
 revolution and, later, becoming the nuclei of the Russian Trade 
 Union movement. 
 
 The factory committees chiefly perfbrmed the functions 
 of political and economic control and, at the time of the October 
 Revolution, had to bear the responsibility for the great 
 organising and administrative work. For that reason in the 
 first period of the October Revolution the question of the factory 
 <;omraittees became very acute. Among certain sections of the 
 factory committees the -opinion began to grow that the trade 
 unions had outlived their time and that they could be sup- 
 planted by the factory committees.. In several towns like 
 ^etrograd, Odessa, Samara, Kiev, etc., central councils of factory 
 
(24) 
 
 committees arose which began to act as parallel bodies to ther 
 responsible trade union council. New economic organisations, 
 were thu? formed the growth of which would inevitably leaa 
 to a fratricidal war between the trade unions and the tactory 
 committees. On the other hand, as the trade unions grew and. 
 embraced an ever larger number of factories, the factory com- 
 mittees became elected organs of the organised members ot the 
 particular union. This eased the way to the subordination ot 
 the factory committees to the unions, as decided at the third con- 
 ference of Trade Unions in June, 1917, and finally confirmed, 
 at the First All-Russian Congress which decided that the 
 factory committees must become the local organs of the union. 
 
 After the first Trade Union Congress the Central Councils. 
 of Factory Committees were abolished and the factory com- 
 mittees became units of the union, carrying out the instructions. 
 and resolutions of the centre. 
 
 Regulations on Factory Committees. 
 
 In the period immediately prior to the October Revolution, 
 when the central organs of national economy were just being 
 established, the factory committ.ees, in many cases, undertook 
 the .management of the factories. But that only lasted as long 
 as the corresponding central industrial management organ had", 
 not "yet been established. After this the factory committees 
 had their representatives in the factory management boards, 
 which were usually composed of the representatives of the trade 
 unions, the Council of National Economy and the factory com- 
 mittees. In the middle of 1918, the All-Russia Central 
 Council of Trade Unions dratted special "Regulations on 
 Factory Committees." According to these regulations the factory 
 committees : 
 
 («) Undertake, on the instruction of the Union, all measures necessary to unite 
 all workers and employees of a given factory into one industrial organisation ; 
 
 (b) Carry out strict proletarian discipline among the workers and emplojees . 
 a? set forth by the Industrial Union ; 
 
 (r) See that all measures and regulations of the Labour Commissariat, 
 directed towards the defence and protection of labour are carried out, and devise 
 means of improving labour conditions ; 
 
 (d) S6e to the execution by the factory of all instructions and measures of the 
 Council of National Economy and the Industrial Union directed towards raising 
 the productivity as well as maintaining the normal progress of labour ; 
 
 (e) Keep a strict watch on the exact and mutual carrying out of wages agree- 
 ments and standards of productivity ; 
 
 (/) Carry out workers' control to the fullest ebttent ; 
 
 (g) Undertake the supply of articles of primary necessity to the workers within ■ 
 the limits of the Food Department's regulations and, for this purpose, enter into ■ 
 relations with the necessary organisations for establishing pubhc restaurants, 
 shops, etc. ; 
 
 (h) Establish in connection with the factories and under the guidance of the : 
 Union, schools, libraries, reading-rooms, people's palaces, children's homes, play- 
 grounds and kindergartens, etc. ; 
 
 (/) carry out the decisions of the courts of honour and the punishments im- 
 posed by them in accordance with the regulations and wages agreements ; 
 
 (j) Participate in the acceptance and discharge of workers and employees in 
 accordance with the decree on labour exchanges and the instructions of the : 
 Trade Union. 
 
Factory Committee as Local Unit. 
 
 As industry became nationalised and chief committees 
 for managing the nationalised factories were established we 
 passed over from workers' control to workers' management and 
 !with this transition, the functions of the factory committees 
 m the sphere of control of production ceased because the union 
 as a whole and not separate sections of it took part in the 
 administration. As a result of 2i years' development of the 
 trade union movement, the Third Trade Union Congress, 
 summing up thfe experience of the dual functions of the factory 
 committee resolved that ' ' the factory committee must definitely 
 be fixed as the local nucleus- of the trade union with analogous 
 trade union functions in so far as it concerns the responsibility 
 it has to bear towards the higher organs of the union and com- 
 pletely abstain from interfering ,in the work of administering 
 the factory; in Order to abolish parallelism in administrative 
 and trade union organs in the; factory all industrial committees 
 in connection with the factory committees are to be dissolved." 
 
 This resolution, establishing the factory management board 
 ,as .the sole authority in the factory, finally subordinated the 
 fac'tory committee to the union and, in th|is manner, rounded off 
 a complete period of development of the Russian trade union 
 movement which commenced with the factory committees being 
 independent of the unions. Went through a process of adminis- 
 tration of the factories by the factory committees, participation' 
 of the factory committee in the management — and consequently 
 their- subordination to the councils of national economy; and 
 finally binding the factory committee to the union and con- 
 verting it into a purely trade union organ. 
 
 Trade Unionism and Dictatorship. 
 
 The First A.ll-Russia Congress of Trade Unions, laying 
 down the general line of revolutionary; policy and the necessity 
 for 'the closest co-operation and inseparable connection with 
 the Soviets of Workers' Delegates, came up against one of 
 the most difficult questions in the theory and practice of the 
 trade union movement, i.e., the role of trade unions in the period 
 of proletarian dictatorship. What is the dictatorship of the 
 proletariat? It is a definite labour system of government; 
 having for its ofjject to destroy the bourgeois capitalist relations 
 and the state machinery created by them, to crush the resistance 
 of the exploiters and to prepare the conditions and foundations 
 for socialist construction. Between capitalism and socialism 
 there is a distinct historical period during which the oppressed 
 class, taking advantage of the new government machinery 
 which it has created, forcibly establishes new social industrial 
 relations, and, to the extent that these new relations are 
 strengthened, the State power ot the transition period .gradually 
 dies out ; for socialist society is a non-class society and where 
 there are no classes there is no State. Consequently, to the 
 extent that we depart from capitalism and approach to socialism 
 the state as such will disappear and, as Engels wrote, it will be 
 placed in the museum of history. The state will remain a 
 mere apparatus for the registration of distribution and pro- 
 duction, serving the economic needs ot socialist society. 
 
(26) 
 
 The soviet is an organ of proletarian dictatorship, and as 
 a definite form of state, will disappear with the complete 
 victory of socialism. 
 
 The "Nationalisation" of Trade Unions. 
 
 But what will be the fate pf the trade unions? The trade 
 unions have become converted from fighting organisations 
 against capital into organs of socialist, construction, and to the 
 extent that we advance from capitalism to communism the centre 
 of gravity of the work of the union will be transferred to the 
 sphere of organisation and administration. The main task of 
 organising labour and production lies upon the trade unions 
 and the ntore the trade unions are able to cope with this task, 
 tlie more it will become merged in national economy and become 
 part and parcel of it. In a completely developed socialist society 
 the trade unions as fighting organisations in the class war will 
 disappear and their place will, be taken by an apparatus for 
 registration, distribution and public production. 
 
 But where will this apparatus for registering, distributing 
 ■and producing in socialist society come from? What organisa- 
 tion will create it? Evidently it will be created in the transi- 
 tional periods by the trade unions and the Soviets. And its 
 importance will grow in proportion to the victory of the social 
 revolution and the strengthening of the new industrial relations. 
 Thus, the Soviets of workers' delegates and the trade unions 
 jointly create in the transitional period an organ for managing 
 production (Councils of National Economy and the chief Com- 
 mittees for the (.management 'of - nationalised undertakings). 
 These organs, however, lose their specific character as fast as 
 we advance to socialism : the whole work of the Soviets and the 
 trade unions becomes concentrated upon the organisation of 
 labour and production, but their industrial functions disappear. 
 The trade unions and the Soviet economic organs merge into 
 one another; a single economic machinery grows out ot it 
 swallowing both unions and Soviets, thus being the synthesis of 
 all the organisations created by the proletariat. Socialism 
 emerges in its perfect form of organisation. This perspective 
 of the development and the rebirth of the existing proletarian 
 organisations gives rise to the idea of " nationalising " the 
 trade unions* and many comrades regarded this possibility as 
 meaning the immediate subordination of the trade unions to 
 the Soviets and their formal inclusion in the machinery of 
 the soviet government. The first All-Russia .Congress of Trade 
 Unions which advocated " the closest co-operation and insepar- 
 able connection between the trade unions and the Soviets of 
 ■workers' delegates " dfeclared in its fundamental resolution 
 that " in the process of development which has been outlined, 
 the trade unions will inevitably be converted into organs bf 
 socialist government, participation in which will be obligatory 
 for all persons engaged in any given industry." 
 
 ReDdering Trade Unions organs of the State. 
 
(27) 
 
 Resolutions on. Trade Unions and Soviets. 
 
 This resolution, was taken by some comrades to mean 
 immediate subordination of >the unions to the State; and the 
 second All-Russia Congress of Trade Unions, held in January, 
 1919, on the question of the character of the relations between 
 the soviet organs and the trade unions and their gradual 
 merging declared: 
 
 _ " The task of socialising all means of production and the organisation of 
 society on a new socialist basis demands stubborn, prolonged work on the recon- 
 struction of the whole government macliine, the creation of new organs of control 
 ?nd regulation of production and consumption resting upon the organised 
 initiative of the masses of the workers themselves. 
 
 " This compels the trade unions to take a more active and energetic part in 
 the Soviets, by direct participation in all the state organs, by organising mass 
 proletarian control over their activities, by carrying out separate tasks which 
 plight confront the soviet government through their organisations, by cooperating 
 in the reconstruction of various state departments and by the gradual substitution 
 of them by their own organisations by means of fusing the organs of the union 
 with those of the state. 
 
 " It would be a mistake, however, in the present stage of development of 
 trade unions with the, as yet, imperfect state organisation, immediately to convert 
 the unions into state organs and to merge the former into the latter or for the 
 unions arbitrarily to usurp the functions of the state. The whole process of 
 complete fusion of the trade unions with the state organs (the process which we 
 call nationalisation of trade unions) must take place ai the inevitable result o ( 
 their joint close and harmonious working and the preparation by the trade union « 
 of the broad masses of the workers for the task of managing the state machine 
 and all the administrative organs." 
 
 The perspective outlined by the second congress was sub- 
 jected to a new test : a year and three months of stern civil 
 war passed and whatever the trials of the trade unions, with 
 the exception of an insignificant minority; they fought shoulder 
 to shoulder with the soviet government against the Russian 
 and world counter-revolution. It was this organic connection 
 with the soviet government which the third All-Russia Congress 
 advanced in the first instance: "The trade unions in Soviet 
 Russia " — says the first resolution — " practically became an 
 inseparable part of the soviet system, a necessary supplement 
 and support of the proletarian dictatorship , of the Soviets." The 
 second important resolution of the congress with reference to 
 organisation lays it down that " the" trade unions are the funda- 
 mental basis of the proletarian state, the sole organisers of 
 labour in the process of production and the chief tool in 
 economic construction." These two definitions give an 
 exhaustive description of the trade unions in the period of 
 transition from capitalism to socialism. The trade unions are 
 the foundation and support of the soviet state— a necessary 
 supplement to the organs of proletarian dictatorship — the 
 Soviets; the chief tool of economio construction; and the only 
 organisers of labour in the process of production. These are 
 the functions and the place of the trade unions in the prole- 
 tarian state based on thirty months experience of joint work 
 and struggle and this experience was registered by the resolu- 
 tions of the third All-Russia Congress. 
 
(28) 
 
 The Opposition in the Trade Unions. 
 
 , . The point of view outlined above is not shared by the 
 whole of the Russian trade union movement : from the begmmng 
 of the October Revolution, a tendency existed inside the Russian 
 trade union movement which put forward the demand tor the 
 independence of the trade union movement. The theory ot 
 independence was specially urged at trade union congresses by 
 the mensheviks. What is the essence of this theory? What is 
 the meaning of independence and of whom should the unions 
 remain independent? The theory of independence is based 
 on the denial of the socialist^ character of our revolution. The 
 supporters of independence argue that a bourgeois democratic 
 revolution is taking place in Russia. The government, whatever 
 the individual intentions of its representatives may be, is a 
 goverriment of the bourgeoisie; the state and the whole state 
 apparatus reflects the bourgeois origin of the revolution, is in 
 fact a bourgeois apparatus and for that reason the labour 
 organisations must be made independent of the state. The 
 -same relations must exist between the trade unions in Russia 
 and the Soviet government as now exist between the labour 
 organisations and present day bourgeois democratic govern- 
 ments : autonomy, independence, collective agreements, freedom 
 of class struggle, right to strike, maintainance of strike funds 
 for that purpose, etc., etc. , Such is the theory of independence 
 as it was elucidated at the first All-Russian Congress of trade 
 'unions and was further developed by the supporters of this 
 point of view. 
 
 Trade Union Independence or Class Struggle. 
 
 Which unions in Russia adopted this theory? First ot all, 
 all the employees unions (commercial clerks, bank clerks and 
 ■civil servants) then a section of the printers whose work was 
 always so closely associated with the bourgeois press, that the 
 abolition of the bourgeois press aroused in them a prolonged 
 and strong opposition. For all that, the proletarian unions were 
 against that theory. Thus the very character of the unions 
 putting forward this theory compels us to devote particular 
 attention to this " independence " and to decipher its class 
 meaning. First of all, is the premise of this argument correct? 
 What is revolution in general and a socialist revolution in par- 
 ticular? Revolution is the violent seizure of power in the 
 interests of a new class. A revolution is " great," " brought 
 to a successful end," when aaiew class comes to power which in 
 its own interests reconstructs economic relations and turns 
 all the powers of the state) to the seryice of the interests of the 
 new class. A revolution is regarded as a minor or incomplete 
 revolution when power is transferred to the hands of a .new 
 social section of the same class.- Is it the bourgeoisie that is 
 in power after the October Revolution?' Obviously not, for, at 
 the present moment, it is the oppressed class. But, perhaps, it 
 is the peasantry that is in power in Russia? Even this is 
 refuted by facts for if the peasants were in power, they would 
 never have abolished private property or established State 
 monopoly of articles of primary consumption in general and of 
 corn in particular. Consequently, there remains only one class. 
 
(29) 
 
 the proletariat, whose interests coincide with the development 
 ot the .social revolution— the only class that can bring about 
 the socialisation of the means of production and exchange. If 
 mat IS so, what revolution havQ, we in Russia, a bourgeois or a. 
 socialist revolution? If it is a socialist revolution then, how 
 can there be room for strike funds, strikes and other weapons 
 and methods of the class struggle which the proletariat 
 employed against its class enemies? Against whom will the 
 proletarian trade union conduct the class struggle? Against 
 their own proletarian government, against themselves? 
 
 We see, therefore, that the theory of independence is 
 based wholly upon the old capitalist relations and that it arose- 
 out of a failure to understand the epoch through which we 
 are at present living, and reflects irt the minds of certain 
 categories of workers the contradictions of the present epoch, 
 in which the new social relations are still surrounded by 
 capitalist forms. The expiring capitalism still clings' to certain 
 categories of workers who more than any others were 
 intellectually subjected to its influence. 
 
 The theory of independence is not a narrow trade union, 
 theory, but a complete political philosophy. It this is a. 
 bourgeois revolution, consequently, one must adopt a diff'erent 
 economic policy towards the bourgeoisie and the peasantry, it is 
 necessary to establish all bourgeois " liberties,", the Constituent 
 Assembly, in a word, all the " democratic " forms for the 
 maximum development of bourgeois democratic society ,and a 
 " healthy regulated " capitalism. As the revolution ideveloped, 
 the theory of independence lost its pure and consistent form 
 and at the Third Congress of Trade Unions appeared in a new 
 form ; the mensheviks, recognising that a socialist revolution was. 
 proceeding, supported the argument for independence in view of 
 the slow development of the' world and, particularly, the Russian 
 revolution. They said that the socialist revolution is developing 
 very slowly, particularly in Russia, where there is a numerouf 
 peasantry and it ,is therefore necessary that the proletariari 
 trade unions should be independent^ of the Soviet State which, 
 while socialistic, is nevertheless giving way to the influence of 
 the middle classes. 
 
 Decline of the Opposition. 
 
 What is the role and the strength ',of this tendency in 
 Russia? First of all it is necessary to point out that even the 
 Clerks' Union, which at one time supported the independents, 
 is' gradually freeing itself from their influence. At the last 
 congress of this union the independents numbered only 32 per 
 cent, of the delegates. Their position Is just as deplorable 
 even among the printers. At the last National Congress of 
 Printers, which took place in July, 1919, the majority of 
 delegates were communists. 
 
 The general decline of the influence of the mensheviks and 
 therefore of the independents in the Russian trade union move- 
 ment can be seen from the foliowingi table : 
 
(30) 
 
 3rd Conference (June 1917) 
 Democratic Convention (Sept. 1917) 
 1st Trade Union Congress (Jan. 1918) 
 ■2nd Trade Union Congress (Jan. 1919) 
 '3rd Trade Union Congress (April 1920) 
 
 
 Mensheviks, 
 
 
 Total 
 
 right soc- 
 
 Per 
 
 elegates. 
 
 rev. and sym- 
 
 cent. 
 
 
 pathisers. 
 
 
 220 
 
 120 
 
 55.5 
 
 117 
 
 45 
 
 38.4 
 
 416 
 
 66 
 
 21.3 
 
 748 
 
 29 
 
 9.4 
 
 l'i29 
 
 48 
 
 6.8 
 
 Thus the influence of the independents fell from year to 
 year and it is necessary to poin^ out that at the second 
 •congress 37 delegates voted for their resolutions and at the 
 Third Congress only 31. This means that the few non-party 
 representatives deserted them while the Congress proceeded. 
 The powerful party that in the first period of the revolution had 
 ■a majority in the Soviets and Trade Unions was jreduced to 
 nothing. - The organised proletariat of Russia marched past 
 the anti-socialist theories and practice of " independence." 
 
 The Control of Industry. 
 
 One of the most important points in the theory of inde- 
 pendence was the relations of the unions to the controlling organs 
 -of national economy. The question was: should the trade 
 xinions participate in the organisation of industry? To this the 
 independents replied that it was necessary to participate but 
 to refuse all responsibility, that the functions of the unions in 
 -entering these organs was chiefly to protect labour. As we Jiave 
 seen, however, the Russian trade union movement, _from the first 
 days of the October .Revolution, took quite a different road. 
 It not only did not avoid responsibility but sought it, taking 
 upon itself the responsibility for the organisation of all the 
 x:ontrolling and administrative organs of industry. As soon as 
 the decree on workers' control was; issued, the trade unions, on 
 the basis of representation of the All-Russian Industrial Unions, 
 ■created a National .Council of Workers' Control, Whose business 
 it was to unite all the work of organisation and control in the 
 localities, but, from the very beginning the unions and the 
 organs which they created arrived at the necessity of creating 
 wider organisations in which control would only form a part 
 of the work, and the National .Council of Workers'' Control 
 thus became converted into a supreme Council of National 
 Economy which daily widened the sphere of its activities. The 
 Supreme Council of National Economy was created by the Trade 
 Unions together with the Soviet authorities and its separate 
 branches as well as the newly created organs, arising because 
 of the machinery becoming more and more complicated, are 
 being constructed on the basis of representation of trade unions. 
 
 The Machinery of Control. 
 
 The Supreme Council of National Economy is composed oi 
 dozens of central organs which manage the nationalised 
 industry, and there is not one of them which has been set up 
 without an agreement between the Executive of the Supreme 
 Council of National Economy and the Executive of the respec- 
 tive trade union being arrived at. 
 
(311 
 
 _ Thus, the Committee for State Building- and Construction 
 IS fornied by agreement with the Builders' Union. The Chief 
 Admmistration of the .nationalised textUe undertakings is formed 
 by agreement with the All-Russian Textile Workers' Union, the 
 Chief Admmistration of the nationalised leather undertakings 
 by agreement with the Leather Workers' Union, the 
 United State Engineering Department, a section of the 
 Supreme Council of National Economy, is formed by agree- 
 ment with the Metal Workers' Union. Two and a half years' 
 experience of revolution convinced the trade unions that it was 
 necessary to (1) construdt a uniform plan of industrial adminis- 
 tration, (2) send their representatives to these organs without 
 interfering in the admiinistrative and technical work of the 
 undertaldns, (3) give the elected factory board the necessary 
 authority and ask its local organs' to support the board's work ; 
 (4) send, thr9ugh responsible officials of the administrative 
 orgahs, periodical reports to the respective- trade unions, (5) 
 call periodical joint meetings of the All-Russia Central 
 Council of Trade Unions and the Supreme Council of National 
 Economy for the consideration of fundamental questions 
 affecting economic policy, (6) centralise the administration of 
 industry with a viaw to a rational utilisation of all forces of 
 production, (7) strive towards the simplification and the aboli- 
 tion of parallelism in administration, (8) combat parallelism 
 arising from attempts of economic organs to assume the 
 functions of a trade union, (9) reduce the number of members. 
 in the collegiate boards, and to hold every member individually 
 responsible, (10) resort to individual management of factories 
 wherever this is considered useful, (11) define the exact func- 
 tions of the various trade union organs and their relations to the 
 Soviet Government organs, and finally, (12) subordinate the 
 narrow trade union interests to the interests of national economic 
 construction. 
 
 These fundamental rules, the result of great experience, 
 lay at the bottom of the whole economic policy of the trade 
 unions. The trade unions do not assume the management of 
 industry, they are not the sole organisers of production: the 
 whole nationalised industry is managed by the state organs 
 based on the representation of the trade unions which " by 
 entering into the Soviet organisation become converted more 
 and more into the fundamental basis of the Soviet Economic 
 system." (Resolution of 9th Congress of Russian Communist 
 P^rty). ' _ 
 
 The Organisation oJ Labour. 
 
 Production taken as a whole included the organisation 
 of labour, for labour is the most important factor in production. 
 It may be said that all that the Russian Trade Unions did in 
 organising production was to create organs in conjunction with 
 the Soviets, but this cannot be said With regard to the organisa- 
 tion of labour. In this connection the trade unions exclusively 
 undertake the state regulation of wagea and the standardisation, 
 of labour while the government departments concerned with this, 
 the Commissariat of Labour and its local Departments, serve 
 as purely auxiliary organs. 
 
(32) 
 
 Directly after the February Revolution a Ministry of 
 Labour which endeavoured to act as the intermediary between 
 Labour and Capital was established, but it strove to maintain a 
 strictly " governmental " neutrality and by this means turned 
 both the workers and the employers against itself. Inmgs are 
 ■quite different with the Commissariat of Labour. Created by 
 the trade unions it acted 'as a class organ, not seeking com- 
 promise but putting into force all the compulsory powers ot the 
 Government to carry out all the demands of the workers, •'■here 
 was some parallelism in the work after the first months ot the 
 Revolution. The Commissariat, as an organ elected by the 
 trade unions, often carried out the functions of the latter and 
 sometimes acted without consulting the trade unions. This 
 duplication of work arose as the result of the absence of any 
 delimitation of functions between the trade unions and the 
 Commissariat of Labour. The 4th Congress of Trade Unions, 
 which took place in April, 1918, in order to clear up the 
 relations between the two departments, resolved that " all 
 resolutions on principle passed by the higher organs of the 
 trade unions (Congresses and Conferences, etc.) are obligatory 
 for the Labour Commissariats. All legislative proposals and 
 ■soecial obligatory regulations affect.ing the conditions of labour 
 and production must be previously approved by the responsible 
 orean of the trade unions (i.e. the National and Local Trade 
 Union Councils). As a first step towards the practical realisa- 
 tion of this the National and Local Trade Union Councils 
 organise collegiate boards at the head of the Labour Com- 
 missariats as their responsible organs for carrying out general 
 class policy and for harmonising practical measures." 
 
 Labour Commissariat Subordind.te to Trade Unions 
 
 The 2nd Trade Union Congress again confirmed the 
 obligation for the Labour Commissariat to put into force the 
 resolutions of the higher organs of the trade unions (i.e., con- 
 ferences, congresses and the All-Russia Central Council of 
 Trade Unions). The Congress also resolved that " all com- 
 pulsory regulations issued by the Commissariat of Labour 
 affecting labour conditions must be previously approved of by 
 the general meeting of the All-Russia Council of Trad'© 
 Unions." 
 
 Two and a half years of the work proved that the limita- 
 tion of functions was a raither complicated thing and that 
 the Avork of the Comimissariat and its local Departments! 
 wholly depends upon the degree of influence which the respon- 
 sible trade union organisatjions have upon it. On the whole 
 the following divisjion of labour was observed. The whole wages 
 policy, i.e., the state regulation of wages, standardisation ot 
 labour, questions of labour discipline, etc., is exclusively con- 
 ducted by the trade unions while the corntnissariats merely 
 confirm the decisions arrived at by the trade unions. Protec- 
 tion of labour and the distribution' of labour power are carried 
 out by the Commissariat of Labour while the trade unions 
 control these departments through their representatives. 
 
 •The '3rd Trade Union Congress expressed itself for " the 
 necessity of a closer contact between the trade unions and the 
 
(33) 
 
 local Departments of Labour and for increasing the influence 
 of trade un'on control on the current activity of the Department 
 of Labour in the centre as well as on the periphery. All the 
 responsible workers of the Labour Commissariat must be elected 
 at the congresses or conferences of Trade Unions. A pre- 
 limmary consideration of all questions of principle affecting 
 labour must take place at joint meetings of the Executive (or 
 general meeting) of the trade unions and ^he head (or the 
 board) of the Department of Labour before any decision can be 
 arrived at." 
 
 What of the Future ? 
 
 These relations between the trade unions and a Depart- 
 ment of the Soviet Government show that: (1) the state 
 regulation of wages and the standardisation of labour is the 
 exclusive function of the trade union, (2) in defining the condi- 
 tions of labour the organs of, the Soviet Government— Ithe Com- 
 missariats of Labour — carry out in their entirety the instructions 
 of the trade unions. In this connection one must observe the 
 following: as the fixing of wages and the standardisation of 
 labour is entirely the function of the trade unions, it is irrational 
 to have another special organ to sanction its decisions ; we get a 
 parallelism in the work, and as we abolished organs created by 
 the trade unions which were doing similar work to that done by 
 Soviet organs so it is necessary to abolish Soviet organs which 
 are doing work similar to that of the trade unions. The 
 increased control and the further subordination of the Com- 
 missariat of Labour to the trade unions must lead to the prac- 
 tical abolition of the Comrriissariat of Labour, and to the 
 transfer of its functions to the respective trade unions. After 
 the practical abolition of this Department there must follow 
 its formal abolition; and the trade unions will remain the sole 
 organs responsible to the proletarian state for the organisation 
 of labour and their decisions in this sphere will be subject to 
 the sanction of their national central organs only. In this 
 manner the whole work of organisation, protection and 
 standardisation of labour is concentrated in the All-Russia 
 Central Council of Trade Unions and its local organs. There 
 will, therefore, be but two Central national organs : one 
 the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions, which concen- 
 trates its work on the organisation of labour, and the other, the 
 Supreme Council of National Economy, which occupies itself 
 ■exclusively with the organisation of production. But as labour 
 is the fundamental factor in production, the next stage will 
 lead to the simplification of the whole economic apparatus by 
 the fusion of the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions 
 with the Supreme Council of National Economy, land the 
 industrial unions with the respective Chief and Central Com- 
 mittees for the administration of the nationalised undertakmgs. 
 When this will take place is as yet not known, but this is the 
 developing tendency, this is the iron logic of socialist economic 
 construction. 
 
(34) 
 
 The Regulation of Wages. 
 
 Russia is the only country in the world where wages for 
 all categories of labour are regulated on a national scale and 
 where this regulation is carried out by the trade unions. In tnis 
 work the Russian trade unions had to start right from^ the very 
 beginning. Previous to the February Revolution, 1917, there- 
 was no such thing as collective bargaining for the reason that 
 there were no mass trade unions. In the large majority of cases 
 individual workers entered into agreements with mdividuat 
 employers. Strikes were of a spontaneous character; neither 
 the working class as a whole nor separate .trades had any 
 organised influence on the rate of wages. There were ho labour 
 statistics. The unions that were in existence had very little 
 material, information was gathered chiefly by factory inspectors 
 and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, while the figures 
 concerning wages, minimum standard of living, number ot 
 workers and the length of the labour day were the only informa- 
 tion upon which one could tfperate, and when th'e revolution 
 broke out the unions had to start .literally from the very 
 beginning, having to carry out in a very short time a task which 
 the British, German and American trade unions carried out! 
 during a. period of many decades. The first difficulty met with 
 in the regulation of wages on a national scale was the absence 
 of any apparatus, material, and experienced people who could 
 raise this work to its proper level. 
 
 The second serious obstacle which prevented the regulation 
 of wages on a national scale was the disorganisation of national 
 economic organisations resulting from the war, the jumpy rise 
 in the cost of articles of primary necessity, the instability of 
 the monetary unit and the extreme scarcity of food and general 
 scarcity of commodities. All these, in conjunction with the 
 acuteness of the civil war,prevented the establishment of stable 
 standards and the convulsive efforts of the working class to 
 shake oflf the Russian and world counter-revolution deprived the 
 trade unions of all possibilities of converting the regulation ot 
 wages into an actual regulation of national economy. 
 
 Wage Fixing by Trade Unions. 
 
 If in establishment of wage rates the British trade unions 
 had to take into consideration the state of the market, the 
 general economic position and the potentialities of the country, 
 then so much more had this to be taken into consideration in. 
 Russia, where the workers have no one to whom to put forward, 
 their demands unless it be to themselves. The Russian trade 
 unions do not " negotiate " with anybody, they do not 
 demand " increase " in wages or the introduction of new forms ot 
 payment, but establish all these things themselves. All wage rates,, 
 etc., worked out by the trade unions are handed to the Wages 
 Department of the All-Russia .Central Council of Trade Unions 
 for the purpose of establishing a uniform wage policy and there 
 the wage rates are finally worked out, systematised and signed 
 and then confirmed by the Commissariat of Labour. Not one- 
 institution in Soviet Russia may establish or change wage rates 
 without or apart from the corresponding trade union. Under 
 those circumstances the trade unions cannot but approach the 
 
(35) 
 
 ■question of wage policy from the class point of view. The 
 State regulation of wages must not only raise badly paid 
 ■categories of labour and make wages conform to the changing 
 economic conditions of the country but in the first place, must 
 coiinect the wage policy with the supply of the workers with 
 articles of primary necessity, i.e., must strive towards the 
 naturalisation of wages; in the second place, to fix wages 
 according to results obtained, i.e., to introduce a strict 
 •standardisation of labour and, thirdly, to serve as a powerful 
 instrument for the raising of labour productivity in the factories. 
 
 The trade unions did tremendous work in the sphere of 
 fixing wages during the period leading up to the October 
 Revolution; they studied and classified all categories of labour 
 in all the branches of national industry and State administra-- 
 tion. Every union studied the peculiar condition of its branch 
 of trade, its degree of harmfulness, etc., created central and 
 local wage standardisation departments, established grading 
 of skill in labour, included in the general wages scheme 
 not only physical workers but all the clerical elements and all 
 categories of mental labour, worked out systems of payment tor 
 encouraging output and established definite relations of variojis 
 groups and various grades of skill. But, in spite of the tre- 
 mendous work which has been done, the Russian trade unions 
 stand yet before the very beginning of the .solution of these 
 questions, for the solution of the problem of rating and 
 standardising labour on a national scale means to organise 
 social labour, i.e., to organise socialist production. 
 
 The immediate and most complicated problem is to do 
 away with the money remuneration which the worker now needs 
 for the purpose of buying articles of primary consumption for 
 •himself and his family. In view of the insufficiency of products 
 the issue of articles in kind over and above the standard was 
 carried out up till now as a form of encouragement for extra 
 labour. This is why at all our congresses the question of 
 ■wages is associated with the question of food. At the 3rd 
 Congress the Material Supply Section worked simultaneously 
 with the Wages Section and indicated a practical plan by which 
 the unions could supply the workers with articles of primary 
 necessity. We know very well that material supply to the 
 workers is the best means of increasing the productivity of 
 the factories and for that reason the trade unions, in complete 
 agreement with the Soviet 'Government, give the most important 
 place to the consideration of supplying the workers, as one of 
 the most important factors in the economic revival of the 
 country. It is self evident that the economic revival of 
 the country is not an end in itself but the mfeans to an end. 
 That end is socialism which can only be constructed upon a 
 firm economic found9.tion. 
 
 IV. Structure and Policy. 
 
 The youthfulness of the trade unions, apart from its 
 negative sides, as we saw in the sphere of regulating and 
 standardising labour, has a number of positive sides clearly 
 evident in our trade union ihovement, which is quite free from 
 lii=torical strata, conservatism, prejudices and old traditions 
 
(36) 
 connected with the peaceful and organic development of 
 capitalism. Our unions are not only free from the dead-weignt 
 of tradition because they are young but prmcipally because tney 
 are the children of the Revolution. They grew and developed 
 with the Revolution and they withered and fell durmg the period 
 of victory of the counter-revolution. These peculiar teatures ot 
 the Russian Trade Unions are reflected in all their activities, 
 but this is particularly clear and evident in their constructive 
 work and in their political orientation. In constructing" 
 their organisation the Russian trade unions took advantage 
 of the negative and positive experiences of Western Europe, 
 and, in the first days of their birth in 1905, they began 
 to organise, not according to trades but according to 
 industry. In the first period of the Revolution this was 
 only observed to the extent that the growth of the unions 
 was limited by tsarism. But after the February Revolu- 
 tion all the work of organisation was conducted on the principle 
 of building the union according to industry. The 3rd Con- 
 ference already advocated the " unification within the frame 
 of a common organisation and a common leadership ot as large- 
 a mass of workers as possible engaged in similar factories and 
 allied trades." 
 
 Industrial Unionism Defined. 
 
 The 1st Congress confirmed the necessity for creating 
 unions according to industry, but did not further explain what 
 an industrial union meant. This was done by the 2nd Con- 
 gress which laid it down that " an industrial union is a union 
 having the following characteristics : 
 
 (1) uniting all workers and employees of a given industry,, 
 independently of the particular functions they perform; (2) 
 having a central fund; (3) having an administration based oa 
 democratic centralism; (4) working out wage rates and 
 conditions for all categories of labour through a single central 
 body; (5) a uniform construction from top to bottom; (6) 
 sections within the union having a technical auxiliary function 
 only; (7) representation through a single body 'of the interests 
 of the organised workers and employees of a .given industry 
 before the outside world; (8) persons' not producing, but 
 assisting the producers, as wsll as all temporary and casual 
 workers, remain members of their industrial union." 
 
 It is evident from this definition that the fundamental 
 principle of the Russian trade union movement is : in one 
 factory, one union; and this means that all workers from 
 unskilled labourers to hired engineers working in a metal factory 
 including also the wood workers are members of fhe metal 
 workers' union. Wood workers, mechanics, etc., working in a 
 textile factory, join the Textile Workers' Union and electricians 
 and stokers working in a soap factory join the Chemical 
 Workers' Union. Thus, the peculiarity of our Trade Union 
 movement lies in its concentratiion. In England there are 200 
 national unions, in France about 60 and in Germany 48, in 
 Russia, in January, 1920, tlhere were 32 national centralised 
 unions and after the 3rd Congress there remained only 23 
 unions embracing all categories o? workers and employees, all 
 
(37) 
 
 categories of labour from the simplest unskilled labour to the 
 nighly skilled engineer, doctor and professors of all educational 
 establishments. At a first glance it would seem, impossible 
 to unite all -the varieties of modern industry in such a small 
 number of unions, but it only seems so. If one starts out, not 
 trom the point of view of the interests of a group or a craft, 
 but trom the interests of the whole, from the interests of pro- 
 duction — ^and production is the means of constructing our 
 socialist society on a sound foundation— then the number of 
 unions can be reduced to the minimum we have established. 
 
 The New Scheme: 23 Unions. 
 
 Thus as a result of the decision of the third congress the 
 following trade unions will henceforth exist in Russia: 
 
 1. Employees and workers in medical and sanitary 
 services (doctors, nurses, hospital nurses, hospital porters, 
 hospital attendants, pharmacists). 
 
 2. Transport workers (railwaymen, sailors, stevedores, 
 chauffeurs, etc.). 
 
 3. Miners. 
 
 4. Woodworkers. 
 
 5. Land and forest workers. 
 
 6. Art workers (actors, choristers, musicians, aftists, 
 theatrical, circus and cinema employees) . 
 
 7. Workers on public feeding and housing. 
 
 8. Leather workers. 
 
 9. Metal workers. 
 
 10. Workers' and employees in communal Service (drains, 
 water supply, militia, fire brigade, bath employees, laundry 
 employees, hairdressers, street lighting employees). 
 
 11. Workers in Education and socialist culture (publid 
 teachers, professors, high school and university staff, porters, 
 etc.). 
 
 12. Employees in public communications (post, telegraph, 
 telephone and radio). 
 
 13. Printers. ■ • ; 
 .14. Workers in the paper industry. 
 
 15. Workers in the food industry (bakers, confectioners, 
 sausage makers, flour millers, etc.). 
 
 16. Builders. 
 
 17. Workers in the sugar industry. 
 
 18. Soviet employees (in co-operatives, shops, commis- 
 sariats, etc.). 
 
 19. Tobacco workers. 
 
 20. Textile workers. 
 
 21. Chemical workers (Soap, perfume, explosives and 
 match factories). 
 
 22. Workers in the clothing industry (outer and under 
 garments, hats, etc.). 
 
 23. Employees in taxation, finance and control depart- 
 ments. 
 
7 ■ (38) 
 
 Structure. 
 
 All these unions are constructed on the same principle. 
 
 The nucleus of the union is the factory committee. All 
 factory committees of a given district (or uyesd) form a brancn 
 of the union: all branches > in the territory of a provmce or 
 definite county form a provincial (gubernia) department .and all 
 factory committees, branches and departments are the organs 
 of the corresponding All-Russian trade union. The union is 
 centralised: fifty per cent, of the contribution goes to the fufids 
 of the central committee of the union (from the first of May 
 «f this year the membership contribution will be 2 per cent, 
 of their wages). 
 
 The connection between the industrial unions and their 
 organs and the co-ordination of itheir work is established by 
 transverse organs of the trade union movement. In small 
 localities, secretariats, uniting all the workers and employees; 
 in uyesds, bureaux of the trade' unions are set up on the basis 
 of representation from the branches; in provinces, councils of 
 trade unions based on the representation of provincial depart- 
 ments, and in the centre the All-Russia .Council of Trade 
 Unions the executive of which is eledted by thle AU-Russiiai 
 Con^res.s and the members from the national trade unions in 
 the proportion of one for every fifty thousand members. 
 
 Statistics of Membership. 
 
 The concentration and growth of the trade union movement 
 will be seen by the following figures, presented at the congresses 
 by trade union councils, departments and branches : 
 
 3rd Conference (June 1917) 
 1st Congress (Jan. 1918) 
 2nd Congress (Jan. 1919) 
 3rd Congress (April 1920) 
 
 It will be seen from this small table that the number of 
 organised workers rose unceasingly (the difference in the figures 
 between the data supplied by the councils and by the branches 
 is explained by the fact that several categories do not enter into 
 the trade union councils) and that the number of national 
 organisations have increased very little. More than that, 
 according to the decision of the third congress, a regrouping 
 and fusion will take place as a result of which' all the organised 
 workers in Russia will be grouped into twenty-three centralised 
 unions each of which will have its department in every province 
 and branch in every district. 
 
 Such a small number of unions having such a large number 
 of organised workers became possible because auxiliary workers 
 joined the unions of the main industry and only in connection 
 with commissariats and state institutions did we depart from our 
 principle of " one undertaking, one union." By undertaking is 
 meant a complete administrative, technical and economic entity. 
 
 T. U. 
 
 Dep. and 
 
 Nat. 
 
 Councils. 
 
 Branches. 
 
 Organis. 
 
 1,120,819 
 
 1,475,429 
 
 — 
 
 1,888,353 
 
 2,532,000 
 
 19 
 
 2,087,700 
 
 3,638,812 
 
 30 
 
 3,980,435 
 
 4,326,000 
 
 32 
 
(Ja) 
 
 No Crait Unions. 
 
 In order to understand the Russian trade union move- 
 ment It IS necessary to bear in mind/: (1) that there are no 
 yellow unions m Russia, (2) that there are no unions standing 
 outside of the general trade union centre. All unions in Russia 
 enter mto the All-Russia Central Tradie Union Council and 
 only those organisations who are in the All-Russia centre hkve 
 the right to call themselves a trade or industrial union, (3) 
 there are no separate unions for intellectuals, doctors, engineers, 
 etc., all enter the respective trade union, mechanical engineers 
 in the nietal workers' union, engineers working in textile 
 tactories into the textile workers' union. All these categories 
 of labour may, if it is so desired, form scientific and technical 
 associations, but these associations do not enjoy the rights and 
 privileges of a union, and, (4) there are no craft guilds in 
 Russia. 
 
 The creation of such wide industrial unions each of which 
 embraces hundreds of categories of mental and physical workers 
 certainly met with some opposition with the craft traditions 
 and particularly owing to the pride and narrowmindedness of 
 the intellectuals— engineers, doctors and artists. But inany 
 fetishes and traditions were consumed in the fire of the revolu- 
 tion among which are those of the guild and narrow corporation. 
 
 Political Neutrality Condemned. 
 
 The trade union includes masses of workers and employees 
 without distinction of their political and religious convictions. 
 The trade unions are not party organisations, but in no case 
 are they " neutral " or non-political: a trade union which behaves 
 equally to a socialist or to a bourgeois party, who would 
 advocate voting for bourgeois candidates at elections, as has 
 often happened in England and America, has never existed in 
 Russia. The labour unions have always been socialistic. The 
 social democratic party was always the midwife at the birth 
 of a trade union. The party stood at its cradle and reared it 
 and therefore there can be with us no question of any liberal 
 labour unions; the trade unions in Russia never had to choose 
 between liberalism and socialism — 'such a problem never con- 
 fronted us* — but between opportunistic socialism and revolu- 
 tionary socialism, i.e., between menshevism and bolshevism. 
 
 The choice, as we saw . above, was made even before the 
 October revolution; the Russian trade unions united their fate 
 with that of the October revolution, with the Soviet govern- 
 ment: this meant that the Russian trade union ..movement as 
 a whole marched under the banner and acted according to 
 the directions of the Russian communist party. This seems 
 to be rather contradictory: a non-party trade union move- 
 ment which nevex^heless acts under the directions of a definite 
 
 * There is a group of higher state and bank employees and intellectuals who 
 defended and now defend the view of the " non-party " character of trade 
 unions. But this " non-partyism " was a clearly demonstrated struggle of all 
 these intellectual and semi-intellectual unions against the October revolution, and 
 is therefore not distinguished from vulgar opportunism or even liberalism. 
 
(40) 
 
 political party. But really there is no contradiction, for non- 
 party does not mean non-political and to the exterit that a 
 trade union participates in a political struggle— and it cannot 
 do anything else bdt participate— it must march under the 
 banner and accept the platform of some political party, and 
 as the political struggle is a class struggle, and the trade 
 unions embracing millions of the proletariat cannot remain 
 outside of the class struggle, particularly an the period ot 
 social revolution and the direct struggle of the working class 
 for power— the Russian trade unions not only took part m 
 the political struggle, but repeatedly declared their solidarity 
 with that party which more than any expressed the interests 
 of the working class — the bolshevik party. 
 
 Relations with the Communist Party. 
 
 Neither the congresses nor conferences demanded, ot 
 course, that the trade unions should accept the programtne 
 of the Russian communist party, but they worked out a 
 definite programme of revolutionary action which every union 
 as a member of the social family was obliged to carry out 
 if it desired to remain within the trade union movement. Non- 
 party organisation does not mean indefiniteness, still less 
 indifference to passing events. For that reason the second 
 congress in one of its resolutions declares: " uniting workers 
 and employees in unions independently of their political or 
 religious convictions, the Russian trade union movement while 
 standing on the ground of international class struggle resolutely 
 condemns the idea of ' neutrality ' and considers it is a 
 necessary condition for every union joining an AU-Russian 
 organisation to ' recognise the revolutionary class struggle 
 for the realisation of socialism by means of the dictatorship 
 of the proletariat.' " ' 
 
 The second Congress formally confirmed what was already 
 a fact that in the period of acute class struggle there cannot 
 but be organic connection between the trade unions and the 
 dictatorship of the proletariat whose main support they are. 
 This decision was attached to the rules of trade union dis- 
 cipline which are the normal obligations for all the unions. 
 The first item in these rules states: " Organising and attracting 
 the labour masses in the work of socialist construction the 
 trade union. . . . has for its aim the realisation- of socialism by 
 means of the dictatorship of the proletariat." The intellectual 
 hegemony of ,the programme and the tactics ot the Russian 
 communist party could not be miore clearly expressed. 
 
 Unity of the Political and Industrial Movement. 
 
 We saw that the first two congresses adopted the noint 
 of view of the Bolsheviks, but the organised connection between 
 the trade unions and the communist party made it particularly 
 self-evident at the third trade union congress. The third 
 congress began with the recognition of the hegemony of the 
 Russian communist party and in its first resolution asserted 
 that " the trade unions as a whole, standing on the platform 
 of the realisation of communism through the dictatorship of 
 the proletariat, are indivertibly guided 'in their activity in the 
 proletarian revolution by the Russian Communist Party." 
 
(41) 
 
 On the report presented by Lenin the congress resolved; 
 "'to increase efiforts to attract the labour- masses to the work 
 ^f communist construction through the trade unions under the 
 guidance of the communist party, the only party which expresses 
 the true interests of the workm^ class and all workers in 
 Soviet Russia." 
 
 The resolution on organisation states : 
 
 "Organisation is not an end, but a means to an end; 
 the aim of the industrially organised proletariat is coxOr 
 munism and the road leading to this aim is the social revolu- 
 tion and the I'dictatorship of the proletariat." 
 
 The third trade union congress went even further; it 
 not only formally proclaimed its organised connection with the 
 communist party, but in a special resolution approved the 
 ■economic policy of the ninth congress of the Russian Com- 
 munist Party, assuming that the realisation ot the resolutions 
 ■of the party congress will " finally consolidate the victory ot 
 the proletariat over capitalism." To this must be added the 
 greetings sent by the congress to the fighters for communism, 
 to the German Sparticists and Left Independents, and the invita- 
 tion to the Russian Young Communist League to conduct 
 political education among the youth, and to the women's depart- 
 ment of the Russian Communist Party for political work 
 among women. This gives us a picture of unity of the 
 political and trade union movement in Russia. 
 
 The resolutions of the third trade union congress as well 
 -as the resolutions of previous congresses will become intelli- 
 .■gible to us if we observe the uninterrupted growth of Bolshevik 
 influence in the trade union movement. Here are some figures 
 in this connection : 
 
 The 3rd Conference (1917) 
 Democratic Convention (Sept. 1917) 
 1st Congress (Jan. 1918) 
 2nd Congress (Jan. 1919) 
 3rd Congress (April 1920) 
 
 In order that the growth of revolutionary marxism within 
 the labour movement may be imade more clear it is necessary to 
 -mention that in December, 1919, the Socialist Internationalist 
 Labour Party affiliated to the Communist Party. The former 
 had a rather considerable influence in the trade union movement. 
 At the second Congress it had 50 delegates. The party had 
 particular influence in the leather workers' and railwaymen's 
 iunions. ' 
 
 This overwhelming influence of the Russian Communist 
 Party in the trade union movement explains our revolutionary 
 theory and practice. This comes from the fact that the Russian 
 proletariat never separated economics from politics and has never 
 suffered from that childish disease " neutrality " and that we, 
 the leaders of the Russian trade union movement are in perfect 
 
 Delegates. 
 
 Bolshev. and 
 Sympathisers. 
 
 per cent. 
 
 220 
 
 80 
 
 36.4 
 
 117 
 
 70 
 
 59; 
 
 416 
 
 273 
 
 65.6 
 
 748 
 
 449* .. 
 
 60 
 
 1229 
 
 949 
 
 78.1 
 
 * This figure is much below the actual number present ; from the registers of 
 the fraction meetings it is evident that the number of communists and sym- 
 jjathisers including delegates with consultative votes was 500. 
 
(42) 
 
 agreement with the postulate Idid down at the end oi March^ 
 1920, by the 9th Congress of the Russian Communist Farty: 
 " Politics are the most concentrated expression ot economics, 
 being its generalisation and final accomplishment. .... Only t» 
 the extent that a trade union while formally remaining non- 
 party becomes communistic jn reality and carries out the policy 
 of the Communist Party is the dictatorship of the proletariat and 
 socialist construction assured." 
 
 V. International Policy. 
 
 The problems confronting the Russian trade union move- 
 ment extend beyond national limits. Socialism cannot be 
 victorious while capitalism and old capitalist relations exist.. 
 The victory of socialism can only be international; this pre- 
 supposes, therefore, a militant international proletarian organisa- 
 tion. 
 
 The necessity for international solidarity was doubted in 
 the trade unions of some countries (America), but for the 
 majority of organised workers in all countries, this question had 
 been decided long before the war. The following three forms 
 of international connection existed on the eve of the war: (1) 
 trade unions entered the international socialist bureau and 
 participated in the Congresses of the Second International. 
 (2) International labour organisations by trades and industries 
 (commencing from 1900), (3) in 1905 an international trade 
 union secretariat was established whose functions were rather 
 statistical and informatory than political. All these three 
 forms of connection were broken by the war. All the trade 
 unions of all countries with a few exceptions, became supporters 
 of the war. The labour organisations of the whole world broke 
 up into two hostile coalitions and with the collapse ot the Second 
 International the international trade union organisations broke 
 down also. Th!e executive committees of these^prganisations 
 occupied a position dependent on the particular territory and 
 particular coalition they were in. In 1916 the general trade 
 union centre of the Allied 'countries in the persons of Jouhaux, 
 Appleton and Gompers attempted to set up their Allied inter- 
 national trade union, but nothing came of it and only after the 
 conclusion of the war were attempts made to establish the- 
 broken connections. First at Berne, and later in Amsterdam 
 representatives of trade unions of Allied countries gathered and 
 created an international federation of trade unions and this, 
 apparently was to act as the guide of J:he international trade 
 union movement. Simultaneously with this international' 
 federation of trade unions, on the initiative of these same trade- 
 unionists, a Labour Bureau in connection with the League ot 
 Nations,' on which official representatives of the general .trade- 
 union centres of the largest countries were represented, was set 
 up whose object it was to draw up international labour legisla- 
 tion. It would seem, therefore, that there is yet another inter- 
 national centre to supplement the efforts of the trade unions. 
 The Second International to which the majority of the trade 
 unions iwere affiliated prior to the war ceased to. exist from' the- 
 day on which it threw all the moral authority of the Second 
 International in defence of Allied imperialism. The Second 
 International is dead and those trade unions which feel aq. 
 
(43) 
 
 intellectual affinity with it, are absolutely powerless to do any- 
 thing to call it back to life. 
 
 The International Labour Office. 
 
 What is the attitude of the Russian trade unions towards 
 ■aJl these international organisations? First of all, with regard to 
 the Labour Bureau of the League of Nations, it turns out that 
 this " purely labour " institution, which should have been the 
 laboratory for international labour legislation, has been con- 
 verted into the sort of pocket labour-capitalist international, the 
 constitution and composition of which excludes the possibility 
 of any surprises. In fact, at the first meetinjr, on January 25th, 
 in Paris, the Labour Bureau was composed of the following 
 persons : 
 
 Of the employers 'Guerin (France), Marjoribanks 
 (England), Hodacz (Czecho- Slovakia), Schindler (Switzerland), 
 earlier (Belgium), and Pirelli (Italy) — all large employers and 
 leaders of economic organisations. 
 
 Of the workers: Jouhaux (France) Oudegeest (Holland), 
 Stuart Bunning (England), Torberg (Sweden), Legien 
 (Germany) and one Australian — ^all hardened social patriots. 
 
 Of the "neutral" governments: Baron Major des 
 Planches (Italy), Sir Malcolm Delevingne (England), Count de 
 Eza (Spain), Nagaloka (Japan), Rufenacht (Switzerland), 
 Sokol (Poland), Professor Maheim (Belgium), de Alvear 
 (Argentine), Doctor Lehmann ('Germany) and Vedel (Den- 
 mark) . 
 
 At the head of this remarkable institution was elected the 
 worthy betrayer of the working class, Albert Thomas. This is 
 the bouquet which was cultivated in the hothouse of the League 
 of Nations. 
 
 Can there be any doubt for a moment that the Russian 
 trade unions can look with anything else but contempt upon 
 these organisations which play the part of lackeys to the inter- 
 national trust, otherwise called the League of Nations? Is it 
 not clear that these gentlemen formerly of the working class 
 ■who hang round the door of the League of Nations and run their 
 errands for it, can at best be utter fools? We have nothing in 
 <;ommon with these gentlemen. The League of Nations and 
 all those who are associated with it are dangerous enemies of 
 socialism and ruthless war t0| the finish must be declared 
 -against them. 
 
 The International Federation of Trade Unions. 
 
 What is the international federation of trade unions? It 
 is a conglomeration of unions of which some are for the social 
 revolution, others against it, some assist in crushing Soviet 
 Hussia, others are fighting against the policy of its suppression ; 
 organisations without pro.grammes, wfithout platforms, without a 
 definite point of view on the fundamental questions of the day. 
 What is the attitude of the international federation towards the 
 social revolution, towards the dictatorship of the proletariat, 
 ■towards direct action and mass revolutionary struggle? It is 
 
(44) 
 
 not known; What has the international federation done to fight 
 against international reaction? Nothing. What is the attitude- 
 of the international federation to the League of Nations and the 
 Labour Bureau.- Evidently, friendly, because the Vice-pre- 
 sident of the International, Federation of Trade Unions, 
 Jouhaux, and the Secretary of the Federation, Oudegeest, 
 are members of the notorious bureau. That is sufficient ta 
 show that the International Federation! of Trade Unions is a 
 corpse which will become decomposed with the decomposing 
 League of Nations. This is why the Trade Unions of Russia 
 frankly declare to the international proletariat that ' our way 
 and the way of the corpses of the International Federation 
 of Trade Unions are not the same." 
 
 Unity with the Third International. 
 
 IWe see, therefore, that both centres created by the agile 
 hands of the social patriots are everything else in the world but 
 militant proletarian organisations. Meanwhile the co-ordination: 
 of the activities of all the labour organisations on an inter- 
 national scale is a premise to, and a condition of the victory of 
 the social revolution. The Russian trade unions have long aga 
 taken this into consideration and for that reason have been in. 
 favour of the Third International long before the foundation of 
 this organisation. Standing on the platform' of the social 
 revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat, and marching- 
 under the banner of the Russian Communist Party, the Russian 
 irkde unions have long since 'been an inseparable part of tht-. 
 Third International. The 3rd Congress merely formulated and 
 strengthened the connection which sprang up as the result of 
 outlook and unity of revolutionary action. " The fight of the 
 international proletariat "^says the resolution of the 3rd Con- 
 gress of Trade Unions—" is conducted, not for the reform of 
 capitalism, but for its abolition. In this revolutionary struggle 
 all the class conscious revolutionary elements of the working; 
 class more and more determinedly rally to the Third Inter- 
 national as the organisation which is the incarnation of the 
 world proletarian revolution." 
 
 The Third International is not as some think an organisa- 
 tion composed merely of political parties. The Third Inter-- 
 national is a fighting revolutionary class centre, which is accces- 
 sible to all proletarian, political, trade union and co-operative 
 organisations, which, not in words, but in deeds, fight tor 
 socialism. It would be a great crime on our part if we- 
 attempted to create a special trade union international.. It 
 would at best result in' the dispersal of forces and at worst, 
 would be a bad edition of! the Second International in the form; 
 of an International Federation of Trade Unions. All the 
 revolutionary class trade unions must enter the Third Inter- 
 national in which they must organise trade union sections or 
 secretariats. For that reason the 3rd Congress decided to join, 
 the Third International and to call upon the revolutionary class, 
 unions of all other countries to follow its example. 
 
^45). 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 It is three years since the rise of the Russian trade unions 
 ^on the eye of the March Revolution thjere were three trade 
 unions With a general membership of 1,385). The youthfulness 
 x>t our unions is reflected in the inadequate connection ' of the 
 •centre with the localities, m the absence of exact information 
 ana statistics, in the weakness of the apparatus, in the slowness 
 in assuming- command of the tremendous mechanism of pro- 
 duction, the small successes in the standardisation of labour, in 
 the impossibility of carrying out completely the intended systetn 
 ■ot the State regulation of wages and finally, in the temporary- 
 increase of unions of small undertakings which are difficult to 
 •control. All of us see this dark side of our trade union move- 
 ment. ,We are far from thinking; that the Russian trade 
 union movement can in all respects serve as an example for 
 Ihe trade unions of other countries; but we would be sinning 
 against historic truth if we did not lay stress on the tact that 
 the Russian Trade Unions, in spite- of a number of deficiencies, 
 ■are yet in many respects exemplary;! !for they have on'e very 
 -great virtue : they are ^the child and thle creature of the Revolu- 
 tion. The victory of the Revolution Was the victory of the trade 
 unions; the defeat of the Revolution; Was a defeat for trade 
 unions. This oi'ganic conneotion of the unions with the 
 Revolution gives us the key to the understanding of the reason 
 of the weakness of -the trade unions and .^he difficulties of the 
 problems that confront us. 
 
 The long years of the civil war in which the proletariat 
 played the leading part, the blockade and the economic dis- 
 organisation arising therefrom, the repeated mobilisation of 
 trade unionists reaching 50 per cent, of the membership inl 
 some towns. and despatching to the front in moments of danger — 
 ■and these moments occurred often — of hundreds of , active 
 workers in the trade union movement, could not but reflect itself 
 on our trade union organisation. The trade unions accurately 
 reflect the degrees of organisation of national economy. The 
 ill-health of the jiational economic organism' is also the ill- 
 health of the trade unions and vice versa. And so, in the period 
 ■of collapse, the old productive relations of the trade unions in 
 Russia play a large organising role. There is not a branch of 
 State activity (military, food, sanitary, economic, technical, 
 •cultural, etc.) in which \. the Russian trade unions are not 
 •engaged. There is not an important act of legislation in the 
 discussion of which the Russian trade unions have not taken 
 part. Revolutionary activity, whole-hearted loyalty to the cause 
 ■of the social revolution, the clear and firm position in -the 
 struggle with the bourgeoisie, the stern and ruthless hostility 
 to the very idea of the co-operation of classes, the fearless 
 destruction of old relations and fetishes are things which the 
 Russian trade unions may teach the workers of other countries. 
 
 That the Russian trade unions have shown that they are 
 revolutionary not only in the struggle with the bourgeoisie but 
 als6 in the struggle against the prejudices in labour organisa- 
 tion was proved by the radical revision of the question of 
 strikes after the October Revolution. Now we have another 
 
(46) 
 
 example in compulsory labour. The economic life of Russia is 
 disorganised and the greatest concentration oft labour power 
 and the highest concentration of effort is necessary; in order to 
 emerge from the economic cul-de-sac. ' The Russian trade 
 unions have advanced the battle cry: i" Workers to the Lathe I 
 " IWorkeis raise the standard of production of labour m the 
 ■factories, improve production, act with all the energy and 
 enthusiasm and self-sacrifice with which you fought agamst the 
 counter-revolution, for the economic weakness of Russia means 
 the death of the Social Revolution." The Russian trade unions 
 could raise the cry of " increase productivity of _ labour 
 because we are working for ourselves. The Russian .trade 
 unions are playing the part of drivers and are doing this with all 
 the determination of their inherent revolutionary character 
 because they are working for themselves ; but, in order that not 
 a single ounce of energy be lost we advocate obligatory, labour — 
 the militarisation of labour, i.e., the subordination ot separate 
 categories of the workers to the interest of the whole. If. the 
 proletarian State may send hundreds of thousands and millions 
 of the workers to the front— to death, then that State and the 
 trade unions may, in complete conformity with this, demand 
 from the members of its class devoted and intensive labour on 
 the industrial front. 
 
 The welfare of the social revolution is the highest law, 
 and if any individual or group of workers shirk the obligations 
 of revolutionary labour the trade unions declare: " the industrial 
 front is the most important front of the Russian Revolution^ 
 every citizen is a soldaer in the labour army, and no mercy will 
 be shown to deserters." This is the meaning' of compulsory- 
 labour and the militarisation of labour. Who can deny this 
 right to the proletarian State in 'the period of thfe abolition of 
 private property and the means of production and exchange? 
 iWho would blame the socialist government for demanding trom 
 every citizen the duty of performing) a definite amount of labour 
 in the interests of society? No one but miserable philistines, 
 utter fools or dishonest demagogues. 
 
 The Russian trade unions are in the thick ot the Revolu- 
 tion; that is why the proposal emanating from' certain Western 
 European comrades to turn from the trade union movement 
 because the Western European social patriots still stand at their 
 head is humourous and petty. We do not advise comrades to 
 throw themselves into the water in order to protect themselves 
 from the rain, or to throhv the baby out with the bath water. 
 To think that revolution is possible in Western Europe without, 
 apart from, or in opplositiion to !the trade unions is a harmful 
 and dangerous illusion and deserves the severest condemnation. 
 The policy of abandoning the trade unions advocated by certain 
 " left " and very revolutionary comrades is a most harmful and 
 reactionary policy of self-isolation of the revolutionary elements 
 from the mass labour movement and must be categorically 
 refuted. On the experience of the Russian trade union move- 
 ment, we say to you, the sincere friends of the Russian Revolu- 
 tion and dictatorship, of the proletariat: "Go into the trade 
 unions, conquer them, ^nd you will secure millions of organisers 
 of labour and production for socialism." You should construct 
 
(47) 
 
 the Revolution and the administration ot the transition period 
 on the strong foundation of proletarian economic organisation. 
 The capitalist world is collapsing. Capitalism 'has torn itself 
 from its moorings and is rolling to its doom. The trade unions 
 of Russia are not only helping, the old world to a more speedy 
 dissolution but are building a newt socialist society in its place. 
 These are the functions and characteristics of the Russian trade 
 unions. 
 
(48) 
 
 Third 
 General Congress of Russian Trade Unions 
 
 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 [This report is taken from the May 1th, 1920, number of 
 the Bulletin, issued by the Petrograd Bureau of the Com- 
 munist International. Lenin's speech to the Congress is given 
 'in the following pages. The resolutions are reproduced in the 
 form given in the Bulletin]. 
 
 The Third General Congress of the Russian Trade Unions 
 was opened at Moscow on April 6, 1920, under the chairman- 
 ship of Tomsky, President of the Central Executive of the 
 Russian Trade Unions. There were present 1,226 delegates 
 with full voting rights and 362 special delegates for consulta- 
 tive purposes. The total number of Trade Unionists repre- 
 sented at the Congress was 4,300,000. 
 
 The following table shows the political adhesion of the 
 delegates present at the Conference: — 
 
 Communists and Sympathisers 
 
 the Communist Party ... 
 Mensheviks 
 
 Other political groups 
 No political adhesion 
 
 Delegates with 
 Full Voting Rights. 
 
 with 
 
 940 
 
 45 
 
 5Q 
 
 191 
 
 Consultative 
 Delegates. 
 
 240 
 12 
 19 
 91 
 
 FRATERNAL 
 
 1,226 
 GREETINGS. 
 
 362 
 
 The following fraternal delegates conveyed greetings to 
 the Congress on behalf of their respective organisations: — 
 Kalinin, on behalf of the Central Executive of the All-Russi» 
 Soviet; Bukharin, on behalf of the Central Executive of the 
 Communist Party; Radek, on behalf of the Third International. 
 A letter of greeting was also read from Zinoviev, President of 
 the Third International. 
 
(49) - ■ 
 
 ADOPTION OF CENTRAL BUREAU'S REPORT. 
 A report on the activity of the Central Bureau of the 
 Russian Trade Unions was presented by Tomsky. He pointed- 
 out that after its appointment in February, 1919, the Central 
 Bureau had to face the extraordinarily difficult problems of 
 re-organising the Trade Union movement in the Ukraine which 
 had been crushed by Denikin. He then traced the further work 
 of the Bureau dealing particularly with the efforts made by the 
 Bureau to rouse the Trade Unions of other countries to action in 
 defence of the Russian revolution, and the attempts made to get 
 in touch with the various sections of the European Trade Union 
 movement. 
 
 After Tomskyls report the Congress voted the following 
 resolution: "Having heard the report presented by Comrade 
 Tomsky on the activities of the Central Bureau in the course of 
 the year the Congress declares: — 
 
 (1) The Central Bureau has faithfully worked to carry out the 
 
 desires of the Working Class for the consolidation ot its 
 dictatorship, which is absolutely necessary in the difficult 
 conditions created by the internal and external political 
 struggle. 
 
 (2) The active part taken by the Central Bureau in the military 
 
 defence of thfe Soviet Russia has naturally affected its 
 fundamental tasks and having considerably complicated and 
 extended, its work has endangered the balance which pre- 
 viously existed between the Executive organs ot the Central 
 Bureau on the one hand aiid the Trade Union movement 
 on the other. 
 
 (3) The Central Bureau must now concentrate on re-estab- 
 lishing this balance which is absolutely necessary for the 
 peaceful reorganisation of the ' country, that must be 
 carried out by means of a determined struggle against 
 
 ; . economic disorganisation and famine. 
 
 -(-4) In order to carry out this aim as rapidly as possible the 
 Trade Unions and their Central organisations must help 
 in every way the Central . Bureau of the Russian Trade 
 Unions, and in particular help it to develop regular con- 
 tact vsrith all their local organisations. 
 
 (5) The Central Bureau must also work in close contact with 
 all the economic organs of the Soviet, system. 
 
 (6) The Central Bureau must ensure that all its organisations 
 
 as well as the regional trade organisations observe strict 
 labour discipline. 
 
 (7) In its future work the Central Bureau must develop in 
 practice all the main principles of the Dictatorship ot the 
 workers, and naust adapt the Trade Union movement tor 
 the carrying out of thiis Dictatorship by helping in its 
 consolidation and by thus preparing the, way for the tuli, 
 
 I establishment of Communism." 
 
(50) 
 
 REPORTS ON ECONOMIC ORGANISATION. 
 
 Reports were presented on the work done by the Economic 
 Organs of Soviet Russia; by Rykoff, on ,the general internal 
 work, and by Trotsky, on the military position and the organisa- 
 tion of labour. 
 
 The following resolution was then passed by the 
 Congress: — 
 
 " Having heard the reports of Comrades Rykoff and 
 Trotsky the Third Congress of Russian Tradei Unions approves 
 the proposals in regard to economic policy, adopted by the 9th 
 General Congress of the Russian Communist Party, and asks 
 the Central Bureau of the Russian Trade Unions to apply these 
 proposals throughout its work as be,ing the only line of actioin 
 along which Russ;ia could be helped to recover from her present 
 disastrous economic situation, and which could help, her towards 
 an intensive development of her productive forces, thus con- 
 solidating the final victory of the working class and the defeat 
 of the Bourgeoisie." 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 Compulsory Labour. 
 
 The resolution on this subject pledged the Trade Unions 
 to fight systematically and with energy against the disorganisa- 
 tion of work, to recall from the villages the specialised workers 
 who had gone from the towns, to prevent as far as- possible 
 workers from passing from one workshop to another without 
 authority from their Trade Unions, etc. 
 
 Professional and Technical Education. 
 
 The resolution on this subject declares that technical 
 education must be developed to, the greatest possible extent. 
 All the schools in Russia should be brought into relation with 
 the industr'ial life of the country and Jhe centre of gravity iri 
 the education given by them should be transferred to profes- 
 sional and technical instruction.. The schools of higher technical 
 studies should cease to be purely academic and should form one 
 of the most powerful sources 'for the regeneration of Russian' 
 economic conditions. The Congress asks all Trade Unions to 
 concentrate their attention on this question of professional and 
 technical instruction and to mobilise all workers with specialised 
 qualifications. 
 
 ■Appeal to the Workers of Russia. 
 
 An appjeal was issued by the Congress to all Workers 
 urging that now that the working class had assumed the 
 government of the country it should proceed to take over the 
 mass of technical knowledge which had formerly been the 
 monopoly of the Bourgeoisie. Technical instruction shotild be 
 democratised, and should become public property by being on 
 the programme of every school. A merciless w^r must be waged 
 
(51) 
 
 °"i '■'^^.^^^■'^ of technical knowledge. Soviet Russia can only 
 solve the colossal problems of her national economy, and be 
 victorious on the peaceful front of labour, if she creates strong 
 armies of workers with special technical knowledge „ 
 
 Appeal to the Workers of All Countries. 
 
 . „ The text of the Appeal issued by the Congress is as 
 follows: — 
 
 " Comrades! — 
 
 Cables, wireless and press (the powertui weapons of 
 Capitalist deceit) have told you over and over again that labour 
 in Soviet Russia has been militarised. The servants of 
 Imperialism are making use of this statement for two purposes— 
 to discredit Socialist Russia, and also to justify the methods 
 which they employ towards the workers in other countries. The 
 1,000 delegates of the Third Russiian Congress pf Trade Unions 
 representing more than three million organised industrial 
 workers ask you to be on ytour jguard against both the praise 
 and the abuse which Bourgeois opinion bestow? on the methods 
 employed by the Soviet for the organiisation of labour. The 
 imperialist war, the crueLand inhuman blockade, and the cease- 
 less attacks of the mercenary bands employed by Clemenceau 
 and Churchill have ruined our economic organisation. It is 
 only by superhuman efforts and the use of all our resources that 
 we can save the country from the [disasters and misery of the 
 present situation. Every honest and class conscious worker 
 must do all he can for the safety of the Socialist Republic. 
 What is called the militarisation of labour is, the discipline laid 
 down for labour, and thorough organisation in carrying out our 
 economic plans. We have no fcjngs surrounded by Ministers, 
 no landowners and capitalists with their agents. We workers 
 have put on ourselves the heavy and kiifficult tasks which we feel 
 it to be our duty to assume' for the revolution and for the sake 
 of future generations. '\y'orkers of all countries, in the midst 
 of our struggle and the feverish efforts of our tremendous 
 task, we send you our fraternal greetings I We await with 
 firm assurance the time when the workers throughout the whole 
 of the Capitalist world will have driven out their oppressors and 
 made all the world a public property belonging to the human 
 race. Long live the world wide alliance of Labotir ! 
 
 Third International. 
 
 The Congress voted for adhesion to the Third International 
 in the following resolution; — 
 
 " The International Working class movement is fighting, 
 not for an improvement in the Capitalist system but for its com- 
 plete destruction. In this . revolutionary struggle all the con- 
 scious revolutionary elements are joining the Third International, 
 which embodies the world movement of the Workers' revolution. 
 The Russian Trade Unions which, by the side of the Communist 
 Party, have fought the Capitalist system, cannot remain outside 
 the Third International, and their Congress declares tor 
 adhesion to the Third International, and invites the revolutionary 
 Trade Unions of the whole world to follow the example of the 
 organised workers of Russia." 
 
(52) 
 
 Resolutions on Organisation. 
 
 A series of proposals on organisation were put forward, 
 and adopted by the Congress in the following resolution: — 
 
 " iThe Trade Unions which form the foundation of the 
 Workers' State and are the only means of organising industrial 
 labour and the economic life of the country, have been much 
 weakened. This weakening has been due to the lack of contact 
 between the superior organs of the Trade Unions and their 
 lofcal organisations, to insufificient co-ordination between the 
 dififerent parts of the Trade Union organisation, and finally to 
 the lack of authority which the Trade Unions exercise over the 
 rank and file of their members. 
 
 Now that the establishment of the workers' dictatorship 
 has created new and important economic problems, the work of 
 the Trade Unions has become more responsible and important. 
 Tn these circumstances the most urgent task — that is to say the 
 strengthening of the whole Trade Unlion apparatus — can only be 
 achieved by completely modifying the character, methods and 
 extent of Trade Union activities. The main function is to put 
 in force definite principles relating to the organisation of pro- 
 duction; the Unions must regenerate the productive resources 
 of the country within the various local organisations and indus- 
 trial reg'ions; they must work out, and afterwards carry out, 
 special tasks which will improve the material well being and the 
 intellectual outlook of the members towards the Trade Unions. 
 
 The most important questions for the Trade Union move-' 
 ment must be carefully examined' by the basic units of the Trade 
 Unions at the workshops and the factories. The whole work of 
 the Trade Unions should be so organised that the workshop 
 units of the Trade Unions will be able to obtain answers on all 
 the points tha!t they may raise, and to follow closely the work 
 ihat is being done by their, controlling organs. In order to 
 ;attain this aim it is necessary, for the Trade Unions to work 
 ^long their own special lines and to tackle their own problems. 
 
 *^ The Trade Unions must exerdise an effective and constant 
 control over all their delegates and representatives in the various 
 public and governmental institutions. The executives of the 
 Trade Unions must be furnished with all that they need to 
 carry out their work. Each central committee should have a 
 complete list of all its active .workers who are engaged on any 
 public trade union work. They must have reliable reports as to 
 the activities of all delegates and representatives in the various 
 branches of production. The central' organs of the Trade Union 
 movement must regard it as their maiii duty to secure a regular 
 and carefully thought out distribution of labour. The higher 
 organs must constantly supervise the activity of the lower 
 organs, and must resolutely oppose any .sign of negligence or 
 carelessness on the part of its members. No conferences or 
 assemblies should be held during the, regular hours of work. 
 
 , As for the development of the Trade Union mechanism, 
 the *rrade Union movement generally should be based first, on 
 a continuous democratisation of the central organs, with regard 
 to eligibility, responsibility, and the whole running of their 
 
(53) 
 
 "work; and secondly, on the prompt and loyal execution of the 
 ^decisions and instructions of the central organs. 
 
 In order to bring the Trade Union elements in isolate^ 
 districts into regular contact with the whole of the Trade Union 
 organisation, small towns and districts in which there are only 
 a few workers and in which there are no Trade Union Branches 
 should nevertheless establish local secretariats whose object 
 would be to bring together and organise the small groups of 
 "workers at present detached from the centre, and to bring them 
 into contact with the nearest branchi and encourage their Hrade 
 union activities. These secretariats will be organs of the District 
 •executives which in turn will depend on (the provincial Trade 
 Unions. 
 
 The Trade Union mechanism cannot work smoothly; unless 
 the economic organs abstain from taking over purely Trade 
 Union functions, and from intervening in the special work of 
 Trade Unions. In spite of this, however, there are certain 
 technical administrative bodies and central committees which 
 ■ are setting up sections for the special purpose of carrying out 
 Trade Union work. 
 
 From May 1, 1920, the regular contribution to be made by 
 each worker to the Central Trade Union Fund is two per cent. 
 of his wages. The Trade Unions must make every effort to 
 l)ring. into trade union work the workers who desert their work 
 and enter into the employment of the small manufacturers and 
 employers in the small towns and villages. In the case of 
 -craftsmen who are working at their own risk and do not employ 
 others for wages they can only be allowed within their Trade 
 Unions if they are working in their own homes for the State or 
 for the Public Offices which distribute their products at prices 
 iixed by the Trade Unions and which are controlled by the 
 ^economic and Trade Union organs. 
 
 Independent craftsmen who work only for the open market 
 ■cannot in any case be admitted to membership of the Trade 
 Unions. Similarly the Trade Union movement cannot admit 
 Tvithin its organisation the workers' associations, communes, and 
 industrial co-operatives. The members of these organisations 
 ■can only come into their appropriate Trade Unions if their 
 organisations do not employ • workers for wages, and are 
 working solely for the Committees of National Economy or for 
 public departments; 'besides which they must enforce the 
 regulations concerning the protection of labour, and any profits 
 resulting from the enterprise must be for its development and 
 not for distribution among the members. 
 
 With a view to re-establishing the effective production of 
 the country and to making use of all scientific and technical 
 knowledge and professional experience that may serve the 
 socialist organisation of society, the Congress decides to admit 
 specialists to the various Trade Unions. 
 
 The Congress notes that the women who were working at 
 present formed the most backward class within the Trade Unions 
 ^nd decides that the Trade Unions should devote their attentibn 
 to the organisation of all aistitutions', which would help women 
 
(54) 
 
 to avoid unnecessary home tasks. Further, the Trade Unions 
 without attempCing to create special organisations tor women 
 should encourage the participation of women in the fixing of 
 wages, protection of labour, social insurance, public educa- 
 tion, etc. 
 
 In order to hasten the further development of the Trade 
 Union movement, and with a view to creating stable and power- 
 ful industrial organisations by the fusion of allied Trade Unions, 
 the Congress decided that the Trade Unions of railwaymen 
 and transport workers should thenceforward form one single 
 union of transport workers; the trade unions of fire-brigade 
 workers and hairdressers should merge into the Municipal 
 Workers' Union ; the domestic employees union should merge 
 in the unions of the Municipal Workers and of public food 
 supply; and the unions of brushmakers, wood cutters, pharma- 
 ,cists, glass workers and cement workers should merge respec- 
 tively in the unions of tanners, agricultural workers, workers ia 
 public health services, chemists and building workers. 
 
(55) 
 
 LENIN' S SPEECH 
 
 AT THE 
 
 Third All- Russia Trade Union Congress. 
 
 [Published by the All-Russia ICentral 
 Council of Trade Unions, Moscow, 1920]. 
 
 Comrades,— First of all permit me to greet the Third 
 AU-Russian Trade Union Congress on behalf of the Council ot 
 People's Commissaries. Comrades I The Soviet Government 
 IS at the present moment passing through a period of the utmost 
 :gravity Jin many respects ; a period which places before us 
 mteresting and complex problems, and which lays particular 
 tasks and particular responsibility upon the Trade Unions in 
 the work of constructive socialism. For this reason I would 
 much rather deal, not with particular decisions of the recent 
 party congress but with those changes in the conditions of 
 Soviet policy which link together the problems ot social con- 
 struction with the activity of the Trade Unions. 
 
 Peaceful Economic Construction. 
 
 Comrades, the distinguishing feature > of . the present 
 moment is the transition from problems ot; a mililiary nature to 
 those of peaceful economic construction, the former of which 
 had up to the present time absorbed all the attention and activity 
 •of the Soviet Government. It must be pointed out here that 
 this is not the first time that the . Soviet Government and the 
 Soviet Republic are passing through such an important phase. 
 It is the second time that we are returning to conditions whifch 
 render the task of peaceful construction one of first importance. 
 The first time in the history of the Sovjet Republic was' jn ,the 
 beginning of 1918; at that time, after a short but powerful 
 attack by German imperialism, when the old capitalist army had 
 ■completely collapsed and when the conditions were such that 
 "we neither had nor were able in a short time to create an army, 
 <he Brest peace was forced upon us by German imperialist 
 rapacity. Then in the beginning of 1918 it seemed as if 
 military problems bad become a 'thing of secondary importance 
 ^nd we were in a position to devote ourselves to problems of 
 peaceful construction. 
 
(56) 
 
 Comparison with 1918 Situation. 
 
 I read a paper in the All-Russian Central Executive Com- 
 mittee on the 29th of April, 1918, almost two years ago; thf 
 Central Committee accepted a number of proposals in connection 
 with my report, including proposals in connection with labour 
 discipline ; and the whole thing therefore bears a similarity to the 
 present moment. It is most erronous to assert that the decisions 
 of the Communist Party and of the Soviet. Government have 
 been arrived at as a result of our .present disputes. Such a. 
 statement would misrepresent the whole trend of the activity^ 
 regulations and attitude of the Communist Party and of the 
 Soviet Government to this problem. In order to gain a proper 
 understanding of the question and to make a proper attempt at 
 its solution, it is extremely advisable to draw a comparison 
 between the state of things prevailing in the beginning of 1918 
 and that of the present time. At that time, after a short period . 
 of war with German Imperialism, we were first faced with 
 problems of peaceful construction. There were prospects of a 
 lengthy period of such construction. The civil ,war had not yet 
 begun. Krasnoflf, making use of the German assistance he 
 obtained in the Ukraine, had just appeared at the Don; the 
 North was clear from attacks and the Soviet Republic held a . 
 vast territory, excluding that part of Russia which _had been 
 taken away by the Brest peace. The general conditions were 
 such that it was justifiable to count; upon a considerable period . 
 of peaceful construction. It was under these conditions that the 
 first thing put forward by the Communist Party and emphasised 
 by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the form of 
 a resolution passed on the 29th of April, 1918, was the 
 necessity for an agitation to explain' the insistent need for labour - 
 disqipline. It is necessary to realise in this connection that 
 dictatorial power and single man management are not incon- 
 sistent with socialist democracy. This must be brought to mind . 
 now so that both the decisions arrived at by the Party congress 
 as well as the general problems with which we are faced may be 
 fully understood. This is not merely a solution of the questions 
 which now arise, but is inseparably connected with the conditions 
 of the present phase. Whoever has any doubt upon this 
 subject has only to compare the state of things prevalent two 
 years ago, and it will become obvious to him that all attention 
 riiust now of necessity be transferred to labour discipline and to 
 questions connected with the labour army, although at that time, 
 two years ago, this army was not yet in existence. By 
 drawing a companison between the past and the present aspect 
 of the question 'we can arrive at a correct conclusion if We- 
 disregard details and cotisider only that which is of general 
 and vital importance. 
 
 The whole attention of the communists and of the Soviet : 
 Government should be concentrated on the question of peaceful 
 economic construction, on the question (\l dictatorship and otti 
 that of single man management. The experience of the two.- 
 years of civil war makes the solution of these questions impera- 
 tive; but they were raised as far back as 1918 when there was. 
 no civil war and experience was out of the question. 
 
(57) 
 
 The Essence of the Class Struggle. 
 
 Consequently it is not merely the experience ot the Red 
 Army and of the victorious civil war, but something far deeper 
 than that, something connected w;ith the probleritis ot proletarian 
 dictatorship, that is compelling .us now, just as it did two years 
 ago, to concentrate all our attention on questions of labour dis- 
 cipline, which is the essence of socialist economic construction 
 and whigh helps us to understand the nature of proletarian dic- 
 tatorship. With the overthrow of capitalism, every. day of our 
 revolution removed us further from former ideas so much in vogue 
 with the old internationalists who are thoroughly imbued with a 
 
 f»etty bourgeois spirit ; the belief that, while private property in 
 and,_ in the means of production and in capital were retained, the 
 decisions of a majoriity in a democratic institution of bourgeois 
 parliamentarism can really. be an effective solution of questions 
 which can in fact only be solved by an acute 'class struggle. 
 The full significance and actual conditions of proletarian 
 dictatorship became fully apparent to us when governmental 
 power had been acquired and proletarian dictatorship was 
 approached from a. practical standpoint. W6 then learned that 
 3tne class struggle had not ceased and that the victory over the 
 capitalists and landlords had only defeated these classes but 
 had failed to destroy them completely. 
 
 It is sufficient to mention .the international relationship of 
 capital, which is much closer and firmer than the relationship 
 which exists between the working classes of the various 
 countries. Capital, considered on an international scale, is both 
 in a military and economic sense stronger than the Soviet 
 Government and the Soviet system. This is the basic principle 
 which has to be laid down. The form of the struggle against 
 Capital constantly changes; at one time it is of an international 
 character, whilst at another it is concentrated in one country. 
 But though the form changes, the struggle continues, and the 
 basic law of class struggle as formulated by preceding revolu- 
 tions is confirmed by our revolution. The greater the unity of 
 the proletariat which leads to the overthrow ot the bourgeois 
 classes, the more practical knowledge ^s gained^.by the W9rking 
 class, and the wider is the progress of the revolution in the 
 course of the struggle itself. With the overthrow of capitalism 
 the struggle does not cease, and the fact itself of the overthrow 
 of the capitalist class in one country only becomes x)f a practical 
 world importance when such overthrow is made absolutely 
 definite. It will be remembered that at the beginning 
 of the October revolution our revolution was looked upon in the 
 light of a curiosity — ^many a strange happening of no import- 
 ance occurs in this world. 
 
 To make this manifestation one of universal importance an 
 actual coup d'etat was required to .take place in some country. 
 It was only then that the capitalists ot all countries, who at first 
 hesitated to help 'the Russian capitalists, becarne aware that 
 what had happened was of grave universal significance. And 
 it Was only then that the resistance of the capitalists on an inter- 
 national scale attained the power which it was able to wield. 
 It was only then that the civil war fully developed in Russia, 
 
(58) 
 
 -only then that the victorious countries resolved to render united 
 assistance in this civil war to the Russian landlords and 
 ■capitalists. 
 
 The attitude of the Peasants. 
 
 In addition to the natural development of the resistance 
 ■of the overthrown class, it drew a new source of power from the 
 attitude of the proletariat and the peasantry. All those who 
 have made a study of Marxism, all those whose views of 
 socialism are connected with its relation to the international 
 movement of the working class as the only scientific basis of 
 Marxism, all these know that socialism means the abolition oi 
 classes. But what does this mean? It does not stop at over- 
 throwing the capitalists ; its next step is to remove the difference 
 "between the social position of the workers and the peasants. 
 The peasants who as a class are toilers, who have for scores and 
 hundreds of years been oppressed by the landlord and capitalist 
 ■class, cannot forget for long that their emancipation from this 
 oppression has been effected by the working class. ■ The endless 
 disputes on this question and the mountains of paper used in 
 dealing with it, as well as the numerous political groupings to 
 -which this led, have ended in the fact that all these differences 
 have paled into insignificance before the actual facts of life. 
 
 But on the other hand under the conditions of commodity 
 production the peasants remain owners, property, holders; every 
 instance of the sale of bread in the open market, every sack of 
 flour or other food carried from place to place by private traders, 
 every speculative deal means the restitution ot commodity pro- 
 duction and therefore the restitution of capitalism. The over- 
 throw of capitalism involved and brought about the emancipation 
 of the lieasantry, but against thiis overthrow there was the petty 
 bourgeoisie — in old Russia undoubtedly a large class. The' 
 peasantry remain private owners as far as their ijroduction is 
 ■concerned, and are establishing new capitalistic relations. 
 These are the principal features of our economic position, and 
 it is this that gives rise to those absurd speeches emanating from 
 men who fail to understand the real position : speeches on liberty, > 
 ■equality and democracy. Wte are conducting a class struggle 
 and our aim is to abolish classes ; so long as there still exists 
 two classes, those of peasants and workers, socialism cannot be 
 realised, and an irreconcilable struggle goes on incessantly. 
 The chief problem now is how under the conditions when one 
 ■class is carrying ion the struggle, to attract the labouring 
 peasantry, to defeat or to neutralise ,it or crush its resistance 
 with the aid of a strong government apparatus involving all the 
 measures of compulsion. 
 
 Education and Organisation must solve the problem 
 
 The class struggle is being continued and the significance 
 of proletarian dictatorship appears before ifs in a new light. 
 Here it appears not only , as an application of the mtans of 
 -compulsion through the whole State apparatus, though this of 
 •course remains tke principal idea of proletarian dictatorship. It 
 -is to some extent true that so far we have achieved little on this 
 
(59) 
 
 basis ; but it should be kept in mind that there is one more task 
 with which the proletarian dictatorship has to deal, and in which 
 the part played by the proletariat js that of an organiser who 
 has been trained by capiitalist discipline. We must now organise 
 production on a new higher base and make ourselves masters of 
 all the fruits and conquests of icaplitalism. This is the coridition 
 without which no socialism or communism can be built up. 
 -Methods of -state compulsion alone will not enable us to attract 
 to our side the labouring peasantry as against the peasant 
 owners. We are faced here with problems of an educational 
 and organising nature, and we must clearly understand why this 
 is a far more difficult problem than the military problem, 
 which was easier 'of solution. That question lent itself to 
 solution by raising the energy and inspiring* the peasantry 
 with a Spirit of self-sacrifice. The military problem was an easy 
 one for the peasantry who were out to fight their old enemy — the 
 land owner. There was no need to understand the connection 
 between working class government and the necessity of abolishing, 
 free traffic in goods. It ,was easier to deal with the Russian 
 white guards, landlords and capitalists and all their assistants 
 in the shape of the Mensheyiks ; ; but this new victory is harder 
 to achieve. It is not possible, to make ■ victories in the sphere of 
 economic production in the same way as on the war arena. Free 
 traffic in goods will not be defeated by enthusiasm and self- 
 sacrifice. What is needed is steady and continuous work, 
 progressing inch by inch; we must use the organising power 
 of the proletariat ; victory can be gained on the field only 
 it the proletariat will put its dictatorship into practice as the 
 greatest organising and moral power of all workers, including 
 even those of the non-pnoletarian masses. To; the extent to 
 which we have successfully solved and will continue success- 
 fully to solve the first simpler question — the suppression of the 
 exploiters whose direct attempt is to drive out the Sovie,!; 
 Government — ^to an equal extent are we faced with the second 
 and more complex problem of how to hiring the cause of the 
 proletariat to final victory by establishing it as an organising 
 power. 
 
 A task that will take Years. 
 
 Labour is to be organised upon a new basis, 
 new forms are to be established to attract to labour 
 discipline all the working elements. This is a pro- 
 blem that capitalism also was attemptmg to solve 
 for tens of years. Our antagonists< ^include a number of people 
 who show an utter failure to comprehend this question. They 
 called us Utopians when we declared that it was possible to 
 acquire power; whilst on the other hand they demand that we 
 carry out our project of organisation of labour within a few 
 months. That is an absurdity. It is possible to niaintam power 
 under conditions of a favourable political period by the enthu- 
 siasm of the workers even against the whole world, as we have 
 proved • but to create new forms of social discipline is a different 
 matter— one fequiring tens of years. Even capitalism , required 
 thirty years to change the old organisation into a new 
 organisation of labou:jr. Therefore when it is expected of us 
 and when it is suggested to the workers and peasants that we 
 
(60) 
 
 are capable of changing the entire organisation of labour in a 
 short time— theoretically it is sheer nonsense^ whilst in practice 
 it does the greatest possible harm, preventing the workers trom 
 ir.learly understanding ~ the distinction between the new and the 
 old problems. This new problem is in the first place one ot 
 •organisation, and in organisation we are weak, far weaker thali 
 any other country. Organising ability develops under conditions 
 of big machine industry. There is no other matetial historical 
 tasis. 
 
 The Special problem of the peasants. 
 
 The interests of the workers and the peasants do not 
 coincide. We are faced with a difficult period. We are also 
 confronted with a moral problem — to prove to the peasantry 
 that there is no alternative — they are either definitely with the 
 workers, assisting the proletariat, or they return to their old 
 condition. There is no middle course; no middle course exists 
 except for the Mensheviks, but their method is in decay, falling 
 to pieces wherever it is used, falling to pieces in Germany. 
 This the peasant massed will not understand from theory and 
 by observing the 2nd and 3rd Internationals. The peasant 
 masses and tens of millions of people can understand it in the 
 practice of every day life. A matter of principle which the 
 peasantry could understand was victory /over Kolchak arid 
 Denikin. They easily drew" a comparison between the power of 
 Denikin and Kolchak and the power used by proletarian 
 -dictatorship — although the latter phrase was used to 
 frighten the peasantry and is still being used to that end. The 
 Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries are still trying to 
 frighten the peasantry with proletarian dictatorship. But 
 in fact the peasantry is not and was not able to deal with rnatters 
 theoretically. The peasant masses witness the facts of their own 
 condition and of our struggle against speculation. It must be 
 recognised that both the white guards as well as the Mensheviks 
 have learned a lesson in propaganda from our Army Political 
 Departments. The peasantry have seen banners upon which 
 was written not proletarian dictatorship but " All power to the 
 Constituent Assembly " and " All power to the government of 
 the people " and so forth, but what they actually learned was 
 that the Soviet Government was best. At the present moment 
 we are confronted with the second problem' of proletarian 
 dictatorship — moral persuasion ; there are no means of forcible 
 persuasion of the peasantry, there can be no question of sueh 
 means. The solution of the question here is taking place 
 through rupture in the ranks of the peasantry. In the struggle 
 following the overthrow of the capitalists, in the two years' civil 
 war, the -workers formed a single body welded into a unity ; the 
 very opposite is observed amidst the peasantry ; they are under- 
 going gradual internal disintegration. The peasants cannot 
 possibly forget the landlords and the capitalists — they remember 
 but too well what they, the peasants, were at that time. On 
 the other hand, the present peasantry is such, that" the interests 
 of the various classes of the peasantry diverge widely, with the 
 result that the peasantry is not united. (It is a fact that the- 
 state of the food question is not equally satisfactory for evety 
 peasant. There is no truth in the talk of freedom and equality).' 
 The truth is that the peasants are half workers, half owners. 
 
(61) 
 
 Unity of will necessary. 
 
 The execution of our task requires a unity of will, it 
 requires that [in every practical <iuestion we act as one man. 
 Unity of will should not only remain a phrase, a symbol ; we 
 demand that unity shall become a matter' of actual practice. 
 In the war unity of will was expressed by the fact that whenever 
 personal interests, the interests of villages or groups were placed 
 before the common interests, the guilty man was branded for a. 
 coward and an egoist and was finally shot; and this execution 
 was moral^ justified by the conscience of the working class that. 
 it must strive for victory. We spoke openly of these executions, 
 we never denied this violence because we were fully aware that 
 we can never free ourselves from the relics of old society with- 
 out using force against the backward layers of the proletarian 
 masses. And in this was expressed our unity ot will. In 
 practice this uniformity was realised in the repression directed 
 against deserters, in every bg;ttle and in every crusade when the 
 Communist Party formed th'e vanguard, setting an example of 
 courage and self-sacrifice. Now we can make an attempt to 
 apply this unity of will to industrial labour and to agriculture 
 when we are in possession of a territory of thousands of miles. 
 and of a huge number of factories. You wfill clearly see that 
 mere force of violence will not do here, you will understand, 
 the gigantic task with which we are confronted, you will grasp 
 what unity of will really means. It is not a mere watchword, 
 a fit subject for a pamphlet endorsed with the words "to be 
 voted for." It is necessary to think and to ponder what this 
 word demands from us in our every-day work. As an example 
 take the year 1918; at that time there were no disputes in con- 
 nection with this question, an/d I pointed out the necessity for 
 single man management, the necessity of recognising the dicta- 
 torial authority ot single individuals for the purpose of carrying 
 out the Soviet idea; that therefore all these phrases regarding 
 equality are sheer nonsense. The class struggle is not carried 
 on on a basis of equality of rights. The possibility of the pro- 
 letariat being victorious is based on the fact that they represent 
 hundreds of disciplined men, expressing one single will ; they are 
 in a position to conquer the peasantry which is economically 
 completely 'disorganised, a peasantry whichlhas po common basis 
 such as leads the proletariat to unite' the closer at its factories, 
 and works. 
 
 Peasant owners and peasant workers. 
 
 The peasantry is completely disorganised; and in addition 
 to this it represents partly owners, partly workers. Private 
 ownership draws it to capitalism. " The higher the price the 
 better. Should starvation appear— the better still; this will 
 ensure the best possible prices. ' ' On the other hand the labouring 
 peasant knows that he has been freed from the yoke of the land- 
 lord by the working class. There is a struggle Mere of two. 
 aspects of the soul, a struggle resulting from the economic 
 position of the peasants. This has to be considered; our victory- 
 IS possible only upon the condition: that we pursue a firm 
 policy. Workers always remain workers in' our eyes, and as to 
 
(62) 
 
 the peasant owners, with these we must continue our struggle. 
 Now that we have beaten such enlightened people, as the leaders 
 •of international politics— that experienced and rich body pos- 
 sessing a hundred times more guns and dreadnoughts than we— 
 it is ludicrous to think that we| shall not be able ;to solve the 
 •questions regarding the relationship between the workers and the 
 <)easants. What we will win with here is discipline and loyalty 
 to the common will. The will of hundreds and pi tens of 
 thousands can be personified in one individual. This complex 
 will is elaborated by the Soviet system. The number of con- 
 gresses of workers and peasants that have taken place in Russia 
 is greater than in any other Sltate in the wo^ld- In this way* 
 •we develop class consciousness;- not a (gingle State has given tor 
 the last 300 years what the Soviet constitution thus gives. 
 
 The growth ol class consciousness. 
 
 The whole of ,our Soviet structure, of our Soviet Goivern- 
 ment is to be considered from this wide basis. The decisions of 
 the Soviet Government have the power of unprecedented 
 ■universal authority ; it has at its back the whole force of the 
 ■workers and of the peasants. But we do not remain satisfied 
 ■with this ; we are materialists and the power of authority is not 
 enough for us. This authority must be realised in life. But 
 what we see is that the spirit of the old bourgeoisie is gaining 
 on us; we are bound openly to recognise that it is stronger 
 than we are. The old petty bourgeois habits of playing the master, 
 of each man working on his own, and of free speculative trading — 
 all this is stronger than we are. Trade unions arose out of 
 capitalism as a means of developing; a new* class. The concep- 
 tion of class is one that is formed in struggle and in the course 
 'of development. A high wall separates class from class. But 
 there is no kind of Chinese wall separating the workers from 
 the peasants. When the proletariat becamie a class it became so 
 strong that it took the whole 'machinery of State jgovernnient 
 into its hands, declared war on the whole world and 'was 
 victorious. At this point guilds and trade unions become 
 obsolete, out of date. There was a time under capitalism also 
 ■when unification of the proletariat went on by guilds and trade 
 unions. This represented a progressive manifestation, as the 
 proletariat could unite in no other ,way; it is absurd to assert 
 that the proletariat could unite as; a class in! a body immediately. 
 This kind of amalgamation may go on for years. No one 
 fought such myopic sectarian views as did Marx. Class grows 
 under capitalist conditions and wheni the appropriate moment 
 for revolution arrives it takes the government power into its 
 hands. Then all guilds and trade unions become out of date; 
 they become conservlative and have a tendency to. go back, and 
 that is not due to the fa;ct that 'they harbour bad men, ibut 
 because bad men and enemies to communism find a good soil 
 here for their propaganda. We are at the present time sur- 
 rounded with a petty bourgeoisie which is reviving free trade 
 and the capitalism of petty owners and the small business man. 
 Karl Marx fought this old Utopian socialism, demanding a 
 scientific point of view which holds ,that we should learn from 
 the struggle of the classes how the class grows and that we 
 should heTp this class to ripen. He also fought against those 
 
.(63) 
 leaders of the working class who fell into these errors. I have- 
 i^^^o'^ A^^^u °^^^ more about the movement in England in 
 1872. At the Federal Council- a resolution was passed repri- 
 manding Marx for asserting that the, English leaders had been 
 bribed by the bourgeoisie. Marx of course did not mean it in the 
 sense that such and such men are traitors. This is nonsense. 
 He had in view the alliance of the bourgeoisie with a certain 
 section of the workers, w'ith a certain union, asserting that the 
 bourgeoisie supports this section of the workers directly and 
 indirectly, gives it every opportunity ' to wbrk as a legal 
 body, supplies it with a press organ, and establishes it in. 
 parliament. In this regard the English; bourgeoisie performed 
 miracles ; it went ahead of all the others. For forty years — from, 
 1852-1892 — Marx and Engels exposed this bourgeoisie. 
 
 The transition to power. 
 
 All the world over the transition! of the trade unions from 
 the part of slaves to that of constructive workers means a 
 crisis. .The workers raised a cry. to the effect that to increase 
 productivity of labour means to oppress the masses, to, skin 
 them so to speak; they noc only said so, but they also thought 
 and felt so. We have now existed for two years; what has it 
 meant? At the present time it means extreme starvation 
 of the working class. This has "been proved by statistics. In 
 1918 and 1919 the industrial v/orkers of the State have 
 received only 7 poods of bread per head, while the peasants of 
 the fertile provinces received 17 poods per head. The prole- 
 tariat has gained its victory, but thanks to this victory it fell 
 into a period of starvation!, whilst the peasant (who und6r the 
 Soviet Government has far more than he ever had under the 
 Tsarist regime) as a master of fact has more than he requires. 
 At the very best the peasant under the Ts^jist regime had 1& 
 poods, whilst under the Soviet Government he has 17 poods. 
 We all know this, as we have statistical data to prove it. 
 Everybody knows what hunger of the workers means. Prole- 
 tarian dictatorship has doomed the proletariat to two years of 
 starvation; but this starvation testifies to, the fact that the pro- 
 letariat is capable of sacrificing not only its craft interests, but 
 also its life. That for a period of two years the proletariad 
 proved able to withstand hunger ,is due to the fact that it had 
 the moral support of all the Working classes and that it made 
 all these sacrifices in the name of victory for the Workers' and 
 Peasants' Government. Trpe enough, the division of the 
 Workers into trades and professions still exists; but of these 
 professions there are some • which may^ be useful to the 
 capitalist but are undesirable for us. Wei also know that the 
 workers in these trades are starving, more than, other workers;; 
 but this could not be otherwise. .Capitalism' has been crushed, 
 but socialism has not yet been built up, nor is likely to be for 
 some time to come; the misunderstandings with which we are 
 faced are not at all accidental — 'the>r are the result of the 
 historical split in the trade unions, which are an instrument ot 
 craft unification under capitalism and of class unity of the 
 workers when they have taken governmental power into their 
 own hands. Such workers are ready for every kind of sacrifice 
 which may be demanded by discipline, sacrifices which force 
 
(64) 
 
 them to say and dimly to feel tliat class .interests stand higher 
 than craft interests. Those workers who are not capable ot 
 making such sacrifices we regard as selfish men and cowards, 
 and exile them from the proletariat. 
 
 The difficulties of administration. 
 
 This is the principal question regarding labour discipline 
 and single man management with which the Party congress had 
 to deal. This is the decision pf the Party, congress, as you have 
 learned by now, and which will he explained at greater length 
 1>Y the other speakers. The gist of the matter is that the 
 working class has grown up and! matured, it has taken govern- 
 mental power into its own hands and is fightmg the whole world, 
 and that this battle is growing more and more difficult. It was 
 easier to fight in the actual war; at present what is demanded 
 ■from us is organisation and steady education, whilst, as it 
 happens, numerically, our industrial working class is not large. 
 To some extent it has been decreased by the war. Administra- 
 tion has become a difficult matter thanks to our victories. It 
 ■should be understood by everyone that, when we speak of 
 dictatorship, it is not the whim of the people at the centre. 
 
 We must confess that we find administration a difficult 
 matter.' The proletariat has ^decreased in number as we haye 
 already said, while the territories gained by us increased in 
 extent. We have taken Siberia, the Don and Kuban. The per- 
 centage of the proletariat in these regions is a negligible 
 quantity. We must approach the working class in a spirit ot 
 straightforwardness and tell it so openly. What we require is 
 more discipline and more single man responsibility and more 
 dictatorship. Without these it is idle to think of victory. We 
 have; an army of three millions, but ,the 600,000 Communists 
 must serve as the vanguard of these three millions. These three 
 millions must go to war with perfect confidence. We must test 
 these labour armies and the trade unions. We will learn by 
 •every step of practical experience. 
 
 But it is also necessary to understand that we have no 
 other army with which to gain victories. We have 600,000 
 vanguard men and an army of three millions in which there are 
 many peasant profiteers and no proletarians. This makes it 
 ■clear that we must have a new co-relationship between the 
 proletarian and non-proletarian masses; whilst the new con- 
 ditions tell us that we can achieve little by violence, but that 
 only organisation and moral authority can win the day. This 
 gives rise to our absolute conviction'' which we have formulated 
 at the congress and which I consider it my duty to emphasise. 
 Our principal watch-word now is : nearer to single man manage- 
 ment, more labour discipline, and a decision' to work with war 
 time resoluteness, firmness and self-sacrifice; abandoning lall 
 group and craft and private interests. Victory is not possible 
 otherwise. But if we carry out these resolutions of the party 
 through the three niilljon workers as one man, and later on 
 through tens of millions of peasants, who will feel the moral 
 authority and the power of men who have sacrificed themselves 
 for the victory of socialism — then this will make us absolutely 
 and finally invincible. 
 
165) 
 
 The All- Russia Metal Workers' Union. 
 
 By ALEXANDER GUREVITCH, 
 
 Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Russia Metal Workers' Union 
 
 I. 
 
 THE FORMATION OF, THE UNION. 
 
 The formation of the first metal workers'' union is connected 
 with the period of the first Russian Revolution of 1905 — 1906. 
 All attempts to create a Metal Workers' Trade Union previous 
 to that time failed, every time falling, foul of the Tsarist police 
 regime. Only here and there in isolated towns embryos of trade 
 •union organisations existed in the forrn of mutual aid societies 
 'with very limited mjlitant tasks. Such societies' existed in 
 Kharkoflf, Moscow aiid Petrograd. 
 
 The " Mechanical Workers' Society " in Moscow and the 
 ■" Russian Factory Workers' Association " in Petrograd proved 
 to be places where agents of the Tsarist government attempted 
 to degrade the- class consciousness of the inetal workers by 
 concentrating their attention on questions of mutual aid and 
 diverting them from the jrolitical struggle. The development 
 of the labour movement, however, soon led to different results. 
 The firing on the labour demonstrators marching to the Winter 
 Palace on January 9th, 1.905, gave a strong impetus to the 
 labour movement. 
 
 The revolutionary struggle in 1905 of course embraced 
 wide masses of the metal workers, and the most active elements 
 of them were engaged in the political struggle. For that 
 reason the metal workers' union arose later than the unions in 
 other industries. Only in the spring of 1906 did the first Metal 
 Workers' Union arise in Petrograd and Moscow. 
 
 In February, 1907, the first conference of metal workers' 
 tmions in the Moscow industrial area took place, in which 
 representatives of the Petersburg, Baku, Lougansk' and Vitebsk 
 metal workers' unions participated. This conference elected 
 an organisation committee to convene an All-Russian con- 
 ference of metal workers. The organisation committee suc- 
 ceeded in convening in September, 1907, the second conference 
 which also took place .in Moscow. But the wave of reaction 
 put an end not only to all attempts to create an All-Russian 
 metal workers' union, but also to 'the existence of separate 
 
(66) 
 
 unions in industrial centres. At the beginning of 1907 there 
 were in the whole of Russia 81 unions of workers working in 
 metals and machine construcfion, with a total membership ot 
 54,173. These unions were not constructed on a strictly 
 industrial principle. In many localities the unions were narrow 
 craft organisations of moulders, turners, smiths, etc. 
 
 New growths of the trade union movement among metal 
 workers became evident in Petersburg during 1912 and 1914. 
 This period, in which the metall workers marched hand in hand 
 with the left wing of the social democrats, is important for the 
 fact that it witnessed the development of groups of active 
 workers iii our movement who played an important part in the 
 creation of our uriion after the revolution of February, 1917. 
 
 The war involved the practical dissolution' of the scattered 
 metal workers' organisations, so that the metal' workers entered 
 the epoch of our great revolution Sv:ith hardly any trade union 
 oi^ganisation. The most powerful weapon of their organisation 
 was that highly developed class consciousness which they jvere 
 able to forge in the process of the revolutionary struggle. 
 
 The Revolution of February, 1917, gave a tremendous 
 impetus to the development of trade union organisations among 
 the metal workers. At the third All-Russian Conference of 
 Trade Unions which took place 20th-28th June, 1917, 400,000 
 workers organised in metal workers' unions were represented. 
 At that time also a conference) of metal workers' delegates was 
 held at which a Provisional Executive Committee of the All- 
 Russia Metal Workers' Union was elected and in this manner 
 the foundation of our national organisation was laid down. 
 
 The first inaugural conference of the union took place in 
 Petrograd in January, 1918, at which more than 600,000 
 workers were rejjresented. This Conference laid down the rules 
 of the All-Russian Union and elected a Central Committee. 
 The organisation "was constructed on a democratic centralism 
 in the sphere of management of all the unions' activities, 
 responsibility to constituents, and subordination to the higher 
 organs of the unions. This same conference outlined the 
 functions of the union in the period when the proletariat has 
 taken power; of this we shall speak later. 
 
 The ensuing year was not favourable for organising work. 
 The German imperialist offensive and the counter-revolution 
 which took place with the assistance of the latter in the Ukraine 
 and the Don Basin, as well as the Russian counter-revolutionary 
 offensive from Siberia backed by the Czecho-Slovak troops and 
 the Entente, drew all the attention of our union to the defence 
 of the fundamental gains of the revolution. The Ural and the 
 Don Basin were cut off from, Central Russia, the metal industry 
 in Petrograd was reduced to a considerable extent, as a con- 
 sequence of its being dismantled and evacuated to other 
 districts. 
 
 All this explains the fact that at our second conference 
 which took place in January, 1919,, only 400,000 organised 
 members of the union were represented. 
 
 The third conference which tools place recently (April 6th, 
 1920) again had the possibility of gathering representatives 
 from all parts of Russia, and at this conference more than 
 550,000 were represented. 
 
(67) 
 
 II. 
 
 THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE UNION AND THE 
 
 RELATIONS BETWEEN THE VARIOUS ORGANS. 
 
 _ The Metal Workers' Union at the present moment is a 
 national organisation which embraces all those engaged in the 
 metal and metal working industry. AH workers, engaged in 
 obtaining metal from the mines and working this metal m any 
 form, from smelting to the making of machines and metal 
 implements, are included in our Union. Besides this it includes 
 all occupations in a metallurgical or metal working undertaking 
 irrespective of category or trade. Thus, our members include 
 skilled and unskilled workers, the office staflf, technicians and 
 engineers; workers engaged on diflferent crafts in the metal 
 works, as the wood mould m^ers for instance, are all included 
 in our union. 
 
 rrhis principle of industrial organisation was accepted by 
 the union in 1917, and to a considerable degree constituted our 
 strength in th.e revolutionary class struggle. i% the present 
 moment it is an essential condition of the work of the union in 
 organising the metal industry on socialist foundations.' 
 
 The extraordinary growth of .interest of the workers in the 
 industrial organisation even in the middle of 1917 resulted in 
 more than 50 per cent, of all the metal workers becoming 
 members of the union. This gave the opportunity for many 
 local organisations on their own initiative to raise the question, 
 at general labour meetings, of com^julsory membership in the 
 unions for all metal workers. The result or this movement, 
 which Avas supported by the second All-Russian Conference, 
 is that now practically all workers and employees in the metal 
 industry are members of the Union). , This to a considerable 
 degree lightens our task |in working out rates of wages. 
 
 The 'scheme of organisation of the metal workers' union 
 is based on . the following : the primary organisation is the 
 factory comlnittee. This is elected every six months at a 
 general meeting ,of workers and employees and generally con- 
 sists of from 5 to 11 members. The main task of the Com- 
 mittee is to carry out all the trade union regulations in the 
 factory; it deals with the protection of labour, trade union 
 agitation and propaganda, supplies the workers with necessaries, 
 clothes as well as articles of general consumption, and maintains 
 the fundamental basis of trade union and industrial discipline 
 among the members of the union. The Conference of Factory 
 Committees of a gjven industrial area,, usually a territorial area 
 a little smaller .than a "government" (gubernia), is the 
 higher directing organ within that area. This' conference elects 
 the regional committee which manages these regional branches 
 of the All-Russia Union of Metal Workers. 
 
 Usually these committees are in the industrial centres of 
 the regions. As subsidiary machinery the regional Committee 
 may have its agents in the various towns embraced by it, but 
 these are not obligatory; such agents are usually elected at 
 local meetings of the members and carry out the instructions 
 ^f the higher organ. 
 
(68) 
 
 The congress of the union is held once a year; the repre- 
 sentatives at this conference are electedi at regional conferences 
 on the basis of strict proportion, of one delegate to every 2,000 
 members. The Conference elects the central committee of the- 
 union. -The regulations of the Congress and, in the intervals 
 between congresses, the regulations of the Central Committee, 
 are obligatory upon all the organs ;of the union and upon all 
 the members. 
 
 The union also allows the organisation of sections for 
 those categories of labour the working conditions of which are 
 to some extent peculiar, or to those who have comparatively 
 recently entered into the organisation. These sections are 
 organised in the form of elected subsidiary organs attached to- 
 the general trade union but they have not the right to carry 
 out any independent resolutions without the sanction of the 
 union, nor can they have separate funds. In the whole national 
 union there is only one engineers'' section; in. some local 
 organisations there are sections of workers working in gold!, 
 silver and platinum, or there are also sections of workers 
 working in electrical undertakings. There are no other sections- 
 at the present moment. The metal workers' union is in this 
 manner one complete organisation, strongly welded by the 
 common interests of the metal working, industry. 
 
 This structure of the metal workers' union was developed 
 in the process of prolonged organisation work, and fo.und its 
 expression in the rules of the union organs accepted at the 
 second Congress of the Union. 
 
 There are three questions which are of the greatest interest 
 in the development of the organisation; these are: (1) the 
 relations between the factory committees and the union, (2) the 
 regional organisations, (3) the inclusion of engineers in the 
 unions. (Note: the engineers referred to here are the higher 
 engineers and not the mechanics). 
 
 The first question stood out very sharply in the period 
 directly after the October Revolution when the factory com- 
 mittees and the unions were faced with the same problem in 
 the sphere of organising production, namely, to replace the 
 overthrown governing authority of capital by a new directing 
 order. 
 
 The conditions were too new; there had been no previous 
 experience; therefore hesitation and experimenting were inevit- 
 able. But the new problems before the trade unions — problems 
 compelling them to shift the centre of gravity of their labours to 
 the sphere of economic construction — ^made it essential for all 
 the economic institutions of the proletariat to fuse into a single 
 organisation ; a form' of organisation was found which fused all 
 the organising forces into one; the factory committees were 
 converted into the embryo of the union, the unit of its organisa- 
 tion. The experience of more than two years' work has 
 sufficiently justified this form. 
 
 The second question in the sphere of prg-anisation had 
 both a practical and theoretical significance. Its practical 
 significance lay in the fact that in such a tremendous territory 
 as Russia it was difficult to construct rapidly a centralised 
 union. 
 
<t9) 
 
 The regional organisation's were necessary in the transi- 
 tional stages toward a centralised union, but they became an 
 obstacle in the path of the creation of such a union after thfe 
 prelimmary organising Work had been carried out. The 
 second All-Russian Conference of the Metal Workers' Union 
 therefore dissolved all the regional organisations. 
 
 This question was a question of principle in those regions 
 where national peculiarities created special conditions of work. 
 Thus the question of the Ukrainian regional organisations was 
 bound up with the Ukrajinian 'national que&tion. But the long 
 years of: joint struggle and lidentity of . economic interests 
 established such unbreakable ties between the Ukrainian metal 
 workers and those of Central Russia, that the inclusion of the 
 Ukrainian metal Workers in the AU-R'ussian Union, after their 
 liberation from Skoropadsky, and later from' Denikin, was 
 absolutely painless. There was never any tendency among the 
 metal workers in the Ukraine or in the Don basin which 
 necessitated the .'establishment of the federal principle in the 
 trade union organisation. The Ukraine, like the whole of 
 Russia is divided up into districts, all of which enter into a 
 single centralised metal workers' union. 
 
 Finally, the third question of admittance of engineers to 
 membership of the union was of considerable importance to our 
 union as it was for all other anions in Russia. 
 
 Under the capitalist regime engineers in the main were 
 outside the working class, and .certam sections of them were 
 even hostile. The engineers did not understand the construc- 
 tive aims of the October Revolution; they only saw in the class 
 which had jiist come to power, the ability to destroy the _ forces 
 of production. The inevitable tension of relations in the 
 factories helped to increase the estrangement, but the process 
 of reconstructing the economic life of the country which is now 
 going on, as well as the historical lessons in the Ural and the 
 Ukraine, where capital assumed the most repulsive form of 
 speculation, and plundered the productive wealth of the 
 country, were an impetus to a change in the attitude on the part 
 of the engineers toward the workers. The workers and the 
 engineers first found common ground and one might say a 
 common language in the metal workers' union. 
 
 The All-Russian Conference of Metal Engineers which 
 took olace in August, 1919, was the first conference in, the world 
 where the organised proletariat and the engineers met for the 
 discussion ot general questions of the economic revival of the 
 country. Here we have the first step towards the co-operation 
 between the physical and mental workers, and in this connection 
 the Conference has an historical significance. As we have 
 alreadv stated, all engineers are included in ithe union, ,form 
 separate sectibns and participate in the solution' of all questions 
 affectmg the union. 
 
 These are the main features in the present organisation of 
 the All-Russia" Metal Workers' Union. Its mam work was. 
 always determined by the more fundamental problems facing the 
 proletariat as a class. 
 
(70) 
 III. 
 
 THE UNION, THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT AND THE 
 
 COMMUNIST PARTY. 
 
 As in the years of Tsarism, so in the months of Kerensky 
 and during the past years of the Soviet Government the Metal 
 workers' union invariably and uninterruptedly associated its 
 work with the general revolutionary struggle of the working 
 class. Although, formally independent of the Party, the Union in 
 fact submitted itself to the directions of the left wfing of the 
 Social-Democrats— i.e., the Bolshevik Party, and subsequently 
 the Communist Party. During the reign of the Tsar and right 
 up to the beginning of the war, the Petrograd Metal Workers' 
 Union carried on an inseparably connected economic and 
 political struggle. Every economic strike Was converted into 
 a blow against the existing political system. The masses of the 
 members of the union were brought up in a spirit of revolu- 
 tionary social democracy. • 
 
 After the February Revolution the Petrograd and Moscow 
 unions, and subsequently the provisional Central Committee 
 from the first days of its existence, took up a revolutionary 
 position. The cry " all power to the Soviets " was the more 
 easily acceptable to the union from the fact that the direct 
 acquaintance with the life in the factory, the lockouts of factory 
 workers, the rise in the cost of living after every increase in 
 wages, all showed that th'e struggle for the improvement 
 of the economic cond|itions of life of the proletariat must be 
 conducted as a struggle for the conquest of the means of pro- 
 duction. For that reason, when the sixth conference of the 
 Bolshevik Party gathered in Petrograd at the. period ot the 
 Korniloiif offensive, the metal workers' union was the first to 
 welcome it. For the same reason the Moscow metal workers' 
 union called an extremely well-organised one-day general strike 
 of protest on the 25th of August, 1917 (new style), when the 
 State convention of all the bourgeois and compromising socialist 
 parties opened in Moscow. During* the October Revolution the 
 metal workers' union took a most energetic part and handed 
 over its machinery for the purpose of assisting the establish- 
 ment of the Soviet Government. 
 
 At its inaugural conference in January, 1918, the union 
 formulated its fundamental tasks under the new social system. 
 The Conference decided to subordinate all the work of the Union 
 to 1 the task of strengthening the Soviet system and organising 
 national economic and social life. This two-fold task remain? 
 up to the present moment the fundamental task of the union, and 
 the subsequent conferences which have taken place since then 
 have endeavoured to seek means of developing this work. 
 
(71) 
 IV. 
 
 THE ORGANISATION OF THE METAL WORKING 
 INDUSTRY. 
 
 One of the greatest tasks of the union which have been 
 carried out during the tw0 and a half years of existence of 
 Soviet Russia has been the creation of new economic organs in 
 the metal industry. 
 
 All the existing organs from the highest to the lowest 
 have been created with the closest and direct participation of 
 the union. All factory managements, 'the directorates of 
 socialist trusts as well as the collegiate 'ot the supreme economic 
 organisation in the metal industry of the republic — the Metal 
 Department of the Supreme Council of Public Economy, are 
 appointed by agreement between the respective trade union 
 organs and State institutions, •■ usually from candidates put 
 forward by the union. Thus during the past year the Central 
 Committee of the Union confirmed the appointment of 134 
 factory (managements consisting of 64 per cent, workers, 8.5 
 per cent, employees and 27.5 per cent, engineers. 
 
 The union in conjunction with the Metal Department of 
 the Supreme Council of Public Economy has carried out 
 important work in organising the socialist trusts in the metal 
 industry, which are constructed on purely industrial lines. 
 Usually conferences were called o;f factory committees and 
 factory managements, embracing several factories, at which 
 <luestions of trustification and {production programmes were dis- 
 cussed and at which the election of the head director of the 
 trust took place. Thus at the present time the following lafge 
 trusts exist in the metal industry. 
 
 1. The State Machine Construction Works is a trust 
 ■embracing the, largest locomotive and Railway Car construction 
 •works like the Sormova, Kolomensk, Briansk and Kharkoff 
 Works as well as a group consisting ot the Koulebaksk, 
 Tashinsk and Wickson Works. The number of workers employed 
 at these works amounts to 45,000. Ati the head of the direc- 
 torate are comrades who formerly worked in the union, and 
 ■who were elected to the head management by the works con- 
 ference. 
 
 2. The Central Management of the Heavy Industry 
 (which embraces the largest metal works in the Don iBasin 
 like the Dnieprowsk, Briansk and Mourievsk, altogether 27 
 works with 42,000 workers) is composed of comrades enjoying 
 the complete confidence, of the Union, one of whom; is a former 
 member of the Central Committee of the Union. 
 
 3. At the head of the Central Directorate of Artillery 
 IVo'rks (which einbrace all metal works producing war 
 material) there are comrades who were elected at the conferences 
 .and confirmed by the union. 
 
 4. In the Ural, five district managements were organised 
 ■embracing all the metal works lin the Urals, and organised in 
 .the same manner as those above. 
 
(72) 
 
 5. The Collegiate of the Metal Department of ch& 
 Supreme Council of Public Economy is organised by the Central 
 Committee of the Union in agreement with the Presxdmni of 
 the Supreme Council of Public Economy. Of the five members 
 of the Collegiate two are members of the Central Committee. 
 
 6. There has also been established a Colleg-iate of the 
 Electrical Department of the Supreme Council of Public 
 Economy and a Head Management of electrical undertakings, 
 wttiich embraces all electrical works like the late Central 
 Electrical Company," the late Siemens, Shucjcert, etc. 
 
 All other metal factories are organised on similar lines; 
 they are united into trusts or subordinated to local government 
 metal departments. Once a year conferences take place in every 
 trust composed of representatives of factory Committees and 
 factory managements, to which the management of the trust 
 reports. The union takes a very active part in guiding the 
 work of these conferences. 
 
 THE UNION AND COMPULSORY LABOUR. 
 
 Having accepted the organisation of industry as its funda- 
 mental task, the Metal Workers' Union was' one of the first ta 
 put forward the idea of introducing generaF compulsory labour^ 
 of attaching the workers to the factories, and the obligatory 
 transfer of labour power from one undertaking to another; in a. 
 word the idea of what is now called the mlilitarisation of labour. 
 The resolution carried at the second conference of the Union 
 which took place in January, 1919, dealing with the participa- 
 tion of the unions in the organisation and management of 
 industry among other things says : 
 
 " For the purpose of maintaining a sufficient staff of 
 workers in the factory, and for the proper utilisation of the- 
 labour power of the staff, the conference considers it necessary 
 to introduce general obligatory labour based on the cotai- 
 pulsory census and distribution of labour power by the indus- 
 trial unions in conformity with the requirements of national 
 economy. It is necessary also to prevent the departure and 
 transfer of workers from important undertakings to others- 
 without thfe consent of the industrial union." 
 
 In this manner the supreme organ of the union, the Con-- 
 ference, on its own initiative put forward a measure which 
 in capitalist countries would lead to the practical dissolution, 
 of the labour unions. The experience of the metal workers' 
 union on this question goes to show that this measure has had 
 a useful effect in the organisation of industry, particularly in 
 the armament factories, and the function and importance of 
 the union has not only not decreased but, on the contrary, 
 they were to a considerable ^degree strengthened and enlarged. 
 The Metal Workers' Union is proud in the consciousness of 
 the fact that, thanks to these measures, it has succeeded in. 
 increasing the defensive powers of the country and has helped, 
 in the defeat of the forces of the counter-revolution. 
 
(73) 
 ' ' VI. 
 
 THE FIXING OF WAGE^ RATES. 
 The largest sphere of work of the union' lies in the intro- 
 <luction of wage rates for persons employed in the metal 
 mdustry. The union has worked out a uniform scale which 
 embraces all workers, office staff, technicians, engineers 
 eniployed in metal working and metallurgical undertakings. 
 
 The 'wage rates define the legal position of the worker in 
 production and cover all aspects of ,the productivity and' the 
 valuation of labour. 
 
 The scale establishes the standard of output of separate 
 workers, of gangs, and whole factories, and connects the 
 standard of wages with the quantity of output. 
 
 The union was guided in its task of working out wage 
 rates by the resolution on the regularisation of wages carried 
 at the second conference in January, 1919. We quote this 
 resolution almost an full as it lays do'wn the theoretical basis 
 and practical policy of the Union in connection with wages. 
 
 " Having heard the report on the system of wages the 
 Second All-Russian Conference of Metal Workers recognises: 
 
 1. In the period of capitalist economy the workers' 
 struggle 'with the employers for ithe improvement of their 
 material condition^, which compelled the further technical 
 development of capitalist production, inevitably expressed itself 
 in the demand for monetary guarantee of the minimum standard 
 •of living. 
 
 2. Under such conditions, the only system of money pay- 
 ment for labour was daily or- monthly, wages, the raising of 
 which, while improving the condition of the; workers, compelled 
 the employers in their capitalist interest to perfect the methods 
 of management and to introduce new and more suitable means 
 of production as well as to unite isolated economic units in 
 large trustified undertakings. 
 
 3. In the period of socialist revolution which Russia is 
 now experiencing, payment of labour by time loses its character 
 as a means of protecting the interests of labour, for the reason 
 that to the extent to which the State authorities succeed in 
 acquiring the economic apparatus of the country, ihe economic 
 apparatus is concentrated on the task of satisfying the essential 
 requirements of the working class. 
 
 4. At the same time, as a result of the transition of the 
 whole economic apparatus into the hands of the proletarian 
 State, payment of wages on a time rate can no longer fulfil its 
 former function of compelling technical developments in under- 
 takings, leading to the industrial development of the country, 
 for the reason that the economic class struggle between thte 
 proletariat and employers has become a historical anachronism 
 in a period of proletarian dictatorship. 
 
 5. In the transitional period of development of national 
 economy, in the struggle of the working class for the acquire- 
 ment of the economic apparatus, the most powerful means of 
 rteviting Russian industry is • the administrative-technical 
 reconstruction of undertakings with complicated organs of 
 
(74) 
 
 management, and the technical reorganisation of factories, on 
 the principle of the fullest subdivision of labour of the managmg 
 staff as well as of separata workers. 
 
 6. Thus as a condition precedent to .the organisation 
 Which should accustom Russian industry to the spirit, _ tiitnert® 
 foreign to her, of modern, large. Western European industry, 
 in the conditions which we are experiencing at the present 
 moment, it is to a considerable degree important to 
 standardise labour by a definite system of wages based on the 
 principle of the responsibility of the Workers for the pro- 
 ductivity of their labour. 
 
 The Conference therefore resolves: 
 
 1. As the improvement of the condition of the working 
 class in the period of the political dictatorsMp of the pro- 
 letariat wholly depends on the success of its efforts to revive 
 the productive forces of the country, the All-Russia Union 
 of Metal Workers must construct its system of wages as a 
 system which regulates productivity with the aim of reviving 
 national economic life. 
 
 2. The piecework system of remuneration applied during 
 the last six months played an important historical part Jin the 
 process of reviving Russian industry, and must be practised in 
 the future in so far as the possibilities of changing over to a 
 more perfect method of remuneration are still technically un- 
 realisable. 
 
 3. The Congress recognises as the fundament3.1 principle 
 of remuneration of labour, the collective responsibility of the 
 working class of a given' undertaking or group of undertakings 
 (trusts) for the general output. The Congress proposes to the 
 Central Committee to exert its" efforts to widely extend this 
 system of wages." 
 
 All the leading work as well as the work of carrying out 
 the wage rates is done by the union, for which a special part 
 of the union apparatus is adapted. In the .factories the 
 evaluation and standardisation or labour is carried out by a 
 special trade union so-called " Wages Committee." This 
 Committee is elected under the guidance of the union by the 
 workers and employees of a given undertaking, and is guided 
 in its work by the regulations of the regional branch of the 
 union. Attached to this Committee there is a standardisation 
 bureau which ascertains the standard of output of the workers> 
 groups of workers and the factory. Persons representing the 
 higher technical staff also participate in the work of the 
 committee and the bureau. The absence of opposing class 
 interests in the factory renders the work of the wages com- 
 mittee and the factory management to a considerable extent 
 harmonious. All. conflicts which may arise from a misinter- 
 pretation of the guiding instructions of the union or simply 
 from insubordination are submitted for decision to the regional 
 branch of the union. The latter organises a special wages 
 department which supervises all the work of establishing wage 
 rates in the metal' Works of the region. The highest authority 
 in the matter of wages in the metal industry is the central com- 
 mittee of the union, which has a special wages-standardisation 
 department. 
 
(75) 
 
 The central committee examines and confirms all systems 
 of wages operating in metal works and keeps control over the 
 carrymg out of the standards valuation. The orders and 
 instructions, within the limits of particular wage rates decrees 
 issued by the central State authority, are obligatory upon the 
 directorates of the trusts, works' managements and other 
 economic organs in the metal industry. Thus, the metal 
 workers' union bears full responsibility for the correct 
 regulation of wages in the metal industry. 
 
 The fundamental principle guiding the union in this work 
 has been explained ,in the resolution of the second conference 
 quoted above. This principle was confirrtied at the third con- 
 ference, which supplemented it with a number of instructions 
 of a practical character. The experience of the metal workers' 
 union during this time also to a considerable degree confirmed 
 the fundamental wages policy. The only_ guiding line of the 
 union in^ the sphere of wag'es from the 'time of the October 
 revolution has been to raise the productivity of labour, to 
 develop a rational organ,isation of labour, and to arouse a 
 healthy competition arhong the workers to raise the pro- 
 ductive forces of the country. The rnetal workers' union was 
 the first to put forw^ard such an understanding of the wages 
 question under the new conditions, and it succeeded in proving 
 the correctness of its attitude to all the other labour unions in 
 Russia. Connected with the question of wages are the questions 
 of supplying the workers wiith working clothes and the protec- 
 tion of labour. The union works out the fdirm of costume 
 necessary for a given work, defines the standard on which 
 special articles and requirements such as mittens, soap, leather 
 iackets should be issued, and controls the manner in which 
 this plan is carried out by the supply department. 
 
 Protection of Labour. 
 In the work of protection of labour the union takes it 
 upon itself to co-operate with the authorities (factory inspec- 
 tors who are elected by the union) (in the working out and 
 execution of measures connected with the improvetnents of 
 technical and sanitary conditions of labour. In the factories 
 the factory committees organise special committees for the pro- 
 tection of labour. Such commlittees are also attached to the 
 regional branches of the union and the central committee. 
 Unfortunately the extremely difficult material and productive 
 conditions under which the republic has lived up to now has 
 rendered it impossible for this gteat work to be properly 
 developed. 
 
 VII. 
 EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY. 
 Educational work also occupies one of the foremolst places 
 in the general work of the union. The union occupies itself 
 narticularly with the questions of professional and technical 
 education of the young and the spreading of technical know-, 
 Ibd&e among adult workers. In this sphere the union works 
 in the closest contact with the State educational organs. 
 
(76) 
 
 Equally close contact is established between the union 
 rfnd what is known as the " Proletcult," i.e., an organisauoiV) 
 engaged in the development of. the elenients of proletarian art 
 and science. Many; factory co^miAittees. have an educational, 
 conjmitte.e attached to them. woJ'king with the close covopera-. 
 tjori of the " Proletcult':" These committees organise clubs, 
 theatres, local libraries, etc., in connection with the factories. 
 
 Concluding its work in the beginning- of April of this,, 
 year the third All-Russian conference of the metal workers' 
 union worked out a plan of work covering all the spheres of 
 the union's acCivity. This conference has considerable import- 
 ance for the union as it formulated problems for the current 
 year. The union decided to , take up the work of reviving the 
 metal industry with the same energy that it has hitherto shown 
 in assisting the proletarian State on the military fronts. 
 
 The Struggle Against Counter- Revolution. 
 The preceding years were the most difficult in the life ot 
 our union. The basic spheres of the metal industry, the Don- 
 Basin and the Ural were outside the sphere of influence of the 
 union and lay under the brutal heel of the Russian and inter- 
 national counter-revolution. The blockade and the isolation 
 from the largest sources of fuel, raw material and food created 
 a particularly critical situation in the metal industry. More 
 than once the difficult situation drove the pusillanimous to 
 desperation and befogged the minds of those who had less class 
 consciousness. At times even hunger with its vice-like grip- 
 paralysed the muscles of the warriors. But on each occasion the 
 union appealed to proletarian discipline and rallied the workers 
 to each struggle for the triumph of the dictatorship of the pro- 
 letariat. Such was the position at the beginning of 1918 
 during the advance of German imperialism, when the central- 
 committee of the union placed itself and the whole apparatus of 
 the union completely at the disposal of the Council of Peoples' 
 Commissaries. Such was also, the position in the summer of the 
 same year during the Czecho- Slovak revolt when the central 
 Committee mobilised new forces. The Koltchak offensive and 
 later the advance of Denikin compelled us to throw new forces 
 on the front. The workers of the Ural factories almost entirely' 
 left the factories for the front. The union mobilised tens of 
 thousands of its members in Central Russia. Many responsible' 
 leaders of the union entered the ranks of the Red Army. Many 
 of these are no more. This tremendous concentration of effort 
 naturally reflected itself upon the state of production, but the 
 results of it made it possible for a third conference of the union 
 with tremendous energy to take up the work of reconstruction. 
 Even in these difficult years the metal workers' union acquired' 
 considerable experience in organising socialist economic life, and 
 this experience as well as the experience ot comrades returning' 
 from the front is of decisive importance. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALISM. 
 
 The union follows with particular attention and interest the' 
 development of the Labour Movement in Western Europe and 
 America and particularly the Work of the metal workers' unions 
 related to it. 
 
(77) 
 
 In spite of the great obstacles separating, us at the present 
 "moment from other countries and the struggle of our foreign 
 ■comrades, we are pleased above all with the fact that they too 
 are raising the same questions of production that we raised 
 previous to the October* revolution. The greatest desire of our 
 union is to share our experiences with our comirades and to 
 relate to them the' story of our struggle. 
 
 The Central Committee of the union in January of this 
 year sent out an invitation by radio to all the metal workers' 
 "unions in other countries to our third congress. We received a 
 number of replies and greetings from metal workers' unions of 
 ■Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, 
 and Finland, from whom we learned of the forthcoming inter- 
 aiational congress of Metal Workers. Our union pictures an 
 international federation of metal unions based only on a revotlu- 
 tionary stfuggle for the demands o| the Third International. 
 The opportunist international bureau of metal workers' unions, 
 headed by Alexander Schlick, sufficiently exposed during the 
 war the vapid schemes of the old trade unionists, who were 
 nipable to throw off their craft ideas and raise themselves to the 
 level of the great class probleni of the revolutionary inter- 
 national. 
 
 ' The revolutionary struggle is unfolding in all countries, 
 and the metal workers as the section of the proletariat with the 
 greatest class training is' everywhere at the head of the rfevolu- 
 tionary struggle. Our union is therefore confident of the early 
 possibility of the revolutionary international organisation of 
 metal workers. The third conference of the union instructed 
 the Central Committee to take steps towards the establishment 
 ■of such a union. 
 
 The Russian Metal Workers' Union is awaiting' with eager 
 attention the news of the onward march of their foreign com- 
 rades. On the basis of its historical experience it is convinced 
 that the oiily path to the revival of humanity is the dictatorship 
 ■of the proletariat. The Russian Metal Workers' Union says to 
 its foreign comrades — ■" see, we experienced .the rule of the 
 iDourgeoisie, the rule of a coalition, we thought to improive our 
 position by fighting for higher wages, but our :,experiences 
 •compelled us to tafcte the path of sociaUst revolution. The 
 first years were indescribably difficult, but we are winning and" 
 will conquer and with our own hands will establish the reign of 
 labour, and we look forward with full confidence to the victory 
 ■of the workers of Western Europe." 
 
(73) 
 
 THE 
 
 All- Russia Agricultural Workers' Union: 
 
 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF ITS FORMATION. 
 
 Issued by the Central Committee of the Union. 
 
 The All-Russia Union of Agricultural Workers as at 
 present constituted is of recent origin and growth. It was not 
 until after the revolution of October, 1917, that they saw the 
 necessity of allying^ 'themselves with the city workers ; the Land 
 workers were also carried away with the general revolutionary 
 enthusiasm prevailing at that time. Utitil the revolution of 
 1917 the agricultural workers of Russia had no union of their 
 own, neither during the time of the old Russian feudal system 
 nor during the period of the growth of the capitalist , regime. 
 Some attempts to organise the Agricultural workers were made' 
 during the revolutionary movement of 1904-5; the union of th& 
 workers of Boutirsky Farm, ,in Moscow, can be quoted as aiL 
 example, but these were of a scattered improvised character, 
 without any general plan or aim; they had no serious influence- 
 upon the development of the Agricultural workers' organisation. 
 But those attempts were soon given up owing to the reaction, 
 which suppressed the revolutionary movement. 
 
 Only after the February revolution of 1917 were small 
 unions of agricultural workers started, chiefly in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the capital and ■ near industrial centres. 
 This fact can only be explained by the influence of the 
 industrial proletarians of the Trade Unions' who were con- 
 stantly increasing in numbers, and acquiring a strong 
 revolutionary spirit. But all these unions were of a very- 
 primitive character 'both in their form, ,of organisation and ia 
 the aims they pursued. In the first place their lack of experi- 
 ence in organisation was very marked, and secondly there 
 was the influence of the compromising leaders, whb were 
 mostly of the socialist revolutionary party with narrow bourgeois 
 ideals and an agrarian programme full of contradictions and 
 omissions. 
 
 These unions in the period of their development during 
 the February revolution aimed mainly at protecting their cratt 
 interests, and did not realise that the problem confronting^ 
 agricultural workers was the ownership and organisation of 
 production. 
 
C79) 
 
 .■P'^]y ^^ October, 1917, was an end put to this position; 
 the illusions of craft unionism were thrown aside, and first place 
 was given to the) problem of securing working class ownership 
 and organisation of the .industry on communist principles. 
 From this moment a revival took place in the various Agricul- 
 tural Workers' Unions which were in existence. The organisa- 
 tion of new unions was soon started in districts populated by an 
 agricultural proletariat. 
 
 The developinent of the unions was assisted by the 
 organisation of Soviet Farms ',on the nationalised estates . The 
 best organised of these Agricultural Labour Unions were the 
 Luthvanian and White Russian Agricultural Labour Union, 
 the Moscow Union of Orchard Workers, the Petrograd, Tver 
 and Vladimir organisations. In all these organisations the need 
 was felt for ai dommon' centre (and a common, directing head. In 
 order to meet this, an attempt was made to organise a Moscow 
 district ^ Union, which coincided with the division of Central 
 Russia into districts (first half of 1918) ;i but as a consequence 
 of the abolition of the district system, this scheme fell through 
 too. 
 
 The All-Russia Agricultural Workers' Union was called 
 into existence in the 'first half of the year 1919. It was initiated 
 by a Conference of Land workers in Moscow, on February 20, 
 1919; the latter was convened mainly on the initiative of the 
 land surveyors who had their National Union and whose aim 
 was to unite with the mass! of land workers as well as with the 
 groups of agricultural specialists and experts in peasantry. But 
 this first conference, owing to the lack of information, was not 
 a success. Only 69 delegates arrived at the conference, 49 were 
 specialists, land surveyors and agriculturalists, and only twenty 
 represented the workers (17 from the Moscow Landowners' 
 "Union and from the Elets, Jula and Shisk > Agricultural 
 Workers' Union). The Conference worked out rules and elected 
 an executive committee. But owing to the non-proletarian 
 character and small number of its members present, the union' 
 was not registered in the All-Russia Central Council of 
 "Trade Unions. The conference was recognised as a preliminary 
 conference of the executive, as the organising bureau for pre- 
 paring for the convocation of a new conference. 
 
 The first All-Russian conference of landholders, convened 
 by this bureau, assembled in Moscow on June 16, 1919. 
 "fhere were present 142 delegates from 30 districts, repre- 
 senting". 48,000 organised in the Landholders' Union. 
 
 But owing to the non-revolutionary and non-proletarian 
 character of the organising, bureau which convened the con- 
 ference, and the absence of connection With the localities, this 
 conference also proved unsatisfactory. Out of 142 delegates 
 little more than half represented the proletariat; the rest repre- 
 sented agricultural experts and land surveyors, who numbered 
 in all only 5,000 members. Nevertheless this conference was 
 the turning point in the organisation of the Agricultural 
 workers of Russia. 
 
 The leading part at the conference; was taken by the com- 
 munists and labour fractions, who in spite of the large number 
 of non-party delegates present, succeeded in getting all their 
 
(80) 
 
 proposals carried, and. the Central Committee was elected from 
 the list of this fraction. The Central Committee was composed 
 <nf 11 members, of which nine were communists and two were 
 non-party members, representing the experts and sympathisers ;i 
 it should be pointed out thiat one of the members representmg 
 the experts did not attend the Imeetings and the other abandoned 
 the work after two months. 
 
 THE COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF THE UNION. 
 
 The main task of the first Central Coinmittee was _ to 
 ■organise the working masses, to attract them into the Union 
 and to set up a proper' apparatus. According to the rules, all 
 agricultural wage workers are eligible for membership in the 
 union. At the present t,ime the union' is composed of workers 
 and employees on the Soviet Farms (agriicultural orchards, 
 ■ccattle breeding, dairies, experimental stations), labourers as 
 well as specialists working on the Soviet estates and serving in 
 the Central and Local agricultural institutions, as agricul- 
 turalists, land surveyors, etc. •■ 
 
 The union is organised on industrial lines, therefore the 
 workers and employees in auxiliary trades serving the Soviet 
 Farms, i.e., workers in mills, blacksmith shops; also members 
 •of other trades, saddlers, carpenters, joiners, locksmiths, tylers, 
 ooopers, shoemakers, tailors, are eligible for membership. 
 
 On January 1,1920, the number of paying members in the 
 onion was 65,000, but this is only approximate because many 
 local sections dlid not give any information; many could not pay 
 ..their contributions regularly, owing to the great distance and 
 bad communications. The probable number of members is 
 nearer 100,000; according to the data of the Commissariat- 
 ■of Agriculture this number of workers was employed on Soviet 
 Farms alone. As membership is obligatory, it is quite clear 
 that tjie number* of members could not be less, than the number 
 -of workers employed in the industry. 
 
 The Congress organised and drew up a scheme ror 
 organising several sections of the union : such as Agricultural, 
 Horticultural, Forestry, Land Surveying, etc., but it soon 
 became evident that such sub-division was unnecessary and it was 
 therefore abandoned. The land surveyors particularly urged the 
 need for their section, but even they eventually abandoned this 
 pSs'tion, and the Bureau of the section, elected by the conference 
 ■of land surveyors, was dissolved. 
 
 The structure of the union is as follows : There is a' Central 
 Committee (in Moscow) ; in the 'Governments and districts there 
 -are local Departments, aided by Management Committees; on 
 the Farms there are Committees of workers and employees. 
 
 All the organs of the union are elected by a special Con- 
 ference, in which all members participate either through dele- 
 gates (national, government, ouyezd*) or .Conferences of all 
 members on the Farms. 
 
 •The " ouyezd " is a district ■whose nearest equivalent in English is "county,* 
 while " government " refers to a larger area or " province." 
 
(81) 
 
 Conferences of representatives of 'the union are sum- 
 moned, besides the conferences called to decide Economic and 
 admmistrative questions. Up to the present time there has been 
 one All-Russian Conference, held at the end of January and the 
 beginning of February, 1920; it was composed of the represen- 
 tatives of the management Committees of the Provincial Depart- 
 ments, and the most important District Departments. In Pro- 
 vinces and Districts the Conferences of the Committees are held 
 not less than once a month, and 'General Conferences twice a 
 year. 
 
 In the Central Committee and (in the Management Com- 
 mittee of Provincial Departments, there are the following 
 Departments : The Secretariat with an organising Sub-depart- 
 ment, the Standardisation of Wages, Protection of Labour and 
 Educational Departments. The Controlling Department is not 
 yet organised either in the centre, or in the Districts; with the 
 exception of some 'Governments like Tambor, where this Depart- 
 ment controls production on the Sovjiet estates in the whole 
 government; other Management Committees of District Depart- 
 ments have their sections only in those districts where a large 
 number of members are concentrated. 
 
 The following Commissions are formed in connection with 
 the Workers' Committees : wage fixing. Educational Com- 
 missions. 
 
 The Workers' Committees have wage, labour protection, 
 and Educational Sub-Committees, although the latter exist only 
 on large Soviet estates which employ a large number ot work- 
 men. Soviet Farms which are of recent formation have a. 
 common Workers' Committee- the workers' committees in 
 these cases have not been abandoned. 
 
 THE TASKS OF THE UNION. 
 
 The chief objects of the Landworkers' Industrial Union have 
 been: 
 
 (1) The organisation of agriculture on Communist prin- 
 ciples, propagating that idea among the peasants. (2) The 
 increase of efficiency by appropriate means and planned 
 organisation, the expulsion of parasitic' elements, and the estab- 
 lishment of strict Labour discipline. (3) The protection of 
 Labour on the Soviet Farms. (4) Educational work among the 
 agricultural workers, to give first place to abolishing illiteracy 
 and to organise Agricultural schools. 
 
 The participation of the union in the organisation of 
 agriculture took the form chiefly of organising the labour of the 
 workers, the establishment of Control and Management, and 
 direct participation in management by putting forward the best 
 workers in the union for responsible posts in the management. 
 
 The greatest attention iS now given to the organisation of 
 model Soviet farms, as the union is convinced that the success of 
 the propaganda in favour of agriculture on communist principles 
 depends on the organisation of Farms which may serve as an 
 example to the peasants. To carry out successfully this task 
 an information department has been formed which collects all 
 
(82) 
 
 the data relating to agriculture; this data is applied for working 
 out agricultural plans, controlling, etc., and also for calculation 
 of the technical forces (this work is just being organised), in 
 order that the fullest and best use be made of them. The local 
 control of production is carried out, by the workers' Cotaunittees 
 on the various undertakings, which elect a Wage and Standardis- 
 ation, of Labour Committee, to standardise labour and wages 
 according to the instructions of the Central organs of the union; 
 it controls labour discipline, and the proper execution of plans 
 and protection of public property; but the committees do not 
 interfere with the technical administration of the industry, which 
 belongs exclusively to the Management. 
 
 The exception to this rule was m^de in the Tambof Goveni- 
 ment; in February, 1920, in accordance .With the instructions 
 ■of the Government Council of Public Economy, when all the 
 ■Soviet estates were given over to the Wlorkers' Committees^ 
 the former managers of the estates became only technical 
 -executors by the order of the Workers' Committees. The latter 
 -accomplish their task through the technical corporation of the 
 ■Governmental Council of Public Economy. 
 
 The following figures give a general idea of the work of 
 ;the union in connection with organising Soviet ^states: — 
 
 According to statistics provided by the Commissariat ot 
 -Agriculture, previous to the adviance of Denikiri there were in 33 
 governments in Central Russia, 2,463 Soviet estates with a 
 total area of 1,361,490 desiatins of which 745,536 was ploughed 
 ;iand and 313,354 was arable. The number ot permanent 
 ■workers was 53,574 employees, 6,941 experts and others who 
 ■with their families totalled 107,820. The number of horses 
 was 36,727, horned cattle 56,595. 
 
 There were 13.4 desiatins per man and 19.5 per horse. 
 In the northern Governments, Tzaritzin and Astrachan Govern- 
 menits and also on the far South Coast the Soviet estates are 
 ■small — about 20 in each Government. 
 
 The following are the governments in which the .Soviet 
 estates occupy the largest area. 
 
 Number of Estates Territory 
 
 T. he Government of Saratov ... 66 ... 171,455 desiatins 
 
 ,, „ Samara ... 100 ... 194,436 
 
 ,, ,, Voronesh 65 ... 116,350 
 
 ,, „ Kursk ... 118 ... 70,000 
 
 ,, „ Gomel ... 252 163,883 
 
 „ ,, Novgorod 106 ... 50,000 
 
 ,, ,, Moscow... 201 ... 45,413 
 
 „ „ Petrograd 185 ... 22,000 
 
 ,, ,, Smolensk 119 ... 36,350 
 
 -, Orel ... 133 ... 55,000 
 
 The last two governments are remarkable for "their organisation. 
 
(B3) 
 
 In the spring of 1920, in 34 governments of great Russia 
 the estates managed by the Governmental Agricultural Depart- 
 ments mcluded 2,625 Soviet estates managed by the government 
 agricultural Department with the total area 1,399,385, with 
 624,899 of ploughed land. 
 
 In the interest of industrial organisation and increase of 
 •etnciency the union established a definite standard of labour 
 which the workers are expected to maintain. 
 
 The union recognises piecework and the premium bonus 
 system as a stimulus for raising production, ^ut this so far has 
 not been introduced, nor has the naturalisation^ of wages (pay- 
 ment in kind) which m the future will be the corner stone 
 ■of the union wage policy. The wages of Agricultural workers 
 and employees are defined in speqial scales worked out by the 
 Central Committee of the union. This scale is to be supple- 
 mented when details are worked out. 
 
 Little has been done for the protection of labour. 
 This is explained by the fact that the union has only 
 existed a short time; it was therefore impossible not 
 ■only to introduce radical measures for the protection of 
 labour, but even to study this question in order to find a rational 
 solution of the various problems. Moreover, the union was 
 prevented from carrying out this work by the extraordinary 
 ■conditions which prevailed, when the whole attention of the 
 Republic was concentrated on the struggle with the White 
 •Guards who were supported by the Allies. 
 
 The greatest achievement of the unions was the organisa- 
 tion of the Institute of agricultural labour, which is functioning 
 now in most of the Governments. The immediate tasks which 
 the union is endeavouring to achieve in the sphere of protection 
 of labour are: the regulation of food supplies, improvement 
 of housing conditions, seeing to the observation of the Labour 
 Laws in Agriculture, the introduction of a normal working 
 day, the abolition of child labour up to the age of 14, the 
 reduction of the working day for young persons under 18. 
 
 The carrying on of educatjional work was even more 
 •difficult than work in connection with the protection of labour. 
 The lack of trained workers was severely felt, so also was the 
 scarcity of necessary appMances and literature which would 
 answer the demand of the moment. 
 
 Recently, however, work in this direction is being con- 
 ducted more smoothly. In all the governments of Russia a 
 three months' course has been started as well as a one year 
 technical course for training expert agriculturalists; and these 
 should be able to control and direct the Councils of Public 
 ^Economy and carry out various measures in agriculture. 
 
 The union hopes by the end of 1920 to have started a 
 sufficient number of such courses to enable at least the majority 
 if not all workers on the Soviet estates to take them up. 
 
(84) 
 
 The All- Russia Trade Union of Civil 
 Servants. Shop Assistants and Clerks. 
 
 Issued by the Board of the CENTRAt Qommittee of the Union. 
 
 .. {Note.— The first section of the document, dealing with the- 
 general development of Trade Unionism in Russia, has been 
 omitted as it covers the same ground as Lozovsky's article.] 
 
 At the present moment our Trade Union includes all 
 clerks, whatever their profession, working in the dis- 
 tributive and supplying organs (food distribution organs, co- 
 operatives, etc.) and in all Soviet institutions (commissariats. 
 Soviets, councils of national economy, " Centres," etc.), with 
 the exception of the Commissariat of the Means of Com- 
 munication and of Posts and Telegraphs, the employees of. 
 which form part of the corresponding industrial unions. 
 
 THE STRUCTURE OF THE FEDERATION. 
 
 The fundamental nucleus of the union is the committee- 
 of clerks elected at the general assembly of the employees ot 
 a given institution or concern. In; large combined institutions, 
 divided into big departments, each ot which has a strictly deter- 
 mined sphere of functions, and . situated sometimes in various 
 parts of the city, the committees are elected separately in 
 every department or enterprise connected i.with the said, 
 institution. The functions of these committees include the 
 representation of the clerks' interests before the management; 
 the recruiting of new members for the^ union ; the collection of 
 members' contributions; keeping up a permanent contact with 
 the local administration of the union ; the application of the 
 decisions and resolutions of ithe union among the clerks of the 
 given institution ; carrying out all the work of the union in the 
 way of wage classification, protection of labour, culture and! 
 educational wiork ; and raising labour productivity through the - 
 application of labour discipline in the separate institutions. 
 
 All committees of a town or district are united in the 
 local branch of the union (district branch, branch of the city - 
 in Government towns). The chief governing body of the locals 
 
(85) 
 
 branch is the conference of committees, which form the branch ; 
 the runnmg work of the branch is carried out by its executive, 
 elected at the conference of Committees. 
 
 All district branches of a given 'Government or region 
 form the Government branch of the union, controlled by 
 the Government conference and the Government executive; 
 the Government conference is comptosed of representatives 
 elected at the district conferences of committees at a fixed pro- 
 portion, and in the Government town at the city conference of 
 committees; the Government executive and the revision com- 
 mittee are elected by the Government conference. 
 
 The number of branches of the union is 416; they are 
 united into 41 Government departments. Thus each Govern- 
 ment deoartment on the average includes ten branches. At 
 the present moment the federation unites 646,040 members on 
 Russian territory, excluding Siberia, the Ukraina and Turkestan, 
 where the process of organisation of the union is not yet ter- 
 minated^-while at the time of the Second Special Congress in 
 May, 1919, the union counted only 350,000 members; i.e., in 
 the course of one year the number of members increased by 
 about 300,000 or 100 per cent. Each district branch on the 
 average includes 800 members ; and all the 375 district branches, 
 about 300,000 members. Each city branch (in a Government 
 town) has on the average 8,440 members, and 41 Government 
 towns together contain 346,000 members. 
 
 To these we must add 25,000 members in Turkestan, 
 where the branches of the unions are being united by the 
 regional committee which only in the end of March of this year 
 got into touch with the central committee of the union — it could 
 not do it before, this region being cut off from Soviet Russia. 
 
 As regards the borders — Siberia, Ukraina (the Ural is 
 included in the above figures), no exact information can be 
 obtained up to now; neither regarding the restoration of the 
 union organisations destroyed or more or less damaged^ during 
 the domination of Denikin and Koltchak, nor regarding the 
 number of members of the organisations which have already 
 been called into life again, with the exception of the Kharkolf, 
 Kieff and Ekaterinoslafif branches counting together about 
 35,000 members. 
 
 The chief organ of the union is the All-Russian Congress 
 convoked once a year. This elects the central committee and 
 its Board for the management of the activity of the union, which 
 carries on the daily routine work and represents the union. 
 
 The plenum of the central committee is convoked every 
 two months. The delegates to the All-Russian Conference 
 are elected at the Government conferences according to a fixed 
 proportion. At the 2nd Special Congress in 1919 the central 
 committee elected was composed as follows: 21 members, of 
 whom 12 were communists, 6 partisans of the independence of 
 the trade union movement, 3 internationalists; the Board of 
 the central committee was composed of 11 members — 6 com- 
 munists, 3 partisans of the independence of the trade union 
 movement and 2 internationalists; after the fusion of the Inter- 
 
(86) 
 
 nationalist with the Communist party the internationalist 
 members of the centrar committee and of the Board fused with 
 the communists, thus increasing the number of votes of. the 
 latter. 
 
 THE CLASSIFICATION OF; WAGES. 
 
 The wage classification of our union on an All-Russian 
 scale began to be applied only in February, 1919. The entire 
 wage fixing work of the union is concentrated in the TarifiP, 
 Department of the Central Committee. At present all thei 
 branches of the union have central tariff taxation cornmissions, 
 whose duty it is to apply the tariffs in the area of their branch. 
 
 Every institution or enterprise, together with the com- 
 mittee of employees, organises a tariff commission compo'sed 
 of representatives in equal number of the clerks and the 
 administration. 
 
 These commissions divide the clerks into groups and 
 categories of the tariff net work, classifying the work of every 
 single person, and fixing. according to the tariff system the rate 
 of pay, after which the lists are passed on to the Central 
 Tariff Commission of the branch of the union. After having 
 been confirmed by the latter Commission the tariffs become 
 obligatory for the given institution. In case conflicts arise 
 which cannot be settled in the Tariff Department of the Central 
 Committee, the Higher Tariff Commission must be applied to, 
 the decisions of which are final in all questions of detail and 
 of principle. 
 
 Recently the Central Committee drew up a project for 
 normal terms of labour and the introduction of the premium 
 system of wages. These questions are quite new and extremely 
 difficult for our union, but the first steps in this direction have 
 been taken already — the general scheme of the premium system 
 of pay is worked out. This premium question is closely bound 
 up with the question of raising the productivity of labour and 
 of labour discipline; therefore when speaking of this question, 
 several points — besides the one fundamental point, that of strict 
 regulation of the terms of labour — (have to be considered, such 
 as: reduced staffs, individual initiative, definite tasks (the 
 execution of a definite piece of work, within a definite period)," 
 the stage of service in an institution (this being introduced for 
 the purpose of combating the frequent changed of service from 
 one institution into another) . 
 
 In the provinces the premium system' of wages will be 
 applied only after the schemes worked out by the Central 
 Commission of the Union have been confirmed. 
 
 The distribution of special industrial clothing among the 
 clerks also belongs to the sphere of activity of the tariff com- 
 mission. According to the lists presented for the fir^t receiot. 
 138,000 garments have been received (footwear, various upper 
 clothing, warm clothing, overalls, gloves, halt sleeves, etc.), 
 which is about 70 per cent, of all the things required. The 
 lists to be presented for the second receipt are not yet drawn 
 up. 
 
PROTECTION OF LABOUft. 
 
 The work of protection of labour, qf clerks and shop assis- 
 tants employed in the proviinces is not yet properly established 
 chiefly because of the lack of experienced workers, who up to 
 now have been detained on the-fronts of the civil war. Besides, 
 this work can only be fully developed with the improvement of 
 the economic situation of the country, because under .the 
 present conditions many measures concerning protection of 
 labour cannot as yet be applied. Therefore, the activity of pur 
 union in this direction is limited niainly; ;to the (settlement of 
 conflicts and also to the elaboration of various information and 
 regulations connected with the question of labour protectio(n. 
 These latter are then put before the Central Council of Trade 
 Unions and the People's Comm,issariat of Labour for con- 
 firmation, and among them are to be noted: (1) Reports 
 presented to the Council of Peoples Commissaries and the 
 Peoples Commissaries of Labour about reduction o;i staffs in the 
 institutions and stores and the utilisation pf available labour 
 forces; (2) regulation about "inspection" for persons serving 
 in small enterprises; (3) ", regulation about labour discipline" 
 tor employees; (4) information on the question of the 6-hours 
 working day for onice and mental workers employed in institu- 
 tions with 8 hours working day;. (5) regulations about over- 
 time work for persons above 20th tariff category; (6) instruc- 
 tions for application of the " Regulation on disciplinarian 
 courts of honour." 
 
 It is further to be noted that the Union has got permis- 
 sion to give instruction in seven of the biggest centres (Mosciow, 
 Tula, Petrograd, Nishnij Novgorod, Saratoff and Vitebsk). 
 
 In the big centres the union also succeeded in withdrawing 
 underaged children from work and placing them under the care 
 of the Social Maintenance Board. The detailed examination 
 of conditions of life of civil servants, which had been under- 
 taken, could not be carried through becguse of the lack of 
 experienced workers. 
 
 CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL WORK. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great possibilities offered, the activity 
 of the union in this direction has not developed yery much. 
 This fact can be partly explained, by the foundation of a large 
 number of governmental and general proletarian educational 
 institutions, and such an activity, on the part of the unions 
 would therefore, in most of the towns, introduce a kind of 
 parallelism in the work of the above organisations. 
 
 In a considerable measure the educational work of the 
 union is so little developed because of general causes, i.e., 
 the impossibility of applying a sufficient number of experienced 
 workers ion this work, these latter being needed for 
 military purposes and for the reconstruction of the socialist 
 State There are as yet no complete data of all the educational 
 institutions, training by the union clubs, libraries, scientific 
 and professional courses. In connection with the scarcity of 
 
(88) 
 
 skilled workers in the institutions, many departments of our 
 federation (especially in the Ural where the skilled workers had 
 been evacuated' by Koltchak, partly by, force and partly of their 
 own free will) started the organisation of courses for special 
 professional training. The result of these courses has up to the 
 the present proved very satisfactory, thus filling the ranks of 
 the skilled workers. 
 
 At present steps are being- taken tor the centralisation ot 
 the activity of the union in the spheres of professional training' 
 and also in other spheres of educational work, following the 
 example of other branches of the union's activity — the financial 
 and tariff organisation — the centralisation of which has been 
 attained already in the most essential points. 
 
(89) 
 
 The All -Russia Union of Art Workers. 
 
 Issued by the Central Committee of the 
 All-Russia Union of Art Workers. 
 
 After the February Revolution more than 15 art unions 
 were created in Russia. These unions were independent and in 
 no way connected with each other. (1) The National Union 
 of Musical Art Workers. (2) The National Union of Actors. 
 (3) The National Union of Scenic and Arena Artists. (4) 
 Union of Circus Actors. 5) Union of Kino Workers. (6) 
 Union of Actors of the private ballet. (7) Union of Stage 
 Workers (theatrieal hair-dressers, scene shifters, dress rpakers, 
 etc.). (8) Union of Stage Employees (cloak-room attendants, 
 wardrobe keepers, etc.). (9) Union of Photographic Workers, 
 f 10) Union of Painters, f 11) Union of Artists of the New Art. 
 (12) Union ©f Sculptors. (13) Union of Artists of Applied Arts 
 and Art Industries. (14) Union of Engravers. (15) Union of 
 Architects. (16) Union of Composers, etc. 
 
 All these above mentioned narrow-corporative and craft 
 Unions were never of great importance. Actors in a theatre 
 entered one Union, orchestra players joined another, stage work- 
 men a third, etc. All these unions issued different instructions — 
 and it is not to be wondered at that since the revolution the Art 
 Workers decided to create one large Union, which was finally 
 formed in the beginning of 1919. At the present moment the 
 All-Russia Union of Art Workers unites .workers in all branches 
 of art and enters with equal rights into the family of proletarian 
 unions, headed by the All-Russia Central Council of Trade 
 Unions. All these above mentioned Unions joined hands and 
 formed one big Union of Art workers including all actors O'f 
 the drama, opera, ballet, cinematograph, circus and music hall : 
 piaiiagers, balletmasters, music conductors, composers, 
 dramatists and authors of cinematographic scenarios, musicians 
 (iacluding those in the Red Army and the fleet), chorus singers 
 (including church and synagogue choristers, chapel masters, 
 organ players, etc.)., cinematographic operators, acrobats, 
 clowns, circas riders, and riding masters, trainees, athletas, 
 wrestlers, gymnasts, souplet singers and other music-hall actors, 
 theatre artists (scene painters, property wen, etc.) as well as 
 image painters, photographers, workers in the kino-ateliers. 
 
(90) 
 
 theatrical hair dressers, and costumiers, dressmakers, shoe 
 makers, carpenters, electrical engineers, house painters, theatre 
 servants, watchmen, circus saddlers, and stable boys. The great 
 employees (managers, cashiers, controllers, etcl and the door 
 keepers, Chaliapine as well as the simple ticket porter, enter with 
 equal rights into the Union. We must add that the Union includes 
 also tuners of musical instruments, musical instrument makers, 
 teachers in all branches of art as well as employees in picture 
 galleries and museums and all employees in the following depart- 
 ments of the Peoples Commissariat for Education: (1) The 
 Theatre Department, (2) Music Department, (3) Photographic 
 and Cinematographic Department, (4) Department of Fine Arts, 
 (5)Department for the safe-keeping of museums and monuments 
 of antiquity. 
 
 Each theatre, circus, cinematograph and workshop has a 
 local committee which is the primary organ of the Union. The 
 functions of the latter are the same as the functions of local 
 factory committees in other Unions. At the present time the 
 Union ntumbers nearly 150,000 members and has .branch 
 offices in more than 150 towns. 
 
 Since the annexation of Siberia, Ukraine, Crimea and 
 Turkestan the number of members and branch offices increases 
 every day. 
 
 The All-Russian Congress of Art Workers which was held 
 in Moscow in May, 1919, elected^ a central committee composed 
 of 5 musicians, 1 composer, 5 actors, 3 kino players, 2 music- 
 hall actors, 1 juggler, 3 stage workmen, (1 dress maker, 1 car- 
 penter and 1 mechanic) 1 painter and 1 sculptor. 
 
 The Union unites all the Art Workers without any con- 
 sideration of their political opinions. The union has a com- 
 munist fraction which exercises great influence. 
 
 The principal question dealt with by the Union is the 
 salary question. Detailed rates are settled for every category 
 and are strictly based on grades of skill. 
 
 Under the reign of the Tsar the artists were in a miser- 
 able position; now they are in better conditions than other 
 workers. Before the revolution theatres played every day; 
 theatre workers did not know what rest was. Now, according 
 to a decree of the Soviet Government, all theatre workers have 
 their holiday on Monday instead of Sunday because it would be 
 unreasonable to deprive working people of theatres on Sunday.. 
 Before the revolution jna^agers and impresarios took from 
 theatre workers everything they could. Now, all theatres are 
 nationalised and are administered by a collegiate board which 
 includes representatives of the Union of Art Workers. The 
 Union has also its representatives in the collegiate boards of 
 the Art Section of the Commissariat of Education and in the 
 corresponding departments of local Soviets. 
 
 Now that the blockade may soon be raised, we are ready 
 to take the initiative for the organisation of an International 
 Union of Art Workers. 
 
(91) 
 
 Art is international. Artists have always been inter- 
 nationalists. 
 
 f There is great need for the organising of a world Labour 
 Exchange of Art Workers. We appeal to our European com- 
 rades. They must help us to organise an International Union 
 of Art Workers. 
 
 ^ Let the International language Esperanto be the official 
 language of this Union. 
 
 The Russian people have awakened from their slumber. 
 They long for theatres, music and works of Art. But the needs 
 of several millions cannot be satisfied by our artists alone. In 
 towns as well as in the country actors have to play .several 
 times through the evening. We appeal to our European com- 
 rades to come and help us in our work. There is a lack of 
 material necessary to the development ot Arts. 
 
 Europe must give us cinematograph films, " Eastmap 
 Kodak " apparatus, chemicals, musical instruments, strings, 
 mouth pieces, colours, etc. The blockade must be raised. 
 
 Come to Russia, comrades, and you will see that the 
 Russian Soviet Republic is neither a desert nor a barbarous 
 country. You will convince yourselves that Art occupies a 
 place of honour in our lives. 
 
 We are waiting for vou. Workers, in all branches of Art. 
 
 Send your delegation to Moscow and give us the oppor- 
 tunity to send our comrades to confer with you. 
 
 Long Live the International Union ot Art Workers I 
 
THE TWO INTERNATIONALS. 
 
 By R. Palme Dutt 
 {Secretary of ihi luttrHationnl Section of The Labour Research Department). 
 
 An Account of International Socialism after 
 the war ; the Second. International ; the 
 Third International ; the' principles at issue 
 in the controversy of communism and social 
 democracy ; the position in th« leading 
 countries. 
 
 Is. 6d., paper ; 2s. 6d. cloth ; postage 8d. extra. The Labour 
 Research Department, 34, Eccleston Square, London, S.W. i. 
 
 THE CAPITALIST PRESS. 
 
 Showing what the Press is ;. who owns each 
 paper; who directs policy;; the Harmsworth 
 Group ; ' the Dalziel Group, etc. 
 
 2d., post free 8|d. I.L.P. Information Committee, 5, York 
 Buildings, Abelphi, London, W.C. 2. 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 Recommendations on the Government of 
 Egypt by a Committee of the In,ternational 
 Section of the Labour Research Department, 
 together with a historical outline of the 
 Egyptian question by E. M. Forster. 
 
 6d., post free 7d. The Labour Researcb Department, 34, 
 Eccleston Square, London, S-W.' i. 
 
 WHO PAYS FOR THE 
 ATTACKS ON LABOUR? 
 
 An exposure of the strike-breaking organisa- 
 tions and propaganda agencies of Big Capital ; 
 the British Empire Union ; the Middle 
 Classes Union, etc. 
 
 2d., post free 2^d. I.L.P. Information Committee, 5, York 
 Buildings, Adelphi, London, W.C. 2. , 
 

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