union movement, to pit the economically organized proletariat against
the organs of the political dictatorship of its own class, has led the
groups which were supporting this slogan, to an open struggle against
the Soviet Government and has placed them outside the ranks of the
working class.
In the course of the practical cooperation with the Soviet Government in
the work for the strengthening and organization of the nation’s economic
life, the professional trades unions have passed from control over
industry to organization of industry, taking an active part in the
management of individual enterprises as well as in the entire economic
life of the country.
But the task of nationalization of all the means of production and the
organization of society on the new principles of Socialism demands
persistent and careful labor involving the reconstruction of the entire
governmental apparatus, the creation of new organs of control, and
regulation of production and distribution, based on the organization and
activity of the laboring masses who are themselves directly interested
in the results.
This makes it imperative for the trades unions to take a more active and
energetic part in the work of the Soviet Government (through direct
participation in all governmental institutions, through the organization
of proletarian mass control over their actions, and the carrying out, by
means of their organization, of individual problems with which the
Soviet Government is confronted), to aid in the reconstruction of
various governmental institutions and in the gradual replacement of the
same by their own organizations by amalgamating the unions with the
governmental institutions.
However, it would be a mistake at the given stage of development of the
professional trades union movement with the insufficiently developed
organization to convert immediately the unions into governmental organs
and to amalgamate the two organizations as well as for the unions to
usurp of their own accord the functions of governmental institutions.
The entire process of complete amalgamation of the professional unions
with the organs of government administration must come as an absolutely
inevitable result of their work, in complete and close cooperation and
harmony and the preparation of the laboring masses, for the task of
managing the governmental apparatus and all the institutions for the
regulation of the country’s economic life.
This, in its turn, places before the unions the problem of welding
together the as yet unorganized proletarian and semi-proletarian masses
into strong productive unions, initiating them, under the control of the
proletarian unions, into the task of social reconstruction and the
general work of strengthening their organizations, as regards
centralization and smoothly working unions as well as the strengthening
of professional discipline.
Directly participating in all fields of Soviet work, forming and
supplying the man-power for the governmental institutions, the
professional unions must, through this work for which they must enlist
their own organizations as well as the laboring masses, educate and
prepare them for the task of managing not only production but the entire
apparatus of government.
PROFESSIONAL UNIONS AND THE COMMISSARIAT
OF LABOR
(_A resolution embodied in V. Schmidt’s report_)
Professional trades unions organized according to the scale of
production, called upon to regulate the conditions of labor and
production in the interests of the working class as a whole, under the
conditions of proletarian dictatorship, are becoming gradually converted
into economic associations of the proletariat, acquiring a nation-wide
significance. On the other hand, the Commissariat of Labor, as an organ
of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, in which the organized
industrial proletariat is at the present moment playing a leading part,
serves as an instrument for the introduction of the economic policy of
the working class, utilizing for this purpose its apparatus and all the
power vested in governmental authorities to enforce its laws and
regulations.
Therefore, with a view to eliminating the duality in the united economic
policy of the working class, it is necessary to recognize that all
fundamental decisions of the supreme union organ—the Congress of
Professional Unions—are to be adopted by the People’s Commissariat of
Labor and embodied in its proposed legislation and all special
obligatory regulations bearing on the conditions of labor and
production, must first be approved by a majority of the All-Russian
Central Council of Professional Trades Unions.
The Conference fully approves of coordination and cooperation between
the All-Russian Central Council of Trades Unions and the People’s
Commissariat of Labor and suggests that the local councils (Soviets) of
trades unions participate in the work of local branches (departments) of
the Commissariat of Labor, on the basis of the relations prevailing
between the central bodies, for which purpose the local councils of
trades unions are to send their representatives into the leading Soviets
and make up out of the union apparatus its subdivisions (tariff, social
insurance, labor safeguarding, etc.)
In order to finally eliminate all duplication in the solution of
questions concerning the conditions and regulation of labor by separate
departments, the Conference suggests that the All-Russian Central
Executive Committee and the Soviet of People’s Commissaries concentrate
all its efforts to the working out of standards regulating the
conditions of work, wages, organization of labor, order of employing and
discharging help, safeguarding labor, and social insurance, through the
People’s Commissariat of Labor.
THE PARTICIPATION OF THE UNIONS IN THE ORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRY
(_A resolution on the report made by Comrade Rudzutak_)
1. The process of taking over the control of the industries which is now
being completed by the workers’ government, places the vocational
associations in a position where they are coming to play an ever more
and more important part in the special fields of their activity.
2. Standing in close relationship to the actual production and thus
being the natural guardians of industry against the remnants of the
bureaucratic apparatus permeated by the traditions of the old regime,
the unions must build a new Socialist order, in accordance with the
fixed program of production based on a national plan for the utilization
of the proper products and material.
3. In the interests of preserving a single plan of organization of
production, management and distribution, it will be necessary to
concentrate in one center all the units of production, which are now in
the charge of various departments (Chief Artillery Department, Navy and
War Departments, etc.)
4. The participation of the unions in the industrial management should
consist in the working out of a system of activity for the regulating
and managing organs as a whole, insofar as there is a possibility of
some part or other of their membership not being permeated by the spirit
of Socialistic constructive activity. The management of the leading
departments and centers must be composed mainly of the representatives
of professional unions, following an understanding between the
corresponding All-Russian Industrial Association or the All-Russian
Council of Trades Unions and the presiding officers of the Supreme
Council of National Economy.
5. All delegates representing the trades unions within the
administrative and regulating bodies are responsible to the
corresponding unions and are to report on their activities at regular
intervals.
6. In order to keep up the organic connection between the unions and the
management of the government owned mills, the unions are to call
conferences of the management of the largest enterprises, not less than
once in two months, for the purpose of discussing and passing upon the
most important practical questions arising in the process of work.
7. In order to convert the regulating and managing organs into a
proletarian apparatus for constructive Socialist work and in order to
obtain the cooperation in this work of the large masses of the more
advanced workers, it is necessary to saturate all the organs of
regulation and management with proletarian elements by means of placing
in their ranks responsible workers who assert themselves within the
central and local trade union groups.
8. Together with the part which the unions are playing in the matter of
directing the industrial life along the channels fixed by the programs
of production, based upon the subjugation of private interest to those
of society as a whole, comes their activity in connection with the basic
element of production—labor. Therefore, the decisions of the central
trade union associations are obligatory insofar as they bear on the
questions of wage scales, inspection of labor, internal regulations
within the factories, standards of production and labor discipline.
9. Being placed in the position of organizers of production at a moment
when Russia is now more than at any other time, affected by a shortage
of various kinds of material which causes a reduction of the output, the
unions must safeguard the proletariat against the possibility of its
exhaustion or degeneration, as a class of producers, at this critical
period, and to safeguard its nucleus against social disintegration and
its absorption by other classes; it is therefore necessary:
(_a_) wherever a shortage of raw material exists to reduce the
working day or the number of days per week, keeping employed at the
factory the largest possible number of workers.
(_b_) to introduce, wherever the number of hours or days per week
is reduced, obligatory attendance at technical and educational
courses, so as to utilize the crisis for the purpose of lifting the
technical and cultural level of the laboring masses.
10. At the same time, in view of the primary significance of actually
supplying the mills with the necessary products, and the impossibility
of increasing the productivity of labor and introducing discipline,
unless this question is solved in a satisfactory manner, it is necessary
to enable the trades unions to participate as closely as possible in the
work of production and distribution of provisions.
WORKERS’ CONTROL
(_Resolution in connection with N. Glebov’s report_)
The Second All-Russian Congress of Vocational Unions, having heard the
report on workers’ control, recognizes the following:
1. Workers’ control, which was the strongest revolutionary weapon in the
hands of the labor organizations in their struggle against economic
disruption and the sabotage practised by the employers in their struggle
against the proletariat for economic supremacy, has led the working
class into direct participation in the organization of production.
2. The economic dictatorship of the working class has created new
conditions which stirred up the activity of the large masses of the
workers. Through their vocational associations the workers have been
called upon to organize the country’s economic life and to participate
in the management of production.
3. At the same time the working class domination over the economic life
of the country has not as yet been completed. A subdued struggle is
still seething within the new forms of economic life, which calls forth
the necessity on the part of the laboring masses to control the
activities of the institutions in charge of the management of
production.
4. Under such conditions of transition from the capitalist system to the
Socialist regime, the workers’ control must develop, from a
revolutionary weapon for the economic dictatorship of the proletariat,
into a practical institution aiding in the strengthening of this
dictatorship in the process of production.
5. The problems of workers’ control must be confined to the supervision
of the course of work in the various establishments, and to practically
check on the activity of the management of individual mills as well as
that of entire branches of industry. The workers’ control is carried out
in practice in a certain order according to which control does not
precede, but, on the contrary, follows the executive work.
6. Workers’ control is also to solve the problem of the gradual
preparation of the large masses of the working class for direct
participation in the matter of management and organization of industry.
With this object in view the Congress resolves:
1. To confirm the decision of the first All-Russian Congress of
Vocational Unions regarding the formation of organs of control, both
local and central, under the guidance of the vocational associations of
the working class.
2. Within every nationalized industrial, commercial, and transport
house, the local committee for control takes upon itself the supervision
of the work of the enterprise and the activities of its management, for
which purpose it gathers and systematizes all data relative to the
running of the establishment and places the same at the disposal of the
control department of their trade union, before which, whenever the
necessity arises, the question of auditing the books of the enterprise
is brought up.
_Note._ In extraordinary cases the local control commission has the
right on its own responsibility to fix the time for a revision of
their enterprise, with a precise statement of the subject of
control, on condition that the local control committee immediately
notify to that effect the Department of Control of the
corresponding industrial (vocational) union.
3. The local control committee is being formed of: (_a_) representatives
of the corresponding industrial (vocational) union; (_b_) of the persons
elected by the general meeting of the workers employed in a given
factory, who are subject to approval by the committee of the
corresponding industrial (vocational) union. The members of the local
control committee elected from among the committee of the industrial
union, retain their office for a considerable length of time; while the
persons elected at the general meeting are to be replaced in as short a
period as possible, with a view to training the large masses of the
people in the work of management and organization of industry so as to
insure the gradual transition to the system of universal participation
in it of all the workers.
4. The local control committee is responsible for its activities both
before the general meeting of the workers of their factory and before
the control department of their industrial (vocational) union. In case
of abuse of authority, negligence in carrying out its duties, and so on,
the local control committee is subject to severe punishment.
5. The representatives of the local control committee participate at the
sessions of the management of the mill or factory, having only a voice,
but no vote in the matter. The rights of administration of the
establishment remains with the management and therefore the entire
responsibility for the work of the enterprise rests with the management.
6. The coordination of the workers’ control within the limits of any
given industry must be centered within the industrial (vocational)
union. The union creates a Workers’ Control Department which is
responsible before the management of its union.
7. The Congress authorizes the All-Russian Central Council (Soviet) of
Vocational Unions to direct the institutions of workers’ control. For
this purpose the All-Russian Central Council is to form a supreme organ
of workers’ control, composed of the representatives of the industrial
(vocational) unions.
8. With a view to coordinating all activities and eliminating the
duplication of functions in the work of control, the organs of the
People’s Commissariat of State Control must work in contact with the
controlling organs of the industrial (vocational) unions.
9. The supreme organ of workers’ control is to work out the
instructions, fully determining the rights and duties of the lower
organs of control and their organization. Until such time as these
instructions are made public the organs of workers’ control in the
nationalized enterprises are to be guided by these rulings.
10. The regulations for the workers’ control of nationalized enterprises
must be decreed by the Council of People’s Commissaries.
11. In the establishments which have not been nationalized workers’
control is to be carried out in accordance with the decree of November
14, 1917.
WAGE AND WORK REGULATION
(_Resolution introduced in connection with V. Schmidt’s report_)
Observing a great variety and lack of coordination of the tariff (wage
scale) regulations which hamper not only the standardization of labor,
but their practical materialization, and explaining such an abnormal
phenomenon in this matter by the presence of a number of glaring
defects, (absence of a definite system of wages, which would serve as a
basis of the tariff regulations, the elasticity of groups and
categories, the elimination from these regulations of the salaries of
the higher technical, commercial and administrative personnel), defects
due to the rapid transition from one form of wage scale regulation to
another; due to the weakness of the local unions and their local
separatism, and, finally, the inconsistency (instability) of the local
organs of governments in regard to the wage regulation policy, the
Second All-Russian Congress of Vocational Unions deems it necessary to
introduce the following amendments and additions to the wage
regulations:
1. The basic principle of wage scale regulation, in connection with the
struggle for the restoration of the country’s economic forces, must be
the responsibility of the laborers and other employees for the
productivity of labor before their union, and the responsibility of the
latter before the class associations of the proletariat. For this
purpose the wage scale regulations must be based on the system of
compensation of labor power which would serve as an incentive for the
laborers to outdo each other in their desire to raise the productivity
of labor in the nationalized enterprises, i.e. the piece-work and
premium system founded on a rock-bottom standard of production, with a
firmly fixed schedule of either increased pay or decreased hours of work
in compensation for production above the standard requirements.
In those branches of industry where it is impossible to standardize the
work, a scale of wages is to be applied on the basis of the time
employed with definite hours of work and strict working regulations.
2. The wage scale of the industrial union is to include the higher
technical, commercial and administrative personnel, whose salaries are
to be subject to the control of the union. In accordance with this, the
tariff regulation is to be divided into three fundamental parts; (_a_)
the higher technical, commercial, and administrative personnel; (_b_)
the lower technical and administrative personnel; the employees of the
managements, the offices, institutions and commercial establishments,
and (_c_) the laborers.
3. In order to eliminate too large a number of groups and categories
(five groups and 15 categories) and to insure a fair compensation of the
basic nucleus of the workers and other employees occupied in the
industries, a subdivision into four groups and 12 categories is fixed
for each of the three ranks (the higher personnel, the lower staff, the
workers), the ratio of the higher wage to the lower within the limits of
each one of the four given groups, from the first category to the 12th,
is 1:1.75.
4. The wage scale regulations for individual groups of the workers and
for certain branches of industry or parts thereof, must contain
provisions either for the shortening of hours, or for the increase of
pay as compensation for particularly harmful, dangerous, difficult or
exhaustive labor, and in connection with climatic conditions.
5. Clothing and footwear is to be distributed to the workers engaged in
the wood chopping industry, the sewerage and street cleaning industry,
or occupied in underground work, work at a particularly high
temperature, or necessitating the handling of harmful chemicals.
Particularly difficult and harmful work (such as, underground work, the
peat gathering industry, the preparation of wood fuel, work at a high
temperature, work with poisonous gases and acids exhausting the system)
should carry with it a home and a higher wage. This latter measure is to
be carried out by the All-Russian and local councils of the Vocational
Unions. In order to put these additions and amendments to the wage scale
regulations into actual life and in order to do away with the obnoxious
multiformity the Congress resolves:
To recognize the wage scale regulation which is being carried out on a
national scale and which affects all the workers and employees of a
given industry, from the highest administrator down to the skilled
laborer,—as the one which best answers the fundamental needs of
standardizing the wages.
To grant to the All-Russian Central Committee of the Industrial Unions
the exclusive right to finally work out the wage scale regulations and
to submit them for approval of the All-Russian Central Council of
Professional Unions and to the People’s Commissariat of Labor.
To deprive the local branches of the All-Russian centralized unions of
the right to directly submit their wage scale for approval over the head
of their central body, so long as an All-Russian industrial wage scale
is in operation.
To leave to the local Soviets (councils) of the Vocational Unions the
right to fix the wage scale regulations only for the local unions, which
have no All-Russian association, using the wage scale regulations in
force as a guide; under no circumstances changing the regulations passed
on a national scale. Besides, it is the duty of the local Soviets of the
Vocational Unions to coordinate individual scales in different
industries while putting them into practice, and the right to present a
grounded petition for the transfer of a given locality into another
district in accordance with the proportional (percentage) scale of
district decrease of wages.
The Congress approves of the work of the committee and the section on
the construction of wage scale regulations and recommends to the
All-Russian centralized industrial unions to accept them as a basis. The
Congress authorizes the All-Russian Central Council of Vocational Unions
to carry out this resolution strictly and without any deviations.
LABOR SAFEGUARDS AND SOCIAL INSURANCE
OF THE WORKERS
(_Resolution passed in connection with A. Bakhutov’s report_)
In capitalist society, with the complete economic and political
supremacy of the bourgeoisie, the legal measures which were enacted for
the safeguarding of labor and the individual kinds of social insurance
of the workers were being enforced under the control of the capitalist
state, together with the employing class, and beyond the reach of direct
influence of the labor organizations. With the establishment of the
dictatorship of the proletariat it became possible for the first time to
put point blank all the questions arising out of the struggle against
the grave consequences of the conditions of labor, which remain as a
legacy of the capitalist era, as well as preventive measures and the
solutions of the questions, in accordance with the Socialist aims of the
present moment. The actual safeguarding of labor and the social
insurance of the worker, with a view to safeguarding his life and
increasing his strength and power, proved to be indissoluble aspects of
the same problem—changing of conditions of labor, the reconstruction of
the industrial environment in which the worker is laboring, and the
betterment of his living conditions.
The October revolution determined the basic principles of social defence
for the proletariat of Russia, having given over the safeguarding of
labor and social insurance of the toilers into the hands of the working
class, and for the first time it has created organs of factory
inspection on the basis of elective representation.
But the acute civil war and the economic work of organization, as the
fundamental problem which has been confronting the working class during
the first year of the October _coup d’état_, have diverted the attention
of the proletariat from a problem of no lesser significance—the
safeguarding of its health, as the main source of national economy—and
its economic organizations became indifferent. This is the reason why
the working class paid but very little attention to questions of labor
safeguards and social insurance, as well as to the institutions in
charge of these questions.
* * * * *
At the present moment, however, the building of a new life, the
reconstruction of the conditions of labor on a Socialist foundation, the
safeguarding of production for the life and health of the workers, the
betterment of their living conditions, the workers’ insurance against
all accidents depriving him of his labor power, the amalgamation of the
various kinds of insurance agencies into one powerful organization, and
the management of the same, are becoming the most important problems
which the vocational unions are to solve. Together with the economic
work of organization which includes the safeguarding of labor, social
insurance of the toilers must take the proper place in the every-day
work of the unions.
Taking all this into consideration, the second Congress of Vocational
Unions finds it necessary that the vocational unions—
1. Take active part in the construction of united government insurance
bodies through the formation of corresponding subdivisions within the
departments of labor of the local Soviets, in accordance with the
instructions of the Department of Social Insurance and Labor Safeguards
of the People’s Commissariat of Labor; 2. That they energetically carry
out the “regulations of social insurance of the workers” of October
31st, 1918; 3. That they immediately start the organization within the
unions of permanent committees on the safeguarding of labor, and of
_nuclei_ for the same within the various mills and factories for the
purpose of cooperating with the governmental institutions charged with
the safeguarding of labor; 4. That they intensify the work on the spot
for the creation of labor inspection by means of selection and training
for this purpose of the active workers; 5. That they practically spread
the validity of the safeguarding of labor regulations and their
enforcement over all types of labor (in the building trades, in the
transport service, over domestic servants, commercial and office
workers, restaurant help, and agricultural workers); 6. That they pay
particular attention to the conditions of labor in the small
semi-handicraft establishments; 7. That they assist in the practical
efforts of labor inspection to remove the children from the works and
for the introduction of a shorter work-day for minors, enabling them at
the same time to continue their education; 8. That they take an active
part in the organization of local sanitary-hygienic and technical
investigations of the conditions at the factories and mills, and in the
working out of various obligatory standards and various measures for the
safeguarding of labor; 9. That they carry out the principles of labor
safeguarding through the current activity of the local and central
organs regulating the nation’s economy; 10. That they take an active
part in the work of improving the living conditions of the working
population; 11. That they energetically push the agitational and
educational work among the proletarian masses along the lines of
vocational hygiene and sanitation and the technique of insuring safety,
as well as on general questions of social insurance and labor
safeguarding.
THE INTERRELATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL INSURANCE
AND LABOR SAFEGUARDS OF THE PEOPLE’S COMMISSARIAT OF LABOR
AND THE PEOPLE’S COMMISSARIAT OF SOCIAL INSURANCE
Whereas in the process of development of the social revolution the
division of society into a handful of parasites, on the one hand, and
into the masses of workers and peasants overloaded with excessive toil,
on the other, is constantly disappearing, and the entire population is
being transformed into a mass of producers who must be insured, in
accordance with the provisions of the regulations on social insurance of
the laborers, of October 31, 1918, against all accidents that might
incapacitate them, and
Whereas the work of social insurance can be developed on condition of
immediate participation of vocational unions through the medium of the
corresponding organs of the People’s Commissariat of Labor,
The second Congress of Vocational Unions holds that all insurance
business, its functions, the institutions of the People’s Commissariat
of Social Insurance, affecting the workers, must be amalgamated into the
common work of the Department of Social Insurance and Labor Safeguard of
the People’s Commissariat of Labor.
Having discussed the question of interrelations between the Commissariat
of Public Health and the Department of Social Insurance and Labor
Safeguards of the People’s Commissariat of Labor, the second All-Russian
Congress of Vocational Unions resolved to accept the following
principles as a basis for the solution of the question:
1. Social insurance and labor safeguarding being a complete and
logically united institution, with the dictatorship of the proletariat
in power, when the entire population of the Russian Socialist Federal
Soviet Republic is being transformed into laborers, covers the
activities of Commissariat of Health, thus representing under the
circumstances one of the most important and most necessary links of one
chain.
2. It is possible to carry into life the measures of social insurance
and labor safeguards with the necessary system and on a vast scale, only
if the work is done in the closest connection and intimate touch with
the masses that are interested in it, and on the condition that the
masses cooperate most energetically.
3. The union of any group of functions into one whole may be determined
exclusively by their proximity and similarity, else there is a
possibility of the least efficient combination of all or any individual
branches of government activity, to the detriment of the regular
development and direction of the same and to the certain amount of
independence so necessary to each and every one of the activities.
4. The medico-prophylactic activity, like the entire institution for
social insurance and labor safeguards, must be united, i.e., both the
organizing and organic work is concentrated in the hands of bodies and
institutions specially created for that purpose, and depending from the
same common central body. As regards the necessary differentiation of
labor it must be carried out exclusively within the common bodies, but
under no circumstances must it be done by means of tearing away from
them of any of the parts closely bound through common problems and
peculiarities of the work, no matter how considerable each of them,
taken apart, might be.
In view of the above principles, the Congress resolves that:
1. The Commissariat of Public Health must be amalgamated with the
Department of Social Insurance and Labor Safeguards.
2. All organs of social insurance and labor safeguards must be built
from top to bottom entirely on the basis of vocational unions’
representation.
3. The question of the order of uniting the Commissariat of Public
Health with the Department of Social Insurance and Labor Safeguards of
the People’s Commissariat of Labor is given over to the Central
Executive Committee for consideration.
CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE VOCATIONAL UNIONS
AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
(_Resolution based on Tzyperovich’s and Kossior’s reports_)
1. The Socialist revolution has put before the proletariat a series of
the most important problems in the field of reconstruction.
Simultaneously and in connection with the revolutionization of the
economic relations, the working class, as the standard-bearer of
Socialism, must get down to the work of creating a proletarian culture,
instead of that of the bourgeoisie, in order to prepare the masses for
the complete realization of the Socialist Commonwealth.
2. The dictatorship of the proletariat, enabling the working class to
fully utilize all the cultural acquisitions of mankind, is already now
putting forward a new creative form of the cultural movement, in the
shape of proletarian cultural organizations.
3. Vocational unions, as working class organizations, notwithstanding
all their weakness and the isolation of the proletarian cultural
organizations from the masses of the working class must organically
enter into their work, concentrating within them all their activity for
the general work along questions of science and art and endeavoring with
a view to making it sound, to subject their activity to the influence
and guidance of the industrially organized laboring masses.
4. The Vocational Unions are also facing as an immediate problem the
utilization on as large a scale as possible of those facilities which
have been created by the Commissariat of Public Education in the matter
of compulsory, and free education, of education for people above school
age, for technical training, etc.
The vocational unions must have their representatives in the
Commissariats of Public Education, who are to shed light on the needs of
the trade union movement and demand that these needs be satisfied
immediately.
5. At the same time, the vocational unions are to continue their
cultural and educational activity, creating educational institutions and
organizations which would answer the immediate problems of the
vocational movement.
6. The building up of clubs, especially for the districts and provinces,
is desirable. The type of a vocational-political club is preferable, if
possible of a large size.
7. It is necessary at present to build libraries in the districts. But
for the central trade-industrial unions special libraries are to a
certain extent superfluous (outside of special publications, guides,
etc.) They can easily and with much greater success be replaced by
public and municipal libraries, to which the trade-industrial unions
should turn their attention, by sending to the same the representatives
of their cultural-educational departments, as delegates.
8. The publishing associations of the individual unions must be
technically united into one Publishing Association of the Council of
Unions. The program of the publications must be adapted to the needs of
the trade union movement, but at the same time it must be so flexible
and elastic as to be of service to the agitational activity of the
unions in various directions (appeals, bulletins, etc.). The
amalgamation of the periodic trade-union organs,—is a problem of the
immediate future. Besides, it is necessary to issue at present a monthly
or semi-monthly magazine in order to explain the general questions of
theory and practice of the trade-industrial movement.
The organization of central expeditions for all trade union publishing
societies is already now an imperative necessity.
9. In order to materialize the above enumerated problems each central
body of the trade-industrial unions of a given industry is to have its
own cultural and educational department whose activities are to be
coordinated by the Soviets (councils) of the Vocational Unions at the
center and in the local branches.
On the question of vocational training the Congress finds that:
1. Vocational training, as one of the mightiest weapons in the general
system of cultural-industrial socialist education of the working class,
may attain its object on condition that, together with the vocational
training of the workers along the lines of skilled labor, they will also
be given a general industrial education, acquainting them with the
general questions of the condition of technical and industrial
development, political economy, economic geography, and also the
questions of administrative and technical management of an enterprise.
2. Vocational training is concentrated in the hands of the Committee on
Vocational Training, which is formed at the Commissariat of Public
Education of the representatives of the vocational unions. The Committee
is given charge of the general direction, financing and working out of a
single program in the field of vocational training. For the management
of each individual school a School Soviet is formed of the
representatives of the vocational union, the Commissariat, and the
students.
3. Within each branch of industry, a network of vocational schools is to
be established as soon as the needs and requirements of the
corresponding All-Russian Vocational Association are made known. In the
first place the schools are being organized in those places and points
for the preparation of such groups and types, of skilled workers as will
be found necessary by the proper industrial associations.
4. The cultural and educational departments of the All-Russian
Industrial Associations are connected with the Committee on Vocational
Training of the Commissariat of Education and are to determine both the
quantity and type of school needed and the technical possibility of
their opening in this or that particular locality. The Committee is
bound immediately to satisfy these demands, in case of necessity taking
a census of the technical personnel available as instructors in
vocational schools.
5. The vocational unions will utilize the schools for the organization
of courses and lectures on questions of theory and practice of the labor
movement, striving at their widest possible development and their
transformation into a disseminator of all kinds of cultural and
technical knowledge among the proletarian masses.
THE QUESTION OF PROVISIONING
(_A resolution based on Comrade Antzelovich’s report_)
Fully supporting the general principal policy of the Workers’ and
Peasants’ Government on the questions of provisioning and supplying the
population, taking into consideration the extraordinary difficulty of
the food situation, caused by the general conditions of the moment and
by the weakness of the food supplying apparatus, the Congress resolves
to give its best forces to the work of organization of the provisioning
work, to continue the work of mobilization and centralization for this
purpose of the proletarian forces on an all-Russian scale, and is hereby
submitting for the approval of the Council of People’s Commissaries the
provisions stated below:
1. The Congress recognizes the War-Provisioning Bureau of the
All-Russian Soviet of Vocational Unions, acting in accordance with the
instructions adopted by the Soviet, as the central body in charge of
mobilization and distribution of the proletarian forces in the field of
provisioning.
In order to fulfil its tasks the War-Provisioning Bureau of the
All-Russian Soviet of Vocational Unions: (_a_) mobilizes the labor
power, selecting it from among the vocational unions and their organs
(the shop committees, etc.); (_b_) promotes the workers into the
positions of members of the colleges, provincial provisioning
committees, district provisioning committees, and other provisioning
organizations, appointing them to office through the People’s
Commissariat for provisioning; (_c_) sends the workers’ provisioning
detachments composed of the best forces into the villages to do the work
of organization. The detachments are working under the leadership of
members delegated by the War-Provisioning Bureau into the local
provisioning bodies, and are to act as auxiliary organizations to those
provisioning bodies; (_d_) it organizes the provisional expeditions with
special tasks to aid the provisioning organizations among them in the
localities freed from occupation; (_e_) it organizes the work of labor
inspection, working under the control of the War-Provisioning Bureau,
both in the field of provisioning and in the allied fields of
transportation, etc.; the problems of inspection consist of the
renovation, reorganization and the placing of the entire system of
provisioning bodies on a proletarian basis; (_f_) it selects with the
aid of the proper vocational unions specialists in different lines of
the provisioning work, making them available to fill executive offices;
(_g_) in its work the Central War-Provisioning Bureau is leaning for
support on the auxiliary local war-provisioning bureaus of the Soviets
of Vocational Unions, uniting the entire activity of the vocational
unions for the betterment of the provisioning work.
2. From the point of view of unity of the general system of distribution
of necessaries, the Congress deems it necessary to put into practice in
full measure the participation of labor cooperation in the matter of
distributing the products so that, in the course of time, and labor, all
the united system of distribution may be organized after the pattern of
a single type of consumers’ communes.
Workers’ cooperative societies must become the chief distributors of
products among the workers.
Considering it necessary thus to impose on the workers’ cooperative
societies the extremely important task of constructive Socialist work
and the work of actually supplying the workers with the necessaries,
without which the productivity of labor cannot be increased, the
Congress holds that these functions can best be carried out by the
workers’ cooperatives on the following conditions: (_a_) the creation of
a united organized basis for the cooperative and vocational associations
(factory or mill committees), which is to be carried into practice by
means of an agreement between the All-Russian Council of Vocational
Unions and the All-Russian Council of Workers’ Cooperative Societies;
(_b_) the All-Russian Councils of Vocational Unions and the Workers’
Cooperative Societies exchange representatives; (_c_) all members of the
vocational unions must join the Workers’ Cooperative Society and every
member of the latter must become a member of a vocational union; (_d_)
the common leading body of the workers’ cooperative societies must be
the meeting of representatives (conferences) of the shop committees and
collective associations, uniting the employees and the laborers not
occupied in the mills and factories; (_e_) the workers’ cooperatives
must immediately be induced to participate in the broadest possible
manner in the work of organizing all municipal commerce; the control and
general direction in the matter remaining in the hands of the
provisioning bodies; (_f_) the existing special productive-distributive
organs such as that in charge of transportation of the provisions,
waterway transportation of provisions, (canals, rivers, etc.), must be
transformed into well organized, open workers’ cooperative societies;
(_g_) the workers’ cooperative societies are to be induced to take up
the practical work of organization of these branches of industry whose
scale and problems justify such work, and which are engaged in the
production of the prime necessities.
3. The furnishing of the proletariat with the products provided for it
by the government plans of distribution, must be insured through the
appropriation of a special fund for the purpose on the plan adopted for
the army. The special department of the Commissariat for Provisioning
which is in charge of the planning, calculating, and distributing of the
products intended for the workers, must be organized in accordance with
an understanding between the All-Russian Council of Vocational Unions
and the Council of Workers’ Cooperatives, and it must not form its own
technical and economic apparatus.
4. In order to help the methods of proletarian work to permeate more
fully the entire system of the provisioning institutions it is necessary
to inject into their midst representatives of Vocational Unions and
Workers’ Cooperative Societies, particularly representatives of the
All-Russian Council of Vocational Unions and the All-Russian Council of
Cooperative Societies, into the Collegium of the People’s Commissariat
for Provisioning.
In the matter of preparing the products which are subject to monopoly,
by government counter-agents (as per decree of January 21st) the central
workers’ cooperatives (city) and all centralized workers’ cooperative
organizations (regional, provincial and all-Russian) are to be called
upon to help, while the matter of preparing the products not subject to
monopoly should be entirely given over to the cooperative societies,
headed by the Workers’ Cooperative Society, the management to be given
over to the Central Buying Committee (Tzentrozakup) and a corresponding
portion of the products is to be set aside for the needs of the army.
5. In order to create a solid basis in the matter of supplying farm
products and with a view to intensifying agriculture and other types of
farming it is necessary to call upon the workers’ cooperative societies
to properly utilize and organize the large Soviet agricultural
establishments and other farming undertakings.
6. For the successful solution of its tasks in the domain of Socialist
construction work it is necessary to bring about the closest
organizational union and coordination of activity of the vocational
unions and workers’ cooperative societies in the matter of raising the
class consciousness of that proletariat and, for this purpose, the joint
organization of workers’ homes, clubs, institutes for practitioners, and
so on.
THE QUESTION OF ORGANIZATION
(_Resolution based an M. Tomsky’s report_)
1.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
1. Adapting its organizations to the conditions of the economic struggle
in capitalist society, the working class in the interests of economy and
concentration of its divided forces, gradually passed over from the
close narrow guild organizations to the broader vocational and, finally,
in the course of struggle against capitalism, building its forces on the
principle of more efficient centralization of power for the realization
of its war aims (class war aims), it came to form organizations
embracing all the workers of a given branch of industry (production)
into one union.
The industrial union is one union having the follow-lowing basic
characteristics: (_a_) the union rallies all the workers and other
employees engaged in a given branch of production, regardless of his
functions; (_b_) the treasury is centralized; (_c_) the business of the
union is transacted on the basis of democratic centralization; (_d_) the
wage scales and conditions of labor are determined by one central body
for all the categories of labor; (_e_) a uniform principle of
construction from top to bottom; (_f_) the sections are playing the part
of technical and auxiliary organs; (_g_) the interests of the
industrially organized workers and other employees of a given industry
are represented before the outside world by one central body.
2. The industrial union comprises only the permanent workers and
employees of a given industry who are directly engaged in the process of
production or serve to aid the same. All auxiliary branches serving _not
production but the producers_ and all the temporary and casual help
remain members of their industrial union.
3. This principle of construction of our unions recognized by the third
Conference of the Vocational Unions, and by the first All-Russian
Congress of Vocational Unions, presupposing the union of all the workers
of a given industry into one organization (union), can be consistently
carried into practice only by means of uniting all the workers and
employees (“higher” and “lower”) into one union, which became possible
of realization only after the political and economic prejudices
separating the laborer from the other employees and from the technical
personnel have been done away with.
4. Even if the first Congress of Vocational Unions considered it
impracticable to unite into one union all the higher employees and
laborers,—at the present moment, after a year of proletarian
dictatorship during which a good deal of the antagonism between the
different categories of laborers and other employees has been spent,
when it has been proved from experience that one union in its turn leads
to the eradication of all antagonism in the midst of the workers—it must
now be recognized as desirable and necessary to unite into one union all
persons who are wage workers engaged in one establishment, one industry
or one institution.
Only in such establishments or institutions where the hiring of laborers
and other employees and the increase or decrease of their wages is being
decided by one member of the administrative or technical personnel, the
latter cannot be members of the given union.
5. The industrial principle of union structure as applied to workers
occupied in other branches of national industries, than manufacture
(transportation, commerce, and farming), and also in institutions
fulfilling definite functions of government (postal-telegraph,
medico-sanitary departments, education, etc.), must be used to unite the
workers of small isolated branches of industry and management into more
powerful unions. As a basis for such amalgamation one must take the
similarity of conditions of labor and the functions carried out.
6. Categorically defending the consistent introduction and application
of the principle underlying production as regards all categories of
workers, not accepting into its labor organizations those unions which
are built on guild, corporation and narrow trade lines, for the purpose
of better serving the economic interests of the most typical industrial
groups and categories, the organization of sections on a local and
national scale is allowed within each vocational union.
The unions binding together several allied branches of industry have the
right to form industrial sections, the same having the right to call
independent Congresses in order to decide the questions of their own
industry, on condition however, that the decisions of such sectional
Congresses, which will be contrary to the rulings of the general
Congress or the regulations of the leading organs of the labor union
movement, may be annulled by the leading body of the industrial union.
7. Striving towards unity and smooth work in labor union activity and
the greatest efficiency in the utilization of the power and means at the
disposal of the labor unions, it is necessary to recognize most
definitely the principle of centralization of the union organization,
based on unity and centralization of union finances and strict inter-
and intra-union discipline.
8. With this principle as a starting-point, the _organization of the
section cannot have the character of open or masked federalism_. Under
no circumstances could the sections be allowed to have separate
sectional treasuries, additional assessment of members of the sections
for organization and agitation and generally for any work of the union,
neither can they be allowed independent representation outside of the
union or to build the leading union organs, committees, on the principle
of sectional representation.
9. In exceptional cases of reconstruction of the existing federated
unions into a centralized industrial union, only as an allowance for the
transitional stage the Executive Committee elected at the meeting of all
the delegates or at the meeting of the All-Russian Congress, can be
enlarged through the addition of representatives of the sections, who
then have no vote, only a voice.
10. All attempts to violate the principle of industrial organization for
the purpose of restoring the federated trade unions by means of
organization of the inter-sectional bureaus uniting analogous sections
of the various industrial unions, must be emphatically condemned.
11. Fighting for the complete annihilation of classes, at this
transitional period of proletarian dictatorship, the Russian trade-union
movement aiming at the union of all workers into centralized industrial
unions for the purpose of subjecting the semi-proletarian elements to
the influence of the economically organized proletariat and inducing it
to enter the class struggle and take part in Socialist reconstruction;
we think it necessary to get the new, and as yet unorganized, strata of
government and social workers to join the All-Russian Vocational
Associations, on condition of their complete submission to proletarian
discipline and to all regulations of the leading central bodies of the
trade union movement, and particularly, the principles of organization.
12. At the same time it would be the greatest error at the present stage
of development of our trade union movement with its insufficient degree
of organization, to infuse into it the craftsmen and small shop owners
who due to their isolation and unorganized state, do not allow of
proletarian control; the same applies to the labor “artels,” “unions of
labor communes” and so-called professional people who are not wage
workers.
Being the representatives of the dying crafts and petty bourgeois
industry, these elements permeated with the conservative economic
ideology of individual and small-scale production (artel), due to their
numerical size, are liable to disorganize the ranks of the economically
organized proletariat.
13. Considering as the only correct and fundamental basis for the union
of the workers into industrial unions, the economic basis (the economic
part played by the groups of laborers in the general system of national
economy), the All-Russian Vocational Association cannot accept into its
midst unions _built along national, religious, and generally, any unions
not built along economic lines_.
14. Uniting the laborers and other employees into unions, independently
of their political and religious beliefs, the Russian trade union
movement as a whole, taking the position of the international class
struggle, resolutely condemns the idea of neutralism, and considers it a
prerequisite for the admission of individual unions into the all-Russian
and local associations—that they recognize the revolutionary class
struggle for the realization of socialism _by means of the dictatorship
of the proletariat_.
15. Regarding the Russian labor-union movement as one close proletarian
class organization, having one common class aim—to win and organize the
socialist system, one must admit that _any member of any industrial
union_, affiliated with the all-Russian or local union council, who is
fulfilling his duties as such, being at the same time a member of the
All-Russian General Vocational Association, upon being transferred from
one industry to another, _joins the proper union with the rights of an
old member_, without paying any initiation fee. No one must be at the
same time a member of two unions.
16. This latter rule wholly applies also to the group transfer of whole
establishments from one union to another—_no payments are to be made out
of the treasury of the unions, nor are to be made either to the members
who leave it or to the union into which they are transferred_, by the
first union.
17. Endeavoring to better the economic conditions of all the workers,
regardless of whether they are members of the union or not, the unions
taking upon themselves the responsibility for the proper functioning of
an establishment or institution, for the labor discipline among the
workers and the enforcement of the union regulations of wages and
standards of production, the unions must endeavor _to introduce
compulsory membership_ in all the establishments and institutions
entering into it, _through resolutions adopted at general meetings of
the workers_.
18. Recognizing _the necessity of a united plan for the construction of
all trade unions_ as the only condition insuring right relations between
the individual local organizations and their centers, also insuring the
enforcement of union regulations and union discipline, the second
Congress thinks it necessary, for the purpose of creating unity of
activity on a local as well as national scale, to adopt a united scheme
for the structure of the industrial unions and their combines.
2.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE TRADE UNIONS AND SOVIETS:
1. The highest directing body of the all-Russian labor union movement is
the All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions and the All-Russian Central
Soviet of Vocational Unions operating from one Congress to the other, on
the basis of principle regulations adopted by the Congress.
_Note._ A conference is called only in case it is
impossible to call a properly organized congress.
2. All regulations of the All-Russian Congresses, Conferences and the
All-Russian Central Council of the Industrial Unions are compulsory not
only to all the unions, affiliated with the All-Russian Vocational
Association, but for every individual member of a union, as well.
3. _Violation of the rules and disregard of the same on the part of
individual unions_ carries with it expulsion of such a union from the
family of the proletarian unions.
4. The supreme organ of the All-Russian Industrial Union is its Central
Committee; all rulings of that committee which do not contradict the
regulations issued by the higher councils of the All-Russian General
Vocational Association are obligatory for all of its branches and for
each and every one of its members.
5. All local councils of the unions are being constructed according to
the plan of the All-Russian Central Council of the Vocational Unions,
with a corresponding proportional change of numerical ratio. All
congresses of vocational unions are being called on the principle of
direct proportion.
6. The rulings of the All-Russian Industrial Unions cannot be nullified
by the rulings of the local councils of unions and are obligatory for
the organs of the given union in each locality.
7. The local councils of the Vocational Unions being the leading organs
of the labor union movement and authorized representatives of the entire
proletariat, economically organized within a certain locality, are at
the same time guided in their activities by all the rules of the
All-Russian Congresses, Conferences and the All-Russian Central Council
of the Trade-Industrial Unions, and as regards the branches of the
industrial unions, the regulations laid down by their guiding central
bodies are obligatory. The rulings of the local Trade Union Councils
which are in contradiction to the regulations of the policy of the
entire unions or their managing bodies, are not obligatory for the local
branches of the industrial unions.
8. The branches of the All-Russian Industrial Unions affiliated with the
All-Russian Central Trade Unions Council automatically enter into the
local Trade Union Councils.
9. The local Trade Union Councils are to see to it that the unions are
properly organized, and that they follow the directions issued by the
governing bodies and fulfil their financial obligations towards the
unions; they are also to aid and support them in their activities.
10. In the interests of centralization of union activity, the
strengthening of the ties between the centers and the local bodies, and
in order to place the finances of the unions on a proper plane and bring
about closer cooperation and connection between the trade unions on the
one hand, and the organs of the Supreme Council of National Economy and
the Commissariat of Labor, on the other, in the work of bringing about a
uniform structure of the Trade Unions and Union Councils and
standardizing the wage scales throughout the country,—one must admit
that the geographical (provincial) amalgamations as well as the
provincial Union Councils are only unnecessary organs of transmission
between the center and the periphery which constitute a nonproductive
expenditure of energy and means.
11. The All-Russian Centers, their branches and subdivisions in the
various localities, united through the Trade Union Councils, constructed
after the pattern of the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council, the
Shop Committees or Employees’ Associations (Collective Associations) as
the original _nuclei_ of the trade unions—this is the best scheme of
organization structure, answering the basic problems at the present
moment confronting the trade union movement. Territorial grouping
according to divisions and subdivisions should be established by the
All-Russian Central body of the given union, depending upon the
geographical area and degree of concentration of any given branch of
industry, keeping, insofar as possible within the boundaries fixed by
the administrative divisions.
Only by observing the given scheme of organization can the finances of
the union be placed on a proper level and the centers receive due
financial strength, which is a necessary condition for further and more
systematic activity.
12. The most suitable principle by which to determine the membership
dues during the period of chronic depreciation of paper money would be a
proportional assessment. The normal amount of membership dues, the
Congress considers is one per cent of the wages earned. Special
additional dues or assessments for special needs of the local divisions
of the industrial unions are allowed only upon the resolution of general
meetings, or meetings of delegates or conferences of a given union.
13. Regarding the Branch of the Industrial Union (within a province or
region) as the highest organ of the union in the given locality
(government or region), as the first step toward the actual realization
of the centralization of the union funds, the Congress considers the
following financial relations as necessary:
(_a_) Fifty per cent of all membership dues of the branches of the
All-Russian Central Industrial Union go to the All-Russian Central
Committee of the given Industrial Union.
(_b_) The divisions (district and sub-regional) of a branch (government
or region) of a Union work according to the budget approved by the
latter.
(_c_) Ten per cent of all the funds remaining at the disposal of a
branch of a union goes to the local Trade Union Council.
(_d_) The local bureaus of the Trade Unions (in small towns) exist on 10
per cent of the budget appropriated by the branch of the industrial
union to its divisions.
(_e_) The local unions which are not affiliated with any all-Russian
union associations are to give 10 per cent to the local Trade Union
Council, and 10 per cent to the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council
transferred through the local Trade Union Council.
14. All trade organizations as well as members who have not met their
financial obligations within three months without sufficient reasons,
are automatically expelled from their union and from the All-Russian
Trade Association, and can be reinstated only upon payment of the sum
they owe plus the usual initiation fee.
15. The following initiation fees are to be fixed: (_a_) half a day’s
wages for individual members entering the union, (_b_) the All-Russian
Trade Union upon entering the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council
pays 10 per cent of all the initiation fees collected from the total
number of its members, (_c_) the same amount is paid by all the branches
of the All-Russian Trade Unions upon their admission into the local
Trade Union Council, (_d_) the local unions which have no all-Russian
trade union pay upon entering the local council 10 per cent of the
initiation fees collected, a half of which amount goes to the
All-Russian Central Trade Union Council.
16. In the interests of the development of union activity with the
present character of the Russian trade union movement, all special funds
which cannot be touched, such as the strike fund, the reserve funds,
etc., must be annulled as such and added to the rest of the union’s
general treasury. The fund for the aid of unions outside of Soviet
Russia is being created by the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council
for which purpose special collections and contributions are to be used.
17. In the interests of the proper arrangement of the control system,
the simplification and systematization of the union’s business, we must
make it obligatory to have a single uniform system, as worked out by the
All-Russian Central Trade Union Council.
18. The basic nucleus of the Industrial Union on the spot is the Factory
Committee or the Collective Association of the office employees in the
form of an Office Workers’ Union.
19. “Regulations of the Factory and Mill Committees” adopted by the
Moscow Trade Union Council and approved by the All-Russian Central
Council of the Industrial Unions coordinated with the resolutions of the
present second All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions must be used as the
basis for the determination of the part, the tasks and interrelations of
the Factory and Mill Committees with the other organizations.
20. As a basis for the regulations governing the Employees’ Associations
(Collective Associations), in addition to the general principles which
form the basis of the “Factory and Mill Committee Regulations,” the
following principles are to be laid down:
(_a_) Participation in the hiring and dismissal of employees, (_b_)
obligatory participation in the Wage Scale Committees and endeavor to
see to it that the wage scale regulations be carried out in practice,
(_c_) the recognition of the collective association and its rights to
exist only as an organ of the corresponding union, (_d_) participation
in the organization and improvement of the technical apparatus of the
given institution, (_e_) non-interference with the general direction of
the activities of the state and social institutions.
The All-Russian Central Trade Union Council is authorized within the
shortest time to work out and publish the regulations of the Factory and
Mill Committees and the Employees’ Collective Associations.
21. To avoid mixing up of terms and ideas regarding the character of the
union organs we must recognize the uniform terminology of the same, as
carrying out the same functions, namely:
(_a_) All-Russian Central Trade Union Council retains its name, (_b_)
the leading organs of the All-Russian Trade Unions are called “Central
Committee of the Trade Unions,” their executive organs are to be called:
“Presidium of the Central Committee of the Trade Unions,” (_c_) their
government (province) organs—“The management of the government
(province) or regional branch of the All-Russian Trade Union,” (_d_) the
Local Government Trade Union Councils are called: “Such and such
Government Trade Union Council,” and the district councils as well as
the small town councils “Such and such District Trade Union Bureau,”
“Such and such Trade Union Bureau.”
22. All-Russian Central Trade Union Council on the basis of the
principles laid down, must work out in the shortest possible period the
following sample by-laws which are to be obligatory for all trade
organizations affiliated with any of the following All-Russian Trade
Associations:
(_a_) The All-Russian Trade Union, (_b_) local union having no
corresponding all-Russian association, (_c_) Local Trade Union Council,
(_d_) Trade Union Bureau.
23. The All-Russian Central Trade Union Council must work out and enact
through the People’s Commissariat of Labor and the Soviet of National
Economy or the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the regulations
governing the coalitions on the following basis: (_a_) the right to be
called a union is given only to trade unions affiliated with the
All-Russian Central Trade Union Council, registered and published by the
latter, (_b_) all other organizations of an economic character not
affiliated with the All-Russian Trade Association are to be called
“societies.”
24. The All-Russian Central Trade Union Council and the government
councils must periodically report on all unions registered with it.
25. In accordance with the general principles of organization, adopted
at the second Trade Union Congress the corresponding amendments are to
be introduced into the by-laws of the All-Russian Central Trade Union
Council adopted by the first All-Russian Trade Union Congress.
BY-LAWS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CENTRAL TRADES UNION COUNCIL
(_Amended and approved by the Congress_)
1. The All-Russian Trade Union Congress elects an executive body of the
All-Russian Central Trades Union Council—the presiding officers
(Presidium), who are to submit a detailed report on their activity to
the following Congress.
2. The supreme leading body of the All-Russian Trade-Union Association
is the All-Russian Central Trade-Union Council, which is to be guided in
its activity by resolutions of congresses and conferences and which is
responsible for its actions to the All-Russian Trades Union Congress.
3. All the regulations of the All-Russian Congresses, Conferences as
well as those passed by the All-Russian Central Trades Union Council are
obligatory to all unions affiliated with the All-Russian Trades Union
Association as well as to every union member. The violation of these
rules and disobedience of the same carries with it expulsion from the
family of proletarian unions.
4. The All-Russian Central Council is to fulfil the following tasks:
(_a._) It is to maintain and establish a connection with all the
existing and newly arising trade union organizations;
(_b._) It is to aid in the creation of local all-Russian vocational
unions as well as the amalgamation of all trades;
(_c._) It is to establish connections with the central trade union
bodies of all countries;
(_d._) It is to carry out all the necessary work connected with the
preparation and calling of All-Russian conferences and congresses, it
works out a program of business to be transacted by the congresses, it
takes care of the preparation of reports, and it publishes the
fundamental principles;
(_e._) It appoints the time for the calling of conferences and
congresses;
(_f._) It periodically publishes in the press reports on its activities;
(_g._) It issues its bulletin (periodical organ);
(_h._) It connects, and acts as representative for the entire
trade-union movement before the Central government institutions and
social organizations;
(_i._) It aids the unions in their work of organization and guides that
work, for which purpose it issues various by-laws, instructions, forms
of accounting (book-keeping), etc.;
(_j._) It takes part in organizations and institutions, serving the
interests of cultural and educational activity among the proletariat;
(_k._) It aids in promoting the development of the trade union movement,
by means of verbal and written propaganda and agitation.
6. In order to accomplish its tasks successfully, the All-Russian
Central Trades Union Council organizes the necessary departments.
7. The funds of the All-Russian Central Trades-Union Council consist of
the following: (_a_) 10 per cent of the membership dues collected by the
Central Committees of the All-Russian Trade Union Association; (_b_)
five per cent of the revenue coming from the local unions not affiliated
with the All-Russian Trade Unions, but affiliated, through the local
Soviet, with the All-Russian All-Trades Association, (_c_) out of
appropriations designated by the organs of the Soviet Government for
specific purposes.
8. The All-Russian Central Trade Union Council is composed of the
following:
(_a_) Nine members elected by the Congress, and
(_b_) Representatives of the All-Russian Trade Unions, on the basis of
one delegate to every 30,000 to 50,000 workers, and one more delegate to
every additional 50,000 dues-paying members.
_Note._ All-Russian Trades Unions whose membership is below 30,000, send
their representative, who has a voice, but no vote. Unions whose
dues-paying membership is below 30,000 may unite and send a delegate to
the All-Russian Trades Union Council, who will then have the right to
vote at the meetings.
9. The nine members elected by the congress are to be the presiding
officers of the All-Russian Central Council; in order to effect a change
in the composition of the presidium, a vote of not less than two-thirds
of the general number of members of the All-Russian Central Council is
required, or if the All-Russian Associations demand the recall of that
body, the total membership of the associations demanding such recall
must exceed one-half of the entire membership of the All-Russian
Association comprising all trades.
_Note._ The members of the presidium (executive committee), are to be
replaced (in case they resign or are recalled) at the plenary session of
the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council.
10. Such recall and election of a new executive body may take place only
in extraordinary cases when the general conditions do not permit the
calling of an extraordinary congress or conference.
11. A plenary session of the All-Russian Central Council takes place at
least once a month. The All-Russian Central Council at a meeting of all
its members elects an auditing committee and other committees and
responsible officers, leaving to the executive committee (presiding
officers) to organize branches (departments), to invite workers to join
them, etc.
12. The All-Russian Conference of Trades-Unions is to consist of all the
members of the council (Soviet), and of representatives of provincial
trades-union councils—one to every 25,000 members.
_Note._ Representatives of All-Russian Associations who are admitted to
the plenary session (_plenum_) with only a voice and no vote, have the
right to vote at the conference.
13. The All-Russian Central Trades Union calls congresses of the trades
unions at intervals not longer than one year. Extraordinary congresses
are called at the decision of the All-Russian Central Council, at the
demand of All-Russian Associations, or in cases where the All-Russian
Associations having not less than half the total membership affiliated
with the All-Russian Workmen’s Association, demand that an extraordinary
convention be called.
14. The right to representation at the Trades-Union Congresses is
restricted to those unions which in their activity are guided by the
principles of the international class struggle of the proletariat, which
are affiliated with the local councils of the trades unions and which
pay their dues regularly.
15. The following have a right to vote at the congress:
(_a_) The local trades unions having a dues-paying membership of no less
than 3,000, are entitled to one delegate, and those whose membership
exceeds 5,000 are entitled to one delegate for every 5,000 dues-paying
members (complete 5,000 only, not for any fraction thereof).
(_b_) The central All-Russian Associations are entitled to one delegate
each; but in case the total number of workers affiliated with them
exceeds 10,000 they are entitled to two delegates.
(_c_) Petrograd and Moscow send three delegates each.
(_d_) Local unions having under 3,000 members may amalgamate for the
purpose of sending their delegates.
16. The following have a voice, but no vote:
(_a_) Representatives of the central bodies of Socialist parties; of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Council (Soviet) of
Workers’ and Peasants’ Delegates; individuals and institutions at the
invitation of the All-Russian Central Council or the Congress itself.
(_b_) All members of the All-Russian Central Soviet.
17. The rules of procedure for the congress (convention) are worked out
by the All-Russian Central Council and are subject to approval by the
congress.
18. The order of business (program) to be transacted at the convention
is to be made public at least one month before the congress is convened.
Individual organizations have the right to introduce new points into the
order of business not later than two weeks prior to the meeting of the
congress, of which changes the All-Russian Central Council immediately
notifies, through the press, all the trades unions.
ORDER OF ADMISSION OF ALL-RUSSIAN TRADES UNIONS INTO THE
ALL-RUSSIAN CENTRAL TRADES UNIONS COUNCIL
19. An All-Russian Trades Union, desiring to enter the All-Trade
Association must submit to the presidium of the All-Russian Central
Trades Union Council the following documents:
(_a_) the by-laws,
(_b_) information on the number of dues-paying members,
(_c_) information on the existing branches and number of dues-paying
members of each of them,
(_d_) minutes of any convention or conference at which the central
committee of the organization has been elected,
(_e_) financial report,
(_f_) sample copies of such publications as the All-Russian Trades Union
has published, and all other material shedding light on the character of
the union’s works.
20. An All-Russian Trades Union may be registered with, and admitted
into, the All-Russian Central Trades Union Council on the following
conditions:
(_a_) the by-laws and the structure of the union are to be brought into
accord with the general principles of organization as adopted by the
convention and carried out by the All-Russian Central Trades Union
Council;
(_b_) the character and activity of the union must not contradict the
resolutions of the All-Russian Trades Union Convention or the general
tendencies of the Russian trades union movement;
(_c_) the payment of a corresponding initiation fee;
21. An all-Russian union may be expelled at a plenary session from the
All-Russian Central Trades Union Council on the following grounds:
(_a_) failure to obey the general rules of discipline obligatory to all
trades union organizations;
(_b_) failure to pay membership dues within three months, without any
reasonable cause.
22. The All-Russian Central Trades Union Council, in cases where the
central committee of the All-Russian Trades Union violates the decisions
of the convention, conference, or All-Russian Central Trades Union
Council, may dissolve the same, and must immediately call an All-Russian
convention or conference of the given trades union for the purpose of
electing a new directing body.
November 7, 1919.
THE FINANCIAL POLICY AND THE RESULTS OF THE ACTIVITIES
OF THE PEOPLE’S COMMISSARIAT OF FINANCE
(1917–1919)
I
When the Soviet Government was first organized, a number of purely
financial questions arose which necessitated the utilization of the
services of the old financial-administrative apparatus in the form in
which it existed prior to the October Revolution. It is quite natural
that the first period of work in the domain of finance, that is, between
the October Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk Peace, had of necessity to
be marked by efforts to conquer the financial apparatus, its central as
well as its local bodies, to make a study of its own functions and,
somehow or other, to adapt itself to the requirements of the time.
While in the domain of the Soviet Government’s economic and general
policy, this period has been marked by two most far-reaching and
important changes which, strictly speaking, had been prepared prior to
the October Revolution—the nationalization of banks and the annulment of
the government debt; the financial policy, in the narrow sense of the
word, did not disclose any new departures, not even the beginnings of
original constructive work.
Gradually taking over the semi-ruined pre-revolutionary financial
apparatus, however, the Soviet Government was compelled to adopt
measures for the systematization of the country’s finances in their
entirety.
This second period in the work of the People’s Commissariat for Finances
(approximately up to August, 1918) also fails to show any features of
sharply marked revolutionary change. From the very beginning the
authorities have been confronted with a chaotic condition of the
country’s financial affairs. All this, in connection with the large
deficit which became apparent in the state budget, compelled the
Commissariat of Finance to concentrate its immediate attention on
straightening the general run of things and, thus, prepare the ground
for further reforms.
In order to accomplish the systematizing of the financial structure, the
Government had to lean for support on the already existing unreformed
institutions, i.e., the central department of finance, the local
administrative-financial organs—the fiscal boards tax inspection,
treasuries, excise boards—and, more particularly, the financial organs
of the former local institutions for self-government (Zemstvos, and
municipalities).
Such a plan of work seemed most feasible, since the apparatus appeared
suitable for fulfilling slightly modified functions; but the local
government was not yet sufficiently crystallized or firmly established,
neither was any stable connection established between that local
government and the central bodies.
Under such circumstances, the old institutions, which by force of habit
continued to work exclusively at the dictate of and in accordance with
instructions from the central bodies, seemed to be the most convenient
and efficient means of carrying out measures which the central
authorities had planned to straighten out the general disorder
prevailing in financial affairs.
However, this idea soon had to be discarded, the local Soviets insofar
as they organized themselves and put their executive organs into
definite shape, could not and did not have the right to neglect the work
of the old financial organs functioning in the various localities, since
the Soviets represented the local organs of the central government as a
whole, and since it was upon them that the responsibility for all the
work done in the localities, rested.
Under such conditions friction was inevitable. In accordance with the
principles of the old bureaucratic order, the local financial
institutions neither knew nor had any idea of subordination other than
the slavish subordination to the central authorities which excluded all
initiative on their part.
Under the new conditions, these local financial institutions were to
constitute only a small component part of the local Soviets. Acute
misunderstanding of the local authorities among themselves and between
the local and central authorities on the subject of interrelations among
all of these institutions, have demonstrated the imperative necessity
for a reorganization. With this work of reforming the local financial
organs (September, 1918) a new period opened: the third period in the
activity of the commissariat, which coincides with the gradual
strengthening of the general course of our economic policy. The economic
policy definitely and decisively occupies the first place which duly
belongs to it, while the financial policy, insofar as it is closely
bound up with the economic policy, is being regulated and directed in
accordance with the general requirements of the latter.
II
The financial policy of Soviet Russia was, for the first time,
definitely outlined by the eighth (March, 1919) Convention of the
Russian Communist Party.
The eighth party convention clearly and concretely stated our financial
problems for the transitionary period, and now our task consists in
seeing to it that the work of the financial organs of the Republic
should be in accord with the principles accepted by the party.
These principles, briefly, are as follows: (1) Soviet Government State
monopoly of the banking institutions; (2) radical reconstruction and
simplifications of the banking operations, by means of transforming the
banking apparatus into one of uniform accounting and general bookkeeping
for the Soviet Republic; (3) the enactment of measures widening the
sphere of accounting without the medium of money, with the final object
of total elimination of money; (4) and, in view of the transformation of
the government power into an organization fulfilling the functions of
economic management for the entire country,—the transformation of the
pre-revolutionary state budget into the budget of the economic life of
the nation as a whole.
In regard to the necessity for covering the expenses of the functioning
state apparatus during the period of transition, the program adopted
outlines the following plan: “The Russian Communist Party will advocate
the transition from the system of levying contributions from the
capitalists, to a proportional income and property tax: and, insofar as
this tax outlives itself, due to the widely applied expropriation of the
propertied classes, the government expenditures must be covered by the
immediate conversion of part of the income derived from the various
state monopolies into government revenue.”
In short, we arrive at the conclusion that no purely financial policy,
in its pre-revolutionary sense of independence and priority, can or
ought to exist in Soviet Russia. The financial policy plays a subsidiary
part, for it depends directly upon the economic policy and upon the
changes which occur in the various phases of Russia’s political and
economic order.
During the transitional period from capitalism to Socialism the
government concentrates all of its attention on the organization of
industry and on the activities of the organs for exchange and
distribution of commodities.
The financial apparatus is an apparatus subsidiary to the organs of
production and distribution of merchandise. During the whole of this
transitional period the financial administration is confronted with the
following task: (1) supplying the productive and distributive organs
with money, as a medium of exchange, not even abolished by economic
evolution, and (2) the formation of an accounting system, with the aid
of which the government materialize the exchange and distribution of
products. Finally, since all the practical work in the domain of
national and financial economy cannot and should not proceed otherwise
than in accordance with a strictly defined plan, it is the function of
the financial administration to create and compile the state budget in
such a manner that it might approximate as closely as possible the
budget of the entire national economic life.
In addition to this, one of the largest problems of the Commissariat of
Finance was the radical reform of the entire administration of the
Department of Finance, from top to bottom, in such a manner that the
fundamental need of the moment would be realized most fully—the
realization of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the poorest
peasantry in the financial sphere.
III
The work of the financial institutions for the solution of the first
problem of our financial policy, i.e., the monopolization of the entire
banking business in the hands of the Soviet Government, may be
considered as having been completed during the past year.
The private commercial banks were nationalized on December 14, 1917, but
even after this act there still remained a number of private credit
institutions. Among these foremost was the “Moscow People’s Bank”
(Moscow Narodny Bank) a so-called cooperative institution. There were
also societies for mutual credit, foreign banks (Lion Credit Warsaw
Bank, Caucasian Bank, etc.); and private land banks, city and government
(provisional) credit associations.
Finally, together with the Moscow People’s Bank there existed government
institutions—savings banks, and treasuries. A number of measures were
required to do away with that lack of uniformity involved and to prepare
the ground for the formation of a uniform accounting system.
A number of decrees of the Soviet of People’s Commissaries and
regulations issued by the People’s Commissariat of Finance, have
completed all this work from September 1918 to May 1919.
By a decree of October 10th, 1918, the Societies for Mutual Credit were
liquidated; three decrees of December 2nd, 1918, liquidated the foreign
banks, regulated the nationalization of the Moscow People’s
(Cooperative) Bank and the liquidation of the municipal banks; and,
finally, on May 17th, 1919, the city and state Mutual Credit
Associations were liquidated. As regards the question of consolidating
the treasuries with the offices of the People’s Bank, this has been
provided in a decree issued on October 31st, 1918; the amalgamation of
the savings banks with the People’s Bank has been affected on April
10th, 1918.
Thus, with the issuance of all the above-mentioned decrees, all the
private credit associations have been eliminated and all existing
Government Credit Institutions have been consolidated into one People’s
Bank of the Russian Republic. The last step in the process of reform was
the decree of the People’s Commissariat of Finance which consolidated
the State Treasury Department with the central administration of the
People’s Bank. This made possible, by uniting the administration of
these organs, the enforcement of the decree concerning the amalgamation
of the treasuries with the People’s Bank. The decree of the People’s
Commissariat of Finance of October 29th, 1918, issued pursuant to