Some time ago, when a certain well-known American business man was visiting the Soviet Union, he happened to boast to his guide that he employed several thousands of men in his various enterprises. The guide, not accustomed to such a situation, was unable to hide her dismay. “People get ten years for that in this country,” she said!
It is possible to-day to travel from Moscow to Vladivostok or from Archangel to Tiflis, and nowhere to find a landlord, an owner of a factory, or an employer of labour. People abound everywhere, but ask them how they gain a living and you will find that, without exception, they either work in some publicly owned institution, such as a factory or a coal-mine, a school or a clinic, or they are working members of a cooperative organization. About a tenth of the people of the U.S.S.R. do not fall into these two categories; these are individual peasants and individual handicraftsmen, who work for themselves, but do not employ the labour of others.
When we look at Soviet industry, education, entertainment, or scientific institutions, we find that they are to-day completely owned and controlled by public bodies, whether the Government of the U.S.S.R., one of the national republics, or a local authority. And, as a result of this, we find that practically every adult citizen in a Soviet town to-day is a wage-earner, or someone who, by domestic work, enables others to work for a wage.
In Tsarist Russia, as in Britain to-day, practically the whole of industry and agriculture was in private hands. In the towns of those days you would meet rich employers, owning the factories and the coal-mines and living on the profits of these enterprises. You would meet rich foreigners with capital invested in Russian industry, who drew each year a share of the profits; and, on the other hand, you would meet large numbers of people, the vast majority of the town dwellers, who worked for a living in all these enterprises which were owned by somebody else.
to-day in the Soviet Union the employers are extinct. Citizens are wage-earners or co-operators, and a large section of them are wage-earners. Every Soviet citizen, according to the Constitution of the U.S.S.R., enjoys the right to work, to leisure, and to security. The abolition of unemployment guarantees that all may work. Leisure is guaranteed by a working day which averages less than seven hours and by paid holidays for all workers. Security is safeguarded by social insurance against illness, by which wages are drawn during ill health; and by non-contributory pensions for the aged at sixty for men, fifty-five for women and at still lower ages in occupations considered particularly arduous or harmful to health. But, in addition to these rights, which workers in other countries may well envy their Soviet comrades, the Soviet worker has the right to participate in running the concern in which he works, for he, as a citizen of the Soviet State, is a partner in the ownership of this concern.
The Soviet State was set up in October 1917. One of its first decrees dealt with “Workers’ Control” in industry, and laid down that in every enterprise elected committees of the employees were to be set up, to express the will of the workers in that enterprise, and to supervise the running of it in the interests of the workers. At the same time such elected committees were to share responsibility with the employer “for the strictest order, discipline, and preservation of property.”
In January 1918, four months later, it was decided, rather than perpetuate a system varying from factory to factory, each with its own methods of electing the workers’ committee, that the work of controlling the management was to be henceforth in the hands of the elected committee of the trade union. In this way the Soviet Government gave a very great stimulus to trade union membership, for only by joining the trade union could the workers now play a part in electing the factory committee which was to represent them and control the management of the plant in their own interests.
The young Soviet State, however, not only enforced the representation of the workers on the management of privately owned factories; it also proceeded to take over the management of many of the large concerns, and also of those concerns which the employers refused any longer to operate. As this happened, a new problem arose; what was to be the relationship between the workers in these State enterprises and the management?
This question was discussed in 1921 at a special conference. It has decided that in, all socialized enterprises the trade unions were to safeguard the interests of the workers against what were termed “bureaucratic perversions” on the part of the management; while at the same time, as in the earlier decree, the unions were still responsible—together with the administration, which now represented the State—for the preservation of labour discipline and the protection of property. In this way the trade union committee became the officially recognized representative body of the workers in a Soviet factory, and, as such, had the right to participate with the management in all discussions of policy affecting the lives of the workers.
A foreigner, starting to work for the first time in the U.S.S.R., is at once struck by the relations between the managerial staff and the rank-and-file workers. The most significant fact that faces him is that the manager of a Soviet factory, as part of his duties, is under the obligation to improve the general living conditions of the workers, to increase the social amenities attached to the factory, to provide satisfactory service in the restaurant and medical centre, and to see that good care is given to the workers’ children in nursery and kindergarten. The Soviet factory manager is responsible to the State, not only for raising the output of the factory in his charge, and for lowering its costs of production, but for raising the welfare of the workers in his factory, and devoting a considerable amount of time and energy to this work.
I well remember how, a year or two ago, there took place in Moscow a conference of “industrial leaders”—managers of Soviet factories. One of the subjects of discussion was the question of housing. And in this conference of factory managers it was emphatically stated that it was the duty of every factory manager to take steps to put an end to the existence of bed-bugs in the dwellings of the workers in the factory under his care. Every factory manager was responsible for seeing that the workers had decent living-quarters.
Some readers, possibly, may think that such an example is ill chosen, only serving to show the backwardness of Soviet housing. I would draw the attention of such readers to a report which appeared in The Times of June 24th, 1936, in which the following statement is made: “It is estimated that 4,000,300 people suffer from the bed-bug in London alone”; but the fact is little known owing to “the public’s reticence in the matter, and their refusal to admit that bugs were in their homes even when they knew of their presence.”
So it is not the existence of bed-bugs in the workers’ dwellings that distinguishes the U.S.S.R. from Britain, or Moscow from London; it is the fact that the Soviet factory manager is under a definite obligation to help to exterminate the pest, thus improving the living conditions of the workers under his leadership—a duty not shared by the factory managers of Great Britain, whose responsibility is only to the owners of the factories and not to the workers.
This is one example of the responsibility of the Soviet factory administration for the welfare of its workers. Here is another. In the autumn of 1932 I travelled in the Caucasus with a group of workers on holiday. In the group there were two girls, workers in a chemical factory. At their jobs they had a six-hour day, as their work was considered arduous. They received six weeks’ holiday on full pay. I was then amazed to hear that, in addition to this, they had each received a grant from the administration of their factory to help them to travel during their holiday. Later on, after more experience, I found that every Soviet organization has considerable funds which are used exclusively for the welfare of the workers, and contributions for holiday purposes may be made out of such funds.
A matter which has some bearing on the relationship between the workers in a Soviet enterprise and the administrative staff is the fact that, on such an administrative staff to-day, the vast majority of people are themselves workers who have been promoted. A visit to any Soviet factory shows that in almost every case the manager of that factory was once an ordinary manual worker, and, very often, was a worker in that same factory. The fact that the personnel of the managerial staff is drawn from the rank and file of the workers themselves prevents that difference in attitude which arises when managers and workers are drawn from different classes in society, each with its own traditions and conventions, and even with separate educational systems, is the case in Britain.
Just as, under Soviet conditions, factory managers are obliged to pay attention to the welfare of the workers as well as to problems of production and costs, it must be pointed out that the Soviet workers are interested in raising production as well as in increasing their immediate welfare. Since 1928 the whole of Soviet industry has been publicly owned and controlled, and production has been subject to a general plan for the purpose of meeting the growing needs of the community. In 1931 unemployment was completely eliminated, and it has not recurred since.
It is under these conditions that the Soviet workers find no reason whatever to restrict production. Further, they have definite reasons for increasing production as rapidly as possible, for this is the only way of raising the general standard of life.
Under capitalism, where part of the value of every product goes to the employer as profit, the workers in any single enterprise, or in a whole industry, can force the employers to raise their wages or otherwise to improve their conditions by direct action. If strikes are successful, wages rise at the expense of profits, which is satisfactory to the workers though unsatisfactory to the employers. When, however, as in the U.S.S.R. to-day, the whole of the means of production are owned and controlled by public bodies in the public interest, a strike by the workers in any factory or industry for higher wages can only react to the disadvantage of the working population itself. For, by a strike, production is restricted. And this is contrary to the public interest in a community in which every extra product is required and is utilized. A strike, therefore, is to the disadvantage of the workers of the Soviet community as a whole.
The method of fixing wages by means of strikes in a Socialist country is highly undesirable, for it is no longer possible for any workers to raise their wages at the expense of employers’ profits. If, as a result of a strike, higher wages are won, then they are won at the expense of the general fund which goes to paying the wages of all citizens. If the coalminers of the U.S.S.R. strike to-day for more wages, they are in fact fighting to force the Government to give to them what otherwise it would be dividing up among other workers. Strikes, then, in such conditions, can only represent sectional demands against the whole community, and in themselves are contrary to the general interest because they restrict production.
In a diary of a visit of a few weeks’ duration to the U.S.S.R., Sir Walter Citrine has said that “it was too much to assume a complete identity of interest between the director and the workers. The director was concerned with efficiency and output, and the worker with the amount he could earn, and the conditions under which it was earned” (I Search for Truth in Russia, p. 129). And, in a later passage, he says that “liberty of association and the right to strike are the essential features of legitimate trade unionism” (p. 361).
It is clear, from what has been said here, that Sir Walter’s estimation of the relations between director and worker in the Soviet factory is based on a lack of understanding of the situation. Sir Walter ignores the unique fact that the Soviet director, as part of his job, is responsible for increasing the welfare of the workers. He ignores the fact that the workers, no longer working for an employer who takes part of their product in the form of profit, know that everything they produce is distributed to the community—that is, to themselves. Finally, he ignores the also important fact that, under such conditions as these, a strike is an attack by a small minority on the economic resources of the whole community; and at the same time, by holding up production, reacts to the disadvantage of all citizens.
As to the other matter—freedom of association—no other State in the world has ever given the encouragement to trade unionism which has been given in the U.S.S.R. We have already seen how the young Soviet State, in its first months of existence, made the trade union committees the official representative bodies of the workers in all industrial enterprises, with powers of control over the management. This was a tremendous stimulus to trade union development, as is shown by the figures of trade union membership. In October 1917, at the time when the Soviets seized power, there were 2 million trade unionists. By 1928 this figure had increased to 11 million, and was 18 million in 1934.
No other country can show such figures, and it is absurd to suggest that the U.S.S.R. has ever done anything but encourage, to the greatest possible extent, the organization of the workers in trade unions.
At the same time, however, as a result of the changes in the relations between worker and administration which have followed the socialization of industry, the position of the trade unions in the Soviet State is certainly different from their position under capitalism. This matter will concern us more deeply in the following chapter.
A question which will be in the mind of many readers is this: If, in the U.S.S.R., production is organized to-day in the common interest, so that strikes are contrary to the general interest and so that the aims of factory managers and workers coincide, how do these changes show themselves in the organization of the factory ? Is there not a danger that the workers may be even worse exploited by the State than they previously were by their private employers?
The answer to this question lies in the organization of the Soviet factory, and, indeed, of every Soviet institution. And this organization is very different from the factory under capitalism.
No worker in a Soviet factory can go long without becoming aware of the existence of what is known as the “Triangle,” and he will find that decisions of the Triangle are made on all kinds of matters which, under capitalism, would lie within the realm of the employer and manager and nobody else. What is this “Triangle”?
We have already seen how, when the factories of Russia were taken over by the Soviet State, their managers became responsible to the State for the organization of production and for improving the welfare of the workers. We have also seen how the trade union committee became the official body entitled to represent the workers, and to fight “bureaucratic perversions” on the part of the management. At a very early stage in the history of Soviet industry the device was evolved of joint discussion between manager and trade union representative on all important matters affecting the welfare of the factory and of its workers. Decisions would be issued over the signature of manager and trade union representative together, showing that they had been discussed, both from the point of view of the State and of the workers in the enterprise itself, before a decision had been reached. But a triangle has three angles, not two. Where is the third angle to our triangle?
It may surprise British readers to know that, in the Triangle, which is the supreme authority in every Soviet enterprise, the third angle is the representative of a political party. In the Soviet factory the body which discusses all questions affecting the interests of the workers is the Triangle; consisting of the manager, appointed by a State department and responsible to it; the representative of the trade union, elected by the workers in the factory, and responsible to them; and a representative of the “Party”—that is, of the organization in the factory of the Bolshevik or Communist Party of the U.S.S.R.
While it may be clear that the manager represents the State, and that the trade unionist represents the workers in the factory, it may well not be clear to the reader exactly whose interests are represented by the Party. This question will occupy us in detail in Chapter XV. It is important, however, here and now, to state the impression of a foreign worker, taking up a position in the Soviet Union for the first time, on this question.
In every Soviet enterprise I found that the relationship between fellow workers was a friendly one. The status of the manager was that of a human being like every other worker. It was the status of the leading personality in the institution, a fellow-worker but a good one, the person most equipped to take the responsibility for running it. In the average Soviet enterprise to-day over 80 percent of the workers are members of a trade union. Those who are not members are usually new arrivals, or people who have lapsed from membership, or in a small minority of cases, individuals who have been actually expelled for some offence against union discipline. The elected representative of the trade unionists, then, can be taken as being the most popular figure among the workers of those considered suitable effectively to represent their interests.
Now, quite apart from their official position, their job, or their status as members of the trade union committee, a certain number of persons are “Party members.” These people are members of the Party, which is a voluntary political organization. In general, I always found that the Party members tended to be the most respected workers, whatever their skill or position, and the Party organization was looked upon as being a kind of organized group of leading personalities, of people who were more devoted than the average to work of social usefulness. The workers as a whole looked to the Party members for leadership, and, in the majority of cases, when asked why they were not themselves “in the Party,” the answer was that they had enough to do already, without taking on extra responsibilities.
I say this now because it is important to realize that in the Soviet factory the representation of the Party, along with administration and trade union, on the Triangle, is looked upon as something absolutely natural. The Party is considered as a sort of organization of the best and most responsible citizens, and the Triangle thus becomes a body representing the State, the rank-and-file worker, and the organized leadership of the working people as expressed in the Party.
It would entirely misrepresent the situation if the impression were given that control by this Triangle was the only feature which distinguished the Soviet enterprise from similar enterprises in other countries. Actually, while the presence of the elected representative of the trade union causes all important decisions to be made with the co-operation of the workers’ representative, it is possible for disputes to arise between the different persons composing the Triangle, and differences may arise between the workers and the administration.
In such cases of “industrial disputes” in the U.S.S.R. there is an elaborate machinery of negotiation and arbitration. Actually, if there is disagreement in the factory itself, it is usual for the trade union or Party representatives to take the question to a higher authority. If the factory trade union committee cannot obtain satisfaction from the administration, then the matter may be carried to the district committee of the union, which will then negotiate with the State organization which controls the factory concerned. As a rule such matters are settled in this way. But, if necessary, the Central Council of the Trade Unions of the U.S.S.R. may take up the matter with the Government if the dispute reaches that length without a settlement being reached. However, under present-day conditions the relations between employing organizations and the trade unions are so amicable that disputes are not likely to get so far before some sort of reasonable settlement is reached.
When it is realized that both the elected representatives of the workers and the appointed representatives of the State have the same common aims—to raise the general standard of life by increasing production and the welfare, of the workers concerned as rapidly as possible—it is clear that major industrial disputes are extremely unlikely to arise.
There are disputes of another kind, however, which cannot be settled by simple processes of negotiation. These are disputes in connection with the infringement of the law, as, for example, in cases where factory managers do not enforce the safety measures laid down by law, or do not pay the correct wages to a discharged worker, and so on. In the case of legal disputes, the question can either be referred to a higher authority—in which case the latter may bring pressure to bear on the factory manager to fulfil his obligations—or, if the case is in doubt, then it may be taken to the courts for a decision. These courts, as will be shown in Chapter VII, also represent the working people of the country, and administer the law with a good measure of working-class common sense.
So far we have considered what we may call the “formal” structure of the administration of a Soviet factory. But, quite apart from this, there is a wide range of questions which are decided by the Triangle, not in isolation from the rest of the workers, but in public discussion with these workers. For example, every year the manager of a Soviet factory addresses a general meeting of the workers, just as the chairman of a British joint-stock company addresses a general meeting of the shareholders. At such a meeting the Soviet manager reports on the past year, and on the fulfilment of the plan of production, and of the plan for improving the general living conditions of the workers.
This report is followed by a general discussion, in which every worker can participate, and in which serious criticisms may be made of the work of individuals and groups of individuals, the members of the administrative staff being not immune from criticism by the rank and file. As a result of such discussions certain workers may be moved to other posts, either upwards or downwards in the scale of responsibilities. The manager of a Soviet factory, in order to fulfil his tasks satisfactorily, must be able, in such meetings, to prove his leadership of those working under him. If, at such meetings, the workers show that they have no faith in their manager, the organization in charge of the factory will replace him. For a Soviet factory director must be able to lead; he must be recognized as the best representative of all the workers in the factory, or the rank and file will be against him, and there will be continual friction, resulting in inefficiency.
The manager’s report on past activity is followed by an outline of the plan for the coming year. This plan is submitted to the manager of the factory from above, from the trust or the local authority to which the factory is responsible. This plan forms part of a general plan for the industry concerned, and for the locality where the factory is placed, and such plans are drawn up from year to year by the State Planning Commission, subject to instructions given by the Government.
The plan submitted to each, separate factory is based on the estimated resources and needs of the community as seen by the State Planning Commission. But it may neglect certain local characteristics, or features of the particular factory. Therefore a discussion of all such plans by all the workers in a Soviet factory is considered essential. For this purpose there are not only general meetings of all workers, but in each workshop discussions take place, and suggestions are made for improving the details of the plan.
It may happen, for example, that a certain shop in a certain factory has been held up for raw materials during the past year. When the workers of such a shop point this out in the meeting, they may suggest that, if only the supply of materials is guaranteed, they will be able to increase output by twice the amount suggested in the plan. Or, to take another example, the workers of a particular workshop may state that if they could have one more machine of a particular kind, they would be able to perform a certain process, now performed by six men, with the use of only one worker. The remaining five would then be available for work where there is at present a shortage of labour, and thus output would be considerably raised.
Such general discussions, in which the plan is considered in detail by all those whose work it is to carry it out, are a feature of all Soviet industry. But discussion of this kind is not all, for throughout the year meetings are held, often monthly, to check up how the plan, once adopted, is being fulfilled. There are many working people who, though not vociferous at meetings, have opinions to which they want to give expression. Such workers might say in writing what they would not say in meetings. And we find that in every Soviet enterprise there exists a “Press,” in order that such people may air their views.
Few visitors to the Soviet Union return without mentioning the wall-newspaper, prominent in every Soviet organization, from the Government offices on the Red Square to the workshop in the factory, the classroom in the school, and the cow-shed in the collective farm. The wall-newspaper has already been mentioned in our discussion of education. The young worker leaves school, having written in the wall-newspaper there, to work in a Soviet enterprise, where again the wall-newspaper is a means of expression. And from week to week, and month to month, the newspaper on the wall of the Soviet factory’s workshops is a thermometer of public opinion, in which the workers express their views of their own work, of the work of other people, and in which they do not neglect to criticize managers and administrators, if they feel that their administration is at fault.
Now who, it may be asked, edits these wall-newspapers in the Soviet factory? Is it the manager? Or perhaps the Communist Party? Or is it just an ordinary working man or woman?
The answer is that the editor of the wall-newspaper in a Soviet factory is appointed by the elected trade union committee, and is responsible to that committee. The wall-newspaper is an organ of the workers, through their trade union. Similarly, it may be asked who organizes these meetings of the workers, to discuss the plans of production, and to watch over their fulfilment. Again the answer is: The trade union committee is responsible for organizing these meetings.
We are beginning to find that, in the Soviet factory, in whatever direction we turn, we cannot discuss the rights of the workers without coining up against the activities of the trade union committee. The trade union representative sits with the manager; the trade union committee organizes mass meetings to discuss the work of the factory; it controls the Press. The conditions of the Soviet wage-earner cannot be considered without, all the time, references being made to the trade unions. For this reason any further discussion of the rights of the Soviet wage-earner brings us to a consideration of the activities of the trade unions in the U.S.S.R.
Note.—Since going to press a meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. has been held, at which questions were discussed arising out of the new Constitution. At this meeting the work of the factory Triangles was severely criticized as limiting democracy at the present time. Zhdanov referred to them as tending to become a “family compact, a conspiracy to make it more difficult to criticize. And once these three are in agreement, just go and try to criticize them!”
While, from the standpoint of the worker under capitalism, a situation in which the elected trade union representative participates in running the factory is a giant stride forward, already in the U.S.S.R. they are looking for more effective means of democratic control and criticism. We may expect modifications in the future which will lead to greater independence of administration, party, and trade union leadership, combined with still greater discussion of policy throughout the rank and file of the party and trade union organizations.