In the Constitution of the Russian Soviet Republic, adopted in 1918, we read that freedom of association is guaranteed to all citizens, and that the Soviet State “lends to the workers all its material and moral assistance to help them to unite and to organize themselves.” Lenin referred to the trade unions as a “school of Communism” in which the ordinary working people were able to learn the art of administering their own affairs. And, in my own experience, soon after I had started working in the Soviet Union I was urgently asked to join the trade union, membership of which means a great deal to the working man and woman in the U.S.S.R.
The trade union in every Soviet enterprise makes it its duty to draw all workers into active participation in the work of running the enterprise, and in the social and political life of the country. I remember how, when the question of my trade union membership was first discussed in Moscow, I was asked what “social work” I did. I had already, in my spare time, given a lecture on England. This was “social work”; I was admitted to the trade union.
This term “social work” has a very different meaning in the U.S.S.R. from what it has in Britain. Every Soviet trade unionist—which means eight out of every ten wage-earners in the U.S.S.R.—is expected to perform some socially useful activity, however small, in addition to his paid work. If you are on your trade union committee, or on the local Soviet, or an organizer of a dramatics group or a sports club, this is social work. If you give a course of lectures in your spare time, or take a study-group, or do voluntary work for the local Soviet or for the trade union committee, this is social work. The Soviet trade unions try to stimulate every citizen to be an active member of society, not only on his paid job, but, in addition to this, to do something of social use, in his spare time.
The Soviet trade unions are represented on the management of the factories, and, higher up, on the boards of the State trusts. In each factory the trade union mobilizes the workers for participation in the management. It organizes meetings to discuss the welfare of the workers and problems of production; and it runs a Press in which expression is given to the opinions of the workers. But such discussion, in words and in writing, has a purpose; the purpose is the raising of the standard of life of the whole population as rapidly as possible. And this, as we have seen, depends on increasing production. Therefore, on the one hand, the Soviet trade unions are interested in increasing production as the only way in which the standard of life of all the workers may be raised; while, on the other hand, in every Soviet enterprise the trade union is interested in immediately improving the living conditions of the workers, in improving their conditions of work, and, in general, in seeing that the increased production effectively reflects itself in a higher standard of life for the workers concerned.
In considering education we have already made our acquaintance with “Socialist competition,” that competition between individual and individual, group and group, for the best results. The young Soviet citizen is trained to compete with others in obtaining the best results. The Soviet worker, in his factory, competes with his fellow worker on the same principle. And it is the trade unions in the U.S.S.R. that are responsible, in the various productive enterprises, for the organization of this “Socialist competition,” which, during the first Five Year Plan, gave rise to the famous “shock-brigade” movement, and, in more recent times, to the movement called after the coal-miner Stakhanov.
It is often said, by those who identify their interests with the survival of capitalism, that Socialism restricts initiative. But they rarely stop to ask: The initiative of whom?
It is certainly a fact that in the U.S.S.R. to-day, no person’s initiative may express itself by setting up in business on his own. Furthermore, it cannot express itself by a person running a business so successfully that other businesses in the same line are ruined as a result of this successful competition. Also, it is not possible in the U.S.S.R. to show initiative in the private employment or discharging of workers, in dictating to them on what terms they shall work, and so on. And, for the managerial staff of factories, it is not possible to show initiative in a way so common in a capitalist concern—in browbeating the wretched employees, in degrading them, and in using every method, gentle and brutal, to get more work out of them during the working day. Such forms of individual initiative are suppressed in the U.S.S.R.; but these are only very limited examples of personal initiative; they are simply examples taken from capitalism. On the other hand, as far as concerns the initiative of working people to improve their methods of work and their conditions of work, the Soviet system gives the maximum of opportunity. And, since the whole population to-day consists of working people, this means that personal initiative is not thwarted, but encouraged, in all those activities in which the people of the country spend their time.
One of the main channels of personal initiative in the Soviet Union is Socialist competition. And the trade unions are the organisers of this. Socialist competition first began to be widely organised in 1928. Factories signed contracts with factories for the best fulfilment of their plans. These contracts were drawn up at general meetings of the workers. The Press published weekly accounts of how the competitors were faring, and the winners received banners and prizes. In each separate factory different groups of workers competed against each other for the best results, the factory Press reported the competition, and the winners were rewarded. But this competition was very different from the competition between capitalist firms, or even between groups of workers in capitalist industry. For whereas, under capitalist conditions the winning factory is that which manages to obtain the orders and put the other out of business, and the successful worker replaces the less successful, in the U.S.S.R. no successful factory puts another out of business, and no successful group of workers causes another group to lose their job. On the contrary, when a round of Socialist competition comes to an end, the best workers are often sent from the winning factory to help the more backward one; and, as between groups of workers, those in the best group help the others to raise their production to the same level. In this way, in the factory as in the school, Socialist competition is a means of stimulating production by introducing the spirit of the playground into the factory, and then ensuring the co-operation of winner and loser for the general benefit.
It was on the course of this Socialist competition that there developed the shock-brigades. These were groups of workers who, in their Socialist competition, achieved outstanding results. The title of “shock-worker” first began to be conferred on those workers who showed the best results in their Socialist competition. But these titles were not simply awarded from above by the manager of the factory, nor were they awarded by the Triangle. The workers themselves, at a trade union meeting, would elect a commission to check up the results of the competition. The commission would then report to the Triangle. The Triangle would make recommendations as to which workers deserved the title of shock-worker, and the meeting would then decide.
In this way, too, workers would be premiumed. There is no doubt that, for the British reader, reports that in the U.S.S.R. certain factory workers are premiumed with money or useful presents sometimes come rather as a shock. Does not this savour of the benevolent boss, who, at Christmas or at other times, presents the most faithful workers with a stimulus to further devotion—a carrot before the noses of all the rest?
And yet such a comparison, to anyone who has worked in a Soviet organization, is utterly remote from real life. In my work in Moscow I had plenty of opportunity to participate in Socialist competition. We ourselves drew up the contract, which included such things as quantity and quality of work, punctuality, tidiness at work, and the fulfilling of certain jobs within a certain period of time. When the time was up, we elected our own commissions to check up our fulfilment. Usually, on May 1st and November 7th, the two great revolutionary holidays, Soviet enterprises give premiums to the best workers. It was our elected commission that recommended who should be premiumed. The Triangle, in my own experience, always accepted the decision of the elected commission. The general meeting then endorsed the recommendation, in this way, if any one of us received a month’s extra pay as a premium for good work; it was we ourselves who had awarded it, because we felt it was deserved.
During 1935 and 1936 a new form of shock-work has developed in the form of “Stakhanovism.” In essence it is a very simple story. A certain coal-miner, by the name of Stakhanov, working in a pit in the Donets Basin in the Ukraine, reorganized the work of the group of which he was leader, so that output was greatly increased. His pit newspaper gave the matter publicity, it was taken up as a “scoop” by other newspapers—for the U.S.S.R. needs coal—and the rationalization proposals of Stakhanov became known throughout the world.
Many managers and engineers did not approve of Stakhanovism, for two main reasons. First, they felt that the wholesale reorganization of methods of work was their job, not that of the rank-and-file miners. The Soviet Government Press, however, immediately attacked such a view, pointing out that the welfare of the U.S.S.R. depends on the maximum expression of personal initiative by all workers. Secondly, in certain cases the managers and technicians objected to workers reorganizing their methods of work, because their wages then rose considerably above those of the technical and managerial staff! This attitude was also attacked in the Press, and the Stakhanov movement has spread throughout the country.
The Stakhanov movement, and the publicity and encouragement given to Stakhanov and his followers, stimulates every worker, however unskilled, to become a rationalizer, an organizer of his or her own labour. In this way every worker feels encouraged to utilize brain as well as hand. Large numbers of workers become more skilled and earn higher wages. There is a general rise in both material and cultural standards as a result. Further, the leading Stakhanov workers themselves are asked to become teachers of their methods. Stakhanov has been invited back to his native village, to use his organizing power to raise production in the collective farm. He also spends much time visiting different coal-mines, teaching the workers there how to reorganize their work for greater efficiency. A rank-and-file miner has become a technical expert and an engineer. And this is happening all the time in the Soviet Union to-day, affecting hundreds of thousands of workers.
It has been mentioned that the Stakhanovite workers raised their wages as a result of their greater output. How are wages paid in the U.S.S.R.? The answer is: Democratically, on the general principle, “To each according to his work.”
Every year, in every Soviet enterprise, a “collective agreement” is signed between the trade union and the administration. This agreement states the obligations of the administration towards the workers in the form of cultural and other services, and also includes detailed wage-scales for the enterprise. The general principles underlying such wage-scales are determined by the central committees of the unions in the various industries, in co-operation with the corresponding administrative State organization. The details, with adjustments for local conditions, are worked out in each enterprise separately. In this way, once a year at least, every working man or woman, on every job, has the chance to participate in a general discussion of the existing wage-rates. These are reviewed from top to bottom, and every worker has the opportunity to discuss the wage he is getting. At such discussions every anomaly is considered, so that the workers come to a general agreement as to what rate of wages is fair. The collective agreement is drawn up on the basis of such discussions. The result is that, while wages vary considerably, everyone knows the reason for each particular wage. They know, therefore, how they can raise their own earnings; and in our discussion of equality of opportunity we have already seen that there is a chance for practically all workers to raise their qualifications if they wish to do so.
But if earnings are unequal, some must live better than others. Is this Socialism? And, again, it is said that in the U.S.S.R. people may save, and that interest is actually paid by the State on savings, is this so? And may not a leisured class arise in the future as a result?
As far as saving is concerned, to take the latter question first, the Soviet Government actually paid interest on savings, at the rate of 7 and 8 percent until 1936. This was done during a period when every effort was being made throughout the country to build up the means of production. During such a period every voluntary economy in consumption was of value to the community, for it enabled more resources to be devoted to production. During the year 1936, however, by Government decree, the rate of interest was halved overnight. Savings had been increasing, and the urgency to encourage economy in consumption was declining. In the future, when the urgency to expand the means of production has fallen still further as compared with consumers’ goods, a further decree will abolish interest entirely.
Interest, in the Soviet State, is a purely temporary phenomenon. In no way do the people who receive interest thereby control the general planning of the economic life of the country. They are not employers, and they cannot decide what shall be produced or who shall work, and under what conditions. They do not participate in planning the economic life of the country except as workers and wage-earners. And, as will be seen later, they have no political rights whatever, except as workers. Further, it is the law of the U.S.S.R. that “work is an obligation on all citizens.” So it is illegal for them to become a leisured section of the community.
And now as to the question of unequal earnings. This inequality is a feature of Soviet society which has a definite and immediate purpose. This purpose is to achieve the greatest possible development of the forces of production as the only means of raising the general standard of life. And, right from the time of the Revolution, unequal wages have been paid in order to give the greatest stimulus to the best work. It is sometimes stated that the Soviet Union has “returned to” unequal wages comparatively recently. This is not true. Piece-wages have been paid since the Revolution; but, especially during the first Five Year Plan, there were a number of serious anomalies in wage-rates, so that certain skilled workers were paid less than unskilled, and good workers received no encouragement for their efforts. For that reason, during the first Five Year Plan, stress was laid on the need to work out rational wage-scales in all industries.
Is this Socialism? Karl Marx, the founder of the Communist Movement, considered that unequal earnings would be an essential feature of the first stage of Communist society. In 1875 he wrote that “as it emerges from capitalist society, which is thus tainted economically, morally, and intellectually with the hereditary diseases of the old society from whose womb it is emerging,” individuals will have to receive from society shares in the total product according to their work.
“But one man will excel another physically or intellectually, and so contributes in the same time more labour, or can labour for a longer time.” Already, however, this first stage of Communism “recognizes no class differences, because every worker ranks as a worker like his fellows, but it tacitly recognizes unequal individual endowment, and thus capacity for production, as natural privileges.” As soon as the means of production have been taken out of the hands of private employers, and are socially controlled by public organizations, whether the State, local authorities, or co-operatives, we have Socialism. Under this Socialist system all are workers, whether factory managers or unskilled labourers. But each earns according to his work, the rates of wages being fixed by the people themselves in the collective agreements between their trade unions and the employing organizations.
The fact that wages are not equal in the Soviet Union to-day must on no account be taken to imply that the workers do not receive more according to their needs than anywhere else. For, as compared with other countries in the world, the Soviet worker already receives many things according to his need. For example, in the case of housing, rent is charged at approximately 10 percent of earnings, so that he who earns most pays most. Similarly, when a worker is away from work owing to sickness, or because it is necessary to care for another sick person in the family, wages are paid out of the social insurance fund. Wages are paid to women for two months before and two months after childbirth, even though they are not called upon to work during this period. And if, by doctor’s orders, they must cease work sooner or return later, then they are relieved of work on full pay for a still longer period. Accommodation for children in nurseries, kindergartens, and meals for children at schools, are provided at prices which vary according to the means of the parents. Again, at holiday time, workers are given assistance, both by the factory administrations and by the trade unions, to enable them to have the best kind of holiday, both as recreation and for the benefit of their own health.
The administering of social insurance, a vast task which affects the lives of over 20 million wage-earners, is completely in the hands of the Soviet trade unions. In every factory, and in every workshop, a member of the union has the “social work” of “insurance delegate,” and is responsible for visiting those who are ill, for seeing that they receive their insurance money, and, wherever necessary, for ensuring that extra help is obtained from the administration and from the social insurance funds. In needy cases it is the duty of this comrade to obtain passes for rest-homes and sanatoria.
While such an insurance delegate is charged with the work of assisting those who are ill, it is also the work of such a delegate, representing the trade union, to prevent malingering. If a worker is off work through a street accident, and the insurance delegate finds that drunkenness was the cause, then that case will not receive great sympathy, and part of the insurance money may, in such a case, be withheld. Such a worker, of course, may appeal to the general meeting of the union, but his claim in such a case will probably not receive much sympathy.
The first decree of the Soviet Government dealing with social insurance was passed in 1917. All contributions to the social insurance fund were to be paid by the employers, and no contributions were to be lent from the workers. Where the State was the employer, it was responsible for making the necessary contributions. Benefit for absence from work through sickness or involuntary unemployment was to be at approximately average wages. The decree provided for “complete workers’ self-government of all insurance institutions.”
The control of social insurance until 1933 was in the hands of the Commissariat of Labour, the department of State most able to deal with it. Then, in 1933, it was handed over completely to the trade unions, together with the work of factory inspection and the enforcing of the laws relating to the protection of labour. Sir Walter Citrine, commenting on this growth in the power of the trade unions, remarks that they “were not comparable to any other trade unions in the world. They were, so far as I could see, entrusted with functions which in other countries were carried out by the State itself. They were, in fact State organizations, and I could not see that they had really any separate existence” (op. cit., p. 185).
Sidney and Beatrice Webb, on the other hand, after an exhaustive study of the internal administration of the U.S.S.R. such as Sir Walter Citrine could not begin to attempt in his tour of a few weeks, write as follows on this matter; “This vast addition to the work and influence of the Soviet trade unions has been curiously misunderstood in some quarters, as a degradation of their position to nothing more than friendly societies! But the trade unions retain and continue to exercise all the influence and authority in the administration of the factory and in the settlement of wages that they have possessed for the past fifteen years. The new control over social insurance, and the entire administration of funds and services of such magnitude, can hardly fail to strengthen the trade unions in their work of raising the standard of life of the workers, and even to knit more closely together their far-flung membership.”
However, “the constitutional change, important as it is, will not make so much difference in the administration of social insurance as might be imagined by those conversant only with the constitutions of Western Europe or America. It is not, for instance, in any way comparable to the abolition in the United Kingdom of the Minister of Labour, and the transfer of his functions, with regard to unemployment insurance and wages boards, to the British Trades Union Congress and its General Council!” (op. cit., p. 203). For, as the Webbs point out, the Commissar of Labour had always been appointed in the U.S.S.R. from a panel submitted by the trade unions themselves! Sir Walter Citrine refers to the trade unions as State organizations, because they control factory inspection and social insurance. But the question is: Is it not a feature of a democratic State, that the trade unions, and not the State, should control such matters? Would it be to the benefit of the workers—75 percent of the population—or to their disadvantage, if their elected trade union representatives administered the social insurance system in Britain?
The experience of the U.S.S.R. has shown that, even in a Socialist State, the official administrator of social insurances may become bureaucratic, and not pay sufficient attention to the individual needs of each case that comes before him. It was to prevent this that the administration of social insurance was turned over to the trade unions, so that to-day in the U.S.S.R. it is the directly elected representatives of the workers, and not employees of State departments, who administer the funds which the factories provide for the insurance of the workers against illness, disability, and old age; and in the case of women; pregnancy and childbirth.
Similarly with regard to the protection of labour, at one time, in the U.S.S.R., the inspection of factories was controlled by a State department—the Commissariat of Labour. The trade unions, if dissatisfied with conditions in any particular place of work, were obliged to call in the expert from the Commissariat. To-day, however, a member of the trade union, elected at a meeting of the members, performs the social work of factory inspection. This “labour protection delegate” is responsible for seeing that the laws are observed and that workers shall receive their full rights.
When I was working in a Soviet office, one of the typists complained that her table was too high. At that tine I was trade union organizer. On investigation, I found that the height of tables for typists in the U.S.S.R. is fixed by law. I called upon the labour protection delegate, and she insisted that the administration provide the typists with new tables. This was done within a few days.
It has already been seen how the factory administration is responsible for the welfare of its workers. According to Soviet law, every organization must provide meeting and feeding facilities for its workers, accommodation for the trade union office, and nurseries and kindergartens for the children. It is for the trade union committee to see that the management carries out its obligations in these respects, and for this purpose special delegates are elected, to deal with communal feeding, with the care of children, and so on. It is the work of such delegates, out of the social insurance funds, to give assistance to large families with low wages, to arrange for the children of such families to spend their holidays in camps free of charge, and also to deal with such problems as overcrowded housing conditions. Such workers are also responsible for supervising the quality of service provided in the nurseries, kindergartens, and camps.
In this way a low-paid worker with a family will receive considerable free services, provided out of State funds, and administered by elected trade union officials. In this way, too, families in overcrowded conditions may be found other accommodation, the trade union’s recommendations being taken into consideration by the administration whenever new accommodation becomes available.
A further word is appropriate here about education. It has already been described how the workers in Soviet institutions have the opportunity for free training in various spheres. It remains to be added here that the suspension of such training, and the task of seeing that it is universally provided, rests with the trade union members themselves. Thus, during 1934 a campaign was started for classes in all Soviet enterprises for the raising of the qualifications of workers. The cost of the classes was to be borne by the administration, and students were to study half in their own time, and half in their working time. The actual organizing of the classes, the determination of what subjects should be studied, and who should be the teachers, were in the hands of the “cultural organizers” appointed by the trade union committees.
Such cultural organizers, responsible to the trade union, are also responsible for all forms of leisure-time activity, such as amateur dramatics and sports. Funds for such activities come partly from the budget of the unions, partly from the “cultural fund” of the administration, to which a certain part of its income is devoted. In this way, while wages are strictly adjusted year by year in order to ensure that each worker shall earn according to his work, the social insurance fund, and other funds to which the various State organizations contribute, provide vast resources to be distributed almost entirely by the trade unions, to meet those needs of the workers that cannot be conveniently met out of their wages. In this way the needs of large families, the need for higher education, cultural life, and sport are satisfied on a scale which is quite out of proportion to the actual money wages.
Another feature of Soviet trade union activity which must be mentioned, since it leads to the linking up of the trade unionists of the U.S.S.R. with members of other unions, with workers in other enterprises, and with citizens whom, otherwise, they might not meet at all, is the institution known as “patronage.” It has been described already how, when a group of workers in Socialist competition happen to surpass another group, or a factory beats another factory, the winner frequently in an organized way gives assistance to the loser. Such assistance is sometimes termed “patronage.”
But such “patronage” also exists as a form of social co-operation between organizations of the most varied types; a factory trade union committee may conclude a “patronage agreement” with a regiment in the Red Army, or with a collective farm. By such an agreement the factory will send help to the collective farm during the harvest, and will supply it with certain industrial products throughout the year. The collective farm, in its turn, will supply the factory with agricultural products. In addition, social contact will be preserved between the parties to the agreement, and groups of workers and collective farmers will visit each other socially. Similarly, in the case of the Red Army, the regiment concerned will, among other things, teach the workers and collective farmers to use a rifle, the art of parachute jumping, and so on. In addition, it will come to the assistance of the factory in case of a breakdown, and to the assistance of the farm at harvest time. The members of the Red Army will attend social functions at the factory or farm, and workers and collective farmers will attend the functions of the Red Army, The workers in the factory will undertake certain technical jobs for their regiment; the collective farmers will send it agricultural produce. In this way the main sections of the Soviet population, workers, peasants, and soldiers, are brought into close social and practical contact with one another.
Again, we have referred to arrangements by which, under Soviet conditions, the amateur dramatics club at the factory obtains the assistance of professional theatrical workers. This, as a rule, is also arranged by the trade union. Sometimes they pay professional instructors, but on other occasions a “patronage” agreement is concluded with some theatre. In such a case as this the theatre workers undertake to give assistance to the factory dramatic group in their spare time, and the workers, in return, may undertake certain technical services for the theatre. Similarly, a well-known writer may take patronage over one or two workers’ literary circles. He will instruct them in their work. And he may try out his new books on them, and they will make their criticisms. In such a way the “intellectual” is brought into contact with the working masses of the population. How many first-class British writers to-day know the effect of their writings on the majority of the people—the 75 percent of wage-earners? Do they even imagine that the majority of the people—the wage-earners—might one day read their books?
This brings us to another aspect of “patronage”—the connection between trade union and State. So far, in considering the trade union as representing the working people, as distinct from the administration appointee by the State, we have not dealt at all with the positive part played by the trade unions in administering the Soviet State itself. Actually, this question will be dealt with more fully in Chapter XIII, after we have described the basic structure of the Soviet State.
However, it is important here to record the fact that the Soviet trade union organizes patronage, not only between collective farms and factories, factories and Red Army regiments, but also between factories and Government departments, Such as the Commissariats of Finance, of Health, of Education, and even over the office of the President of the U.S.S.R. himself, Comrade Kalinin. Thus, when working hours are over, a number of workers from the most important Moscow factories proceed to the offices of the Government, there to do important administrative work. And, locally, thousands of workers, when working hours are over, proceed to the offices of their local Soviet, there to work in its various departments. But this subject deserves almost a whole chapter to itself, and it shall have it.
The Soviet enterprise, we find, is a complex community in which the organization of the working people, the trade union, plays a leading part. Personal responsibility on the part of everyone for his own job, together with collective responsibility for the work as a whole, is the characteristic of the Soviet enterprise. And collective responsibility means collective discussion and criticism; it means that the people must run their own affairs. Under such conditions, with a reasonable working day and reasonable holidays, the worker even on a conveyor retrieves something of the joy of the craftsman. The factory is his, and he and his fellows benefit from more efficient and increasing production. He can always plan improvements in the productive processes, and knows that they will be adopted. Even on what, in itself, is the least interesting work, a certain standard of excellence can be obtained, and Socialist competition introduces even into the sweeping of a floor some of the thrill of a game of football. Under these conditions the Soviet worker feels that he is working for himself and for all, and he takes a pride in even the simplest work, a pride which it is hard to feel when the result is entirely to the benefit of somebody else, and when the greater the result, the nearer is brought the spectre of unemployment in the future.