# The Capitalists’ Mockery of the People
Source: PSS, Volume 32

On May 23, the conference between representatives of the capitalists and those of the workers in the southern mining industry came to an end.

The conference ended in nothing. The capitalist gentlemen rejected all of the workers’ demands as unacceptable. The labor delegation that had taken part in the conference issued a statement declaring that it was relieving itself of responsibility for any potential complications.

This is perfectly clear: the crisis has not been resolved in the slightest. The entrepreneurs remain utterly unrestrained.

It would be laughable—if it were not so tragic—to read that it was decided to appoint yet another commission composed of government representatives and representatives from both sides (!!), even though the entrepreneurs had just requested price surcharges!

To help readers better grasp the extent to which the capitalists are mocking the people, let us cite several passages from a ministerial newspaper—i.e., one belonging to a party that had its own representatives within the ministry:

“The delegation of workers from the southern mining industry informed the Economic Department of the Executive Committee of the Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies about the true state of affairs, and, taking advantage of this information, we can report that the figures cited by N. N. Kutler, according to the industrialists themselves, are utterly unworthy of trust.

…Before the revolution, coal miners reaped enormous profits; and yet, even before the revolution, they haggled with the old government over an increase in the requisitioned price of coal. The coal miners had demanded a 5-kopeck surcharge, aiming for the 3-kopeck profit they had already secured—and the old government had agreed to grant them that amount. In the very first days of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, however, they managed to secure an immediate 8-kopeck increase, extending this surcharge to earlier deliveries to the railways and to requisitions dating back to January; later, they obtained an additional 3 kopecks, bringing the total to 11 kopecks.

The requisitioned price before the revolution was 18 kopecks; now it stands at 29 kopecks. Yet contracts with the government had previously been concluded at 22 kopecks per pud, while today such contracts are being signed at 33–34 kopecks—or even higher…”

Well then, is this not an unprecedented mockery of the people by the capitalists?

In the wake of the revolution, the capitalist government—calling itself “revolutionary” and deceiving the ignorant masses with this “glorious” label—grants the capitalists ever more substantial surcharges! It pours fresh millions into their pockets again and again!

The country stands on the brink of ruin, yet ten capitalists who serve as members of the Provisional Government collude with entrepreneurs who plunder the nation, who rob the people, further swelling the already boundless profits of capital.

“The Ministry of Trade and Industry is held captive by the Congress of Southern Russian Miners, and, in the face of the catastrophe toward which the industries of the South are hurtling, it not only fails to take any measures to avert it, but systematically submits its actions to the pressure exerted by the Southern industrialists.”

Thus wrote the same ministerial newspaper—the organ of the Mensheviks, the “Workers’ Gazette”—on May 14, 1917, just over a week after the formation of the coalition ministry.

And since that time, absolutely nothing has changed.

Indeed, the ministerial newspaper was compelled to acknowledge even worse facts. Listen closely:

“…The industrialists are staging an Italian-style strike. They deliberately refrain from taking action. We need to locate a pump—but it cannot be found; we need light-bulb screens—but they remain unobtainable. The industrialists have no desire to increase production. At the same time, they refuse to spend money on necessary repairs or on the restoration of equipment that is wearing out at the enterprises. The machines have grown dilapidated; soon, they will no longer be fit for operation. When workers are told that this or that item cannot be purchased, they often go out themselves to procure the needed tools—and they find what they seek. The entrepreneurs take no steps whatsoever to ship the products they have produced—coal, pig iron. Tens and hundreds of millions of these products lie idle, while the country is in dire need of them.”

Thus wrote the ministerial newspaper—a paper belonging to the very same Menshevik party to which Tsereteli and Skobelev belonged.

Surely this is nothing short of a mockery of the people by the capitalists! It is nothing less than a madhouse: the capitalists are in collusion with the bourgeois wing of the Provisional Government (in which the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries sit); the capitalists are stalling, sabotaging work, failing to take measures to ship essential goods—goods without which the country is doomed.

Without coal, factories and railroads grind to a halt. Unemployment rises. Shortages of goods grow ever more severe. Peasants can no longer afford to give away their grain for free. Famine looms inexorably.

And all of this is being carried out by capitalists who are in open defiance of the government!!

And all of this is being tolerated by the Populists, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and the Mensheviks!! They console themselves with empty words; they had already written about these crimes committed by the capitalists as far back as May 14. Today is May 31. More than two weeks have passed—and everything remains exactly as it was. Hunger draws ever closer.

And to cover up the capitalists’ crimes, to divert the people’s attention, all the capitalist newspapers—“Retch,” “Den,” “Novoe Vremya,” “Russkaya Volia,” “Birzhevka,” “Edinstvo”—pour forth daily torrents of lies and slander against the “Bolsheviks”… The Bolsheviks are blamed for the fact that the coal miners have joined forces with the government, for ruining and halting production!!

Yes, it might indeed seem like a madhouse—if the theory of class struggle, if the global experience of class struggle, did not teach us that, in order to defend their profits, the capitalists and their government (backed by the Mensheviks) stop at nothing.

How much longer will this continue? Must disaster strike across the board before people begin to die by the hundreds and thousands from starvation?

“Pravda,” No. 69, June 13 (May 31), 1917.

Printed according to the text of the newspaper “Pravda.”