III.
TRADE UNIONS
DECEMBER 1918— APRIL 1920
NOTES ON V. P. NOGIN'S THESES "ON THE MUTUAL 
RELATIONS OF THE PARTY AND TRADE UNIONS" 1.
[December 1918 — January 1919]
Under communism, trade unions cannot exist as bodies fighting for liberation from economic oppression, they must turn into production unions. Production unions not only because they must include all workers in a given industry, but because their main task must be the organization of production.

These, it seems, are Nogin's theses.

In December 1918 - early 1919, shortly before the opening of the II All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions (January 16-25, 1919), a number of articles appeared in the Moscow press: by V. Kossior, V. A. Radus-Zenkovich, R. Arsky and M. P. Tomsky on the question of the tasks of trade unions.
The appearance of the aforementioned articles, and then the discussion at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Faction, was preceded by the drafting of theses by M. P. Tomsky, V. A. Radus-Zenkovich and V. I. Nogin in November 1918 on the question of the tasks of the party in the trade union movement and on the relationship between trade unions and organs of Soviet power.
The theses of M. P. Tomsky (Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions) on the tasks of the party in the trade union movement represented a draft of the bureau of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Faction, intended, judging by the content, for discussion and approval by the Central Committee of the party.
At the end of December, an extended meeting of members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Faction was devoted to the discussion of this issue, at which Lenin spoke on the question of the tasks of trade unions.

On the 2nd page of Nogin's theses, Lenin's note: "Nogin". -Ed.