V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v42; en:MT;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

THE PRODUCTION TASKS OF THE TRADE UNIONS

(THESES OF COMRADE RUDZUTAK'S REPORT)

1. Immediately after the October Revolution the trade unions were almost the only bodies which, along with the introduction of workers' control, could and had to undertake the work of organising and managing production. The state apparatus for the management of the national economy had not yet been set up in the first period of the existence of Soviet government, and the sabotage of the owners of enterprises and of the higher technical personnel sharply confronted the working class with the task of preserving industry and restoring the normal functioning of the entire economic apparatus of the country.

2. In the subsequent period of the work of the Supreme Economic Council, when a considerable part of this work was reduced to the liquidation of private enterprises and to the organisation of state management of them, the trade unions carried on this work side by side and jointly with the state organs of economic management.

The weakness of the state organs not only explained but also justified this parallelism; historically it was justified by the fact that complete contact was established between the trade unions and the organs of economic management.

3. The consolidation of the state economic organs, their gradual mastery of the apparatus of production and management, the co-ordination of the various parts of this apparatus—all this shifted the centre of gravity of the work of managing industry and of drawing up production programmes to these organs. In connection with this, the work of the trade unions in the sphere of organisation of production was reduced to participation in the formation of the boards of the Chief Departments, Centres and factory managements.

4. At the present moment we have again come right up against the question of establishing the closest contact between the economic organs of the Soviet Republic and the trade unions, when it is necessary at all costs to make expedient use of every labour unit, to draw the entire mass of producers as a whole into conscious participation in the process of production; when the state apparatus of economic management, gradually growing and becoming more complex, has turned into a bureaucratic machine disproportionate and enormous compared with production itself, and inevitably impels the trade unions to take a direct part in the organisation of production, not only through personal representation in the economic organs, but as organisations in their entirety.

5. If the Supreme Economic Council approaches the establishment of a general production programme from the standpoint of the available material elements of production (raw materials, fuel, the condition of machinery, etc.), the trade unions must approach this question from the standpoint of the organisation of labour for production tasks and its expedient utilisation! The general production programme, therefore, in its parts and as a whole, must be drawn up with the indispensable participation of the trade unions, so that the utilisation of the material resources of production and of labour may be combined in the most expedient way.

6. The introduction of genuine labour discipline, the successful struggle against labour desertion, etc., are conceivable only if the entire mass of participants in production consciously take part in the accomplishment of these tasks. This cannot be achieved by bureaucratic methods and orders from above; it is necessary that every participant in production should understand the necessity and expediency of the production tasks he is performing; that every participant in production should take part not only in carrying out instructions from above, but also consciously take part in rectifying all technical and organisational defects in the sphere of production.

The tasks of the trade unions in this sphere are enormous. They must teach their members in every shop, in every factory, to note and take stock of all defects in the utilisation of labour power arising from the incorrect use of technical means or from unsatisfactory administrative work. The sum total of the experience of individual enterprises and branches of production must be utilised for a determined struggle against red tape, carelessness and bureaucracy.

7. In order to emphasise the importance of these production tasks, they must organisationally be given a definite place in current definite work. The economic departments organised under the trade unions in accordance with the decision of the Third All-Russia Congress, as they develop their work, must gradually throw light on and determine the character of all trade union work. For example, under present-day social conditions, when all production is directed towards satisfying the needs of the working people themselves, wages and bonuses must be in the closest connection with and dependent on the degree of fulfilment of the production plan. Payment in kind and the partial payment of wages in kind must gradually be transformed into a system of supplying the workers in accordance with the level of labour productivity.

8. Such a line of work for the trade unions must, on the one hand, put an end to the existence of parallel bodies (political departments, etc.), and, on the other, restore the close contact of the masses with the organs of economic management.

9. After the Third Congress the trade unions were unable to carry out their programme of participation in the building up of the national economy to any considerable extent, on the one hand, because of war conditions, and, on the other, because of their organisational weakness and their isolation from the directing and practical work of the economic organs.

10. In connection with this, the trade unions must set themselves the following immediate practical tasks: (a) the most active participation in the solution of questions of production and management; (b) direct participation, jointly with the appropriate economic organs, in the organisation of competent organs of management; (c) careful stock-taking of the various types of management and influencing of production; (d) obligatory participation in the elaboration and establishment of economic plans and production programmes; (e) organisation of labour in accordance with the urgency of economic tasks; (f) development of a broad organisation of production agitation and propaganda.

11. The economic departments under the trade unions and trade union organisations must be really transformed into powerful, rapidly acting levers for the systematic participation of the trade unions in the organisation of production.

12. In the matter of systematic material supply for the workers, the trade unions must transfer their influence to the distributing organs of the Commissariat for Food, both local and central, exercising practical and businesslike participation and control in all distributing organs, paying special attention to the work of the central and gubernia commissions for workers' supply.

13. Since the so-called "priority system", owing to the narrow departmental strivings of individual Chief Departments, Centres, etc., has assumed a most disorderly character, the trade unions must everywhere and always stand up for the real application of the priority system in the economy and for a revision of the existing system of determining priority in accordance with the importance of the production and the available material resources of the country.

14. Special attention must be concentrated on the so-called model group of enterprises, converting them into really model enterprises by creating a competent management, labour discipline and the work of the trade union organisation.

15. In the matter of labour organisation, besides bringing the wage measures into a harmonious system and making a comprehensive revision of output quotas, the trade unions must firmly take into their own hands the entire struggle against individual forms of labour desertion (absenteeism, lateness, etc.). The disciplinary courts, which have not received due attention so far, must be turned into a real means of combating violations of proletarian labour discipline.

16. The fulfilment of the enumerated tasks, as well as the elaboration of a practical plan of production propaganda and a number of measures for improving the economic condition of the workers, must be entrusted to the economic departments. It is therefore necessary to instruct the Economic Department of the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions to convene in the very near future a special All-Russia Conference of Economic Departments on the practical questions of economic construction in connection with the work of the state economic organs.

I hope you will now see why I had to call myself names. This is a platform; it is a hundred times better than what Comrade Trotsky wrote after much thought, and than what Comrade Bukharin wrote (the resolution of the Plenum of December 7) without any thought at all. All of us Central Committee members who have not worked in the trade union movement for many years should learn from Comrade Rudzutak, and Comrades Trotsky and Bukharin should learn from him. This platform was adopted by the trade unions.

We all forgot the disciplinary courts, and "production democracy" without bonuses in kind, without disciplinary courts, is sheer verbiage.

I compare Rudzutak's theses with the theses Trotsky submitted to the Central Committee. At the end of the fifth thesis I read:

"...it is necessary to proceed at once to the reorganisation of the unions, i.e., first of all to the selection of leading personnel from this very angle...."

There you have real bureaucracy! Trotsky and Krestinsky will select the "leading personnel" of the trade unions!

Once again: there you have an explanation of the mistake of the Tsektran. Its mistake is not that it applied pressure; that is its merit. The mistake is that it was unable to approach the general tasks of all the trade unions, that it was unable to change over itself and to help all the trade unions to change over to a more correct, more rapid and more successful application of comradely disciplinary courts. When I read in Comrade Rudzutak's theses about the disciplinary courts, I thought: there must be a decree on this already. And it turned out that there is a decree. The "Regulations on Workers' Comradely Disciplinary Courts" was issued on November 14, 1919 (Collection of Laws, No. 537).

In these courts the most important role belongs to the trade unions. Whether these courts are good, how successfully they function and whether they always function, I do not know. If we studied our own practical experience, it would be a million times more useful than all that Comrades Trotsky and Bukharin wrote.

I am finishing. Summing up all that there is on this question, I must say that the carrying of these differences to a broad Party discussion and to the Party Congress is a very great mistake. Politically it is a mistake. In a commission, and only in a commission, we would have had a businesslike discussion and would have been moving forward, but now we are moving backward, and for several weeks we shall be moving backward to abstract theoretical propositions instead of a businesslike approach to the task. As for me, I am deadly sick of it, and I would get away from it with the greatest pleasure, irrespective of my illness; I would be ready to escape anywhere.

The sum total: in the theses of Trotsky and Bukharin there is a whole number of theoretical mistakes. A number of fundamental errors. Politically, the whole approach to the matter is a sheer lack of tact. Comrade Trotsky's "Theses" are a politically harmful thing. His policy, in sum, is a policy of bureaucratic nagging at the trade unions. And our Party Congress, I am sure, will condemn and reject this policy. (Stormy and prolonged applause.)