Trade Union Democracy. March 31, 1920

The Mensheviks used the trade-union debates of 1920–21 to warn that “militarizing” labor and subordinating unions to state administrators would destroy the one institution that still expressed workers’ everyday interests. This resolution, introduced at the Third Trade Union Congress, defended union autonomy, protested coercive labor policies, and tried to articulate an alternative socialist legality at a moment when political pluralism inside Soviet public life was rapidly closing.

Original Source: Третий Всероссийский съезд профессиональных союзов, 6–13 апреля 1920 года: Стенографический отчет (М.: Госиздат, 1921).

1. The Trade Unions in a capitalistic society are the fighting organs of the working class. Their direct task is the defense of the general interests of the Proletariat as the class of hired workers, as well as the defense of the special interests of its different spheres in the domain of the organization of Labor and its defense from exploitation. Their class collaboration with Socialist Parties as the political organization of the Proletariat makes them at the same time essential factors in the struggle for the radical rebuilding of society on collectivist principles through the capturing of political power by the working classes.

2. At the time when the reign of capitalism is breaking up, in the era of the transformation of capitalistic industry into Socialism, the Trade Unions, by means of maintaining in its full force their important position as independent class organizations, and as representatives of the interests of workers of different trades and professions, and of all the working classes in general, must at the same time play an active part in the reorganization of the social and economic forms of industry and in the management of public property.

3. At the beginning of the International Social Revolution, all the problems presented to the Russian Proletariat must be guided principally by the struggle for keeping political power in the hands of the working classes under the hegemony of the Proletariat, and forwarding all measures that help to restore national industry, destroyed by the imperialistic and civil war, and to imbue it as much as possible with Socialist ideas.

4. The fulfillment of this problem is complicated and hindered by the bad state of public economy, resulting from continuous disorders. The social inferiority of modem Russia, the prevailing part played by the peasantry in economic public life, reinforced by the decay of industry, and, consequently, by the economic weakness of the Proletariat as a result of the continuous economic disorder, unavoidably lead to the adaptation of revolutionary power to the interests of the peasantry, which often enough do not coincide at all with the interests of the Proletariat. This adaptation is inevitable, as all revolutionary policy tends through suppression of the peasantry to defend the rights of the Proletariat solely, and would lead only to anarchy, the prolongation of war and the deepening of general delay and disorder. Such an adaptation of revolutionary policy to peasant interests makes the maintenance of independent class organization essentially necessary for the Proletariat.

5. The international situation of Russia, its economic inferiority, the great devastation caused by the war during the last five years, all compel the country to concede the claims of Foreign Powers and to accept the intrusion of large capitalistic industry in the guise of concessions. Under that form of economic relationship, class antagonism between Labor and Capital, and the economic class struggle between them, will always exist with the State being restricted by international connections in the matter of the defense of proletarian interests. Along with the intrusion of foreign capital there will be a growing adaptation of Russian private capital, to which the organs of State power have applied rather often at the present time. Finally, the extreme growth of private, small, and home industry, accompanying the disappearance of large industry now confined to national property, creates groups of hired workers whose interests stand in need of defense by the Trade Unions.

6. At the same time, the present economic policy of the Soviets, based solely on the tendency to resolve all economic problems through compulsory measures and bureaucratic administration, weakens still more the Proletariat engaged in large industrial undertakings. From this point of view, the Proletariat stands in great need of strong and independent Trade organizations. The class independence of the Trade Unions does not mean either the neutrality of the Unions towards Capitalism and Socialism, or the neutrality of the Unions towards Capitalism and Socialism or their neutrality towards the Socialist (the Soviet) Government in its struggle against Counter-Revolution and in its attempts to renew economic life on a socialistic basis. On the contrary. the Trade Unions by all means must be on the side of the Soviets in their fight against Counter-Revolution and Capital. The class independence of the Trade Unions means only that in the sphere of their special activity they are neither subordinate organs of the Government nor organizations dependent on the Socialist Party. It means only that the Unions pursuing their work with Socialistic class consciousness are able to defend before the Government the interests of the Proletariat quite independently from the views of the Government itself, and will express only the will of the organized Proletariat.

7. The policy of "Subordination to the State" exercised during the last two years, has led to the complete decay of the Trade Union Movement. The forced membership, the financial dependency on the State, the execution of the plans of the Government's chief organs, have killed the independent activity of the masses organized into Unions, deprived these Unions of their independence and energy, and transformed them into bureaucratic institutions with an indefinite circle of duties forcibly fixed by the Government.

8. The Trade Unions will only be able to accomplish their task of the defense and strengthening of the social mid political position of the Proletariat if they take an active part in the development of the productivity of labor, in the revival of industry, and in the improvement of the efficiency of labor. The Trade Unions will not be able to achieve all this if they countenance the proposed labor discipline or if they fail to raise to its highest point their defense of labor and social welfare.

9. But this problem of the development of productive energy, the improvement of efficiency and labor discipline, cannot be resolved through the plans which the present Government is defending. The Government sees in the so-called Dictatorship and in Militarization the only means of struggling with the decay of industry. The Trade Unions must reject these as plans which keep the working classes from exerting their influences on the organization of industry and the inner arrangement of works and factories. The Trade Unions must defend the necessity for the most active participation of the working classes in the organization and the direction of industry. This must be realized through the introduction of representatives of the Trade Unions-elected by their organizations and responsible before them-to all the organs directing industry as a whole as well as its different branches, different industrial territories, and large undertakings. Such participation is quite compatible with the transfer of technical administration of undertakings to single persons and with investing them with necessary independence.

If the part taken by representatives of the Trade Unions in the direction of industry should really lead to improved efficiency of labor and help all the working classes to take their share in the leading of economic life, our Unions, as the whole experiment of the Russian Soviets has shown, must keep their character as independent class organizations, based on the independence of the masses, and having the freedom necessary for their activity. Otherwise, the part taken by some of the representatives of the Unions on the Central Committees and other organs of economic administration will by no means serve as a guarantee against their bureaucratic degeneration.

10. Even if we do not deny in principle the Obligatory Work System as a means which, in case of need, the State can use in its struggle against industrial decay, we cannot agree that the State at this moment has no other means for rebuilding industry than the always inefficient obligatory work. Therefore, the mobilization of the whole mass of simple workers, and still more the mobilization of special working forces, could be accepted only in those cases when all other means are already exhausted or when some catastrophic situation renders other measures impossible. We must look for these other means before such a complete change in the general direction of economic policy takes place. First of all, in public instruction, even at the price of great financial sacrifice by the State; in increased elementary stocks for the organization of work in such branches of industry and in undertakings that are the most important at the present moment; as well as in the radical reform of the loans system, and in the adaptation of salaries in the chief branches of industry to at least that minimum which will give to the workers the necessary means of existence. At the same time the Mobilization of Labor should be carried on, when it is really necessary, only with the active help and under the control of the Trade Unions.

The Militarization of Labor must, therefore, be decisively rejected as a method which unites extreme inefficiency of obligatory work with a great waste of working power and elementary stocks, deprives the worker of every possibility whatever of defending his lawful interests, and prevents the Trade Unions from performing their part in the organization of national economy and in increasing labor efficiency.

11. The freedom of election to Boards of Administration and Works Committees, a regular system of representation at the Trade Unions Congresses and freedom of opinion for the Opposition, are necessary conditions for the normal development of the Trade Union Movement and the accomplishment of the problems presented to it. The creation of these conditions for the growth of a healthy Trade Union Movement demands the suppression of Political Terror, the abolition of privileges for the ruling Party, the establishment of Freedom of Speech, Press and Meetings for all the workers, the liquidation of the Party Dictatorship and the full observance of the Soviet Constitution as first steps to the establishment of real power of working classes.

Source: British Labour Delegation to Russia, Report (London: Offices of the Trade Union Congress and the Labour Party, 1920), pp. 80-82.