THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY
SABOTAGED BY SPEED
BECOMES increasingly ap- parent, as the weeks pass, that in Soviet the present crisis Russia is not so much political as industrial." Official
news-
papers are gradually revealing that industrial workers, dissatis- fied with living and working con- ditions, are conducting a passive strike, comparable to a similar movement among peasants in 1931-33.
The Government officially at- tributes this movement to "wreckers" of every description. making it appear that industrial disorders were deliberately pre- pared by enemies of the present ruling group. It would not be possible to admit that industrial workers are in conflict with s state which calls itself a dicta- torship of the working class.
However, it is indirectly ad- mitted that such a conflict exists, and is due to the Government's determination to speed up indus- trial production, to increase labour productivity and reduce labour costs. The "norms" of labour have been increased twice in the past year, which means that workers must labour more intensively to obtain the same amount of wages.
At the same time, distribution of wage funds have been altered by the so-called Stakanoff move- ment. Under this movement, the most efficient and energetic work- ers receive comparatively high wages, while those who fail to achieve the new "norms” remain close to the subsistence level. The Government's motive is un- derstandable; it can never hope to equal the industrial level of more advanced countries unless labour productivity is sharply in- creased. The average Soviet workman, according to official figures, still produces much less than average workers in ad- vanced industrial countries.
be
But Soviet workers, unaccus- tomed to work intensively, resist speeding-up. Thousands of them leave advanced industries, where the speed is greater. Labour turnover is officially reported to of "precedented" Out 35,000 workers at the Gorky, au- tomobile plant, 17,000 have re- signed in eighteen months. Those who resigned from the great Bed Triangle rubber plant at Tenin- grad this summer included 860 who had worked there for more than five years.
Resignations and
"absentees"
in coal mines have disrupted pro- duction; in the first half of 1937- coal production fell 8.5 million tons below the "plan" Produc- tion fell off sharply in almost all major industries. The Gov- ernment continues to blame "wreckers" and to arrest execu- tives, but admits at the same time that labour turnover is mounting.
Compelled to work more inten- sively, industrial workers insist upon taking ny days with
at industries Kre potice
· out.
uned. Ac and factories bare increased; these
ibuted
are more
•
tions are described as worst in the Don coal basin, where the Stakanoff movement originated.. Production here was 6,000,000 tons below the plan in the first half of 1937.
*
-BY
D. C. BESS
in the "Christian Science Monitor
It seems apparent that silent struggle is going on between in-
same as it was in peasant vil- dustrial workers and the Gov-
The Govern- lages in 1931-33. The latter is deter- ernment.
ment drove through its policy, to increase production mined
with considerable ruthlessness, labour costs; and reduce while many workers passively but made compromises with the peasants. They were conceded but stubbornly resist. Labour
the right to cultivate individual unions, which are merely a gov-
plots while working simultane ernment department in Soviet
communal ously for wages on Russia, naturally side with the Government, not with "back-land. Peasants are now com-
paratively satisfied. ward” workers.
Some such compromise will
The outcome is likely to be the
probably be worked out for dustry. The Government will in- tensify its efforts to provide satisfactory living conditions, devoting an increased share of the national income to this pur pose. The new labour norms," which, apparently were advanced too rapidly, will probably be un- ostentatiously reduced.
The industrial crisis, like the peasant crisis, seems likely to disappear as silently as it arose.
tion of a conflict between govern- There will never be any intima-
ment and workers. Meanwhile, as in previous crises, scapegoats will conceal the actual nature of the crisis. In this instance, the scapegoats are labeled "Trotsky- ists.
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