10
THE
HONGKONG TELEGRAPII THURSDAY, AUGUST
6, 1936.
I
1
WENT to the Palace of Labour in Moscow to see some Trade Union friends.
It was still raining heavily.
The building seemed un- changed since I was there in 1925. There was a uniformed man on the door and a small antiquated lift which seemed doubtful whether it could carry more than two people. This big- building with its long corridors was formerly a "Home Orphans."
for
What became of the orphans when the Unions came here I do not know. The Secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions had a large outer office with two secretaries working there, and
Inner
protected agrust eavesdropping by a double door bullt into sort of partition.
Mor
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WHAT I SAW IN RUSSIA-3
Naturally, I cannot go into any details of a conversation of auch a private character, but I shall give some general references.
One of the officials set out to tell me about the Trade Unions. He said the rules and authority of the Trade Unions had changed with the development of the Soviet power.
Because of the growth of the Trade Union membership, they bad become too highly centralised. They divided the twenty-three existed original Unions which when I was here in 1925, and which then had a membership of 63 mili Unions. forty-seven lens, into These were still too large, and after Th time they arranged for 154 Since that time nine Unloba,
further Unions had been added to make a total of 103.
There were still 14 to 10 per cent. of the workers who were not in the Trade Unions, and they felt that smaller Untons could most effec- tively cater for these men.
The Unions still retained their basis of one Union for a given in- dustry, but they had gone in for more specialisation. For example, In the machine-building industry they had now factories specialla- Ing on the making of lathes. Con- sequently, instead of having the members all in one heavy metal workers' Union, they now have a special Union for inthe-makers.
They had already found that this change in formation was giving good results and more attention
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was betur paid to the interests, of the members. Russia had now working-class engineers in the principal administrative positions In the factories. They were no longer dependent on thy forniër Inteligentia, whom they had to watch carefully.
I could see where this was lead- ing. It was going to be put to me. as the reason why they no longer needed Trade Union representa- tives on the factory management.
The official proceeded to say that this change affected the role of the Trade Unions with regard to the administration. The State had now handled over to the Trade Unions in the latter part of 1933 the full control of payments for social insurance.
These powers were formerly ex- ercised by the Commissariat for Labour, which had been done away with and fis work taken over by the Trade Unions. This meant that the Trade Unions had to exercise many new and complicated' func- tlo. For example, the protec- tion o f labour - by
which he meant the
provision of
safety regu- Intions and apparatun
Women 'Navvies" banking up a railway track at Dnioporstroy,
At the PALACE
our the
Buch
as are provided by Factory Acta necessitated engagement of technical engineera to make sure that adequate pro- tection was being norded,
The Unions had now two main functions, (a) the protection of labour and (b) the administration These hud of social Insurance. actually increased the power of the Trade Uniorts.
The question of raising wages was not a matter of struggle, like It was in capitalist countries, but a matter of arrangement in the planning of the Soviet economy, The Director of a Soviet industry was not pay out his own money to his workers, or the money of his sharehold: rs. He had no interest In trying to avolt paying the proper wages provided by agree- ments.
POINTED out that it was too much to assume a complete identity of interest between the Director and the worker. The Director was concerned prinicipally with cffel-- ency and output, and the worker with the amount he could earn and the conditions under, which It was earned.
I asked what part did the Trade Unions play in the Axation of wages under the plan. I was told that the plan went from the bot- tom to the top of Industry and then after revision went back the apposite way.
In general, the Planning Com mission knew what the following Then year's working would be. they allotted to every industry its particular, task. Then the Com- missars for various industries lotted the task for each factory. The factory administration then came into the matter and discussed the question with the workers through the Factory Committee and the Trade Unions.
If they had any objection or alterations to make, these wore the central trade reported to union, and the Commissariat of Labour for the industries con- cerned. Then the plan was sub- mitted again to the Planning Coni- mission, and if there was silil a dispute, this would be remitted to the All-Union' Central Council of Trade Unions, who discussed the matter with the Government.
It was argued that they had, by this means, adequately protected the wages of the workers better than Unions could possibly do in any capitalist country. 'There was
of LABOUR
by
Sir Walter Citrine
no country in the world where the workers were so enthusiastic n Ilad I not noticed their work, that?
I replied that I had, but that I had also noticed that there was no other country in the world where the to inducements monetary workers were emphasised and ex- plotted more than In Soviet Russia. I said there was more intensive plece-work, bonus systems" and general attempts to speed up by hard work than I had ever seen. I was sure that the proportion of plece-work to time-work would bear this out. I said the worker: I had seen were working very hard and the women were doing arduous and severe tasks which in a Social- 1st state was quite unjustifiable.
They were performing physically hard work, such as digging drains In the streets, ordinary navvy's work, pulling down houses, and in short the very kind of work which in Great Britain we tried to pro- tect them from. I said the pace at which the workers were induced. -by-one-means. or another, t to work
was far too high,
With such a slight industrial training, they would pay for it in years to come in the adverse effects it would have on their health. Against this, I recognised that they were going in for sport more than they had ever done previously, and that factory hygiene was very good.
T
was any such figure in the plan. but they thought there was a figure of about 42 per cent. I said I was ready to stand by my gure. naked what the Trade Unions
I
k when they saw the promise was not being realised. Was it not true that during the period of the first Five Year Plan. the workers' stan- dard fell dangerously low?
They relied that this wing th-
avoldable, because of the necessity for providing adequate defence against the capitalist countries who threatened to attack Russia.
They further said, that the second Five Year Plan provided for an increase of two and a halt times the living standard of 1933, and this was in fact already being realised. I said I would require much more convincing evidence of this than I had seen up to date.
They said the real issue to determine was whether Socialism or Capitalism was best, and in their circumstances whether they should have given up Socialism.
I retorted they had never had Socialism, "The brand of what you call Socialism operated hers is something which I cannot recognise as Socialism, It is cer- tainly not Social Democracy. It is more like State Capitalism."
NEXT: We Arrive at Corki
Sir
Walter Citrine's diary, from which the have in an extract, kas
·Georgo been published by Messrs. Routledge and Sone, under the title, "I Seitrch for Truth in Russia."
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There was Tome consultation about this. They denied that there
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