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oppressed classes). But the labour service introduced in Western Europe is as far removed from that which ought to be introduced by us as is heaven from earth. In the Imperialist States such service means the complete subjugation of the working class, its complete enslavement to financial capital and the plundering Government. And why is that? Simply because the workers do not govern themselves but are governed by generals, hankers and big syndicalists and bourgeois politicians. The worker there is a mere pawn in their hands. He is a serf whom his master can dispose of as he pleases. No wonder that compulsory service, in the West at the present time means a new contribution, a new feudal levy, the institution of a new system of military hard labour. It is introduced there for the purpose of enabling the capitalists, whose pockets are being filled by the labour of the workers, to carry on an interminable plundering war.
Our workers themselves must, through their own organisations, introduce and carry out compulsory labour-service on the basis of selfgovernment by the workers. There is no bourgeoisie over them here. On the contrary, the workers are now placed over the bourgeoisie. Controlling, accounting, and distributing labour power is now the concern of the workers' organisations, and as compulsory labour service will affect the rural districts, it will become the concern of the peasant Soviets, which will stand over the village bourgeoisie, subjugating it to their rule. All the organs dealing with labour will be purely workers' organs. This is quite natural: if the administration of industry is to become a. workers' administration, the management of labour must also he in the hands o[ the workers, for that is only part of the management or administration of production.
The working class, which wishes to take the lead in the economic life of the country (and which will do so in spite of any obstacles), the class that is becoming master of all the wealth, is confronted with this main question—the organisation of production. The organisation of production demands in its turn the solution of two principal problems: the organisation of the means of production (accounting, controlling, and correct distribution of fuel, raw material, machinery, instruments, seeds, etc.), and the organisation of labour (accounting, controlling and correct distribution of labour power). In order to utilise thoroughly all the forces of society, compulsory labour service, which will sooner or later be introduced by the working
