65
the factories and works the workers must themselves see to it that every comrade should turn out as much as is required. Professional workers' unions and the Soviets of the workers are in direct supervision of production. They may, when possible, shorten the working day, and we mean to aim at such excellent organisation of production as to make it possible for each set of workmen to work only six instead of eight hours. But these very same workers' organisations, as well as the workers' Government and the working class as a whole, may and should expect of their members the most careful handling of national wealth and the most conscientious devotion to their work. The workers' organisations, especially labour unions, should themselves fix the average output, that is to say, the amount of work that must be performed by every workman during one working day: he who does not execute the required quantity, allowance of course being made for sickness and weakness, is sabotaging, undermining the work of constructing a new social order, and hinders the working class in its progress towards perfect Communism.
Production is a vast machine, every part of which must be in perfect harmony with the other, all working equally well. An imperfect tool in the hands of a good workman is worthless, and so is a good tool in the hands of an inefficient one. What we want is a good tool and a good workman.
Therefore we should strain our powers to the utmost to organist the supply of fuel and raw material, to organise transport and to distribute this fuel and raw material properly, at the same time taking measures for self-discipline and a proper training of the working masses to conscientious labour.
It is more difficult to do this in Russia than in any other country. The working class (and this applies in a still greater degree to the peasantry) have not gone through a long stage of organised training as the Western European and American workers have. We have among our number many workers who are only just becoming workers, who are only just getting accustomed to collective social work, who are only now learning that to say "other people's business is no concern of mine" is not the proper sentiment for a workman to express. This kind of workman will always tend to disturb the harmony of social labour. The more we have of the kind who still nurse the idea of becoming their own masters, of saving a little money and starting a shop, the harder will be our task of carrying through
