labor desertion as those employed in cases of military desertion:
The organisations of the Party must assist in every way the Trade Unions and labour departments in registering skilled workers for the purpose of employing them in productive labour on the same principles and with the same severity as are adopted with regard to officers mobilized for the requirements of the army.
The officers' families, it may be recalled, are held as hostages for their good behavior.
If we wish to get a picture of how this industrial mobilization or militarisation works out in practice we can refer to the report presented to the International Federation of Trade Unions late in 1920 by representatives of the Russian Metal Workers Union.
Militarisation means a complete and absolute subjection of the workmen to the work's management. It embodies a number of stern measures, also restriction of leaves and cruel suppression of strikes.
In order to show to what extent militarisation is carried out in the metal industry we quote below an extract from an article, which appeared in the XIII issue of the journal "Metallist" in August, 1920, and was contributed by a Communist worker, Khronin: "Absolute submission to the director has been introduced at these works (Plow works of Kostroma); neither interference nor contradiction on the part of the workmen are tolerated. The instructions given by the works committee are in accordance with the instructions of the Works' Management. At our works absence without permission of the foreman means suspension of the extra ration. Refusal to work overtime also means suspension of ration. Whereas an obstinate refusal means arrest.