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committees arose which began to act as parallel bodies to the responsible trade union council. New economic organisations were thus formed the growth of which would inevitably lead to a fratricidal war between the trade unions and the factory committees. On the other hand, as the trade unions grew and embraced an ever larger number of factories, the factory committees became elected organs of the organised members of the particular union. This eased the way to the subordination of the factory committees to the unions, as decided at the third conference of Trade Unions in June, 1917, and finally confirmed at the First All-Russian Congress which decided that "the factory committees must become the local organs of the union."
After the first Trade Union Congress the Central Councils of Factory Committees were abolished and the factory committees became units of the union, carrying out the instructions, and resolutions of the centre.
Regulations on Factory Committees.
In the period immediately prior to the October Revolution, when the central organs of national economy were just being established, the factory committees, in many cases, undertook the management of the factories. But that only lasted as long as the corresponding central industrial management organ had not yet been established. After this the factory committees had their representatives in the factory management boards which were usually composed of the representatives of the trade unions, the Council of National Economy and the factory committees. In the middle of 1918 the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions dratted special "Regulations on Factory Committees." According to these regulations the factory committees:
(a) Undertake, on the instruction of the Union, all measures necessary to unite all workers and employees of a given factory into one industrial organisation;
(b) Carry out strict proletarian discipline among the workers and employees as set forth by the Industrial Union;
(c) See that all measures and regulations of the Labour Commissariat, directed towards the defence and protection of labour are carried out, and devise means of improving labour conditions;
(d) See to the execution by the factory of all instructions and measures of the Council of National Economy and the Industrial Union directed towards raising the productivity as well as maintaining the normal progress of labour;
(e) Keep a strict watch on the exact and mutual carrying out of wages agreements and standards of productivity;
(f) Carry out workers' control to the fullest extent;
(g) Undertake the supply of articles of primary necessity to the workers within, the limits of the Food Department's regulations and, for this purpose, enter into, relations with the necessary organisations for establishing public restaurants, shops, etc.;
(h) Establish in connection with the factories and under the guidance of the Union, schools, libraries, reading-rooms, people's palaces, children's homes, playgrounds and kindergartens, etc.;
(i) carry out the decisions of the courts of honour and the punishments imposed by them in accordance with the regulations and wages agreements;
(j) Participate in the acceptance and discharge of workers and employees in accordance with the decree on labour exchanges and the instructions of the Trade Union.
