Programme of the World Revolution/Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII.
BREAD—ONLY FOR THE WORKERS. COMPULSORY
LABOUR SERVICE FOR THE RICH.
A transition to the communal order means a transition to an order where there will be no class difference between people, and where all will be communal workers and never hired labourers. It is necessary to pass immediately on to the organisation of such an order. And one of the first steps in this direction on a parallel with a proletarian nationalisation of banks and of industry, is the introduction of labour service for the rich.
There are at present many people who do nothing, create nothing, but consume that which others have made. And more than that, there are people who not only do no work, but whose whole activity is directed at hindering and interfering with the work of the Soviet Government and the working class. The workers saw with their own eyes the instance of the sabotage attempted by the Russian intellectuals, teachers, engineers, doctors and others of the "learned professions." It would be superfluous to mention the bigger game such as directors of factories and banks, the late high officials, etc. They all made efforts to disorganise and destroy at the root the work of the proletariat and the Soviet Government. The task of the proletariat consists in compelling these bourgeoisie, former landowners, and numerous intellectuals of the well-to-do classes to work for the common good. How is this to be done? By means of introducing labour record books and labour service. Every one of the above-named class should receive a special book in which an account is kept of his work, that is to say, of his compulsory service. Fixed entries in his book entitle him to buy or receive certain food products, bread in the first place. Anyone who refuses to work, supposing he sabotages (an ex-official, a former manufacturer or landowner who cannot possibly accustom himself to the idea of the loss of land on which he has lived for years and has become a frenzied enemy of the workers), if such an individual refuses to work there is no corresponding entry in his book. He goes to the-store, but is told, "There is nothing for you. Please to show an entry confirming your work."
Under such a system the mass of idlers who fill the Nevsky Prospect in Petrograd and the main streets of other big towns, will have to set to work against their will. It is perfectly understood that the carrying into execution of this kind of labour service will be hindered by many obstacles. The upper and upper-middle classes will, on the other hand, make every endeavour to evade this compulsory service, and on the other hand, try by every means within their power to hinder such an order. To arrange matters so that certain food products should be obtained only on producing a corresponding entry in the labour book, and that such products should not be distributed in any other way, is not an easy matter. The rich who possess money (and money means merely counters for obtaining products) have also a thousand possibilities of deceiving the Soviet Government and duping the workers and poorest peasantry. These possibilities must be destroyed by a well-regulated organisation for supplying products.
Of course labour service for the rich should only be a transitory stage towards general labour service. The latter is necessary not only because the productiveness of our trade and agriculture can be increased by enlisting the service of all members of society fit for work, but also because a strict account of labour power and a proper distribution of such over the various branches of production and the different undertakings is necessary. Just as in war time it is necessary, on the one hand, to mobilise all the forces, and on the other to keep account of and properly organise them, so in the war with economic disorganisation it is necessary to draw all the useful sections of the population into the work, register and organise them into one great army of labour with a labour discipline and a proper understanding of its duties.
At the present moment in Russia, in consequence of the economic disorganisation and shortage of raw material which has been intensified by the occupation of South Russia and Ukraine by the forces of German Imperialism, there is a considerable amount of unemployment. As a result we are faced with the following situation: we know that we can only win through by the aid of human labour power, from the fact that only labour can increase the productivity of our industry and agriculture; and of this human labour power we have plenty. But in spite of that there is no opportunity to apply this labour power. There is already a large amount of unemployment as a result of the shortage of fuel and raw materials. Where then shall we place these people whom the Workers' and Peasants' Government intends to compel to work? It is true that one of the most important questions is the organisation of public works and construction of such things of supreme social importance as railways, grain elevators, and the opening of new mines. But it is evident that this work could not at once absorb the large surplus of labour that exists.
Thus it will be necessary from the very first to limit ourselves to registering the working hands, noting their respective compulsory service only at the request of the Soviet Government, or working class bodies superintending the management of production. Let us illustrate this by an example. Supposing that for surveying new mines in Siberia engineering specialists are required. The metallurgic department of the Soviet of Public Economy puts forward a demand for such. The department for registering labour power examines its lists and finds the people who correspond to the kind required, and these are then obliged to go where the above-mentioned departments choose to send them.
Naturally, as the organisation of production becomes more ordered, and the demand for labour increases, so will compulsory service be carried into effect; that is to say, all persons capable of work will be compelled to do their share of work.
Compulsory labour service in itself is not a new idea. At the present moment, in practically all the warring countries, the Imperialist Governments have introduced labour service for their population (in the first instance, of course, for the 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 class is indispensable. Idlers must vanish; only useful social workers will remain.