Trade Unions in Soviet Russia/The All Russia Agricultural Workers Union
THE
All-Russia Agricultural Workers' Union:
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF ITS FORMATION.
Issued by the Central Committee of the Union.
The All-Russia Union of Agricultural Workers as present constituted is of recent origin and growth. It was not until after the revolution of October, 1917, that they saw the necessity of allying themselves with the city workers; the Land workers were also carried away with the general revolutionary enthusiasm prevailing at that time. Until the revolution of 1917 the agricultural workers of Russia had no union of their own, neither during the time of the old Russian feudal system nor during the period of the growth of the capitalist regime. Some attempts to organise the Agricultural workers were made during the revolutionary movement of 1904–5; the union of the workers of Boutirsky Farm, in Moscow, can be quoted as example, but these were of a scattered improvised character without any general plan or aim; they had no serious influence upon the development of the Agricultural workers' organisation. But those attempts were soon given up owing to the reaction, which suppressed the revolutionary movement.
Only after the February revolution of 1917 were small unions of agricultural workers started, chiefly in the neighbourhood of the capital and near industrial centre. This fact can only be explained by the influence of the industrial proletarians of the Trade Unions who were constantly increasing in numbers, and acquiring a strong revolutionary spirit. But all these unions were of a very primitive character both in their form of organisation and in the aims they pursued. In the first place their lack of experience in organisation was very marked, and secondly there was the influence of the compromising leaders, who were mostly of the socialist revolutionary party with narrow bourgeois ideals and an agrarian programme full of contradictions and omissions.
These unions in the period of their development during the February revolution aimed mainly at protecting their craft interests, and did not realise that the problem confronting agricultural workers was the ownership and organisation of production.
Only in October, 1917, was an end put to this position; the illusions of craft unionism were thrown aside, and first place was given to the problem of securing working class ownership and organisation of the industry on communist principles. From this moment a revival took place in the various Agricultural Workers' Unions which were in existence. The organisation of new unions was soon started in districts populated by an agricultural proletariat.
The development of the unions was assisted by the organisation of Soviet Farms on the nationalised estates. The best organised of these Agricultural Labour Unions were the Luthvanian and White Russian Agricultural Labour Union, the Moscow Union of Orchard Workers, the Petrograd, Tver and Vladimir organisations. In all these organisations the need was felt for a common centre and a common directing head. In order to meet this, an attempt was made to organise a Moscow district Union, which coincided with the division of Central Russia into districts (first half of 1918); but as a consequence of the abolition of the district system, this scheme fell through too.
The All-Russia Agricultural Workers' Union was called into existence in the first half of the year 1919. It was initiated by a Conference of Land workers in Moscow, on February 20, 1919; the latter was convened mainly on the initiative of the land surveyors who had their National Union and whose aim was to unite with the mass of land workers as well as with the groups of agricultural specialists and experts in peasantry. But this first conference, owing to the lack of information, was not a success. Only 69 delegates arrived at the conference, 49 were specialists, land surveyors and agriculturalists, and only twenty represented the workers (17 from the Moscow Landowners' Union and from the Elets, Jula and Shisk Agricultural Workers' Union). The Conference worked out rules and elected an executive committee. But owing to the non-proletarian character and small number of its members present, the union was not registered in the All-Russia Central Council of Trade Unions. The conference was recognised as a preliminary conference of the executive, as the organising bureau for preparing for the convocation of a new conference.
The first All-Russian conference of landholders, convened by this bureau, assembled in Moscow on June 16, 1919. There were present 142 delegates from 30 districts, representing, 48,000 organised in the Landholders' Union.
But owing to the non-revolutionary and non-proletarian character of the organising bureau which convened the conference, and the absence of connection with the localities, this conference also proved unsatisfactory. Out of 142 delegates little more than half represented the proletariat; the rest represented agricultural experts and land surveyors, who numbered in all only 5,000 members. Nevertheless this conference was the turning point in the organisation of the Agricultural workers of Russia.
The leading part at the conference, was taken by the communists and labour fractions, who in spite of the large number of non-party delegates present, succeeded in getting all their proposals carried, and the Central Committee was elected from the list of this fraction. The Central Committee was composed of 11 members, of which nine were communists and two were non-party members, representing the experts and sympathisers; it should be pointed out that one of the members representing the experts did not attend the meetings and the other abandoned the work after two months.
THE COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF THE UNION
The main task of the first Central Committee was to organise the working masses, to attract them into the Union and to set up a proper apparatus. According to the rules, all agricultural wage workers are eligible for membership in the union. At the present time the union is composed of workers and employees on the Soviet Farms (agricultural orchards ccattle breeding, dairies, experimental stations), labourers as well as specialists working on the Soviet estates and serving in the Central and Local agricultural institutions, as agriculturalists, land surveyors, etc.
The union is organised on industrial lines, therefore the workers and employees in auxiliary trades serving the Soviet Farms, i.e., workers in mills, blacksmith shops; also members of other trades, saddlers, carpenters, joiners, locksmiths, tylers, coopers, shoemakers, tailors, are eligible for membership.
On January 1, 1920, the number of paying members in the union was 65,000, but this is only approximate because many local sections did not give any information; many could not pay their contributions regularly, owing to the great distance and bad communications. The probable number of members is nearer 100,000; according to the data of the Commissariat of Agriculture this number of workers was employed on Soviet Farms alone. As membership is obligatory, it is quite clear that the number of members could not be less than the number of workers employed in the industry.
The Congress organised and drew up a scheme for organising several sections of the union: such as Agricultural, Horticultural, Forestry, Land Surveying, etc., but it soon became evident that such sub-division was unnecessary and it was therefore abandoned. The land surveyors particularly urged the need for their section, but even they eventually abandoned this position, and the Bureau of the section, elected by the conference of land surveyors, was dissolved.
The structure of the union is as follows: There, is a Central Committee (in Moscow); in the Governments and districts there are local Departments, aided by Management Committees; on the Farms there are Committees of workers and employees.
All the organs of the union are elected by a special Conference, in which all members participate either through delegates (national, government, ouyezd[1]) or Conferences of all members on the Farms.
Conferences of representatives of the union are summoned, besides the conferences called to decide Economic and administrative questions. Up to the present time there has been one Ail-Russian Conference, held at the end of January and the beginning of February, 1920; it was composed of the representatives of the management Committees of the Provincial Departments, and the most important District Departments. In Provinces and Districts the Conferences of the Committees are held not less than once a month, and General Conferences twice a year.
In the Central Committee and in the Management Committee of Provincial Departments, there are the following Departments: The Secretariat with an organising Sub-department, the Standardisation of Wages, Protection of Labour and Educational Departments. The Controlling Department is not yet organised either in the centre, or in the Districts; with the exception of some Governments like Tambor, where this Department controls production on the Soviet estates in the whole government; other Management Committees of District Departments have their sections only in those districts where a large number of members are concentrated.
The following Commissions are formed in connection with the Workers' Committees: wage fixing, Educational Commissions.
The Workers' Committees have wage, labour protection, and Educational Sub-Committees, although the latter exist only on large Soviet estates which employ a large number of workmen. Soviet Farms which are of recent formation have a common Workers' Committee; the workers' committees in these cases have not been abandoned.
THE TASKS OF THE UNION.
The chief objects of the Landworkers' Industrial Union have been:
(1) The organisation of agriculture on Communist principles, propagating that idea among 'the peasants. (2) The increase of efficiency by appropriate means and planned organisation, the expulsion of parasitic elements, and the establishment of strict Labour discipline. (3) The protection of Labour on the Soviet Farms. (4) Educational work among the agricultural workers, to give first place to abolishing illiteracy and to organise Agricultural schools.
The participation of the union in the organisation of agriculture took the form chiefly of organising the labour of the workers, the establishment of Control and Management, and direct participation in management by putting forward the best workers in the union for responsible posts in the management.
The greatest attention is now given to the organisation of model Soviet farms, as the union is convinced that the success of the propaganda in favour of agriculture on communist principles depends on the organisation of Farms which may serve as an example to the peasants. To carry out successfully this task an information department has been formed which collects all the data relating to agriculture; this data is applied for working out agricultural plans, controlling, etc., and also for calculation of the technical forces (this work is just being organised), in order that the fullest and best use be made of them. The local control of production is carried out by the workers' Committees on the various undertakings, which elect a Wage and Standardisation of Labour Committee, to standardise labour and wages according to the instructions of the Central organs of the union; it controls labour discipline, and the proper execution of plans and protection of public property; but the committees do not interfere with the technical administration of the industry, which belongs exclusively to the Management.
The exception to this rule was made in the Tambof Government; in February, 1920, in accordance with the instruction of the Government Council of Public Economy, when all the Soviet estates were given over to the Workers' Committee the former managers of the estates became only technical executors by the order of the Workers' Committees. The latter accomplish their task through the technical corporation of the Governmental Council of Public Economy.
The following figures give a general idea of the work the union in connection with organising Soviet estates:—
According to statistics provided by the Commissariat of Agriculture, previous to the advance of Denikin there were in 33 governments in Central Russia, 2,463 Soviet estates with a total area of 1,361,490 desiatins of which 745,536 was ploughed land and 313,354 was arable. The number of permanent workers was 53,574 employees, 6,941 experts and others who with their families totalled 107,820. The number of horses was 36,727, horned cattle 56,595.
There were 13.4 desiatins per man and 19.5 per horse. In the northern Governments, Tzaritzin and Astrachan Governments and also on the far South Coast the Soviet estates are small—about 20 in each Government.
The following are the governments in which the Soviet estates occupy the largest area.
| Number of Estates. | Territory | |||
| The Government of | Saratov | 66 | 171,455 | desiatins |
| Samara | 100 | 194,436 | ||
| Voronesh | 65 | 116,350 | ||
| Kursk | 118 | 70,000 | ||
| Gomel | 252 | 163,883 | ||
| Novgorod | 106 | 50,000 | ||
| Moscow | 201 | 45,413 | ||
| Petrograd | 185 | 22,000 | ||
| Smolensk | 119 | 36,350 | ||
| Orel | 133 | 55,000 |
The last two governments are remarkable for their organisation In the spring of 1920, in 34 governments of great Russia the estates managed by the Governmental Agricultural Departments included 2,625 Soviet estates managed by the government agricultural Department with the total area 1,399,385, with 624,899 of ploughed land.
In the interest of industrial organisation and increase of efficiency the union established a definite standard of labour which the workers are expected to maintain.
The union recognises piecework and the premium bonus system as a stimulus for raising production, but this so far has not been introduced, nor has the naturalisation of wages (payment in kind) which in the future will be the corner stone of the union wage policy. The wages of Agricultural workers and employees are defined in special scales worked out by the Central Committee of the union. This scale is to be supplemented when details are worked out.
Little has been done for the protection of labour. This is explained by the fact that the union has only existed a short time; it was therefore impossible not only to introduce radical measures for the protection of labour, but even to study this question in order to find a rational solution of the various problems. Moreover, the union was prevented from carrying out this work by the extraordinary conditions which prevailed, when the whole attention of the Republic was concentrated on the struggle with the White Guards who were supported by the Allies.
The greatest achievement of the unions was the organisation of the Institute of agricultural labour, which is functioning now in most of the Governments. The immediate tasks which the union is endeavouring to achieve in the sphere of protection of labour are: the regulation of food supplies, improvement of housing conditions, seeing to the observation of the Labour Laws in Agriculture, the introduction of a normal working day, the abolition of child labour up to the age of 14, the reduction of the working day for* young persons under 18.
The carrying on of educational work was even more difficult than work in connection with the protection of labour. The lack of trained workers was severely felt, so also was the scarcity of necessary appliances and literature which would answer the demand of the moment.
Recently, however, work in this direction is being conducted more smoothly. In all the governments of Russia a three months' course has been started as well as a one year technical course for training expert agriculturalists; and these should be able to control and direct the Councils of Public Economy and carry out various measures in agriculture.
The union hopes by the end of 1920 to have started a sufficient number of such courses to enable at least the majority if not all workers on the Soviet estates to take them up.
- ↑ The "ouyezd" is a district whose nearest equivalent in English is "county," while "government" refers to a larger area or "province."