The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 22, 1927, Page 3

re THE DAILY WORKER, JEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1927 2age Three Soviet Russia After Ten Years Report of the American Trade Union Delegation to USSR The following is the second instalment of the re- port of the first American Trade Union Delega- tion to Soviet Russia, in the words of the delega- tion. The report will be published in The DAILY WORKER in successive issues until completed. The Trade Unions HE Soviet trade unions are revolutionary bodies, with constitutional preambles much like that of some of the militant so- cialist unions in America. They are not in- terested solely in a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. They stand on the basis “of the international class struggle of the proletar- jat,” and aim “to foster the development of the world-wide revolutionary class struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the real- ization of socialism through the proletarian dictatorship.” The Soviet unions are thus more than “‘so- cialist unions” in the continental sense of the term, for they have already passed through | their period of revolutionary conflict and are now devoted to the business of consolidating the state power of the workers and peasants and the building up of a non-capitalistic so- ciety. In addition to these general aims, the more immediate day-to-day objects of the unions at the present stage of their development are: To protect the economic and legal interests of their members and to improve their ma- {erial conditions; to raise the general cultural level of the workers; to participate in the organization of production in their particular trade or industry. To carry out these aims, they make collec- tive agreements with the employer, whether state trusts or private concerns. They help in the enforcement of the labor laws. They éraft and secure the adoption of labor legis- lation. They organize special funds and tra- veling aid funds. They encourage the growth of mutual aid societies among their member- ship. They defend the workers before the various conciliation and arbitration boards and lead them in their disputes with both state and private management. They declare and lead strikes when necessary to achieve their ends. They work with governmental and cooperative institutions in the construc- tion of houses, the organization of public health work, playgrounds, nurseries and sim- ilar institutions. They send their representa- tive to sit on the various government bodies such as the Commissariat for Labor, the Com- missariat for Health and the Commissariat | \for Education. They organize a wide variety | ‘of cultural activities and schools, and carry on jan extensive journalistic and publishing jwork. They aid and assist the consumers’ | cooperatives. | In addition to these functions the Russian |unions carry out the same line of routine ac- \tivity as do progressive, energetic unions in| ‘any capitalist country—with this major dis-) tinction, they pay much greater attention to| production and the development of industry. On this point the interests of the unions and | the interests of the Soviet government are} | practically identical. | The total number of members in all the twenty-three national unions is now over 9,- | 827,000. The largest group is industrial; ‘next in line is the group working in govern- |ment, public and trading institutions. Those | following are, in order, transportation work- rs, agricultural and forest workers and| \those engaged in tke building trades. In order of affiliated membership, the fol- lowing unions stand at the head of the list: 1. Land and forest. 2. Civil service and com- mercial employes. 3. Railroad workers, . 4. Metal workers 5. Textile workers. 6. Educa- tional workers, and 7. Building workers. The first two have each over 1,000,000 members. The great majority of the union members (7,045,800) live in Russia proper (R. S. F. S. R.); nearly 2,000,000 live in the Ukraine, and much smaller numbers in the less industrial districts. The latest figures show that 92.7 per cent of all the eligible workers of the country are in the unions. Possibly 50 per cent of land and forest workers are in the union, namely, 1,120,000, but the total number of such work- ers hired by the individual farmers thruout the country is not definitely known. The highest percentage of organization ob- tains among the art workers, the printing trades and medical workers (comparatively small unions), while the commercial workers, paper workers, leather workers and catering and hotel workers all have 95 per cent or over. Strikes and Disputes | HE first questions asked by labor men on arriving in Russia are: “Do the workers have the right to strike? How are labor dis- putes settled?” We are satisfied that the workers have the! office. WHERE THE WORKERS \tions or departments of plants and represent- ed the protest of workers against certain con- ditions peculiar to the ft or department. The union, of course, had always tried to set- tle the strikes, and had succeeded in 75 per cent of the cases. The remainder were settled through direct understandings between the \strikers and the managements of the enter- prises involved. RULE ‘Are the Trade Unions Controlled by the State? HE unions have ¢ very definite relation- ship to the state, but the government does not control the unions. It would be more accurate to say that the trade unions control the government. Yet neither statement ex- presses the truth. Under war communism the trade unions were practically a branch of, the state; membership was compulsory and dues were checked out of the pay envelope. But with the creation of the state trusts and corporations under the New Economic Policy, the unions took on defensive functions similar 'to those of unions in other countries. F , . i The unions have always been clear in thelr Typical Rest Home of Textile Workers’ Union. avowal of their determination to support the legal right to strike, that there is no anti-|tries are quite another matter. The Russian Soviet government In industrializing the coun- strike law, and nothing resembling American | unions are not slow to strike if they see their try and in “building up soci lism.” Believing injunctions to curb strikes and the activities in the philosophy and practice of socialism, interests jeopardized by a private factory ¢ ini owner or concessionaire. There have been a is prohibited by law. Anti-labor judges,|number of such strikes in the last few years. courts and government officials are naturally fott chitratt unknown, since the officials are also workers. a de TE oe eae chegnen neatbad in factory, shop and mine were questioned as “a ; eu #53 to whether their unions were “controlled” by; However, strikes are not frequent. This is| tween workers and management both in gov- th aes ci lor Reha 4 because, as one of the workers told us, “We | ernment and private industry are, in their], a Hoes Ax ag ae aie ue Mice see no reason for striking against ourselves.” order of jurisdiction, the standardizatio Leng Cee p NHI oT: ih ie beers ne “tt From the general union point of view it is| conflict committee in the factory, ‘the media- ee oe cs ne : is parece 4 naturally desirable to avoid disputes when the | tion chamber, and the arbitration board. The| i wah oe cHa re des se bays eae costs are so clearly borne by the workers|function of each of these is suggested by its| VS a fee: "a ined eer t ae a ae themselves. The Soviet government is a work-|name. The decision of the final arbitration ee si aes cae soveruaul ers’ regime, and trade unions participate in| board is binding by law only on the manage-| over broke a strike,” or “There are no in- | junctions and anti-trade union laws in Rus- they naturally support the government they. have created and defended with gun in hand. When the Russian workers whom we met of the unions. The hiring of strike-breakers the government. The leaders are able to look | ment. The union can discipline its workers i upon strikes not as a weapon of class con-)they refuse to obey the decisions of the board, |... 5. = 3 * flict, as in other countries, but rather as a but the state itself cannot compel compliance “7. four ahr oat ape 2 oe a arning signal that the unions are not re-| with arbitration decrees. | P S P rs a ; ar \the government as the instrument of the sponding to the desires of the workers. When | Reports to the last congress of the trade | workers’ power in the field of politics and in- 'a strike occurs, they quickly see to it that) unions in December, 1926, showed that the| ternational relations. Many of the trade union conditions out of which it grew are remedied ] ie li ; i 2 aes general betterment of the economic life of the|jeaders hold important posts in the govern- and that where the local trade union officials | workers in the government factories had sub-| ment, and the will of the Central Council of are responsible for the situation they are stantially decreased both the number of} Trade Uni fee either severely reprimanded or removed from | strikes and the number of working days los |Trade Unions (C. C. T. U.) in the matter of 4 ; v ppointments to certain public offices is ab- |by strikes. The strikes which occurred were | solute and binding. Of course, strikes in privately owned indus- usually not extensive. They broke out in sec- (To be continued in Monday’s issue) . . . German Lignite Mine Strike Spreads as Negotiations Fail BERLIN, Oct. 21—Thousands of workers in'central Germany are join- ing the strike of the 80,000 lignite miners, who walked out when their demand for a 6 1-2 per cent wage increase was refused. Altho the Ruhr anthracite miners have not yet gone on strike, a walk-out is likely within a. few days. ‘An extension of the strike to other industries particularly the railroad and chemical industries, is also re- garded as probable. The long hours, low wages and speed-up that followed the introduction of “rationalization” have led to a wave of strikes, most of which have been won by the work- ers. “An attempt on the part of the Ar- bitration Commission to settle the strike proved futiles Italian Labor Exiles Meeting in Paris For Discussion of Fascism IS, Oct. 21, (FP).—For discus- of the ‘situation of the Italian trade union movement, a conference has been called to meet Oct. 27 in Paris, under the auspices of the Intl. Fedeyation of Trade Unions. Exiled and refugee leaders of the Italian working class, in addition to the Italian trade union center which has Veen located in Paris for some time past, will take part in the meet- ing. Delegates will be present from the international secretariats, and from centers in which there are large numbers of Italian workers. sio To Censor Cabinet Members. WASHINGTON, Oct. 21.--Every address made by a cabinet member, general, admiral or other official henceforth must be carefully weighed | ard considered before delivery, 1t was learned here today. ‘bis form of censorship has been imposed, it became known, as a result of the recent controversy between General Summerall and the White House which led to his peremptory re- call from a western speaking trip in which he was exposing the uncredita- The Soviet Union’s Report | of the Fiscal Year | Industrial Achievements. The economic year of 1926/27 in the U.S.S.R. came to a close on Sep- tember 30th of this year. The in- dustry of the Soviet Union has again achieved considerable successes. According to the preliminary fig- ures, the gross output of industry has increased 19% compared with the year before. The coal industry shows a particu- larly high mark, an increase of 25.6% (exceeding the 1918 output); the oil industry shows a gain of 22%, the | metallurgical industry 31%, textile, 17%, ete. Last year marked a further increase in the productivity of labor’ Wages have increased 12.5% as compared with the preceding year. Wages in 1926-27. Thanks to the higher buying ca- pacity of the rouble and the continu- ous decline of prices, wages have for the first time increased simultaneous- ly both nominally and actually. Nominal wages have increased by 124%% and real wages 11%%. Another achievement of last year is the fact that the wages of un- skilled workers have considerably in- creased. The wages of some groups of unskilled workers have increased in various branches of industry. On the whole, wages in 1927 are in most branches of industry above the pre-war level. Together with the allowances that are made for insurance, for the im- provement of the living conditions of the workers, etc. wages in 1926-27 are an average of 115.3% of pre-war throughout the U.S.S.R. Struggle Against Unemployment. The U.S.S.R. labor exchanges had on September 1st 1,127,000 unem- ployed on their books. This consti- tutes 250,000 less than on April Ist. The drop in the number of unem- ployed is due'in the first place to the extensive building activities which en- gage this year about 900,000 people. The overwhelming majority of un- employed are unskilled workers most- ly coming from the villages. About 30% of them have never worked be- fore and offer their services for the first time. About 85 million roubles were spent last year on various measures in the | struggle against unemployment. Of this at least 70 million roubles were paid by the social insurance organs as unemployment doles. ble housing quarters of American soldiers. by the government in aid of the un- employed in the form of organizing | labor collectives and in the form of public work. t A part of this fund was spent in| the form of partial help to unem- ployed, such as the supply of cheaper food, housing, railroad fare, etc. An important measure in the strug- gle against unemployment is the vo- cational training of unemployed by the Central Labor Institute which trained 30,000 unemployed workers this year. Many of these have been sent to various factories. General Vocational Training. In the new economic year 132,000,- 000 roubles will be assigned for the material support of and finding work for the unemployed. It is planned that 40,000 workers should be daily occupied in public work, One million roubles will be spent in giving the unemployed a vocational training. ; The number of peasant mutual aid societies in the U.S.S.R. is 76,500. The peasant mutual aid societies embrace an average of 50% of the peasant population enjoying the rights of suffrage. In some pro- vinces, as for instance Pskov, Voron- ezh and Saratov, almost the entire population is organized. Own Seed Reserves. 10,268 committees already have their own seed reserves wRich are distributed to needy members. To- wards the end of the year there were 664,616 poods of grain in that reserve. The committees have at their dis- posal 4,983 enterprises with 3,758,866 roubles. The peasant committees have 16,- 200 big agricultural machines, 1,414 of which are tractors. Penny More Means $18,000,000. “Each one cent over a five cent fare on New York lines means $15 000,000 a year in net profit,” acco ing to a statement yesterday by Sam-| uel Untermyer, special counsel for} the transit commission. | Untermyer was visibly vexed when} asked for comment upon the publish-| ‘ed replies by Major Charles Edward! Smith to criticisms of. his seven cent, fare plan. He said he would like very much to get the official report of | Smith’s, a copy of which he under- stands is in the hands of B.-M. T. of- ficials, He believes, however, he 2 About 15 million roubles were spent must wait until Monday for this, | hand. Petlura Murdered Ukrainian Workers PARIS, Oct. 21. — Statements made by White Guardist witnesses | that he was acting as an “agent of | the Soviet Union” when he killed} |General Petlura, counter-revolution- ary bandit, were flatly denied and branded as Schwartzbard, Jewish worker, on trial here for killing the White Guard leader. Schwartzbard, who admitted shoot- ing Petlura, declared that he did so to avenge the thousands of Jews murdered in the Petlura pogroms in the Ukraine. Petlura killed thousands of Ukrainian workers and peasants during his reign of terror. Many witnesses of the White Guard massacres will testify at the trial which is expected to end within a day or two. | | New Youth Delegation From Britain to USSR LONDON, Oct. 11. (By Mail).— The Russian Leninist Young Commu- nist League has issued an invitation to the young workers in Great Britain to send a Youth Delegation to Soviet Russia on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the formation of the First Workers’ and Peasants’ Repub- lie. The National Campaign Com- mittee, which was responsible for sending the first British Young Workers’ Delegation to Soviet Russia in September, 1926, has undertaken the organization of this second dele- and already the preparations conferences which are to, be | : | gation, for } lheld in Glasgow, Fifeshire, Tyneside, |Sheffied, Birmingham, South Wales, fanchester and London are well in Falls In Furnace; Dies. Michael O’Meara, 50, of 123 Elev- enth street, Long Island City, Queens, Johr’s hospital, Long Island City, as a stoker, died early yesterday at St. a result of burns received Wednesday | when he fell into the furnace of the city’s ineinerating plant on Betts} avenue, Winfield, Queens, Witnesses Testify © GREETINGS TO SOVIET RUSSIA ridiculous by Samuel }* BUILD THE DAILY WORKER) OF TRE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ie the special issues of The DAILY WORKER to be printed on November 7, the opportunity to send per- sonal greetings to Soviet Russia is given to American workers. These names will appear in the celebration proceedings—they will be published in The DAILY WORKER in a special hon- or roll. To cover the ex- pense of printing, all names will be published at 25 cents aname. Send your name— send the names of others— greet the Russian workers on the Tenth Anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Tue DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, Enclosed $.......... (Write plainly or PRINT.) ——— & New York, N. Y. for greetings from the following workers, (At 25 cents a name.) ORDER YOUR COPIES OF THE NOVEMBER 7TH EDITION NOW. PRICE $1.50 PER HUNDRED.