THE QUESTION OF ORGANIZATION
(Resolution based an M. Tomsky’s report)
1.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
1. Adapting its organizations to the conditions of the economic struggle in capitalist society, the working class in the interests of economy and concentration of its divided forces, gradually passed over from the close narrow guild organizations to the broader vocational and, finally, in the course of struggle against capitalism, building its forces on the principle of more efficient centralization of power for the realization of its war aims (class war aims), it came to form organizations embracing all the workers of a given branch of industry (production) into one union.
The industrial union is one union having the follow-lowing basic characteristics: (a) the union rallies all the workers and other employees engaged in a given branch of production, regardless of his functions; (b) the treasury is centralized; (c) the business of the union is transacted on the basis of democratic centralization; (d) the wage scales and conditions of labor are determined by one central body for all the categories of labor; (e) a uniform principle of construction from top to bottom; (f) the sections are playing the part of technical and auxiliary organs; (g) the interests of the industrially organized workers and other employees of a given industry are represented before the outside world by one central body.
2. The industrial union comprises only the permanent workers and employees of a given industry who are directly engaged in the process of production or serve to aid the same. All auxiliary branches serving not production but the producers and all the temporary and casual help remain members of their industrial union.
3. This principle of construction of our unions recognized by the third Conference of the Vocational Unions, and by the first All-Russian Congress of Vocational Unions, presupposing the union of all the workers of a given industry into one organization (union), can be consistently carried into practice only by means of uniting all the workers and employees (“higher” and “lower”) into one union, which became possible of realization only after the political and economic prejudices separating the laborer from the other employees and from the technical personnel have been done away with.
4. Even if the first Congress of Vocational Unions considered it impracticable to unite into one union all the higher employees and laborers,—at the present moment, after a year of proletarian dictatorship during which a good deal of the antagonism between the different categories of laborers and other employees has been spent, when it has been proved from experience that one union in its turn leads to the eradication of all antagonism in the midst of the workers—it must now be recognized as desirable and necessary to unite into one union all persons who are wage workers engaged in one establishment, one industry or one institution.
Only in such establishments or institutions where the hiring of laborers and other employees and the increase or decrease of their wages is being decided by one member of the administrative or technical personnel, the latter cannot be members of the given union.
5. The industrial principle of union structure as applied to workers occupied in other branches of national industries, than manufacture (transportation, commerce, and farming), and also in institutions fulfilling definite functions of government (postal-telegraph, medico-sanitary departments, education, etc.), must be used to unite the workers of small isolated branches of industry and management into more powerful unions. As a basis for such amalgamation one must take the similarity of conditions of labor and the functions carried out.
6. Categorically defending the consistent introduction and application of the principle underlying production as regards all categories of workers, not accepting into its labor organizations those unions which are built on guild, corporation and narrow trade lines, for the purpose of better serving the economic interests of the most typical industrial groups and categories, the organization of sections on a local and national scale is allowed within each vocational union.
The unions binding together several allied branches of industry have the right to form industrial sections, the same having the right to call independent Congresses in order to decide the questions of their own industry, on condition however, that the decisions of such sectional Congresses, which will be contrary to the rulings of the general Congress or the regulations of the leading organs of the labor union movement, may be annulled by the leading body of the industrial union.
7. Striving towards unity and smooth work in labor union activity and the greatest efficiency in the utilization of the power and means at the disposal of the labor unions, it is necessary to recognize most definitely the principle of centralization of the union organization, based on unity and centralization of union finances and strict inter- and intra-union discipline.
8. With this principle as a starting-point, the organization of the section cannot have the character of open or masked federalism. Under no circumstances could the sections be allowed to have separate sectional treasuries, additional assessment of members of the sections for organization and agitation and generally for any work of the union, neither can they be allowed independent representation outside of the union or to build the leading union organs, committees, on the principle of sectional representation.
9. In exceptional cases of reconstruction of the existing federated unions into a centralized industrial union, only as an allowance for the transitional stage the Executive Committee elected at the meeting of all the delegates or at the meeting of the All-Russian Congress, can be enlarged through the addition of representatives of the sections, who then have no vote, only a voice.
10. All attempts to violate the principle of industrial organization for the purpose of restoring the federated trade unions by means of organization of the inter-sectional bureaus uniting analogous sections of the various industrial unions, must be emphatically condemned.
11. Fighting for the complete annihilation of classes, at this transitional period of proletarian dictatorship, the Russian trade-union movement aiming at the union of all workers into centralized industrial unions for the purpose of subjecting the semi-proletarian elements to the influence of the economically organized proletariat and inducing it to enter the class struggle and take part in Socialist reconstruction; we think it necessary to get the new, and as yet unorganized, strata of government and social workers to join the All-Russian Vocational Associations, on condition of their complete submission to proletarian discipline and to all regulations of the leading central bodies of the trade union movement, and particularly, the principles of organization.
12. At the same time it would be the greatest error at the present stage of development of our trade union movement with its insufficient degree of organization, to infuse into it the craftsmen and small shop owners who due to their isolation and unorganized state, do not allow of proletarian control; the same applies to the labor “artels,” “unions of labor communes” and so-called professional people who are not wage workers.
Being the representatives of the dying crafts and petty bourgeois industry, these elements permeated with the conservative economic ideology of individual and small-scale production (artel), due to their numerical size, are liable to disorganize the ranks of the economically organized proletariat.
13. Considering as the only correct and fundamental basis for the union of the workers into industrial unions, the economic basis (the economic part played by the groups of laborers in the general system of national economy), the All-Russian Vocational Association cannot accept into its midst unions built along national, religious, and generally, any unions not built along economic lines.
14. Uniting the laborers and other employees into unions, independently of their political and religious beliefs, the Russian trade union movement as a whole, taking the position of the international class struggle, resolutely condemns the idea of neutralism, and considers it a prerequisite for the admission of individual unions into the all-Russian and local associations—that they recognize the revolutionary class struggle for the realization of socialism by means of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
15. Regarding the Russian labor-union movement as one close proletarian class organization, having one common class aim—to win and organize the socialist system, one must admit that any member of any industrial union, affiliated with the all-Russian or local union council, who is fulfilling his duties as such, being at the same time a member of the All-Russian General Vocational Association, upon being transferred from one industry to another, joins the proper union with the rights of an old member, without paying any initiation fee. No one must be at the same time a member of two unions.
16. This latter rule wholly applies also to the group transfer of whole establishments from one union to another—no payments are to be made out of the treasury of the unions, nor are to be made either to the members who leave it or to the union into which they are transferred, by the first union.
17. Endeavoring to better the economic conditions of all the workers, regardless of whether they are members of the union or not, the unions taking upon themselves the responsibility for the proper functioning of an establishment or institution, for the labor discipline among the workers and the enforcement of the union regulations of wages and standards of production, the unions must endeavor to introduce compulsory membership in all the establishments and institutions entering into it, through resolutions adopted at general meetings of the workers.
18. Recognizing the necessity of a united plan for the construction of all trade unions as the only condition insuring right relations between the individual local organizations and their centers, also insuring the enforcement of union regulations and union discipline, the second Congress thinks it necessary, for the purpose of creating unity of activity on a local as well as national scale, to adopt a united scheme for the structure of the industrial unions and their combines.
2.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE TRADE UNIONS AND SOVIETS:
1. The highest directing body of the all-Russian labor union movement is the All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions and the All-Russian Central Soviet of Vocational Unions operating from one Congress to the other, on the basis of principle regulations adopted by the Congress.
Note. A conference is called only in case it is impossible to call a properly organized congress.
2. All regulations of the All-Russian Congresses, Conferences and the All-Russian Central Council of the Industrial Unions are compulsory not only to all the unions, affiliated with the All-Russian Vocational Association, but for every individual member of a union, as well.
3. Violation of the rules and disregard of the same on the part of individual unions carries with it expulsion of such a union from the family of the proletarian unions.
4. The supreme organ of the All-Russian Industrial Union is its Central Committee; all rulings of that committee which do not contradict the regulations issued by the higher councils of the All-Russian General Vocational Association are obligatory for all of its branches and for each and every one of its members.
5. All local councils of the unions are being constructed according to the plan of the All-Russian Central Council of the Vocational Unions, with a corresponding proportional change of numerical ratio. All congresses of vocational unions are being called on the principle of direct proportion.
6. The rulings of the All-Russian Industrial Unions cannot be nullified by the rulings of the local councils of unions and are obligatory for the organs of the given union in each locality.
7. The local councils of the Vocational Unions being the leading organs of the labor union movement and authorized representatives of the entire proletariat, economically organized within a certain locality, are at the same time guided in their activities by all the rules of the All-Russian Congresses, Conferences and the All-Russian Central Council of the Trade-Industrial Unions, and as regards the branches of the industrial unions, the regulations laid down by their guiding central bodies are obligatory. The rulings of the local Trade Union Councils which are in contradiction to the regulations of the policy of the entire unions or their managing bodies, are not obligatory for the local branches of the industrial unions.
8. The branches of the All-Russian Industrial Unions affiliated with the All-Russian Central Trade Unions Council automatically enter into the local Trade Union Councils.
9. The local Trade Union Councils are to see to it that the unions are properly organized, and that they follow the directions issued by the governing bodies and fulfil their financial obligations towards the unions; they are also to aid and support them in their activities.
10. In the interests of centralization of union activity, the strengthening of the ties between the centers and the local bodies, and in order to place the finances of the unions on a proper plane and bring about closer cooperation and connection between the trade unions on the one hand, and the organs of the Supreme Council of National Economy and the Commissariat of Labor, on the other, in the work of bringing about a uniform structure of the Trade Unions and Union Councils and standardizing the wage scales throughout the country,—one must admit that the geographical (provincial) amalgamations as well as the provincial Union Councils are only unnecessary organs of transmission between the center and the periphery which constitute a nonproductive expenditure of energy and means.
11. The All-Russian Centers, their branches and subdivisions in the various localities, united through the Trade Union Councils, constructed after the pattern of the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council, the Shop Committees or Employees’ Associations (Collective Associations) as the original nuclei of the trade unions—this is the best scheme of organization structure, answering the basic problems at the present moment confronting the trade union movement. Territorial grouping according to divisions and subdivisions should be established by the All-Russian Central body of the given union, depending upon the geographical area and degree of concentration of any given branch of industry, keeping, insofar as possible within the boundaries fixed by the administrative divisions.
Only by observing the given scheme of organization can the finances of the union be placed on a proper level and the centers receive due financial strength, which is a necessary condition for further and more systematic activity.
12. The most suitable principle by which to determine the membership dues during the period of chronic depreciation of paper money would be a proportional assessment. The normal amount of membership dues, the Congress considers is one per cent of the wages earned. Special additional dues or assessments for special needs of the local divisions of the industrial unions are allowed only upon the resolution of general meetings, or meetings of delegates or conferences of a given union.
13. Regarding the Branch of the Industrial Union (within a province or region) as the highest organ of the union in the given locality (government or region), as the first step toward the actual realization of the centralization of the union funds, the Congress considers the following financial relations as necessary:
(a) Fifty per cent of all membership dues of the branches of the All-Russian Central Industrial Union go to the All-Russian Central Committee of the given Industrial Union.
(b) The divisions (district and sub-regional) of a branch (government or region) of a Union work according to the budget approved by the latter.
(c) Ten per cent of all the funds remaining at the disposal of a branch of a union goes to the local Trade Union Council.
(d) The local bureaus of the Trade Unions (in small towns) exist on 10 per cent of the budget appropriated by the branch of the industrial union to its divisions.
(e) The local unions which are not affiliated with any all-Russian union associations are to give 10 per cent to the local Trade Union Council, and 10 per cent to the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council transferred through the local Trade Union Council.
14. All trade organizations as well as members who have not met their financial obligations within three months without sufficient reasons, are automatically expelled from their union and from the All-Russian Trade Association, and can be reinstated only upon payment of the sum they owe plus the usual initiation fee.
15. The following initiation fees are to be fixed: (a) half a day’s wages for individual members entering the union, (b) the All-Russian Trade Union upon entering the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council pays 10 per cent of all the initiation fees collected from the total number of its members, (c) the same amount is paid by all the branches of the All-Russian Trade Unions upon their admission into the local Trade Union Council, (d) the local unions which have no all-Russian trade union pay upon entering the local council 10 per cent of the initiation fees collected, a half of which amount goes to the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council.
16. In the interests of the development of union activity with the present character of the Russian trade union movement, all special funds which cannot be touched, such as the strike fund, the reserve funds, etc., must be annulled as such and added to the rest of the union’s general treasury. The fund for the aid of unions outside of Soviet Russia is being created by the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council for which purpose special collections and contributions are to be used.
17. In the interests of the proper arrangement of the control system, the simplification and systematization of the union’s business, we must make it obligatory to have a single uniform system, as worked out by the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council.
18. The basic nucleus of the Industrial Union on the spot is the Factory Committee or the Collective Association of the office employees in the form of an Office Workers’ Union.
19. “Regulations of the Factory and Mill Committees” adopted by the Moscow Trade Union Council and approved by the All-Russian Central Council of the Industrial Unions coordinated with the resolutions of the present second All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions must be used as the basis for the determination of the part, the tasks and interrelations of the Factory and Mill Committees with the other organizations.
20. As a basis for the regulations governing the Employees’ Associations (Collective Associations), in addition to the general principles which form the basis of the “Factory and Mill Committee Regulations,” the following principles are to be laid down:
(a) Participation in the hiring and dismissal of employees, (b) obligatory participation in the Wage Scale Committees and endeavor to see to it that the wage scale regulations be carried out in practice, (c) the recognition of the collective association and its rights to exist only as an organ of the corresponding union, (d) participation in the organization and improvement of the technical apparatus of the given institution, (e) non-interference with the general direction of the activities of the state and social institutions.
The All-Russian Central Trade Union Council is authorized within the shortest time to work out and publish the regulations of the Factory and Mill Committees and the Employees’ Collective Associations.
21. To avoid mixing up of terms and ideas regarding the character of the union organs we must recognize the uniform terminology of the same, as carrying out the same functions, namely:
(a) All-Russian Central Trade Union Council retains its name, (b) the leading organs of the All-Russian Trade Unions are called “Central Committee of the Trade Unions,” their executive organs are to be called: “Presidium of the Central Committee of the Trade Unions,” (c) their government (province) organs—“The management of the government (province) or regional branch of the All-Russian Trade Union,” (d) the Local Government Trade Union Councils are called: “Such and such Government Trade Union Council,” and the district councils as well as the small town councils “Such and such District Trade Union Bureau,” “Such and such Trade Union Bureau.”
22. All-Russian Central Trade Union Council on the basis of the principles laid down, must work out in the shortest possible period the following sample by-laws which are to be obligatory for all trade organizations affiliated with any of the following All-Russian Trade Associations:
(a) The All-Russian Trade Union, (b) local union having no corresponding all-Russian association, (c) Local Trade Union Council, (d) Trade Union Bureau.
23. The All-Russian Central Trade Union Council must work out and enact through the People’s Commissariat of Labor and the Soviet of National Economy or the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the regulations governing the coalitions on the following basis: (a) the right to be called a union is given only to trade unions affiliated with the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council, registered and published by the latter, (b) all other organizations of an economic character not affiliated with the All-Russian Trade Association are to be called “societies.”
24. The All-Russian Central Trade Union Council and the government councils must periodically report on all unions registered with it.
25. In accordance with the general principles of organization, adopted at the second Trade Union Congress the corresponding amendments are to be introduced into the by-laws of the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council adopted by the first All-Russian Trade Union Congress.