THE SECOND ALL-RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF TRADES UNIONS (VOCATIONAL UNIONS)
RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED AT THE CONFERENCE
Moscow, June 16th to 25th, 1919
A year’s work of the professional trades unions of Russia was completed by a new conference, the second one in its history—which shows how young our professional movement is as yet. The past year was unparalleled in the history of the entire international trade union movement, both according to the kind of activity as well as those circumstances under which our unions had to carry on their work.
It was a year of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
On the ruins of the demolished capitalist system, the proletariat of Russia has taken upon itself the task of building up a new, Socialist Russia. While struggling and conquering, it was gradually turning to constructive work—strengthening its dictatorship by taking possession of the entire apparatus of the country’s economic administration.
The proletariat, organized into professional unions, constituted the vanguard of the Socialist revolution. The unions were the hotbeds of revolution, and it has fallen to their lot to solve the most complicated problems—in fact they took into their hands the management of all economic affairs, taking over the factories, the mills and the mines. This problem was difficult in itself, and its complexity was increased still further through the economic disintegration and chaos which were caused by the imperialist world war.
The Second All-Russian Conference of Trades Unions demonstrated that the Russian professional trades union movement has grown stronger during the year and that its organization has improved in both quantity and quality.
The qualitative progress made by the Russian trades union movement expressed itself in that marvelous intelligence which the Conference displayed in grappling with the complicated problems it had to face. If the first All-Russian Conference of Professional trades unions outlined a rough draft of a plan according to which the working class was to steer its course during the period of its supremacy, if at that first conference the delegates were groping in the dark, trying to feel the correct way,—the second Conference found the path sufficiently cleared to proceed forward toward the solution of new problems put forth by the life and practice of the professional movement. If at the First Conference we could only speak of regulating industry and controlling it, now, at this Second Conference, we can already tabulate the results of organization in the realm of industry by the efforts of the working class itself.
A big stride forward was made by the proletariat organized within professional trades unions, when in discussing the question of organization it pointed out clearly and definitely the place which the proletariat of the entire world is occupying under the present circumstances. The Conference has not only firmly and decisively drawn the line between its position and that of neutrality, but it took a definite stand in favor of recognizing “the revolutionary class struggle for the realization of Socialism through the dictatorship of the proletariat.”
The quantitative growth of the Russian trades unions since the first Conference, notwithstanding the fact that the counter-revolution has snatched away a number of provinces (Siberia, Finland, the Donetz region, Caucasia, etc.), has resulted in a membership of 3,422,000 whereas only 2,500,000 members were represented at the First Conference. Thus, within one year the membership increased by almost one million. According to the All-Russian industrial groupings, the number of union members represented at the conference was distributed as follows:
| Metal trades | 400,000 |
| Tanners | 225,000 |
| Members of Trade-Industrial Union (probably sales clerks) | 200,000 |
| Workers engaged in the food industry | 140,000 |
| Tailors | 150,000 |
| Chemists | 80,000 |
| Architectural and building trades | 120,000 |
| Wood-working trades | 70,000 |
| Printers | 60,000 |
| Railroad workers | 450,000 |
| Glass and chinaware workers | 24,000 |
| Water transportation workers | 200,000 |
| Postal-telegraphic employees | 100,000 |
| Sugar industry | 100,000 |
| Textile workers (according to data furnished by the local union) | 711,000 |
| Firemen | 50,000 |
| Oil miners and refiners | 30,000 |
| Chauffeurs | 98,000 |
| Bank employees | 70,000 |
| Domestic help | 50,000 |
| Waiters (in taverns) | 50,000 |
| Cigar and cigarette makers | 30,000 |
| Drug clerks | 14,000 |
| Foresters | 5,000 |
According to the data furnished by the committee on credentials, there were 748 delegates at the Conference with the right to vote, and 131 with a voice. The political composition of the Conference (according to the results of an informal inquiry) was as follows: 374 Communists, 75 sympathizers, 15 Left Socialists-Revolutionists, 5 Anarchists, 18 Internationalists, 4 representatives of the Bund, 29 United Social-Democrats, 23 non-partisans, and 236 delegates did not state their party affiliations. The party registration bureaus showed entirely different results, which have been confirmed by the vote cast for the main resolutions. Thus, at the Communist bureau 600 persons have registered (this includes party members having the right to vote, sympathizers, and people with a voice only, but no vote), the Internationalists had 50 persons, and the United Social-Democrats had 70.
Geographically the delegates were represented as follows:
| Second | First | |||
| From Unions | Conference | Conference | ||
| The Northern Region | 100 | delegates | 69 | delegates |
| The Central Region | 320 | " | 112 | " |
| The Volga Region | 144 | " | 25 | " |
| The Ural Region | 2 | " | 13 | " |
| The Southern Region | 31 | " | 62 | " |
| The Western Region | 30 | " | .. | " |
| From Soviets and Northern Region | 29 | " | ||
| Central Region | 70 | " | ||
| Ural Region | 3 | " | ||
| Southern Region | 6 | " | ||
| Western Region | 14 | " | ||
| Volga Region | 30 | " |
The local Soviets of the Professional Unions were represented according to regions, as follows:
| Central Region | 36 cities | 1,004,500 persons |
| Northern Region | 16 cities | 396,000 persons |
| Volga Region | 19 cities | 499,300 persons |
| Western Region | 7 cities | 73,800 persons |
| Southern Region | 4 cities | 64,000 persons |
| —————— | ————————— | |
| Total | 82 cities | 2,037,600 persons |
| At the preceding Conference | 49 cities | 1,888,353 persons |
From June 16th to 25th, 1919, during the nine days of its work, the second All-Russian Congress of Trades Unions solved the fundamental questions of the Russian professional (trades union) movement. The Conference more precisely defined the place of the professional trades unions in a proletarian state, it has more concretely outlined the interrelations of the trades unions with the organs of administration and, above all, with the People’s Commissariat of Labor. All other questions, such as the regulation of working hours and wages, the safeguarding of labor and the social insurance of laborers, the organization of production, and workmen’s control have been solved on the basis of the experience of the past year.
The Russian professional unions entered upon a new era of proletarian activity. And the unions are already facing practical problems—to put into practice the principles and resolutions adopted and in all phases of its work to follow one direction, that of still further strengthening its power, and participating more closely in establishing the might of proletarian Russia.