Part 5, Chapter 2 : 
Situation of the Workers
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19471947

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Author : Voline

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Chapter 2. Situation of the Workers

 
Socially, the basis of the system in the domain ruled by Stalin lies in the
following facts:

As in all other countries, the worker in the U.S.S.R. is an employee. But
he is a State employee. The State is his only employer. Instead of having
thousands of “choices”, as is the case in the nations where private
capitalism prevails, in the U.S.S.R. (the U.S.C.R.) the worker has only
one. Any change of employer is impossible there.

It is pretended that, this State being a “Workers’ State”, it is not
an employer in the usual sense of the word. The profits it realizes from
production of commodities do not go into the pockets of capitalists, [so
the Stalin regime asserts], but in the last analysis, serve the interests
of the workers, returning to them in forms other than money.

Subtle as it may sound, this reasoning is purely theoretical. The
“workers’ State” is not directed[34]
 by the workers themselves,
(workers can direct production themselves only in an entirely different
social system, never in a modern centralized State), but by a very large
stratum of functionaries in the pay of the Government, which itself forms
the center of a solid group, detached from the masses of toilers, and
acting on its own. It is said that it is “answerable” to the workers.
This is another abstraction. The reality has nothing in common with the
formulas.

Ask any worker in the U.S.S.R. — if he be a simple, real worker — in
what form he gets any advantage out of the profits realized by the State
above his wages. He won’t even understand you; he knows nothing about it.
The only thing he knows is that he gets his meager wage, always inadequate,
and that he has all the difficulty in the world in subsisting on it. He
knows also that there are many people in the “Soviet” Union who live
“agreeably” (as Stalin has said), richly, luxuriously.

Ask him if he can bring pressure to bear on those who are purportedly
“answerable” to the workers, if he can criticize them, call them to
order, eliminate them, replace them. He will understand you still less.
What he knows is that he has only to carry out the orders of his chiefs
“who know what they are doing”, and that the least criticism of them
would cost him dearly. Those chiefs are imposed on him by the Government
and are answerable only to it. As for the Government, it is infallible, and
unassailable : its answerability is a myth.

Let us see a little of the real situation of the worker in the U.S.S.R.
Does it differ essentially from that of the workers in the countries where
private capitalism flourishes?

As everywhere else, the worker in Stalin’s domain is obliged to present
himself, on payday, at the paymaster’s window in the establishment where
he is employed, to get his wages. These wages are paid to him by a
functionary, the paymaster of his only boss, the State.

That functionary makes up his payroll according to the wage scale decreed
by the Government. He withholds from the wages whatever the State-employer
considers it necessary to withhold: so much for Red Aid, so much for bonds
(“free”, but compulsory, a Soviet sophism), so much for foreign
propaganda, so much for the national lottery (another “free” but
compulsory institution). He pays the worker exactly as does any other
paymaster, employed in any other shop in any other country. Naturally the
workers in the U.S.S.R. have no knowledge of what the State gains from his
wages, nor what the State does with those gains. “That’s the
Government’s business”, and the worker hasn’t the slightest intention
of getting mixed up with that problem.

But in a country where private capitalism prevails, the worker, if he is
dissatisfied, can quit his employer and look for another. He can change his
shop, go where he likes, do what he pleases.

All this is impossible in the U.S.S.R.. where there is only one employer,
owner of all the factories. Conforming to the latest laws, the worker
hasn’t even the right to “ask for his time” and quit the factory
where he is employed, on his own. For that he must have the authorization
of the management. And this management is made up of functionaries who, for
a long time, have replaced the factory committees. Thus the worker is
attached to his place of work in the manner of a serf or a slave.[35]

If the Russian worker leaves a factory without a special authorization
written on his compulsory identity card, or if he is fired, he cannot work
anywhere else without re-authorization. No factory director, functionary of
the same State-employer, can hire him, under pain of severe penalties.

Under these conditions, the State-employer can do with the worker what it
likes. It treats him like a slave. The worker is obliged to accept
everything that is thrust upon him: he has neither a choice of employer,
nor means of defense (his labor union being in the hands of the
government-employer and pretending not to understand that a union member
can defend himself “against his own government”), nor any way of
existing except at the end of his tether. Unless he “untangles” himself
somehow.

And he cannot complain nor make himself heard, the press also being in the
hands of “his government”, speech belonging to it, and meetings not
being permitted except on official order. In a country as large as Russia,
the best method of “getting untangled” has always been vagabondage.
This practice has not changed. Thousands and thousands of ex-workers there,
having quit their jobs “irregularly”, and finding themselves on the
outs with the authorities, have revived the old tradition and have taken to
the roads. They form a significant mass of unemployed of which the Soviet
press naturally does not speak.

The laws in the U.S.S.R. concerning workers in general and factory work in
particular are extremely harsh. Tens of thousands of toilers languish and
perish in the prisons and places of exile for the sole reason of having
broken them.

And the work is difficult. — Except in the large centers, the hygienic
conditions in the shops are deplorable, the general surroundings
impoverished. Nearly everywhere, too, there is hard labor at piece-work and
the Taylor system is applied.

Prevalence of “stakhanovism” throughout the Soviet Union testifies to
this. (The reader will find other testimonies and irrefutable proofs of
what we say about labor conditions there in various other works.[36])

The truth about stakhanovism is not well enough known outside of the
Russian domain. That term comes from the name of a miner, Alexei Stakhanov,
chosen by the Bolshevik authorities for the purpose of a vast campaign to
intensify the output of the workers. It was a question, for the magnates of
“Soviet” neo-capitalism of applying in the U.S.S.R. the principle of
the Taylor system [gleaned from the United States] without using the term
and without the appearance of its having been instigated by the Government.

One day Stakhanov made, spontaneously, it was asserted, a sensational
declaration to his bosses, claiming that he had discovered a new principle
of organizing the work of mining coal which enabled the increasing of
production by x times. Immediately the Government “became interested”
in the discovery, found it useful, made a big stir about it, and undertook
a far-flung campaign to introduce the new method everywhere in Russia.

In fact, however, Stakhanov, inspired and pushed by the Bolshevik Party,
had only “discovered” America. His “new” method was only an old
device which had just made its first appearance across the Atlantic: to be
specific, the assembly line [the speed-up, as used in the Ford automobile
and other industrial plants] adapted to Russian conditions. But the
“stage setting” [given to Stakhanov’s prodigious daily output of
coal] and the far-reaching publicity which it got made of it an
extraordinary and fortunate discovery. The boneheads and the simpletons
abroad took it all very seriously.

That “discovery” became the special business of the State-employer. It
permitted it to hope for a general raising of the workers’ output. Then
it impelled the Government to form a privileged stratum among the workers,
a formation which was exceedingly helpful to governmental need for
heightened production — the privileged ones being, generally, competent
leaders of men, and thus could be used to facilitate manipulation of the
toiling masses. And finally, in certain circles, it enhanced the prestige
of the government-employer.

The new efficiency system was inaugurated by means of intense publicity in
the press, on posters, and in speeches at public meetings. Stakhanov was
proclaimed a “hero of labor”, rewarded, decorated. His system was
applied in other branches of industry. Everywhere jealous “rivals” set
about imitating him and even surpassing his output. All these individuals
were ambitious to distinguish themselves, to “rise from the ranks”, to
“arrive” — naturally to the detriment of the workers as a whole, they
being forced to submit to a new speed-up, that is, to increased
exploitation, under the supervision of the “heroes”. The latter rose on
the backs of the others. They obtained advantages and privileges to the
extent that they succeeded in applying the system and dragging along the
masses. The “emulation” of the stakhanovists among themselves
accordingly gave rise to superstakhanovism.

Soon the mass of workers understood the real meaning of the innovation.
Powerless to oppose this “super-exploitation by any general movement,
they manifested their discontent by numerous acts of sabotage and
vengeance, even going so far as to assassinate over-zealous stakhanovists.
It became necessary for the government to resort to extremely severe
measures to repress the anti-stakhanovist movement. Moreover, the
enterprise shortly ended in nothing. Once the bluff was seen through, all
that remained was a sort of workers’ opportunism which no longer played a
really effective role in production.

The “nationalized” worker in the U.S.S.R. is at least in principle a
modern slave. On condition of being docile and zealous, he is fairly well
maintained, insured by his “lord”, rewarded with a paid vacation, et
cetera. Nevertheless this, in reality, is a matter here of only a tightly
restricted part of the working class. That class is divided into several
categories. The difference in their conditions of life ranges from ease to
poverty, through all intermediary stages. The favors go only to the workers
“worthy of them”. To be well-paid, to have vacations and other
advantages it is necessary to deserve them, to detach oneself from the
crowd, to “climb”.

The overwhelming majority of the workers in the Soviet Union endure a
miserable existence
 — especially the unskilled, the day-laborers, the
domestics, the small employes, and, in general, the mass of average
workers. Others, skilled and specialized, privileged slaves, have a
relatively “good” life, and form a sort of “workers’
aristocracy”.

Most frequently, the latter distrust and repulse their unfortunate class
comrades. The struggle for existence is bitter in the U.S.S.R. So much the
worse for the victims. Let them take care of themselves. If one concerns
himself with them, he soon becomes a victim himself. But the skilled and
privileged worker, the true stakhanovist — worthy disciple of the famous
Stakhanov, first worker-careerist — is ambitious for higher and higher
positions. He has hopes of rising, some day, out of the ranks of the
slaves, to become himself a functionary, some kind of a chief, perhaps a
director.

He must do everything possible to rise He demeans himself; he does four
men’s work; he trains the youths who will replace him in the shop; he
makes himself noticed everywhere he can; he is always in agreement with the
authorities and he emphasizes that; he is a candidate for the Party; he
flatters and curries favor here, he covers himself there. But, ahead of
everything else, it is necessary that he never become involved with those
below him, nor with those on his own level. The struggle is hard in the
Soviet Union.

The stakhanovist workers are primarily “pace-setters”, whose role is to
demonstrate by example to the mass of workers that it is possible to
intensify production. They are highly paid and are given advancements,
especially the superstakhanovists, who are the “aces” of stakhanovism.
Their role is to show the proletarian masses that if they work well they
can “attain” a comfortable and even “agreeable” life. (Again,
Stalin’s word).

In the majority of instances, once a new output-record has been established
in a factory, it is impossible for a stakhanovist to remain there; the
other workers will not let him live. Generally the authorities take care of
such a faithful servant. Usually he is sent to a sanatorium, where he
sojourns “comfortably” for several months — after which he is called
to an administrative post in Moscow or some other large city, where he has
a stylish villa at his disposal and where he lives an “agreeable” life,
getting a salary and enjoying prerogatives in proportion to the services he
has rendered. His career is made. He is now a functionary. He has risen
from the ranks. He has “arrived”.

By all such procedures — stakhanovism, superstakhanovism, classification
in various categories of wages, et cetera — the “Communist”
government manages effectively to divide and control the working masses. It
creates, at the same time, a privileged stratum which is obsequiously
devoted to it, which keeps the “herd” on the alert, and which serves as
a buffer between the masters and the slaves.

Thus the practices employed by the new masters — the “Communists” —
toward the working class remain what they always were: to divide and
dominate. And the consoling word spoken by the master to the “herd”
also is eternal: “Workers, do you want to get ahead? Well, that depends
solely on yourselves, for any capable man, who is diligent and applies
himself, can become ‘someone’. Those who do not succeed, the failures,
have only themselves to blame.”

According to the meticulous and objective calculations of the economist E.
Yurievsky, taken from the statistics of the Government of the U.S.S.R., out
of some 18,000,000 workers in 1938, there were about 1,500,000 (8 percent)
of ex-workers and privileged workers: stakhanovists and superstakhanovists,
et al.

It is of course understandable that the Government should encourage and
reward this careerism from which it gains such huge profits and which,
incidentally, it never calls by that name. Instead the competition in
speed-up is lauded as “noble emulation”, “honorable zeal in the
service of the proletariat”, and the like. There is a decoration “for
zeal”. And there is even a whole stratum of “decorated workers” —
ordenonostsi. From the most “worthy” of these elements, the Government
creates a sort of new “Soviet” nobility, and also a new
State-capitalist bourgeoisie: determined and solid supporters of the regime
in the Kremlin.

And it is to all such climbers that Stalin, their supreme chief, refers,
when he says in some of his speeches: “Life among us becomes always more
agreeable, more cheerful.”

The herd in the Soviet Union remains the herd, as everywhere else. And as
elsewhere, the Government possesses “sufficient means to keep it at its
mercy, tranquil and subdued”.

It is contended that its methods prepare the ground for “real
Communism”.

We have asked ourselves whether the lot of the worker in the U.S.S.R. is
preferable to that of the worker in the countries where private capitalism
continues. But the real problem is not that. It is more precisely this: Is
such a state of affairs compatible with Socialism? Or is this, at least,
the dawn of it? Can such an organization, such a social background, lead us
there?

The reader is invited to answer these questions himself — and others as
well — when he reaches the end of this book.


     From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org

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     Part 5, Chapter 2 -- Publication : November 30, 1946

     Part 5, Chapter 2 -- Added : February 22, 2017

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