Chapter XIX: Appendix: To Section 5 (2)

Considering it necessary thus to impose on the workers’ cooperative societies the extremely important task of constructive Socialist work and the work of actually supplying the workers with the necessaries, without which the productivity of labor cannot be increased, the Congress holds that these functions can best be carried out by the workers’ cooperatives on the following conditions: (_a_) the creation of a united organized basis for the cooperative and vocational associations (factory or mill committees), which is to be carried into practice by means of an agreement between the All-Russian Council of Vocational Unions and the All-Russian Council of Workers’ Cooperative Societies; (_b_) the All-Russian Councils of Vocational Unions and the Workers’ Cooperative Societies exchange representatives; (_c_) all members of the vocational unions must join the Workers’ Cooperative Society and every member of the latter must become a member of a vocational union; (_d_) the common leading body of the workers’ cooperative societies must be the meeting of representatives (conferences) of the shop committees and collective associations, uniting the employees and the laborers not occupied in the mills and factories; (_e_) the workers’ cooperatives must immediately be induced to participate in the broadest possible manner in the work of organizing all municipal commerce; the control and general direction in the matter remaining in the hands of the provisioning bodies; (_f_) the existing special productive-distributive organs such as that in charge of transportation of the provisions, waterway transportation of provisions, (canals, rivers, etc.), must be transformed into well organized, open workers’ cooperative societies; (_g_) the workers’ cooperative societies are to be induced to take up the practical work of organization of these branches of industry whose scale and problems justify such work, and which are engaged in the production of the prime necessities.

3. The furnishing of the proletariat with the products provided for it by the government plans of distribution, must be insured through the appropriation of a special fund for the purpose on the plan adopted for the army. The special department of the Commissariat for Provisioning which is in charge of the planning, calculating, and distributing of the products intended for the workers, must be organized in accordance with an understanding between the All-Russian Council of Vocational Unions and the Council of Workers’ Cooperatives, and it must not form its own technical and economic apparatus.

4. In order to help the methods of proletarian work to permeate more fully the entire system of the provisioning institutions it is necessary to inject into their midst representatives of Vocational Unions and Workers’ Cooperative Societies, particularly representatives of the All-Russian Council of Vocational Unions and the All-Russian Council of Cooperative Societies, into the Collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Provisioning.

In the matter of preparing the products which are subject to monopoly, by government counter-agents (as per decree of January 21st) the central workers’ cooperatives (city) and all centralized workers’ cooperative organizations (regional, provincial and all-Russian) are to be called upon to help, while the matter of preparing the products not subject to monopoly should be entirely given over to the cooperative societies, headed by the Workers’ Cooperative Society, the management to be given over to the Central Buying Committee (Tzentrozakup) and a corresponding portion of the products is to be set aside for the needs of the army.

5. In order to create a solid basis in the matter of supplying farm products and with a view to intensifying agriculture and other types of farming it is necessary to call upon the workers’ cooperative societies to properly utilize and organize the large Soviet agricultural establishments and other farming undertakings.

6. For the successful solution of its tasks in the domain of Socialist construction work it is necessary to bring about the closest organizational union and coordination of activity of the vocational unions and workers’ cooperative societies in the matter of raising the class consciousness of that proletariat and, for this purpose, the joint organization of workers’ homes, clubs, institutes for practitioners, and so on.

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.

BY-LAWS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CENTRAL TRADES UNION COUNCIL

(_Amended and approved by the Congress_)

1. The All-Russian Trade Union Congress elects an executive body of the All-Russian Central Trades Union Council—the presiding officers (Presidium), who are to submit a detailed report on their activity to the following Congress.

2. The supreme leading body of the All-Russian Trade-Union Association is the All-Russian Central Trade-Union Council, which is to be guided in its activity by resolutions of congresses and conferences and which is responsible for its actions to the All-Russian Trades Union Congress.

3. All the regulations of the All-Russian Congresses, Conferences as well as those passed by the All-Russian Central Trades Union Council are obligatory to all unions affiliated with the All-Russian Trades Union Association as well as to every union member. The violation of these rules and disobedience of the same carries with it expulsion from the family of proletarian unions.

4. The All-Russian Central Council is to fulfil the following tasks:

(_a._) It is to maintain and establish a connection with all the existing and newly arising trade union organizations;

(_b._) It is to aid in the creation of local all-Russian vocational unions as well as the amalgamation of all trades;

(_c._) It is to establish connections with the central trade union bodies of all countries;

(_d._) It is to carry out all the necessary work connected with the preparation and calling of All-Russian conferences and congresses, it works out a program of business to be transacted by the congresses, it takes care of the preparation of reports, and it publishes the fundamental principles;

(_e._) It appoints the time for the calling of conferences and congresses;

(_f._) It periodically publishes in the press reports on its activities;

(_g._) It issues its bulletin (periodical organ);

(_h._) It connects, and acts as representative for the entire trade-union movement before the Central government institutions and social organizations;

(_i._) It aids the unions in their work of organization and guides that work, for which purpose it issues various by-laws, instructions, forms of accounting (book-keeping), etc.;

(_j._) It takes part in organizations and institutions, serving the interests of cultural and educational activity among the proletariat;

(_k._) It aids in promoting the development of the trade union movement, by means of verbal and written propaganda and agitation.

6. In order to accomplish its tasks successfully, the All-Russian Central Trades Union Council organizes the necessary departments.

7. The funds of the All-Russian Central Trades-Union Council consist of the following: (_a_) 10 per cent of the membership dues collected by the Central Committees of the All-Russian Trade Union Association; (_b_) five per cent of the revenue coming from the local unions not affiliated with the All-Russian Trade Unions, but affiliated, through the local Soviet, with the All-Russian All-Trades Association, (_c_) out of appropriations designated by the organs of the Soviet Government for specific purposes.

8. The All-Russian Central Trade Union Council is composed of the following:

(_a_) Nine members elected by the Congress, and

(_b_) Representatives of the All-Russian Trade Unions, on the basis of one delegate to every 30,000 to 50,000 workers, and one more delegate to every additional 50,000 dues-paying members.

_Note._ All-Russian Trades Unions whose membership is below 30,000, send their representative, who has a voice, but no vote. Unions whose dues-paying membership is below 30,000 may unite and send a delegate to the All-Russian Trades Union Council, who will then have the right to vote at the meetings.

9. The nine members elected by the congress are to be the presiding officers of the All-Russian Central Council; in order to effect a change in the composition of the presidium, a vote of not less than two-thirds of the general number of members of the All-Russian Central Council is required, or if the All-Russian Associations demand the recall of that body, the total membership of the associations demanding such recall must exceed one-half of the entire membership of the All-Russian Association comprising all trades.

_Note._ The members of the presidium (executive committee), are to be replaced (in case they resign or are recalled) at the plenary session of the All-Russian Central Trade Union Council.

10. Such recall and election of a new executive body may take place only in extraordinary cases when the general conditions do not permit the calling of an extraordinary congress or conference.

11. A plenary session of the All-Russian Central Council takes place at least once a month. The All-Russian Central Council at a meeting of all its members elects an auditing committee and other committees and responsible officers, leaving to the executive committee (presiding officers) to organize branches (departments), to invite workers to join them, etc.

12. The All-Russian Conference of Trades-Unions is to consist of all the members of the council (Soviet), and of representatives of provincial trades-union councils—one to every 25,000 members.

_Note._ Representatives of All-Russian Associations who are admitted to the plenary session (_plenum_) with only a voice and no vote, have the right to vote at the conference.

13. The All-Russian Central Trades Union calls congresses of the trades unions at intervals not longer than one year. Extraordinary congresses are called at the decision of the All-Russian Central Council, at the demand of All-Russian Associations, or in cases where the All-Russian Associations having not less than half the total membership affiliated with the All-Russian Workmen’s Association, demand that an extraordinary convention be called.

14. The right to representation at the Trades-Union Congresses is restricted to those unions which in their activity are guided by the principles of the international class struggle of the proletariat, which are affiliated with the local councils of the trades unions and which pay their dues regularly.

15. The following have a right to vote at the congress:

(_a_) The local trades unions having a dues-paying membership of no less than 3,000, are entitled to one delegate, and those whose membership exceeds 5,000 are entitled to one delegate for every 5,000 dues-paying members (complete 5,000 only, not for any fraction thereof).

(_b_) The central All-Russian Associations are entitled to one delegate each; but in case the total number of workers affiliated with them exceeds 10,000 they are entitled to two delegates.

(_c_) Petrograd and Moscow send three delegates each.

(_d_) Local unions having under 3,000 members may amalgamate for the purpose of sending their delegates.

16. The following have a voice, but no vote:

(_a_) Representatives of the central bodies of Socialist parties; of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Council (Soviet) of Workers’ and Peasants’ Delegates; individuals and institutions at the invitation of the All-Russian Central Council or the Congress itself.

(_b_) All members of the All-Russian Central Soviet.

17. The rules of procedure for the congress (convention) are worked out by the All-Russian Central Council and are subject to approval by the congress.

18. The order of business (program) to be transacted at the convention is to be made public at least one month before the congress is convened. Individual organizations have the right to introduce new points into the order of business not later than two weeks prior to the meeting of the congress, of which changes the All-Russian Central Council immediately notifies, through the press, all the trades unions.

ORDER OF ADMISSION OF ALL-RUSSIAN TRADES UNIONS INTO THE
ALL-RUSSIAN CENTRAL TRADES UNIONS COUNCIL

19. An All-Russian Trades Union, desiring to enter the All-Trade Association must submit to the presidium of the All-Russian Central Trades Union Council the following documents:

(_a_) the by-laws,

(_b_) information on the number of dues-paying members,

(_c_) information on the existing branches and number of dues-paying members of each of them,

(_d_) minutes of any convention or conference at which the central committee of the organization has been elected,

(_e_) financial report,

(_f_) sample copies of such publications as the All-Russian Trades Union has published, and all other material shedding light on the character of the union’s works.

20. An All-Russian Trades Union may be registered with, and admitted into, the All-Russian Central Trades Union Council on the following conditions:

(_a_) the by-laws and the structure of the union are to be brought into accord with the general principles of organization as adopted by the convention and carried out by the All-Russian Central Trades Union Council;

(_b_) the character and activity of the union must not contradict the resolutions of the All-Russian Trades Union Convention or the general tendencies of the Russian trades union movement;

(_c_) the payment of a corresponding initiation fee;

21. An all-Russian union may be expelled at a plenary session from the All-Russian Central Trades Union Council on the following grounds:

(_a_) failure to obey the general rules of discipline obligatory to all trades union organizations;

(_b_) failure to pay membership dues within three months, without any reasonable cause.

22. The All-Russian Central Trades Union Council, in cases where the central committee of the All-Russian Trades Union violates the decisions of the convention, conference, or All-Russian Central Trades Union Council, may dissolve the same, and must immediately call an All-Russian convention or conference of the given trades union for the purpose of electing a new directing body.

November 7, 1919.

THE FINANCIAL POLICY AND THE RESULTS OF THE ACTIVITIES
OF THE PEOPLE’S COMMISSARIAT OF FINANCE

(1917–1919)

I

When the Soviet Government was first organized, a number of purely financial questions arose which necessitated the utilization of the services of the old financial-administrative apparatus in the form in which it existed prior to the October Revolution. It is quite natural that the first period of work in the domain of finance, that is, between the October Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk Peace, had of necessity to be marked by efforts to conquer the financial apparatus, its central as well as its local bodies, to make a study of its own functions and, somehow or other, to adapt itself to the requirements of the time.

While in the domain of the Soviet Government’s economic and general policy, this period has been marked by two most far-reaching and important changes which, strictly speaking, had been prepared prior to the October Revolution—the nationalization of banks and the annulment of the government debt; the financial policy, in the narrow sense of the word, did not disclose any new departures, not even the beginnings of original constructive work.

Gradually taking over the semi-ruined pre-revolutionary financial apparatus, however, the Soviet Government was compelled to adopt measures for the systematization of the country’s finances in their entirety.

This second period in the work of the People’s Commissariat for Finances (approximately up to August, 1918) also fails to show any features of sharply marked revolutionary change. From the very beginning the authorities have been confronted with a chaotic condition of the country’s financial affairs. All this, in connection with the large deficit which became apparent in the state budget, compelled the Commissariat of Finance to concentrate its immediate attention on straightening the general run of things and, thus, prepare the ground for further reforms.

In order to accomplish the systematizing of the financial structure, the Government had to lean for support on the already existing unreformed institutions, i.e., the central department of finance, the local administrative-financial organs—the fiscal boards tax inspection, treasuries, excise boards—and, more particularly, the financial organs of the former local institutions for self-government (Zemstvos, and municipalities).

Such a plan of work seemed most feasible, since the apparatus appeared suitable for fulfilling slightly modified functions; but the local government was not yet sufficiently crystallized or firmly established, neither was any stable connection established between that local government and the central bodies.

Under such circumstances, the old institutions, which by force of habit continued to work exclusively at the dictate of and in accordance with instructions from the central bodies, seemed to be the most convenient and efficient means of carrying out measures which the central authorities had planned to straighten out the general disorder prevailing in financial affairs.

However, this idea soon had to be discarded, the local Soviets insofar as they organized themselves and put their executive organs into definite shape, could not and did not have the right to neglect the work of the old financial organs functioning in the various localities, since the Soviets represented the local organs of the central government as a whole, and since it was upon them that the responsibility for all the work done in the localities, rested.

Under such conditions friction was inevitable. In accordance with the principles of the old bureaucratic order, the local financial institutions neither knew nor had any idea of subordination other than the slavish subordination to the central authorities which excluded all initiative on their part.

Under the new conditions, these local financial institutions were to constitute only a small component part of the local Soviets. Acute misunderstanding of the local authorities among themselves and between the local and central authorities on the subject of interrelations among all of these institutions, have demonstrated the imperative necessity for a reorganization. With this work of reforming the local financial organs (September, 1918) a new period opened: the third period in the activity of the commissariat, which coincides with the gradual strengthening of the general course of our economic policy. The economic policy definitely and decisively occupies the first place which duly belongs to it, while the financial policy, insofar as it is closely bound up with the economic policy, is being regulated and directed in accordance with the general requirements of the latter.

II

The financial policy of Soviet Russia was, for the first time, definitely outlined by the eighth (March, 1919) Convention of the Russian Communist Party.

The eighth party convention clearly and concretely stated our financial problems for the transitionary period, and now our task consists in seeing to it that the work of the financial organs of the Republic should be in accord with the principles accepted by the party.

These principles, briefly, are as follows: (1) Soviet Government State monopoly of the banking institutions; (2) radical reconstruction and simplifications of the banking operations, by means of transforming the banking apparatus into one of uniform accounting and general bookkeeping for the Soviet Republic; (3) the enactment of measures widening the sphere of accounting without the medium of money, with the final object of total elimination of money; (4) and, in view of the transformation of the government power into an organization fulfilling the functions of economic management for the entire country,—the transformation of the pre-revolutionary state budget into the budget of the economic life of the nation as a whole.

In regard to the necessity for covering the expenses of the functioning state apparatus during the period of transition, the program adopted outlines the following plan: “The Russian Communist Party will advocate the transition from the system of levying contributions from the capitalists, to a proportional income and property tax: and, insofar as this tax outlives itself, due to the widely applied expropriation of the propertied classes, the government expenditures must be covered by the immediate conversion of part of the income derived from the various state monopolies into government revenue.”

In short, we arrive at the conclusion that no purely financial policy, in its pre-revolutionary sense of independence and priority, can or ought to exist in Soviet Russia. The financial policy plays a subsidiary part, for it depends directly upon the economic policy and upon the changes which occur in the various phases of Russia’s political and economic order.

During the transitional period from capitalism to Socialism the government concentrates all of its attention on the organization of industry and on the activities of the organs for exchange and distribution of commodities.

The financial apparatus is an apparatus subsidiary to the organs of production and distribution of merchandise. During the whole of this transitional period the financial administration is confronted with the following task: (1) supplying the productive and distributive organs with money, as a medium of exchange, not even abolished by economic evolution, and (2) the formation of an accounting system, with the aid of which the government materialize the exchange and distribution of products. Finally, since all the practical work in the domain of national and financial economy cannot and should not proceed otherwise than in accordance with a strictly defined plan, it is the function of the financial administration to create and compile the state budget in such a manner that it might approximate as closely as possible the budget of the entire national economic life.

In addition to this, one of the largest problems of the Commissariat of Finance was the radical reform of the entire administration of the Department of Finance, from top to bottom, in such a manner that the fundamental need of the moment would be realized most fully—the realization of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the poorest peasantry in the financial sphere.

III

The work of the financial institutions for the solution of the first problem of our financial policy, i.e., the monopolization of the entire banking business in the hands of the Soviet Government, may be considered as having been completed during the past year.

The private commercial banks were nationalized on December 14, 1917, but even after this act there still remained a number of private credit institutions. Among these foremost was the “Moscow People’s Bank” (Moscow Narodny Bank) a so-called cooperative institution. There were also societies for mutual credit, foreign banks (Lion Credit Warsaw Bank, Caucasian Bank, etc.); and private land banks, city and government (provisional) credit associations.

Finally, together with the Moscow People’s Bank there existed government institutions—savings banks, and treasuries. A number of measures were required to do away with that lack of uniformity involved and to prepare the ground for the formation of a uniform accounting system.

A number of decrees of the Soviet of People’s Commissaries and regulations issued by the People’s Commissariat of Finance, have completed all this work from September 1918 to May 1919.

By a decree of October 10th, 1918, the Societies for Mutual Credit were liquidated; three decrees of December 2nd, 1918, liquidated the foreign banks, regulated the nationalization of the Moscow People’s (Cooperative) Bank and the liquidation of the municipal banks; and, finally, on May 17th, 1919, the city and state Mutual Credit Associations were liquidated. As regards the question of consolidating the treasuries with the offices of the People’s Bank, this has been provided in a decree issued on October 31st, 1918; the amalgamation of the savings banks with the People’s Bank has been affected on April 10th, 1918.

Thus, with the issuance of all the above-mentioned decrees, all the private credit associations have been eliminated and all existing Government Credit Institutions have been consolidated into one People’s Bank of the Russian Republic. The last step in the process of reform was the decree of the People’s Commissariat of Finance which consolidated the State Treasury Department with the central administration of the People’s Bank. This made possible, by uniting the administration of these organs, the enforcement of the decree concerning the amalgamation of the treasuries with the People’s Bank. The decree of the People’s Commissariat of Finance of October 29th, 1918, issued pursuant to