Page:Nikolai Bukharin - Programme of the World Revolution (1920).djvu/66

 the already existing co-operative societies will be of great importance. The wider the sphere of work of the co-operatives, the wider the circle of the population included, the more organised will the distribution of products become, and the more frequently will these co-operatives be changed into organs of supply for the whole population. Compulsory communes surround already existing co-operatives; such, in all probability, will be the most convenient form of the organisation of distribution, by the aid of which it will be ultimately possible to supplant trade and do away once and for ever with private profit.

To make the task of a regular distribution of products still easier, we must aim at changing our private system of domestic economy into a social one. At present every family has its own kitchen, every family, independently of others, buys provisions, dooming woman to slavery, turning her into an eternal cook who sees nothing from dawn till night except kitchen utensils, brushes, dusters, and all kinds of refuse. An immense amount of labour is absolutely wasted. If we united and organised housekeeping, beginning with the supply and preparation of food (by means of joint purchase of provisions, joint cooking, construction of large model restaurants, etc.), it would be much easier to keep an account of the demands of various households, and besides the saving of money thus effected, the regular general distribution would be greatly assisted.

One of the most vital questions for the consumer, and a very painful one for the town labourers, is the housing question. The poor are here mercilessly exploited. And on the other hand landlords used to make heaps of money on the business. The expropriation of this kind of property, a transfer of houses and of various kinds of residential premises, their registering and the regular distribution of flats and rooms, the transfer of this work into the hands of the local workers' committee and of the organs of the Soviet Government is a difficult but grateful task. We have had enough of the lording of the better classes! The worker, the poor toiler, has also a right to a warm room and to a living as befits a human being.

In this way must economic life gradually be organised. The working class must organise production. The working class must organise distribution. The working class to organise consumption—food, clothes, and housing—there is an account kept of everything, everything is distributed in the most reasonable