Page:Trade Unions in Soviet Russia - I.L.P. (1920).djvu/31



This resolution was taken by some comrades to mean immediate subordination of the unions to the State; and the second All-Russia Congress of Trade Unions, held in January, 1919, on the question of the character of the relations between the soviet organs and the trade unions and their gradual merging declared:

The perspective outlined by the second congress was subjected to a new test: a year and three months of stern civil war passed and whatever the trials of the trade unions, with the exception of an insignificant minority they fought shoulder to shoulder with the soviet government against the Russian and world counter-revolution. It was this organic connection with the soviet government which the third All-Russia Congress advanced in the first instance: "The trade unions in Soviet Russia"—says the first resolution—"practically became an inseparable part of the soviet system, a necessary supplement and support of the proletarian dictatorship of the Soviets." The second important resolution of the congress with reference to organisation lays it down that "the trade unions are the fundamental basis of the proletarian state, the sole organisers of labour in the process of production and the chief tool in economic construction." These two definitions give an exhaustive description of the trade unions in the period of transition from capitalism to socialism. The trade unions are the foundation and support of the soviet state—a necessary supplement to the organs of proletarian dictatorship—the soviets; the chief tool of economic construction; and the only organisers of labour in the process of production. These are the functions and the place of the trade unions in the proletarian state based on thirty months experience of joint work and struggle and this experience was registered by the resolutions of the third All-Russia Congress.