Page:Trade Unions in Soviet Russia - I.L.P. (1920).djvu/84

 proposals carried, and the Central Committee was elected from the list of this fraction. The Central Committee was composed of 11 members, of which nine were communists and two were non-party members, representing the experts and sympathisers; it should be pointed out that one of the members representing the experts did not attend the meetings and the other abandoned the work after two months.

THE COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF THE UNION

The main task of the first Central Committee was to organise the working masses, to attract them into the Union and to set up a proper apparatus. According to the rules, all agricultural wage workers are eligible for membership in the union. At the present time the union is composed of workers and employees on the Soviet Farms (agricultural orchards ccattlecattle [sic] breeding, dairies, experimental stations), labourers as well as specialists working on the Soviet estates and serving in the Central and Local agricultural institutions, as agriculturalists, land surveyors, etc.

The union is organised on industrial lines, therefore the workers and employees in auxiliary trades serving the Soviet Farms, i.e., workers in mills, blacksmith shops; also members of other trades, saddlers, carpenters, joiners, locksmiths, tylers, coopers, shoemakers, tailors, are eligible for membership.

On January 1, 1920, the number of paying members in the union was 65,000, but this is only approximate because many local sections did not give any information; many could not pay their contributions regularly, owing to the great distance and bad communications. The probable number of members is nearer 100,000; according to the data of the Commissariat of Agriculture this number of workers was employed on Soviet Farms alone. As membership is obligatory, it is quite clear that the number of members could not be less than the number of workers employed in the industry.

The Congress organised and drew up a scheme for organising several sections of the union: such as Agricultural, Horticultural, Forestry, Land Surveying, etc., but it soon became evident that such sub-division was unnecessary and it was therefore abandoned. The land surveyors particularly urged the need for their section, but even they eventually abandoned this position, and the Bureau of the section, elected by the conference of land surveyors, was dissolved.

The structure of the union is as follows: There, is a Central Committee (in Moscow); in the Governments and districts there are local Departments, aided by Management Committees; on the Farms there are Committees of workers and employees.

All the organs of the union are elected by a special Conference, in which all members participate either through delegates (national, government, ouyezd ) or Conferences of all members on the Farms.