Page:Trade Unions in Soviet Russia - I.L.P. (1920).djvu/85

 Conferences of representatives of the union are summoned, besides the conferences called to decide Economic and administrative questions. Up to the present time there has been one Ail-Russian Conference, held at the end of January and the beginning of February, 1920; it was composed of the representatives of the management Committees of the Provincial Departments, and the most important District Departments. In Provinces and Districts the Conferences of the Committees are held not less than once a month, and General Conferences twice a year.

In the Central Committee and in the Management Committee of Provincial Departments, there are the following Departments: The Secretariat with an organising Sub-department, the Standardisation of Wages, Protection of Labour and Educational Departments. The Controlling Department is not yet organised either in the centre, or in the Districts; with the exception of some Governments like Tambor, where this Department controls production on the Soviet estates in the whole government; other Management Committees of District Departments have their sections only in those districts where a large number of members are concentrated.

The following Commissions are formed in connection with the Workers' Committees: wage fixing, Educational Commissions.

The Workers' Committees have wage, labour protection, and Educational Sub-Committees, although the latter exist only on large Soviet estates which employ a large number of workmen. Soviet Farms which are of recent formation have a common Workers' Committee; the workers' committees in these cases have not been abandoned.

The chief objects of the Landworkers' Industrial Union have been:

(1) The organisation of agriculture on Communist principles, propagating that idea among 'the peasants. (2) The increase of efficiency by appropriate means and planned organisation, the expulsion of parasitic elements, and the establishment of strict Labour discipline. (3) The protection of Labour on the Soviet Farms. (4) Educational work among the agricultural workers, to give first place to abolishing illiteracy and to organise Agricultural schools.

The participation of the union in the organisation of agriculture took the form chiefly of organising the labour of the workers, the establishment of Control and Management, and direct participation in management by putting forward the best workers in the union for responsible posts in the management.

The greatest attention is now given to the organisation of model Soviet farms, as the union is convinced that the success of the propaganda in favour of agriculture on communist principles depends on the organisation of Farms which may serve as an example to the peasants. To carry out successfully this task an information department has been formed which collects all