The Trade Unions, the Present Situation and Trotsky’s Mistakes

Lenin’s first speech to All-Russian Communist Party (B) cadres on the dispute over trade unions. It was written on December 30, 1920 and printed as a pamphlet in Petrograd in 1921. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 40 of the second edition of Complete Works of Lenin.

In the second half of 1920, after Russia repulsed the military attacks of the domestic and foreign enemies, consequently the government shifted its focus from war to construction, consequently the All-Russian Communist Party (B) proposed at the Fifth All-Russian Conference of Trade Unions held in November 1920 that the military leadership mode in the trade unions which was applied in the wartime should change and that workers’ democracy should be expanded.

However, Trotsky raised his objections at the meeting of All-Russian Communist Party (B). Trotsky advocated to “re-organize” the trade unions, and put people who are good at “tightening nuts” on the leading posts of the trade unions, and change the trade unions into a compulsory organ, i.e., “proposed the nationalization of the trade unions”, etc. Trotsky’s views met with opposition from the participants in the meeting. The initial debate was limited to the Central Committee of All-Russian Communist Party (B). After the draft outline of “The Trade Unions and Its Future Role” delivered by Trotsky at the Plenary Session of the Central Committee on November 9 was rejected, Trotsky insisted on making public the differences on this question.

Trotsky delivered a speech at the Bolshoi Theatre on December 24, consequently the next day he published his views as a pamphlet “The Role and Task of The Trade Unions”, thus the debate was spread to the whole party, from Moscow to Petrograd, Ural, Ukraine, Siberia and other places. After the beginning of the debate, faction in the party, such as the Workers’ Opposition, the Democratic Centralists and other factions have put forward their own views and propositions on the issue. Among them, Bukharin and other “buffer” factions tried to act independently at first, but later they allied with Trotsky and put forward a joint proposition based on Trotsky’s point of view, which caused a great harm and confusion, making the Central Committee split gravely into two groups. In order to avoid the split within the Party, a joint meeting between the delegates of All-Russia Communist Party (B) to 8th Congress of Soviets, and the Communist Members Of The All-Russia Central Council Of Trade Unions And Communist Members Of The Moscow City Council Of Trade Unions was held on December 30, 1920, which was devoted to the discussion of trade union issues.

Lenin delivered this important speech at the meeting, discussed the propositions in Trotsky’s pamphlet “The Role and Task of The Trade Unions”, including both the issues of non-principle nature, i.e., hundreds of quite unnecessary “differences” as well as the mistakes of theoretical and of principle nature, such as the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin also criticized: it was a great mistake to put up these disagreements for broad Party discussion and the Party Congress. It was a political mistake. We should have had a business-like discussion in the commission. This speech also expounded the nature, status and function of trade unions under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The main points are as follows: (1) The trade union is not a state organization or a compulsory organization, and as far as its position in the dictatorship of the proletariat is concerned, it stands between the party and the state, establishing ties between the vanguard and the masses, and it is a class organization that realizes dictatorship and state coercion. Without such institutions as trade unions, dictatorship of the proletariat and state functions cannot be realized. (2) The trade unions are the “reservoir” of the state power and the “transmission belt” running from the vanguard to the mass of the advanced class, and from the latter to the mass of the working people. It is impossible that the dictatorship of the proletariat be realized directly by mass organizations of proletariat. It can be exercised only by a vanguard that has absorbed the revolutionary energy of the class. (3) Trade unions should protect workers from their own state and get the workers to protect our state. The realization of these two kinds of protection should be achieved through the peculiar interweaving of our state measures and our agreeing or “coalescing” with our trade unions. (4) Trade union is an organization of education, attraction and training. It is a school for learning to manage and preside over the economy, and a school of communism. (5) The main task of trade unions is to educate workers about the importance of improving labor productivity and discipline, so as to establish a wide and solid persuasion foundation for all new production tasks; and the method of persuasion and education should be the basic method of trade union work, only on the basis of persuasion can we carry out the compulsory production task correctly and effectively.

Lenin pointed out that the real difference with Trotsky on the trade union issue is not what he proposed at all, and the abstract concept and general theory of “worker state” are concerned in grasping, treating and contacting the masses. The whole party should not be intoxicated or obsessed with the empty talk or abstract debates among the intellectuals, should recognize that Russia is not actually a state of workers, but the state of workers and peasants, a lot of ideological misunderstanding comes from this question. Lenin also criticized Bukharin’s slogan of “productive democracy”, which has no practical content, emphasizing that production is always needed, democracy is only a political category, not always needed. To talk about “productive democracy” without material rewards and disciplinary trials can only be empty talk. Lenin argued that Trotsky’s and Bukharin’s outlines not only contained many theoretical errors in estimating “The Role and Tasks of the Trade Unions”, but also violated Marxism in their methods, that is to say, distancing from the current political situation in Russia and separated and opposed economy and politics, and politics is the most concentrated expression of economy. Lenin called on the whole party not to trapped in the meaningless and extensive debate on trade union issues and the discussion of abstract theoretical issues in the draft proposed by Trotsky and Bukharin, but to look into the practical aspects of the role of trade unions in production, that is, focus on the practical experience gained from the combination of the state power and trade unions.

In terms of the results and practical experience from the newly established policies of production publicity, introducing material rewards, and disciplinary trial meetings, these are the most important things facing the Soviet Union within its new production and construction undertakings. From the political point of view, these matters need the workers’ union to attract the masses and turn them to the new tasks in the transitional period.

Lenin’s speech solved the disputes on the nature, function and task of trade unions, fundamentally corrected the political and theoretical mistakes initiated by Trotsky and deepened by Bukharin, unified and raised the ideological understanding level of the whole party, which was of great significance for giving full play to the role of trade unions in economic work in the transitional period, and still constitutes an important contribution to the Marxist theory on trade unions.