N.I. Bukharin and E. Preobrazhensky: The ABC of Communism

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

LABOUR PROTECTION AND SOCIAL WELFARE WORK

§ 127. What is Labour Protection?

The working class fights to secure a communist system, because this system will deliver the workers from exploitation, and because communism will make it possible to develop productive forces to such an extent that it will no longer be necessary for people to devote the whole of their lives to the production of the necessaries of life. All the conquests, therefore, made by the working class on its way towards communism are in their essence directly or indirectly equivalent to labour protection; they all promote an improvement in the position of the workers. Let us consider, for example, the political freedom of the working class in the Soviet Republic, and let us consider the position of the workers as ruling class. It is plain that this new political status implies a step forward in the path of labour protection. The same thing may be said of all the conquests of the working class, all without exception. But we must distinguish from labour protection in this general sense, certain more special senses of the term. In the latter case we are not thinking of the position of the working class in general, but of the position of the working class in the factory, in the workshop, in the mine; in other words, we are thinking of the conditions which affect the workers in the actual labour process. Labour in factories and workshops, in the midst of machinery, and often in a contaminated atmosphere, is very dangerous. The danger is increased by the undue length of the working day, whereby the workers are fatigued, whereby their energy is exhausted, so that their attention is apt to wander and the liability to accident is greatly increased. An unduly long working day entails, of itself, extreme exhaustion of the organism.

A few examples will suffice to show how the life of the workers is dependent upon their environment and upon the general conditions under which they work.

1. First of all comes the question of accidents. Here are some figures. At the Nevsky Shipbuilding Works in Petrograd, the records of accidents are as follows:

The decline in the number of accidents was mainly due to a series of special measures. But the figure of 210 accidents per 1000 workers is still far too high.

Sometimes accidents occur to 70 per cent. of the workers every year. According to the reports of a district surgeon, during harvest time in Ekaterinoslav province the country hospitals reminded him of field hospitals in war time. Of course such accidents are not peculiar Russia, but occur everywhere. In the British parliament, Ramsay MacDonald once pointed out that of 1200 miners killed at work, 1100 were killed owing to the neglect of the requisite precautionary measures by the capitalists.

The last example indicates that if we wish we can enormously reduce the number of accidents. But from the capitalist point of view the necessary measures would not “pay.”

2. The second basic question is that of injurious working environment and the occupational diseases and the mortality arising thereform.

Let us consider, for instance, phosphorus manufacture. Lazarev reported that in Russian phosphorus factories, where no precautionary measures were employed, five years sufficed to make of the worker a “living corpse.” In chemical works, glass works, mines, etc., numerous so-called occupational diseases were rife. Like phenomena were observable in other branches of production. Varicose veins occurred in workers who had to stand too long; necrosis of the jaw in phosphorus workers; mercurial poisoning, arsenical poisoning, tuberculosis, etc.

Here are some figures. In England, during the years 1900-1902, among 1000 deaths of those following various occupations, the deaths from consumption were:

According to the reports of Dr. Baranov, the mortality from consumption in the proletariat was as follows:

We learn from German statistics that the mortality from consumption among the Solingen metalpolishers was four times as great as that from any other illness.

3. In addition to causing manifest diseases, bad working conditions give rise to a general deterioration of working-class physique. This finds expression in the increasing number of men who are unfit for military service. Year by year there is a larger number of weak-chested and undergrown persons; and in the proletariat the proportion of such persons is far greater than among other strata of the population. In Switzerland, among those called up for militia service, the percentage of town workers who were unfit was 39.5, while: the percentage of unfit rural workers was only 25. Similar conditions are observable in other lands. Among women, the deterioration of physique is frequently associated with a loss of the capacity for child-bearing.

Obviously, all these evils are closely linked with the conditions of production. The capitalist class has no interest in labour protection, and its policy towards labour power is merely a policy of plunder. The capitalists wish to squeeze the workers like lemons and throw away the skin. This is the policy likewise of “progressive” American capital. In the U.S.A., none but healthy workers are admitted into the factories; their muscular development is carefully inspected and tested. Weakly workers are not even allowed to enter the country, for it is considered that these weaklings would constitute an inferior sort of working cattle. But in the States it is an exception for the workers to attain the age of forty-five. My Lord Capital sucks the life out of them in the most “progressive” manner possible.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is obviously the first means which has been found for putting this matter of labour protection upon a secure footing. The working class is directly interested in the preservation of labour power. It must display the utmost regard for this most precious and most important force of production. The communist system will have nothing to do with a foolish, criminal, and injurious waste of human strength; it will work with the aid of a highly developed technique, whose first object will be the preservation of this strength. That is why labour protection is of such immense importance during the transition to the communist phase of human society.

LABOUR PROTECTION, THEN, SIGNIFIES THE SAFEGUARDING OF THE WORKERS FROM HARMFUL CONDITIONS OF PRODUCTION.

§ 128. The chief Fields of Labour Protection.

The most important requisite for the protection of the working class, and the most important safeguard against its physical deterioration, against illness, increased mortality, etc., is that there should be a normal working day. It is not surprising, therefore, that the working class has always put the struggle for the reduction of working hours in the forefront of the general struggle. The working day decides the expenditure of human energy which is converted into products. In capitalist society this energy is likewise converted into capitalist profit, and for this reason the capitalists are greatly interested in protracting the working day. But by overworking his strength, the worker reduces his capacity for further work; he wears himself out more speedily; his constitution is weakened; he falls ill more readily, and dies sooner. An abnormally long working day involves a predatory squandering of human energy. The establishment of a normal working day is the first step in labour protection.

The second step is the protection of the specially weak elements of the working class. This class does not consist solely of adult males. It contains also old men, young people, and women of various age. It is obvious that the power of resisting harmful conditions varies in different sections of the working class. What can be done easily and without any danger to health by a full-grown man may be extremely injurious to a woman, and absolutely dangerous to a half-grown child. Consider, for stance, the carrying of heavy weights. Women, moreover, require special protection at certain periods of life; during pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation. In these matters specific measures are essential. This is the field of women’s protection and child protection.

Thirdly and lastly, a matter of great importance is the technical and sanitary organisation of factories and workshops. A great deal can be done, and still remains to be done, in the prevention of accidents, in the avoidance of noxious influences arising out of the work of production, in the general improvement of working conditions. Among bad conditions we think especially of dust, insufficient lighting, cold, draughts, dirt, etc.

The foregoing are the three main fields of labour protection.

§ 129. What has been done in Russia as regards Labour Protection?

The dictatorship of the proletariat has created conditions which make it possible to carry out in full the demands which have been put forward by all the socialist parties. In this matter, no legislature in the world can boast of legislation like that of the Soviet Republic. Our troubles (of which we have plenty, though they are diminishing) do not arise from bad laws, but from the fact that we have too little of many things, and that there is an absolute lack of certain essentials. The dearth, as we have seen, is due to the struggle carried on against us by world imperialism, and also to the imperialist war which the enemies of the working class have been waging among themselves.

Speaking generally, when we sum up what the Soviet Republic has done in the way of labour protection, and when we study the laws of the Soviet Republic, we derive the following picture.

(a) The limitation of working hours. In this matter the Soviet Power has carried various measures into effect.

1. We have at length realised the 8-hour day, confirming this by law (a step which the Coalition Government sedulously avoided); and there is a 6-hour working day for mental workers and for those working in offices.

2. Overtime is as a rule prohibited. It is permitted only to a limited extent in exceptional instances, and is paid at the rate of time-and-a-half.

3. In specially injurious trades the working hours are further reduced. Tobacco workers are employed for 7 hours a day; gas workers, for 6.

4. A normal 42-hour weekly rest has been established, and for this purpose the Saturday hours have everywhere been reduced to 6. Any workers who are unable to stop work on Sunday can rest on some other day of the week.

5. Once a year, every worker enjoys a holiday on full pay. The legally specified holiday is one month, but in the present difficult times (autumn, 1919) it has been reduced to a fortnight.

6. In especially injurious trades, and in the case of adolescents who are going to land colonies, a supplementary holiday of a fortnight is given.

(b) Protection of women’s labour and child labour.

1. As a rule, women must not work at night and must not work overtime. They may not be hired by the job.

2. Children under sixteen may not be engaged in industry. They are gradually being removed from the industrial field (in the first instance from all injurious trades); those who are withdrawn from industry are given material support and are sent to school.

3. Children under sixteen who still remain at work are employed for only 4 hours daily; young people from sixteen to eighteen have a working day of 6 hours.

4. Overtime, night work, and jobbing work, are prohibited in the case of all persons under the age of eighteen.

For the protection of motherhood, the following laws have been promulgated:

1. In pregnancy and childbirth all women, whether women actually engaged in industry or the wives of workers, receive an allowance throughout the period in which work is discontinued on account of pregnancy and childbirth. This allowance is equivalent to a full working wage.

2. Pregnant women engaged in physical work receive this allowance for eight weeks before delivery; mental workers and office employees receive it for six weeks before delivery.

3. After childbirth the allowance is continued respectively for eight weeks and six weeks.

4. Nursing mothers engaged in industry have half an hour’s leave every three hours.

5. All mothers receive a supplementary allowance of 24 roubles a day for the feeding of the child for a period of nine months after birth. In addition they receive a lump sum of 720 roubles for the child’s outfit.

In all these measures, which have already been carried into effect, there are certain divergences from the Code of Labour Laws. These divergences take the following form. In exceptional circumstances overtime is permitted, upon a number of days which is not to exceed 50 per annum in all. Children at ages from fourteen to sixteen may work in industry for hours not exceeding 4 per day. The month’s holiday has been temporarily reduced to a fortnight. The duration of night work has been increased to 7 hours.

All these divergences have been necessitated by the extremely critical situation in which the Soviet Republic has been placed by the brutal attack of all the imperialist Powers.

(c) Technical and sanitary organisation of the factories. The following measures have been instituted:

1. A number of compulsory rules have been issued concerning technical measures for safety at work, concerning general sanitation, and concerning occupational hygiene. All these aim at a notable improvement of the working conditions in the factories and workshops.

2. In all injurious branches of production, arrangements have been made to provide special clothing which shall protect the worker from dust, gases, damp, etc.

3. All the workers are provided with overalls, which belong to the works, and are to be used by the worker during working hours only.

4. To supervise the actual carrying out of all labour protection measures, a system of Labour Inspection has been founded, elected by general conferences of the workers. In the case of individual trades characterised by peculiar working conditions, and in the case of trades (such as transport, the building trade, and agriculture) in which from the nature of the occupation the workers are peculiarly disintegrated, special committees for labour inspection are elected by the respective trade unions.

The figures relating to the personnel of the new inspectors show the extent to which the workers are themselves participating in this matter. Down to August 1, 1919, 58.5 per cent. of all the inspectors were manual workers. The real proportion was probably higher, for in the case of a good many of the inspectors the previous occupation was not stated. Among all the inspectors whose previous occupation is recorded, the proportion of those stated to have been manual workers is 62.5 per cent., and the proportion of those stated to have been employees is 15.5 per cent. Thus the manual workers and the employees together comprise 88 per cent. of all those whose occupation is stated!

The following table gives details down to August 1, 1919, showing the distribution of inspectors according to previous occupation.

In comparison with the previous half-year, the number of manual workers has increased (58.5 per cent. as against 47 per cent.; or 62.5 per cent. of all whose occupations were stated, as against 60 per cent.). The percentage of masters and technicians was practically unchanged (10 as against 11). There was a notable increase in the number of employees (13.5 per cent. as against 8 per cent.). Relatively, the number of the students declined from 6 per cent. to 2 per cent.; absolutely, the number of students was only one half in the second half-year of what it had been in the first half-year. The other figures were practically unchanged.

There thus originated in Russia a genuine workers’ inspection, which merited the name in respect of its personnel no less than in respect of its aims.

Nevertheless, in the matter of labour protection much still remains to be done in the factories. In the enormous majority of cases the working conditions are still abominable, especially in the more backward forms of enterprise, where the workers are still uncultured and badly organised. In such dark corners everything is much as it was in the old days. Often enough, indeed, it is impossible to undertake the necessary improvements at present, since these would need an entirely new installation and complete reorganisation. However, a great deal can be done even without these extensive changes, if only larger and yet larger sections of the masses become interested in the improvement of working conditions.

§ 130. What is social Welfare Work?

The capitalist system, as we have seen, aims at the extraction of profit from the working class. Wage workers, proletarians, were simply means of enrichment for the capitalist. When these living tools were worn out, when they had become unprofitable or superfluous, they were ruthlessly thrown away like a squeezed lemon or an egg-shell. The miseries of unemployment, illness, old age, mutilation, were nothing to the capitalist, who would jettison huge masses of persons without even trying to help them — or would help only the most devoted among their trusty servants, those from whom all the vital juices had already been sucked.

In the Soviet Republic the workers and the poor peasants are not the objects of exploitation. But it does not follow from this that there is not widespread poverty in the country. In Russia, perpetually harassed by its enemies, blockaded on all sides, cut off from its supplies of coal, petroleum, and raw materials, there is a terrible amount of poverty. It is no longer because the capitalist throws the workers out of the factories, but because the factories have to be closed for lack of fuel and raw material. Hence there is unemployment. It is not the unemployment of the old kind; it arises from very different causes, but it exists. As a legacy from the imperialist war we have invalids and cripples; we have the numerous victims of the counter-revolution; we have the aged, the sick, and the children — for all these helpless persons care is needed, and they are all a source of expense. The workers’ government does not look upon the help which it gives them as a gift, an alms, or a benefaction. The workers’ State makes their support its primary duty, above all in the case of those who are invalided from the army of labour or from the Red Army.

Our ultimate aim is to bring about the existence of a state of society in which all persons who for one reason or another have lost the capacity for work, all those who are unable to work, shall have assured support. We must ensure that old people shall enjoy a peaceful old age in which they will be provided with all the comforts of life; that children shall have everything suitable to their requirements; that invalids and cripples shall be able to live in the circumstances most appropriate to their condition; that those who are wearied and overworked shall be placed in curative surroundings, where they will receive all the care that used to be given to the wealthy bourgeois who were ailing; that no one shall any longer be perpetually harassed with anticipations of hard times.

To-day, of course, we are very far from having achieved anything like this. Thanks to the international robbers, our country is utterly impoverished. We lack the most ordinary requirements, such as drugs. The imperialists will not allow us to import them; they continue the blockade. But one thing at least cannot be denied. The Soviet Power spares nothing in the attempt to provide help and care for those who are unable to work.

§ 131. The chief Provinces of social Welfare Work.

There are two main departments of social welfare work. First of all there is the care for those persons who happen to be unemployed or who have lost their capacity for work while actually following their occupation (mental or manual). To this category belong cases of transient incapacity due to illness, accident, pregnancy, childbirth; and cases of permanent incapacity, due to a premature break-down in health, old age, chronic infirmity, etc. Secondly there is the care for persons who have sustained an accident or have lost the capacity for work while not actually engaged in work, while not employed in production. To this category belong those who were invalided during the imperialist war, men who were wounded while serving in the Red Army, the families of these Red soldiers, the victims of the counter-revolution, or of natural catastrophes and misfortune (conflagrations, floods, epidemic disease, etc.). We also have to care for those who have been unfitted for work through conditions operative in the old order of society, the victims of the shameful social conditions that then prevailed. To this category belong professional beggars, the homeless and shelterless, mental defectives, etc.

Moreover, in case of death, help must be given to the family of the deceased.

The number of persons thus requiring care is enormous. Those of the first category, who are unemployed or who have lost the capacity for work but are in one way or another connected with the field of production, are the concern of the Commissariat for Labour which is actually under the control of the trade unions. Those of the second category are the concern of the Commissariat for Social Welfare.

§ 132. Social Welfare Work in Russia.

Considering its activities as a whole, the Soviet Power, in its welfare work, has achieved for the workers in the case of all kinds of incapacity for work, including unemployment, what has been achieved nowhere else in the world.

Here is a list of the measures which apply to persons of the first category:

1. All persons living by “wage labour” are exempt from any expenditure for social insurance.

2. Entrepreneurs are completely excluded from the work of organising social welfare and labour protection; all the instruments of this work are based upon the representation of labour organisations.

3. Social welfare benefits apply to all cases of loss of capacity for work and to all cases of unemployment.

4. Social welfare benefits apply to members of a worker’s family in case of any worker’s death.

5. Allowances are given at the full rate of a worker’s earnings in cases of illness, accident, quarantine, and other causes of temporary incapacity for work.

6. A life pension of 1800 roubles per month (in Moscow city) is payable to all who are permanently incapacitated for work, irrespective of the cause of the incapacity (whether old age, crippling, occupational disease, etc.), and regardless of the number of years of work.

7. An allowance for funeral expenses amounting to 1440 roubles is made in the case of every worker; and for every member of a worker’s family a similar allowance is made, ranging from 400 to 800 roubles according to age.

8. In case of a worker’s death, the family receives a life pension ranging up to 1200 roubles per month (in Moscow city), the amount varying in accordance with the size of the family.

9. For the better determination of questions concerning the amount of these allowances, special workers’ committees are appointed in connexion with the departments for labour, and these committees will determine the pensions and allowances.

10. In all the provinces, medical boards shall be established under the chairmanship of workers, and these boards shall decide in each case the degree of incapacity.

11. In all the counties, special committees are to be appointed under the chairmanship of workers. These committees will supervise the treatment of sick workers and will exercise a general control.

12. To bring the system of welfare benefits into closer contact with all places where there are workers, centres are to be established for the receipt of applications for allowances and pensions and for the payment of the same. In large-scale enterprises, the allowances will be paid through the said enterprises.

13. There is no time limit for the payment of allowances. In case of illness, the allowance will be paid until health is restored; in case of permanent incapacity for work, the allowance will continue till death.

14. Social welfare benefit will be paid to all persons without exception who live by wage labour, and will be extended to home workers, independent artisans, and peasants.

15. For the second half of the year 1919 the Soviet Republic assigned a sum of five milliards of roubles for the social welfare benefits of workers and employees.

As far as concerns the second category of those who receive social welfare benefit, the most important benefit is that paid to the families of soldiers in the Red Army and to the Red soldiers themselves.

An invalided Red soldier who has completely lost the capacity for work (to the extent of more than 60 per cent.), receives a pension corresponding to the average wage of the locality where he lives. The pension decreases proportionally to a decrease in the degree of incapacity for work (in 15 to 30 per cent. incapacity, the ex-soldier’s pension is one-third of the customary wage). The land of a Red soldier must be tilled and his farm must be properly supplied with seed. His family must receive a ration which is proportional to the number of the members of his family who are unable to work. The family of a Red soldier lives rent free and receives a supplementary food card. In the event of the death of a Red soldier, such members of his family as are unable to work and as are unprovided for by social welfare benefit will receive a pension amounting to 60 per cent. of the customary local wage for one person incapacitated for work, and a full wage for three or more persons incapacitated for work, etc., etc.

In the payment of allowances to the families of Red soldiers, there was expended during the first half of 1919 a sum of 1,200,000,000 roubles. The estimates for this expenditure for the second half of the same year were 3,500,000,000 roubles. According to the reports of Comrade Vinokurov, in the autumn of 1919 the families of 4,500,000 Red soldiers were receiving allowances.

In addition, between July 4 and December 1, 1919, there was paid to the provinces a sum of more than two and a half milliards of roubles. There was assigned in aid of agriculture 200,000,000 roubles; to housing, 150,000,000 roubles; to pensions for Red soldiers, 100,000,000 roubles; to allowances to those invalided from the war 168,000,000 roubles.

One of the main defects of our social welfare work is the bad functioning of the apparatus. There is no proper record of the persons in receipt of benefit; the assignment of funds to the various localities is faulty; there is much waste of time in the subdepartments of the Commissariat for Social Welfare; and so on. It is absolutely essential that our party should devote itself to the better organisation of these matters.

§ 133. Other Measures for the Improvement of the Condition of the Working Class.

In addition to the measures previously enumerated, several other measures prescribed in the Code of Labour Laws are of great importance to the condition of the working class. These measures are directly associated with the fact that the proletariat has become the ruling class, and they are therefore more comprehensive than the demands which used to be incorporated in the programs of the socialist parties. They may be summarised under three heads.

1. The participation of the labour organisations in the decision of questions relating to the engagement or discharge of workers. These matters are referred to the factory and workshop committees and to the workers’ factory administrations.

2. The State regulation of wages. The most interesting matter in this connexion is that the rates of pay are elaborated by the trade unions and are submitted to the Commissariat for Labour, which itself is actually composed of representatives of the trade unions.

3. The compulsory search for work for the unemployed by special departments of the soviets and trade unions (the so-called departments for the distribution and registration of labour power).

All these measures are intimately connected with the dominant position of the labour organisations and of the trade unions in particular.

§ 134. Further Tasks of the Party.

The most important of all the duties of our party is to ensure the completest and most extensive realisation of the decrees and decisions of the Soviet Power. In many cases this practical realisation of a decree is lacking; it exists on paper, but there is nothing corresponding to it in real life. The complete, precise, and accurate realisation of all decrees and decisions will be mainly secured by the correct functioning of an organisatory apparatus, wherein the centre is properly connected with the local organs, and wherein the local organs are properly connected with the centre whence the whole machine is run. This in its turn is only possible in so far as the masses themselves can be induced to participate in the work. Hence it is necessary to adopt the following measures:

1. The work of organising and extending labour inspection must be actively taken in hand. New forces drawn from among the workers themselves must be continually flowing into this branch of activity. No one can know better than the actual workers, who are practically acquainted with labour conditions, wherein these conditions are faulty, and no one is more competent than they to recommend practical improvements.

2. Labour inspection must be extended to the fields of small-scale production and home industry. In such matters these branches of industry have always been ignored, although it is precisely here that the most abominable working conditions prevail. Inspection by the workers ought to be of great help in these fields.

3. Labour protection must be extended to all branches of work, including the building trade, land and water transport, domestic service, and agriculture. These branches of labour, in which the workers are disintegrated by the very conditions of their work, and in which the trade-union organisation of labour is therefore very difficult, must be included within the general system.

4. Industrial and agricultural labour must be absolutely prohibited during childhood, and there must be a further reduction of the working day in the case of young persons.

The eight-hour day, which is at present the standard for labour protection, is far from being regarded by our party as the limit in this matter of the reduction of working hours. In fact there is no precise limit. Everything depends upon the productivity of labour. At the present time, owing to the general decline in productive powers, and owing to the continued disorganisation, the working hours cannot as a general rule be less than eight. Often enough (this depends upon the military situation, etc.), the working day has to exceed the eight-hour standard. But at the first opportunity we must establish a six-hour day as the normal standard, applying to all workers the six-hour regulation which already applies to the employees — a very large number of persons.

On the other hand, in order to increase production, and in order to secure a continuous improvement in the quality of work, it has proved advantageous to introduce a system of payment which promotes emulation.

The general tasks of social welfare work will nowise be undertaken by the party in the spirit of the charitymonger or in a way which will encourage parasitism and idleness. It is the simple duty of the proletarian Power to give help where it is needed, just as it is the duty of the proletarian Power to facilitate for persons who have been demoralised by bad social conditions the return to a working life.

Literature

KAPLUN, Labour Protection and its Methods. MALYUTIN, On the Road to the bright Future of Communism. HELFER, The proletarian Revolution and the social Welfare of the Workers. PRESS, What is social Technique? articles in “Vestnik Truda” [The Labour Herald] and in the publications of the Commissariat for Social Welfare. HOLZMANN, The Premium System in the metallurgical Industry.

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