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The Russian
bourgeoisie has launched all offensive on all fronts against the Russian working
class. Since the official proclamation of the bourgeois reforms’ the price of
labour power [wages — note of the English translator] in Russia, according to
official statistics, has fallen 2.5 times. Now the ruling classes have proposed
to reduce the price of labour power even further, the bourgeois government has
promised to get the country out of the crisis by cutting salaries in half.
Hypocritically lamenting the dependence of the economy of the country on foreign
capital, Russian capital, both private as well as state capital (‘democratic’
capital and ‘patriotic’ capital), these leeches of Khrushchev and Brezhnev
revisionism, are preparing a new broad offensive against the rights of the
workers. thus increasing the intolerable index of exploitation to the Russian
proletariat. The present world crisis, the rivalry between different sectors of
imperialist capital for the control of the sources of super-profits, leads to
armed conflicts, from the invasion by NATO troops, with the participation of a
limited contingent of troops of the Russian army on Yugoslav territory, to tile
bloody war on the territory of Chechnya in Russia. These wars not only waste the
lives of Russian soldiers and mercenaries, but also place a terrible economic
burden on the backs of the Russian workers. The growing militarization of Russia
also leads to the continuing pauperization of the worker masses including in
those factories that produce military equipment. The new offensive of Russian
capital against the rights and lives of the workers forces them to rise up
against the ruling classes to fight for their vital interests. This fight will
be long, harsh and bloody. The proletariat must prepare itself in a
conscientious and serious manner. The times of confusion, hunger strikes,
collective suicides due to desperation, futile pickets at the gates of the
palaces of power, the miserable belief in the mercy of the bourgeoisie, in
endless judicial processes, demonstrations controlled by bourgeois unions and
other bourgeois organizations, strikes following a narrow economist path,
parliamentary cretinism and petty-bourgeois illusions in the generosity of the
ruling classes are becoming things of the past.
In the last years
Russia has been shaken by the combativity of the proletariat against the
shameless exploitation by the Russian bourgeoisie, from combative strikes to the
‘war of the rails’, to the violent seizure of the factories by the workers
including organized confrontations with the state organs of repression. These
actions have struck fear in the heart of the bourgeoisie, forcing it to take
extreme measures including using firearms against unarmed workers. In some
places workers blood has been spilled These acts of barbarism on the part of the
Russian bourgeoisie. far from frightening the working class, have made it
conscious of the need to mobilize and organize in order to establish better
organizing structures. These actions by the oppressed masses have so far had a
relativelv local and spontaneous character. Mainly these actions have taken
place under the control of the bourgeois unions or pro-bourgeois yellow’ unions,
which pursue purely economic goals together with timid proposals for reforms of
the current bourgeois labour legislation. However this struggle has enriched the
experience of struggle of the Russian proletariat and has made a qualitative
advance for the Russian workers’ movement
To a certain extent
the Russian workers have learned to manoeuvre within the present labour code to
limit the illegal actions by the owners. As a result, it has been impossible for
the owners to act in an arbitrary way. such as placing the workers on forced
unpaid vacations,’ etc. The workers have found ways to get around these illegal
actions by the owners on the basis of the current labour legislation. The
bourgeois unions have finally been unmasked and ridiculed. The workers are
organizing themselves on the basis of class union structures such as the
workers’ union ‘Zashita Truda’ (Defence of Labour). The most conscious workers
are realizing slowly but surely the need for a workers’ vanguard organization,
without which the workers’ struggle will see defeat after defeat. Besides, the
most active part of the working class is becoming conscious of the fact that it
needs a class political vanguard and not a petty-bourgeois extension of the
union. Therefore these days the petty-bourgeois propaganda is not well received
by the working class, it has been exposed politically in their eyes. Not only
individuals but the broad worker masses are recognizing the need to solve this
fundamental problem of the Russian workers movement. The Russian working class
is being transformed from an indifferent and disorganized mass into an organized
force. This creates the conditions for serious class confrontations with the
bourgeoisie, which will lead to the reduction of the average rate of profit for
the Russian and international capitalists. The bourgeoisie has no intention of
accepting this setback. This is why the ruling classes will utilize new forms
and new schemes to intensity their offensive against the exploited classes
One of the
fundamental points of the draconian measures that the bourgeois mafia is
planning to adopt is the adoption of a new labour code, according to which
fascist forms of labour relations between the administration and the employees
would be imposed in the factories.
Bourgeois propaganda
has prepared a series of lies to confuse the petty-bourgeois spectator and to
conceal the fascist essence of the reform of the labour code. As one of their
arguments they say that the new labour code will modernize labour relations in
conformity with the changes that have taken place in the economy these last
years, in order to promote investment in the industrial sector, to improve
labour discipline, to increase the ‘mobility of labour’, the modernization of
the factory and, as a result, the reduction in the number of employees (the
present labour code places obstacles on this) etc.
The Ministry of
Labour has proposed a draft labour code that in essence abolishes the present
labour code. This draft ‘labour code’ will lead to the fascization of labour
relations in production. These are some of the points in the draft ‘labour
code’:
* The administration
can dismiss any employee without apparent cause or explanation, that is, the
arbitrariness of the owner with regard to the employee will be legalized. The
union in this case will lose the right to intervene. Article 27, point 1.
* The worker can be
deprived of his wages or be dismissed for publicly exposing the arbitrariness or
illegalities of the administration of the enterprise. It is argued that this
point is needed to avoid endangering the reputation of the owner in the eyes of
his customers.’ The members of the union committee will no longer be immune. -
Article 27, point 3.
* The union is
totally deprived of the right to information, of access to the factory
installations, of meeting places, of seeing the bank accounts for the income of
the union dues. The union is denied the right to take legal actions against
members of the administration (this is permitted in the present labor code).
That is, the employees in fact will be forced to take illegal actions in order
to defend their rights.
* The practice of
‘blacklists’ is being reintroduced. A worker’s request for a job can be rejected
without any explanation. That is, the worst traditions of the gendarmerie of
tsarist Russia, the order of fascist Germany and the U.S. anti-worker policy of
the ‘scapegoat’ are being restored to persecute and get rid of any conscious
worker. Those workers whose names consistently appear on these blacklists will
never be able to get a job.
* The employer is
granted the right to ‘lock-out’, this is, to dismissen mass the whole workforce.
In particular, so many obstacles are placed on the calling of strikes that the
union is practically deprived of legal resources. - Article 25, point 2 and
article 26, point 4.
* Any employee who
wants to prematurely cancel the labour contract would face fines. - Article
25, point 2 and article 26, point 4.
* The agitation by
the union and social organizations, leaflets, picketing, etc. will be prohibited
during the course of negotiations with the administration. -Article 36, point 1.
* In case of a
slackening of production the collective contract is automatically cancelled.
This makes it possible for the administration of the factory to cancel any
collective contract that goes against its interests through a simple formal
procedure. - Article 32.
* Any collective
contract that is advantageous to the exploiter can be extended indefinitely by
the administration. Thus they can maintain a ‘democratic’ facade by arguing that
a collective contract exists. During the time that a so-called collective
contract is in force it cannot be subject to amendments. Thus the workforce is
subjected to a complete and permanent ‘Constitution.’ - Article 41.
* The term of annual
vacations is reduced to 14 days. - Article 64.
* The owner has the
right to interrupt the vacation of any employee at his discretion.
* The limit on
overtime hours is abolished - Article 58.
* The administration
has the right to make the workers work on Saturdays.
-Article 59, point 1.
* The system of fines
existing before 1917 is restored. - Article 75, point 2 and article 80, point 1.
The fines can be as much as 50% of the monthly salary. - Article 76. Also
the employees can be forced to pay fines to the administration for lack of
fulfillment of the profit plan. In particular, the employees must pay huge fines
for organizing strikes regardless of the reasons that have led to them.
* The director of the
factory has the right to change the system of fixed payment to the worker,
according to the results of the work, to the system of payment based on a
minimum wage plus bonuses whose magnitude is solely determined by the director.
* The committee that
oversees labour conflicts will be replaced by commissions, the majority of whose
members will be appointed by members of the administration.
* A strict procedure
will be put in place for calling strikes. The strike must be preceded a week in
advance by a one-hour ‘warning’ strike. During that period the administration
has at hand on its side a large number of legal arguments to prevent the strike
action. - Article 116.
* The workers will
not be paid for’ the duration of the strike independent of its character. -
Article 118, point 3.
* The owner has the
right to rescind labour contracts at his discretion and in case of a strike to
replace the workforce with strikebreakers. -Article ll9,
* The workforce is
prohibited from impeding access to the installations of the factory to strike
breakers, under severe penalties. - Article 114.
This new draft labour
code, which is essentially fascist, has a great number of restrictions on the
rights of the workers, and it is aimed at transforming them into an indifferent
mass of serfs without any rights. At present we have confined ourselves to
presenting a certain number of points of the new draft labour code.
The bourgeoisie has
prepared several versions of the draft in case of an outbreak of social
discontent. However all these versions in essence represent the setting up of
fascist forms of relations of production between the owner and the wageworker.
Under all of them the working class would be subjected to a choice without a
choice.
The bourgeois unions
have also proposed their own draft version of a new labour code. This draft is
fundamentally anti-worker and pro-fascist regarding the rights of the working
class, although some of the most controversial aspects are concealed by
intricate legal formulas and deceptive verbiage. Thus the bourgeois unions have
flagrantly shown that they are organizations that are anti-worker to the bone
and in this case they have; sided with the fascism of the bourgeoisie.
In an extreme case
the Ministry of Labour has prepared a series of drafts for the step-by-step
transformation of the present labour code according to the fascist schemes of
the bourgeoisie in order to confuse the working class and to avoid a social
explosion.
The interregional
federation of the workers’ union ‘Defence of Lalour’ and the Fund for a workers’
academy has prepared its own draft labour code that has been endorsed by the
majority of the workers’ organizations. In December of 1997 this draft was
proposed as an alternative draft to the Russian Duma by representatives Grigorev
and Avalianin. This draft, although it has a number of weak points, is today the
only alternative document to the new bourgeois-fascist labour code that
consolidates and extends the rights of the workers compared to the present
labour code. Until now the State Duma has ignored this alternative document.
‘Proletarskaya Gazeta’ No.8,
Leningrad
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