* the power efore the escalation of the civil war in lay 1918, nationalisation (of whole inastries) on government orders went no arther than the banks and the sugar indicate, and although local soviets ten confiscated factories wn initiative, a large part of industry mained in private hands Why did the Bolsheviks adopt such blicies? Trotsky's explanation ran as allows: "The very idea of this slogan vorkers' control) was the outgrowth ¡ the transitional regime in industry then the capitalist inistrators could not longer take a opkers: but on the other hand, when without
'political prerequisites'
their industry. The mere excresence on societv. but administering immediately. avert complete economic and political catastrophe. During the revolution itself, however, the proletariat lacked the and 'organs of technical management' needed to run bourgeoisie, like any other ruling class in history, is not a performs a specific role in the social division of labour, in this case organising production. The revolutionary class does not come to power fully equipped with the skills and institutions needed to assume that role directly without relying on the expertise of the capitalists and their agents.
employers and merchants to publi gaze, to prevent them from sabotaging production, and to persuade them, by force where necessary, to remain their posts. If some could be compelled to continue productive activities, ject to strict accounting and invigilation by the workers, that would be all to the At the same time, the new regime would gain a breathing space during which to form new institutions, train a cadre of communist administrators, and repair the infrastructure so as to draw the workers into the management of industry at all levels of the state. Workers' control. theretore an interim policy designed to see the revolution most arduous period, would serve a twofold purpose:
gradually suppress social power of the bourgeoisie while simultaneously enabling the proletariat to train itself to manage industry.
At the first Petrograd Factory Committees, which met in May 1917, Lenin's resolution which passed overwhelmingly, that to establish control it is necessary, first to make certain that in all the basic The HISLILULOIS workers, not less than three-fourths of there Is a all the votes, and that all owners who have not deserted their business, as well the trained personnel, participate'. Furthermore, all commercial and bank accounts were ordered , subopen to inspection by any shop or tac tory committee, central or local soviet, or trade with compelled to supply them with all the data' The Second Conference of Factory Committees declared that the committees had 'the right to dismiss all those who could not guarantee normal relations with the workers' and that 'administrative factory personnel can only enter into service with the consent of the Factory Committee' powers were codified at the First Allto Russian Conference of Factory Comthe tober. factory committees the power to 'exclude from participation in the discussion any member ministration' and to enterprise in the event of illegal acts' In other words, meant that the workers reto power over the dersiass a! the =tes Have fear, workers 'would institute such supervision that every Tit Titych will be surrounded as the French were at Sedan'. The workers would be sovereign. In his History of the Russian Revolution, Trotsky tells us that during the summer of 1917, when workers' first put into effect, the workers in various parts of the country were subjecting individual employers enforced appearance before the soviet, now to house arrest... no wonder that the workers' milita became an object of special hatred to the possessing classes'.
full of stated majority of claim. get into the scientifically and technically are compelled to Veto management movement managerial Commission idea All these which met on the eve of OcWing about of the factory ad- minster workers' control would have :: =2=3DELITA said Lenin, the reasons tion to socialism. control was uccessal yo 'now to Socialist Action 11 January 1985 have unconditional access to all company information? A community, for example, has an absolute right to know if a company is planning to close a plant upon which many thousands depend for their livelihood. Again, it is unnecessary to know a company's financial condition before formulating wage claim, but the demand that the books be opened will often silence a recalcitrant employer who rejects a Furthermore workers should habit of demanding the right to invigilate company finances why shouldn't the labour have • the right veto decisions? The Bullock formally endorsed the 'industrial democracy. But what is democracy if not the rule of the majority? Since the workers are indisputably the majority in industry, they should have nothing less than a majority on every management board in industry, and certainly on every commission ostensibly set up to "control' private entrepreneurs. If the employers will not grant the workers 'industrial suffrage' they had better stop chatter.
industrial democracy and confess that 'democracy' does not ex. tend beyond the bounds of WestThe labour movement should constantly seek to establish the justice and rationality of the claim for - that is to say, workers soard:. To demard workers contre. s =e: May peopie may come to ques tion ownership through understanding behind resistance to con trol. The demand for control is an explosive one regardless of the extent to which a phase of workers' control may actually materialise during the transiThere can be no socialist revolution unless the workers are convinced that it possible, just deprive the employing class of its commanding role in industr and to propriate its property. The demand for workers' control can play an importan role in convincing them.