The Washington times., 1922-04-04
RUSSIAN LABOR
CRUSHED UNDER
RULE OF SOVIET
Emma Goldman Shows How
Unions Are Exploited by
News Masters.

Emma Goldman, noted anarchist,
Der, 1919, By the United States De-
partment of Labor. After two
years of establishment and dis
aster, she has reached SWeden, and
has indicted Bolshevism in a series
Of bitter, singing articles.
Because of the fact that an arch
GnGrchist, sDoman a0hO has de-
0oted her life to attacking eristing
forms of government, turns upon
the aegis of Lenin Nth such fury,
The Washington Times thinks IL
North while to print her VieUs on
BoisheUism. Her ninth article dp-
peared yesterday. The tenth and
concluding article follotos:
BY EMMA GOLDMAN.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 4.
The much praised achievement
of the Bolsheviki in the matter of
trade unions reminds me of
Mrs. Alving's remark in Ibsen's
Ghosts: 81 only wished to pick
ut single knot, but when | got
that undone the whole thing raw
eled out. And then / understood
that it was all machine sewn"
Among the first things called
to ones attention when one ar
rives in Russia are the trade
unions. Think of it, 1000, 900
workers organized into one body,
having their magnificent labor
temples, their educational and Gull
tural courses. their grand meet
ings and concerts. What other
country can make such showing?
You are overwhelmed. But no
sooner do you begin to pick at one
knot when the whole seam ravels
out. You come to see that trade
unions, more than any other Boil
shevik institution, are machine
sewn-sewn by the machine of the
Communist state.
Russian Status Confusing.
In fact, it is most confusing to
talk Of trade unions under the Boil
shevik regime. After all. trade
unions have q definite historic
meaning. at least to workers out
side Of Bolshevik Russia. They
represent. in their conservative
sense even, the fighting arena of
organized labor for economic i'm
provement. In the revolutionary
sense the trade unions, or rather
the industrial and syndicalist
unions, are the economic training
school Of the militant masses for
the overthrow Of exploitation and
the management by the workers of
production in liberated society.
Held Under Army Rule.
Yet neither in the conservative
nor even in the revolutionary sense
do the trades unions represent in
Russia the needs Of the workers
What they really are is the coerced
and militarized adjunct OF the
Bolshevik state. They are 1.-The
school Of Communism" as Lenin in
sisted in his thesis on the functions
Of trades unions. But they are not
even that. A school presupposes the
free expression and initiative Of the
pupils, whereas the trades unions in
Russia are military barracks for the
modified labor army, forced into
membership by the whip Of the state
driver.
The trades unions in Russia,
though young in years (they came
into being in 1909, were very mill
tant organizations. They had to be
In order to Withstand the cruel per-
secutions under the Gar. But
though they led an underground ex-
1stence most Of the time, they were
none the less an important factor in
the economic struggles Of the Rus
sian worker. That fact was demon
strsted forcibly early after the Feb
ruary revolution.
The trades unions, imbued with
the new spirit that had come to Rus
STA, were not content with mere
political changes. Their aim was to
get the workers In possession Of the
economic structure of the country.
Even before the workers expro-
priated the shops and factories, the
trades unions had organized shop
and factory committees for the con-
troll of the industrial life of the
community.
These committees later gave birth
to the All-Russian Trades Union
Soviet. which worked in close unity
with the other Soviets. In other
words, the trades unions were, even
before the Bolshevik regime, the or
Eanized expression of the demands
and aspirations of the workers. |