The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-06-24
Bossing Their Own Jobs Russia

management. But we are making it
80 very well and expanding it. And
we are making two to three hundred
roubles a month wages, at a trade
where the ordinary trade union scale
gives about one hundred"
How are you organized?" I asked.
"And to what do you attribute your
success?"
Get More Than Union Wage.
1--WE have sight men who are grind
ers, cutters and polishers. Then we
have one manager in Petrograd, who
also does the buying of mirrors, one
bookkeeper, and one salesman in
Moscow who sells the mirrors in the
city where the chief demand is. We
all get regular union scale first;
then certain sum is put back into
expansion by vote of the artel; above
that we share equally
"Our success? Well, we have an in.
terest in our job. All of us are on the
lookout for places where glass is be-
ing sold. We are working IL hours
day just now to pay off the loan
with which we first bought the fac
tory. We figure it will take us six
months, and then we will own every
thing ourselves. But over at the
state factory, with which we are COM
peting, the boss is little bureaucrat
of the old regime and is always hav-
ing friction with his workers. If a
man gets drunk, the boss doesn't dare
say anything because Of the union.
But, believe me, if one of our men
gets drunk we'll chuck him out"
$50 you don't have to obey union
'rules?" l asked.
well, in a way we do, and in a
way we don't. We're all union mem
bers, of course. But artels get spe-
cial rights, because they are workers
working for themselves and enjoying
the full fruits of their toll. We work
as many hours day as we choose;
there is no danger in that, for no one
is exploiting us. We make our own
regulations about membership, and as
long as those regulations only relate
to the efficiency of the work, and are
not social determinations we can put
them thru. We are allowed more
freedom within our own ranks, be-
cause there is no class struggle in our
group, as there is in private factory,
or, under present conditions, even in
state factories"
Russians Experimenting More.
The artels of Russia are recon-
mended to the attention of those
workers in America who have been
criticizing the central state control of
industry in Russia from a syndicalist
point of view. The Russian Commun-
lists are not at all committed to mere
ly one form of productive organiza-
ton in their fight against capitalist
control. They are using all methods
and encouraging them ALL Artels
have extremely low taxes, as have
also co-operatives. In every way they
are favored as much as state industry
itself. And thus, in the competition
between these various forms of col
lective control, it becomes gradually
possible to test out which fields of
production are best adapted to each
form of organization.
Artels are extremely useful, in the
low state of productive organization
in Russia, in stimulating speed and
initiative without leading to exploit
tation. They are so successful in
this, and so favored by law that al
ready small bosses in industry try to
organize their business in the form of
an artel instead of private business.
If they make a genuine artel, the
government has no objection, but def
mite legal forms are prescribed in or
der to weed out the fake artels, such
as, for instance, where the boss puts
half a dozen members of his family
down as members and draws wages
for all of them. Capital gives no
rights in the artel; it may be accept
ed as loan only, but without voting
rights. The accumulated value Of
factory and machines belongs in the