The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-11-02

Dy the industrial commissions and
industrial conferences, i.e., by all
those organs which ordinarily carry
out all the mass economic work.
Thus unity of directino was OBJ
tanned, together with a close con-
nection of Socialist rivalry with that
everyday economic work which the
unions have carried out in the
factories and workshops land in
stitutions), for many years.
The Second Plenum of the Rus
sian Trades Union Council passed
the following resolution on Social
list rivalry:-"Socialist rivalry must
be looked upon in the light of an
important task for the trade unions.
The development of Socialist
rivalry, which is the most striking
manifestation of the revolutionary
initiative of the masses during the
period of Socialist reconstruction,
must meet with the complete pre-
paredness and unrestrained initia-
tive of the trade union organiza-
tons" 'The trade unions must
stand at the head of this mass
movement of the working class-So-
cialist rifalry;-they must give the
fullest practical help to the lower
organs in this work; and, in ac-
cordance with this, they must
strengthen their direction of the
mass economic work il the facto-
ries and institutions" Rivalry"
continues the resolution of the
Plenum, "must spread to the So
cialits section of agriculture-Soviet
and collective holdings, machine
tractor stations" The trade unions
must sin every way aid rivalry
which is directed towards an in
crease of cultivated areas, and in
creased harvest, and development
of collectivism in the village"
A School of Communism.
The unions could have no other
attitude to Socialist rivalry The
trade unions in the U.S.S.R. are the
school of Communism. In the era
of Socialist reconstruction the
greatest task of the trade union
movement is to mobilize the will
and activity of the working class
round the big tasks of Socialist
construction for the overcoming of
all the difficulties lying in the way
of the realization of the economic
plans. The fundamental watch
word of the unions is "a bond with
the Masses" This implies that the
unions must stand at the head of
the masses. And therefore the
trade union movement must stand
at the head of that new mass move
ment which has taken the form of
Socialist rivalry.
At the end Of July the presi-
dunn of the Russian Trades Union
Council discussed at a special meet
ing, at which were present the Eco
nomic Soviet of the U.S.S.R., the
Central Committee of the Y.C.L.
(KomsomoD representatives of the
Central Committee of Trade Unions,
and of local trade unions, the ques-
ton of Socialist rivalry once again.
They passed a resolution which con-
tanned wide program Of practical
measures to be taken in order to
assure the maximum success of the
rivalry movement, and which said
that the problems which evolved as
rivalry developed, must come fore
most in the attention of the trade
union organizations" The unions
must "include Socialist rivalry in
the program of their everyday work
and, accordingly, change their
methods if necessary, speed up
their work.and subject the whole
apparatus to the tasks of Socialist
rivalry"
To lead and direct the rivalry
movement-this is the task Of the
trade unions of the U.S.S.R., the
organizations which act as the con-
Meeting link between the party and
the working class.
In spite of all defects and defici-
encies, the fact remains that So
cialist rivalry has now become a
colossal mass movement in which
millions Of workers are taking part.
At the same time the movement is
continually rising. This is illus
trated, besides by other instances,
by the following two facts:
The Leningrad worker Slobod-
chikoff sent letter to the press
in which he proposed that instead
of celebrating the religious festival
(Transfiguration), which takes
place on August 9Th, that date
should be declared a day of in
naturalization, i. e., that all the
workers should work on that day
and that their wages should go to
the special fund for industrializa-
ton of the country. This PROPOSAL
was accepted with tremendouz
enthusiasm by the whole of tbs
working class. Industralization
Day (not, it is true, on one special
date, but on various dates, accord
ing to local conditions) will be cele-
brated in the whole country and OH
the initiative of the workers them
selves. And not only workingmen,
put all the hired workers in the
land, who themselves offered to do
this, will work on that day.
Five Years in Four.