The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-08-01

ment relief, the extent of unemployment and
the numbers receiving relief in the U. S. S. R.
and the capitalist world. They deliberately
conceal that no study worthy of the name can
be made of Unemployment Insurance without
taking into consideration the whole economic
situation obtaining in the give ncountry.
The great work of Socialist Construction,
undertaken by the proletariat of the U.SSR.
today, outlined in concrete terms in the Five
Year Plan of Socialist Construction, has made
tremendous strides forward, as glance at the
increased productive forces of the country will
show.
The growth of the productive forces of
country can be best measured by the increase
of the ranks of the proletariat, i.e., the in
crease of the numbers of workers drawn into
gainful employment in the national economy.
All over the country the number of workers
employed in the national economy, and notably
in industry, is increasing today.
Not only has the number of industrial work
ers already outstrpped the pre-war figures,
but this growth is continuing and will con-
tinue with the remarkable developments taking
place in the economic life of the U.S.S.R.
In 1927, there were S.6 million workers en-
ployed in the various trades and manufactures
of whom "a millions were employed in the
"census"1 industry increasing to 9.8 million
respectively by April l, 1929.
No matter how regarded, unemployment in
the U.S.S.R. differs from unemployment in the
capitalist countries. In the capitalist world
unemployment is one of the results of the
break up of the capitalist system and points
in particular to the inability of the bourgeoisie
to surmount the general crisis of capitalism.
In these countries unemployment is the in
evitable sequel to capitals naturalization,
growing depression and overproduction, re-
sulting in enormous sections of the working
class being thrown on the streets to swell the
ranks of the unemployed. But in the U.S.S.R.
the bulk of the unemployed consist of indi-
viduals who are seeking to gain a livelihood
for the first time Unemployment is the direct
result of the rapid growth of the able bodied
sections of the population and the overpopula-
ton in the rural districts.
This will readily be seen from an analysis
of the figures showing the composition of our
unemployed. We find that of the total regis
tered unemployed on August 1, 1929, Of
1,298,000, 500 were unskilled workers (of
whom 1870 had never been in employment at
any time), 1929 were intellectual and profess
sional workers, while only 16.3% were indus
trial workers.
During the economic year just ended there
was considerable decrease of unemployment
in general. The outstanding feature of the
past year was the fact that there was sharp
fall Q6%) in the number of unemployed.
Moreover, for the first time a general reduc-
ton of the number of unemployed has been
seen during this year.
Should we contrast the number of unem-
ployed registered on the labor exchanges on
October 1, 1928, and on October /, of unem-
ployment fell from 100000 on October l.,
1928, to 1,241, 800 on October 1, 1929. In the
RSF.S.R. unemployment fell by 1917 during
All enterprises employing more than 20
workers come under the category of Census"
industry.