The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-11-07
What Soviet Workers Haze
Achieved in u. S. S. R.
Jos. Freeman's Book Is Valuable Study of
Actual Conditions of Russian Labor


for the purpose Of supplying the
needs Of society and Of its individ-
ual members. A fundamental aim
Of the Soviet system is to abolish
those social and economic factors
which give rise to class antagon-
iSms, and to create \ classics So
ciety based on socialist forms Of
economy"
IN CAPITALIST AMERICA
Here, in America, society IS
divided into warning classes: There
is the ruling class, headed by the
Morgans, the Fords, the Rookie
fellers, the MELONS and other cap
italistS; and, on the other hand,
there is the working class, includ-
ing the 100000 jobless and PEN
nileSs workers, the millions Of part
time workers and the millions Of
farm laborers and small farmers.
According to figures issued by
the Federal Trade Commission.
ONE PER CENT OF THE POPU-
LATION OWNED MORE THAN go
PER CENT OF THE COUNTRYS
WEALTH, the petty capitalists
owned 81 per cent and the great
mass of factory workers, miners.
railroad workers, working farmers
and small working shopkeepers.
making up at least 81 per cent Of
the population, owned less than 10
per cent Of the country's wealth.
These figures were issued in 1926.
when times were comparatively
good. Today this monopolist own
ership is even more concentrated.
The workers and farmers of the
Soviet Union have, once and for
all, put an end to such class DOM
ination.
ABOLISH UNEMPLOYMENT
One of the greatest victories Of
the Soviet Union is the abolition Of
the capitalist curse Of unemploy-
ment. There are in the United
States more than 100000 jobless
workers, many of them literally
starving. Freeman describes how
by the end of 1880, there was not
one jobless worker in the Soviet
Union due to the planned produc-
ton and distribution of goods. Fur
thermore, according to Freeman,
there cannot be unemployment in
the Soviet system, because there is
no limit to the purchasing power
OF the Russian people" The more
Soviet industry produces, the more
the population consumes, because
there is no capitalist class such as
We have in America to rob the
workers Of the product Of their la
Dor.
In order to preserve It's profits,
American capitalism fights to
maintain the ten and twelve hour
day in the Steel mining and textile
industries. In the Soviet Union "the
work has been progressively reduced
until it has become the shortest in
the world In 1881, the average
work day for all factory and mine
workers was 702 hours per day.
During 1882 it is planned to have
90 per cent OF all workers on the
Seven-hour day, and under the Sec
ond Five Year Plan it is intended
to establish an average work-day
Of six hours for all workers"
IN this country Hoover's stagger
plan cuts the number Of DAYS Of
work per worker, and slashes wages
at the same time. In the Soviet
Union workers wages have been
steadily rising
In the fiscal year 1928-I92e.r
Freeman reports, real wages were
43 per cent higher than in 1918.
In 1880 there was an increase in
the annual wages of all workers OF
II per cent, and a further increase
Of % per cent in 1881. These fig
ures refer only to direct money
wages, and do not take into ac-
count indirect payments which the
Soviet worker gets through free
medical aid, vacations with pay, low
or free rent, educational facilities,
free working clothes, and so on
which increase the wage by 20 to
IS per cent. If these indirect pay
ments, which were almost non-ex-
istent before the war are included.
real wages in 1929 were So per cent
above the pre-war average and the
end of 1881 they were at about
double the pre-war figure"
In the Soviet Union working class
women are no longer the victims
of discrimination in wages. The
Soviet mother is not murdered by
forced labor at the machine
as in capitalist countries. The
working woman about TO become a
mother receives a vacation for two
months before and two months aft
er childbirth at full wages.
All Soviet workers are entitled to
high compensation in case OF dis
ability due to an industrial accident
or occupational disease, regardless