Report of the Regional Council of the Trade Union of Chemical Industry Workers of the Donetsk Basin - May 5, 1917

Report of the Regional Council of Workers' Cooperatives of the South of Russia, the Regional Council of the Trade Union of Chemical Industry Workers of the Donetsk Basin and the Regional Bureau of the Union of Metal Workers of Ukraine to the Minister of Food A.V. Peshekhonov.

Archive: TsGAOR, f. Working Group TsVPK, d. 16, ll. 139-140. Script.

Not earlier than May 5, 1917 [1]

Many of the latest government regulations favor industrialists, not industry. Meanwhile, industry and industrialists are not the same thing, and of the two classes closely connected with industry, the interests of the workers coincide to a much greater extent with the interests of industry than the interests of the industrialists. The driving motive of the latter is profit, and its industrialists can derive it not only from the development of industry, but often to a greater extent from speculation, from excessive protective duties, from low wages, etc., etc. But the interests of the workers are always coincide with the interests of industry, and every crisis hits the working class painfully. In addition, the state power must always stand in defense of the weaker against the stronger, and in a capitalist society, the weaker side is the workers, not the employers. It is not surprising, therefore, that even the class bourgeois power of Western Europe often comes to the defense of the proletariat, to the protection of labor, bringing labor legislation into being.

The Ministry of Food took a completely different turn in its measures to supply the workers of the Donetsk Basin.

The commissioner was appointed by the ministry with the knowledge and consent of the miners, but the workers' organizations were not asked about this. Again, not a single representative from the workers' organizations was included in the council formed under the authorized body, while the miners, represented by their class organization - the mining congress - were given the right to allocate seats in the council at their own discretion. Thus, the council, a government institution, became, in essence, a branch of the mining congress.

An even greater injustice against the workers was committed during the publication of the Regulations on the mining district food committees. Representation from the workers in these committees was entrusted to the employers, and not to the workers themselves, and only at the insistence of the Donetsk Coal Bureau did these committees include representatives from trade unions and workers' cooperatives, but in the smallest minority. Meanwhile, the workers are much more interested in the rational organization of the food business than the entrepreneurs: the latter risk only the money they invest in food, while the former are doomed to starvation if they are not rationally organized.

In addition, it should be noted that the amount of rights should in no case be determined by the amount of the amounts contributed for expenses. According to the legislation in force in Ukraine, the deposit of amounts is not necessarily associated with certain benefits. Industrialists, for example, pay considerable sums into sickness funds without exercising their right to vote.

It is completely incomprehensible why the Ministry of Food disagreed with other ministries on this issue and not only gave entrepreneurs significant rights - to which we do not object - but also deprived the workers of all rights, except those won for them by the Donetsk Coal Bureau.

The workers cannot reconcile themselves to such a situation, all the more so since, having become the masters in supplying the workers with food, the industrialists use their rights to impose the most unbearable conditions on the workers. The latter, in addition to everything, is extremely harmful both for the state and for the development of industry:

1) Bad working conditions will reduce the ranks of the workers, and without a sufficient labor army industry cannot develop.

2) The hardships that the workers bear because of the war already threaten the working class with degeneration, and the government, especially in such exceptional times, must protect the working class from degeneration, and not hand it over to the entrepreneurs to the utmost harm to the country.

The factory administrations make extensive use of the situation that has arisen: the mining district committees, composed almost exclusively of representatives of industrialists, refuse, as was the case, for example, in Yuzovka, to workers' organizations in accepting money for food purposes and needs, in order to prevent the increase in the representation of workers in the committees. Along with this, taking advantage of their majority in the committees, the industrialists refuse to supply food to the unemployed, whose total number, according to the data of the authorized Ministry of Food,  is now 2/3the entire working population. Thus, in an effort to create antagonism between the employed and unemployed workers and, as a result, to deprive them of any power of resistance, the mining district committees, composed of representatives of the plant administrations, doom in their shares to need, hunger and degeneration of the vast mass of the unemployed, which the state, in its own interests, should not allow.

There are also such cases (for example, at the Yuryevsky plant) that an enterprise receives a work order for both the employed and the unemployed, but does not issue flour to the unemployed, but forms a reserve of it in its warehouses. Under these conditions, the unemployed are deprived of the opportunity to get clothes for themselves elsewhere and are forced to either starve or buy bread from speculators at exorbitant prices, which is especially difficult for them, deprived of work.

In view of the foregoing, we have the honor to ask the Ministry of Food to change for the first time at least the Regulations on Mining District Food Committees. The most correct thing would be for the committees, where they exist, to be elected on democratic principles by the population of the locality they are supposed to serve. If, however, such a change cannot be carried out before the general attitude of the government towards a democratic electoral system is established, then we consider it necessary, as a palliative, though, to change this Regulation so that the representatives of the industrialists, on the one hand, and workers, on the other, would be included in the committees in equal numbers. (For every thousand workers, not only one representative from the factory management, but also one representative from the workers).

In addition, the Regulations on Mining District Food Committees should clearly state that the aforementioned committees have no right to refuse the contribution of the cooperative to the working capital of the committees and the ensuing increase in workers' representation in the committees.

3) We consider it urgently necessary that the district mining committees supply the entire working population of the locality with items of prime necessity, regardless of whether they are currently employed in production or not, all the more so since the workers' cooperatives agree and can increase the working capital of the district mining enterprises. committees to a size that opens up the possibility of buying food not only for the employed, but also for the unemployed. Thus, the supply of food for the unemployed that we propose will be carried out not at the expense of the factory management, but at the expense of workers' cooperatives.

4) We consider it necessary that the supply of the working population be carried out not through factory and mine shops, but through independent workers' cooperatives. We emphasize this because if the supply of the indicated products is carried out by factory and mine shops, then the unemployed workers, as they do not have access to the territory of the factory, will in fact be left without these products. In addition, since the workers' organizations (co-operatives) will participate to a large extent in the financing of these committees, the supply of food must naturally go through the workers' organizations.

Presidium of the Regional Council of Workers' Cooperatives of the South of Russia.

An indispensable member of the bureau V. Dobrovolsky.

Chairman of the Regional Bureau of the Union of Metal Workers S. Farb.

[1] Dates from the formation of the Ministry of Food