BOLSHEVISM IN PRACTICE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 46, 19 November 1918, Page 5

BOLSHEVISM IN PRACTICE

BRITISH MANAGER'S EXPERIENCES-

WORKMEN'S CONTROL OF A

SHIPYARD

The following eye-witness's account (in the London "Times") 'of tho. Revolution in Odessa, which gives a typical picture of 'an industrial town under Bolshevist rule, is. from the manager of one of tho principal engineering and shipbuilding firms in Southern Kiissia:—

' When the Revolution took place in February, 1917, we at once began to havo difficulties with our employees. On the second day the men held meetings; and, as a result, delegates elected yard committees, there being a separate comniitteo for each department. 'A. week or two later they began to hold general meetings; the speakers at these " us a rule, extremists of the most raWrt type, including some women, whose views were particularly "advanced." At first we managed to work fairly harmoniously with the men's committees., but as time went on matters became more and more difficult. They wanted to take the controllingpart, and demanded accommodation on our. premises, so that they could always hold meetings, sitting continuously,' if need be, eternally discussing, .firs!; this, question and then that, and doing very little work. There was one delegate, one assistant delegate, and a shop-steward for each department. They were all getting the maximum rate of pay, but doing practically no work at all. Their duties as delegates took up '. all .their time, at our expense. The maximum, it may be remarked, was something liko three times tho rate at. which they had . previously been paid;

further, all piecework was abolished. The

result, as might be expected, was a very marked diminution of output, and in the end it was only about a quarter of the normal standard. Wo had referred the question of wages to the' 1 arbitration board that had been set up, considering the demands, of course, to be quite unreasonable. The board, however, decided against us, and we had to meet the demands in full. The meeting habit was one that grew. ,At first they held their meetings after working hours, but this practice they soon abandoned. Meetings gradually encroached further and further upon working time, until most of the day's "work" consisted of meetings. A Guard Over the Works. ■ -Hatters went on thus for s6me little time, until news came of KcrnilofF's counter-revolutionary' movement. To meot this. Bed Guards were formed at Odessa, and a guard was placed over our works. This "protection," however, had' to be paid for. At the end of the first week of the Bed Guards' existence we were presented with a very lon£ bill foi the guards', services—day and night and overtime. The method adopted by them to enforce. payment was simple and direct. Half a dozen of them came into my office armed to tho teeth, rifles, fixed bayonets, and hand grenades, ready for instant action. I .was asked quite politely to sign a document authorising payment. Naturally I did as I Was asked with as'good ii grace as possible. I made it a .condition, however, that only those who actually did gtiard duty at the yard should be Mid by us. • These same methods of collecting moneys due were, I ascertained, carried out all over the t6wn and. district, but I .gathered that .the condition that firms should only be' called upon to pay for guards actually doing duty on their premises was by no means scrupulously observed. For instance, a few days after the incident I have just related, I received a, visit from 6Se of the Bed Guards—a man unknown to me— with a request for signature-authorising, payment for "guards" supplied to some other establishment. I refused to sign this until it had been sanctioned bv the Workmen's Committee. With this he said he, had nothing to do, and repeated ■ his request- lagain refused, and he then threatened mo with a loaded revolver. Temporising with him for a moment, I called'for--the leader of our "guard*"' and represented the oiroumstance3 to him. He upheld my contention. There then followed a most violent altercation between him and my visitor, each threat-, ening the other with his revolver, with, terrible oaths and insults. Bloodshed seemed imminent, but I managed to separate them, and persuaded the stranger to go and consult with the AYorkmOn's Committee. This, very sulkily, he did, returning shortly nfterwnrds with the needful.sanction. Sucli being tho case, I had, of course, no option but to countersign it, as he:had originally asked. He left mo in the end on excellent terms; he was only a youth of IS or so, and T was able to take him in hand and talk to him like ,a father. We went on in this fashion for quite an appreciable time, and, in fact, began to get accustomed to it. Of course, we wondered all the time where it was to lead and how it would end. Had we only known it our troubles at this stage were only, a very mild foretaste of'what was to follow. Tilings were certainly bad and chaotic criou.gh. but wp-nwde the best of them, nnd thUs carried on. Russian Shirkers from England, A feature of this period was tho numerous processions that were held by the workmen's and revolutionary organisations. Among these processions was one composed of Russians who had returned to their own country in preference to serving in the British Army.- This.procession was supposed to be in celebration of "peace." The men taking part iii it were full of grievances and complaints against England, and gave voice to many dire threats as to what was to befall her for casting them out. Thus wo continued, accepting the inevitable and adapting ourselves to circumstances as philosophically as we could. We received fresh demands from the employees. Sometimes We compromised; mostly we met them in full. Worse, howoyer, was to follow, with tho fall of the TCerensky Goyormiijnt, nnd thn advent of tho Bolshevists to power. Tho Bolshovists were at onco recoguised by the.workmeu, and our first definite intimation of tho change of regime took the' shape of a yet further demand for increased wages. Thig was not made to' us direct, but formed tho' fu'U'ect of "negotiations" between agreed delegations of workmen and employers. The demand was agreed to by the latter, but I was afterwards told that a powerful factor in reaching this agreement was the fact that at the final meeting of the delegates those representing (lie workers were armed, while those, of tho employers were not. •

The next stage which followed the fall of the Kerensky' Government was a demand that representatives of workmen should always be present at our board meetings. With this also wo had, of course, to comply. As a matter of fact, tho resultsof the presence of workmen's representatives at our directors' meetings were not at all disagreeable. , They saw onr problems and difficulties' at)' close quarters, and were able f/> appreciate onr point of view. As a consequence, when they left our meetings they tried to rnaso.n with their comrades. At first they were attentively heard, but soon the majority of the men became tired of these representatives who would listen to reason at our board meetings^.and elected others in their places, only to depose them in turn for the same reason.

_We learned in duo course of the decision of the Bolshevist Government to expropriate all industrial establishments. The manner in which our own board of directors was displaced was characterised by the same simplicity as had at-tended-certain other measures. One of the sittings of the board was interrupted by the entrance of six workmen's representatives, who informed us that they wore taking possession of our vorks in accordance with a decreo of the Bolshevist Government. They expressed regret, saying that tfoir relations with the directors had always been ; smooth and satisfactory. But "might is right."