TRUTHS FROM RUSSIA.

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16644, 14 November 1925, Page 6

TRUTHS FROM RUSSIA.

DISCLOSURES BY A BOLSHgVIK TRADE UNIONISTS OPPRESSED. BIG STRIKES KEPT SECRET. From the International Labour Office at Geneva there has been issued a document sent there for registration which exposes the tyranny and maladministration under which trade unioists suffer in Soviet Russia. The document also proves conclusively that deception was practised on the British trade union delegates who visited Russia and afterwards presented a glowing account of the conditions of the workers’ organisations in that country. It further gives the lie direct to the statements on this subject made to the Trades Union Congress at Scarborough by M. Tomsky, president of the All-Russia Trade Unions’ Federation. It was largely on the strength of M. Tomsky’s statements that the congress was induced to empower its general council to take steps to link, up the movements in the two countiies. The disclosures are set out by M. Andreiev, chairman of the Russian railwaymeiFs union, and societal y of the Central Trade Union Council—a body over which M. Tomsky presides —in a circular to the affiliated organisations throughout Soviet territoij, demanding, on behalf of the council, immediate reconstruction and reform of the amazing abuses that were concealed from the British delegation. A Bland Admission.

At the outset of his communication M. Andreiev blandly confesses to past deceptions, with the remark: ‘‘There is no intention this time of talking meiely to impress foreigners.” In a covering explanation of the reason for the issue of the document the International Labour Office states: The underlying motive of the campaign is the fear that the lack of contact between the trade unions and the working classes may be yet further emphasised in the future. This lack of contact has' been caused by certain very serious irregularities and defects in trade union organisation which have sprung up, due to a large extent to the irresponsibility of trade union officials.

The interests of the workers were lost sight of to an alarming extent, and this in certain districts led to keen discontent among them and almost to a rupture between them and the unions.

M. Andreiev states that trade union officials in Russia have lost all contact with the working masses and have ceased to feel any responsibility towards them. Stolen Funds. To prove this, he quotes the serious labour disputes, followed by strikes, which have taken place in the largescale State ■ industries this year. No news of such events was allowed to reach the outside world. In his -view, as also in the view of the Central Council, the main reason for this state of affairs is the bureaucratic spirit, inertia and irresponsibility of the trade union officials, as well as their lack of comprehension of the workers.

Another question which has become increasingly serious in recent months, M. Andreiev says, is that of trade union finance. At all recent meetings of trade unions in Russia, he declares, it has been stated that embezzlement, corruption, illegal advances, and the like, have been alarmingly frequent. The embezzlement of trade union funds has increased considerably and is still increasing. Farcical Election.

The situation, continues M. Andreiev, has been aggravated by the fact that, in the great majority of cases, the elections at trade union organisations, and especially to works councils, are confined to the mere formality of accepting the official list. The outgoing committee does not always submit a report on its administration to the general meeting, and,

when a report is submitted, it passes over in silonco anything that might he awkward for itself*

Trade unionists wild try to exercise theii* right of criticism are met with reprisals, which sometimes go so far as to exclude them from the union, and this generally means that ' they lose their employment.

One great evil, it is stated, is the fact that so-called “voluntary contributions” (which are really compulsory) to such organisations as the Association for the Promotion of an Aerial Fleet, the Association for the Development of Chemical Warfare, and the Association of the International Support of Revolutionary parties sometimes absorb between 10 and 12 per cent, of the workers’ very low wages.