Labor and the Russian Revolution

Extract

[...] Smolensk's Jewish socialist leaders found themselves marginalized by their own rhetoric of class struggle." Again, while Hickey is describing a local phenomenon, this move to the left was a general tendency across both Jewish and non-Jewish radical labor organizations. The Bolsheviks, a highly disciplined group that practiced "democratic centralism" (i.e., internal dissent over policy or tactics was never expressed outside of the party) was the furthest to the left, though even that faction was also being pushed even further to the left by the activity of the workers in cities such as Petrograd and Moscow. [...]

[...] Indeed, Jews who joined the Bolshevik party after the Revolution and toward the beginning of 1918 had to join this Jewish section, though its provisional nature was publicly known and widely understood. These Jews in the party were turned against Judaism, and helped weaken the Bund significantly: Beginning in June 1919, the Jewish sections fought Zionism by prohibiting all activities of Zionist organizations. The Jewish sections had a stranglehold on communal organizations in the Jewish community. Religion, their main target, was under constant attack. [...]

[...] His pledge use his new powers to fulfill the legal promises of the February revolution” was the first time Russian workers and radical peasants felt secure as his pledge promised: expansion of trade unions, revision of old laws in hiring, workers' meetings, and strikes (which had yet to be written), new laws on the length of the working day, comprehensive protection of labor, improvement and expansion of workers' insurance, and labor exchange for the unemployed” A Moscow liberal daily stated ten days later on May 11, Ministry of Labor may not be able to remedy at once by decree the economic difficulties of Russian workers, but its work may bring changes considerably closer, and there are many lesser measures that can be enacted quickly to improve workers' lives which industrialist do not oppose, and even in some cases support.” Hope of rebuilding a society was handed over to the government however it had also fueled more demands for political and economic freedom and equality amongst the proletariat. [...]

[...] Due to these changes in the Russian economy the conditions for workers became abrasive in the following years between 1914 and 1917. This meant longer working hour and even higher fines for lateness and other similar offenses. The metal workers were spending an average of 74 percent of their family wages on food and clothing will the textile spend as much as 105 percent of their wages. This was significantly more than their recorded income. This only increased the workers negative attitudes toward the Tsarist Government, which created new grounds for workers to protest and go on strikes. [...]

[...] The eventual Bolshevik victory was a hollow one the Russian economy was destroyed and the Bolshevik party had lost its moral authority. The opposing parties were banned, the Soviets turned into rubber stamps, and the limitations on freedom and immense police powers seemingly "necessary" during a state of war were made permanent. The labor movement was reduced to almost nothing indeed there were relatively few laborers left. Its own power went out of control, like a Frankenstein's monster, and created a massive totalitarian society that nearly conquered the world, and which certainly destroyed any chance for workers' rights in Russia for most of a century. [...]