Workers' Opposition
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (February 2010) |
Workers' Opposition | |
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Left Communists | |
Succeeded by | Workers' Group |
Ideology | Left communism |
Political position | Far-left |
National affiliation | Russian Communist Party |
Trade union affiliation | Various trade unions |
Part of a series on |
Left communism |
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Part of a series on |
Syndicalism |
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The Workers' Opposition (
History
Emergence
The emergence of the Workers' Opposition's “ideological sources” was linked with a statement by
First appearances
One of the first speeches of representatives of the "workers' opposition" - the name was coined by Lenin [3] - took place in February 1920, during the 2nd Tula Conference of the RCP (B.), after which the group managed to get a majority of seats in the provincial committee of the party, and its leader - I. V. Kopylov - became the chairman of the new composition of the provincial committee. In response to this, the former members of the provincial committee formed the opposition, directing their activities to prove the inability the "workers' opposition" to manage the affairs of the province; in addition, they began to plan the failure of their political opponents at the next provincial party conference. This confrontation led to an intensification of the struggle within the organization itself: the party's Novosilsky District committee opposed the election of Kopylov and called for an extraordinary conference. The demand of the old guard was supported in Moscow by members of the party's central committee, who recalled Kopylov at their disposal. The conflict did not end there, because in response, the Zarechensky district committee issued a resolution requesting "to leave Kopylov to work in Tula." The Central Committee nevertheless decided to convene an extraordinary party conference in the province: a resolution evaluating the work as unsatisfactory was adopted by a majority of 185 votes against 49. In response, representatives of the “workers' opposition” Severny and Nikitin left the district committee because of their disagreement with the party line.[4] Having been defeated in Tula, Kopylov's supporters nevertheless retained their positions in the Zarechensky district organization and the power struggle continued. At that time, support for the workers' opposition in the lower ranks of the party was quite strong: in particular, the number of Tula party organizations was halved between May and November 1920, mainly due to the exit of the local workers.[4]
From the end of 1919 to the beginning of 1920, the workers' opposition matured along the periphery of
Shlyapnikov's theses caused great concern within the Central Committee of the RCP (b), which saw in them the manifestation of tendencies toward syndicalism in the Soviet trade unions - that is, an attempt on the leading role of the party in the economic sphere. On March 8 and 10, 1920, at meetings of the
In September 1920, at the
Trade-union debate
Start of the debate
The "trade-union debate" marked the rise of the "workers' opposition." Relying on the provisions contained in the party program adopted at the
According to
Positions of the parties
Questions about trade unions became key at meetings of the
On December 30, 1920, leaders of intra-party groups spoke at an expanded meeting of the communist faction of the 8th All-Russian Congress of Soviets and All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, where they outlined their political platforms. The controversy unfolding at the meeting was accompanied by mutual accusations and almost immediately "acquired a bad character." From the beginning of January of the following year, party organizations joined in the discussion of issues: in particular, on January 3, at a meeting of the party's active in Petrograd, an “Appeal to the Party” was adopted, expressing full support for the Lenin-Zinoviev group, and Trotsky was accused of trying to split the party and professional movement, "in the desire to eliminate unions". At the same time, the resolution proposed to send representatives to the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in proportion to the number of votes cast in support of each group. In addition, a desire was expressed to send agitators to the province who were obliged to provide propaganda and organizational assistance to local supporters of the Leninist group.[4]
Support for the “Workers' Opposition” Platform
Almost from the very beginning, the discussion on trade unions went beyond the usual discussion of the theses of various fractions - and "turned into a kind of formal revealing of party opinion." The question of the future of trade unions was brought up for discussion in district committees and district meetings of the Bolsheviks: usually, after reports of representatives of various platforms, voting was held at meetings. On the whole, the majority of Soviet communists supported the Leninist position; in particular, on January 17, 1921, eight platforms were put to a vote at a meeting of the party's Moscow committee: 76 people voted for Lenin's wording, 27 for Trotsky's ideas, 4 for the theses of the “workers' opposition”, 11 for the Group of Democratic Centralism (who wanted more Soviet autonomy), 25 for the group of Ignatians, and the remaining platforms received less than two votes. On January 25, in the Tula party organization - where Trotsky, Zinoviev and Shlyapnikov acted as rapporteurs - 582 people voted for Lenin-Zinoviev's resolution, 272 for Trotsky's and 16 delegates for Shlyapnikov's. The Petrograd party organization also supported the Leninist "Platform 10" and it gradually became apparent that the struggle in the capital was waged between the groups of Lenin—Zinoviev and Trotsky.[4]
A more "motley" picture was observed at the county and district meetings: on January 27, in the second Zamoskvoretsky district, 59 votes were cast for "platform 10", 10 for the theses of the "workers' opposition", and seven people supported the Trotskyists; in another district of Moscow - Baumansky - in the central area, 43 people voted for Lenin's thesis, 7 for the "workers' opposition", and 4 people for Trotsky's principles. The trade unions themselves did not go around the discussion: in particular, at the congress of miners in Moscow, the platform of the "workers' opposition" gathered 61 votes in support, the "platform 10" - 137, and only eight people supported Trotsky's theses.[4]
At the Moscow Provincial Party Conference, held on February 19, 1921, and attended by more than three hundred delegates, there was a scandal: E. N. Ignatov declared support for the platform of the “workers' opposition”, which “caused great concern” among the conference members, since until the last day Ignatov's group supported “platform 10”. The subsequent vote ended with the following result: “platform 10” received 217 votes, Trotsky's theses - 52, the platform of “workers' opposition” - 45, and the principles of “democratic centralism” - 13 votes. In the central committee of metalworkers, the “workers' opposition” generally took first place: they were given eleven out of twenty votes.[4][3]
10th Congress
At the final stage of the "trade-union debate" of the Soviet Communists, to a large extent, the fate of the trade unions was no longer a cause for concern - the question of which fraction would win the upcoming 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) became more important. As a result, the struggle of the factions escalated into a battle for leadership in the party - which significantly affected the course of the discussion.[4] In the event, the congress passed a secret resolution "On Party Unity" which banned factions within the party and ordered the immediate dissolution of the groups that had been previously formed.[5] The resolution put an end to the aspirations of the Workers' Opposition and the Democratic Centralists.
Another secret resolution specially aimed at the Workers' Opposition was also passed condemning 'the syndicalist and anarchist deviation in our party', which "made further advocacy of the basic tenets of the Workers' Opposition's programme impossible". Yet the Congress shared some of its peripheral proposals, including conducting a purge of the Party and organizing better supply of workers, to improve workers' living conditions, and three of its leaders were elected to the Party Central Committee: Shlyapnikov as a full voting member, Medvedev and
End of the movement
Members of the former Workers' Opposition continued to advocate their views during the period of the New Economic Policy but increasingly became politically marginalized. Nonetheless, on 5 July 1921 Kollontai took the floor before the Third Congress of the Comintern, bitterly attacking the policies of the Soviet government and warning that NEP 'threatened to disillusion workers, to strengthen the peasantry and petty bourgeoisie, and to facilitate the rebirth of capitalism'.[7]
Shlyapnikov and his supporters also conducted discussions with Gavril Myasnikov's Workers Group, but unlike Myasnikov, were determined not to leave the ranks of the Communist Party. At the beginning of 1922, former exponents of the Workers' Opposition, such as Shlyapnikov and Medvedev, and other members of the party of working class origins signed the so-called Letter of the Twenty Two,[8] appealing to the Comintern Executive against suppression of dissent within the Russian party and bourgeois infiltrations into the Soviet state and the party itself. Kollontai co-signed the letter, with her best friend Zoya Shadurskaia, as intellectuals of non-working-class extraction, but in February 1922 she was restrained by Trotsky and Zinoviev from speaking before the Comintern Executive on behalf of the views expressed in the appeal.[9] Shlyapnikov, Kollontai, and Sergei Medvedev narrowly escaped expulsion from the Russian Communist Party at the party's subsequent Eleventh Congress in 1922, while two other signatories of the appeal, Flor Anisimovich Mitin (1882–1937) and Nikolái Vladimirovich Kuznetsov (1898–1937), were expelled.[10] Kollontai later became an important diplomat and Shlyapnikov wrote memoirs.
In the latter half of the 1930s, Shlyapnikov and his closest comrades (Kollontai was not among them) were charged with involvement in a counterrevolutionary group called "Workers' Opposition" and with having linked up with the "counterrevolutionary Trotskyist–Zinovievist terrorist bloc". Despite their proclaiming themselves innocent, both Shlyapnikov and Medvedev, along with many others, were condemned to death and executed in September 1937.[11] In her biography of Shlyapnikov Barbara Allen concludes the last chapter before epilogue, with these words:
There was no 'show trial' of the Workers' Opposition, either because it did not fit the narrative of oppositionism Stalin desired to construct or because Shlyapnikov and his closest comrades did not succumb to pressure to debase themselves and slander others in the service of the 'party'. For them, the party was not Stalin and his band, but a revolutionary political institution organised by workers in order to achieve a better life for the oppressed. This firm conviction helped them resist Stalin's rhetoric and narrative of the party's past and to imagine an alternative to his vision of socialism.
— Barbara C. Allen, Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885–1937: Life of an Old Bolshevik, pp. 364-365
After the end of Stalinism, Shlyapnikov was rehabilitated in 1963, Medvedev in 1977. The decision annulling the latter's case for lack of evidence emphasized that "None of those judged on the Workers' Opposition case confessed guilt".[12]
Membership
The Workers' Opposition was led by
Ideology
The Workers' Opposition advocated the role of unionized workers in directing the economy at a time when Soviet government organs were running industry by diktat and trying to exclude trade unions from a participatory role. Specifically, the Workers' Opposition demanded that unionized workers (blue and white collar) should elect representatives to a vertical hierarchy of councils that would oversee the economy. At all levels, elected leaders would be responsible to those who had elected them and could be removed from below. The Workers' Opposition demanded that Russian Communist Party secretaries at all levels cease petty interference in the operations of trade unions and that trade unions should be reinforced with staff and supplies to allow them to carry out their work effectively. Leaders of the Workers' Opposition were not opposed to the employment of "bourgeois specialists" in the economy, but did oppose giving such individuals strong administrative powers, unchecked from below. The "Workers' Opposition" based their ideas on the experience of the first months of Soviet power - a short period when the organization of production was really carried out on the basis of the self-government of the proletarians.[4]
References
- ^ At the end of August 1921 and in March 1922 Shlyapnikov rejected invitations from within the leftist Communist Workers' Party of Germany for the Workers' Opposition to participate in the founding of a new International. Also fearing they could be provocations by the Cheka, he replied twice that the Workers' Opposition no longer existed after the 10th Party Congress and that he personally frowned upon any split of the Third International (Allen, Alexander Shlyapnikov, pp. 214 and 241).
- ^ Shlyapnikov, Alexander (November 1917). "5". No. 217. News of the Central Executive Committee and the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies.
- ^ ISBN 9781442252813.
- ^ ISSN 2411-7897.
- ^ On Party Unity 16 March 1921; Soviet History Archive (marxists.org) 2002
- ^ Allen (Alexander Shlyapnikov), p. 187.
- ^ Allen (A Proletarian From a Novel), pp. 183–184.
- ^ Shliapnikov. "Shliapnikov: Appeal of the 22. 1922". www.marxists.org.
- ^ Allen (Early dissent), p. 31.
- ^ Allen (Early dissent), p. 52
- ^ Allen (Alexander Shlyapnikov), pp. 362–363. Tolokontsev, Kutuzov Kiselyov and Bruno were also put to death at the same time. Chelyshev "died of a heart attack while under NKVD interrogation rather than confess to outlandish charges" (ibidem, p. 333). Lutovinov had already committed suicide in 1924.
- ^ Allen (Alexander Shlyapnikov), p. 367. A few minor figures, however, may have confessed.
Bibliography
- Allen, Barbara C (January 2015). Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885–1937: Life of an Old Bolshevik. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill (Historical Materialism Series). Paperback published by Haymarket Books in 2016.
- Allen, Barbara C., 'A Proletarian From a Novel': Politics, Identity, and Emotion in the Relationship between Alexander Shliapnikov and Alexandra Kollontai, 1911-1935. "The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review", 35 (2008), No. 2, 21–54
- Allen, Barbara C., Early dissent within the party: Alexander Shliapnikov and the letter of the twenty-two. "The NEP Era: Soviet Russia 1921-1928", 1 (2007), 21–54
- Daniels, Robert. The Conscience of the Revolution: Communist Opposition in Soviet Russia. Cambridge, Mass., 1960; revised edition, Boulder, Col., 1988.
- Holmes, Larry E. For the Revolution Redeemed: The Workers Opposition in the Bolshevik Party, 1919-1921. The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, no. 802 (1990).
- Kollontai, Alexandra. Rabochaya oppozitsiya. Moscow, 1921. Translated into English by Workers' Dreadnought in London (22 April - 19 August 1921) and the IWW in the United States (The Workers' Opposition in Russia, 1921).
- Rogovin, Vadim Zakharovich (2021). Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years. Translated by Frederick Choate. Manchester: Mehring Books. ISBN 978-1-893638-97-6.
- Sorenson, Jay. The Life and Death of Soviet Trade Unionism: 1917-1928. New York, 1969.
- The Workers' Opposition in the Russian Communist Party: Documents, 1919-30. Edited and translated by Barbara C. Allen. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2021.*