isaac-deutscher-the-prophet-armed-trotsky-1879-1921

DEFEAT IN VICTORY 499
move towards it by cautious, well-measured steps. In the past
Russia had always advanced by violent leaps and bounds; she
would continue to do so. Compulsion of labour was, of course,
unthin~able under fully fledged socialism; but it 'would reach the
highest degree of intensiry during the transition from capitalism to
socialism'. He urged the congress to approve disciplinary
measures, 'the severity of which must correspond to the tragic
character of our economic situation': 'deserters from labour'
ought to be formed into punitive battalions or put into concentration
camps.' He also advocated incentive wages for efficient
workers am! 'Socialist emulation'; and he spoke of the need to
adopt the progressive essence of 'Taylorism', the American
conception of scientific management and organization of
labour, which had been abused by capitalism and rightly hated
by the workers, but of which socialism could and should make
rational use. These were then startling ideas. At the congress a
minority denounced them and indignantly resisted the disciplinarian
trend of Trotsky's policy. That minority consisted of the
'libertarians', the 'ultra-lefts', the 'democratic centralists', led by
Osinsky, Sapronov, and Preobrazhensky, men with whom
Trotsky would one day join hands against Stalin. Now he was
their chief antagonist, and he swayed the congress. 2
Soon afterwards he again expounded and elaborated his policy
at a congress of trade unions. He demanded that the unions
should discipline the workers and teach them to place the
interest of production above their own needs and demands.
The Central Council of trade unions was already split into two
groups: one supported his 'productionist' attitude; the other,
led by Tomsky, felt that the trade unions could not help defending
the 'consumptionist' claims of the workers. Trotsky argued
that the workers must first produce the resources from which
their claims could be met; and that they should remember that
they were working for the workers' state, not for the old possessing
cla~ses. Most Bolshevik trade unionists knew from experience
that such exhortations did not impress hungry men. But
since the party had endorsed Trotsky's policy, they could not
oppose him in public. At the congress the Mensheviks became
the mouthpieces of discontent. They attacked the labour
armies. They denied the government the right to conscript
1
Trotsky, Sochi11£1Zya, vol. X\', p. 126.
2
Dttya(1i Sye;:d RKP, pp. 81-4, 123-36.