Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

418V. I. LENINof the struggle between the workers and the employers. Thefollowing is a summary of these statistics:Percentage of workers involved in strikes with theresults indicated10 yearsResults of strikes 1895-1904 1905 1906 1907 1908In favour of the workers 27.1 23.7 35.4 16.2 14.1Mutual Concessions(compromise) 19.5 46.9 31.1 26.1 17.0In favour of the employers(against the workers)51.6 29.4 33.5 57.6 68.8The general conclusion to be drawn from this is that themaximum force of the movement signifies also the maximumsuccess for the workers. The year 1905 was the most favourablefor the workers, because in that year the force of thestrike struggle was greatest. That year was also distinguishedby the unusual frequency of compromises: the parties hadnot yet adapted themselves to the new unusual conditions,the employers were bewildered by the frequency of the strikes,which more often than ever before ended in a compromise.In 1906 the struggle became more stubborn: cases of compromisewere incomparably rarer; but on the whole the workerswere still victorious: the percentage of strikers who won avictory was greater than the percentage of those who lost.Beginning with 1907 defeats for the workers continuallyincreased, and cases of compromise became rarer.From the absolute figures it will be seen that in the tenyears 1895-1904 the total number of workers who won theirstrikes was 117,000, whereas in 1905 alone more than threetimes as many workers won their strikes (369,000), and in1906, one-and-a-half times as many (163,000).A year, however, is too long a period for a proper studyof the wave-like progress of the strike struggle in 1905-07.Since the monthly data would take up too much space, weshall cite the quarterly data for 1905 and 1906. We can omitthe data for 1907, since, judging by the results of the strikes,there were no breaks in that year, no declines and rises, buta continuous retreat on the part of the workers and an offensiveon the part of the capitalists, as has been fully broughtout in the yearly data already cited.