In building up a society upon the remains of a very much confused and disorganized industry, transition to a systematic basis is inconceivable without the application of compulsory measures relating to the backward elements of the peasantry and working class. The means of compulsion at the disposal of the state form its military power. Consequently, the organization of work on a military basis, in some form or other, is an unconditional necessity for every society which is built upon the principle of compulsory labor.
Compulsory measures will be less and less needed as the system of socialization of industry develops, and the conditions of labor become more favorable, and as the educational level of the coming generation is raised.
Noteworthy in this "thesis" is the fact that any element of the working class which the communists may be pleased to designate as "backward" is to be treated the same as the Russian agriculturists or peasants, i.e., the same as the outlawed "bourgeois."
By such arguments Trotzky defends also the introduction of the Taylor system, bonuses, etc.:
"Therefore wages for labor," he continues, "both in the form of money and in that of commodities, must be made to coincide as far as possible with the productivity of the individual laborer. Under capitalism, piece work and agreements for pay, application of the Taylor methods, etc., had the object of increasing the exploitation of the workers by squeezing out a surplus profit. In socialist production, pay for piece work, premiums, have the object of increasing the social production and with it also the general well-being."
Yet one of the slogans by which the Bolshevists tricked labor into that measure of support they needed to get
