may see from the following Moscow wireless sent out in December, 1920, to trade union officials throughout Russia:
In compliance with the decision of the 8th Congress financial accounts must be rendered every month. The majority of Government Trade Union Soviets at present do not render any such accounts. The Central Soviet of Trade Unions begs to inform all Government Soviets of trade unions that unless they send in monthly accounts dating from October 30th in compliance with regulations, they will receive no funds. The decision of the People's Commissariat.
Also these "trade unions" do not have the right to strike or to propose a change in the form of government. They may elect their own officials if the officials elected meet the approval of the Communist Party, otherwise the officials are "appointed."
In his report to the party printed (See Krasnaya Gazeta) January 11, 1921, Zinoviev declared:
At the present moment we have 24 trade unions, counting in their ranks 6,970,000 members. But the larger portion of these members have been ascribed to the unions mechanically.
Only a minority, at the very best, half a million, are members of the party.
If we recall the fact that only 70,000 industrial workers are listed by the Communist Party itself as party members, we see that Zinoviev's estimate of communist trade unionists is indeed highas he confesses. The British Labor Delegation to Soviet Russia reports
