Izvestia January 1, 1921, as we may see from the following remarks by Zinoviev:
Many people say that the Professional Unions just at present are suffering a grave crisis, and even that our Unions are on the brink of ruin. Comrade Trotzky began with this point. No one can say that our Unions are in a satisfying shape. On the contrary the apparatus of the Unions is very weak, and will remain weak as long as their financial support is as small as at present.
And is it true in fact, what comrade Trotzky said: "Where are the Professional Unions, they are doing nothing, they have no foundation." The Professional Unions are weak owing to the civil war and to lack of attention, but is it really true, that they do not exist?"
For such "trade unions" to strike is not only against the law; it is regarded as treason or desertion, and it may be punished as such. For example, the Moscow Soviet, as reported in Izvestia of July 2, 1918, resolved:
As from now, the organised forces of the proletariat, the trades unions (professional associations) will be under the management of the Council of National Economy, which will organise the management and production of industrial enterprises. Under these new methods of management, the workers will see to discipline and the increase of productivity, and will end the economic disorganisation. Under these conditions every stoppage of work and all strikes will be an act of treason to the proletarian revolution.
A picture of the practical workings of this kind of "trade unionism" was given to the British Labor Delegation in Moscow by one of the officers of the Printers' Union, A. Kefali, on May 23, 1920. We quote a few
