TheGodlessUtopian
26th October 2012, 14:00
The following study guide is a companion to Josip Titos text Workers Manage Factories in Yugoslavia. (http://www.marxists.org/archive/tito/1950/06/26.htm) This guide with its questions and answers has been compiled by myself and may be freely reproduced. If any mistakes are found within the body of the guide, please comment below.
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Q1: In broad terms what is Titos thesis?
A1: In this pamphlet Tito is writing during a time of conflict with the Soviet Union and so is defending his countrys aims. He is refuting the claims of the Soviet Union and justifying the policies he undertook.
Q2: To illustrate that Yugoslavia has been practicing the correct path to socialism Tito outlines several points in history which his country has struggled to fulfill. What are these points?
A2: The first point was during the Liberation War when the Yugoslav people crushed the state machine, formed their own defense militias and freed their nation before the Soviet Red Army arrived. The second accomplishment was in solving the national question which comrade Tito claims to have done so thoroughly, to the extent where each nationality manages its own affairs without the help of a leading nation that it should be an example to other nations. The third point was the adoption of their constitution which eliminated the exploitation of men by other men by taking control of the Means of Production. Fourthly, land reform was carried out which left only 25 hectares of land to the rich peasants. Fifth we see industry being developed through the adaptation of five year plans.
Q3: Quickly refute the claims that Yugoslavia was fascist using Titos own words.
A3: the Law Prohibiting Incitement of National, Racial or Religious Hatreds and Dissension under which strict punishment is meted out to all violators. Has any fascist country ever had such a law?
Then there are the Law on Confiscation of War Profits Made During the Enemy Occupation, the Law of Nationalization of Private Economic Enterprises, the Law on Transfer of Enemy Property to the State and this enemy was not only the collaborator but also the class enemy, the Law on Confiscation of Enemy Property and Implementation of Confiscation, the Basic Law on Expropriation, the Basic Law on Cooperatives, the Law on Transition to Socialist Economy in the Villages, the Law on Agrarian Reform and Land Settlement, the Law on Final Liquidation of Agricultural Debts, the Law on Insurance of Workers, Employees and Their Families for which the state has undertaken the insurance, the Law on People's Committees which are the foundation of the people's power, the Law on the Five Year Plan, as a pre-condition for the development of socialism in our country.
Almost all our laws have been adopted in that spirit which is also true of their application. Do these laws, from the legal point of view, too, provide our country with socialist features? Of course they do, and at the same time they are facts refuting all attacks on, and slanders of, our country.
Q4: What is the essence of the Yugoslav road to socialism?
A4: Tito: the essence of our road to socialism, or better said to communism, can be defined in a few words: our road to socialism consists in the application of Marxist science to the given stage, in the closest possible harmony with the specific conditions existing in our country. This means that to Yugoslavian Marxists Marxism is not dogma.
Q5: Outline the differences between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in theoretical terms.
A5: The first great difference lies in how the state functions. Whereas in the former Soviet Union the state apparatus is managed by directors in Yugoslavia it was managed by worker collectives and becoming gradually decentralized, the hopes of which would end in its complete withering away. Secondly is the relation of the party to the state. In the Soviet Union it had developed into a bureaucratic machine which lacked the ability to lead the state. Such did not exist in Yugoslavia. And finally the last great point of difference lies in the belief in obtaining the higher phase of communism; Molotov, in 1948, tried to pander to the masses that the Soviet Union was entering into a higher phase of communism. Obviously this is absurd and wasnt how the Yugoslav Marxists saw the transition. To Yugoslavian communists the transition was still far off for both nations.
Q6: What factor did Tito describe as the most important in the development of Yugoslavia and why?
A6: Tito described the cultural advancement as the most vital factor facing Yugoslavia because there [was] a tremendous number of peasants, semi-peasants, and semi-workers coming into the enterprises today and they must first be trained as workers and then educated as workers- managers. To better facilitate their transition from peasant to proletariat a high level of cultural is needed as it enhances education.
~ ~ ~
Q1: In broad terms what is Titos thesis?
A1: In this pamphlet Tito is writing during a time of conflict with the Soviet Union and so is defending his countrys aims. He is refuting the claims of the Soviet Union and justifying the policies he undertook.
Q2: To illustrate that Yugoslavia has been practicing the correct path to socialism Tito outlines several points in history which his country has struggled to fulfill. What are these points?
A2: The first point was during the Liberation War when the Yugoslav people crushed the state machine, formed their own defense militias and freed their nation before the Soviet Red Army arrived. The second accomplishment was in solving the national question which comrade Tito claims to have done so thoroughly, to the extent where each nationality manages its own affairs without the help of a leading nation that it should be an example to other nations. The third point was the adoption of their constitution which eliminated the exploitation of men by other men by taking control of the Means of Production. Fourthly, land reform was carried out which left only 25 hectares of land to the rich peasants. Fifth we see industry being developed through the adaptation of five year plans.
Q3: Quickly refute the claims that Yugoslavia was fascist using Titos own words.
A3: the Law Prohibiting Incitement of National, Racial or Religious Hatreds and Dissension under which strict punishment is meted out to all violators. Has any fascist country ever had such a law?
Then there are the Law on Confiscation of War Profits Made During the Enemy Occupation, the Law of Nationalization of Private Economic Enterprises, the Law on Transfer of Enemy Property to the State and this enemy was not only the collaborator but also the class enemy, the Law on Confiscation of Enemy Property and Implementation of Confiscation, the Basic Law on Expropriation, the Basic Law on Cooperatives, the Law on Transition to Socialist Economy in the Villages, the Law on Agrarian Reform and Land Settlement, the Law on Final Liquidation of Agricultural Debts, the Law on Insurance of Workers, Employees and Their Families for which the state has undertaken the insurance, the Law on People's Committees which are the foundation of the people's power, the Law on the Five Year Plan, as a pre-condition for the development of socialism in our country.
Almost all our laws have been adopted in that spirit which is also true of their application. Do these laws, from the legal point of view, too, provide our country with socialist features? Of course they do, and at the same time they are facts refuting all attacks on, and slanders of, our country.
Q4: What is the essence of the Yugoslav road to socialism?
A4: Tito: the essence of our road to socialism, or better said to communism, can be defined in a few words: our road to socialism consists in the application of Marxist science to the given stage, in the closest possible harmony with the specific conditions existing in our country. This means that to Yugoslavian Marxists Marxism is not dogma.
Q5: Outline the differences between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in theoretical terms.
A5: The first great difference lies in how the state functions. Whereas in the former Soviet Union the state apparatus is managed by directors in Yugoslavia it was managed by worker collectives and becoming gradually decentralized, the hopes of which would end in its complete withering away. Secondly is the relation of the party to the state. In the Soviet Union it had developed into a bureaucratic machine which lacked the ability to lead the state. Such did not exist in Yugoslavia. And finally the last great point of difference lies in the belief in obtaining the higher phase of communism; Molotov, in 1948, tried to pander to the masses that the Soviet Union was entering into a higher phase of communism. Obviously this is absurd and wasnt how the Yugoslav Marxists saw the transition. To Yugoslavian communists the transition was still far off for both nations.
Q6: What factor did Tito describe as the most important in the development of Yugoslavia and why?
A6: Tito described the cultural advancement as the most vital factor facing Yugoslavia because there [was] a tremendous number of peasants, semi-peasants, and semi-workers coming into the enterprises today and they must first be trained as workers and then educated as workers- managers. To better facilitate their transition from peasant to proletariat a high level of cultural is needed as it enhances education.