Sky
9th February 2008, 23:47
The “Workers’ Opposition” was an antiparty faction in the RCP (B) from 1920-22 that exemplified an anarchosyndicalistic trend in the party at the end of the Civil War of 1918-20 and during the period immediately after, a period of transition to peace and economic dislocation. The faction was headed by A. Shliapnikov, S. Medvedev, and A. Kollontai.
In 1921 the Tenth Congress of the RCP noted that the anarchosyndicalist had been caused ‘partly by the entry into the party of individuals who had not yet completely mastered the communist attitude but primarily by the impact of the petit bourgeois elements on the proletariat and on the RCP.”
The Workers Opposition became a definite antiparty faction during the trade union controversy of 1921. Its ideological and political program was fully expounded in Kollontai’s pamphlet The Workers Opposition. In this pamphlet the Workers Opposition proposed that the management of the national economy be transferred to “all-Russian congresses of industrialists,” which would be organized as trade unions and would elect a central management body. The opposition also demanded that all management bodies of the national economy be elected only by corresponding trade unions and that the union candidacy should not be subject to cancellation by party or Soviet bodies. This would in fact have led to the negation of the leadership role of the Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat as the main instruments in the building of socialism. The Workers Opposition set the trade unions off from the Soviet state and regarded the trade unions, and not the party, as the highest form of working-class organization. It slanderously accused the Party leadership of ‘having lost contact with the party masses,’ of ‘having underestimated the creative forces of the proletariat,’ and of ‘having degenerated’.
The members of the Workers Opposition continued to advocate their opportunist views. The Tenth Congress of the RCP resolutely condemned the Workers’ Opposition, whose attitude was totally contrary to Marxism. “On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Trend in Our Party, proposed by V.I. Lenin, the congress stated that the propagandistic ideas of the Workers’ Opposition” were incompatible with membership in the RCP and ruled that all groups and factions were to be immediately disbanded. After the congress, most members of the Workers Opposition broke with the group. However, the leaders of the opposition maintained an antiparty organization and continued their schismatic activity.
In 1922 the Elventh Congress of the RCP adopted a resolution in which it branded the antiparty behavior of the Workers Opposition, expelled several members of the opposition from the Party, and issued final warnings to Shliapnikov, Medvedev, and Kollontai. The Workers Opposition ceased to exist after the congress.
In 1921 the Tenth Congress of the RCP noted that the anarchosyndicalist had been caused ‘partly by the entry into the party of individuals who had not yet completely mastered the communist attitude but primarily by the impact of the petit bourgeois elements on the proletariat and on the RCP.”
The Workers Opposition became a definite antiparty faction during the trade union controversy of 1921. Its ideological and political program was fully expounded in Kollontai’s pamphlet The Workers Opposition. In this pamphlet the Workers Opposition proposed that the management of the national economy be transferred to “all-Russian congresses of industrialists,” which would be organized as trade unions and would elect a central management body. The opposition also demanded that all management bodies of the national economy be elected only by corresponding trade unions and that the union candidacy should not be subject to cancellation by party or Soviet bodies. This would in fact have led to the negation of the leadership role of the Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat as the main instruments in the building of socialism. The Workers Opposition set the trade unions off from the Soviet state and regarded the trade unions, and not the party, as the highest form of working-class organization. It slanderously accused the Party leadership of ‘having lost contact with the party masses,’ of ‘having underestimated the creative forces of the proletariat,’ and of ‘having degenerated’.
The members of the Workers Opposition continued to advocate their opportunist views. The Tenth Congress of the RCP resolutely condemned the Workers’ Opposition, whose attitude was totally contrary to Marxism. “On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Trend in Our Party, proposed by V.I. Lenin, the congress stated that the propagandistic ideas of the Workers’ Opposition” were incompatible with membership in the RCP and ruled that all groups and factions were to be immediately disbanded. After the congress, most members of the Workers Opposition broke with the group. However, the leaders of the opposition maintained an antiparty organization and continued their schismatic activity.
In 1922 the Elventh Congress of the RCP adopted a resolution in which it branded the antiparty behavior of the Workers Opposition, expelled several members of the opposition from the Party, and issued final warnings to Shliapnikov, Medvedev, and Kollontai. The Workers Opposition ceased to exist after the congress.