INDUSTRIAL CONSCRIPTION



The general principle of industrial conscription recognized
by the Russian Constitution, section ii, chapter v, paragraph
18, which reads: "The Russian Socialist Federate Soviet
Republic recognizes that work is an obligation on every
citizen of the Republic," and proclaims, "He who does not
work shall not eat." It is, however, one thing to proclaim
such a principle and quite another to put it into action.



On December 17, 1919, the moment it became clear that
there was a real possibility that the civil war was drawing to
an end, Trotsky allowed the Pravda to print a memorandum
of his, consisting of "theses" or reasoned notes about
industrial conscription and the militia system. He points out
that a Socialist State demands a general plan for the
utilization of all the resources of a country, including its
human energy. At the same time, "in the present economic
chaos in which are mingled the broken fragments of the
past and the beginnings of the future," a sudden jump to a
complete centralized economy of the country as a whole is
impossible. Local initiative, local effort must not be
sacrificed for the sake of a plan. At the same time industrial
conscription is necessary for complete socialization. It