It need hardly be said that, since the links between the various parts of the economic soviet apparatus are now in course of construction, no final forms have yet been attained. Everything is still in a state of flux. But there is one matter upon which we have to keep our attention fixed — the regulation of the apparatus, the harmony of organisation, the purposiveness of all our activities.
98. The Organisation of Industry and of Trade Unions.
In Russia, the apparatus which has proved preeminently suitable for the new tasks in the domain of organising and administering industry has consisted of the trade unions.
In capitalist society the function of the trade unions — constituted first upon a craft basis and subsequently upon an industrial (productive) basis — was primarily to serve as a means for the struggle against capitalism, as a means for the economic struggle. During the days of storm and stress, the trade unions joined forces with the party of the working class, with the bolsheviks, to lead the general onslaught upon capital. The party, the unions, and the soviets marched side by side against the capitalist social order. After the conquest of