The same thing is happening in the case of the “army of the toilers,” in the case of the working class. The period of the destruction of the old discipline is over. There is now being inaugurated a new, a comradely labour discipline, not imposed and sustained by the masters, not imposed and sustained by the capitalist whip, but by the labour organisations themselves, by the factory committees, the workshop committees, and the trade unions. When we are organising production, we cannot leave out of account the organisation of labour in the factory.
A comradely labour discipline is one of the most important means for the organisation of social production and for the increase of productivity. Comradely discipline must be accompanied by the complete spontaneity of the working class. The workers must not wait for orders from above, must not lack initiative. Far from this, every improvement in production, every discovery of new methods of organising labour, must break trail for itself. Backward strata of the workers often fail to recognise how their work ought to be managed. But the means are to hand. The workers