- The introduction of account taking. In Russia, we have been very backward in this respect. But without proper records no kind of organisation, investigation, or control can be achieved. Without records it is impossible to get to the root of the matter.
- The introduction of a normal working day and of a normal intensity of labour. Here, too, we are as yet only in the first stage of development. The capitalists in their enterprises had fixed hours and a fixed standard of speed for the workers, with the aim of extracting surplus value. The hours and speed were fixed by the masters’ organisations. In Soviet Russia the hours of work and the intensity of labour are settled by the trade unions, that is to say by the workers’ organisations, whose business it is to take further action in this field. The workers’ organisations decide the possibilities of work, taking into account cold, hunger, the scarcity of materials, and the general disrepair of the machinery. As soon as hours and intensity have been prescribed, the worker does ill who fails to work up to the standard. We must establish a workers’ code of honour, so that any worker who, without good reason, fails to contribute his quota to the common cause, shall be regarded as a contemptible loafer.
- The establishment of responsibility to comradely labour courts. This implies, not merely that everyone will be under the supervision of his workmates, but that everyone will be positively called to account for bad work. In this matter, once more, it is not a master supervising his slaves, but the working class and its organisations enforcing the responsibility of individual members.
Many similar measures might be considered. They would one and all be directed towards the same end, which is to marshal the ranks of the army of the toilers, the army of the pioneers who are building the way to the new social order.