Page:Nikolai Bukharin - Programme of the World Revolution (1920).djvu/33

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and sailors' organisations—all these support the central Soviet Government. From the Central Soviet Government thousands and millions of threads spread in all directions: first these threads go to district and provincial Soviets, then to the town Soviets, from these to the town-parish Soviets, from these again to the factories and works, uniting hundreds of thousands of workers. All the higher institutions of the Soviet Government are organised on the same lines. Take, for instance, the supreme council for public economy. It is composed of representatives of central committees of trade unions, of factories and works committees, and other organisations. Trade unions in their turn unite whole branches of production; they have branches in various towns and are supported by the organised masses at factories and works. To-day at every factory there is a factory and works committee, which is elected by the workers of that factory; these factory and works' committees being again united. And these, too, send their representatives to the Supreme Council for Public Economy, which draws up economic plans and directs production. Thus, here, too, the central organ of the control of industry is composed of representatives of workers, and is supported by mass organisations of the working class and of the poorest elements of the peasantry. This, then, is an entirely different plan from that of a bourgeois republic. The bourgeoisie is not only deprived of rights, and there is not only a question of the country being governed by representatives of workers and peasants. The great thing is that the Soviets govern the country, keeping in constant touch with the large unions of the workers and peasants, and thus the wide masses are all the time taking part in the administration of the Workers' and Peasants' Government. In this way each organised workman exercises his influence. He takes part in the government of the state not only by electing trusted representatives once a month or two. No. The trade unions, say, work out a plan for organising production; these plans are then considered by the Soviets or by the Council for Public Economy, and then, if they are practicable they obtain the full force of law, after being approved of by the Central Executive Committee of Soviets. Any given trade union, any works' and factories' committee, can in this way take a part in the general work of creating a new order of life. In a bourgeois republic the more indifferent the masses are, the happier is the government, because the interests of the masses are opposed to those of the capitalist state. If, for in-