Under the socialist system which formerly existed in the Soviet Union, the working class was the collective owner of the means of production of industry.
As has been demonstrated in the previous sections, the Soviet working class has now been expropriated of these means of production, which have become the effective property of a new class of Soviet capitalists in the form of directors of industrial enterprises.
This process is essentially similar to that which Marx, describing the development of capitalist society out of feudal society, called the primitive accumulation of capital:
10: The Sale of Labour Power
(K. Marx: "Capital", Volume 1; London; 1974; p. 164).
(K. Marx: ibid., Volume 1; p. 165).
Naturally, contemporary Soviet propagandists who wish to present Soviet society as "socialist", deny that Soviet workers sell their labour power, deny that labour power in the Soviet Union is a commodity:
(E.N. Zhiltsov: "Concerning the Subject of the Economics of Higher Education", in: "Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta: Seriia ekonomika" (Journal of Moscow University: Economic Series), No. 1, 1973, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 17, No. 5; September 1974; p. 76).
"Under socialism (i.e., in the contemporary Soviet Union -- WBB) labour power is not a commodity". (V.M. Batyrev: "Commodity-Money Relations under Socialism", in: "The Soviet Planned Ecoomy"; Moscow; 1974; p. 156).
As has been shown, in the contemporary Soviet Union labour power is bought and sold: it is a commodity.
The value of labour power, according to Marx's analysis, is determined, like that of any other commodity, by the amount of socially necessary labour required for its production, i.e., by the value of the means of subsistence conventionally -- in a particular society at a particular time -- required for the maintenance of the worker and his dependents:
On the other hand, the number and extent of his so-called necessary wants, as also the modes of satisfying them,... depend... to a great extent on the degree of civilization of a country....In contradistinction therefore to the case of other commodities, there enters into the determination of the value of labour power a historical and moral element. Nevertheless, in a given country at a given period the average quantity of the means of subsistence necessary for the labourer is practically known...
(K. Marx: "Capital", Volume 1; London; 1974; p. 167, 168).
Contemporary Soviet economists, denying that labour power is a commodity in the Soviet Union, are compelled to declare that here the concept "value of labour power" does not exist:
(E.N. Zhiltsov: "Concerning the Subject of the Economics of Higher Education", in: "Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta: Seriia ekonomika" (Journal of Moscow University: Economic Series), No. 1, 1973, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 17, No. 5; September 1974; p. 76).
The general law of the need to replace the expenditure of labour power operates under socialism. Its substance is that society objectively needs to reproduce labour power and restore the workers' physical and mental energies expended in the production process and has to provide workers and their families with the material and cultural means of livelihood."
(Y.L. Manevich: "Wages Systems", in: "The Soviet Planned Economy"; Moscow; 1974; p. 230).
"Under socialism,... the expenditures of labour on the reproduction of skilled labour power are assessed in value terms. The cost of reproducing skilled labour power is the value assessment of equivalents of the living means that form the fund for the compensation of labour power or, in other words, it it the monetary assessment of the standard of living of the population of socialist society in a certain period of time".
(E.N. Zhiltsov: ibid.; p. 76).
(Y.L. Manevich: ibid.; p. 230-1).
(K. Marx: ibid.; Volume 3; p. 114).
(Y.L. Manevich: ibid.; p. 231).
Thus, enterprises compete with one another for labour power:
(E.G. Antosenkov: "The Availability of Housing and Personnel Turnover", in: "Izvestia sibirskogo otdelenya Akademy Nauk SSSR: Seriia obshchestvennykh nauk" (Journal of the Siberian Section of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; Social Science Series), No. 11. 1972, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 16, No. 3; July 1973; p. 65).
On the other hand, contemporary Soviet economists admit that the high mobility of Soviet workers is primarily due to the competitive search for such higher wages and better living conditions.
(V. Perevedenstev: "Migration of the Population and the Utilisation of Labour Resources", in: "Voprosy ekonomiki" (Problems of Economics), Volume 13, No. 1; March 1971; p. 40).
"Manpower turnover is influenced by a number of factors that are basically connected either with working conditions or with differences in levels of material well-being...
Approximately 50% of all persons leaving their jobs at their own volition do so for these reasons (i.e., level of earnings, housing and social conditions -- WBB)...
At the Altai Tractor Plant... 11.3% of the total number leaving their jobs did so because of dissatisfaction with their wage level. In Leningrad and Ufa... 20-21% of the workers left their jobs for this reason".
(L. Kuprienko: "Influence of the Standard of Living on the Movement of Labour Resources", in: "Voprosy ekonomiki" (Problems of Economics), No. 3, 1972, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 15, No. 5; September 1972; p. 63-4, 65).
"Of late the scale of variable migration has been increasing with ever greater intensity in the USSR".
(L. Lugovskaia: "Current Problems of Urbanisation", in: "Planovoe khoziaistvo" (Planned Economy), No. 8, 1972, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 16, No. 1; May 1973; p. 96).
"Some workers repeatedly switch one job for another in search of maximum advantages, including advantages in housing".
(E.G. Antonsenkov: ibid.; p. 65).
"In the course of a year 59.1% of all personnel in the national economy take part in real transfers (i.e., change their jobs either within the same enterprise or to a different enterprise -- WBB)...
Every year in the national economy several tens of millions of persons make transfers, their overall number exceeds 100 million. Approximate calculations show that not more than half of this movement is associated with the interests of the development of production and of the work force".
(V.S. Nemchenko: "Mobility of Labour Resources", in: "Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta: Seriia ekonomika" (Journal of Moscow University: Economic Series), No. 1, 1974, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 17, No. 6; October 1974; p. 81, 88).
"A study of migrants in regions of new industrial development in the West Siberian lowlands, with a relatively unfavourable climate, revealed that over 50% of the migrants came in quest of higher earnings... Approximately 70% of those persons who have quit their jobs to take positions in new places receive higher wages than they did in the old places".
(A. Sukhov: "Labour Mobility and its Causes", in: "Nauchnye doklady vysshei shkoly: Ekonomicheskie nauki" (Scientific Reports of Higher Schools: Economic Science), No. 4, 1974, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 17, No. 7; November 1974; p. 26, 31).
"Personnel turnover .. was 19.8% in industry in 1972".
(V. Korshagin & V. Filippov: "Labour Activity of the population"", in: "Planovoe khoziaistvo" (Planned Economy), No. 8, 1974, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 17, No. 9; January 1975; p. 99).
The Soviet labour market was, in 1967, given concrete form by the establishment of labour exchanges, called "Manpower Utilisation Agencies":
(V. Korshagin: "Utilisation of Manpower Resources in the New Five-Year Plan", in: "Planovoe khoziaistvo" (Planned Economy), No. 4, 1971, in: "Problems of Economics", Volume 14, No. 6; Ocotber 1971; p. 46).
"The basic system for the remuneration of labour in our country is the piece-work system, pure and simple".
(N. Shvernik: Report to the 9th. Congress of Trade Unions (1932), cited in: S. & B. Webb: "Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation"; London; 1935; p. 704).
(S. & B. Webb: ibid.; p. 706).
(E.G. Liberman: "Economic Levers for Fulfilling the Plan for Soviet Industry", in: M.E. Sharpe (Ed.): "Planning, Profit and Incentives in the USSR", Volume 1; New York; 1966; p. 59).
(K. Marx: "Capital", Volume 1; London; 1974; p. 520).
(E.G. Liberman: ibid.; p. 59).
"The piece-rate system will gradually be used less and less because of the spreading of comprehenisve mechanisation and automation."
(Y.L. Manevich: "Wages Systems", in: "The Soviet Planned Economy"; Moscow; 1974; p. 254).
% of industrial workers paid on the basis: of
piece-work rates or time rates
1962: 60.5% 39.5%
1965: 57.6% 42.4%
1969: 56.6% 43.4%
This is, naturally, also the policy of the Soviet capitalist class:
(V. Sokolov, M. Nazarov & N. Kozlov: "The Firm and the Customer", in: "Ekonomicheskaya gazeta" (Economic Gazette), No. 1, 1965, in: M.E. Sharpe (Ed.): "Planning, Profit and Incentives in the USSR", Volume 1; New York; 1966; p. 265).
"The priority growth of labour productivity over the growth in wages must be strictly observed".
("Soviet Economy Forges Ahead"; Moscow; 1973; p. 18-19).
"Besides the general laws inherent in the socialist economy as a whole, there are a number of regularities which appear in different forms in each separate sector of the economy... Among them.. may be mentioned:... the faster growth of labour productivity as compared with the rise in averge wages".
(S. Kamenitser: "The Experience of Industrial Management in the Soviet Union"; Moscow; 1975; p. 19-20).
(A.N. Kosygin: "Guidelines for the Development of the National Economy of the USSR for 1976-1980", 25th. Congress CPSU; Moscow; 1976; p. 13, 18).
It is planned to accentuate this trend during the period of the "10th Five Year Plan" (1976-80), when it is envisaged that the average wages of workers will rise by 16-18%, while the productivity of labour will rise by 27%. (A.N. Kosygin: ibid.; p. 24, 35).
Naturally, therefore, most contemporary Soviet economists agree that the one aspect of "centralised economic planning" which ought to be retained is state control of wage levels:
(E.G. Liberman: "Planning Production and Long-term Operation", in: "Voprosy ekonomiki" (Problems of Economics), No. 8, 1962, in: M.E. Sharpe (Ed.): op. cit., Volume 1; p. 71).
"The introdcution of a unified state wage rate system... (has) created the requisites for raising the economic level of planning labour productivity and wages".(B. Sukharevsky: "On Improving the Forms and Methods of Material Incentives",in: "Voprosy ekonomiki" (Problems of Economics), No. 11, 1962, in: M.E. Sharpe (Ed.): op. cit., Volume 1; p. 115).
"Some comrades thought that it would be expedient to do away with the system of centrally determined wage rates and salaries and allow each enterprise to solve this problem in its own way. Such a view is incorrect... The socialist system of economy cannot do without the state regulation of wages".
(A. Volkov: "A mighty Stimulus for the Development of Production", in "Pravda" (Truth), November 14th., 1965, in: M.E. Sharpe (Ed.): op. cit., Volume 2; p. 169).
"Centrally
established basic rates and salaries constitute, as before, the basis of
wages.... State
regulation of wages is necessary....The new system of economic stimulation
of production preserves the state regulation of wages".(B. Sukharevsky:
"The Enterprise and Material Stimulation", in: "Ekonomicheskaya gazeta"
(Economic Gazette), No. 49, 1965, in: M.E. Sharpe (Ed.): op. cit., Volume
2; p. 216, 217).
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