Lenin on immigration and Taylorism

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Although I picked up the 674 page "Lenin on the United States" mainly for
what he had to say about the civil war and slavery, there were a couple of
articles on other topics that grabbed my attention.

Although some of you may find this hard to believe, there are a couple of
individuals on the alt.politics.socialism.trotsky newsgroup who opposes
immigration in the same terms as Le Pen--but wrap their racism in
"Leninist-Trotskyist" orthodoxy. Here is a sample:

"Who is the working class apart from its organised forces? If they do not
fight to defend their rights they will disintigrate as they are doing in
the sub-contracted labour markets they are currently working
in. How were US unions first formed? Dont tell me by asking the bosses to
bring in more immigrants to take their jobs as this is what the globalist
left now argue..."

As it turned out, Lenin confronted the same issues back then. Here is what
he said:

"There can be no doubt that dire poverty alone compels people to abandon
their native land, and that the capitalists exploit the immigrant workers
in the most shameless manner. But only reactionaries can shut their eyes to
the progressive significance of this modern migration of nations.
Emancipation from the yoke of capital is impossible without the further
development of capitalism, and without the class struggle that is based on
it. And it is into this struggle that capitalism is drawing the masses of
the working people of the whole world, breaking down the musty, fusty
habits of local life, breaking down national barriers and prejudices,
uniting workers from all countries in huge factories and mines in America,
Germany, and so America heads the list of countries which import workers."

The entire article is at: http://makeashorterlink.com/?H25452875

On the Taylorism question, this has been a kind of rallying cry for the
anti-Marxist left since the 1920s. Lenin's "support" for Taylorism is key
to the degeneration of the Russian revolution rather than the social and
economic costs of civil war and Czarist backwardness. This citation from an
anarchist website is fairly typical:

>>In summary, the Bolshevik tradition is based on utilising the
organisational structures of capitalism and making them bigger and more
centralised rather than creating alternative, socialist, ones. It would use
the same management techniques (such as Taylorism) and management
structures (such as "one-man management").<<

full:
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/anarchism/writers/anarcho/anticapPAM/antiorstate.html

What you never get in such discussions are Lenin's actual words. Here is a
brief article by Lenin in which he puts forward his ideas on socialism and
Taylorism. Needless to say, it has little to do with the anarchist caricature.

THE TAYLOR SYSTEM
MAN'S ENSLAVEMENT BY THE MACHINE

Capitalism cannot be at a standstill for a single moment. It must forever
be moving forward. Competition, which is keenest in a period of crisis like
the present, calls for the invention of an increasing number of new devices
to reduce the cost of production. But the domination of capital converts
all these devices into instruments for the further exploitation of the workers.

The Taylor system is one of these devices.

Advocates of this system recently used the following techniques in America.

An electric lamp was attached to a worker's arm, the worker's movements
were photographed and the movements of the lamp studied. Certain movements
were found to be "superfluous" and the worker was made to avoid them, i.e.,
to work more intensively, without losing a second for rest.

The layout of new factory buildings is planned in such a way that not a
moment will be lost in delivering materials to the factory, in conveying
them from one shop to another, and in dispatching the finished products.
The cinema is systematically employed for studying the work of the best
operatives and increasing its intensity, i.e., "speeding up" the workers.

For example, a mechanic's operations were filmed in the course of a whole
day. After studying the mechanic's movements the efficiency experts
provided him with a bench high enough to enable him to avoid losing time in
bending down. He was given a boy to assist him. This boy had to hand up
each part of the machine in a definite and most efficient way. Within a few
days the mechanic performed the work of assembling the given type of
machine in one-fourth of the time it had taken before!

What an enormous gain in labour productivity!. . . But the worker's pay is
not increased fourfold, but only half as much again, at the very most, and
only for a short period at that. As soon as the workers get used to the new
system their pay is cut to the former level. The capitalist obtains an
enormous profit, but the workers toil four times as hard as before and wear
down their nerves and muscles four times as fast as before.

A newly engaged worker is taken to the factory cinema where he is shown a
"model" performance of his job; the worker is made to "catch up" with this
performance. A week later he is taken to the cinema again and shown
pictures of his own performance, which is then compared with the "model".

All these vast improvements are introduced to the detriment of the workers,
for they lead to their still greater oppression and exploitation. Moreover,
this rational and efficient distribution of labour is confined to each factory.

The question naturally arises: What about the distribution of labour in
society as a whole? What a vast amount of labour is wasted at present owing
to the disorganised and chaotic character of capitalist production as a
whole! How much time is wasted as the raw materials pass to the factory
through the hands of hundreds of buyers and middlemen, while the
requirements of the market are unknown! Not only time, but the actual
products are wasted and damaged. And what about the waste of time and
labour in delivering the finished goods to the consumers through a host of
small middlemen who, too, cannot know the requirements of their customers
and perform not only a host of superfluous movements, but also make a host
of superfluous purchases, journeys, and so on and so forth!

Capital organises and rationalises labour within the factory for the
purpose of increasing the exploitation of the workers and increasing
profit. In social production as a whole, however, chaos continues to reign
and grow, leading to crises when the accumulated wealth cannot find
purchasers, and millions of workers starve and die because they are unable
to find employment.

The Taylor system without its initiators knowing or wishing it is preparing
the time when the proletariat will take over all social production and
appoint its own workers' committees for the purpose of properly
distributing and rationalising all social labour. Large-scale production,
machinery, railways, telephone --all provide thousands of opportunities to
cut by three-fourths the working time of the organised workers and make
them four times better off than they are today.

And these workers' committees, assisted by the workers' unions, will be
able to apply these principles of rational distribution of social labour
when the latter is freed from its enslavement by capital.

Put Pravdy No. 35, March 13, 1914 Signed: M. M.

Vol. 20, pp.  152-54



Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org