It is necessary to have a great body of
opinion favourable to Communism, and a rather weak opposition, before
a really successful Communist state can be introduced either by
revolution or by more or less constitutional methods.
It may be assumed that when Communism is first introduced, the higher
technical and business staff will side with the capitalists and
attempt sabotage unless they have no hopes of a counter-revolution.
For this reason it is very necessary that among wage-earners there
should be as wide a diffusion as possible of technical and business
education, so that they may be able immediately to take control of big
complex industries. In this respect Russia was very badly off, whereas
England and America would be much more fortunate.
Self-government in industry is, I believe, the road by which England
can best approach Communism. I do not doubt that the railways and the
mines, after a little practice, could be run more efficiently by the
workers, from the point of view of production, than they are at
present by the capitalists. The Bolsheviks oppose self-government in
industry every where, because it has failed in Russia, and their
national self-esteem prevents them from admitting that this is due to
the backwardness of Russia. This is one of the respects in which they
are misled by the assumption that Russia must be in all ways a model
to the rest of the world. I would go so far as to say that the winning
of self-government in such industries as railways and mining is an
essential preliminary to complete Communism.
Pages:
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156