Source: The Communist Review, May 1921, Vol. 1, No. 1.
Publisher: Communist Party of Great Britain
Transcription/HTML Markup: Brian Reid
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2006). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
The statistical, or more correctly, statistico-economic section now being organised at the Communist International puts before itself the object of compiling statistics both of our Labour movement and of the conditions of production on a world scale. The work of the section has a purely practical meaning—to supply to the Communist International the necessary statistical and economic data in order to hasten its victory over the world bourgeois.
But here we have to reckon with the fact that while in the Russian. Soviet Federal Social Republic capitalist production has disappeared from the scene, and the firm foundations of the Communist economy have begun to be laid; in all other countries of the world the capitalist method of production, although shaken to its very foundations, still continues to exist.
Hence, it is clear that our principal practical problems in connection with the Labour movement—on the one hand, in Soviet Russia, and on the other, the remaining bourgeois capitalist countries—cannot be the same.
These problems are:—
A. In connection with Soviet Russia:
(1) On the basis of figures to determine the degree of collapse which overtook industry, both town and country, in Russia during the imperialist war (1914 to 1917).
(2) To ascertain the degree of destruction of the whole industrial and commercial apparatus on the one hand, and of the productivity of labour on the other, during the dictatorship of the proletariat and the civil war;
(3) To investigate the process of our reconstruction of the whole of industry, both urban and rural on new Communist foundations, i.e., to sum up the creative work of construction carried on by workers’ and peasants’ Russia since the beginning of the rule of the proletariat.
(4) The reckoning of the efforts and practical measures undertaken by the Central Soviet Power, by the Communist Party, and the Trade Unions, in order to increase the productive forces of the country and raise the productivity of labour—the bonus system, compulsory labour, labour armies, etc.
(5) The forms of socialisation of production in the spheres of agriculture (communes, artels, co-operative ploughing, Soviet estates, etc.), and the success achieved by them in figures.
(6) Statistics of “subbotniks” and “voskresniks” Communist Saturdays and Sundays).
(7) The Communist Party, its growth in importance and, power.
(8) The Socialist-Revolutionary, Menshevik, Anarchist, and other parties.
(9) Industrial (Productional) unions in Soviet Russia.
(10) The League of Communist Youth.
(11) Congresses and Conferences, Soviets, parties, trade unions, League of Youth, etc.
(12) Non-party conferences.
B. In connection with bourgeois countries:
(1) Changes and alterations produced during the imperialist war in the sphere of industrial commerce and transport, in the capitalist countries of the world (England, America, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Holland, etc.), with a sub-division of them into three groups, namely:
a. Imperialist powers victorious in the world-war, i.e., England, France, America, Italy, Japan, etc.
b. The Central Powers, headed by Germany, i.e., the defeated States.
c. The so-called “neutral” countries (Spain, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, etc.).
(2) Symptoms of a rapidly advancing financial collapse in all the capitalist countries (increase of indebtedness) and the increasing fall in the productivity of labour (deficits, etc.).
(3) The latest facts about syndicates, cartels, and trusts, and also about banking (financial) capital.
(4) The fall in the value of money, and the shortage of commodities.
(5) The situation of the working class in the principal countries of Europe, America, Australia, etc., during the imperialist war and after its conclusion, on the foundation of statistical and other data.
(6) The progress of unemployment.
(7) Strikes (their number and the number of strikers).
(8) Data as to the economic condition of the colonies and semi-colonies (China, India, Turkey, Persia).
(9) Political parties of the bourgeoisie and of the working class (the Second, Yellow, International), their rôle and meaning.
(10) The Communist Parties and groups, their origin and growth.
(11) Trade Union movement.
(12) League of Communist Youth.
The section will collect, group, and combine all statistical data which is published by various statistical organs in different countries. It will collect, arrange, and utilise all that already exists, or appears in the future, in the periodical Press of different countries on questions that interest us.
Studying and characterising in this way the Labour Movement in the individual countries, grouping and contrasting to one another the individual countries in this respect, we can cover the whole world revolutionary movement of the proletariat as one indivisible. whole, inexorably going forward towards the capture of power by the working class, with the object of bringing about the Communist order.
December 18th, 1920.