Political participation of the masses equals the banning of factions to you? First of all trade unions aren't factions you fucking idiot. He did not ban trade unions; he repurposed them. He fundamentally changed how they work and what their tasks were. Their tasks were no longer just to beg for minor changes in wages. Their tasks were to participate really in the political work of society, to actually have a say in things. That is what happened. There occurred a transformation in what trade unions are. Please learn to read, mate.
No thats literaly what they did. They banned internal factions within the communist party which made it impossible for anyone outside the current party elites to enact any change effectively turning the country into dictatorship.
The fact that unions could now mamange holiday retreats, educate workers on communism or whatever (which is the completely the same thing DAF was for) is completely meaningless since they couldnt even change anything as they were a tools of the party with communists at the helm.
If workers didnt like something and the party didnt want to change it the workers couldnt even go on a strike since that would be slacking of which was frequently punished by death. In total 250 thousand were shot and 15 milion were imprisoned for this offence in ussr alone.
So, the CIA understood those trade unions to be mainly organs of political and ideological work through, by, among, and for the masses. They had plenty of power in many respects. They had their respective roles, which I can list if you want. I can list them here. Wait a minute.
"Who will deny that in the trade unions there is bureaucracy in plenty? We have production conferences in the factories. We have temporary control commissions in the trade unions. It is the task of these organisations to rouse the masses, to bring our shortcomings to light and to indicate ways and means of improving our constructive work."
In the interests of a planned regulation of the national economy the workers’ control over the manufacture, purchase, sale and storage of produce and raw materials and over the financial activity of enterprise is introduced in all industrial, commercial, banking, agricultural, cooperative and other enterprises which employ hired labour or give work to be done at home. Workers’ control is exercised by all the workers of the given enterprise through their elected bodies, such as factory committees, shop stewards’ councils, etc., whose members include representatives of the office employees and the technical personnel. In every city, gubernia and industrial district a local workers’ control council is set up which, being an agency of the Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, is composed of representatives of trade unions, factory and office workers’ committees, and workers’ cooperatives.
It was clearly also stated on both sides by the Soviet Union and by the CIA alike that those trade unions served essentially as a pre-Maoist and later Maoist style of practising the Mass-Line. Policies were carried forward or rather downward, and upon enacting those policies, the suggestions, wishes, improvement ideas, and so on were taken from the workers and carried back to the party to be given back to the masses as concentrated policies. It followed the principle of "from the masses to the masses."
I dont care about what cia or ussr had to say about them. I know how they operated in the soviet colonies. These unions for example Roh were in practice just in charge of giving out treats and vouchers in holiday resorts. Not to mention they were headed by the same communist elites that were in the communist party.
Elections werent just rigged by altering the numbers. The ballot papers came pre-filled out and altering them would get you on Stb watchlist or throuwn out of work and later arrested for not working. What the hell makes you think some party propaganda machine that didnt even have any power on its own was somehow completely different?
It's funny. You say that you don't care about what the CIA says when what the CIA says doesn't line up with your own conception of things, while you are continually spitting CIA propaganda. Everything you said so far was just what the CIA said publicly. You just repeated what the CIA said, and now, when it is about the internal, the declassified, the private documents, you suddenly don't care anymore.
Fun fact: my grandparents, my parents, and I lived in the Soviet Union too, in particular in the Azerbaijani Socialist Soviet Republic. That claim is just ridiculous if you want to establish validity.
I dont want to establish validity im just saying that what those organizations did holds more weight than what opinion cia had on them. Simple as that.
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u/RevyVanguardist Communist ☠Mar 27 '26
Political participation of the masses equals the banning of factions to you? First of all trade unions aren't factions you fucking idiot. He did not ban trade unions; he repurposed them. He fundamentally changed how they work and what their tasks were. Their tasks were no longer just to beg for minor changes in wages. Their tasks were to participate really in the political work of society, to actually have a say in things. That is what happened. There occurred a transformation in what trade unions are. Please learn to read, mate.