V. I. Lenin

The Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

JULY 17 (30)–AUGUST 10 (23), 1908


 

9

SPEECHES IN THE DEBATE ON THE SECTION OF THE PARTY PROGRAMME RELATING TO LABOUR PROTECTION

JULY 31 (AUGUST 13)

1

L e n i n does not object to a 42-hour rest but, addressing Lieber, remarks that the programme speaks of supervision over all industries. An indication of the actual size will merely restrict the sense. When our programme is a bill we shall write in the details.{1}

2

I object to Comrade Lyadov’s = amendment.{2} His first two amendments are superfluous, because in our programme we demand labour protection for all the branches of the economy and, consequently, for agriculture as well. As for the third, it applies entirely to the agrarian section and we shall return to it when debating our draft agrarian programme.

Vtoroi ocherednoi syezd R.S.D.R.P. Polny tekst protokolov. Central Committee publication, Geneva, 1904 Printed from the text of the book

Notes

{1} The point at issue is § 2 of the section of the draft programme dealing with labour protection, which contained a demand for a statutory weekly period of rest running continuously for at least 36 hours, for wage-workers of either sex in all branches of   the national economy. Lyadov proposed that the period should run for 42 hours; Lieber remarked that the programme said nothing about supervision in small-scale production. Lyadov’s proposal was adopted by the Congress, and Lieber’s amendment was rejected. p. 88

{2} The point at issue is § 12 of the section of the draft programme dealing with labour protection (511 of the Iskra draft), which contained a demand for “supervision by the organs of local self-government, with the participation of workers’ delegates, over the sanitary state of the living quarters provided for workers by their employers, and also over the internal regulations on these premises and the terms of their lease, to safeguard wage workers against intervention by employers in their life and activity as private persons and citizens”. Lyadov motioned the following addenda to this paragraph:

1) agrarian Inspection to be established for supervision over all agricultural enterprises employing wage labour; 2) points 1–13 of the section of the programme dealing with labour protection to be extended to all agriculture with wage labour; 3) tenants holding land as sharecroppers, or indentured to cultivate the landowner’s land, to be regarded as wage-workers falling within the province of the agrarian inspection. The Congress rejected the first two addenda and Lyadov withdrew the third. p. 88

  PROPOSALS ON VARIOUS POINTS OF THE GENERAL POLITICAL DEMANDS OF THE PARTY = PROGRAMME | SPEECHES IN THE DEBATE ON THE AGRARIAN PROGRAMME  

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