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Description
Work Under Capitalism and Socialism by A. Leontyev outlines the communist position on work, the fundamental condition of human existence across all social systems. While work is universal, its conditions and nature differ significantly between systems. In this vein, Leontyev details the misery of harsh labour and unemployment in the capitalist countries, contrasting it with the freedoms of the socialist society, which at the time existed only in the Soviet Union. Under capitalism, while productive forces reach unparalleled levels, this progress is not aimed at improving the lives of the workers or reducing their working hours, but at maximizing profits. When workers are no longer needed, they are discarded, swelling the ranks of the unemployed. This grim reality defines the status of work under capitalism.
Leontyev’s primary purpose, however, is to depict work in the new socialist society, free from the exploitation of man by man. Here, all advancements in labour productivity directly or indirectly benefit the working class, as all property is owned socially. In this context, Stalin stated that under socialism, the working class feels itself as a class but as the ruling class. Contrary to the bourgeois slander that socialism would lead to widespread laziness, socialism is not a negation of work but its elevation — work becomes its foundation. The Stalin USSR enshrined the right to work, eliminating unemployment — an historic aspiration of humanity. Socialist discipline was enforced universally, accompanied by a strict stance against idlers, hooligans and anarchists who sought to benefit from society without contributing to it. Thus, the Soviet Constitution enshrined the principle: “He who does not work, neither shall he eat.” Lenin himself warned that any laxity on this front would constitute a grave crime against socialism.
These new social relations surrounding work spurred remarkable achievements. The subbotniks, Stakhanovites and shock-brigades, finally feeling their ownership of the factories, farms and machinery, drove rapid advancements in production unprecedented in human history. This progress transformed the once-backward Tsarist Russia into a modern industrial-agricultural powerhouse capable of competing with the advanced capitalist countries.