CONSUMPTION AND EXCHANGE. Let us take up the organisation of conswnption first, because people have to eat before they can work and produce. "What do you mean by the orgar,isation of consumption?" your friend asks. " He means rationing, I suppose," you remark. I do. Of course, when the social revolution has become thoroughly organised and production is functioning normally there will be enough for everybody. But in the first stages of the revolution, during the process of re-construction, we must take care to supply the people as best we can, .and equally, which means rationing. " The Bolsheviki did not have equal rationing," your friend interrupts; " they had different kinds of rations for different people." · They did, and that was one of the greatest mistakes they made. It was resented by the people as a wrong and it provoked irritation and discontent. The Bolsheviki had one kind of ration for 'the sailor, another of lower quality and quantity for the soldier, a third for the skilled workei;, a fourth for the unskilled one; another ration again for the average citizen, and yet another for the bourgeois. The best rations were for the Bolsheviki, the members of the Party, ;'Jld special rations for the Communist officials and commissars.. J\t one time they had as many as fourteen different food rations. You: own common sense will tell you that it was all wrong. w~~ ;, f, ·r to discriminate against people because they happened to J,_ ,abourers, mechanics, or intellectuals rather than soldiers or sailors?• Such methods we.re unjust and vicious: they immediately created material inequality. an'd opened the door to misuse of position and opportunity, to speculation, graft, and swindle. They . also stimulated counter-revolution for those indifferent or unfriendly to the Revolution were embittered by the discrimination 2nd' therefore became an easy prey to counterrevolutionary influences. This initial discrimination and the many others which followed were not dictated by the needs of the situation but solely by political party considerations. Having usurped the reins of government and fearing the. opposition of the people; the Bolsheviki sought to strengthen themselves ir. the government seat by currying favour 82 BibliotecaG no Bianco
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