Communist Laws
DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE TOILING AND EXPLOITED
PEOPLES
PART 1
CHAPTER ONE
| 1. Russia is proclaimed a Republic of
Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies. All central and
local authority is vested in these Soviets. |
| 2. The Russian Soviet Republic is
established on the basis of a free union of free nations, a federation of
National Soviet Republics. |
CHAPTER TWO
The Constituent Assembly sets for itself
as a fundamental task the suppression of all forms of exploitation of man by
man and the complete abolition of class distinctions in society. It aims to
crush unmercifully the exploiter, to reorganize society on a socialistic
basis, and to bring about the triumph of Socialism throughout the world. It
further resolves:
| 1. In order to bring about the
socialization of land, private ownership of land is abolished. The entire
land fund is declared the property of the nation and turned over free of
cost to the toilers on the basis of equal right to its use. All forests,
subsoil resources, and waters of national importance as well as all live
stock and machinery, model farms, and agricultural enterprises are
declared to be national property. |
| 2. As a first step to the complete
transfer of the factories, shops, mines, railways, and other means of
production and transportation to the Soviet Republic of Workers and
Peasants, and in order to ensure the supremacy of the toiling masses over
the exploiters, the Constituent Assembly ratifies the Soviet law on
workers' control and that on the Supreme Council of National Economy.
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| 3. The Constituent Assembly ratifies
the transfer of all banks to the ownership of the workers' and peasants'
government as one of the conditions for the emancipation of the toiling
masses from the yoke of capitalism. |
| 4. In order to do away with the
parasitic classes of society and organize the economic life of the
country, universal labor duty is introduced. |
| 5. In order to give all the power to
the toiling masses and to make impossible the restoration of the power of
the exploiters, it is decreed to arm the toilers, to establish a Socialist
Red Army, and to disarm completely the propertied classes. |
CHAPTER THREE
| 1. The Constituent Assembly expresses
its firm determination to snatch mankind from the claws of capitalism and
imperialism which have brought on this most criminal of all wars and have
drenched the world with blood. It approves whole-heartedly the policy of
the Soviet Government in breaking with the secret treaties, in organizing
extensive fraternisation between the workers and peasants in the ranks of
the opposing armies and in its efforts to bring about, at all costs, by
revolutionary means, a democratic peace between nations on the principle
of no annexation, no indemnity, and free self-determination of nations.
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| 2. With the same purpose in mind tlie
Constituent Assembly demands a complets break with the barbarous policy of
bourgeois civilization which enriches the exploiters in a few chosen
nations at the expense of hundreds of millions of the toiling population
in Asia, in the colonies, and in the small countries. The Constituent
Assembly welcomes the policy of the Soviet of People's Commissars in
granting complete independence to Finland, of removing the troops from
Persia and allowing Armenia the right of self-determination. The
Constituent Assembly considers the Soviet law repudiating the debts
contracted by the government of the Tsar, landholders, and the bourgeoisie
a first blow to international banking and finance-capital. The Constituent
Assembly expresses its confidence that the Soviet Government will follow
this course firmly until the complete victory of the international labour
revolt against the yoke of capital. |
CHAPTER FOUR
| 1. Having been elected on party lists
made up before the November Revolution, when the people were not yet in a
position to rebel against the exploiters whose powers of opposition in
defence of their class privileges were not yet known, and when the people
had not yet done anything practical to organize a socialistic society, the
Constituent Assembly feels that it would be quite wrong even technically
to set itself up in opposition to the Soviet. |
| 2. The Constituent Assembly believes
that at this present moment of decisive struggle of the proletariat
against the exploiters there is no place for the exploiters in any organ
of government. The government belongs wholly to the toiling masses and
their fully empowered representatives, the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers',
and Peasants' Deputies. |
| 3. In supporting the Soviet and the
decrees of the Soviet of People's Commissars, the Constituent Assembly
admits that it has no power beyond working out some of the fundamental
problems of reorganizing society on a socialistic basis.
4. At the same time, desiring to bring
about a really free and voluntary, and consequentlv more complete and
lasting, union of the toiling classes of all nations in Russia, the
Constituent Assembly confines itself to the formulation of the fundamental
principles of a federation of the Soviet Republics of Russia, leaving to
the workers and peasants of each nation to decide independently at their
own plenipotentiary Soviet Congresses whether or not they desire, and if
so on what conditions, to take part in the federated government and other
federal Soviet institutions. |
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