Establishing Links between the Independent Personal Labour of Farmers and the System of Self-managed Associated Labour

In this paper, which is a chapter from the book Slobodni udruženi rad (Free Associated Labour), Edvard Kardelj explains some essential concepts concerning the socio-economic and socio-political position of private farmers in the Yugoslav community of socialist self-management, and shows the pre-conditions, forms and concequences of establishing links between their personal labour and the system of associated labour. The fact that private farmers own over 80% of the total amount of cultivable land shows the importance of personal labour in agriculture. A long time will pass before a great percentage of cultivable land is directly included in large-scale socialized agriculture, so the Yugoslav socialist society must undertake all it can to increase the private farmers\u27 work productivity. That can be achieved only if they and the socialist sector of associated labour are linked in a single process of self-managed associated labour. This is the essence of the socialization of agricultural production, without any forcible destruction of peasant property. All peasants should be included in this process. That is why cooperatives and other forms through which peasants are organized remain irreplaceable factors in the socialist transformation of the village and agriculture. Organizations of associated labour for cooperation in farm-factories also have the same importance. The socio-economic position of private farmers is the starting point for linking their independent personal labour with the system of self-managed associated labour. In the Yugoslav socialist self-managed society farmers and members of their households occupied in agriculture have, on the basis of their personal labour, in principle the same socio-economic position and basically the same rights and obligations regarding their work as do workers in associated labour (who work with socially owned means of production). This is expressed in the Constitution (1974) and the Associated Labour Act (1976). Farmers are completely free to decide whether to organize their work within the farmework of the family farm, or to establish links with the system of self-managed associated labour through cooperatives and similar organizations. The farmer also decides freely on the form in which he pools his labour, land, instruments of labour and other resources with the labour and resources of workers employed in self-managed associated labour. The most important object of the socialization of agriculture is for society to help the peasant in the measure to which he is prepared to help himself. This means to create conditions for modern technological equipment and work in agriculture, and thus enable the historical, inevitable transition to industrialized agricultural production. But the private farmer must also be able to work as productively as possible in socialist cooperation with workers in basic organizations of associated labour, to pool his labour and income with them, to make his income from the commonly realized income, and thus to be included in a process of self-managed associated labour. Edvard Kardelj emphasizes that the Yugoslav society must constantly strive to create the same and equal position for the worker and the peasant