The Role of Trade Unions in Protecting the Rights of Workers in Karakalpakstan In the Post-War Period

Аннотация

This article examines the evolution and functions of trade unions in Karakalpakstan during the post- World War II period. Drawing on archival sources, Soviet publications, and regional studies, it analyzes the role of trade unions in safeguarding labor rights, improving working conditions, supporting economic reconstruction, and contributing to the social and cultural development of the workforce. Keywords: Trade unions, Karakalpakstan, labor rights, post-war reconstruction, Soviet labor policy, worker protection. factories processing raw cotton, fish from the Aral Sea, Introduction: The end of World War II brought and wool. Reconstruction required significant human profound social and economic challenges to the Uzbek resources, often supplied by demobilized soldiers, Soviet Socialist Republic, including Karakalpakstan. evacuated populations, and women entering the Despite relative geographic isolation, Karakalpakstan workforce in unprecedented numbers. was deeply affected by wartime mobilization, resource depletion, and the loss of working-age men. In the Trade unions thus operated under conditions of labor immediate post-war years, rebuilding the economy and scarcity, low wages, and high pressure to meet restoring basic social services became the state’s production targets established by post-war Five-Year highest priorities. Plans. Within this context, trade unions played a significant RЕSULTS АND DISСUSSIОN role as instruments of state labor policy and as Trade unions in Karakalpakstan, as in the rest of the organizations formally responsible for protecting USSR, were structured according to all-Union sectoral workers’ rights and improving welfare. While their organizations (such as the Trade Union of Agricultural activities were closely aligned with Communist Party Workers, the Trade Union of Industrial Workers, and directives, trade unions were also the principal the Trade Union of Education and Health Workers). institutions through which workers could raise Their activities were governed by: concerns, secure entitlements, and participate in social initiatives. ➢ The 1936 Soviet Constitution, which guaranteed the right to organize in trade unions. MЕTHОDS ➢ The Labor Code of the Uzbek SSR. By 1945, Karakalpakstan’s economic infrastructure was ➢ Regulations issued by the All-Union Central Council severely underdeveloped compared to other parts of of Trade Unions (VTsSPS). Uzbekistan. The region remained predominantly Each enterprise or collective farm (kolkhoz) had a local agrarian, with cotton and rice production as key trade union committee (profkom), which reported both sectors. The Amu Darya basin suffered from irrigation to district and republic-level trade union councils and challenges, salinization, and periodic shortages of ultimately to central bodies in Moscow. agricultural equipment. A further critical dimension of trade union activities in The industrial workforce was small but growing, with Karakalpakstan in the post-war period was their role in International Journal Of History And Political Sciences 20 https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ijhps International Journal Of History And Political Sciences (ISSN – 2771-2222) promoting gender equality and protecting the rights of through factory-based stores (rabochie lavki). They women workers, who formed an increasingly helped compile lists of workers eligible for special significant share of the labor force. assistance, such as war invalids and families with multiple children. In the early 1950s, the Karakalpak During and after World War II, tens of thousands of Regional Trade Union Council reported that it had men were mobilized to the front, leaving acute coordinated the allocation of winter clothing and fuel shortages in agriculture and light industry. As a result, allowances to thousands of low-income households. many women entered paid labor for the first time, particularly in cotton production, rice cultivation, and The unions also played a mediating role between fish processing. While their contribution was essential workers and management in cases of labor disputes or to post-war reconstruction, working conditions were disciplinary measures. Although the scope for often harsh, and traditional social norms limited their independent labor protest was highly limited, formal ability to assert their rights. grievance procedures existed. Workers could appeal to trade union committees to contest wage calculations, Archival reports from the late 1940s and early 1950s request revisions of disciplinary penalties, or seek indicate that the Karakalpak Regional Council of Trade redress in cases of unfair treatment. Protocols of trade Unions regularly inspected compliance with these union meetings often record such complaints and their rules. For example, in 1952, special commissions visited outcomes [2]. collective farms to verify whether nurseries functioned during harvest campaigns and whether women Finally, the cultural mission of trade unions r