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PART 10
THE NECESSITY OF REVOLUTION
Because of innumerable problems and an unsolvable contradiction and despite
widespread subtle propaganda strengthening the system and alleging a major
contribution on the part of those who rule, capitalist exploitation will someday
be overthrown323
by a series of proletarian revolutions. The latter will not
arise overnight as if by magic but will emerge from several years of steady
deterioration on many important fronts324
and increasing struggles within the United States and those countries
which are economic vassals of the United States. The class struggle
between capitalists using any methods possible to solve their dilemma and
workers trying not to be crushed in the process325
will sharpen; debts will climb; crises will reappear periodically;
326
strikes will increase;327
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323 (Add) "This exploitation is the basic evil which the social
revolution wants to abolish by abolishing the capitalist mode of production."
324 (a) "The big mistake the Germans make is to think that
the revolution is something that can be made overnight. As a matter
of fact it is a process of development of the masses that takes several years...."
(b) "Nowhere in the world has the proletarian movement come into being,
nor could it have come into being, 'all at once,' in a pure class form, ready-made,
like Minerva from the head of Jupiter. Only through long struggle and
hard work...."
(c) "Revolutions are never born ready-made; they do not spring out of Jupiter's
head; they do not kindle at once. They are always preceded by a process
of unrest, crises, movements, revolts, the beginnings of revolution...."
325 "The workers are...bound together by a common interest,
that of preventing themselves from being crushed by capital, of upholding
their right to life and to a human existence."
326 (a) "It is enough to mention the commercial crises that
by their periodical return put on its trial, each time more threateningly,
the existence of the entire bourgeois society."
(b) "Capitalist production develops spasmodically, in fits and starts.
At times there is 'brilliant' prosperity in industry and then comes collapse,
crises, and unemployment. It cannot be otherwise under a system of
economy in which individual, isolated proprietors, independent of each other,
'work' for an unknown market and have the joint labour of thousands and thousands
of workers in big enterprises at their disposal as private property."
(c) "Overproduction (caused by the inability of the workers to buy that
which they produce--Ed.) manifesting itself in more or less acute industrial
crises followed by more or less protracted periods of industrial stagnation,
is an inevitable consequence of the development of the productive forces
in bourgeois society. Crises and periods of industrial stagnation,
in their turn, still further ruin the small producers (the petty bourgeois
who are driven into the proletariat--Ed.), still further increase the dependence
of wage-labour on capital, and lead still more rapidly to the relative and
sometimes to the absolute deterioration of the condition of the working class."
(d) "...industrial crises, which are the inevitable outcome of the basic
contradictions of capitalism."
327 (a) "...capitalism must necessarily lead to a struggle
of the workers against the employers, and when production is on a large scale
the struggle of necessity takes on the form of strikes."
(b) "These strikes, at first skirmishes, sometimes result in weighty struggles;
they decide nothing, it is true, but they are the strongest proof that the
decisive battle between the bourgeoisie and proletariat is approaching.
They are the military school of the working-men in which they prepare themselves
for the great struggle which cannot be avoided."
(c) "The day-to-day experience of any capitalist country teaches us the
same lesson. Every 'minor' crisis that such a country experiences discloses
to us in miniature the elements, the rudiments, of the battles that will inevitably
take place on a large scale during a big crisis. What else, for instance,
is a strike if not a minor crisis of capitalist society?... In every
strike there lurks the hydra of revolution."
(d) (Add) What Lenin said of Russia will become true of the United States. "There was a time, and not very long ago at that, when workers' revolts were
a rare exception, called forth only by some special circumstances.
How things have changed. ...the working-class movement develops in depth
and extent: at first, struggle in exceptional and isolated cases; then, unceasing
and stubborn battles during industrial prosperity and the trade boom; finally,
similar unceasing and stubborn struggle in the period of crisis. We
may now say that the working-class movement has become a permanent feature
of our life and that it will grow whatever the conditions. The change-over
from boom to crisis will not only teach our workers that united struggle is
a permanent necessity, it will also destroy the harmful illusion that began
to take shape at the time of industrial prosperity."
(e) (Add) "But the proletarian class struggle assumes numerous forms.
A strike, for example, partial or general, is class struggle. Boycotts
and sabotage are undoubtedly class struggle. Meetings, demonstrations...are
also class struggle. ...all these forms of struggle are merely preparatory
means, that not one of them taken separately, constitutes the decisive means
by which the proletariat can smash capitalism. Capitalism cannot be
smashed by the general strike alone; the general strike can only create some
of the conditions that are necessary for the smashing of capitalism."
(f) (Add) "Every strike enriches the experience of the entire working class.
If the strike is successful it shows them what a strong force working-class
unity is, and impels others to make use of their comrades' success.
If it is not successful, it gives rise to discussions about the causes of
the failure and to search for better methods of struggle."
(g) (Add) Newspapers will allege that the strikes are senseless.
"Both factory owners' and government statistics will always contain not only
gaps but also distortions. Even in the press that sympathizes with
the workers we often come across monstrously false, absurd appraisals of
strikes as manifestations of 'a craze,' etc., appraisals permeated with the
bourgeois spirit."
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workers will learn, organize and effectively unite into ever-enlarging
groups;328
unions will awaken and eliminate class-collaborating leaders; the
outlook of the masses will change;329
demonstrations will grow in both frequency and numbers of people
involved; 330
the poorest of the poor will increasingly revolt against their deplorable
conditions;331
leftist political parties will become more prominent, and contradictions
will accentuate.
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328 (a) "The organization of the workers of a separate factory,
even of a separate industry, proves inadequate for resisting the entire capitalist
class, and joint action by the entire working class becomes absolutely necessary. Thus, out of the isolated revolts of the workers grows the struggle of the
entire working class."
(b) "It is an unquestionable and indisputable fact that as capitalism develops,
as experience of bourgeois...and also of abortive socialist revolutions,
accumulates, the working class of all countries grows, develops, learns,
becomes trained and organized. In other words: it advances from spontaneity
to planned action, from being guided merely by mood to guidance by the objective
position of all classes, from outbursts to sustained struggle."
(c) "However, this development of the big factories and intensification
of pressure by the employers brought still other consequences in their train. The workers, totally helpless as against the factory owners, began to understand
that utter disaster and poverty awaited them if they continued to be divided. The workers began to understand that there was only one means of saving themselves
from the starvation and degeneration that capitalism held in store for them--and
that was to join forces in order to fight the factory owners for higher wages
and better living conditions. ...the workers...begin to learn from their
clashes with the managements how the law oppresses them, then they will begin
steadily to realize that they are in a position of dependence. They
will understand that only poverty has compelled them to work for the rich
and to be content with crumbs for their heavy labour. They will understand
that the government and its officials are on the side of the factory owners,
and that the laws are drawn up in such a way as to make it easier for the
employer to oppress the workers. And the workers will appreciate, finally,
the point that the law does nothing to improve their status, so long as the
workers' dependence on the capitalists continues to exist, because the law
will always be partial to the capitalist employers, because the latter will
always succeed in devising ruses for evading the law."
(d) "Everywhere, in all the European countries and in America, the workers
feel themselves powerless when they are disunited; they can only offer resistance
to the employers jointly, either by striking or threatening to strike. As capitalism develops, as big factories are more rapidly opened, as petty
capitalists are more and more ousted by the big capitalists, the more urgent
becomes the need for the joint resistance of the workers, because unemployment
increases, competition sharpens between the capitalists... and the fluctuations
of industry become more accentuated and crises more acute. ...strikes,
which arise out of the very nature of capitalist society, signify the beginning
of the working-class struggle against that system of society. When the
rich capitalists are confronted by individual propertyless workers, this signifies
the utter enslavement of the workers. But when those propertyless workers
unite, the situation changes.... As long as workers have to deal with
capitalists on an individual basis they remain veritable slaves who must
work continuously to profit another in order to obtain a crust of bread....
But when the workers state their demands jointly and refuse to submit to
the money-bags, they cease to be slaves, they become human beings, they begin
to demand.... The slaves begin to put forward the demand to become
masters, not to work and live as the landlords and capitalists want them
to, but as the working people themselves want to. Strikes, therefore,
always instill fear into the capitalists, because they begin to undermine
their supremacy.... When the workers refuse to work, the entire machine
threatens to stop.... Every strike reminds the worker that their position
is not hopeless, that they are not alone.... A strike teaches workers
to understand what the strength of the employers and what the strength of
the workers consist in; it teaches them not to think of their own employer
alone and not of their own immediate workmates alone but of all the employers,
the whole class of capitalists and the whole class of workers.... It
often happens that a factory owner does his best to deceive the workers,
to pose as a benefactor, and conceal his exploitation of the workers by some
petty sops or lying promises. A strike always demolishes this deception
at one blow by showing the workers that their 'benefactor' is a wolf in sheep's
clothing. A strike, moreover, opens the eyes of the workers to the
nature, not only of capitalists, but of the government and the laws as well....
The workers begin to understand that laws are made in the interests of the
rich alone; that government officials protect those interests.... The
government itself knows full well that strikes open the eyes of the workers
and for this reason it has such a fear of strikes and does everything to
stop them as quickly as possible.... Behind every strike lurks the
hydra...of revolution. Every strike strengthens and develops in the
workers the understanding that the government is their enemy and that the
working class must prepare itself to struggle against the government.
Strikes, therefore, teach the workers to unite; they show them that they
can struggle against the capitalists only when they are united; strikes teach
the workers to think of the struggle of the whole working class against the
whole class of factory owners and against the arbitrary, police government.
This is the reason that socialists call strikes 'a school of war,' a school
in which the workers learn to make war on their enemies for the liberation
of the whole people, of all who labour, from the yoke of government officials
and from the yoke of capital."
(e) "This struggle places the working-class movement on the high road,
and is the certain guarantee of its further success. The mass of working
folk learn from this struggle, firstly, how to recognise and to examine one
by one the methods of capitalist exploitation, to compare them...with their
living conditions, and with the interests of the capitalist class.
By examining the different forms and cases of exploitation, the workers learn
to understand the significance and the essence of exploitation as a whole,
learn to understand the social system based on the exploitation of labour
by capital. Secondly, in the process of this struggle the workers test
their strength, learn to organize, learn to understand the need for and the
significance of organization. The extension of this struggle and the
increasing frequency of clashes inevitably lead to a further extension of
the struggle, to the development of a sense of unity, a sense of solidarity--at
first among the workers of a particular locality, and then among the workers
of the entire country, among the entire working class. Thirdly, this
struggle develops the workers' political consciousness."
(f) "When the movement is in its early stage, the economic strike often
has the effect of awakening and stirring up the backward (people--Ed.), of
making the movement a general one, of raising it to a higher plane."
(g) "As it strives to improve its living conditions, the working class
also progresses morally, intellectually and politically, becomes more capable
of achieving its great emancipatory aims."
(h) "The working class is not perishing, it is growing, becoming stronger,
gaining courage, consolidating itself, educating itself...."
(i) (Add) "The worker can obtain real political education only in the course
of a sustained, consistent, all-out struggle of proletarian influences, aspirations
and trends against bourgeois influences, aspirations and trends."
(j) (Add) "Two conditions, at least, are necessary for a victorious social
revolution--highly developed productive forces and a proletariat adequately
prepared for it."
(k) (Add) "In particular, the Communist Party and all advanced proletarians
must give all-round and unstinted support especially to the spontaneous
and mass strike movement, which, under the yoke of capital, is alone capable
of really rousing, educating and organizing the masses...."
329 (Add) "General belief in revolution (as a result of increasing
activism--Ed.) is already the beginning of revolution."
330 (Add) "They shut their eyes to the past, they forget that
both general strikes and demonstrations in Russia began with a very small,
even insignificant number of participants, judged by present-day standards."
331 (Add) "...as all these inevitable contradictions of capitalism
increase and develop, the number and the solidarity of the proletarians, their
discontent and indignation grow, the struggle between the working class and
the capitalist class becomes sharper and the urge to throw off the intolerable
yoke of capitalism mounts."
Page 160
In other words, every problem, especially those directly connected with
economics,332
will become increasingly more pronounced.333
Sooner or later material conditions will compel a sufficient
number of the Nation's laborers to seize control of the country
334
and initiate a socialist economic system.335
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332 (Add) Lenin foresees a financial crash. "One need
not be a prophet to foretell the inevitable and fairly sharp crash that is
bound to succeed this period of industrial 'prosperity.' This crash
will ruin masses of small owners, will throw masses of workers into the ranks
of the unemployed and will thus confront all the workers in an acute form
with the problems of socialism and democracy which have long faced every class-conscious,
every thinking worker."
333 (a) (Add) "Society is already in a state of visible dissolution;
it is impossible to pick up a newspaper without seeing the most striking evidence
of the giving way of all social ties."
(b) (Add) "...the inevitable collapse of the capitalist mode of production
which is daily taking place before our eyes to an ever greater degree...."
334 (a) (Add) "A revolution can only be made by the masses,
actuated by profound economic needs.... Only those who are virginally
innocent of socialism can fail to understand this. To abandon the economic
programme means abandoning the fundamental economic causes of revolution,
abandoning the economic interests which impel the masses of downtrodden, cowed,
ignorant people to wage a great and unprecedentedly selfless struggle."
(b) (Add) "Poverty gives rise to the desire for change, the desire for
action and the desire for revolution."
(c) (Add) "...social revolution stems not from programmes but from the
fact that tens of millions of people say: 'Rather than live and starve, we
prefer to die for the revolution."
(d) (Add) "We know that revolutions cannot be made to order, or by agreement;
they break out when tens of millions of people come to the conclusion that
it is impossible to live in the old way any longer."
(e) (Add) "But revolution is not made to order; it results from an outburst
of mass indignation."
(f) (Add) "The masses are drawn into the movement, participate vigorously
in it, value it highly and display heroism, self-sacrifice, perseverance
and devotion to the great cause only if it makes for improving the economic
condition of those who work.
(g) (Add) "Lenin emphasized that a revolution is always born in travail."
(h) (Add) "For revolutions require a passive element, a material basis."
(i) (Add) "The very conditions of their lives make the workers capable
of struggle and impel them to struggle. Capital collects the workers
in great masses in big cities, uniting them, teaching them to act in unison."
Source 20
, Vol. 16, page 302
(j) (Add) "As we pursue our materialist theses further and apply it to the
present, the perspective of a tremendous revolution, indeed the most tremendous
revolution of all time, therefore, immediately unfolds itself before us."
(k) (Add) "The movement of the lower classes raises a revolutionary force;
it raises a mass of people, who, for one thing, are capable of tearing down
the whole rotten structure, and for another, are not attached to that structure
by any special features of their position and would gladly tear it down. What is more, even though they are not fully conscious of their aims, these
masses are nonetheless able and prone to tear the structure down, because
their position is desperate, since constant oppression drives them to take
the revolutionary way, and they have nothing to lose but their chains. This popular force, the proletariat, looms formidable before the lords of
the rotten structure because there is something in the very position of the
proletariat that is a menace to all exploiters. For that reason, any
movement of the proletariat, however small, however modest it may be at the
start, however slight its occasion, inevitably threatens to outgrow its immediate
aims and to develop into a force irreconcilable to the entire old order and
destructive of it."
(l) (Add) "If Mother Nature is not particularly unfavorable toward us (death--Ed.),
we shall yet live to see the fun!"
335 (a) (Add) "World history is leading unswervingly toward
the dictatorship of the proletariat (socialism--Ed.), but is doing so by paths
that are anything but smooth, simple and straight."
(b) (Add) "If any Marxist, or any person, indeed, who has a general knowledge
of modern science, were asked whether it is likely that the transition of
the different capitalist countries to the dictatorship of the proletariat
will take place in an identical or harmoniously proportionate way, his answer
would undoubtedly be in the negative. There never has been and never
could be even, harmonious, or proportionate development in the capitalist
world. Each country has developed more strongly first one, then another
aspect or feature or group of features of capitalism and of the working-class
movement. The process of development has been uneven."
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Activities will culminate in violent struggle because "Only through revolution
is there liberty."336
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336 (a) "Revolutions are the locomotives of history."
(b) "Without revolutionary measures there can be no salvation."
(c) "Revolution is the only way."
(d) "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
(e) "What, then, is the decisive means by which the proletariat will overthrow
the capitalist system? The socialist revolution is this means.
Strikes, the boycott, parliamentarism, meetings, and demonstrations are all
good forms of struggle as means for preparing and organizing the proletariat.
But not one of these means is capable of abolishing existing inequality.
All these means must be concentrated in one principal and decisive means;
the proletariat must rise and launch a determined attack upon the bourgeoisie
in order to destroy capitalism to its foundations. This principal
and decisive means is the socialist revolution."
(f) "Meanwhile the antagonism between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie
is a struggle of class against class, a struggle which carried to its highest
expression is a total revolution. Indeed, is it at all surprising
that a society founded on the opposition of classes should culminate in brutal
contradiction, the shock of body against body, as its final denouement?
...Combat or death: bloody struggle or extinction. It is thus that
the question is inexorably put."
(g) "The determination of the working class, its inflexible adherence to
the watchword 'Death rather than surrender'! is not only a historical factor,
it is the decisive, the winning factor."
(h) "And this rule is that only the revolutionary movement of the...proletariat...only
a victorious revolution, can make lasting changes in the life of peoples
and seriously undermine...capitalism."
(i) "...a revolutionary mass struggle, without which nothing of importance
in the progress of mankind has been achieved anywhere in the world."
(j) "...a struggle must be waged against the system of society which condemns
millions and scores of millions to ignorance, benightedness, drudgery and
poverty--a socialist revolution must be accomplished."
(k) "Socialists must explain to the masses that they have no other road
to salvation except the revolutionary overthrow of 'their' governments...."
(l) "...convince the masses that improvements of any importance and permanence
can be achieved solely and exclusively through revolutionary struggle...."
(m) "Capitalism would not be capitalism if it did not keep millions of
working people, the vast majority of them, in a state of oppression, wretchedness,
want and ignorance. Capitalism cannot collapse except as a result
of a revolution which, in the course of struggle, rouses masses who had not
hitherto been affected by the movement."
(n) "The real emancipation of the working class requires a social revolution,
naturally flowing from the entire development of the capitalist mode of
production...."
(o) "Not a single problem of the class struggle has ever been solved in
history except by violence."
(p) "Major questions in the life of nations are settled only by force."
(q) "In the final analysis force alone settles the great problems of political
liberty and the class struggle, and it is our business to prepare and organize
this force and to employ it actively, not only for defence but also for
attack."
(r) "...in the words of Marx, it (force--Ed.) is the midwife of every society
pregnant with a new one...."
(s) "...great historical issues can be resolved only by force, and, in
modern struggle, the organization of force means military organization."
(t) "No major historical issue has ever been decided otherwise than by
'material force'...."
(u) "Major questions in the life of nations are settled only by force.
The reactionary classes themselves are usually the first to resort to violence,
to civil war; they are the first to resort to violence, to civil war; they
are the first to 'place the bayonet on the agenda'...."
(v) "You say that millions need not resort to force against thousands?
You are mistaken; and your mistake arises from the fact that you do not regard
a phenomenon in its process of development. You forget that the new
authority does not drop from the skies, but grows up, arises parallel with,
and in opposition to, the old authority, in struggle against it. Unless
force is used against tyrants armed with the weapons and instruments of power,
the people cannot be liberated from tyrants."
(w) "We are agreed in this: that the proletariat cannot conquer its political
domination, the only door to the new society, without violent revolution."
(x) "...the teaching of Marx and Engels regarding the inevitability of
a violent revolution refers to the bourgeois state. It cannot be replaced
by the proletarian state (the dictatorship of the proletariat) through 'withering
away,' but, as a general rule, only through a violent revolution.... The necessity of systematically fostering among the masses this and just this
point of view about violent revolution lies at the root of the whole of Marx's
and Engels' teaching.... The replacement of the bourgeois by the proletarian
state is impossible without a violent revolution."
(y) "There can be no peaceful evolution towards socialism."
(z) "A step forward has been made; the harmful self deception has been
got rid of, the childish hope of achieving anything worth while and serious
without class battles has been got rid of."
(aa) "Unlike the theoreticians of the liberal bourgeoisie, Marx did not
regard these periods (revolutionary periods--Ed.) as deviations from the
'normal' path, as manifestations of 'social disease,' as the deplorable results
of excesses and mistakes, but as the most vital, the most important, essential,
and decisive moments in the history of human societies."
(bb) "...this revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the
ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the
class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself
of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew."
(cc) "We have got to come out as strongly and bluntly as possible against
the ridiculous pacifism of the French (achieving socialism without revolution,
and so on)...."
(dd) "...the international proletarian revolution is needed. Without
this revolution it is useless thinking of the organization and normal development
of world economy."
(ee) "The working class is revolutionary or it is nothing."
(ff) "In the long run we know that the problems of social life are resolved
by the class struggle in its bitterest and fiercest form--the civil war.
In this war, as in any other war--a fact also well known and in principle
not disputed by anyone--it is economics that decide."
(gg) (Add) "For everyone knows that the history of all revolutions the
world over reveals an inevitable rather than an accidental transformation
of the class struggle into civil war."
(hh) (Add) "How can one 'recognise' the class struggle, without understanding
its inevitable transformation at certain moments into civil war."
(ii) (Add) "...civil war is the sharpest form of the class struggle, it
is that point in the class struggle when clashes and battles, economic, and
political, repeating themselves, growing, broadening, becoming acute, turn
into an armed struggle of one class against another. More often than not--one
may say almost always--in all more or less free and advanced countries the
civil war is between those classes whose antagonistic position toward each
other is created and deepened by the entire economic development of capitalism,
by the entire history of modern society the world over--civil war is between
the bourgeoisie and the proletariat."
(jj) (Add) "Social-Democracy (Marxism--Ed.) has never taken a sentimental
view of war. It unreservedly condemns war as a bestial means of settling
conflicts in human society. But Social-Democracy knows that so long
as society is divided into classes, so long as there is exploitation of
man by man, wars are inevitable. This exploitation cannot be destroyed
without war.... There are wars and wars. There are adventurist
wars, fought to further dynastic interests, to satisfy the appetite of a
band of freebooters, or to attain the objects of the knights of capitalist
profit. And there is another kind of war--the only war that is legitimate
in capitalist society--war against the people's oppressors and enslavers.
Only utopians and philistines can condemn such a war on principle."
(kk) (Add) "Revolution is war. Of all the wars known in history it
is the only lawful, rightful, just, and truly great war. This war
is not waged in the selfish interests of a handful of rulers and exploiters,
like any and all other wars, but in the interests of the masses of the people
against the tyrants, in the interests of the toiling and exploited millions
upon millions against despotism and violence."
(ll) (Add) "...class struggle (is--Ed.) at its highest pitch when it turns
into civil war, the only war that is legitimate, just and sacred--not in
the clerical but in the human sense--the sacred war of the oppressed to overthrow
the oppressors and liberate the working people from all oppression."
(mm) (Add) "...revolution is a change which breaks the old order to its
very foundations, and not one that cautiously, slowly and gradually remodels
it, taking care to break as little as possible."
(nn) (Add) "The war of the poor against the rich will be the bloodiest
ever waged."
(oo) (Add) "Every revolution (as distinguished from a reform) by its very
nature implies a crisis, and a very deep crisis at that, both political
and economic."
(pp) (Add) "Every revolution, if it is a real revolution, amounts to a
class shift."
(qq) (Add) "...revolution is a profound, difficult and complex science...."
(rr) (Add) Besides expelling the ruling class, revolutions also educate
and train the masses. "Like all true friends of the oppressed class,
we can only derive satisfaction from the exploiters' extreme measures of
resistance, because we do not expect the proletariat to mature for power
in an atmosphere of cajoling and persuasion, in a school of mealy sermons
or didactic declarations, but in the school of life and struggle. To
become the ruling class and defeat the bourgeoisie for good the proletariat
must be schooled, because the skill this implies does not come ready-made.
The proletariat must do its learning in the struggle, and stubborn, desperate
struggle in earnest is the only real teacher. The greater the extremes
of the exploiters' resistance, the more vigorously, firmly, ruthlessly and
successfully will they be suppressed by the exploited. The more varied
the exploiters' attempts to uphold the old, the sooner will the proletariat
learn to ferret out its enemies from their last nook and corner, to pull
up the roots of their domination, and cut the very ground which could (and
had to) breed wage-slavery, mass poverty and the profiteering and effrontery
of the money-bags. ...As their enemies, the exploiters, step up their
resistance, the exploited mature and gain in strength; they grow and learn
and they cast out the 'old Adam' of wage-slavery."
Page 162
Only through militant activism, strong unity,337
many sacrifices338
and repeated attacks by the proletarians themselves,
339
despite defeats,340
will the masses attain the society they so richly deserve.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
337 (a) "Divided the masses are helpless; united they are strong."
(b) "The workers want unity in their actions. The workers are right.
Without unity of action there is no salvation for the workers."
(c) "Unity is strength; unity alone can lead us to the goal."
(d) "The more widespread the economic and political struggle of the workers,
the more urgently they feel the need for unity. Unless the working-class
is united, its struggle cannot be successful."
(e) "...only the close unity of all workers and all unskilled workers together
can create a force capable of overcoming capital's profit urge."
(f) "Strikes taught the workers to realize that there is strength only
in union with other workers, a powerful force capable of bringing the machines
to a standstill and transforming the slave into a free man able to take
advantage of the goods which belong by right to their producers."
(g) "The proletariat's unity is its greatest weapon in the struggle for
the socialist revolution."
(h) "...the supremacy of the bourgeoisie is based wholly upon the competition
of the workers among themselves; i.e., upon their want of cohesion....
If the competition of the workers among themselves is destroyed, if all determine
not to be further exploited by the bourgeoisie, the rule of property is at
an end."
(i) (Add) "The workers do need unity. And the important thing to
remember is that nobody but themselves will 'give' them unity, that nobody
can help them achieve unity. Unity cannot be 'promised'--that would
be vain boasting, self-deception; unity cannot be 'created' out of 'agreements'
between intellectualist groups. To think so is a profoundly sad, naive,
and ignorant delusion. Unity must be won, and only the workers, the
class-conscious workers themselves can win it--by stubborn and persistent
effort. Nothing is easier than to write the word 'unity' in yardlong
letters, to promise it and to 'proclaim' oneself an advocate of unity.
In reality, however, unity can be furthered only by the efforts and organization
of the advanced workers, of all the class-conscious workers. Unity
without organization is impossible. Organization is impossible unless
the minority bows to the majority. These are incontestable truths.
Nobody will question them."
338 (a) "The workers' victory cannot be achieved without sacrifices,
without a temporary deterioration of their conditions."
(b) "A successful insurrection demands prolonged, skillful, and persistent
preparations, preparations entailing great sacrifice."
(c) "Socialist revolution is impossible without a hard revolutionary mass
struggle in which many sacrifices have to be made."
(d) "...the proletarian revolution, generally speaking, knows nothing and
can know nothing of 'easy' tasks or 'easy' means of struggle."
(e) "O contemptible fools from Novaya Zhizn! Do they know such examples
of uprising in history, in which the masses of the oppressed classes were
victorious in a desperate battle without having been reduced to despair
by long sufferings and by an extreme sharpening of all sorts of crises...."
(f) "Because of its class position in modern society, the proletariat can
understand, sooner than any other class that, in the final analysis, great
historic issues are decided only by force, that freedom cannot be achieved
without tremendous sacrifice...."
339 (a) "The emancipation of the workers must be the act of
the working class itself."
(b) "The emancipation of the workers must be the act of the working class
itself. All the other classes of present-day society stand for the
preservation of the foundations of the present system."
(c) "The emancipation of the workers must be an act of the working class
itself, because all the other classes of present-day society stand for the
preservation of the foundations of the existing economic system."
(d) "...the basic principle of the International: The emancipation of the
workers must be the act of the working class itself."
(e) "...the liberation of the people must be brought about by the people
themselves. Only on the bones of the oppressors can the people's freedom
be erected...."
(f) "The real emancipation of the masses from oppression and tyranny has
nowhere in the world ever been effected by any other means than the independent,
heroic, conscious struggle of the masses themselves."
(g) "Nobody will free the working man from poverty if he does not free
himself."
(h) "...what possible guarantee can there be for the fulfillment of the
proletariat's terms other than the independent force of the proletariat?"
(i) "...improvements in conditions of life are not granted from above nor
as a result of haggling, but are obtained from below, by means of a general
struggle...."
(j) The liberation which the masses will seek can only be obtained by struggle
from below and will never be granted by leaders from above. "The emancipation
of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves. We (Marx and Engels--Ed.) cannot therefore co-operate with people who openly
state that the workers are too uneducated to emancipate themselves and must
be freed from above by philanthropic big bourgeois and petty bourgeois."
(k) As is stated in the international hymn of labour, "No savior from on
high deliver, No trust have we in prince or peer, Our own right hand the
chains must shiver, Chains of hatred, greed and fear!"
(l) (Add) "The historical initiative of the masses was what Marx prized
above everything else."
(m) (Add) "The Marxist...says that there can be no other 'guarantee for
the future' than the stern struggle of economic classes."
340 (a) "...new things always have to experience difficulties
and setbacks as they grow. It is sheer phantasy to imagine that the
cause of socialism is all plain sailing and easy success, without difficulties
and setbacks or the exertion of tremendous efforts."
(b) "The workers can advance toward their world-wide revolution only through
a series of defeats and errors, failures, and weaknesses, but they are advancing
toward it."
(c) "...it is undialectical, unscientific and theoretically wrong to regard
the course of world history as smooth and always in a forward direction,
without occasional gigantic leaps back."
(d) "But has there even been a war, even the most victorious, without any
reverses?"
(e) "There has never been a war in history that was an uninterrupted victorious
advance from beginning to end--at any rate, such wars are very rare exceptions."
(f) "The workers do not lose heart from temporary reverses. They
know that the struggle for freedom is difficult and severe, but that the
cause of freedom is the cause of the whole people. The cause of freedom
will triumph; the struggle will grow in breadth. The workers will recover
from the reverses inflicted upon them. They will rally in still closer
unity against the government. They will gather fresh strength."
(g) (Add) "If there ever existed a revolutionary who hoped that we could
pass to the socialist system without difficulties, such a revolutionary,
such a socialist, would not be worth a brass farthing."
(h) (Add) "We cannot, of course, guarantee...that the struggle will be
an easy and simple one, that victory is completely and absolutely assured.
No one can ever give any such guarantee on the eve of the struggle."
(i) (Add) "I ask you, what is the 'revolutionary' worth who tries to scare
those who have started the revolution with the prospect that it might suffer
defeat? There has never been, there is none, there will not be, nor
can there be a revolution which did not stand some risk of defeat.
A revolution is a desperate struggle of classes that has reached the peak
of ferocity. The class struggle is inevitable. One must either
reject revolution altogether or accept the fact that the struggle against
the propertied classes will be sterner than all other revolutions.
(j) (Add) "Mistakes are inevitable when the masses are fighting, but the
Communists remain with the masses, see these mistakes, explain them to the
masses, try to get them rectified, and strive perseveringly for the victory
of class-consciousness.... It is better to be with the fighting masses,
who, in the course of the struggle, gradually learn to rectify their mistakes,
than with the paltry intellectuals...who hold aloof until 'complete victory'
is achieved...."
(k) (Add) "Let the liberals and terrified intellectuals lose heart after
the first genuinely mass battle for freedom, let them repeat like cowards:
don't go where you have been beaten before, don't tread that fatal path
again. The class conscious proletariat will answer them: the great
wars in history, the great problems of revolutions, were solved only by the
advanced classes returning to the attack again and again--and they achieved
victory after having learned the lessons of defeat. Defeated armies
learn well."
(l) (Add) "Engels once said that defeated armies learn their lessons well.
These splendid words apply in far greater measure to revolutionary armies,
whose replacements come from the progressive classes.... The masses
have to learn mostly from their own experience, paying dearly for every
lesson."
(m) (Add) Lenin said the following to revolutionaries who have suffered
defeat. "Don't be afraid to admit defeat. Learn from defeat.
Do over again more thoroughly, more carefully, and more systematically what
you have done badly. If any of us were to say that admission of defeat--like
the surrender of positions--must cause despondency and relaxation of effort
in the struggle, we would reply that such revolutionaries are not worth a
damn. ...we cannot learn to solve our problems by new methods today
if yesterday's experience has not opened our eyes to the incorrectness of
the old methods."
(n) (Add) "And we know that the masses learn how to make a successful uprising
only from the experience of unsuccessful ones...."
(o) (Add) "A man who has been beaten is worth two who haven't."
Page 163
Socialism will not fall into their laps like a ripe apple from a tree,
341
but must be won through long and arduous struggle
342
against some of the most ruthless and hypocritical exploiters who
have ever lived.343
Most of the rich will stop at nothing to preserve capitalism.
344
Witness the fate of M. L. King, Malcolm X, and the Diem brothers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
341 "We must not depict socialism as if socialists will bring
it to us on a plate all nicely dressed. That will never happen."
342 "The socialist revolution must not be conceived as a sudden,
short blow; it is a prolonged struggle waged by the proletarian masses...."
343 (Add) "...it is not an easy matter to change the existing
order throughout the country. That requires a great deal of effort,
a long and stubborn struggle. All the rich, all the property owners,
all the bourgeoisie will defend their riches with all their might. The
officials and the army will rise to defend the rich class, because the government
is in the hands of the rich class."
344 (a) "This would indeed resemble a madhouse, were it not
for the theory and worldwide experience of the class struggle which have shown
us that the capitalists and their government...will stop at nothing when
it comes to safeguarding their profits."
(b) "Lessons: Bourgeoisie will stop at nothing. Today liberals, radicals,
republicans, tomorrow betrayal...."
(c) Bourgeois politicians behave as do their masters. "Nothing is
too indecent for bourgeois politicians where their interests are concerned."
Page 164
The number of overt and covert acts of violence (imprisonment, torture,
intimidation, beatings, threats, employment dismissal and demotion, etc.)
which have been executed by their agents in Latin American and Asian countries,
particularly Vietnam, is horrendous and sickening. Their latent ruthlessness
comes forth especially during times of violence, guerrilla warfare, and
direct challenge to the existence of private ownership.
345
------------------------------------------------------------------------
345 (a) "History teaches us that the ruling classes have always
been ready to sacrifice everything, absolutely everything: religion, liberty
and homeland, if it was a question of crushing a revolutionary movement of
the oppressed classes."
(b) "The civilisation and justice of bourgeois order comes out in its lurid
light whenever the slaves and drudges of that order rise against their masters. Then this civilization and justice stand forth as undisguised savagery and
lawless revenge. Each new crisis in the class struggle between the appropriator
and the producer brings out this fact more glaringly."
(c) "The 'wall of the Federals' (the wall in front of which the Parisian
communards were shot in 1870--Ed.) at the Pere Lachaise cemetery, where
the final mass murder was consummated, is still standing today, a mute but
eloquent testimony to the frenzy of which the ruling class is capable as
soon as the working class dares to stand up for its rights."
(d) "The truth is that the bourgeoisie, even the most educated and democratic,
now no longer hesitates to resort to any fraud or crime to massacre millions
of workers and peasants in order to save the private ownership of the means
of production."
(e) "...all the regrets and complaints that we hear from non-Party petty
bourgeois intellectuals are simply reactionary. History, which is
propelled by a fierce class struggle, has shown that when the landowners
and capitalists felt that it was a question of the last decisive fight, they
stopped at nothing."
(f) (Add) "...they (the property owners--Ed.) would stop at no crime in
their efforts to smash Soviet (socialist--Ed.) power. Does not the
whole history of socialism, particularly of French socialism, which is so
rich in revolutionary striving, show us that when the working people themselves
take power in their hands the ruling classes resort to unheard of crimes and
shootings if it is a matter of protecting their moneybags."
(g) (Add) Marx once made a related comment in regard to the determination
of capitalists to obtain wealth. "With adequate profit, capital is
very bold. A certain 10% will ensure its employment anywhere; 20% certain
will produce eagerness; 50% positive audacity; 100% will make it ready to
trample on all human laws; 300% and there is not a crime at which it will
scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being
hanged."
(h) (Add) "These are the men of 'Property, Order, Family and Religion."
Page 165
What about Lenin, Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse-tung, Fidel Castro and
other socialistically-minded individuals some will ask. Didn't they
suppress people? Yes, but look at the nature of those treated in this
manner. The latter were thieves, liars, gangsters, and some of the
cruelest exploiters (landowners and capitalists) who ever lived. Justice
was long overdue. 346
Franco, Chiang Kai-Shek, Batista, Trujillo, Diem, and other close
friends of the United States, on the other hand, killed thousands of social
reformers, socialists, peasants, workers, humanitarians, students, and other
people who were sincerely trying to change or eliminate an oppressive and
exploitive system. Anyone who closely observed those who left Cuba after
Fidel Castro's supporters assumed leadership or those who left China after
Mao's group became dominant or those who left the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe after socialists assumed leadership in those areas would have noted
that the overwhelming majority were private property owners or those who
had been indoctrinated to think as property owners. Most of the remaining
number left for religious reasons or left so soon that they never really
gave socialism an opportunity to demonstrate what a tremendous improvement
it would produce. Admittedly, a few departed because they were subjected
to unwarranted treatment, which most socialists truly regret.
347
------------------------------------------------------------------------
346 (Add) "...let the hundreds of newspapers, no matter what
they call themselves--socialist, near socialist, etc.--let hundreds of extremely
loud voices shout at us, 'dictators,' 'violators,' and similar words. We know that another voice is now rising from among the people; they say to
themselves: now we need not be afraid of the man with the gun (i.e., socialist
soldiers--Ed.) because he protects the working people and will be ruthless
in suppressing the rule of the exploiters."
347 (a) (Add) "It goes without saying that this new apparatus
is bound to make mistakes in taking its first steps."
(b) (Add) "The masses must be forewarned. A revolution is a difficult
thing. It is impossible to avoid mistakes."
(c) (Add) "Let the bourgeois press shout to the whole world about every
mistake our revolution makes. We are not daunted by our mistakes.
People have not become saints because the revolution has begun....
For every hundred mistakes we commit and which the bourgeoisie...shout about
to the whole world, 10,000 great and heroic deeds are performed."
(d) (Add) "Of course Bebel (a well-known Marxist--Ed.) made mistakes--who
does not? (Only the dead make no mistakes)."
(e) (Add) "...has it ever happened in history that a new mode of production
took root immediately, without a long succession of setbacks, blunders and
relapses."
(f) (Add) "In the course of a revolution called forth by the strength of
the Soviets there are certain to be all kinds of errors and blunders.
But everybody knows that revolutionary movements are always and inevitably
accompanied by temporary chaos, destruction, and disorder."
(g) (Add) "The leaders of the working class are not angels, saints, or
heroes, but people like anyone else. They make mistakes. The
Party puts them right."
(h) (Add) "The fighting party of the advanced class need not fear mistakes.
What it should fear is persistence in a mistake, refusal to admit and correct
a mistake out of a false sense of shame."
(i) (Add) "Communists are in duty bound, not to gloss over shortcomings
in their movement, but to criticise them openly so as to remedy them the
more speedily and radically."
(j) (Add) "It is natural for all men to err, but only a fool persists in
his error."
(k) (Add) "There can be no struggle without enthusiasm and no enthusiasm
without extremes; and as far as I'm concerned I hate most of all people
who focus their attention on 'extremes' in the struggle of classes, parties,
and factions."
Page 166
But their number is much smaller than capitalist propaganda would have
the world believe and far exceeded by the number of peasants in South Vietnam
alone who had thousands of legitimate grievances against the successive
"governments" financed, supported, and maintained by American capitalists.
Many people will deplore violence and pursue another path,
348
such as elections but their efforts will be in vain.
349
Most of the previous presentation has been an attempt to prove
that if the masses are to solve their problems, private ownership of the means
of production must be abolished. But can this be accomplished through
peaceful discussions, elections, or parliamentary debates? Of course
not!350
Can anyone really believe that somehow billionaires or multi-millionaires
could be talked out of their wealth, could be persuaded to relinquish their
vast holdings for the betterment of humanity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
348 (Add) "To Herr Duhring force is the absolute evil, the
first act of force is to him the original sin; his whole exposition is a
jeremiad on the contamination of all subsequent history consummated by this
original sin.... That force, however, plays also another role in history,
a revolutionary role; that, in the words of Marx, it is the midwife of every
old society pregnant with a new one, that is the instrument with the aid of
which social movement forces its way through and shatters the dead, fossilized
political forms--of this there is not a word in Herr Duhring."
349 "It is a favorite tendency in our country--unfortunately
even among would-be Social-Democrats--to attack 'revolutionary illusions.'
But could anything be more naive than this liberal illusion that the social
basis of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie...and the landlords is 'weak,'
that they can be defeated by other means than a most vigorous and ruthless
revolutionary offensive of the masses, an uprising of the masses?"
350 (a) "Nothing can be achieved by isolated strikes, the parliamentary
struggle, or the vote, because 'private property is sacred'.... There
is no other way out but to abolish the exploiters' private property."
(b) "It is inconceivable that the proletariat should be able to overthrow
capitalism merely by being represented in parliament."
(c) "Only scoundrels or simpletons can think that the proletariat must
first win a majority in elections carried out under the yoke of the bourgeoisie,
under the yoke of wage-slavery, and must then win power. This is the
height of stupidity or hypocrisy; it is substituting elections, under the
old system and with the old power, for class struggle and revolution."
(d) "...to limit...winning to polling a majority of votes in an election
under the rule of the bourgeoisie, or to make it the condition for it, is
crass stupidity, or else sheer deception of the workers."
(e) "To demand that this vanguard should first ensure the support of the
majority of the people through elections to bourgeois parliaments, bourgeois
constituent assemblies, etc., i.e., by elections held while wage-slavery
still exists, while the exploiters exist and exercise their oppression, and
while the means of production are privately owned--to demand this or to assume
it, is actually abandoning the standpoint of the...proletariat and going over
to the standpoint of the bourgeois...."
(f) "In mockery of the teachings of Marx, those gentlemen, the opportunists...'teach'
the people that the proletariat must first win a majority by means of universal
suffrage, then obtain state power, by the vote of that majority, and only
after that, on the basis of 'consistent' (some call it 'pure') democracy,
organise socialism. But we say on the basis of the teachings of Marx
and the experience of the Russian revolution: the proletariat must first
overthrow the bourgeoisie and win for itself state power, and then use that
state power, that is, the dictatorship of the proletariat...."
(g) "Can such a radical transformation of the old bourgeois order be achieved
without a violent revolution.... Obviously not. To think that
such a revolution can be carried out peacefully, within the framework of
bourgeois democracy, which is adapted to the rule of the bourgeoisie, means
that one has either gone out of one's mind and lost normal human understanding,
or has grossly and openly repudiated the proletarian revolution."
(h) "The petty-bourgeois democrats...instill into the minds of the people,
the wrong idea that universal suffrage 'in the modern state' is really capable
of expressing the will of the majority of the toilers and of assuring its
realisation."
(i) "Capitalism and imperialism can be overthrown only by economic revolution.
They cannot be overthrown by democratic transformation, even the most 'ideal'....
Capitalism cannot be vanquished without taking over the banks, without repealing
private ownership of the means of production."
(j) "You may examine all the publications of all the more or less responsible
socialist parties, factions and groups, and you will not find a single responsible
and serious socialist saying anything so absurd as that socialism can ever
come except through civil war, or that the landowners and capitalists will
voluntarily surrender their privileges."
(k) (Add) "Does not the history of the revolutionary movement show that
the parliamentary struggle is only a school for, and an aid in, organizing
the extra-parliamentary struggle of the proletariat, that under capitalism
the fundamental problems of the working-class movement are solved by force,
by the direct struggle of the proletarian masses, their general strike, their
insurrection."
(l) (Add) "History proves conclusively that there can be no such thing
as really free elections."
Page 167
Can anyone seriously entertain the idea of somehow creating or devising
an argument, rationale, or stream of logic that is so convincing, so powerful,
so devastating in its persuasiveness that thousands of billionaires and
multi-millionaires would voluntarily turn over their wealth to the bulk of
humanity without any significant compensation.351
Surely it must be obvious that if property owners were asked
to donate everything to the masses in order to improve the latter's welfare,
laughter would probably erupt. The proposal is so ridiculous as to be
outside the realm of rational thought.352
------------------------------------------------------------------------
351 (a) (Add) "'Expropriation' normally implies deprivation
of property, that is, taking away without compensation."
(b) (Add) "Under no circumstances is it permissible for the Communist Parties
to advocate or practise compensation for the big landowners for the lands
expropriated from them (or to compensate capitalists for the property taken
from them--Ed.)...for under present-day conditions in Europe and America
this would be tantamount to a betrayal of socialism and the imposition of
new tribute upon the masses of toilers and exploited...."
352 (a) "Leninism teaches and experience confirms, that the
ruling class never relinquishes power voluntarily."
(b) "Any socialist who thinks the capitalists are going to renounce their
rights at once is a bad socialist. No, the world has not seen such
kindly capitalists yet. Socialism can only develop through struggle
with capitalism. There has not yet been any ruling class which has
given way without a fight. The capitalists know what Bolshevism is."
(c) "If there is anyone who wants everything to go smoothly without any
revolts, who wants the rich people to hand us a declaration of love on a
salver and promise to hand over all surpluses peacefully, I don't think we
can take him seriously."
(d) "...the very idea of the capitalists peacefully submitting to the will
of the majority of the exploited, the very idea of a peaceful, reformist
transition to socialism, is not merely sheer philistine stupidity but also
downright deception of the workers, embellishment of capitalist wage-slavery,
and concealment of the truth. That truth consists in the bourgeoisie,
even the most enlightened and democratic, no longer hesitating at any fraud
or crime, even the massacre of millions of workers and peasants, so as to
preserve private ownership of the means of production."
(e) "To believe that the capitalist class will 'mend its ways,' will cease
to be a capitalist class, will give up its profits, is a fatuous hope, an
idle dream and in effect a deception of the people."
(f) "Comrades, the experience of our revolution confirms the correctness
of the words which always distinguish the representatives of scientific
socialism, Marx and his followers, from the utopian socialists, from the
petty bourgeois socialists, from the socialist intellectuals and from the
socialist dreamers. The intellectual dreamers, the petty-bourgeois
socialists, thought, and perhaps still think, or dream, that it is possible
to introduce socialism by persuasion. They think that the majority
of the people will be convinced, and when they become convinced the minority
will obey; that the majority will vote and socialism will be introduced.
No, the world is not built so happily; the exploiters, the brutal landowners,
the capitalist class are not amenable to persuasion. The socialist
revolution confirms what everybody has seen--the furious resistance of the
exploiters. The stronger the pressure of the oppressed classes becomes,
the nearer they come to overthrowing all oppression, all exploitation, the
more resolutely the...oppressed peasantry and the oppressed workers display
their own initiative, the more furious does the resistance of the exploiters
become."
(g) (Add) "Actually all these tyrannized, shocked and scared bourgeois,
petty bourgeois (and petty bourgeois intellectuals--Ed.) and 'those in the
service of the bourgeoisie' are frequently guided, without realising it by
that old, absurd, sentimental and vulgar intellectualist idea of 'introducing
socialism,' which they have acquired from hearsay and scraps of socialist
theory, repeating the distortion of this theory produced by ignoramuses and
half-scholars, and attributing to us Marxists the idea, and even the plan,
to 'introduce' socialism. To us Marxists these notions, to say nothing
of the plans, are alien. We have always known, said and emphasized
that socialism cannot be 'introduced,' that it takes shape in the course
of the most intense, the most acute class struggle--which reaches heights
of frenzy and desperation--and civil war...."
Page 168
They have spent years in cut-throat competition and any request for voluntary
submission would be met with: "Are you serious?" In a weak moment of
truth some property owners might say, "Yes, we agree; we are exploiting the
masses and we do arrange society for our benefit. In fact, nearly every
statement you have uttered is true, but for us to willingly step down just
to improve the masses' welfare is out of the question. We admit the
accuracy of nearly every contention you have put forward but we still have
no intention of granting your request." How can the masses reply to
such an attitude except by force? Since private property can not be
abolished through voluntary compliance by the minority, it must be forcefully
imposed by the majority.353
Material conditions have essentially eliminated any viable options.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
353 (a) "The working class would, of course, prefer to take
power peacefully...but to renounce the revolutionary seizure of power would
be madness on the part of the proletariat, both from the theoretical and the
practical-political points of view; it would mean nothing but a disgraceful
retreat in face of the bourgeoisie and all other propertied classes. It is very probable--even most probable--that the bourgeoisie will not make
peaceful concessions to the proletariat and at the decisive moment will resort
to violence for the defence of its privileges. In that case, no other
way will be left to the proletariat for the achievement of its aim but that
of revolution. This is the reason the programme of 'working-class socialism'
speaks of the winning of political power in general without defining the method,
for the choice of method depends on a future which we cannot precisely determine.
But, we repeat, to limit the activities of the proletariat under any circumstances
to peaceful 'democratisation' alone is arbitrarily to narrow and vulgarise
the concept of working-class socialism."
(b) (Add) As Lenin said of the 1917 revolution, "Messieurs the capitalists,
you have only yourselves to blame. If you had not offered such savage,
senseless, insolent, and desperate resistance, if you had not joined in
an alliance with the world bourgeoisie, the revolution would have assumed
more peaceful forms."
Page 169
Understandably, the capitalists are not going to accept change willingly.
Within the last generation America's rulers have trained the national guard
for riot control duty, developed new weapons and techniques of mass control,
jailed those who spoke of the necessity of violence, and pondered a wide
assortment of restrictive laws such as those to ban interstate travel of
supposedly "riot-creating" activists.354
Although incessantly emphasizing peace355
and harmony, they really seek to maintain the status quo with themselves
at the summit. In both domestic and foreign affairs, where force and
bribery are liberally employed,356
the capitalists equate the word "peace" with the phrase "status quo."
They are considered to be synonymous. The Romans instituted Pax Romana
(Roman Peace); the British period of domination was called Pax Britannia,
and the current period of American domination is Pax Americana.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
354 (a) (Add) "The resistance of the bourgeoisie has by no
means ceased. It is growing more vindictive every day; the nearer the
end of the old capitalist world approaches, the faster it grows."
(b) (Add) "The more strongly the working-class movement develops the more
frantic are the attempts by the bourgeoisie...to suppress it or break it
up. Both these methods--suppression by force and disintegration by
bourgeois influence--are constantly employed all over the world..., and one
or another of these methods is adopted alternately by the different parties
of the ruling classes."
(c) (Add) "The experience of world history, the experience of all revolts
of the exploited classes against their exploiters shows the inevitability
of long and desperate resistance of the exploiters in their struggle to
retain their privileges."
(d) (Add) "In no country or state can the working class--even if it is
the most revolutionary--ever be revolutionised by any propaganda and agitation
unless that agitation is backed up in practice by the behavior of the ruling
classes of that country."
355 (a) "The wise bourgeois of an advanced country are for
peace (of course, in order to strengthen capitalism)."
(b) "That is, peace is the best guarantee of 'social peace,' i.e., the
submission of the proletariat to the bourgeoisie, the pacification of the
proletariat, the continuation of the existence of capitalism.... it is obvious
that there are many such peacemakers among liberal and radical bourgeois
of all countries. Add to this (1) that all chauvinists are also for
peace (only on what terms).... (3) that all the sentimental bourgeois and
philistines are 'for peace' from the 'anti-revolutionary,' philistine, slavish,
etc., standpoint."
(c) (Add) "Behind the jeopardizing of the political status quo lurks the
danger of the collapse of the entire bourgeois society."
356 "Modern militarism is the result of capitalism. In both
its forms it is the 'vital expression' of capitalism--as a military force
used by the capitalist states in their external conflicts...and as a weapon
in the hands of the ruling classes for suppressing every kind of (internal--Ed.)
movement, economic and political, of the proletariat."
Page 170
Section II
A MARXIST PART WITH REVOLUTIONARY THEORY IS MANDATORY
The creation of a revolution requires not only adequate material conditions
but also informed, dedicated, militant leadership. Without a vanguard,
without the guiding hand of those who can effectively communicate information
to the masses regarding the overall nature of the problem and its solution,
the latter will blindly stumble from protests to upheaval without any apparent
goal or purpose. Without intelligent leaders their demands will nearly
always be of the trade union variety. Their thoughts will not develop
beyond a trade union consciousness which is entirely within the framework
of private ownership: more pay, shorter hours, slower speeds, better hours,
better conditions, longer vacations, improved benefits, larger pensions,
diminished work load, etc.357
The workers will attempt to obtain a larger share of that which
they produce but only a small fraction of that to which they are entitled. Their efforts will be directed toward the improvement of conditions within
the system rather than the latter's eradication. Occasionally this may
entail strikes and uprisings but there will be no conscious intent on their
part to destroy capitalism; there will be no revolution. Only if a
knowledgeable vanguard has created a class consciousness within the workers,
only if the latter realize they must cease their attacks against individual
employers and unite to overthrow the entire ruling class,
358
can a revolution occur and problems be solved.
359
------------------------------------------------------------------------
357 (a) "The history of all countries shows that the working
class, exclusively by its own efforts, is able to develop only trade-unionist
consciousness, i.e., the conviction that it is necessary to combine in unions,
fight the employers, and strive to compel the government to pass necessary
labour legislation, etc."
(b) "The object of the trade unions is to fight (mainly) against industrial
capital to improve the conditions of the workers under the present capitalist
system. The organizations (trade unions and co-operative societies--Ed.)
mentioned cannot go beyond the limits of capitalism, for their object is
to improve the conditions of the workers under the capitalist system."
(c) (Add) "On the other hand, the industrial workers cannot fulfill their
epoch-making mission of emancipating mankind from the yoke of capital and
from wars if they concern themselves exclusively with their narrow craft,
their narrow trade interests, and smugly confine themselves to attaining
an improvement in their own, sometimes tolerable and petty-bourgeois conditions."
358 (a) (Add) "The task of the Social-Democratic Party (Marxist--Ed.)
is to establish the socialist system and abolish capitalist relations; the
task of the trade unions is to improve working conditions within the framework
of the capitalist system, so as to secure for labour advantageous conditions
for the sale of its labour power...."
(b) (Add) "All that is required is to ensure that this force is used more
consciously, that it is not wasted on wreaking vengeance on some particular
factory owner, on wrecking some hated factory, that the whole force of this
indignation and this hatred is directed against all factory owners combined,
against the entire class of them, that it is expended on regular and persistent
struggle against them."
(c) (Add) "When the workers of a single factory or of a single branch of
industry engage in struggle against their employer or employers, is this
class struggle? No, this is only a weak embryo of it. The struggle
of the workers becomes a class struggle only when all the foremost representatives
of the entire working class of the whole country are conscious of themselves
as a single working class and launch a struggle that is directed, not against
individual employers, but against the entire class of capitalists and against
the government that supports that class. Only when the individual
worker realises that he is a member of the entire working class, only when
he recognises the fact that his petty day-to-day struggle against individual
employers and individual government officials is a struggle against the entire
bourgeoisie and the entire government, does his struggle become a class struggle."
(d) (Add) "...confirmation of the truth that there neither is nor can be
any other means of combating unemployment and crises...than the class struggle
of the revolutionary proletariat against the entire capitalist system.
The rulers of the capitalist state are no more concerned about the vast numbers
of famine and crisis victims than a locomotive is concerned about those whom
it crushes in its path."
(e) (Add) "For the socialist, the economic struggle serves as a basis for
the organisation of the workers into a revolutionary party, for the strengthening
and development of their class struggle against the whole capitalist system.
If the economic struggle is taken as something complete in itself there will
be nothing socialist in it...."
(f) (Add) "By means of strikes, the workers were able in some places to
force concessions from the employers with comparative ease, and this 'economic'
struggle assumed an exaggerated significance; it was forgotten that trade
unions and strikes can, at best, only win slightly better terms for the
sale of labour-power as a commodity. Trade unions and strikes cannot
help in times of crisis when there is no demand for this 'commodity,'....
To change (this condition--Ed.)...a revolutionary struggle against the whole
existing social and political system is necessary; the industrial crisis will
convince very many workers of the justice of this statement."
(g) (Add) "...strikes were simply trade union struggles, but not yet Social-Democratic
struggles....the workers were not and could not be conscious of the irreconcilable
antagonism of their interests to the whole of the modern political and social
system, i.e., it was not yet a Social-Democratic consciousness."
(h) (Add) "The proletariat is revolutionary only insofar as it is conscious
of, and gives effect to, this idea of the hegemony of the proletariat.
The proletarian who is conscious of this task is a slave who has revolted
against slavery. The proletarian who is not conscious of the idea
that his class must be the leader, or who renounces this idea, is a slave
who does not realise his position as a slave; at best he is a slave who fights
to improve his condition as a slave, but not one who fights to overthrow
slavery."
359 (Add) "Our main premise is that unless the masses are politically
conscious there can be no change for the better....unless the masses are politically
conscious, wide-awake and full of determination, no changes for the better
can be brought about."
Page 171
The concept of class struggle, which is so necessary for revolutionary
activity, must be introduced to the workers from the outside. It will
not arise within the labour movement but only through the educational efforts
of a class conscious party.360
Sooner or later some group must not only be able to step back
and view the overall situation correctly, but also be able to describe what
must be done and why.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
360 (a) "We said that there could not yet be Social-Democratic
consciousness among the workers. This consciousness could only be brought
to them from without. The history of all countries shows that the working
class, exclusively by its own effort, is able to develop only trade-union
consciousness...."
(b) "Corresponding to the existence of two classes, two kinds of consciousness
are evolved--the bourgeois and the socialist. Socialist consciousness
corresponds to the position of the proletariat. (2) 'Who can and does
evolve this socialist consciousness (scientific socialism)'? 'Contemporary
socialist consciousness can arise only on the basis of profound scientific
knowledge'...i.e., its evolution 'is a matter for a few Social-Democratic
intellectuals who possess the necessary means and time.' (3) How does
this consciousness penetrate into the proletariat? 'It is here that
Social-Democracy (and not only Social-Democratic intellectuals) comes in,
and introduces socialist consciousness into the working-class movement."
(c) "Socialism is introduced by the ideologists into the proletarian class
struggle, which develops spontaneously on the basis of capitalist relationships."
(d) "It is said that in some countries the working class itself worked
out the socialist ideology...and that, therefore, it is unnecessary to introduce
socialist consciousness into the working-class movement from without. But this is a profound mistake. To be able to work out the theory of
scientific socialism one must stand at the head of science.... But the
working class, while it remains a working class, is unable to stand in the
van of science, to advance it and investigate scientifically the laws of
history; it lacks both the time and the means for that...."
(e) (Add) "...the Menshevik draws the following ridiculous conclusions:
'it is clear that socialism is not introduced into the proletariat from without,
but, on the contrary, comes from the proletariat and enters the minds of those
who adopt the views of the proletariat!"
(f) (Add) As a result of the educational efforts of a class-conscious party,
"The worker sees that his oppressors are not some one capitalist, but the
entire capitalist class, because the system of exploitation is the same
in all establishments.... To secure an improvement in his conditions,
the worker now has to deal with the entire social system aimed at the exploitation
of labour by capital.... Thus, the struggle of the factory workers
against the employers inevitably turns into a struggle against the entire
capitalist class, against the entire social order based on the exploitation
of labour by capital."
(g) (Add) "And so the assistance which the Social-Democratic Party can
render to the class struggle of the workers should be: to develop the workers'
class-consciousness by assisting them in the fight for their most vital needs.
The second type of assistance should consist, as the programme states, in
promoting the organization of the workers.... The third consists in
indicating the real aims of the struggle, i.e., in explaining to the workers
what the exploitation of labour by capital consists in, what it is based
on, how the private ownership of the land and the instruments of labour...compels
them to sell their labour to the capitalists and to yield up gratis the entire
surplus produced by the worker's labour over and above his keep...."
(h) (Add) "The Party's activity must consist in promoting the workers'
class struggle. The Party's task is...to join up with the workers'
movement, to bring light into it, to assist the workers in the struggle they
themselves have already begun to wage.... this assistance must consist,
firstly, in developing the workers' class-consciousness.... The workers'
class-consciousness means the workers' understanding that the only way to
improve their conditions and to achieve their emancipation is to conduct
a struggle against the capitalist and factory-owner class created by the
big factories. Further, the workers' class-consciousness means their
understanding that the interests of all the workers of any particular country
are identical, that they all constitute one class, separate from all other
classes in society."
(i) (Add) "Our Party is the conscious expression of an unconscious process."
(j) (Add) "...our basic, main task is to develop the class-consciousness
and independent class organization of the proletariat, as the only class
that remains revolutionary to the end...."
(k) (Add) "But they (the German communists--Ed.) never cease, for a single
instant, to instill into the working class the clearest possible recognition
of the hostile antagonism between bourgeoisie and proletariat....
(l) (Add) "Both economic and political agitation are equally necessary
to develop the class-consciousness of the proletariat.... every class
struggle is a political struggle."
Page 172
Accurate revolutionary theory is a prerequisite to intelligent action.
361
Without a knowledgeable vanguard the workers will remain under
bourgeois ideological influence, since there is no intermediate approach.
362
The proletariat without the concepts of class struggle and
socialism, a labor movement limited to the trade union struggle, is as foredoomed
to misery and defeat as socialism without the proletariat (The Utopian Socialism
of Saint-Simon and Robert Owen).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
361 (a) "It takes knowledge to participate in the revolution
with intelligence, purpose and success."
(b) "No political party can...lead a...revolutionary movement...unless
it possesses revolutionary theory and a knowledge of history and has a profound
grasp of the practical movement."
(c) (Add) "The world's greatest movement for liberation of the oppressed
class, the most revolutionary class in history, is impossible without a
revolutionary theory."
(d) (Add) "Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary
movement."
(e) (Add) "It was said long ago that without revolutionary theory (as to
where we have been and where we are going--Ed.) there can be no revolutionary
movement...."
(f) (Add) "...the Party must be armed with revolutionary theory, with a
knowledge of the laws of the movement, with a knowledge of the laws of revolution."
(g) (Add) "There can be no more important duty for class-conscious workers
than that of getting to know their class movement, its nature, its aims
and objects, its conditions, and practical forms. That is because the
strength of the working-class movement lies entirely in its political consciousness,
and its mass character."
362 (a) "...the belittling of the role of 'the conscious element,'
of the role of Social-Democracy, means, whether one likes it or not, growth
of influence of bourgeois ideology among the workers. All those who
talk about 'exaggerating the importance of ideology,' about exaggerating the
role of the conscious elements, etc., imagine that the pure and simply labour
movement can work out an independent ideology for itself.... But in
this they are profoundly mistaken.... Since there can be no talk of
an independent ideology being developed by the masses of the workers in the
process of their movement then the only choice is: Either bourgeois, or Socialist
ideology. There is no middle course (for humanity has not created a
'third' ideology, and moreover, in a society torn by class antagonisms there
can never be a nonclass or above class ideology). Hence, to belittle
Socialist ideology in any way, to deviate from it in the slightest degree
means strengthening bourgeois ideology. There is a lot of talk about
spontaneity, but the spontaneous development of the labour movement leads
to its becoming subordinated to bourgeois ideology...for the spontaneous
labour movement is pure and simple trade unionism and trade unionism means
the ideological subordination of the workers to the bourgeoisie. Hence,
our task...is to...divert the labour movement, with its spontaneous trade-unionist
striving, from under the wing of the bourgeoisie and to bring it under the
wing of revolutionary Social-Democracy."
(b) "...all belittling of the role of 'the conscious element,' of the role
of Social-Democracy, means, quite irrespective of whether the belittler
wants to or not, strengthening the influence of bourgeois ideology over the
workers. ...subordination to bourgeois ideology means eliminating socialist
ideology, because one is the negation of the other.... ...the bourgeois
ideologists are not asleep; they, in their own way, disguise themselves as
Socialists (and near-socialists--Ed.) and are tireless in their efforts to
subordinate the working class to bourgeois ideology."
(c) "Isolated from Social-Democracy (Marxism--Ed.), the working-class movement
becomes petty and inevitably becomes bourgeois."
(d) (Add) "But why, the reader will ask does the spontaneous movement,
the movement along the line of least resistance, lead to the domination of
bourgeois ideology? For the simple reason that bourgeois ideology is
far older in origin than Social-Democratic (Marxist--Ed.) ideology; because
it is more fully developed and because it possesses immeasurably more opportunities
for becoming widespread."
(e) (Add) "Marxism is most easily, rapidly, completely and lastingly assimilated
by the working-class and its ideologists where large-scale industry is most
developed. Economic relations which are backward, or which lag in their
development, constantly lead to the appearance of supporters of the labour
movement who assimilate only certain aspects of Marxism, only certain parts
of the new world outlook, or individual slogans and demands, being unable
to make a determined break with all the traditions of the bourgeois world
outlook in general...."
Page 173
Only when socialism is combined with the expanding worldwide proletarian
struggle does it exit from the realm of fantasy and utopias and enter the
world of material reality.363
------------------------------------------------------------------------
363 (a) "What is scientific socialism without the working-class
movement?--A compass which, if left unused, will only grow rusty and then
will have to be thrown overboard. What is the working-class movement
without socialism? A ship without a compass which will reach the other
shore in any case, but would reach it much sooner and with less danger if
it had a compass. Combine the two and you will get a splendid vessel, which
will speed straight toward the other shore and reach its haven unharmed."
(b) Stalin once gave the following historical analysis of this question.
"...there were Socialists and there was a labour movement, but they marched
independently of each other, going separate ways: Socialists toward utopian
dreams...and the labour movement toward spontaneous revolts. Both
operated in the same period (1870's and 1880's) ignorant of each other.
The socialists had no roots among the working population and, consequently,
their activities were abstract, futile. The workers, on the other hand,
lacked leaders, organizers, and consequently, their movement took the form
of disorderly revolts."
(c) "At first socialism the working-class movement existed separately in
all the European countries. The workers struggled against the capitalists,
they organized strikes and unions, while the socialists stood aside from
the working-class movement, formulated doctrines criticising the contemporary
capitalist, bourgeois system of society and demanding its replacement by
another system, the higher, socialist system. The separation of the
working-class movement and socialism gave rise to weakness and underdevelopment
in each: the theories of the socialists, unfused with the workers struggle,
remained nothing more than utopias, good wishes that had no effect on real
life; the working-class movement remained petty, fragmented, and did not
acquire political significance, was not enlightened by the advanced science
of its time. For this reason we see in all European countries a constantly
growing urge to fuse socialism with the working-class movement in a single
Social-Democratic (Marxist--Ed.) movement. When this fusion takes place
the class struggle of the workers becomes the conscious struggle of the proletariat
to emancipate itself from exploitation by the propertied classes....
By directing socialism toward a fusion with the working-class movement, Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels did their greatest service...."
(d) "Isolated from Social-Democracy (Marxian Socialism--Ed.), the working-class
movement becomes petty and inevitably becomes bourgeois. In waging
only the economic struggle, the working class loses its political independence;
it becomes the tail of the other parties and betrays the great principle:
'The emancipation of the working classes must be the act of the working
classes themselves.' In every country there has been a period in which the
working-class movement existed apart from socialism, each going its own way;
and in every country this isolation has weakened both socialism and the working-class
movement. Only the fusion of socialism with the working-class movement
has in all countries created a durable basis for both."
(e) (Add) "Some day, of course, after long wanderings and sufferings, the
spontaneous movement would come into its own, would arrive at the gates
of the social revolution, without the aid of Social-Democracy, because 'the
working class spontaneously gravitates toward socialism.' But what is
to happen in the meantime, what shall we do in the meantime? Fold our
arms across our chests....? Renounce Social-Democracy and thereby help
bourgeois, trade-unionist ideology to predominate?"
(f) (Add) "...spontaneous working-class movement without socialism means
groping in the dark, and, even if it ever does lead to the goal, how long
will it take, and at what cost in suffering;...consequently, socialist consciousness
is of enormous importance for the working class movement."
Page 174
One of the great contributions of Karl Marx to the exploited masses of
the world is that he was the first to combine socialism with the labor movement;
364
his followers must do likewise.365
------------------------------------------------------------------------
364 (a) (Add) "Marxism linked up the economic and the political
struggle of the working class into a single inseparable whole...."
(b) (Add) "The conviction that the class struggle must necessarily combine
the political and the economic struggle into one integral whole has entered
into the flesh and blood of international Social-Democracy (Marxism--Ed.)."
365 (a) "...Social-Democracy is the vanguard of the proletariat,
and its duty is always to be at the head of the proletariat; its duty is 'to
divert the working-class movement from this spontaneous trade-unionist tendency
to come under the wing of the bourgeoisie, and to bring it under the wing
of revolutionary Social-Democracy.' The duty of Social-Democracy is
to imbue the spontaneous working-class movement with socialist consciousness,
to combine the working-class movement with socialism...."
(b) "Social-Democracy is not confined to simple service to the working-class
movement: it represents 'the combination of socialism and the working-class
movement'...; the task of Social-Democracy is to bring definite socialist
ideals to the spontaneous working-class movement, to connect this movement
with socialist convictions that should attain the level of contemporary
science...--in a word, to fuse this spontaneous movement into one indestructible
whole with the activity of the revolutionary party."
(c) "...Social-Democracy does not exist merely to serve the spontaneous
working-class movement (as some of our present-day 'practical workers' are
sometimes inclined to think), but to combine socialism with the working-class
movement."
(d) "The task of the socialist is to further the indissoluble fusion of
the economic and the political struggle into the single class struggle of
the socialist working-class masses."
(e) "Social-Democracy--as Kautsky very justly remarks--is the fusion of
the working class movement and socialism. ...our socialists must set
to work with the utmost energy; they must work out in greater detail the
Marxist conception of the history and present position of Russia (read: the
United States--Ed.), and make a more concrete investigation of all forms
of the class struggle and exploitation, which are particularly complex and
masked in Russia (read: the United States--Ed.). They must, therefore,
popularize this theory and make it known to the worker; they must help the
worker to assimilate it and devise the form of organization most SUITABLE
under our conditions for disseminating Social-Democratic ideas and welding
the workers into a political force."
(f) (Add) "The fusion of socialism with the working-class movement (this
sole guarantee of a strong and truly revolutionary movement) is no easy
matter, and it is not surprising that it is attended by vacillation of every
kind."
Page 175
Marxists must show the masses that only through the abolishment of private
property can they obtain the peace and security which they so ardently desire. Naturally skepticism will be evident at first, but material conditions will
eventually reveal the futility of all other approaches.
366
A party, a vanguard, is indispensable if there is to be effective
unity, a common goal, a common ideology, a co-ordinated methodology, and
a sensible policy.367
------------------------------------------------------------------------
366 (a) (Add) "...the working class of this country is awakening
to the consciousness that it has for some time been moving in the wrong groove;
that the present movements for higher wages and shorter hours exclusively,
keep it in a vicious circle out of which there is no issue; that it is not
the lowness of wages which forms the fundamental evil, but the wages system
itself."
(b) (Add) "But to forget the political struggle for the economic would
mean to depart from the basic principle of international Social-Democracy,
it would mean to forget what the entire history of the labour movement teaches
us. The confirmed adherents of the bourgeoisie and of the government
which serves it have even made repeated attempts to organize purely economic
unions of workers and to divert them in this way from 'politics,' from socialism.... No economic struggle can bring the workers any lasting improvement...."
367 (a) "For the proletariat to be strong enough to win on
the decisive day it must--and this Marx and I have been arguing ever since
1847--form a separate party distinct from all others and opposed to them,
a conscious class party."
(b) "Not a single class in history has achieved power without producing
its political leaders, its prominent representatives able to organize a movement
and lead it."
(c) "...the workpeople from the very beginning cannot do without a strong
organization, well-defined by rules and delegating its authority to officers
and committees."
(d) "In its struggle against the collective power of the possessing classes
the proletariat can act as a class only by constituting itself a distinct
political party, opposed to all the old parties formed by the possessing
classes. This constitution of the proletariat into a political party
is indispensable to ensure the triumph of the social revolution and of its
ultimate goal: the abolition of classes."
(e) "Without such a party it is useless even to think of overthrowing imperialism
and achieving the dictatorship of the proletariat."
(f) "Serious politics can only be promoted by the masses; non-party masses
that do not follow the lead of a strong party are, however, disunited, ignorant
masses, without staying power, prone to become a plaything in the hands of
adroit politicians, who always emerge 'opportunely' from the ranks of the
ruling classes to take advantage of 'favorable' circumstances."
(g) "If there is to be a revolution there must be a revolutionary party."
(h) "Marx and Engels believed that the proletariat...must be guided by
revolutionary theory and led by an advanced revolutionary party....
The founders of scientific socialism showed that without a Communist Party
the proletariat cannot achieve its liberation."
(i) "...the proletarian party...must, firstly, be considerably smaller
than the proletarian class with respect to membership; secondly, it must
be superior to the proletarian class with respect to its understanding and
its experience; and, thirdly, it must be a compact organization. In our opinion,
what has been said needs no proof, for it is self-evident that, so long as
the capitalist system exists, with its inevitably attendant poverty and backwardness
of the masses, the proletariat as a whole cannot rise to the desired level
of class consciousness, and consequently, there must be a group of class-conscious
leaders to enlighten the proletarian army in the spirit of socialism, to unite
and lead it in its struggle."
(j) "Only the Communist Party, if it is really the vanguard of the revolutionary
class, if it really comprises all the finest representatives of that class,
if it consists of fully conscious and staunch Communists who have been educated
and steeled by the experience of a persistent revolutionary struggle, and
if it has succeeded in linking itself inseparably with the whole life of its
class....and in completely winning the confidence of this class...--only
such a party is capable of leading the proletariat in a final, most ruthless
and decisive struggle against all the forces of capitalism. On the
other hand, it is only under the leadership of such a party that the proletariat
is capable of displaying the full might of its revolutionary onslaught,
and of overcoming the inevitable apathy and occasional resistance of that
small minority, the labour aristocracy, who have been corrupted by capitalism,
the old trade union and co-operative leaders, etc.--only then will it be
capable of displaying its full might, which because of the very economic
structure of capitalist society, is infinitely greater than its proportion
of the population."
(k) "In conclusion just a few words about 'authorities,' Marxists cannot
adopt the usual standpoint of the intellectual radical, with his pseudo-revolutionary
abstraction: 'no authorities.' No. The working class, which
all over the world is waging a hard and persistent struggle for complete
emancipation, needs authorities, but, of course, only in the way that young
workers need the experience of veteran fighters against oppression and exploitation,
of those who have organised many strikes, have taken part in a number of
revolutions, who are wise in revolutionary traditions, and have a broad political
outlook. The proletarians of every country need the authority of the
world-wide struggle of the proletariat. We need the authority of the
theoreticians of international Social-Democracy to enable us properly to
understand the programme and tactics of our Party. But, of course,
this authority has nothing in common with the official authorities in bourgeois
science and police politics."
(l) (Add) "The working class needs unity. But unity can be effected
only by a united organization whose decisions are conscientiously carried
out by all class-conscious workers.... Disunited, the workers are
nothing. United they are everything."
(m) (Add) "...the most characteristic feature of working-class political
parties is that they can involve only a minority of their class. A
political party can comprise only a minority of a class, in the same way as
the really class-conscious workers in any capitalist society constitute only
a minority of all workers. We are therefore obliged to recognise that
it is only this class-conscious minority that can direct and lead the broad
masses of the workers."
(n) (Add) "The leadership of the movement should be entrusted to the smallest
possible number of the most homogeneous possible groups of professional
revolutionaries with great practical experience."
(o) (Add) "We must be at the head of the masses, otherwise we are a drop
in the ocean."
(p) (Add) "Social-Democracy must constantly and unswervingly spread the
influence of the labour movement to all spheres of the social and political
life of contemporary society. It must lead, not only the economic,
but also the political, struggle of the proletariat. It must never for a
moment lose sight of our ultimate goal, but always carry on propaganda for
the proletarian ideology--the theory of scientific socialism, viz., Marxism--guard
it against distortion, and develop it further. We must untiringly combat
any and every bourgeois ideology, regardless of the fashionable and striking
garb in which it may drape itself."
(q) (Add) "The party is the politically conscious, advanced section of
the class, it is its vanguard. The strength of that vanguard is ten
times, a hundred times, more than a hundred times, greater than its numbers.
Is that possible? Can the strength of hundreds be greater than the
strength of thousands? It can be, and is, when the hundreds are organized.
Organization increases strength tenfold."
(r) (Add) "...a struggle between two great classes of society necessarily
becomes a political struggle. ...in a political struggle of class
against class, organization is the most important weapon."
(s) (Add) "...the proletariat needs class consciousness and organization
as much as it needs air."
(t) (Add) "To organize, organize and once more organize the proletariat,
in every factory, in every district, and in every city quarter."
(u) (Add) "...on his own the worker is helpless and defenceless against
the capitalist.... Helpless on his own, the worker becomes a force
when organized with his comrades, and is enabled to fight the capitalist
and resist his onslaught."
(v) (Add) "The Marxist organization unites politically conscious workers
by its common programme, common decisions on the attitude to reaction, capitalists,
etc."
(w) (Add) "The strength of the workers and their salvation lie in organization.
Everybody knows that. Today what we need is a special kind of organization
of the workers, the organization of the iron rule of the workers in order
to vanquish the bourgeoisie."
(x) (Add) "Aiming at making the proletariat capable of fulfilling its great
historic mission, the international communist party organizes the proletariat
into an independent political party opposed to all the bourgeois parties,
guides all the manifestations of its class struggle, reveals to it the irreconcilable
antagonism between the interests of the exploiters and those of the exploited,
and explains to the proletariat the historical significance of and the necessary
conditions for the impending social revolution."
(y) (Add) "...(a Marxist party--Ed.) undertakes the task of disclosing
to the workers the irreconcilable antagonism between their interests and
those of the capitalists, of explaining to the proletariat the historical
significance, nature and prerequisites of the social revolution it will have
to carry out, and of organizing a revolutionary class party capable of directing
the struggle of the proletariat in all its forms against the present social
and political system."
(z) (Add) "The socialist activities of...Social Democrats consist in spreading
by propaganda the teachings of scientific socialism, in spreading among
the workers a proper understanding of the present social and economic system,
its basis and its development, an understanding of the various classes in...society,
of their inter-relations, of the struggle between these classes, of the role
of the working class in this struggle, of its attitude toward the declining
and the developing classes, toward the past and the future of capitalism.... Inseparably connected with propaganda is agitation among the workers.... Agitation among the workers means that the Social-Democrats take part in all
the spontaneous manifestations of the working-class struggle, in all the
conflicts between the workers and the capitalists over the working day, wages,
working conditions, etc. etc. Our task is to merge our activities with
the practical, everyday questions of working-class life, to help the workers
understand these questions, to draw the workers' attention to the most important
abuses, to help them formulate their demands to the employers more precisely
and practically, to develop among the workers' consciousness of their solidarity,
consciousness of the common interests and common cause of all...workers as
a united working class that is part of the international army of the proletariat.
To organize study circles among workers,...to publish and distribute working-class
literature,...to publish agitational leaflets and manifestoes and to distribute
them, and to train a body of experienced agitators...."
(aa) (Add) "The whole policy of Social-Democracy is to light up the path
that lies ahead before the masses of the people. We hold aloft the
torch of Marxism and show, by every political and economic event, that life
confirms our doctrines. As capitalism develops, and as the political
struggle becomes more acute, larger and larger sections of the people become
convinced by what we say."
(bb) (Add) Lenin once compared the party leadership to the conductor of
an orchestra. "For the centre not only to advise, persuade, and argue...but
really conduct the orchestra, it is necessary to know exactly who is playing
which fiddle, and where and how; where and how instruction has been or is
being received in playing each instrument; who is playing out of tune (when
the music begins to jar on the ear), and where and why; and who should be
transferred, and how and where to, so that the discord may be remedied, etc."
(cc) (Add) "The Party is where the majority of the class-conscious worker
Marxists who take an active part in political life are to be found....
The Party is where the majority of the workers have rallied around the Party's
decisions, which provide complete, systematic and accurate answers to the
most important problems."
(dd) (Add) "We must not forget that without a common ideological basis
there can be no question of unity."
(ee) (Add) "The Social-Democratic Party is the party of the class-conscious,
militant proletariat. It has no faith in any promises of the bourgeoisie;
it seeks salvation from poverty and want...through the united struggle of
all the working people for socialism."
Page 176
The masses without leadership would be comparable to an army without a
General Staff.368
Imagine a situation in which two forces were facing each other
and one had no leaders or common ideology. If the NLF in Vietnam had
jettisoned a General Staff, its defeat would have been a foregone conclusion. When private property is threatened, members of the ruling class are united
as one. They may disagree over tactics and strategy but the ultimate
goal and employment of leaders are never abandoned. Although workers
may be disorganized and in a chaotic frame of mind, such is rarely true of
property owners. They meet; they plan; they organize; they plot.
369
Every group in the country from the Boy Scouts and the Lion's
Club to university directors and politicians meets and devises strategy. Logically those with more at stake in the system than all others combined
do likewise. Their meetings are secret and permeated with class consciousness.
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368 (a) "The working class without a revolutionary party is
an army without a general staff. The Party is the General Staff of the
proletariat."
(b) "The Party constitutes the officer corps and general staff of the proletariat....
To say that a Communist Party is not needed is equivalent to saying that
the proletariat must fight without a general staff, without a core, who make
a special study of the conditions of the struggle and work out the methods
of fighting; it is equivalent to saying that it is better to fight without
a general staff than with one, which is stupid."
369 (a) "Capitalist are always organized."
(b) "Instead of being faced by the one individual owner of each separate
factory, the workers are now faced by the entire capitalist class and the
government that assists it. The entire capitalist class undertakes
a struggle against the entire working class; it devises common measures against
the strikes.... All the employers are united by the one interest of
keeping the workers in a state of subordination and of paying them the minimum
wages possible. And the employers see that the only way they can safeguard
their interests is by joint action on the part of the entire employing class...."
(c) (Add) "They govern in secret; the people do not and cannot know what
new laws are being drafted, what wars are being hatched, what new taxes
are being introduced, which officials are being rewarded and for what service,
and which are being dismissed."
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