The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 9, 1926, Page 13

ey (From. “Iskra,” May, 1901) haf question, “What to do?” is pushing itself to the foreground before the Russian social-democrats with especial force during recent years. It is a question, not of the selection of the road (as was the case at the end of the 80’s and at the beginning of the 90's), but a | question of what practical steps we must taxe and precisely in what manner we must take them along an ascertained road. It is a question concerning a system and plan of practical. activity. And it must be acknow- lgdged that this question of the character and the means of struggle—whch is basic for a practical party— | still remains undetided with us, still excites: very: seri- j ous differences of opinion revealing sad unsteadiness Ne | and vascillation .of thought: On the one ‘hand, the e0- ced Ca- | to marrow thé. work ‘Of political organization and mdency of unprincipled eclecticism, which: adapts jevery new “eurrent,” which cannot distinguish mediate requirements. from. the basie- problems. ie permanent needs of the movement as a whole, ly raised its head as formerly. As is known, such of | tendency built for itself a nest in the “Rabocheye Delo” (“Workers Cause”). Its latest .“‘p og; ” dec: p: | ‘aration—a loud article under a loud title, “The Historic ‘' | Turn” (No. 6 of the “Listok “Rabochatd” Held”): ‘con- ‘irms especially clearly the said characteristic. It was only yesterday that we played with “economism,” that 1€.| we wei@ indigtiant About’ the decisive condemnation of ol-| the! “Rabochaya Misl,” that we were “mollifying” Plek- rs.| hanov’s stand on the question of struggle against auto- \i]- | (Tacy,—and today we are already quoting the words of he | Liebknecht: “If circumstances change in 24 hours, then it is necessary also to change the tactics in 24 hours”; h we are already speaking of a “strong fighting organiza- ©| tion” for a direct attack, for the storming of the auto- nd | cracy, we are speaking of a “broad revolutionary po- O- | litieal agitation’ (there! already, how energetically !— er both revolutionary and poltical!) amongst the mass,” sr-| we are already speaking of aw “untiring call to protest ny | in the streets,” of an “arrangement of street demonstra: 7“ tions of sharply (sic) political character,” ete., and so ‘er | Of and so forth. ed | We could, if you please, express pleasure becausé of the fact that “Rabocheye Delo” has so quickly assim- --}ilated the program which (wei hadvalready put forward | i virgisnumberof ‘Asknai’ Ser sthecerdation. of a as ng, organized «party. directed:toward. the conquest, ly uot only of partial concessions, but of the very strong- hold of autocracy; however, the absence of any firm viewpoint among those who have assimilated it is enuf to spoil all the pleasure. Of course “Rabocheye Delo” mentions Liebknecht’s name in vain. In 24 hours one may change the tactics of agitation in regard to some lls | special quéstion, the tactics of carrying out some detail ic- | of party organization; but to change not only in 24 ic | hours but even in 24 months one’s opinions in regard ile | ‘0, the question whether. a. fighting organization and litical agitation amongst the mass are necessary gen- ey | “Tally, at. all times and unconditionally, is possible only »y, | OF men having no principles. “To refer to the difference ch | of the situation, to the change of periods, is ridiculous: > ~~ Gbdligatory to work for the creation ‘of a fighting zdtion and for the conducting ‘of’ political agita- , Riler.any “grey, peaceful” situation, in thé period oi any sortyof: “decline of revolutionary spirit” ;—more nd | ‘han, than the abave mentioned work is especially nec- essary precisely in such a situation and. inysuch. peri- ry 9 because at the moment of explosions and, flare-ups it is already late to create an ors zatiqn; the organi- zation must be prepared in order at once to develop its activity. “To change tactics in 24 hours!” ‘But in or- der to change tactics, one must first possess tactics, and .|if there’ is no strong omganization, tested in political struggle in every situation and during all periods, then there can, be no talk of that systematic plan of action, illumined with firm ‘principles and being. carried out unwaveringly, which alone deserves the name ¢f. tac- ties. Consider indeed: we are told already that the “historic moment” has put before our party an “entirely question—of terror. Yesterday the question of al organization and agtation Was “entirely new”; all hear how. people, ‘so forgetful of their origin, are ‘dig- cussing @ radical change of tactics? © 9°” , Want 9% Sh moins? 6 i OK ii 7 fF nately, “Rabocheye Delo” 1s wrong, The ques- ror is absolutely not a hew question and it is nil for us briefly'to bring ‘in mind the established views of the Russian social-democracy. _In principle we have never renounced and cannot repounce terror. This is one of the military actions. whch may be entirely suitable and even necessary at a am ment of the battle, when the troops are in a ‘state, and under certain conditions. But the of the matter is exactly this, that‘terror is be- ing’ proposed at tlie present time, not at all as one of ‘operations of an acting army, not as ‘an operation connected with and conforming to the entire sys- of struggle, but,as an independent means of indi- vidual*attack, independent of any army. And in the absence of a central revolutionary organization and in the condition of weakness of the local revolutionary organizations, terror cannot be anythifig else but that. That is why we decisively declare such a means of Where to Begin? “economic” tendency, which attempts to -etnasculate’|, individual heroic strokes, but it is our duty to warn ui the qitéation’of tétror.-Is it not strange to’ Struggle under the given conditions to be untimely, in- expedient, diverting the most active fighters from their real and most important task for the entire movement, and as disorganizing not to the governmental forces, but to the revolutionary forces, Recall the latest events: under our eyes the broad masses of city work- ers and urban “plain people” are surging to battle, but among the revolutionists there is no staff of leaders and organizers. Under such conditions does not the entering of the most energetic revolutionists Into ter- ror threaten to weaken those fighting units upon which alone one can place serious hopes? Does not this threat- en to break the contact between the revolutionary or- ganization and those disunited masses who are discon- tented, protesting and ready for struggle, and which are weak precisely because of their disunion? And yet in this contact lies the only guarantee of our success. We are far from'the thot of denying every significance of with ali energy against preoccupation with terror, against its being acknowledged as the main and basic ‘means, of struggle, to which very, very Many are. so, strongly inclined at present. Terror can never become. an everyday military action: at best it is Julteble ‘paly as one of the methods of a decisive storti-attaek The such a storm attack?” “Ribochéye! Des” s apparently thinks yes. At least it 6xclaitas‘! “Formointo storming columns!” But this again.shows a zeal contrary to rea- m. The chief mass of our military forces is in the volunteers and insurrectionists. As a standing army we have only several small detachments, and even these are not mobilized, not connected with each other, not trained to form themselves into military columns generally, much less into storming columns. Under such Conditions, for any one who is capable of review- ing the general conditions of our struggle without for- getting about them at evéry “turn” of the historical march of events,—it must be clear that our slogan at the present moment cannot be “march to the storm- attack,” but must be “Arrange for the systematic siege of the enemy fortress.” In other words: the immediate :sk of our party cannot be the calling of all available forces right at the present moment to an attack, but must be the call for the working out of a revolutionary organization, capable of uniting all forces and of guid- ing the movement not only in name but in reality, that is, to be always ready for a support of every protest and of every flare-up, using them for the multiplication and strengthening of military forces Suitable for the decisive battle. The Tedshn of the, Pebrudiy,qpid March event Ho vot imposing that one. can hardly, encounter, At bresent any, objections on principle against such a deduction. But what is demanded of us at the present time is, not the solution of the question on principle, but its practical solution. The need is not.only to clarify for oneself precisely what organization is necessary and exactly for what kind of work,—the need is to work out a certain plan for an organization in order that it may be possible to proceed from all directions to construct it. In view of the unpostponable importance of the question we, on our part, decide to propose for the attention of the comrades a sketch of a plan which is being developed by us more in detail in a pamphlet now in course of preparation for. publication. :., According to our opinion the starting point of activ- ity, the first practical step toward the creation of the desired organization,—lastly the basic thread in follow: : ing which we would be able to develop, to deepen and to broaden this organization—must be the establish- ment of an all-Russian political newspaper. We need first of all a newspaper,—without this it is impossible to conduct systematically that many-sided propaganda and agitation, unswerving in principle, which consti- tutes the constant and chief task of the social-democ- racy generally and the especially essential task of the Present moment when the interest. in politics, in the questions of socialism, is awakened in’ the broadest strata of the population. And now as never. before with such force, one feels that the fragmentary agitation: by, means of personal influence, by means of local leaflets, ‘pamphlets, etc., must be completed by that generalized and regular agitation which it is possible to conduct’ only wth the aid of the periodical press, It will hardly be an exaggeration to say that the degree of frequency’ and of the regularity of issue (and of circulation) of the newspaper may serve as a most accurate measure as to “how solidly. we have-established this most primitive and most essential branch of our activity, . Further, it is. precisely an All-Russian paper that we need. If we are not able, and as long as we are not able, to unify our effects upon the people and upon the government by means of the printed word,—the thot of unifying other, more complicated and difficult, but nevertheless moré decisive,means of presstire will be utopian, Our’ movement in the ideological as well as in the ‘prac ‘ organizational respect, is suffering above all from: its fragmentary character, from the fact that. the. oyer- whelming majority of the social-democrats are absorbed almost completely in purely local work, Which narrows | their horizon, their extent of activity and. tneir_con- spiratory skill and preparedness. Precisely in this frag- mehtariness ought one to search for the deepest roots of that unsteadiness and that vascillation about which we were speaking above. And the first step forward on the read of delivery from this shortcoming, on the road of transformation of several local movements into one all-Russian movement, must be the establishment of an BY LENI mend ous Fay the “hand.to _ Zenistv all-Russian newspaper. a@ political newspaper. exposures. reconciliation with police despotism. entirely within the strength of the political newspaper. The role of the newspaper is not limited, however, to the mere spreading of ideas, to political education alone and to the attraction of political allies. The news- tet is not only a collective propagandist and collect- v at gi overh Ke abveneas is least of all expected.* é (Continued on last page of th ' — * it is self-tnderstood that such agents could work successfully only under condition of their complete closeness. to the local committees (groups, circles) of our party. “And'in general the entire plan which we are etehing ‘fs ‘realizable, of course, only with the most active support of the committees, which have more than once taken steps toward the unification which—we are certain—will achieve this unification, if not today then tomorrow, if not in this form, “) peppers Batator, but also a collective oreatehi ath Tast respect it can be compared to the timbers erec’ around a builfling in the course of construction, which outline the contour of the “building, facilitate com- munication between the individual builders, assist them in the distribution of labor and the supervision of the general results attained by the organized work. With the help of the newspaper and in connection with tt, will crystallize of itself a permanent organization, occn- pied not only with local but with the regular general work, training its members attentively to follow po- litical events, to evaluate their significance and their in- fluence. upon the: various’ strata of the population, to work. out expedient ways.of action upon these events on the part of the revolutionary party. The technical task alone—to secure the regular furnishing of the newspaper with material and its regular distribution— compells the creation of a net of local agents of a single party, of agents who are in lively communication with each other, who know the general situation, who ac- custom themselves to fulfill regularly the fragmentary functions of all-Russian work, testing their forces in the organization of these or other revglutionafy actions. This net of agents will be the skeleton of just such an organization as we need: sufficiently large to embrace the entire country; sufficiently broad and many-sided to carry out a strict and detailed division of labor; suf- ficiently tested to be able to conduct its own work un- flinchingly under all circumstances, in all “turns” and emergencies; sufficiently pliant to be able on the one 4 battle in the open field with an enemy of ning. force, ata time, when the enemy’s s concentrated, and on the other hand able to : of the cumberousness of this enemy and -0 attaek. him at the time and place where the attack .* Today we are faced with a/ comparatively easy task of supporting the students _ | who are démonstrating on the streets of the larie’citieg.” Tomorrow we shall be faced perhaps with a more diff.’ cult task, for instance to support the movement of the uhemployed in a certain region. The day after tomor- row we must be at our post to take revolutionary part in a peasant rebellion. Today we must take advantage of that sharpening of the political situation which the -government “created by its offensive against the ro.. ‘Tomorrow we must support the indignation Finally, we need without fail Without a political organ a movement deserving the name of a political movement is unthinkable in modern Europe. Our task—to concen- trate all elements of political discontent and protest, and with these to fertilize the revolutionary movement of the proletariat,—is absolutely unrealizable without a political organ. We made the first step, we awakened in the working class the passion for “economic,” factory; We must make the next step: to awaken in all strata of the people that are conscious in some degree, the passion for political exposures. not be perturbed because the voices of political ex- posure are so weak, so few and so timid at the present time. The reason for this is not at all an overwnelming The reason is that people who are capable and réady to expose do not have a tribune from which they could speak,—there is. no audience passionately listening and encouraging the . (1 orators,—that they see nowhere among the people any)! »; force such as it would be worth the pains to turn to with, thy mplaint against the “omnipotent” Russian gover! titan now all this is changing with tre- ‘apiaity’’’ Such a force is in existence; it is , revolififonary proletariat; it has already proved its question arises: can we at’ the™giveti’ mlnientGat (0 Creadiness not only to listen to and to support a call to political struggle, but also to throw itself courageously . into the struggle. We are now in a position to create, and we are in duty bound to create, a tribune for a na- tion-wide exposure of the czarist government; —the social-democratic newspaper must be such a tribune. The Russian working class, in distinction from other classes and strata of Russian society, manifests a con- stant interest in political knowledge, it presents coy- stantly (and not only during the periods of especial ex- citement) a tremendous demand for illegal literature. In face of such mass demand, with the development of experienced revolutionary leaders already begun—with that state of concentration of the working class which makes it the actual master in the working class quar- ters of a big city, in factory settlement and mill town—~ the establishment of a political newspaper is an affair And thru the proletariat the newspaper will penetrate into the ranks of the city petty bourgeoisie, the village artizans and peasants, and will become a real proletariat. tis is section) of the party and , then in another One must people’s