Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

110EXPLANATORY NOTEON THE DRAFT OF THE MAIN GROUNDSOF THE BILL ON THE EIGHT-HOUR WORKING DAYII*In the present, second part of the explanatory note we intendto dwell on the question of the type of the Social-DemocraticBill on the Eight-Hour Working Day for the ThirdDuma and on the grounds explaining the basic features ofthe Bill.The original draft in the possession of the Duma Social-Democratic group and given to our subcommittee could betaken as a basis, but it has required a number of alterations.The main aim of the Bills introduced by the Social-Democratsin the Third Duma must lie in propaganda and agitationfor the Social-Democratic programme and tactics. Anyhopes of the “reformism” of the Third Duma would not onlybe ludicrous, but would threaten completely to distort thecharacter of Social-Democratic revolutionary tactics andconvert it into the tactics of opportunist, liberal socialreformism.Needless to say, such a distortion of Social-Democratic Duma tactics would directly and emphaticallycontradict the universally binding decisions of our Party,viz.: the resolutions of the London Congress of theR.S.D.L.P. and the resolutions, confirmed by the Central* The first part of the first chapter of the explanatory note shouldinclude a popular account, written in as propagandist a manner aspossible, of the reasons in favour of the eight-hour working day, fromthe point of view of the productivity of labour, the health and culturalinterests of the proletariat, and the interests in general of itsstruggle for emancipation.