Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

NOTES547ist and syndicalist nature. They refused to fight for the partialdemands of the working class, and shied away from activity inreformist trade unions, and this lost them what ties they hadwith the mass labour movement. During the First World War,the Socialist Labour Party inclined to internationalism. Underthe influence of the Great October Socialist Revolution, its morerevolutionary members took part in setting up the CommunistParty of the United States. At present, the Socialist Labour Partyis a small group without any influence on the U.S. labour movement.p. 17576See Note 6. p. 18077787980The reference is to the large anti- war manifestations in Turin,Italy, in August 1917. A demonstration against the food shortagebroke out on August 21. The workers struck the following day,and a general strike followed. Barricades were thrown up. Themovement assumed a political, anti- war character. On August 23,Turin’s suburbs were in the hands of the insurgents. The Governmentthrew the army against them and imposed martial law.The general strike was called off on August 27. p. 182Black Hundreds—monarchist gangs organised by the tsarist policeto fight the revolutionary movement. They killed revolutionaries,attacked progressive intellectuals and provoked anti- Jewishpogroms. p. 185The Meeting of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. on October10 (23), 1917, was the first one Lenin attended after his returnto Petrograd from Vyborg. Sverdlov was in the chair. Lenin gavea report on the current situation. The Central Committee adoptedthe resolution motioned by Lenin who proposed immediate preparationsfor an armed uprising. Only Zinoviev and Kamenevvoted against the proposal. Trotsky abstained, but he held thatit had to be postponed until the Second Congress of Soviets, whichin practice meant bungling the insurrection and allowing theProvisional Government to pull up its forces to crush the uprisingon the day the Congress opened. The Central Committee rebuffedthe capitulants. The October 10 meeting of the Central Committeeis of tremendous historical importance. The resolution on theuprising adopted by 10 to 2 became the Bolshevik Party’s directivein starting immediate preparations for an insurrection. Todirect the insurrection, the Central Committee set up a PoliticalBureau headed by Lenin. p. 188The reference is to Sverdlov’s report to the Central Committeeon October 10 (23), 1917, on the third item of the agenda: “Minskand the Northern Front”. He said that there was a technical possibilityof staging an armed uprising in Minsk, and that Minsk hadoffered to send a revolutionary corps to help Petrograd.p. 189