Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

120V. I. LENINlatter was true of England in the nineteenth century, andit is true of Germany, etc., now.Engels draws a distinction between the “bourgeoislabour party” of the old trade unions—the privileged minority—andthe “lowest mass”, the real majority, and appealsto the latter, who are not infected by “bourgeois respectability”.This is the essence of Marxist tactics!Neither we nor anyone else can calculate precisely whatportion of the proletariat is following and will follow thesocial-chauvinists and opportunists. This will be revealedonly by the struggle, it will be definitely decided only bythe socialist revolution. But we know for certain that the“defenders of the fatherland” in the imperialist war representonly a minority. And it is therefore our duty, ifwe wish to remain socialists, to go down lower and deeper,to the real masses; this is the whole meaning and thewhole purport of the struggle against opportunism. By exposingthe fact that the opportunists and social-chauvinistsare in reality betraying and selling the interests of themasses, that they are defending the temporary privileges ofa minority of the workers, that they are the vehicles ofbourgeois ideas and influences, that they are really alliesand agents of the bourgeoisie, we teach the masses toappreciate their true political interests, to fight forsocialism and for the revolution through all the long andpainful vicissitudes of imperialist wars and imperialistarmistices.The only Marxist line in the world labour movement isto explain to the masses the inevitability and necessity ofbreaking with opportunism, to educate them for revolutionby waging a relentless struggle against opportunism, to utilisethe experiences of the war to expose, not conceal, theutter vileness of national-liberal labour politics.In the next article, we shall try to sum up the principalfeatures that distinguish this line from Kautskyism.Written in October 1916Printed in SbornikSotsial-Demokrata No. 2,December 1916Signed: N. LeninPublished according tothe Sbornik text