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

TASKS OF LEFT ZIMMERWALDISTS143IV. THE IMMEDIATE TASKS OF PARTY PROPAGANDA,AGITATION AND ORGANISATION20. Effective operation of the Aarau decision on therevolutionary mass struggle is impossible without systematicand persistent efforts to extend Social-Democratic influenceover the masses, without drawing into the movement new strataof the toiling and exploited masses. Propaganda and agitationfor the social revolution must be conducted more concretely,more explicitly, and on pressing practical issues. Thiswill make it understood not only by the organised workers,FROM MARXTO MAOwho under capitalism will always remain a minority of theproletariat and of the oppressed classes in general, but also⋆by the majority of the exploited, who are incapable of systematicorganisation because of the terrible oppression ofcapitalism.21. To influence broader masses, the party must organisemore systematic publication of leaflets for free distribution.These should explain to the masses that the revolutionaryproletariat is fighting for the socialist transformationof Switzerland, which is necessary for and in theinterests of nine-tenths of the population. Open competitionsshould be organised NOT between FOR all party branches, particularlythe youth organisations, for the best distribution ofsuch leaflets, and street and house-to-house propaganda.More attentionCOMMERCIALand effort must be devoted to propagandaamong the rural workers, agricultural labourers and day-labourers,and also DISTRIBUTIONamong the poor section of peasants who donot exploit hired labour and do not profit, but suffer,from the high cost of living. The party should demand ofits parliamentary representatives (National-, Kantons-,Gross-, and other Räte) that they utilise their particularlyadvantageous political position, not for idle reformistparliamentary talk, which naturally only bores the workersand rouses their suspicion, but for propaganda for thesocialist revolution among the most backward strata of theproletariat and semi-proletariat in urban, and particularlyrural, areas.22. A decisive break with the theory of “neutrality” ofthe industrial organisations of the working class, office