Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 13 - From Marx to Mao

CONFERENCE OF ST. PETERSBURG ORGANISATION139wing Cadets or the “Left” Octobrists in the presiding committee,or in the form of an Information Bureau with theparticipation of the Cadets, or by adapting our actions totheir policy, etc.) would now directly harm the cause ofclass education of the mass of the workers and the cause ofthe revolution.3. While upholding their socialist aims in full and criticisingfrom this standpoint all the bourgeois parties, notexcepting the most democratic and “Trudovik” of them,the Social-Democrats in their propaganda, should giveprominence to the task of making it clear to the broadmasses that the Third Duma fails completely to meet the interestsand demands of the people, and in this connection[they should conduct] widespread and vigorous propagandafor the idea of a constituent assembly based on universal,direct, and equal suffrage by secret ballot.4. One of the principal tasks of Social-Democracy in theThird Duma is to expose the class nature of the government’sand the liberals’ proposals with special attentionto questions affecting the economic interests of the broadmasses (the labour and agrarian questions, the budget,etc.)—the more so as the composition of the Third Dumapromises exceptionally abundant material for the propagandaactivities of the Social-Democrats.5. In particular, the Social-Democrats in the Dumashould use the right to make interpellations, for which purposethey should co-operate with other groups to the leftof the Cadets without in any way retreating from the programmeand tactics of Social-Democracy and without enteringinto any kind of blocs.To avoid a repetition of the mistakes made by the Social-Democratsin the Second Duma, the Social-Democraticgroup should immediately propose to the Left, and onlyto the Left, deputies of the Duma (i.e., those capable offighting the Cadets) the formation of an Information Bureauwhich would not bind its participants but would enable theworkers’ deputies to exert systematic influence upon thedemocratic elements in the spirit of Social-Democraticpolicy.Proletary, No. 19,November 5, 1907Published accordingto the text in Proletary