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

168V. I. LENIN“anarchistic looseness of the organisation”; (2) keeping theworkers keyed up instead of creating a firm “strongholdof class organisation”; (3) the petty-bourgeois-individualisticfeatures of its ideal and of the Proudhon theory; (4)a stupid “aversion to politics”.There are here not a few points of resemblance to the old“Economism” among the Russian Social-Democrats. HenceI am not so optimistic as Comrade Voinov in regard to a“reconciliation” with revolutionary Social-Democracy onthe part of those Economists who have gone over to syndicalism.I also think that Comrade Voinov’s proposals for a“General Labour Council as a superarbiter, with the participationin it of Socialist-Revolutionaries, are quite unpractical.This is mixing up the “music of the future” with theorganisational forms of the present. But I am not in theleast afraid of Comrade Voinov’s perspective, namely:“subordination of political organisations to a class socialorganisation” ... “only when [I am still quoting ComradeVoinov, stressing the important words] ... all trade-unionistswill have become socialists”. The class instinct of theproletarian mass has already begun to be manifested in Russiawith full force. This class instinct already provides tremendousguarantees both against the petty-bourgeois woollinessof the Socialist-Revolutionaries and against the Mensheviks’servility to the Cadets. We can already boldlyassert that the mass workers’ organisation in Russia (ifit were to be created and in so far as it is for a minute created,if only by elections, strikes, demonstrations, etc.)is sure to be closer to Bolshevism, to revolutionary Social-Democracy.Comrade Voinov rightly regards the “labour congress”adventure as a “frivolous” affair. We shall work hard inthe trade unions, we shall work in all fields to spread therevolutionary theory of Marxism among the proletariat andto build up a “stronghold” of class organisation. The restwill come of itself.Written in November 1907First published in 1933in Lenin Miscellany XXVPublished accordingto the manuscript