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

TRADE-UNION NEUTRALITY463trade unions in the economic struggle with their non-partycharacter. “The Stuttgart Congress,” they write, “definitelystood also for the independence (the non-partisanship)of the unions, i.e., rejected the viewpoint of both the Bolsheviksand the Mensheviks.” This conclusion is drawn fromthe following words in the Stuttgart resolution: “Each of thetwo organisations [the Party and the trade union] has itsown sphere, determined by its nature, and within which itmust act quite independently. At the same time, however,there is an ever expanding sphere,” and so on, as quoted above.Yet we find wags who mixed up this demand for the “independence”of the trade unions in the “sphere determinedby their nature” with the question of the non-partisanshipof the unions or their close alignment with the Party in thepolitical sphere and in dealing with the tasks of the socialistrevolution!In this way our S.R.’s completely suppressed the fundamentalissue of the appraisal of the “neutrality” theory,a theory that in fact serves to strengthen the influence ofthe bourgeoisie over the proletariat. In place of this fundamentalissue, they preferred to speak only of the specificallyRussian situation where there are several socialist parties,and did so in such a way as to throw a false light on whathappened at Stuttgart. “One cannot argue that the Stuttgartresolution is hazy,” writes Znamya Truda, “for Mr. Plekhanovremoved all haziness and doubt when he addressedthe International Congress as the Party’s official representative;and so far no statement has been issued by the CentralS.D. Committee that ‘such a statement by ComradePlekhanov disorganises the ranks of the united party...’.”Gentlemen of the S.R. Party! You are entitled, of course,to speak ironically about our C.C. having called Plekhanovto order. You are entitled to think that one can respect, say,a party which officially does not condemn Mr. Gershuni’spro-Cadet conduct. But why tell a plain untruth? Plekhanovwas not the representative of the S.D. Party at the StuttgartCongress, but only one of its 33 delegates. And what he representedwas the views not of the S.D. Party but of the presentMenshevik opposition to that Party and to its Londondecisions. The S.R.’s cannot but be aware of this, whichmeans they are telling a deliberate untruth.