The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-07-19

directly by the people, were rife
among the revolutionary youth,
as a revulsion from absolutism.
Lenin had to fight against these prim-
tive notions in order to establish his
organization Of "ironsides." 1.-THE
broad democratic principle is i'm
possible without full publicity"
Lenin was a sworn enemy Of the
principle expressed in the words
from the bottom up.S He demanded
that the Party be organized from the
top down. Not on democracy, but on
the mutual faith OF comrades. Vulgar
democratic tendencies in the Party
reflect bourgeois democratic party
tendencies"
Lenin published a reprint of
"What Must We Dor" in 1907, dur
hing the temporary spell of political
freedom under the Duma In the
preface to that edition, he refers to
the organization of professional revo-
lutionaries as having well completed
it's work and planted the party on
impregnable foundations. In the same
connection, he welcomes the intro
duction Of the elective principle in
the party organization owing to the
greater freedom of action. But that
freedom was shortlived. The party
had to return underground. And it
| is only now that the Party, emerging
from the period of civil war, has been
able to apply workers democracy"
to the Party apparatus. Nevertheless,
Comrade Kamenev warned the Party
against vulgar democracy" which is
only bourgeois democracy, excluded
from all other avenues, knocking at
the door of the Party.
Who said that Lenin had no hui
NOR? His was a versatile, many
sided genius. "What Must We Dor"
like all his brochures, teens with hui
morous asides, a certain pawky
Scotch humor which keeps close to
the gist of the matter. He refers for
example to Soubatov, the Czarist
agent, who was known to be in favor
of legalizing trade unions, and who
instigated strikes, Lenin said in eff
feet, "All right, wen gain from it in
spite of the tares in the wheat, we
don't want to grow wheat in flower
pots"
The spirit that animated Lenin
was pride in the working class, I'M
bounded faith in the proletariat. He
denounced any and every attempt to
degrade its political role. 1.-THE con-
seriousness of the working class can
not be truly political one unless the
workers respond to every case of
oppression, violence and abuse, no
matter to what class they are APP
Piled" Up. 7S). When the Cars
government drafted 1873 students of
Kiev University into the army, in
punishment for INSTRUMENTATION, 'Is-
f, kra" called for workers demonstra-
tons of protest. And the workers
responded, fact which Lenin ex-
ultantly shows to the Economists"
This exalted view of the role OF
the proletariat is balanced by a sense
of tremendous responsibility.
"Our backwardness," he says, Twill
be inevitably taken advantage of by
more agile, more energetic 'revolu-
tionaries' outside Social Democracy;
and the workers, no matter how bold
ly and energetically they may fight
the police and the soldiers, no matter
how revolutionarily they may act,
will be only a force in support of
these 'revolutionaries'; they will be
just the rear-guard of bourgeois
democracy, in. stead OF being called
the Socialist Democratic Tread Com
munist) advance guard.
He hurls the word thinkers" again
at the economist" defenders of party
backwardness. And then, all at once,
we have another Lenin, the master,
unsparing above all towards himself.
Don't be aggrieved with me for
fbio horch xuOrd he ooxva ffuNo- -.