The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-12-19
Plekhanoff's Memory.

went to his funeral.
Plekhanoff's Memory.
Now that he is dead, now that the
Russian revolution has consolidated
itself and his power for harm has
disappeared, the Russian working
class is ready to acknowledge his
great services in the development of
their movement.
Plekhanoff's works have been pub
lished in a tremendous edition by the
state publishing house and are used
as textbooks and spread broadcast
among the Russian masses. But when
he died in the midst of the revolu-
tionary struggle, while ,counter-revo-
luton still threatened, and while
| there were hostile armies on the soil
of the Soviet Union, then the Rus
sian Communists were too busy max
ing history to be overnice about rec
ording it. 1t was far more important
to attack his misleadership than to
he represented an enemy of the work
ing class all the more dangerous on
account of mis- former influence and
prestige.
The Renegade kautsky.
CIMILARLY, there is the case Of
Kautsky Today he is an enemy
of the working class, and there is no
conscious worker that does net hate
and struggle against him.
Yet in the past Kautsky, toe, gave
| important service to the international
labor movement.
Today the thing that is important
about Kautsky is the fact that he is
renegade, an enemy of the working
class. Perhaps long after his death,
when his power for harm is gone and
when his power to hurt the labor
movement is at an end, there may
be more emphasis placed upon his
past services and contributions to,
Malxism and a little less upon his
treachery and renegacy.
''What Are You Doing Today"
Many workers find it hard to think
| clearly about comrades like Trotsky
and Zinoviev. They are blinded by
their past services and are not even
willing to attempt to analyze the
present political significance of their
actions, and their proposals.
( Past services, while they entitle to
O. place in the recording of the past,
in the writing Of history, are no sub
stitute for present services.
A man is only leader because he
sees farther in the right direction
than do others, because ne points out
the path and himself takes the lead
in marching along it. The same man,
when he sees less clearly or when he
sees wrongly and points a path in a
wrong direction, is no longer lead
er. Let him not dare to say: Look
what did for the movement yester-
day"
For the working class must always
answer: "But what are you doing
for the movement today?"
1t is useless for him to urge. con
such an such an occasion was right"
when it is clear to all conscious work
ers that on the present occasion he is
wrong.
No Room for Blind Hero-W Worship.
IT is hard for admirers of Trotsky
ard Zinoviev to believe that they
represent a tendency hostile to the
interests of the working class today,
as it was hard for admirers of Kaut-
sky to believe that of him in 1914,
OF for admirers of Plekhanoff to be-
leve it Of him in 1917:
But the revolutionary movement
has no place for blind worship.
History subjects every leader to con-
tinual test, and the workers ask at
every moment: "Where are you lead
;ng?"
The vanguard Of the working class
is not made up of blind followers, and
the wisdom of no individual is greater
than the collective wisdom of the
party that judges him and that places
him in a position of trust and removes
him from that position according to
how he serves at any given moment.
Therefore, in considering the ques-
ton of the controversy in the Com
munist Party of the Soviet Union,
4 it is necessary for workers. to strip
themselves of personal prejudices in
favor Of one or another individual and
to examine closely the tendencies that
each individual represents. One must
see beyond persons to political trends,
beyond eloquence and binding phrases
to their objective content, beyond even
the subjective Intentions of individ-
uals to the actual objective direction
in which they are leading.
Not even the question of personal
sincerity is involved for very often a
leader may firmly believe that his
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