The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-23
Marx, Lenin, and Stain on the
Role Of the Communist Party

the proletarian revolution. The open
ing of this century ushered in the his
toric period of proletarian revolutions,
following the thirty years of quiet"
subsequent to the defeat of the Paris
Commune. The forces were gathered
for the bourgeois democratic revolu-
ton that was to overthrow czarist
autocracy. But was this bourgeois
democratic revolution to be a mere
repetition of the revolution of 1843?
Was it to end in entrenching CAPT
talism in Russia?
Against the affirmative answer of
the opportunists, the Russian MEM
sheviks, Lenin declared that in the
epoch of imperialism the proletariat
is ripe to push the revolution forward
from its bourgeois democratic to its
socialist stage. The question resolved
itself into this: Shall the impending
revolution establish the complete die
tatorship of capitalism Or shall it
appropriate the capitalist class and
set up the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat?
Around this question developed the
struggle over the function and the
structure of the party. The men,
sheviks were content with a loose,
shapeless. ill-disciplined party. They
wanted to open the doors of the
Party to all corners, to infest it's
rank with bourgeois elements, to ne
gate its role as vanguard. Lenin
stressed the need for a party of
new type, monolithic, fighting or
ganization with its strength in quail
ity, in centralism, in disciplined
methods of work = the party that
shall be in the real sense the van
guard marching at the head of the
working class movement toward seiz-
ure of power.
The issue was clear: the struggle
between the revolutionists and the
opportuniSts was irreconciiable. In,
1903, at the second congress of the
Russian Social Democratic Labor
Party, the majority, the proletarians,
the Marxists, went to the side of
Lenin, shortly afterWard forming the
Bolshevik MAJORITY Party. The
minority. the opportunists, the petty
bourgeois elements, the pseudo-I
lists, took the side of menshevism.
eventually degenerating into social
patriotism and counter-revolution.
HISTORY has demonstrated the
III correctness of Leninism. 1t was
through the establishment of the
Russian Bolsheyik Party under the
leadership of Lenin that the Russian
workers and peasants were able to
overthrow the capitalist oppressors
and to establish the Soviet system. 1t
is under the guidance of the Bolshe-
vik Party, led by Comrade Stain,
Lenin's foremost disciple, that the
workers and peasants of the Soviet
Union have succeeded in laying the
foundation of socialist economy and
are now roceeding to fulfill the Sec
ond, Five-Yea Plan for the estab-
lishment of the classics society.
7 ENIN stressed the need of keeping
Il the Party cleansed from all OPP
portunist elements, from all carriers
of bourgeois teachings. Lenin stressed
the need on the part of the Party
for being thoroughly self-critical in
order to be thoroughly self-corrective.
Above all. he stressed the need for
iron discipline in the Party, for CO.
ordinating the activity and the re-
yolutionarv will of the Party men,
bership or the priniclr,e of democra-
tic centralisn,. Len.n mode it clear
that bol5hevik discinlire Is not blind
obedience to dogma. as the enemies
of the working class would have it
believed. Such discipline is value,ess,
nay. harmful. to the Revolutionary
Party. The discipline of the Com
munist Party is resoluteness sprinT-
ing from q clea- urderste nding of the
relationship of the Party program to
the basic theory UPON which tne
Party formu'ates its strategy and tao
tics Only through preserving its dis
cipline. through guarding it zealouslv
against all enemies from within and
without, can the Party be the solidi-
fed VANGUARD le~ding the STRUGGLES OF
the WORKING class.
The teachirgs Of Marx and Lenin
on the Party are being carried out
and further DEVELOPED by Con-ade
Stain. THE proletariat needs the
Party" declares Conrade St2lin, "for
Continued on Page Five)