Part 7. Economism - The polemic.
As Lenin said: "I think it is necessary to launch a direct polemic against
Robochaya Mysl, ..". He was to find much opposition to this suggestion in
the underground S-D press. A very difficult period was to begin in the
effort to establish an editorial board to launch a newspaper that would
agree with Lenin, to allow "open" debate in its columns, to discuss the
differences in Social-democracy; differences arising and concerning party
policy based primarily on either economism or revolutionary socialism. The
struggle against the "economist" trend was interwoven with the need to
establish a revolutionary newspaper to serve "all-Russia". This
contradiction with economism would dominate the development of scientific
socialism for some time, being, as Lenin would describe it, a retrograde
trend in Social-Democracy. The course of the struggle of the two
contradictory aspects can be followed, commencing with the 'Articles For
Robochaya Gazeta' below:(1899). Lenin C/W vol.4:
'Letter To The Editorial Group'(Robochaya Gazeta):
"I think it necessary to launch a direct polemic against Robochaya Mysl,.."
V.4. p.208.
'Our Programme':
"We think that an independent elaboration of Marx's theory is especially
essential for Russian socialists... We shall therefore gladly afford space
in our paper for articles on theoretical questions and we invite all
comrades openly to discuss controversial points." ...Some Russian
Social-Democrats (among them apparently those who direct Robochaya Mysl)
regard the economic struggle as incomparably the more important and almost
go so far as to relegate the political struggle to the more or less distant
future. This standpoint is utterly false. All Social-Democrats are agreed
that it is necessary to organise the economic struggle of the working class
...But to forget the political struggle for the economic would mean to
depart from the basic principle of Social-Democracy it would mean to forget
what the entire history of the labour movement teches us." p.212.
"No economic struggle can bring the workers any lasting improvement, or can
even be conducted on a large scale, unless the workers have the right freely
to organise meetings and unions, to have their own newspapers..But in order
to win these rights it is necessary to wage a political struggle. In Russia,
not only the workers but all citizens are deprived of political rights"
p. 213.
'Our Immediate Task':
"The necessity to concentrate all forces on establishing a regularly
appearing and regularly delivered organ arises out of the peculiar situation
of Russian Social-Democracy.." p.219.
'An Urgent question':
"In the previous article we said that our immediate task is to establish a
party organ...
Here we come to the the most urgent question of our movement, to its sore
point-organisation." p.221.
>From the above, it will be seen that Lenin knew that the contradiction
between revolutionary socialism and economism is best dealt with by bringing
it to the surface, to expose both aspects to the widest possible debate and
in order to do so Russian Social-Democracy needed an organ that was willing
to allow open debate. The economists would obstruct this revolutionary
suggestion.
In the article, 'A Retrograde Trend In Social-Democracy. (1899) Vol. 4.S/W.
published in the magazine 'Proletaskaya Revolutsiya', Lenin begins the open
polemic against the economist trend, still being led by the editorial Board
of Robochaya Mysl, saying:
"We are very glad that Robochaya Mysl is at last raising programmic
questions which, until now, it sought to ignore, but we emphatically protest
against the statement that the "trend of Robochaya Mysl is that of
progressive Russian workers." p.255.
After great difficulty, Lenin established the Iskra in Dec. 1900, the first
All-Russian revolutionary paper. In the first issue Dec.in 1900 was the
'Urgent Tasks Of Our Movement'(Vol. 4.S/W. opposing again, the "economists',
placing the emphasis on political work for S-D:
"From this condition emerges the task which Russian Social-Democracy is
called upon to fulfill - to imbue the masses of the proletariat with the
ideas of socialism and political consciousness and to organise a
rvolutionary party inseparably connected with the spontaneous working-class
movement." pp.368-9.
Also in the Dec.1900 issue of Iskra, was, 'In The Split In The Union
Abroad'. Vol. 4.S/W. Noting the "extremism" of the economist trend, that:
"The most important thing, from our point of view, is the fact that
Robochaya Dyelo (the journal of the Union of S-D Abroad) was in the wrong in
this controversy; it erroneously denied the existence of the "economist"
trend; it advocated the wrong tactics of ignoring the extremism of this
trend and of refraining from combating it openly.
The polemic continued in a number of other articles such as:
'Where To begin' and 'What is to be done' (Vol.5. C/W). where Lenin accuses
the "economists" (Robochaya Mysl and Dyelo) outright, of "cringing before
spontaneity".
The ideological struggle against economism would continue until the
organisational and political success of Iskra's revolutionary policy became
obvious and to be ultimately recognised by the 2nd. Congress of the
R.S.D.L.P in Aug. 1903. Whereby the majority of the local S-D organisations
in Russia had adopted the the Iskra position, approving its programme,
organisational plan and tactical line; recognising and adopting by
resolution, Iskra, as their leading organ. (see note 120, p.450-2. Vol. 4.
S/W.) But already, the agents of the bourgeoisie for diverting the
revolutionary course of Russian S-D were appearing in a new garb, the
Mensheviks were coming onto the scene.
The evolutionary path to socialism is nothing other than proletarian
submission to the bourgeoisie following the overthrow of the feudal state,
leading to parliamentary socialism,(or modern bourgeois social-democracy)
The Russian counter-revolutionary groups had ample historical proof of this,
in their surrounding capitalist states. In this first round, the Russian
revolutionary socialists had successfully defended the ideology of "the
independent elaboration of Marx's theory ...especially essential for Russian
socialists" a revolutionary path to socialism in Russia.
Next we will look at the new form, or tactic of the bourgeoisie to divert
the Russian proletarian revolutionaries from their unique task to conduct a
political revolution following a political revolution.
fraternally Alan.
'Where To Begin'
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