Page:Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - On Organization (1926).pdf/66
LENIN ON ORGANIZATION
Democrats must inevitably be different from the organizations of the workers designed for the latter struggle. The organizations of the workers must in the first place be trade organizations; secondly, they must be as wide as possible, and thirdly, they must be as little conspiratorial as possible (here, of course, and below, I have only autocratic Russia in mind). On the other hand, the organizations of revolutionaries must be comprised first and foremost of people whose profession consists of being revolutionaries (that is why I speak of organizations of revolutionaries, meaning revolutionary Social Democrats). In face of this common characteristic the members of such an organization must abandon all distinction between workers and intellectuals, let alone distinctions between trades and professions. Such an organization must of necessity be not too extensive and as conspiratorial as possible. Let us dwell upon this threefold distinction.
In countries where political freedom prevails the distinction between trade union and political organizations is as clear as the distinction between trade unionist and Social Democrat. The relation of the latter to the former will naturally vary in each country according to historical legal and other conditions,—it may be more or less close and more or less complex (from our point of view it should be as close and as little complex as possible), but in free countries there can be absolutely no question of the organizations of the trade unionists and the
64