Page:Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - On Organization (1926).pdf/68

cratic movement. Such people perhaps argue that the later a country appears in the arena of capitalism, the more may the Socialists of that country take part in and support the trade union movement, and the less reason is there for non-Social Democratic trade unions. So far the argument is absolutely right; but unfortunately it goes beyond that and hints at the complete fusion of Social Democracy with trade unionism. We shall soon see from the example of the statutes of the Petersburg Fighting Union (3) what a harmful effect this has upon our plan of organization. The workers' organizations for carrying on the economic struggle should be trade union organizations; every Social Democratic worker should as far as possible support and actively work within these organizations. That is true. But it would be far from our interests to demand that the members of "craft" unions should be exclusively Social Democrats. The effect of that would only be to narrow our influence over the masses. Let every worker who understands that a union is necessary in order to carry on the struggle against the masters and the government take part in the craft unions. The very objects of the craft unions would be unattainable unless they united all who were open to even this elementary level of understanding, and unless they were extremely wide organisations. The wider these organizations are the wider our influence over them will be. The influence will be exerted not only by the "elemental" development of the economic strug-