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of the working class. Working class organisation does not yet know what it wants. It does not yet possess such leaders who wish to vanquish the bourgeoisie. Those leaders only wish to flatter that bourgeoisie, to hobnob with it, to compromise with it. The workers possess the physical force. They form the overwhelming majority of the active population. The unions and parties have many members, but neither the unions nor the parties exhibit any definite aim or consciousness of purpose.
Why is it so?
Needless to say there are serious reasons for it. The German capitalists for decades previous to the war, during their peaceful progress, bred a whole class—the labour aristocracy, the so-called labour "leaders"—on crumbs from their lordly table. They reared in this manner several tens of thousands, probably 100,000 by now, of exploiters who are workers by origin, but who have sold themselves body and soul to the bourgeoisie. This is the chief mainstay of the bourgeoisie in Germany. Many years ago Marx used to point out (he observed it in England) the part played by the labour aristocracy, the superior caste of the workers, the caste of foremen, managers, trade union officials, editors, M.P.'s, factory bureaucrats, who for a small bribe were ever ready to sell the interests of the working class. If the capitalists allowed such "leaders" to shake hands with them and offered two fingers only, if the manager of a factory smiled to them and gave them a seat of honour, they would be prepared to sell the whole working class, they would employ every subterfuge in order to help the bougeoisie perpetuate its oppression over the working class. This stratum of the labour aristocracy and bureaucracy is the soil upon which Menshevism was reared in Russia, and social democracy and the Right Independent Party in Germany. This sickly flower sprung up on putrid marshy soil. These labour aristocrats, reared by the bourgeoisie, are now the mainstay of capitalism. A number of countries are now on the very threshold of revolution, but the social democrats prevent them from advancing. The workers cannot get over the last difficulty, which has grown from within. They are not yet capable of crossing the Menshevik barrier. The German working class,
