active political struggle" (resolution passed by the congress of the League and "amendments" thereto). [Two Congresses, pp. 11 and 17]. As the reader will observe, all these postulates permeate Rabocheye Dyelo, from its very first number to the recently issued Instructions by the Editorial Committee, and all of them evidently express a single view regarding political agitation and the political struggle. Examine this view from the standpoint of the opinion prevailing among all Economists, that political agitation must follow economic agitation. Is it true that in general,[1] the economic struggle "is the most widely applicable method" of drawing the masses into the political struggle? It is absolutely untrue. All and sundry manifestations of police tyranny and autocratic outrage, in addition to the evils connected with the economic struggle, are equally "widely applicable" as a means of "drawing in" the masses. The tyranny of the Zemstvo chiefs, the flogging of the peasantry, the corruption of the officials, the conduct of the police towards the "common people" in the cities, the fight against the famine-stricken and the suppression of the popular striving towards enlightenment and knowledge, the extortion of taxes, the persecution of the religious sects, the severe discipline in the army, the militarist conduct towards the students and the liberal intelligentsia—all these and a thousand other similar manifestations of tyranny, though not directly connected with the "economic" struggle, do they, in general, represent a less "widely applicable" method and subject for political agitation and for drawing the masses into the political struggle? The very opposite is the case. Of all the innumerable cases in which the workers suffer (either personally or those closely associated with them) from tyranny, violence, and lack of rights, undoubtedly only a relatively few represent cases of police tyranny in the economic struggle as such. Why then should we beforehand restrict the scope of political agitation by declaring only one of
- ↑ We say "in general," advisedly, because Rabocheye Dyelo speaks general principles and of the general tasks of the whole party. Undoubtedly, cases occur in practice, when politics must follow economics, but only Economists can say a thing like that in a resolution that was intended apply to the whole of Russia. Cases do occur when it is possible "right from the beginning," to carry on political agitation "exclusively on an economic basis"; and yet Rabocheye Dyelo went so far as to say that "there no need for this whatever" [Two Congresses, p. 11]. In the next chapter, we shall show that the tactics of the "politicians" and revolutionaries not only do not ignore the trade-union tasks of Social-Democracy, but that, on the contrary, they alone can secure the consistent fulfilment of these tasks.
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