Page:Lenin - The Collapse of the Second International - tr. Sirnis (1919).pdf/28

 1. The development of science furnishes more and more material to prove that Marxism is right. There­fore, capitalism is obliged to fight it hypocritically, without openly opposing its basis and by pretending to recognise, by means of sophisms, its contentions. By thus castrating Marxism and transforming it into a "holy image," they hope to render it harmless to the bourgeosie.

2. The development of opportunism amongst social democracy upholds precisely such a "modification" оf Marxism and makes it serve the end of justifying all sorts of concessions to opportunism.

3. The period of imperialism means the division of the world between the "great" privileged nations which oppress all the others. Undoubtedly, certain crumbs from the plunder, arising out of these privileges and this oppression, fall to the lot of certain sections of the lower middle class, aristocracy, bureaucracy, and a privileged minority of the working class. This last section, which constitutes an infinitesimal section of the labouring class, has a leaning towards "Struvism," for it justifies their union with the national bourgeoisie as opposed to the oppressed masses of all nations. We shall have to come back to this question again when we discuss the causes of the collapse of the International.