Page:Lenin - What Is To Be Done - tr. Joe Fineberg (1929).pdf/134

 meaning of democracy. In Mr. and Mrs. Webb's book on trade unionism, there is an interesting section on "Primitive Democracy" In this section, the authors relate how, in the first period of existence of their unions, the British workers thought that in the interests of democracy all the members must take part in the work of managing the unions; not only were all questions decided by the votes of all the members, but all the official duties were fulfilled by all the members in turn. A long period of historical experience was required to teach these workers how aburdabsurd [sic] such a conception of democracy was and to make them understand the necessity for representative institutions on the one hand, and of full-time professional officials on the other. Only after a number of cases of financial bankruptcy of trade unions occurred did the workers realise that rates of benefit cannot be decided merely by a democratic vote, but must be based on the advice of insurance experts. Let us take also Kautsky's book, Der Parlamentarismus, die Volksgesetzgebung und die Sozialdemokratie. There you will find that the conclusion drawn by the Marxian theoretician coincides the lessons learned from many years of experience by the workers who organised "spontaneously." Kautsky strongly protests against Rittinghausen's primitive conception of democracy; he ridicules those who in the name of democracy demand even that "popular newspapers shall he directly edited by the people"; he shows the necessity for professional journalists, parliamentarians, etc. and for the Social-Democratic leadership of the proletarian class struggle; he attacks the "Socialism of Anarchists and litterateurs," who in their "striving after effect" proclaim the principle that laws should he passed directly by the whole people, completely failing to understand that in modern society this principle can have only a relative application.

Those who have carried on practical work in our movement how widespread is the "primitive" conception of democracy among the masses of the students and workers. It is not surprising that this conception permeates rules of organisation and literature. The Economists of the Bernstein persuasion included in their rules the following: "§ 10. All affairs affecting the interests of the whole of the union organisation shall he decided by a majority vote of all its members." The Economists of the terrorist persuasion