Page:Lenin - What Is To Be Done - tr. Joe Fineberg (1929).pdf/72

 are set going. To catch some criminal red-handed and immediately to brand him publicly will have far more effect than any number of "appeals to action"; the effect very often will be such, that it will be impossible to tell who exactly it was that "appealed" to the crowd, and who exactly suggested this or that plan of demonstration, etc. Calls for action, not in the general, but in the concrete, sense of the term, can he made only at the place of action; only those who themselves go into action now can make appeals for action. And our business as Social-Democratic publicists is to deepen, expand and intensify political exposures and political agitation. A word in passing about "calls to action." The only paper that prior to the spring events, called upon the workers actively to intervene in a matter that certainly did not promise any palpable results for the workers, i. e., the drafting of the students into the army, was Iskra. Immediately after the publication of the order of January 11 "Drafting the 183 Students into the Army," Iskra published an article about it (in its February issue, No. 2), and before any demonstration was started openly called upon "the workers to go to the aid of the students," called upon the "people" boldly to take up the government's open challenge. We ask: How is the remarkable fact to be explained that although he talks so much about "calling for action," and even suggests "calling for action" as a special form of activity, Martynov said not a word about this call? After this, is not Martynov's allegation, that Iskra was one-sided because it did not sufficiently "call for" the struggle for demands "promising palpable results," sheer philistinism?

Our Economists, including Rabocheye Dyelo, were successful because they disguised themselves as uneducated workers. But the working-class Social-Democrat, the working-class revolutionist (and their number is growing) will indignantly reject all this talk about fighting for demands "promising palpable results," etc., because he will understand that this is only a variation of the old song about adding a kopeck to the ruble. These working-class revolutionaries will say to their counsellors of the Rabochaya Mysl and Rabocheye Dyelo: You are wasting your time, gentlemen; you are interfering with excessive zeal in a job that we can manage ourselves, and you are neglecting your own duties. It is silly of you to say that the