Page:Lev Borisovich Kamenev - The Dictatorship of the Proletariat (1920).pdf/13

 necessary conditions for the proletariat, on acquiring the central apparatus of power, at once directing it to the suppression of the resistance of the exploiters; whoever does not explain to the proletariat, as a necessary condition here and now, of its victory, the inevitability of an armed struggle and harsh measures against treason and hesitation, and does not arm the proletariat with the suitable weapons—that person is preparing the ruin of the proletariat and the victory of the bourgeoisie.

But if the dictatorship of the proletariat is an organisation of power, which is best adapted to the carrying on of the war against the bourgeoisie and the Suppression of its resistance, then we have an answer also to the question which is generally put to the Communists by the syndicalists of various schools of thought. The latter while admitting the dictatorship of the proletariat, cannot divest themselves of their old prejudices against a political party of the proletariat. The question, consequently, is: what organisation is capable of achieving a solution of the problems of dictatorship?

There can be no doubt that, at the moment of a decisive class war, the power of command and compulsion must lie in the hands of a definite organisation, capable of bearing the responsibility for each step it takes and of guaranteeing the logical sequence of these steps.

The army of the proletariat, moving in battle order, must have its general staff. When leading its regiments to the attack, that general staff must be capable of surveying the sum-total of the international, political and economic conditions of the struggle. It must possess equal authority over all kinds of arms at the disposition of the working class. It must be in a position to carry out its decisions through the trade unions, and the workmen's co-operatives, through the factory committees, and through the leagues of young workers, by means of written propaganda, and through the fighting militia of armed workers.

At the moment when the old power is overthrown