Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/182

 to action, or at least the majority of them are betraying Socialism, are selling Socialism, are going to fight the battles of their national bourgeoisie.

The masses are distracted and baffled by talk and deceived by their leaders. And should we aid and abet that deception by retaining the old and worn out party name, which is as spent as the second International?

It may be that many workers understand the real meaning of Social Democracy, but we must draw the line between what it means objectively and what it means subjectively.

Subjectively those workers are Social Democrats, true leaders of the proletarian masses. Objectively, the world situation is such that the old name of our party helps fool the masses and retards the onward march. Every day, in every paper, in every parliamentary group, the masses see leaders, that is, people whose voice carries farther, whose acts are in evidence, who call themselves Social Democrats and Socialists, and who join hands with the betrayers of Socialism, the social-patriots, who are trying to cash the promissory note issued by the Social Democracy.

Are there any reasons against the new names? Shall we mix with the communistic Anarchists? Why are we not afraid of mixing with the social-nationalists, the social liberals, the social patriots? The laboring masses, some say, are accustomed to their Social Democratic Party, they love it. That is the only reason for retaining the old name and this reason goes counter to the teachings of Marxism, disregards the revolutionary tasks of to-morrow, the objective position of Socialism the world over, the shameful fiasco of the second International, and the injury done to the cause of millions of proletarians who are "also Social Democrats." This reason is based solely on laziness and love of routine. We want to recast the world. We want to end this world war waged by imperialists in which millions of people are involved and millions of dollars are invested, a war which cannot be ended in a truly democratic way without the greatest proletarian revolution in history.

And here we are hesitating. Here we are, keeping on our backs the same old dirty shirt. It is high time we should cast off the dirty shirt and put on a new, clean one.