Vladimir Lenin
They Have Forgotten the Main Thing
The Municipal Platform of the Proletarian Party
Elections to the district councils being close at hand, the two petty-bourgeois
democratic parties, the Narodniks and the Mensheviks, have come out with
high-sounding platforms. These platforms are exactly the same as those of the
European bourgeois parties who are engaged in angling for the gullible
uneducated mass of voters from among the petty proprietors, etc., such as, for
instance, the platform of the Radical and Radical-Socialist Party of France. The
same specious phrases, the same lavish promises, the same vague formulations,
the same silence on or forgetfulness of the main thing, namely, the actual
conditions on which the practicability of these promises depends.
At present these conditions are:
(1) the imperialist war;
(2) the existence of a capitalist government;
(3) the impossibility of seriously improving the condition of the workers and
the whole mass of working people without revolutionary encroachment on the
'sacred right, of capitalist private property";
(4) the impossibility of carrying out the reforms promised by those parties
while the old organs and machinery of government remain intact, while there
exists a police force which is bound to back the capitalists and put a thousand
and one obstacles in the way of such reforms.
For examale: "House rents is in war time to be controlled", 'such stocks to be
requisitioned for the public needs" (that is stocks of foodstuffs kept in stores
or by private individuals) "communal stores, bakeries, canteens, and kitchens to
be organized"-write the Mensheviks. "Proper attention to be paid to sanitation
and hygiene," echo the Narodniks (the Socialist-Revolutionaries)
Excellent wishes, to be sure. The trouble is that they cannot be carried out
unless one stops supporting the imperialist war, stops supporting the loan
(which is profitable to the capitalists), stops supporting the capitalist
government, which safeguards capitalist profits, stops preserving the police,
who are bound to obstruct, thwart, and kill any such reform, even if the
government and the capitalists themselves did not present an ultimatum to the
reformers (and they certainly will, once capitalist profits are involved).
The trouble is that once we forget the harsh and rigid conditions of capitalist
domination, then all such platforms, all such lists of sweeping reforms are
empty words, which in practice turn out to be either harmless "pious wishes", or
simple hoodwinking of the masses by ordinary bourgeois politicians.
We must face the truth squarely. We must not gloss it over, we must tell it to
people in a straightforward manner. We must not brush the class struggle under
the carpet, but clarify what relation it bears to the high-sounding, specious,
delightful "radical" reforms.
Comrade workers, and all other citizens of Petrograd! In order to give the
people all those pressing and essential reforms of which the Narodniks and the
Mensheviks speak, one must throw over the policy of support for the imperial 1st
war and war loans, support for the capitalist government and for the principle
of the inviolability of capitalist profits. To carry out those reforms, one must
not allow the police to be reinstated, as the Cadets are now doing, but have it
replaced by a people's militia. This is what the party of the proletariat should
tell the people at elections, this is what it must say against the
petty-bourgeois parties of the Narodniks and the Mensheviks. This is the essence
of the proletarian municipal platform that is being glossed over by the
petty-bourgeois parties.
Foremost in this platform, topping the list of reforms, there must be, as a
basic condition for their actual realisation, the following three fundamental
points:
1. No support for the imperialist war (either in the form of support for the war
loan, or in any other form).
2. No support to the capitalist government.
3. No reinstatement of the police, which must be replaced by a people's militia.
Unless attention is focused on these cardinal questions, unless it is shown that
all municipal reforms are contingent upon them, the municipal programme
inevitably becomes (at best) a pious wish.
Let us examine point 3.
In all bourgeois republics, even the most democratic, the police (like the
standing army) is the chief instrument of oppression of the masses, an
instrument making for a possible restoration of the monarchy. The police beats
up the "common people" in the police stations of New York, Geneva, and Paris; it
favours the capitalists either because it is bribed to do so (America and other
countries), or because it enjoys wealthy "patronage" and "protection"
(Switzerland), or because of a combination of both (France). Separated as it is
from the people, forming a professional caste of men trained in the practice of
violence upon the poor, men who receive somewhat higher pay and the privileges
that go with authority (to say nothing of "gratuities"), the police everywhere,
in every republic, however democratic, where the bourgeoisie is in power, always
remains the unfailing weapon, the chief support and protection of the
bourgeoisie. No important radical reforms in favour of the working masses can be
implemented through the police. That is objectively impossible.
A people's militia instead of the police force and the standing army is a
prerequisite of effective municipal reforms in the interests of the working
people. At a time of revolution this prerequisite is practicable. And it is on
this that we must concentrate the whole municipal platform, for the other two
cardinal conditions apply to the state as a whole, and not only to municipal
governments.
Just how this people's militia can be brought into existence is something which
experience will show. To enable the proletarians and semi-proletarians to serve
in this militia, the employers must be made to pay them their full wages for the
days and hours they spend in service. This is practicable. Whether we should
first organise a workers' militia by drawing upon the workers employed at the
large factories, i.e.. the workers who are best organised and most capable of
fulfilling the task of militiamen, or whether we should immediately organise
general compulsory service for all adult men and women, who would devote to this
service one or two weeks a year and so on, is not a question of fundamental
importance. There is no harm in the different districts adopting different
procedures-in fact, it would make for richer experience, and the process of
organisation would develop more smoothly and come closer to life's practical
requirements.
A people's militia would mean education of the masses in the practices of
democracy.
A people's militia would mean government of the poor by the people themselves,
chiefly by the poor, and not by the rich, not through their police.
A people's militia would mean that control (over facto ries, dwellings, the
distribution of products, etc.) would be real and not merely on paper.
A people's militia would mean distribution without any bread queues, without any
privileges for the rich.
A people's militia would mean that quite a number of the serious and radical
reforms listed also by the Narodniks and the Mensheviks would not remain mere
pious wishes.
Comrades, working men and women of Petrograd! Go to the district council
elections. Protect the interests of the poor population. Come out against the
imperialist war, against support of the capitalist government, against the
restoration of the police and for the immediate unqualified replacement of the
police by a people's militia.
Written: ~ 5 May, 1917
First Published: Pravda No. , May 5 (18), 1917
Transcription/Markup: Brian Basgen and David Walters
Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1999
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