V. I.

Lenin

Draft Resolutions for the Fifth Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

6. Non-Party Workers’ Organisations and the Anarcho-Syndicalist
Trend Among the Proletariat

Whereas:

1.in connection with Comrade Axelrod’s agitation for a non-Party labour
congress, a trend (represented by Larin, Shcheglo, El, Ivanovsky, Mirov, and
the Odessa publication

Osvobozhdeniye Truda ) has appeared in the ranks of the R.S.D.L.P.,
the aim of which is to destroy the Social-Democratic Labour Party and to set up
in its place a non-party political organisation of the proletariat; 2.besides this, outside of and actually against the Party, anarcho-syndicalist
agitation is being carried on among the proletariat, using this same slogan
of a non-party labour congress and non-party organisations ( Soyuznoye Dyelo and its group in Moscow, the anarchist press in Odessa, etc.); 3.notwithstanding the resolution passed by the November All-Russian Conference
of the R.S.D.L.P., a series of disruptive actions has been observed in our
Party, with the object of setting up non-party organisations; 4.on the other hand, the R.S.D.L.P. has never renounced its intention
of utilising certain non-party organisations, such as the Soviets of
Workers’ Deputies, in periods of wore or less intense revolutionary
upheaval, to extend Social-Democratic influence among the working class and
to strengthen the Social-Democratic labour movement (see the September
resolutions of the St. Petersburg Committee and the Moscow Committee on the
labour congress, in Proletary , Nos. 3 and

4 [1] ); 5.the incipient revival creates the opportunity to organise or utilise
non-party representative working-class institutions, such as Soviets of
Workers’ Deputies, Soviets of Workers’ Delegates, etc., for the purpose of
developing the Social-Democratic movement; at the same time the
Social-Democratic Party organisations must bear in mind that if
Social-Democratic activities among the proletarian masses are properly,
effectively and widely organised, such institutions may actually become
superfluous; Thisconference declares:

1.that a most determined ideological struggle must be waged against
the anarcho-syndicalist movement among the proletariat and against
Axelrod’s and Larin’s ideas in the Social-Democratic Party; 2.that a most determined struggle must be waged against all disruptive
and demagogic attempts to weaken the R.S.D.L.p. from within or to utilise
it for the purpose of substituting non-party political, proletarian organisations for the
Social-Democratic Party; 3.that Social-Democratic Party organisations may, in case of necessity,
participate in inter-party Soviets of Workers’ Delegates, Soviets of Workers’
Deputies, and in congresses of representatives of these organisations, and
may organise such institutions, provided this is done on strict Party lines
for the purpose of developing and strengthening the Social-Democratic Labour
Party;

4.that for the purpose of extending and strengthening the influence of the
Social-Democratic party among the broad masses of the proletariat, it is
essential, on the one hand, to increase efforts to organise trade unions and
con duct Social-Democratic propaganda and agitation within them, and, on the
other hand, to draw still larger sections of the working class into the
activities of all types of Party organisations.

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Notes:
[1]
A meeting of workers from the various St. Petersburg districts was held in
September 1906 to discuss the question of a labour congress. By a majority of 74
votes to 11, a resolution was adopted condemning the Menshevik idea of a labour
congress. The resolution pointed out that agitation for a non-party labour
congress “would lead to the concealment of the difference between party
and class, would mean lowering Social-Democratic consciousness to the level of
the less developed strata of the proletariat” and “could only do
harm to the proletarian cause”. The resolution was published in
Proletary , No. 3, on September 8, 1906.

In September of the same year, a second regular conference was held of
Social-Democratic organisations in Central Russia. The conference was
attended by representatives of the Moscow, Moscow Regional, Kostroma,
Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Bryansk, Nizhni-Novgorod, Tver, Sormovo, Smolensk,
Yaroslavl, Orel, Yelets, Tver Regional organisation, Vologda, Tambov, and
also of the Central Committee and the Proletary Editorial
Board. Among other things the conference discussed the question of a labour
congress, a report on the matter being delivered by a representative of the
Proletary Board. The conference adopted a resolution recognising
agitation for a non-party labour congress as “harmful demagogy,
distracting class-conscious workers from the task of consolidating and
strengthening their Social-Democratic Party”.