V. I.

Lenin

WORKERS’ UNITY AND THE ELECTIONS

The issue of Luck , the liquidators’ newspaper, put out (as a
Pravda correspondent rightly points out) on polling day
to disrupt unity, is filled to overflowing with talk of “unity”.

The decisive moment in the elections to the workers’ curia [1] in St. Petersburg Gubernia will arrive in a few
days, on Friday, October 5. On that day, the representatives
of the workers will elect
6 electors. [2] It is these elections that are of decisive importance, because unless all the
electors are steadfast, consistent working-class democrats and
opponents of liquidationism, there will be no serious guarantee that the deputy elected to the Duma will be one the
majority of class-conscious workers want.

In order not to fail at the crucial moment, one must have
a clear understanding of the tasks of working-class democrats and the situation in which the representatives are
acting.

The essence of the problem today is that under cover of shouts about unity, the liquidators are flouting the will
of the majority of class-conscious workers in St. Petersburg,
and are foisting on the majority of the workers the splinter
candidates of the minority intelligentsia, namely, the liquidationist intelligentsia.

All elections in a bourgeois country are accompanied by rampant phrase-mongering and licentious promises. The
main principle of Social-Democrats is not to trust words
but go to the heart of the matter.

The liquidators’ phrases about unity in their newspaper
Luck are a pack of lies. In reality , unity has already been
brought about in St. Petersburg by the majority of class-conscious workers against the liquidators ; it was established by the May Day demonstration, and by the support given to
Pravda by 550 groups of workers against the 16 groups of
liquidators.

Now that is action, not talk. When 550 groups unite against 16, it is unity . When 16 foist “their” candidate
on 550, it is a split.

The liquidators are carrying out a split, while shouting
about unity on the “Stop thief!” principle.

Class-conscious workers should not let themselves be deceived by empty shouts and phrases.

Don’t trust words, take a sober look at the state of affairs.
The vast majority of Marxist workers are opponents of liquidationism. An insignificant minority of workers favour
the liquidators, and the “strength” of the liquidators lies
in the bourgeois intelligentsia, which is in a position to
put out a journal, found a new paper on polling day, get
hold of “contacts”, people for intellectuals’ election committees, and so forth.

Every Social-Democrat in St. Petersburg knows these facts.

This clarifies the significance of the liquidators’ shouts
about unity. Under cover of these shouts, the bourgeois
intelligentsia, which sympathises with the liquidators, wants
to destroy the unity of the workers by foisting on them the
liquidators’ candidate.

That is the heart of the matter. That is the “crafty design”
of the liquidator Luch .

Whoever wants the genuine unity of Marxist workers must help to elect all the anti-liquidator electors.

Whoever wants genuine unity will help to give effect to
the will of the majority of the class-conscious workers.

Whoever helps the minority to flout their will is a most
malicious disrupter, however loud his shouts of unity!

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Notes:
[1]
Curias —in Russia, divisions of voters classified by estate and
property qualifications for elections to the Duma, which were
designed to pack the Duma with members of the ruling classes.

There were four curias in the elections to the First and Second
Dumas: worker, urban, landowner and peasant.

[2]
Elections to the Duma were held in several stages: workers,
peasant delegates, landowners and the urban bourgeoisie, at their
congresses, elected representatives who, at their uyezd meetings,
chose electors to the gubernia meetings where the deputies were
finally elected.