V. I.

Lenin

ORGANISATION OF THE MASSES BY THE GERMAN CATHOLICS

In backward states, where the mass of the people have no rights, where there is no political liberty, where the
authorities have arbitrary powers, political organisations
on any broad scale are non-existent. Only tiny groups of landowners or millionaire industrialists enjoy “the
right of association”; but they turn all their attention
to high quarters, to “the spheres”, to the authorities,
and not only shun but dread any massive organisation of
the people.

In states with assured constitutional foundations and the people’s right to take part in government, it is not
only the socialists who strive to organise the masses (their
only strength lies in educating and organising the masses),
but also the reactionary parties . If the state system has
been made democratic, the capitalists must seek support
among the masses, and for this the latter must be organised
around the watchwords of clericalism (Black-Hundredism and religion), of nationalism and chauvinism, etc.

Political liberty does not eliminate the class struggle
but, on the contrary, makes it broader and more conscious,
drawing into it the most backward sections of the people,
and teaching them politics and defence of their views and
interests.

It is instructive to see how, for example, the German reactionary party of the “Centre”, i.e., the Catholics,
organises masses of the people. They strive to get the masses
to defend capitalism around the watchwords of religion and “patriotism”. And the Catholics in Germany have
succeeded in playing up the people’s prejudices and ignorance, partly owing to the fact that the Catholics in
Germany are a minority of the population, which at one time
was subjected to persecution by the state. And the masses
of toilers and exploited always instinctively tend to sympathise with those who arc persecuted. The Catholic
reactionaries have made skilful use of this sentiment.

The Catholics have created a mass organisation, the so-called People’s Union for Catholic Germany. The Union
has three-quarters of a million members . The organisation
is strictly centralised. Its aim is to safeguard the “ christian” (in practice, capitalist ) system, and fight “
destructive” (i.e., socialist) tendencies.

The Union is headed by a 24–man board. Of them, 9 handle the board’s business correspondence, and the rest
are representatives of different regions, large cities, etc.
There is one “agent” for every 20–40 Catholic families.
All the agents act on instructions from the board.

The Catholics, when attacking the Social-Democrats, usually accuse the Social-Democratic agitators of living
on the workers’ coppers. But in their own organisation the Catholics themselves act in precisely the same way:
in every place of any importance they have paid agitators .

Work at the party executive is organised on strictly factory
lines. Twenty special officials are in charge of “literature”:
one handles theology, another, the agrarian question, a
third, the Social-Democratic movement, a fourth, the artisans, etc. They make cuttings and extracts from
newspapers and journals, and keep a card index. They have
a staff of stenographers. A special library has 40,000 volumes. They draw up letters to the press—“reports”—
which are published by dozens of Catholic papers. Special
branches of this correspondence deal with “social and political questions” and “apologetics” (i.e., defence of
religion and Christianity). Series of booklets are published
on all questions. As many as 5,000 sets of speakers’ notes on various subjects are sent out every year. A special
department deals with propaganda by films. An information bureau answers queries of every kind free of charge:
in 1912 it answered over 18,000,000.

Catholic students are regularly recruited for propaganda and agitation, particularly during vacations. The agents (of whom there are several tens of thousands ) attend
special “social courses”. There are special two-month courses at the party executive for “training” to fight the
Social-Democrats. There are special fortnightly courses
for peasants, teachers, shop assistants, etc.

The reactionary German Catholics are rather well organised. But all their work is a feeble imitation of the work
of the German Social-Democrats.

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