V. I.

Lenin

The British Labour press is continuing its exposure of the connection
between financial “operations” and high politics. These revelations
deserve the attention of the workers of all countries because they expose
the very basis of state administration in capitalist society. The words of
Karl Marx that the government is a committee for managing the affairs of
the capitalist class [1] are confirmed to the full.

The Labour Leader No. 24 (June 12, N.S.) devotes a whole page
to listing the names of British Ministers (7 names), ex-Ministers
(3 names), Bishops and Archdeacons (12 names), Peers (47 names), Members of
Parliament (18 names), big newspaper owners, financiers and bankers, who
are shareholders or directors in joint-stock companies dealing mainly in
munitions.

The author of the article, Walton Newbold, collected all this
information from official banking, commercial and industrial, financial and
other sources, from the reports of patriotic organisations (like the
Navy League ), etc.

We get a picture quite similar to that once drawn from Russian data by
Rubakin, who showed how many big land owners in Russia were members of the
Council of State, high dignitaries—now we may add, members of the State
Duma, shareholders or directors of joint-stock companies, etc. It is high
time to bring Rubakin’s facts up to date by using the latest reference
books, particularly adding data on participation in financial, commercial
and industrial undertakings.

Our liberals (especially the Cadets) have a strong aversion for the
“theory” of the class struggle, and particularly insist aon their view that the governments of modern states can stand
outside classes or above classes. But what can you do, gentlemen, if the “theory” which is so distasteful to you corresponds
exactly to reality? If all the fundamentals of con temporary
legislation and contemporary politics clearly show us the class character
of the structure and administration of all contemporary states? If even
information about the personalities of prominent politicians, members of
parliament, high officials, etc., reveals the inseparable connection
existing between economic rule and political rule?

The denial or concealment of the class struggle is the worst form of
hypocrisy in politics; is banking on the ignorance and prejudices of the
least developed strata of the people, the small proprietors (peasants,
handicraftsmen, etc.), who are furthest removed from the most acute, and
direct struggle of classes, and cling as before, as of old, to their
patriarchal views. But what is ignorance and backwardness in the peasant is
a subtle method of corrupting the people and keeping them in slavery on the
part of the liberal intellectuals.

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Notes:
[1]
See K. Marx and F. Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist
Party”, Selected Works , Vol. I, Moscow, 1955, p. 36.