Spark
A New Politics
January 10th, 1875
On Discipline
The decision by the Majority of our faction’s leadership, including Comrade Lenin, to ally in the Constituent Assembly with the Militarist Faction has been a controversial one. It has provoked serious and open debate in our faction as well as in the broader People’s Party. For our part, we can only see this debate as a sign of the health of our faction, and its public character a sign of the health of the People’s Party and of the healthy nature of our faction’s place in the People’s Party. It will be remarked that several comrades of the Minority have chosen to express their disapproval of the Majority’s decision by withdrawing from the faction, but equally, there are comrades of the Minority that choose to stay within the faction, to fight for the triumph of their positions within it. It is a further sign of the health, the real proletarian character, of the Marxist-Leninist faction that such a strategy is acceptable.
The real reason for these comrades’ defections is not a betrayal by the faction Majority of Marxist-Leninist principles but rather an insufficiency of discipline within the faction as a whole. Discipline does not mean the submission to a faction leader or even to the faction Majority. If it did there would be no basis for comrades of the Minority remaining within the faction. It means the fortitude of a fighter for the liberation of the proletariat, the fortitude to carry on the life of the only faction concerned for the material betterment of the workers of the whole world even in the face of perceived wavering by the momentary majority. It means the commitment to sustain the faction as the best vehicle for the carrying through of proletarian principles on the level of government.
For your editor, who is bound by his own commitments to discipline not to declare his intra-factional allegiance in the publication of the whole Party, there can be only one policy in the Constituent Assembly going forward. The Militarists are the party not of proletarian discipline, but of Prussian discipline. That is the language they understand, and that is the language in which we must speak to them. When voting in the Constituent Assembly, it must be made clear at all times that the Marxist-Leninist faction is the senior partner, with more representation both from the Party and from the Workers. There must be no horse-trading, no bargaining away of the free press or free national life for all nationalities in exchange for support on economic questions. If the Militarists will not support our measures, then other factions will, out of principle, out of their commitment not to obstruct the well-being and betterment of the Republic, and out of desire to be the real governing coalition and not simply the coalition on paper. Our power as a faction must also be reflected in the choices of Commissars and other functionaries of the government. We cannot allow the Militarists to occupy vital Commissariats such as those for Minorities and for Justice.
But rejoice Comrades! With Lenin as Chairman the only way is up!
-Comrade Zimmerwald