ing a policy which might separate it too much from the proletariat; it must inspire the masses with confidence if it desires to have their support on the day of the great battle.[1] The great reproach which Marx levelled at his adversaries in the Alliance was this separation of the leaders and the led, which had the effect of reinstating the State—and which is to-day so marked in Germany—and elsewhere.
III
A. We will now carry our analysis of the ideas grouped round the political strike a little farther, and enquire first of all what becomes of the notion of class.
(1) It will no longer be possible to distinguish the classes by the place occupied by their members in capitalistic production; we go back to the old distinction between rich groups and poor groups—such was the division between the classes as it appeared to those older Socialists who sought to reform the iniquities of the actual distribution of riches. The "social Catholics" take up this position also, and endeavour to improve the lot of the poor, not only by charity, but also by a large number of institutions which aim at a mitigation of the wretchedness caused by the capitalist industrial system. It seems that even to-day things are considered from this point of view in circles that admire Jaurès as a prophet; I have been told that the latter sought to convert Buisson to Socialism by making an appeal to the goodness of his heart, and that these two soothsayers had a very ludicrous discussion as to the best way to remedy the defects of society.
- ↑ For example, Vaillant says: "Since we have to fight this great battle, do you think that we can win it if we have not the proletariat behind us? We must have the proletariat; and we shall not have it if we have discouraged it, if we have shown it that the Party no longer represents its interests, no longer represents the war of the working class against the capitalist class" (Cahiers de la Quinzaine, 16ᵉ de la IIᵉ série, pp. 159–160). This number contains the shorthand note of the proceedings at the Congress.
