CHAPTER VIII.
NO COMPROMISE WHATEVER?
We have seen, in the quotation from the Frankfurt pamphlet with what determination the "Left" put forward this slogan. It is sad to see how men who doubtless consider themselves Marxists, and who desire to be Marxists, have forgotten the fundamental truths of Marxism. This is what was written in 1874 against the Manifesto of thirty-three Communard Blanquists[1] by Engels, who, like Marx was one of those rarest of authors who in every sentence of every great work show a wonderful profundity of content.
"The German Communists are Communists because, through all intermediary stages and compromises, created not by them, but by the course of historical development, they clearly see and perpetually follow the one final end, the abolition of classes and the creation of a social system in which there will no longer be any place for private property in land or in the means of production. The thirty-three Blanquists are Communists because they imagine that, since they want to leap over intermediary stations and compromises, the cause is as good as won, and if (and of this they are firmly convinced) things "begin moving" one of these days, the power will get into their hands, "then Communism will be introduced" the day after tomorrow. Consequently, if this cannot be done immediately, they are not Communists. What a childish naivete—to put forward one's own impatience as a theoretical argument!"[2]
- ↑ "We are Communists," wrote the Communard Blanquists in their manifesto, "because we wish to attain our aim directly, without stopping at intermediary stations, without any compromise, which only postpone the day of victory and prolong the period of slavery."
- ↑ Fr. Engels' Program of the Communard Blanquists, from the German S.D. paper Volkstaat, 1874, No. 73, in the collection of Articles of the Years 1871-1875. (Russian translation, Petrograd, 1919 pp. 52 and 53.)
