LENIN ON ORGANIZATION
What I want here to draw attention to is the unmistakeable
 tendency to defend autonomism as
against centralism which is a fundamental feature
of opportunism in question of organization.
Almost the only attempt which has been made to
analyze the conception of bureaucracy is the contrast
 drawn by the new “Iskra” (No. 53) between
“the formal democratic principle” (heavy type by
the author) and “the formal bureaucratic principle.”
This contrast (which unfortunately is as little
developed and explained as the reference to the non-Iskrists)
 contains a germ of truth. Bureaucracy
versus democracy means centralism versus autonomism;
 it is the organization principle of revolutionary
 Social Democracy as against the organization
 principle of the Social Democratic opportunists.
The latter endeavors to proceed from the bottom
upwards, and therefore, wherever possible, insists
upon autonomism and “democracy” and even (in
the case of the over-zealous) goes to the extent of
anarchism. The former strives to proceed from the
top downwards, insisting on the extension of the
rights and authority of the centre over the parts.
During the epoch of disintegration and of the circles,
the peak from which revolutionary Social Democracy
 could attempt to proceed in an organized
fashion had to be one of the circles—the most
tributes the forces of the Party” (par. 6). Can forces be
distributed if members are not transferred from one committee
 to another? One is almost ashamed to dwell on these
elementary truths.

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