LENIN ON ORGANIZATION
to make sure that a decision shall be really democratic,
 it is not sufficient to gather together delegates
 of the organization. It is necessary that all
the members of the organization, in electing the
delegates, shall independently and each one for himself
 express their opinion on all controversial questions
 which interest the whole of the organization.
Democratically organized parties and leagues cannot,
 on principle, avoid taking the opinion of the
whole of the membership without exception, particularly
 in important cases, when the question under
 consideration is of some political action in which
the mass is to act independently as for example, a
strike, elections, the boycott of some local establishment,
 etc.
“A strike cannot be conducted with enthusiasm,
elections cannot be intelligently conducted, unless
every worker voluntarily and intelligently decides
for himself whether he should strike or not, whether
 he should vote for the Cadets* or not, etc. Not all
political questions can be decided by a referendum
of the whole Party membership. This would entail
continuous, wearying and fruitless voting. But the
important questions, especially those which are
directly connected with definite action by the
masses themselves, must be decided democratically,
not only by a gathering of delegates, but by a referendum
 of the whole membership.
“That is why the Petersburg Committee has re-*
 (Cadets is the abbreviated title of the Constitutional
Democrats, i. e., the bourgeois liberals.—Translator.

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