Full text: Lenin on organization

LENIN ON ORGANIZATION 
ment only in words; as a matter of fact the same 
clique of leaders is always in evidence. It is always 
the same Bebel and the same Liebknecht year in 
and year out. Your delegates are supposed to be 
elected from among the workers, but they are just 
as unchangeable as the officials appointed by the 
Emperor!” But the Germans only smile contemp- 
tuously in answer to these demagogic attempts to 
set the “crowd” against the “leaders,” to arouse 
turbid and vain instincts in the former and to rob 
the movement of its solidity and stability by under- 
mining the faith of the masses in its “ten leaders.” 
With the Germans political ideas have already suf- 
ficiently developed and enough political experience 
has been accumulated to make them understand 
that without the “ten” talented and experienced 
leaders (and talented men are not born by hun- 
dreds) who have been professionally trained and 
have passed through a long course of schooling 
and who work in brilliant cooperation with each 
other, no class in modern society is capable of con- 
ducting a determined struggle. The Germans have 
known many demagogues who have flattered the 
“hundred fools,” exalting them above the “ten wise 
men,” who have extolled the “muscular fists” of 
the masses, and (like Most and Hasselman) spurred 
them on to reckless “revolutionary” action and 
sown mistrust towards the tried and trusted leaders. 
It was only by stubbornly and bitterly combatting 
every demagogic manifestation within the Socialist 
movement that German Socialism managed to 
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