Lenin takes the example of the Rabocheye Dyelo, the newspaper of the Economists, which with an air of triumph quoted Marx’s words “Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes”. Twisting what Marx said, the Economists believed that the workers had no need for revolutionary ideas and theory, only general activity. Lenin explains that:
To repeat these words in a period of theoretical disorder is like wishing mourners at a funeral many happy returns of the day…
Moreover, these words of Marx are taken from his letter on the Gotha Programme, in which he sharply condemns eclecticism in the formulation of principles. If you must unite, Marx wrote to the party leaders, then enter into agreements to satisfy the practical aims of the movement, but do not allow any bargaining over principles, do not make theoretical ‘concessions’. This was Marx’s idea, and yet there are people among us who seek – in his name – to belittle the significance of theory!
The essential idea that runs throughout Lenin’s work is the need to train Marxist cadres – professional revolutionaries – with a thorough grasp of Marxist theory.
Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement. This idea cannot be insisted upon too strongly at a time when the fashionable preaching of opportunism goes hand in hand with an infatuation for the narrowest forms of practical activity.
This was Lenin taking a pop shot at mindless activism, so beloved today by those on the left. Of course, Lenin was not opposed to activity in general, but this had to be connected to raising the political and theoretical level.
To emphasise this point, Lenin quotes the words of Friedrich Engels from 1874 when he stressed the importance of theory in building the movement. Engels recognises not simply two forms of the revolutionary struggle (political and economic), “as is the fashion among us”, but three forms, placing the theoretical struggle on a par with the first two.
For those involved in fighting for Marxism in Britain, Engels makes a telling point. He explains that the dismal approach to theory in the British working-class movement was the main reason why it “crawls along so slowly”. Engels stressed:
In particular, it will be the duty of the leaders to gain an ever-clearer insight into all theoretical questions, to free themselves more and more from the influence of traditional phrases inherited from the old-world outlook, and constantly to keep in mind that socialism, since it has become a science, demands that it be pursued as a science, i.e., that it be studied.
From the point of view of the International Marxist Tendency, we have faithfully followed Engels’ advice to the letter with the seriousness it deserves. We need to constantly train our co-thinkers to think as Marxists in order to resist the opportunist pressures that exist within the movement, which are none other than the pressures of capitalism.
Strange as it may seem, our recognition of the vital importance of Marxist theory is a matter of derision for our opponents. But we are in good company. “The people who cannot pronounce the word ‘theoretician’ without a sneer”, observed Lenin, were precisely those who wallow in their own ignorance. We are very familiar with such worthless types, the cynics and sceptics, who have contempt for theory. This is only a mirror for their contempt for the working class. Theory, after all, is only the past generalised experience of the working class. Theory is not an academic discourse but a guide to action.
While Lenin never repeated his slip that socialist consciousness has to be brought to the working class from outside, this error has been repeated ever since by every sectarian under the sun to justify their haughty role as clever missionaries coming from outside to lead the workers’ movement.
As we explained, Lenin bent the stick too far in correctly exposing the limits of spontaneity (“slavish cringing before spontaneity”), which was the hallmark of the Economists.
On the contrary, the expression I used – and it has since been frequently quoted – was that the ‘Economists’ had gone to one extreme. What is to be Done?, I said, straightens out what has been twisted by the ‘Economists’… The meaning of these words is clear enough: What is to be Done? is a controversial correction of ‘Economist’ distortions and it would be wrong to regard the pamphlet in any other light. (LCW, vol. 13, pp. 107-108.)
The Economists always trailed after the prejudices of the workers and tried to tell them what they already knew. They demagogically used catchphrases like “the workers for the workers” and “we must concentrate, not on the ‘cream’ of the workers, but on the ‘average’, mass worker”. This was simply an adaptation to the backwardness of the working class. But the working class has a strong side and a weak side shown in different periods. It has the potential to become a revolutionary class, and we base ourselves upon this necessity, but Marxists do not treat the working class as a sacred cow. As Trotsky later explained:
The masses, of course, are not at all impeccable. Idealisation of the masses is foreign to us. We have seen them under different conditions, at different stages and in addition in the biggest political shocks. We have observed their strong and weak sides. Their strong side – resoluteness, self-sacrifice, heroism – has always found its clearest expression in times of revolutionary upsurge. During this period the Bolsheviks headed the masses. Afterward a different historical chapter loomed when the weak side of the oppressed came to the forefront: heterogeneity, insufficiency of culture, narrowness of world outlook. (Their Morals and Ours.)
The opportunist approach of the Economists is an attempt to shout louder than your own voice and seek shortcuts to success where none exist. Not surprisingly, they were adherents of the “labour movement pure and simple”, and worshippers of the closest “organic” contacts with the workers. They held the greatest contempt towards theoreticians, despite the fact that Marx and Engels were the greatest of theoreticians. In effect, they accepted “the arguments of the bourgeois ‘pure trade unionists’,” to use Lenin’s words. They dismissed revolutionary theory and the conscious element in the struggle, and so reduced the revolutionary movement (i.e. Social-Democracy) “to the level of trade unionism”.