________________________________________________________________________________ a b a l a l a i k a "I never sold my lyre, although at times false notes would sound among my rhymes" [quoted in Nevskaya Zvezda, signed V.I.] She bent lower over her armful of daisies among broad circles of artists and intellectuals pressed by the thought to press in these seven years in which we have said our thousands of words have decided to have told, hold a wealth of content, the year 1915 when Joe Hill was killed, how could such a "miracle" have happened, every abrupt turn in history, unexpected and specific combinations of forms "at one blow" (seemingly at one blow) caught up in the date (March 8/21) unknown at the hour of telegraphing . "Napoleon, I think, wrote: "On s'engage et puis . . . on voit" (i.e., you act . . . and then you wait and see) [Jan. 17, 1923]. "Chernyshevsky understood that the existence of a government that screens our antagonistic social relations is a terrible evil. . . . Here is a passage from 'Unaddressed Letters': 'They say, emancipate the peasants . . . Where are the forces for it? Those forces do not yet exist. It is useless tackling a job when the forces for it are lacking. Yet you see the way things are going. They will start emancipating. But what will come of it? Well, judge for yourself what comes of tackling a job which is beyond your powers. You just botch it." [hectographed in 1894]. "But only he who never does anything never makes mistakes." [Pod Znamenem Marksizma No 3, March 22, 1922]. [A]nother art that is essential in revolution, namely, flexibility, the ability to effect swift and sudden changes in tactics if changes in objective conditions demand them, and to choose another path if the former path proves to be inexpedient or impossible at the given moment" [Pct. 14, 1921, signed N. Lenin]. This is the leninism of the flexible stance. The great and all-powerful stage manager capable of accelerating world-wide crises of unparalleled intensity. It is not the Great Oz or Os. It is imperialist war and the threat of world war. That it is a world war is now it is not. "It is a question of life and death for millions upon millions of people. It is a question of whether 20,000,000 people (as compared with the 10,000,000 who were killed in the war of 1914-18 and in the supplementary 'minor' wars that are still going on) are to be slaughtered in the next imperialist war growing out of the U.S. before our very eyes. It is a question of whether in that future war which is inevitable (if capitalism continues to exist)." Under cover of outcry, concerning Vekhi, concerning radek.com: "The feature of the Russian intelligentsia the necessary accompaniment and expression of any democratic movement, the admixture of the political radicalism of intellectualist ideas to the social radicalism of popular instincts achieved with amazing rapidity" (141)--and this was 'not simply a political mistake, not simply an error in tactics, the mistake here was a moral one?" [Novy Dyen, No. 15, Dec. 13, 1909]. The illusions of the Basle Manifesto against the dream of turning imperialist war into civil war. "'We should dream!' I wrote these words and became alarmed. I imagined myself sitting at a 'unity conference' and opposite me were the Rabocheye Dyelo editors and contributors. Comrade M rises and turning to me, says: 'Permit me to ask you, has an autonomous editorial board the right to dream without first soliciting the opinion of the Party committees?" He is followed by Comrade K, who (philosophically deepening Comrade M who long ago rendered Comrade P more profound) continues even more sternly: '[H]as a Marxist any right to dream at all, knowing that according to Marx humanity always sets itself the tasks it can solve and that tactics is a process of the growth of Party tasks which grow together with the Party?" The very thought of these stern questions sends a cold shiver down my spine and makes me wish for nothing but a place to hide" [written in Stuttgart in March 1902]. There are rifts and there are rifts wrote Pisarev of the rift: "The rift between dreams and reality causes no harm if only the person dreaming believes seriously in his dream, if he attentively observes life, compares his observations with his castles in the air, and if he works conscientiously for the achievement of his fantasies." "'[O]utsiders' (revolutionary workers and radical students no longer regarded each other as outsiders at open actions by the people)." [Proletary, No. 21, Oct. 17 (4), 1905]. Where and how a way can be found out of this system, sporadic attempts at protest, "riots" and strikes devoid of a guiding idea, senseless [unsinnige] "oscillation," when enmity only found expression in a hazy sense of hatred, a confused sense of oppression, the question of the relation between Consciousness and Spontaneity, depth of the newly awakening popular movement. They cease to be slaves, they become human beings, they begin to demand by abandoning outbursts of desperation and revenge, "that strikes are only one means of struggle, only one aspect of the working class movement" [written at the end of 1899]. But is it possible to organize a motley? "No where in the world has the proletarian movement come into being, nor could it have come into being, 'all at once,' in a pure class form, ready-made, like Athena" [Rabochy, No. 1, April 22, 1914]. "This work is devoid of glamor" (Notes of a Publicist) . . . 'strengthening genuine comradely relations[,]' . . . "[a]nd what distinguishes a democratic movement from a mere 'riot' is that it precedes under the banner of certain radical political ideas" [Novy Dyen No. 15, Dec. 13, 1909]. "[A] new and higher social bond, a social discipline, the discipline of class-conscious and united working people . . . requires the most prolonged, most persistent and most difficult mass heroism in plain everyday work." [June 28, 1919, from 'A Great Beginning']. SEVENTY LAMINATED CARRIAGE SPRINGS (UNTIL WE GET DOWN TO BRASS TACKS). "Half a century after the abolition of serfdom there were still quite a number of survivals of serfdom in the Russian countryside. Half a century after the abolition of slavery in America the position of Negroes was still very often one of slavery." "The real emancipation of women, real communism, will begin only where and when"--Where? When? "Whoever dreams of a mythical communism ought to be driven from every"--Where? When? "We love . . . these words of genuine love . . . a love distressed by the absence . . . [Sotsial-Demokrat No. 35, Dec. 12, 1914]; "And I again--I'm sorry--called you the Holy Virgin. Please don't be angry, it was because I'm fond of you, because we're friends . . . " [letter to Inessa written on April 1, 1914, sent from Cracow to Paris " . . . forgetting that the instinctive is in the unconscious (the spontaneous) to the aid of which socialists must come;" (On Trade Unions, p. 83). 5. "The emancipation of the workers must be the act of the working class itself. 8. Abolition of passports, full freedom of movement and residence. 3. Prohibition of work by children under 15 years of age. 4. National holidays. 9. A law making the employers responsible for injuries to workers." [Written in prison, Draft Programme, Dec. 1895]. "What does a compulsory official language mean? Who wants that sort of thing? Russian Marxists say that there must be no compulsory official language . . . questions of language, etc., . . . i.e, the problem of the official language, 'the old assimilation story' [Oct.-Dec. 1913]. Masses of people left home. Masses of people went to jobs in the towns. Masses of people are being turned into beggars and hundreds of thousands and millions of people are starving. "People are starving." (Illyich from The Tasks of the Youth Leagues, Oct. 5, 6 and 7, 1920). "People are starving." (Jack Spicer, Book of Magazine Verse[?] (the one where he's thinking about Bolivia viz. "Trotskyite bandits in the hills." "Working-class consciousness cannot be genuine political consciousness unless workers respond to all cases of oppression, violence and abuse, no matter what class is affected--" [On Trade Unions, p. 104). BLUNT FORMULA: "[B]ut that it takes years to train oneself to be a professional revolutionary . . . and that such people must train themselves patiently and steadfastly to be professional revolutionaries . . . and to learn from it 'how to live and how to die,' to use the expression of a worker who sent a letter to Iskra (No. 7)." [1902, Stuttgart]. "This transformation of literary work . . . cutting the ground from under the old semi-Oblomov, semi-shopkeeper Russian principle: The writer does the writing, the reader does the reading." [Novaya Zhizn No. 12, Nov. 13, 1905]. "The demonstration, in which workers took part, concluded by a student reciting." [Iskra No. 13, Dec. 20, 1901]. ARBEITER-SÄNGER ZEITUNG: "But no amount of police harassment can prevent the singing of the proletarian song . . . in all the great cities of the world, in all the factory neighborhoods, and more and more frequently in the huts of village laborers." ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org