The Sixth (Prague) All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.

 V. I.   Lenin

The Sixth (Prague) All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.

JANUARY 5–17 (18–30), 1912

 THE CHARACTER AND ORGANISATIONAL FORMS OF PARTY WORK

Recognising that the experience of the past three years has undoubtedly confirmed the main provisions of the resolution on the problem of organisation carried by the December (1908) Conference, and assuming that the new upswing of the working-class movement makes possible the further development of organisational forms of Party work along   the lines indicated therein, i.e., by the formation of illegal Social-Democratic nuclei surrounded by as wide a network as possible of every kind of legal workers’ associations,

The Conference considers that:

(1) It is essential for illegal Party organisations to participate actively in the leadership of the economic struggle (strikes, strike committees, etc.), and to ensure co-operation in this sphere between the illegal Party nuclei and the trade unions, in particular with the S.D. nuclei in the trade unions, and also with various leaders of the trade union movement;

(2) It is desirable that S.D. nuclei in unions organised on an industrial basis should, whenever local conditions permit, function in conjuction with Party branches organised on a territorial basis;

(3) It is essential for the maximum possible initiative to be shown in the organisation of S.D. work in legally existing associations—unions, reading rooms, libraries, various types of workers’ entertainment societies, the circulation of the trade union journals and the guidance of the trade union press in the spirit of Marxism; the use of the Duma speeches of the S.D. members, the training of workers to become legal lecturers, the creation (in connection with the elections to the Fourth Duma) of workers’ and other voters’ committees for each district, each street, etc., and the organisation of Social-Democratic campaigns ill connection with the elections to municipal bodies, etc.;

(4) It is essential to make special efforts to strengthen and increase the number of illegal Party nuclei, and to seek for new organisational forms for them of the greatest possible flexibility, to establish and strengthen leading illegal Party organisations in every town and to propagate such forms of mass illegal organisations as “exchanges”, factory Party meetings, and so on;

(5) It is desirable to draw the study circles into everyday practical work—the distribution of illegal Social-Democratic and legal Marxist literature, and so on;

(6) It is essential to bear in mind that systematic agitation through S.D. literature and particularly the regular distribution of the illegal Party paper, issued frequently and regularly can have a tremendous significance for the   establishment of organisational links, both between the illegal nuclei, and between the S.D. nuclei in legally existing workers’ associations.