V. I. Lenin

Plan for Three Talks on the Social-Democratic Programme


Written: Written in the autumn of 1904
Published: First published in 1930 in Lenin Miscellany XV. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 41, pages 132.2-133.1.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
Copyleft: V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org) © 2004 Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.  


   
α) Contemporary system.
β) Socialist aims and the class struggle.
γ) Struggle against the autocracy.
[[ for 2-3 hours ]]
[BOX:] Divide α-γ into three talks
[SQUIGLY:] Plan for first talk
[SQUIGLY:] on the Social-Democratic programme
α {{ 1. The struggle of the workers against their masters to improve their condition is world-wide. Strikes—socialism. What does this mean?
2. Contemporary society is arranged as follows: it is divided into working people and exploiters. Two classes. Property-owners and proletarians. Who maintains whom?
3. Workers’ plight: low wages. Malnutrition. Unemployment. Female labour. Child labour. “Degeneration of the nation.” Prostitution. Social and political oppression.
β {{ 4. In large-scale production, workers unite to fight against their masters. Under capitalism, the whole of society is more tightly knit, making possible a transition to socialist production. Example of the masters being quite useless in big factories and estates.
5. Socialist revolution=land and factories handed over to the workers. Socialist production, short working hours, etc.
6. Demands on modern society to facilitate the workers’ struggle and safeguard them against degeneration: labour reforms, 8-hour working day, weekly payment of wages, living quarters, medical aid, schools, etc.
γ {{ 7. Political demands. What is an autocracy? Struggle for political freedom. (Constitution—republic, freedom of speech, assembly, etc., etc.)
8. Revolutionary parties and their role in the working-class struggle. Narodnaya Volya and S o c i a l- D e m o c r a c y.

Notes


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