Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies—can their activity fill the State with a Socialist spirit.
Likewise, economic reconstruction can go on only as a process carried on by the mass action of the working class.
Mere decrees on socialisation issued by high revolutionary authorities are of no more value than empty sounds. Only the, working class, by its own efforts, can change these sounds into actuality, Only in a stubborn fight with capital, face to face in every enterprise, by their own direct pressure, by means of strikes, and by creating their permanent representative organs, can the workers secure control and, finally, the actual administration of production.
The workers must learn to transform themselves from mere machines, which the capitalist employs in the process of production, into free, active, thinking leaders of this process. They must acquire the sense of responsibility of active members of the commonwealth, which alone is the owner of all social wealth. They must develop zeal at work, without the whip of the employer, the highest productivity without the spur of capitalist drivers, discipline without a yoke, and order without domination. Highest idealism in the people's interest, strictest self-discipline, true civic spirit of the masses—these constitute the moral basis of a Socialist society, just as stupidity, egotism, and corruption are the moral basis of capitalism.
These Socialist civic virtues, as also knowledge and the ability to conduct Socialist industries, can be acquired by the workers only by personal activity and personal experience.
The socialisation of society can be accomplished to the fullest extent only by the persistent and uninterrupted struggle of the workers at all points where labour and capital, the people and the class rule of the bourgeoisie, meet face to face.
The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves.
6
