From The Front Is Everywhere by William R. Kintner, 1950
As no state will tolerate open preparations for its own destruction, the revolutionary goal of Communism has channeled the party into a militarily organized conspiracy. Lenin acknowledged the heart of the Communist party to be conspiratorial organization. �Conspiracy,� he said, �is so essential a condition of an organization of this kind that all other conditions (the number and selection of members, their functions, etc.) must be made to conform with it.�15
15. Lenin on Organization, 99. From the Introduction : �Every section of the Communist International must learn how this party was formed and what organizational principles were introduced by V. I. Lenin in its formation. Toward this end the Organization Department of the Executive Committee is striving to bring to the knowledge of all the sections of the Communist International V. I. Lenin�s fundamental ideas or the question of organization.�( page 12 )
Under Lenin�s guidance, the Communists gradually developed an organization capable of operating in the face of diverse and rapidly changing conditions of revolt. The combat experience of the Bolshevik party in Russia prior to the Revolution of 1917 is of utmost importance to the rest of the world, for with slight modification the legions of world Communism are all organized in accordance with Lenin�s original plan, modified by knowledge gained in the military activities of the Bolshevik party against the government of Imperial Russia. From this historical background has sprung the Communist faith in a military organization as the key to revolutionary success. Military force brought the Communists victory in Russia ; the Red Army fostered revolution in Eastern Europe ; [etc].
There is great public concern over the operations of the legal Communist parties which, in some countries, are permitted to conduct a conspiracy in the open. But the dangerous part of Communism is always the illegal party. The illegal party at all times is the military heart and foundation of the visible movement. As Lenin put it, �The more conspiratorial it is the stronger and more widespread will be the faith in the power of the party.�4 The operation of a duplicate, illegal party is one of the fundamental conditions of affiliation with the Communist International. �The Communists . . . �, Lenin advised . . . �must everywhere create a duplicate illegal apparatus, which, at the decisive moment, could help the Party to perform its duty to the revolution.�5
All Communist parties have a dual existence, and the illegal, shadow party always governs that portion of the party which operates in the open. The illegal Communist organization is charged with preparation and command of the armed uprising. It would be impracticable to wait to the moment of outbreaks and uprisings to set up a functioning military headquarters. �The organization must be ready, in order to develop its activities immediately.�6 Wherever the Communists have struck, the organization has been ready.
"The absolute necessity in principle of combining illegal with legal work . . . � said Lenin, . . . 7
4. [Lenin on Organization], 41.
5. Selected Works, X, 202.
6. Lenin on Organization, 45.
7. Selected Works,, X, 172-73.( pages 59 - 61 )
Lenin, the master and maker of the armed insurrection, never attempted to set the beginning of a revolution in advance. In his writings, the determination of an exact date for the uprising is never discussed, but always he speaks of the �choice of the right moment for the uprising.� The fact that the precise moment of the armed uprising is, for tactical reasons, unpredictable, has been a great boon to the Communists operating in the United States. The Supreme Court has ruled that there is a difference between agitation calling �for violent action which creates a clear and present danger of public disorder . . . and prediction of the use of force under hypothetical conditions at some future time, . . .. a prediction that is not calculated or intended to be presently acted upon.�25
The Communists, obviously, will never order present �violent action� until it is tactically sound for them to order such action. The Supreme Court has failed to recognize that present preparations for the Communist use of force �at some future time� may also be a danger to public order. According to Lenin, the Communist �Tactics-plan consists in rejecting an immediate call for the attack, in �demanding a regular siege of the enemy fortress.��26
Rather, the Communist plan calls for the preliminary preparation of the ground — the capturing or neutralizing of a sizable part of the hostile forces. The Communist conspiracy seeks �to avoid open battle against the overwhelming and concentrated forces of the enemy� and to �take advantage of the clumsiness of the enemy to attack him at a time and place he least expects attack.�27
25. Schneiderman v. The United States, U. S. Reports, Vol. 320, p. 157.
26. Selected Works, II, 182. From What Is to Be Done?
27. Ibid., 186.( pages 224-5 )
As of 1950, the Supreme Court had failed to recognize that the Communist war is permanent war. The Communists themselves make no distinction between present preparations and the future insurrectional act, which are but phases of one complete operation. Lenin commented on this point : �In Russia, nobody places the beginning of the 1905 Revolution before January 22, 1905, whereas revolutionary propaganda, in the very narrow sense of the word, the propaganda and the preparation of mass action, had been conducted for years before that. The old Iskra, for instance began to preach this at the end of 1900 . . "32
32. Selected Works, V, 230.( page 225 )
One most important step would be to place on the statutes a definition stating that membership in groups organized along certain lines and conducting certain types of activities is ipso facto membership in a conspiracy. International precedent for this type of legislation exists. For example, members of the Nazi S.S. troops were considered by an international tribunal to be automatically members in a conspiracy against mankind in general. Some of the marks by which an ostensible political party might be recognized as a treasonable conspiracy are these : use of cover names by members, secret communications, military discipline, military disciplinary punishments, military organization, and indoctrination of the membership in the political theories of a foreign power.
The aim of any such legislation would be to deprive the Communist movement of the cover of secrecy. It would be a direct attack on the core of Communism. For as Lenin said, the condition of secrecy is so essential to the success of Communism that all other considerations are subordinate to it. . . .
( page 248 )
Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 1950.