WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

Trotsky knew:
I see the bright green strip of grass
Beneath the wall
And the clear blue sky
Above the wall
And sunlight everywhere
Life is beautiful
Let the future generations cleanse it
Of all evil, oppression
And violence
And enjoy it to the full.

Connolly knew:
Impartiality as between
The strong and the weak
Is the virtue of the slave.

Marti knew:
With the poor people of the earth
I want to share my fate

Zbiegnew Knew:
Go upright among those
Who are on their knees:
Let your anger be like the sea
Whenever
You hear the voice of the insulted
And beaten.

Çonnolly knew:
Contemned and despised though he be
Yet, the rebellious docker
Is the sign and symbol to all
That an imperfect civilisation cannot last
For slavery cannot survive
The awakened intelligence of the slave
To increase the intelligence of the slave
To sow broadcast the seeds
Of that intelligence
That they may take root
And ripen into revolt;
To be the interpreters
Of that revolt, and finally
To help in guiding it to victory
Is the mission we set before ourselves.


Lenin knew:
To say that socialists cannot
Divert from its path
The labour movement created
By the material elements
And material environment
Whose interaction creates
A certain type of labour movement
And defines its path
Is to ignore the truth
That consciousness
Participates
In this interaction and creation:
With Catholic labour movements
The difference is
It was the consciousness of priests
And not the consciousness of Marxists
That participated.

Gramsci knew:
Reality is the result
Of the application of wills
To the society of things:
To put aside
Every voluntary effort and calculate
Only
The intervention of other wills
Is to mutilate reality itself:
Only those who strongly want to do it
Identify the necessary elements
For the realisation of their will.

Connolly knew:
The only true prophets are those
Who carve out the future they announce

Lenin knew:
It is necessary to find
The particular link in the chain
Which must be grasped
With all one's strength
In order to keep the whole chain in place
And prepare to move on
Resolutely to the next link.

Gramsci knew:
The emancipation of the proletariat is not
A labour of small account
And of little men; only he
Who can keep his heart strong
And his will as sharp as a sword
When the general disillusion is at its worst
Can be regarded as a fighter
For the working class
Or called a revolutionary.

Zbiegnew knew:
Let your sister scorn
Not leave you;
Be courageous,
Whenever the mind fails you,
Be courageous:
Only that is important.

Pearse knew:
Did ye think to conquer the people
Or that law is stronger than life
And than our desire to be free?
We will try it out with you,
Ye that have harried and held,
Ye that have bullied and bribed,
Tyrants, hypochrites, liars!

Connolly knew:
Hope, and fight!

April, 1989.

[This is part 3 of "Collage in a Bleak April"
For parts 1 and 2:

• Collage in a Bleak April [1]]