"At a gathering of workers who are monarchists or Catholics, I would deal cautiously with the altar and the throne. But in the programme of my party and in all its policies, its relation to religion and monarchy must be formulated with absolute exactness. At a meeting of a reformist trade union, I, as a member of the union, might be compelled to leave much unsaid; but the party as a whole, in its papers, its public meetings, pamphlets and its proclamations, is duty bound to say everything.
Should police conditions compel the legal press to be cautious in its formulations, the party must have an illegal press besides. When a Marxist demands that "things be spoken of as they are," they have in mind not every isolated speech in some special situation or other but the policy of the party as a whole. The party that for "tactical" reasons hides its position is no revolutionary party, because it repels the advanced workers, because it adapts itself to the prejudices of the backward workers. And the backward workers can be re-educated only through the advanced workers.
But even at a particular meeting, while using all the tact necessary in approaching a given group, one must not forget that among them are workers on different levels and that, while it may be necessary to adapt oneself to the backward ones in the method of exposition, it is impermissible to adapt one's political position to them. Thus, for instance, there cannot, at present, be a single, political mass meeting at which revolutionary Marxists are not obliged to bring forward the idea of the Fourth International in one form or another. Even though today this slogan musters only a handful numerically, it is nevertheless immeasurably more important and fruitful than repeating general phrases or presenting criticism that may be correct but that fails to draw the clear and necessary conclusions. In any case, no "tactical" considerations can condone fraternisation and embraces with political fakers and traitors in the eyes of the workers."