Leadership Quote by Clara Zetkin

That opening disavowal of “principle” is a political feint with teeth. Zetkin strips away the comforting moralism that opponents could dismiss as abstract idealism and replaces it with an unapologetic calculus of power: demands are justified because they advance the proletariat. It’s a sentence designed to short-circuit bourgeois debate culture, where reforms are tolerated only when dressed up as universal ethics. Zetkin refuses the costume.

The intent is tactical clarity. In socialist movements of her era, “principle” could mean two things: lofty rights-talk that floats above material life, or factional purity tests that substitute internal righteousness for winning. Zetkin signals impatience with both. She frames politics as a class project, not a seminar on virtue. That doesn’t make her anti-principled; it makes her wary of principles that can be co-opted, diluted, or turned into alibis for inaction.

The subtext is a warning about who gets to define the moral high ground. When the ruling order claims neutrality and “principles,” it often smuggles in its own interests as common sense. Zetkin flips the script: we’re not pretending to speak for everyone. We’re speaking for workers, openly, and we’re organizing accordingly.

Context matters. Zetkin was a central figure in German socialism and communist organizing, and a leading theorist of working-class women’s politics. Her emphasis on class interest responds to a recurring liberal trap: granting symbolic equality while leaving exploitation intact. The line insists that demands must be measured by their material consequences for the proletariat, not by their rhetorical elegance.