On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the Workers Themselves
Not every disagreement on the shop floor is a contradiction with the enemy.
Not every disagreement inside a movement is a contradiction with the enemy. Conflating the two — treating a comrade's honest disagreement over tactics as though it were sabotage — is one of the fastest ways to hollow out an organisation from the inside.
The distinction matters in practice, not just in theory. A dispute over strike timing, resource allocation, or how to handle a difficult member is, in the overwhelming majority of cases, a contradiction *among* the people — something to be resolved through patient discussion, criticism, and self-criticism, not expulsion.
Reserving the harder tools — formal discipline, isolation, removal — for contradictions with genuine class enemies keeps an organisation both principled and livable. Getting this wrong in either direction, being too soft on real sabotage or too harsh on honest disagreement, has broken more study circles than any external repression ever has.