“And, in all this, the question is, how should the proletariat conduct itself in this situation, how should the Communist Party conduct itself? The overall situation of the proletariat is clear. Up to now, it has suffered external defeat after defeat, the counter-revolution has advanced from one stage to another. Its position and its task is indicated in Marx’s words: “Revolutionary progress cleared a path for itself not by its immediate, tragic-comic achievements, but, on the contrary, by creating a powerful and united counter-revolution; only in combat with this opponent did the insurrectionary party mature into a real party of revolution” (‘The Class Struggles in France’, Marx)” [Paul Levi, The Political Situation and the KPD (October 1919)] [in Paul Levi, a cura di David Fernbach, In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg. Selected Writings of Paul Levi, 2011]