Another principle of our Party that we adopt as a rule in life is: being faithful to principles.

Many have principles but when the moment comes to apply them they forget themselves, they are not faithful to principles. We must be faithful to our principles, we must apply them every day, we must not compromise our principles, whether on the internal plane, in our internal life, or on the external plane, in our relations in the external field.

Our leaders and responsible workers have the courage to struggle constantly against all temptation to practise opportunism, to take the easiest path. The path of struggle is never an easy path, but there are many among us who have a tendency for the easy way out. The consequence is that at every step they forget our party principles; the consequence is that they lie at every step. And when one begins to lie, one lies so much that one ends by being caught out.

We must respect our principles. We have established our strategy, that is the broad line of our struggle, in accordance with our principles, and on this score we make no concessions, we do not retreat for anyone; we do not accept this. But on minor matters, on matters which do not affect our principles, we have to know how to make concessions. We have to be able to give way. We have to be able to use the tactics needed on the political and the military level, above all on the political level.

The skill of a leadership, of a leader, lies in knowing where he may give way and where he must not give way. This means that faced with a given problem we must ask the following question: what is essential and what is secondary? Is it in fact an essential problem or a secondary problem? Is it a problem just for today or for always, permanent or temporary? We must distinguish the essential from the secondary. We must know how to make concessions, to give way, to give party liaison deeper roots, to open the way for the party to advance.