Ah, if only you kept your own admonition in mind in your criticism of Lenin's writings! That said, why not think of the word 'proper' as in desirable manners? Can there be desirable manners (figured out from the "historical development and assumptions," and also made context-specific) that communists should observe, in discussion, organising, etc., especially with regard to issues often made more difficult than necessary by moralism, such as the relation between intellectuals and the working class, nationalism, women's reproductive rights, etc.? I think there can be, though desirable manners are of course changeable and have been changing (as I noted in this and implied as much in the other post to which you replied) -- hence hard to figure out. Nonetheless, it is best if desirable manners become so fully taken for granted by all concerned that they may be called mores and that it won't even occur to any to make a fuss about them nor commit an act of moralist cruelty (for instance, I think it an act of moralist cruelty to imprison women for their drug use during pregnancy or for men to question women's 'motive' for abortion, in their efforts to limit abortion to instances of hardships).
As for the question of how to avoid moralism, while I don't go so far as to share James Farmelant's thoughts on the matter, I find intriguing his oft-repeated suggestion that a determinist politicial rhetoric (*if* not taken as a full description of the world of social relations, I add) may serve as a very useful antidote to moralism. While an anecdote remains an anecdote, not evidence, I take the liberty to note here that James Farmelant, along with Michael Hoover, has been one of the politest, most sympathetic, & least sectarian interlocutors in any thread.
Yoshie