Clara Zetkin Internet Archive Page 1 of 4

Marxist Writers: Clara Zetkin

Clara Zetkin

1857-1933

Biography

Writings:

Only in Conjunction With the Proletarian Woman Will Socialism Be Victorious, October 1896

The Workers’ International Festival, May 1899

May Greetings from Stuttgart , May 1900

Social-Democracy & Woman Suffrage, 1906

For Adult Suffrage, May 1909

German Socialist Women’s Movement, October 1909

A Greeting from Abroad, May 1913

August Bebel Obituary, August 1913

German Women to Their Sisters in Great Britain, December 1913

The Duty of Working Women in War-Time, November 1914

The Women of Germany to the Women of Great Britain, January 1915

Rosa Luxemburg (intro to the Junius Pamphlet), May 1919

Karl Liebknecht, September 1919

Rosa Luxemburg, September 1919

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/index.htm 14-7-2011 Clara Zetkin Internet Archive Page 2 of 4

Hail to the Third Socialist International!, 1919

In Defence of Rosa Luxemburg, 1919

Through Dictatorship to Democracy, 1919

The Situation in Germany, 1920

Fraternal Greetings to the Communist Unity Convention, 1920

The Struggle Against New Imperialistic Wars, 1922

Organising Working Women, 1922

The Russian Revolution & the Fourth Congress of the Comintern, 1922

From the International of Word to the International of Deed

World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern

To the Congress of the German Communist Party

Fascism, August 1923

Reminiscences of Lenin, 1924 (in preparation)

Lenin on the Women’s Question

A May-Day Message from Germany

From My Memorandum Book (An Interview with Lenin on the Woman Question)

Links:

The Clara Zetkin Collections at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam Museum -Clara-Zetkin im Zetkin-Haus, Birkenwerder Archiv Clara Zetkin, German-language archive in MIA.

Women and Marxism | The Socialist International | Marxist Writers

Last updated on 29.12.2008

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/index.htm 14-7-2011 Clara Zetkin Internet Archive Page 3 of 4

Shortcut Text Internet Address Biography http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/z/e.htm#zetkin-clara Only in Conjunction With the Proletarian http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm Woman Will Socialism Be Victorious The Workers’ International http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1899/05/festival.htm Festival May Greetings from Stuttgart http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1900/05/stuttgart.htm Social- Democracy & http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm Woman Suffrage For Adult Suffrage http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/05/suffrage.htm German Socialist http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/10/09.htm Women’s Movement A Greeting from Abroad http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/05/labourwoman.htm August Bebel Obituary http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/08/bebel.htm German Women to http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/12/sisters.htm Their Sisters in Great Britain The Duty of Working Women in http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1914/11/19.htm War-Time The Women of Germany to the Women of http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1915/01/reply.htm Great Britain Rosa Luxemburg http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm Karl http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/09/karl.htm Liebknecht Rosa http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/09/rosa.htm Luxemburg Hail to the Third Socialist http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm International! In Defence of Rosa http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/defencerosa.htm Luxemburg Through Dictatorship to http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm Democracy The Situation in Germany http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm Fraternal Greetings to the Communist http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/subject/unity_convention/zetkin.htm Unity Convention

The Struggle

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/index.htm 14-7-2011 Clara Zetkin Internet Archive Page 4 of 4

Shortcut Text Internet Address Against New Imperialistic http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/periodicals/communist_review/1922/03/imp_wars.htm Wars Organising Working http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/women.htm Women The Russian Revolution & the Fourth http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm Congress of the Comintern From the International of Word to the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm International of Deed World Wide Field of http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm Activity of the Comintern To the Congress of the German http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm Communist Party Fascism http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm Lenin on the Women’s http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm Question A May-Day Message from http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/04/29.htm Germany From My Memorandum http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm Book International Institute of http://www.iisg.nl/archives/ Social History Museum- Clara-Zetkin http://www.brandenburg.de/land/mwfk/kultur/gedenk/zetkin.html im Zetkin- Haus Archiv Clara Zetkin http://www.marxists.org/deutsch/archiv/zetkin/index.htm Women and Marxism http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/index.htm The Socialist http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm International Marxist http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm Writers

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/index.htm 14-7-2011 Glossary of People: Ze

MIA: Encyclopedia of Marxism: Glossary of People

Ze

Zetkin, Clara (1857-1933)

A prominent figure in the German and international workers' movement, most notably in the struggles womens workers' movement. From 1895, a National Executive member of the German SPD, and on its left- wing; member of the Bookbinders Union in Stuttgart, and active in the Tailors and Seamstresses Union, becoming its provisional International Secretary in 1896, despite the fact that it was illegal for women to be members of trade unions in Germany at that time. As Secretary of the International Bureau of Socialist Women, Zetkin organised the Socialist Women's Conference in March 1915. Along with Alexandre Kollontai, Zetkin fought for unrestricted suffrage, and against the 'bourgeois feminist' position supporting the restriction of the vote by property or income. Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg led the left-wing and waged a fierce struggle against revisionism as well as the center represented by Kautsky. During the War joined http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/z/e.htm (1 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:52:43] Glossary of People: Ze

the Spartacists along with Luxemburg and Liebknecht. A founding member of the German Communist Party in 1918 along with comrades including Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Became a delegate to the Reichstag from 1920; secretary of the International Women's Secretariat and member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International from 1921, but lived in Russia from 1924 until her death in 1933.

See the Clara Zetkin Archive.

Zetkin, Konstantin (Costia) (b. 1885)

Youngest son of Clara Zetkin. As a young adult became an admirer and lover of Rosa Luxemburg. Worked on his mother's publication Die Gleichheit(Equality)

Zetkin, Maxim (b. 1883)

Oldest son of Clara Zetkin. Became a physician in Germany.

Zeno of Citium (c. 336-264 BCE)

Born in Cyprus. Founder of the Stoic School. Few of his

http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/z/e.htm (2 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:52:43] Glossary of People: Ze writings survive.

Zeno of Elea (490-430 BCE)

Representative of the Eleatic School of Greek philosophy, famous for his paradoxes. By showing that concept of motion was inherently self-contradictory, and he drew the conclusion that motion was only "seeming". He also "proved" that plurality was impossible and that a faster thing can never overtake a slower thing. Hegel shows that Zeno is right in proving that the concepts are self- contradictory, but wrong in drawing the conclusion that these things cannot be objectively true as a result, but rather that Nature is self-contradictory; that motion exists, and motion is self-contradictory.

See Hegel on Zeno.

Index of the Letter Z | Encyclopedia of Marxism

http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/z/e.htm (3 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:52:43] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896)

MIA > Archive > Zetkin

Clara Zetkin Only in Conjunction With the Proletarian Woman Will Socialism Be Victorious (1896)

Source: Speech at the Party Congress of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Gotha, October 16th, 1896. Berlin. Published: Clara Zetkin: Selected Writings, ed. by Philip Foner, trans. by Kai Schoenhals, International Publishers, 1984. Transcribed: for marxists.org in August, 2002.

The investigations of Bachofen, Morgan and others seem to prove that the social suppression of women coincided with the creation of private property. The contrast within the family between the husband as proprietor and the wife as non-proprietor became the basis for the economic dependence and the social illegality of the female sex. This social illegality represents, according to Engels, one of the first and oldest forms of class rule. He states: “Within the family, the husband constitutes the bourgeoisie and the wife http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (1 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) the proletariat.” Nonetheless, a women’s question in the modern sense of the word did not exist. It was only the capitalist mode of production which created the societal transformation that brought forth the modern women’s question by destroying the old family economic system which provided both livelihood and life’s meaning for the great mass of women during the pre- capitalistic period. We must, however, not transfer to the ancient economic activities of women those concepts (the concepts of futility and pettiness), that we connect with the activities of women in our times. As long as the old type of family still existed, a woman found a meaningful life by productive activity. Thus she was not conscious of her social illegality even though the development of her potentials as an individual was strictly limited.

The period of the Renaissance is the storm and stress period of the awakening of modern individuality that was able to develop fully and completely in the most diverse directions. We encounter individuals who are giants in both good and evil, who spurn the commandments of both religion and morals and despise equally both heaven and hell. We discover women at the center of the social, artistic and political life. And yet there is not a trace of a women’s movement. This is all the more characteristic because at that time the old family economic system began to crumble under the impact of the division of labor. Thousands upon thousands of women no longer found their livelihood and their lives’ meaning within the family. But this women’s question, as far as one can

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (2 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) designate it as such, was solved at that time by convents, charitable institutions and religious orders.

The machines, the modern mode of production, slowly undermined domestic production and not just for thousands but for millions of women the question arose: Where do we now find our livelihood? Where do we find a meaningful life as well as a, job that gives us mental satisfaction? Millions were now forced to find their livelihood and their meaningful lives outside of their families and within society as a whole. At that moment they became aware of the fact that their social illegality stood in opposition to their most basic interests. It was from this moment on that there existed the modern women’s question. Here are a few statistics to demonstrate how the modern mode of production works to make the women’s question even more acute. During 1882, 5½ million out of 23 million women and girls in Germany were fully employed; i.e., a quarter of the female population could no longer find its livelihood within the family. According to the Census of 1895, the number of employed women in agriculture, in the broadest meaning of this term, has increased since 1882 by more than 8%, in the narrow sense by 6%, while at the same time the number of men employed in agriculture has decreased by 3%, i.e., to 11%. In the area of industry and mining, the number of employed women workers has increased by 35%, that of men by only 28%. In the retail trade, the number of women employed has increased by more than 94%, that of men by only 38%. These dry numbers stress

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (3 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) much more the urgency of solving the women’s question than any highfalutin declamations.

The women’s question, however, is only present within those classes of society who are themselves the products of the capitalist mode of production. Thus it is that we find no women’s question in peasant circles that possess a natural (although severely curtailed and punctured) economy. But we certainly find a women’s question within those classes of society who are the very children of the modern mode of production. There is a women’s question for the women of the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia and the Upper Ten Thousand. It assumes a different form according to the class situation of each one of these strata.

How does the women’s question shape up as far as the Upper Ten Thousand are concerned? The woman of the Upper Ten Thousand, thanks to her property, may freely develop her individuality and live as she pleases. In her role as wife, however, she is still dependent upon her husband. The guardianship of the weaker sex has survived in the family law which still states: And he shall be your master. And how is the family of the Upper Ten Thousand constituted in which the wife is legally subjugated by the husband? At its very founding, such a family lacks the moral prerequisites. Not individuality but money decides the matrimony. Its motto is: What capital joins, sentimental morality must not part. (Bravo!) Thus in this marriage, two prostitutions

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (4 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) are taken for one virtue. The eventual family life develops accordingly. Wherever a woman is no longer forced to fulfill her duties, she devolves her duties as spouse, mother and housewife upon paid servants. If the women of these circles have the desire to give their lives a serious purpose, they must, first of all, raise the demand to dispose of their property in an independent and free manner. This demand, therefore, represents the core of the demands raised by the women’s movement of the Upper Ten Thousand. These women, in their fight for the realization of their demand vis-a-vis the masculine world of their class, fight exactly the same battle that the bourgeoisie fought against all of the privileged estates; i.e., a battle to remove all social differences based upon the possession of property. The fact that this demand does not deal with the rights of the individual is proven by Herr von Stumm’s advocacy of it in the Reichstag. Just when would Herr von Stumm ever advocate the rights of a person? This man in Germany signifies more than a personality, he is capital itself turned into flesh and blood (How accurate!) and if this man has put in an appearance in a cheap masquerade for women’s rights, then it only happened because he was forced to dance before capitalism’s Ark of the Covenant. This is the Herr von Stumm who is always ready to put his workers on short rations if they do not dance to his tune and he would certainly welcome it with a satisfied smile if the state as employer would also put those professors end scholars who meddle in social politics on short rations. Herr von Stumm endeavors nothing more than instituting the entail for movable female property in case of http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (5 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) female inheritance because there are fathers who have acquired property but were not careful in the choice of their children, leaving only daughters as heirs. Capitalism honors even lowly womanhood and permits it to dispose of its fortunes. That is the final phase of the emancipation of private property.

How does the women’s question appear in the circles of the petit- bourgeoisie, the middle class and the bourgeois intelligentsia? Here it is not property which dissolves the family, but mainly the concomitant symptoms of capitalist production. To the degree this production completes its triumphal march, the middle class and the petit-bourgeoisie are hurtling further and further towards their destruction. Within the bourgeois intelligentsia, another circumstance leads to the worsening of the living conditions: capitalism needs the intelligent and scientifically trained work force. It therefore favored an overproduction of mental-work proletarians and contributed to the phenomenon that the formerly respected and profitable societal positions of members of the professional class are more and more eroding. To the same degree, however, the number of marriages is decreasing; although on the one hand the material basis is worsening, on the other hand the individual’s expectations of life are increasing, so that a man of that background will think twice or even thrice before he enters into a marriage. The age limit for the founding of a family is raised higher and higher and a man is under no pressure to marry since there exist in our time enough societal institutions which offer to an old bachelor a comfortable

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (6 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) life without a legitimate wife. The capitalist exploitation of the proletarian work force through its starvation wages, sees to it that there is a large supply of prostitutes which corresponds to the demand by the men. Thus within the bourgeois circles, the number of unmarried women increases all the time. The wives and daughters of these circles are pushed out into society so that they may establish for themselves their own livelihood which is not only supposed to provide them with bread but also with mental satisfaction. In these circles women are not equal to men in the form of possessors of private property as they are in the upper circles. The women of these circles have yet to achieve their economic equality with men and they can only do so by making two demands: The demand for equal professional training and the demand for equal job opportunities for both sexes. In economic terms, this means nothing less than the realization of free access to all jobs and the untrammeled competition between men and women. The realization of this demand unleashes a conflict of interest between the men and women of the bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia. The competition of the women in the professional world is the driving force for the resistance of men against the demands of bourgeois women’s rights advocates. It is, pure and simple, the fear of competition. All other reasons which are listed against the mental work of women, such as the smaller brain of women or their allegedly natural avocation to be a mother are only pretexts. This battle of competition pushes the women of these social strata towards demanding their political rights so that they may, by fighting politically, tear down all http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (7 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) barriers which have been created against their economic activity.

So far I have addressed myself only to the basic and purely economic substructure. We would, however, perform an injustice to the bourgeois women’s rights movement if we would regard it as solely motivated by economics. No, this movement also contains a more profound spiritual and moral aspect. The bourgeois woman not only demands her own bread but she also requests spiritual nourishment and wants to develop her individuality. It is exactly among these strata that we find these tragic, yet psychologically interesting Nora figures, women who are tired of living like dolls in doll houses and who want to share in the development of modern culture. The economic as well as the intellectual and moral endeavors of bourgeois women’s rights advocates are completely justified.

As far as the proletarian woman is concerned, it is capitalism’s need to exploit and to search incessantly for a cheap labor force that has created the women’s question. It is for this reason, too, that the proletarian woman has become enmeshed in the mechanism of the economic life of our period and has been driven into the workshop and to the machines. She went out into the economic life in order to aid her husband in making a living, but the capitalist mode of production transformed her into on unfair competitor. She wanted to bring prosperity to her family, but instead misery descended upon it. The proletarian woman obtained her own employment because she wanted to create a

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (8 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) more sunny and pleasant life for her children, but instead she became almost entirely separated from them. She became an equal of the man as a worker; the machine rendered muscular force superfluous and everywhere women’s work showed the same results in production as men’s work. And since women constitute a cheap labor force and above all a submissive one that only in the rarest of cases dares to kick against the thorns of capitalist exploitation, the capitalists multiply the possibilities of women’s work in industry. As a result of all this, the proletarian woman has achieved her independence. But verily, the price was very high and for the moment they have gained very little. If during the Age of the Family, a man had the right (just think of the law of Electoral Bavaria!) to tame his wife occasionally with a whip, capitalism is now taming her with scorpions. In former times, the rule of a man over his wife was ameliorated by their personal relationship. Between an employer and his worker, however, exists only a cash nexus. The proletarian woman has gained her economic independence, but neither as a human being nor as a woman or wife has she had the possibility to develop her individuality. For her task as a wife and a mother, there remain only the breadcrumbs which the capitalist production drops from the table.

Therefore the liberation struggle of the proletarian woman cannot be similar to the struggle that the bourgeois woman wages against the male of her class. On the contrary, it must be a joint struggle with the male of her class against the entire class of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (9 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) capitalists. She does not need to fight against the men of her class in order to tear down the barriers which have been raised against her participation in the free competition of the market place. Capitalism’s need to exploit and the development of the modern mode of production totally relieves her of having to fight such a struggle. On the contrary, new barriers need to be erected against the exploitation of the proletarian woman. Her rights as wife and mother need to be restored and permanently secured. Her final aim is not the free competition with the man, but the achievement of the political rule of the proletariat. The proletarian woman fights hand in hand with the man of her class against capitalist society. To be sure, she also agrees with the demands of the bourgeois women’s movement, but she regards the fulfillment of these demands simply as a means to enable that movement to enter the battle, equipped with the same weapons, alongside the proletariat.

Bourgeois society is not fundamentally opposed to the bourgeois women’s movement, which is proven by the fact that in various states reforms of private and public laws concerning women have been initiated. There are two reasons why the accomplishment of these reforms seems to take an exceptionally long time in Germany: First of all, men fear the battle of competition in the liberal professions and secondly, one has to take into account the very slow and weak development of bourgeois democracy in Germany which does not live up to its historical task because of its class fear of the proletariat. It fears that the realization of such

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (10 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) reforms will only bring advantages to Social-Democracy. The less a bourgeois democracy allows itself to be hypnotized by such a fear, the more it is prepared to undertake reforms. England is a good example. England is the only country that still possesses a truly powerful bourgeoisie, whereas the German bourgeoisie, shaking in fear of the proletariat, shies away from carrying out political and social reforms. As far as Germany is concerned, there is the additional factor of widespread Philistine views. The Philistine braid of prejudice reaches far down the back of the German bourgeoisie. To be sure, this fear of the bourgeois democracy is very shortsighted. The granting of political equality to women does not change the actual balance of power. The proletarian woman ends up in the proletarian, the bourgeois woman in the bourgeois camp. We must not let ourselves be fooled by Socialist trends in the bourgeois women’s movement which last only as long as bourgeois women feel oppressed.

The less bourgeois democracy comprehends its task, the more important it is for Social-Democracy to advocate the political equality of women. We do not want to make us out to be better than we are. We are not making this demand for the sake of a principle, but in the interests of the proletarian class. The more women’s work exercises its detrimental influence upon the standard of living of men, the more urgent becomes the necessity to include them in the economic battle. The more the political struggle affects the existence of each individual, the more urgent becomes the necessity of women’s participation in this political

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (11 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) struggle. It was the Anti-Socialist Law which for the first time made clear to women what is meant by the terms class justice, class state and class rule. It was this law which taught women the need to learn about the force which so brutally intervened in their family lives. The Anti-Socialist Law has done successful work which could never have been done by hundreds of women agitators and, indeed, we are deeply grateful to the father of the Anti-Socialist Law as well as to all organs of the state (from the minister to the local cop) who have participated in its enforcement and rendered such marvelous involuntary propaganda services. How then can one accuse us Social- Democrats of ingratitude? (Amusement.)

Yet another event must be taken into consideration. I am referring to the publication of August Bebel’s book Woman and Socialism. This book must not be judged according to its positive aspects or its shortcomings. Rather, it must be judged within the context of the times in which it was written. It was more than a book, it was an event – a great deed. (Very accurate!) The book pointed out for the first time the connection between the women’s question and historical development. For the first time, there sounded from this book the appeal: We will only conquer the future if we persuade the women to become our co-fighters. In recognizing this, I am not speaking as a woman but as a party comrade.

What practical conclusions may we now draw for our propaganda

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (12 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) work among women? The task of this Party Congress must not be to issue detailed practical suggestions, but to draw up general directions for the proletarian women’s movement.

Our guiding thought must be: We must not conduct special women’s propaganda, but Socialist agitation among women. The petty, momentary interests of the female world must not be allowed to take up the stage. Our task must be to incorporate the modern proletarian woman in our class battle! (Very true!) We have no special tasks for the agitation among women. Those reforms for women which must be accomplished within the framework of today’s society are already demanded within the minimal program of our party.

Women’s propaganda must touch upon all those questions which are of great importance to the general proletarian movement. The main task is, indeed, to awaken the women’s class consciousness and to incorporate them into the class struggle. The unionization of female workers is made extremely difficult. During the years 1892 until 1895, the number of female laborers organized in central trade unions grew to around 7,000. If we add to this number the female workers organized in local unions and realize that there are at least 700,000 female workers actively involved in large industrial enterprises, then we begin to realize the magnitude of the organizing work that still lies ahead of us. Our work is made more burdensome by the fact that many women are active in the cottage industry and can, therefore, be organized

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (13 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) only with great difficulty. Then we also have to deal with the widely held belief among young girls that their industrial labor is only transitory and will be terminated by their marriage. For many women there is the double obligation to be active in both the factory and the home. All the more necessary is it for female workers to obtain a legally fixed workday. Whereas in England everybody agrees that the elimination of the cottage industry, the establishment of a legal workday and the achievement of higher wages are important prerequisites for the unionization of female workers – in Germany, in addition to these obstacles there is also the enforcement of our unionization and assemblage laws. The complete freedom to form coalitions, which has been legally guaranteed to the female workers by the Empire’s legislation, has been rendered illusory by the laws of individual federal states. I do not even want to discuss the manner in which the right to form unions is handled in Saxony (as far as one can even speak of a right there). But in the two largest federal states, in Bavaria and Prussia, the union laws are handled in such a way that women’s participation in trade union organizations is becoming more and more of an impossibility. Most recently in Prussia, the district of the “liberal,” eternal candidate for minister, Herr von Bennigsen has achieved everything humanly possible in the interpretation of the Law of Unionization and Assemblage. In Bavaria all women are excluded from public meetings. In the Chamber there, Herr von Freilitzsch declared very openly that in the handling of the law of unionization not only the text but also the intention of the legislators should be taken into account. Herr von Freilitzsch is in http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (14 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) the most fortunate position to know exactly what were the intentions of the legislators, all of whom have since died, before Bavaria became more lucky than anybody could have imagined in their wildest dreams, by appointing Herr von Freilitzsch as her minister of police. That does not surprise me at all, because whoever receives an office from God also receives concomitantly intelligence, and in our Age of Spiritualism, Herr von Freilitzsch has thus obtained his official intelligence and by way of the fourth dimension has discovered the intentions of the long deceased legislators. (Amusement.)

This situation, however, does not make it possible for the proletarian women to organize themselves together with men. Until now they had to wage a fight against police power and juridical stratagems and on the surface they seemed to have been defeated, In reality, however, they emerged as victors because all those measures which were employed to smash the organization of the proletarian woman only served to arouse her class consciousness. If we want to obtain a powerful women’s organization in both the economic and political realms, then we must, first of all, take care of the possibility of women’s freedom of movement by fighting against the cottage industry, for shorter working hours and, above all, against what the ruling classes like to call the right to organize.

We cannot determine at this party congress what form our propaganda among women should take. We must, first of all,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (15 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) learn how we ought to do our work among women. In the resolution which has been submitted to you, it is proposed to elect shop stewards among the women whose task it will be to stimulate the union and economic organization of women and to consolidate it in a uniform and planned manner. This proposal is not new; it was adopted in principle at the Party Congress of Frankfurt, and in a few regions it has been enacted most successfully. Time will tell whether this proposal, when introduced on a larger scale, is suited to draw proletarian women to a greater extent into the proletarian movement.

Our propaganda must not be carried out solely in an oral fashion. A large number of passive people do not even come to our meetings and countless wives and mothers cannot come to our meetings. Indeed, it must certainly not be the task of Socialist propaganda among Socialist women to alienate the proletarian woman from her duties as mother and wife. On the contrary, she must be encouraged to carry out these tasks better than ever in the interests of the liberation of the proletariat. The better the conditions within her family, the better her effectiveness at home, the more she will be capable of fighting. The more she can serve as the educator and molder of her children, the better she will be able to enlighten them so that they may continue to fight on like we did, with the same enthusiasm and willingness to sacrifice for the liberation of the proletariat. When a proletarian then exclaims: “My wife!” he will add mentally, “Comrade of my ideals, companion of my battles, mother of my children for future

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (16 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) battles.” Many a mother and many a wife who fills her husband and children with class consciousness accomplishes just as much as the female comrades that we see at our meetings. (Vivid agreement).

Thus if the mountain does not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain: We must take Socialism to the women by a planned written propaganda campaign. For such a campaign, I suggest the distribution of pamphlets and I do not mean the traditional pamphlet on which the entire Socialist program and the entire scientific knowledge of our century are condensed on one quarto page. No, we must use small pamphlets which discuss a single practical question from one angle of vision, especially from the point of view of the class struggle, which is the main task. And we must not assume a nonchalant attitude toward the technical production of pamphlets. We must not use, as is our tradition, the worst paper and the worst type of printing. Such a miserable pamphlet will be crumpled up and thrown away by the proletarian woman who does not have the same respect for the printed word that the male proletarian possesses. We must imitate the American and English teetotallers who put out pretty little booklets of four to six pages. Because even a female proletarian is enough of a woman to say to herself: “This little thing is just charming. I will have to pick it up and keep it!” (Much amusement and many cheers.) The sentences which really count must be printed in great big letters. Then the proletarian woman will not be frightened away from reading and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (17 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) her mental attention will be stimulated.

Because of my personal experiences, I cannot advocate the plan of founding a special newspaper for women. My personal experiences are not based upon my position as the editor of Gleichheit (which is not designed for the mass of women, but rather their progressive avant-guard), but as a distributor of literature among female workers. Stimulated by the actions of Frau Gnauck-Kuhne, I distributed newspapers for weeks at a certain factory. I became convinced that the women there did not acquire from these papers what is enlightening, but solely what is entertaining and amusing. Therefore, the big sacrifices which are necessary in order to publish a cheap newspaper would not be worth it.

But we also have to create a series of brochures which bring Socialism closer to the woman in her capacity as female proletarian, wife and mother. Except for the powerful brochure of Frau Popp, we do not have a single one that comes up to the requirements we need. Our daily press, too, must do more than it has done heretofore. Some daily newspapers have made the attempt to enlighten women by the addition of special supplements for women. The Magdeburger Volksstimme set an example in this endeavor and Comrade Goldstein at Zwickau has skillfully and successfully emulated it. But until now the daily press has regarded the proletarian woman as a subscriber, flattering her ignorance, her bad and unformed taste, rather than

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (18 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: Proletarian Woman and Socialism (1896) trying to enlighten her.

I repeat that I am only throwing out suggestions for your consideration. Propaganda among women is difficult and burdensome and requires great devotion and great sacrifice, but these sacrifices will be rewarded and must be brought forth. The proletariat will be able to attain its liberation only if it fights together without the difference of nationality and profession. In the same way it can attain its liberation only if it stands together without the distinction of sex. The incorporation of the great masses of proletarian women in the liberation struggle of the proletariat is one of the prerequisites for the victory of the Socialist idea and for the construction of a Socialist society.

Only a Socialist society will solve the conflict that is nowadays produced by the professional activity of women. Once the family as an economic unit will vanish and its place will be taken by the family as a moral unit, the woman will become an equally entitled, equally creative, equally goal-oriented, forward-stepping companion of her husband; her individuality will flourish while at the same time, she will fulfill her task as wife and mother to the highest degree possible.

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Last updated on 28.2.2004

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1896/10/women.htm (19 of 19) [14-7-2011 20:52:52] Clara Zetkin: The Workers International Festival (1899)

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Clara Zetkin The Workers’ International Festival 1899

Source: The Workers International Festival, Justice, 1 May 1899, p. 15; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.

Wherever busy folk are drudging under the yoke of capitalism, the organised working men and women will demonstrate on May Day for the idea of their social emancipation.

Certainly May demonstration was decided at the International Congress at Paris in order to maintain energetically the revindication of the eight hours’ day, and the protective legislation of labour in general. But the character of the Congress,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1899/05/festival.htm (1 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:53:01] Clara Zetkin: The Workers International Festival (1899) the discussions preceding the decision, undoubtedly affirm that the reforms claimed are not the final aims of the labour movement, but only means to serve those aims. They are food on the way for the revolutionary working-class, marching to conquer political power, and by means of it both economical and social liberty: they are not less than that, yet they are nothing more. Important as they are – necessary conditions for the powerful development of the labour movement – the working-class never will sell for the dish of lentils of reforms its primogenital right to the social revolution. For reforms ameliorate the situation of the working class, they lighten the weight of the chains labour is burdened with by capitalism, but they are not sufficient to crush capitalism and to emancipate the workers from their tyranny.

Therefore the workers’ May Day is not only a demonstration in favour of all social reforms, demanded by the conscious part of the proletariat, but it is in the same time and must inevitably be, a demonstration for the noble aims of the proletarian class struggle, the abolition capitalist society, the abolition of every kind of slavery of man by man. In spite of its peaceable form, May demonstration, by its very essence, is, and remains in consequence a revolutionary action. It is and remains revolutionary, not in the sense that policemen and politicians understand the word, but in its true historical significance, for it is the conscious expression of the working people’s will, to strive for a radical transformation of society and to obtain by its very own efforts all the reforms that will enable the wage-slaves to

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1899/05/festival.htm (2 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:53:01] Clara Zetkin: The Workers International Festival (1899) substitute Socialism for capitalism. The emancipation of the working-class is a historical necessity, and it can only be the work of the proletariat itself. This conviction is the keynote of all the May manifestations.

By the May demonstration the working- class declares that it has done for ever with the legend that true liberty, nay even an effective amelioration of the most cruel evils and sufferings capitalist exploitation is bringing over the workers, would be granted by the benevolence and justice of the upper classes. Only the action of the working people themselves, organised in trade unions and organised in a class party for the political struggle, will in the present enforce on bourgeois society the necessary reforms and will one day change wage-slaves into free citizens of a free commonwealth. Only a working class, strong in health, in intellectual and moral power, can perform its historical task. Each reform, therefore, improving the economical and political situation of the workers proves to be an arm that increases the energy with which the proletarian struggle of classes is fought. This May demonstration does not ring the bells of a paltry peace between labour and capitalism, it is, on the contrary, a pronunciamento of the working class against capitalist society. The slaves of our days have numbered themselves and they will no longer be slaves. By the May demonstration they show that they have recognised clearly their own true interests, that are in irreconcilable antagonism with the capitalist interests.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1899/05/festival.htm (3 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:53:01] Clara Zetkin: The Workers International Festival (1899) These interests of the workers, as the exploited and oppressed, class of society, are the same in all countries. In consequence May demonstration must be an international one. Across the frontiers and seas the workers of all nations reach out to each other the hands for a brotherly union; against the international reactionary power of capitalism rises the international revolutionary power of the working class. The fact, that in the whole capitalist world the workers stand up jointly to affirm the solidarity of their class interests by asking the same reforms, by endeavouring for the same aims, is of the highest interest. For the future historian the proletarian May demonstration will be more interesting and important than a dozen of those barbarous battles now exulted in by the Jingoes of every country. It is an evident proof of the moral and intellectual revival of the working class. It shows that the capitalist exploitation unites the workers without difference of trade, sex, religion, and nationality, into the one revolutionary army, that is going to conquer a new world, where labour has all to win and nothing to lose but its chains. Thus we hail May demonstration as a herald of future struggles, but also of future victories, which must as surely cone as spring follows winter; morn, night.

Stuttgart, Germany Clara Zetkin

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1899/05/festival.htm (5 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:53:01] Clara Zetkin: May Greetings from Stuttgart (1900)

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Clara Zetkin May Greetings from Stuttgart (12 May 1900)

Clara Zetkin, May Greetings from Stuttgart, Justice, 12th May 1900, p.6. Transcribed Ted Crawford. Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

DEAR COMRADE, – I apologise for not sending the article for your May Day number. I would have written it with pleasure, but a very serious illness of the eyes prevented me from doing so.

Together with my excuses I send you the heartiest congratulation for the courage and the fidelity of conviction with which the Social-Democratic Federation has fearlessly and without regard to momentary advantages defended the cause of right, justice and freedom against the powerful currents of imperialism and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1900/05/stuttgart.htm (1 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:53:09] Clara Zetkin: May Greetings from Stuttgart (1900) jingoism. Its manly attitude during this deplorable war against the Boers, brought about by the sordid and unscrupulous greed of a small number of gold-hunters, stock jobbers and adventurers, will be one of the purest glories in the history of Socialism.

It is under particularly difficult circumstances that your May Demonstration takes place this year, and it is a particularly high and elevated significance that these circumstances give to your demonstration. Be sure that the Socialists of all countries fully appreciate these two facts. Wherever on the first of May the working class cries to capitalist society: “Peace on earth! Fraternity between the nations! War against war!” their thoughts and sympathies will turn towards that gallant little body of Socialist fighters in England, which dares to oppose the Socialist ideals and revindications to a world of power, of prejudice and of misled passions, roused by the present criminal war.

With sincere wishes for the success of your May Day and the action of your Party, I remain, dear comrade,

truly yours Clara Zetkin

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1900/05/stuttgart.htm (2 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:53:09] Clara Zetkin: May Greetings from Stuttgart (1900)

Last updated on 4.8.2004

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1900/05/stuttgart.htm (3 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:53:09] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906)

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Clara Zetkin Social-Democracy & Woman Suffrage (1906)

Clara Zetkin, Social Democracy & Woman Suffrage, [no publisher], London 1906. Translator: Jacques Bonhomme. Many thanks to John Partington. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

A paper read to the Conference of Women belonging to the Social-Democratic Party held at Mannheim, before the opening of the Annual Congress of the German Social- Democracy.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (1 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) Comrades, – The decision to discuss the question of Woman Suffrage at this Congress was not arrived at from any theoretical considerations, or from any wish to point out the advisability of such a measure. This desirability has long been acknowledged by Social-Democrats, and by the women who work with them for the attainment of their aims. We have been much more interested in the tactics and in the historical events about which I am now going to speak. There never was greater urgency than at the present time for making the question of Woman Suffrage one of the chief demands of our practical programme in politics. It is well for us, therefore, to be clear that we are on the right lines, and in what conditions and in what ways we should conduct the agitation, the action, the struggle for Woman Suffrage so as to bring it before the public as a question of intense practical activity for all. But we should not be what we are, we should not be working-class women agitators who base their demands on the ground of a Socialist demand, if we did not, when seeking ori the right lines, with all our strength, for this right, at the same time show why we base our claim for this reform, and how we are totally separated from those who only agitate for this from the point of view of middle-class women. We take our stand from the point of view that the demand for Woman Suffrage is in the first place a direct consequence of the capitalist method of production. It may seem perhaps to others somewhat unessential to say this so strongly, but not so to us, because the middle-class demand for women’s rights up to the present time still bases its claims on the old nationalistic doctrines of the conception of rights. The middle- http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (2 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) class women’s agitation movement still demands Woman Suffrage to-day as a natural right, just as did the speculative philosophers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We, on the contrary, basing our demand on the teachings of economics and of history, advocate the suffrage for women as a social right, which is not based on any natural right, but which rests on social, transient conditions. Certainly in the camp of the Suffragettes it is also understood that the revolution which the capitalist method of production has caused in the position of women, has been of great importance in causing many to agitate for their rights. But this is not given as the most important reason, the tendency is to put this in the background, and, as an illustration of this, I would refer, for example, to the declaration of principles which the middle-class international association for the attainment of Woman Suffrage formulated at its first Congress in Berlin, in June 1904, when the constitution of the society was drawn up. In this declaration of principles there are stated firstly, secondly, and thirdly, considerations from a purely natural-right point of view, which were inspired from a sentimentalist standpoint due to idealistic considerations, and it will need other grounds of action, other considerations, other ideals if the masses are ever to be reached. It was only when they came to the fourth clause, after talking about the economic revolution of society, that they began to think about the industrial activity of women. But in what connection? There it was stated that Woman Suffrage is required, owing to the increase of wealth, which has been attained by the labours of women. Comrades, I declare that the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (3 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) strongest and greatest demand for women’s rights is not due to the increase of wealth among women, but that it is based on the poverty, on the need, on the misery of the great mass of women. We must reject with all our might this middle-class agitation of women, which is only a renewed idle prattling about national wealth, If you simply argue from the point of view of natural rights, then we should be justified in adapting the words which Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Shylock. We might say,

“Hath not a woman eyes? Hath not a woman hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a man is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?”

But, comrades, though these questions might be of momentary use, yet in the struggle for social rights they are like a weapon which breaks as soon as it is used in fighting.

The right to Woman Suffrage is based for us in the variation of social life which has come about through the capitalist methods of production, and more especially through the fact of women working for their living, and in the greatest degree through the enrolment of working women in the army of industry. This has given the greatest impetus to the movement. I agree that there are facts which appear to go against this movement. It is a fact that the agitation for Woman Suffrage, though in a weakened

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (4 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) form, already existed in many countries before capitalist production had become more important than anything else, before it had reached its highest point, and had been able to attain its greatest development owing to the exploitation of women’s labour. In Russia, in the village communes, women were able to take an equal share with men, in certain cases, in the government of the communes. This is an old custom, which has been duly recognised by Russian law. But this right is due to the fact that in Russia the old customs of the rights of mothers have lasted for a longer time than in the West of Europe, and that there women enjoy this right not as persons or as individuals, but as guardians of the household, and of the common property which has lasted longer there. In many other States, as well as in many provinces, of Prussia, there is still a species of woman suffrage. In the seven eastern provinces, as well as in Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, the women in the country districts have votes for the local bodies. But under what conditions? Not every woman has the right of voting, but it is restricted to those who own land and pay taxes. The same rule obtains not only in the country but also in the towns, in part of the Palatinate, and in other places. In Austria, too, the women in the country districts have the right of voting for the members of the local district authorities, but only in so far as they are owners of land and inasmuch as they are taxpayers, and it is thought that they will soon be able to vote for the election of members of the local diets and of the Reichsrath. And the consequence is that in many Crown lands of Austria there are women who are indirectly http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (5 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) electors for the Reichsrath, because they are allowed to vote for the delegates who choose the representatives for that body. In Sweden women who fulfil the same conditions of property are also allowed to vote in the elections for local bodies. But when we carefully consider all these cases, we find that women do not vote because they are women; they do not enjoy, so to speak, a personal vote, but they only have this right because they are owners of property and taxpayers. That is not the kind of Woman Suffrage which we demand; it is not the right we desire to give a woman, as a burgess of the State, it is only a privilege of property. In reality, all these and similar schemes stand out in marked contrast to the demand for Woman Suffrage which we advocate. In England we find, too, that women may take part in elections for local bodies; but this again is only under conditions of owning a certain amount of property or paying a certain sum in taxes.

But when we demand Woman Suffrage, we can only do so on the ground, not that it should be a right attached to the possession of a certain amount of property, but that it should be inherent in the woman herself, This insistence of the personal right of woman to exercise her own influence in the affairs of the town and the State has received no small measure of support, owing to the large increase in the capitalist methods of production. You all know that already in the beginning of the capitalist development these thoughts found their first exponents among members of the middle-class democracy. There is no need for the middle-class to be ashamed of this, that they – in the time of their youth – still

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (6 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) dreamed their dreams, and that their more advanced members were brave fighters in the struggle for women’s rights. We see, moreover, people in England arguing in favour of Woman Suffrage as a personal right. We see them also striving like the French middle-class, which achieved their political emancipation over the body of Louis Capet.

We see that they fought with great energy during the struggle in North America for the abolition of slavery. Briefly, in all those periods in which the middle-class agitated for the complete attainment of democratic principles as a means of effecting its own political emancipation and securing power, it also fought for the recognition of equal rights for women. But with whatever zeal and whatever trouble and whatever energy this question of the rights of women was demanded by the middle-class, yet It was not till the advent of Socialism that the struggle began in earnest. Already in 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft, in her celebrated work, The Claims of Woman, already in 1787, Condorcet, in his Letters from a Citizen of Newhaven [1], had claimed equal rights for women; and the cause also received an impetus from the French Revolution. The demand for Woman’s Suffrage was inscribed among the list of reforms desired by some electors at the French Revolution, and a petition asking for it was also presented to the National Assembly. But this body contented itself by issuing a platonic declaration that it relegated the question to the consideration of mothers and daughters. But in 1793 the Committee of Public Safety, on the motion of Amar,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (7 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) dissolved all the women’s organisations, and forbade their meetings, Then the French middle-classes gave up the struggle for Woman Suffrage; and the first Socialists – the Utopians – Saint-Simon and Fourier, and their disciples, took up the cause. In 1848 Victor Considerant, in 1851 Pierre Leroux, agitated concerning this question. But they received no encouragement, and their arguments were received with scorn and derision. In the English Parliament in 1866 a numerously-signed petition in favour of Woman Suffrage was first presented by John Stuart Mill, one of the most enlightened minds of the democratic middle- class.

These struggles for the emancipation of women have indeed secured some concessions, and many advantages have been gained; but the political emancipation of the female sex to-day, and especially in industrial lands, is as far off as ever, while the most stalwart exponents of middle-class democracy for men, having attained most of their demands, are no longer clamouring, as during the fight, for equal rights for women. The preliminary condition for success is that there should be a great increase in capitalist production. It stands in the closest relation with the revolutionising of the household. With the increase of industry, which in primitive conditions was carried on in the family, and when that family carried out industrial operations as a whole in the home, there was not then a demand for the emancipation of woman from the family and the household, and women did not then, always living at home, feel the need for political power. The

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (8 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) same machinery which drove with decisive power the home industries from the family, allowed woman to become an active worker outside the home, and her advent on the labour market produced not only new economic, but also new social, effects. The destruction of the old middle-class woman’s world has created, of necessity, a new moral purpose in women’s lives, in order to secure to them new advantages. Therefore, the middle-class woman’s world was compelled to recognise the necessity of advocating the political emancipation of women as a precious and useful weapon, and with its help to endeavour to procure changes in the law, so that man should no longer enjoy a monopoly, and prevent women from earning their living. In the proletarian women’s world the need, so far from being less, was indeed much greater to obtain political power, and they advocated complete political emancipation. Hundreds of thousands, nay millions, of women workers have been exploited by capitalist methods. Statistics are there to show how in al} capitalist countries women are more and more going into the labour market. In Germany, the last census (that of 1895) gives the number of women working as 6,578,350, and of these the workers in factories, etc., were no less than 5,293,277. In Austria, in 1890, there were 6,245,073 women working, and of these there were 5,310,639 working in factories; in France, in 1890, the numbers were 5,191,084 and 3,584,518; in the United States, in 1890, 3,914,571 and 2,864,818; in England and Wales, in 1891, 4,016,571 and 3,113,256.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (9 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) This I only give as an illustration, not only to show that women deserve the suffrage, but also to show what importance the labour of women has attained. It is evident that the question of woman’s rights must be greatly influenced, owing to the fact of so many women being in the labour market. Hundreds of thousands of working women who labour with their brains are just as much exploited by the action of capitalists and middlemen as the millions of women who work with their hands, because the whole capitalist class hangs together, and defends its interests. By ’this economic process, women have also been taught to think and act for themselves. And they now demand Universal Suffrage as a social necessity of life as the aim and means which will give them a stimulus to obtain protection. and improvement by obtaining an improvement in their economic and moral interests. But when we place the demand for Woman Suffrage in the front as a social necessity, we also argue that it should be granted to us as a self- evident act of justice. Woman is not only now emancipated from the family and the home, but she is determined to use the activity of her brain and hand in order, just as man, to improve her mental and social position, for the clear light which the furnace of great factories has thrown on the path of woman has made her conscious of the social worth of her activity, and has directed it into’ other channels. It has taught her the great social importance and the great social worth of her career as a mother and the educator of youth. For the multitude of women who go to factories will generally become wives; they then will become mothers and bear children, and they know that the care which http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (10 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) they give to their new-born children, the zeal with which they discharge their duties in training children, shows that the service rendered by the mother in the home is no private service simply to her husband, but an activity which is of the highest social importance.

Because millions are condemned, not through their own fault, not through a want of their motherly instinct, but owing to the pressure of capitalist influence, to forego their bodily, spiritual, and moral good, then, as a consequence, there is a great increase in infant mortality, and children do not receive proper attention in their tender years. All this proves the high social worth of labour which woman performs in the producing and rearing of children. The demand for Woman Suffrage is only a phase of the demand that their high social worth should be more adequately recognised.

But they base this right also on the ground of the democratic principle in its widest bearing, not only on the fact that the same duties demand equal rights, but we also say that it would be criminal for the democracy not to use all the strength which women have in order that by their work of head and hand they may take part in the service of the community.

We do not maintain, like certain advocates of women’s rights, that men and women should have the same rights because they are alike. No; I am of opinion that in bodily strength, in spiritual insight, and in intellectual aims, we are very different. But to be http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (11 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906)

different does not necessarily imply inferiority, and if it be true that we think, act, and feel differently, then we say that this is another reason which condemns the action of men in the past, and a reason why we should try and improve society.

From this point of view of history, we demand the political equality of women and the right to vote as a recognition of the political rights due to our sex. This is a question which applies to the whole of women without exception. All women, whatever be their position, should demand political equality as a means of a freer life, and one calculated to yield rich blessings to society. Besides, in the women’s world, as well as in the men’s world, there exists the class law and the class struggle, and it appears as fully established that sometimes between the Socialist working women and those belonging to the middle class there may be antagonisms. For women the Suffrage has practically an entirely different- meaning according to the conditions under which they live. It may indeed be said that the value of the Suffrage depends, in most cases, on the property they possess. If women happen to have a large property, the sooner they can hope to attain political rights, because they can bring more pressure to bear by the very fact of being rich. The question is als’o one of great importance for the women of the middle class. A large number of them are not in the same pleasant position as their richer sisters who have not to get their living by their own work. Often, however, they do not depend so much on their work for a means of living, but they engage in work rather to increase their wealth. Naturally, they

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (12 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) think a great deal of their class and their position, and do not imagine that by any possibility they might become working women, either employed in factories or the land, because they are earning their bread in so-called free or liberal callings. The same equality of opportunity with man, and the possibility of exercising these callings will often, as far as women are concerned, be hindered by social customs if not by legal impediments. Therefore, it behoves the women of the middle classes, women living in fair comfort, to agitate for the possession of the Suffrage in order to pull down the legal fetters which in some way hinder their development or cripple their energies. This middle class should agitate for the Suffrage, not only in their own interests, in order to weaken the power of the male sex, but they should also labour in the cause of the whole of social reform, and give what help they can in that matter. But while we are ready as Socialists to use all our political might to bring about this change, yet we are bound to notice the difference between us and them. The middle-class women really wish to obtain this social reform, because they think it is a measure which will strengthen and support the whole of middle-class society. The working women demand the Suffrage, not only to defend their economic and moral interests of life, but they wish for it not only as a help against the oppression of their class by men, and they are particulary eager for it in order to aid in the struggle against the capitalist classes. And they ask for this social reform not in order to prop up the middle class society and the capitalist system. We demand equal political rights with men in order that, http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (13 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) with them, we may together cast off the chains which bind us, and that we may thus overthrow and destroy this society. These reasons show us clearly why, up till now, the middle-class women have not been in favour of universal, equal, secret, and direct voting for all legislative bodies without distinction of sex. Besides, as soon as this simple principle of Woman Suffrage is adopted, then all the nonsense about the weakness of woman falls to the ground. The difference of social classification has been the cause that the middle class demand for women’s rights has never really fallen into line with the majority of the women workers who demand the Suffrage, because the upper ten thousand have never really been anxious to obtain political equality with man. Much less is it right that the middle-class women’s movement should calmly and placidly be enthroned in the clouds, far above party strife, in the clear heights of blameless rectitude and freedom from party spirit. The world congress for women’s rights has yielded a fine crop of fallacies. Carefully have its members embarked on a sea of perplexities, and have declared in a spick and span manner what kind of Suffrage they wished for. The President of the Society of German Women has indeed revealed herself more radical than the women of the radical middle class, for she at all events has said that she not only wanted a vote, but that she was in favour of universal, equal, secret, and direct Suffrage for both men and women. Of the other middle-class women groups, not one has shown itself in favour of this cardinal point of the Suffrage. For while not a single one of these ladies has discussed the question of Universal Suffrage, the President of http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (14 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) the united organisation has declared, personally, that she is only in favour of a vote which shall be the same for men and for women. This declaration certainly honours the person who made it, but it cannot alter our position with reference to the middle- class women who are in favour of obtaining the vote. It cannot be otherwise as long as these women will not fall into line and advocate the measures of which we are in favour. I remember how, in the winter of 1901, the Radical Women’s Union, “The Welfare of Women,” sent in a petition to the Prussian Landtag asking that the right of voting for that body might be granted to women, but only to those who had qualified by living for one year in the constituency, and who paid a certain sum, however small, in direct taxation. The meaning of that is clear, that for this, as for other bodies, the franchise should only be granted to ladies and not to the working women, who are without property. As you know, many people would be in favour of that; and not only would working women not get the vote, but the next step would be to deprive men of their vote, for that is what is behind that idea of granting votes only to people who pay taxes. Yet such a scheme is palpably absurd, for I would ask – do not the poor pay taxes? They do, and it is the ruling classes who receive them.

The Radical Women’s Union, to which I have referred, have shown that they are not in favour of Woman Suffrage as we understand it, because, in 1903, when there were elections to the Reichstag, their union worked for middle-class Progressives and Liberals, and opposed the Socialist candidates. I will not here

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (15 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) argue the question any further. The fact has, moreover, been admitted on the middle-class side, and the middle-class woman’s union has been guilty of the shameful fact of supporting, in Hamburg, the middle-class candidate, though his opponent was Bebel, who has been one of the first and most strenuous fighters in the cause of the complete emancipation of woman. This is admitted, and, to add to their shame and treachery, it is also to be said that they have supported candidates of the middle-class Liberals in opposition to other Social-Democrats. I will now tell you what that means by reminding you that in the last election for the Bavarian Landtag the Association for Women’s Rights supported the National Liberal candidates, though they were declared enemies and opponents of the extension of the Suffrage to women, which was advocated in Bavaria by the Social- Democrats and also by the Centre Party.

In the beginning of August, the International Congress for Women held its sittings at Copenhagen. At this Congress, not only questions of organisation and of propaganda were discussed, but also the much more important question - what badge the members of the Union for Woman Suffrage should wear. But the Congress did not say a word about the question of Universal Suffrage, and failed to say clearly what they thought about the matter. This is the more remarkable because the delegates from Finland and Hungary had declared that the struggle for the political emancipation of women had made most progress in those countries where it was advocated in concert with the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (16 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) demand for Universal Suffrage, especially when the minds of men were influenced by that demand urged on behalf of the proletariat. Here, again, where there was an opportunity to join hands with us, and to press on our just claims, they have adopted a cowardly attitude instead of a plain, straightforward one. The middle-class advocates of women’s rights, also, always say that the Social-Democrats are unwilling champions of the cause of Woman Suffrage, but that the Progressives and the National Liberals are best supporters for the. political equality of women. In order to support this assertion against the Socialists, they say that abroad some of the women leaders of the Social-Democracy have been lukewarm, or at all events critical, on the question of female Suffrage, and that, owing to tactical exigencies, in some countries the struggle for women’s rights has been kept somewhat in the background. But as to this opinion, as to the action of the German Social-Democracy, they are unable to bring the slightest evidence by which to support their charge. The German Social-Democratic Party brought forward, for the first time in 1895, in the Reichstag, a motion advocating universal, equal, secret, and direct Suffrage, without distinction of sex, in all the States of the German Empire. Our comrades in Saxony brought forward the same resolution in their local Parliament. I need not refer further to the action of our comrades in Bavaria and other States; but I may again call attention to the fact that while our party this year organised meetings demanding that in every State of Germany the legislative bodies should be elected by Universal Suffrage, they also insisted that women should also http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (17 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) have the vote equally with men. This claim has been advocated in the press, and has been defended by thousands of speakers – men and women – at meetings, and was finally brought forward as a resolution in the Reichstag. On this question all the middle- class parties were united. All members of middle-class parties voted against this resolution, even those members who generally are praised by the middle-class women parties as being worthy of honour, because they are friendly to the cause. In these are included Herr von Gerlach, who declared that he voted against this Socialistic motion on the ground of “expediency.” These women’s unions must declare their hostility to these tactics if they are really in favour of women’s rights, and not of ladies’ rights. The only real supporters in Germany of the cause of complete social and political rights for women are the members of the Social-Democlratic Party. But the middle-class women are afraid to admit this, because they think they would then have to recognise the justice of our demands.

Let me give a characteristic example of the way in which the middle-class women’s unions try to hoodwink the public on the question of Woman Suffrage. In the Bavarian Landtag there was a petition for the granting of the Suffrage to women, and it was supported by three National Liberal Deputies. Yet Fräulein Anita Augsping told the Bavarian women that she was glad to say that in the Bavarian Landtag 50 per cent of the National Liberals were in favour of female Suffrage. I can only hope that shortly there will only be one National Liberal Deputy left in the Bavarian

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (18 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) Landtag, and then she might triumphantly assert that 100 per cent of the National Liberals were in favour of Universal Female Suffrage.

When I have mentioned these facts here, it is certainly not with the intention of reproaching the middle-class women advocates of the Suffrage concerning their attitude. That is not my purpose. I recognise that they are fulfilling an historical purpose, and that they are engaged in a struggle from their own middle-class point of view. But this point of view shows that they are not in favour of women’s rights, but of the rights of ladies; they do not fight for the political emancipation of the female sex, but for the advancement of the interests of the middle class. That is certainly within their rights; but what I complain of is the confusion which arises when they state that their agitation is for the benefit of the whole of the female sex. As a matter of fact, they only strengthen the political and the social influence of the ruling classes – that is their aim.

I have devoted so much time to this matter in order to make it perfectly clear that working women must not hope for the slightest assistance in their struggle for political emancipation from the middle-class women, and they cannot expect them to take their side in the struggle. No; we must bear in mind that in order to see this matter through, in order to obtain full social emancipation, we must rely on our own power, exercised through our own class.

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Comrades, two characteristic events are happening before our eyes. The middle class no longer prizes in the same way the democratic principles which they so formerly extolled, and they do not see the consequences of those theories relating to the political emancipation of the female sex. That is shown, for instance, in the way in which those representing the middle class in Holland have introduced into the Chamber there a resolution relating to the Suffrage for women, worded in such a way that it does not confer Universal Suffrage on women, but a kind of vote which would only be given to ladies possessing a certain amount of property. But while the middle class dares less and less, owing to the growing influence of the proletariat, to carry oiit the logical consequences of its democratic principles, we also note, on the other hand, that the proletariat is compelled by its own class interests to become the bold supporter of the political emancipation of women, especially as woman’s labour becomes daily more important and an increasing factor in capitalist countries, and that, therefore, the proletariat, in carrying out its economic struggle, must rely more and more on the disciplined, united and organised help of women. The organisation of women in trade unions is only possible, however, in a complete way, if they possess equal political rights, otherwise the help which their unions give to those of men will be illusory, owing to the political weakness underlying them. The whole proletariat must raise the cry, “Down with all political arrangements which deny to woman her full political equality.” She must be entitled to all rights of a burgess in towns, so that there, too, women may take part with http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (20 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906)

men in the local struggles. It is, therefore, for the practical interests themselves of the proletariat that they should be energetic supporters of the cause of women. Social-Democracy, which is the political fighting organisation of the proletariat, has, from practical considerations, understanding the need of an improvement in the conditions of the existence of the proletariat, included Woman Suffrage in its programme, and actively advocates it. But also on account of the knowledge of the tendencies of the united economic and social needs, the Social- Democracy is in favour of Woman Suffrage as a social necessity for women on the ground of their being in an entirely revolutionary age, and also as a consequence of social justice following on the putting into practice of democratic principles. But when, passing from the inscription of these aims in the programme of Social-Democracy, we wish to enter into action for the attainment of Woman Suffrage, then we must bear in mind something of importance. With the keenness of the opposition of classes, with the bitterness of the class struggle there arise historical situations in which the question of Woman Suffrage acquires a new practical bearing. The question of Woman Suffrage is becoming one of the gravest practical importance, not only for the proletariat, but also for reactionary parties. In all circumstances, when the self-conscious proletariat has fought on this plan, we see that the reactionary parties, more and more under the influence of the situation of women’s rights, argue, as a last attempt at reaction, when they can no longer withstand the demand for Universal Suffrage for men, that only a weakened http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (21 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) form of Suffrage should be extended to women. That is what happened, for instance, in 1902, in Norway. These same tendencies have also shown themselves in Belgium, and they are also partly advocated in Germany by the Centre, At last year’s Catholic Congress in Strasburg, the members of the Centre Party brought forward this question of Woman Suffrage. At that meeting Father Auracher brought forward a resolution on the subject, supporting it with remarks which no Socialist could take exception to, and saying that owing, to industrial changes the position of women had changed, and that some form of women’s rights should be conceded. Soon after this the Centre, in the Bavarian Landtag, went much further. A petition from the middle- class union, “The Welfare of Women,” was supported by 23 Deputies belonging to the Centre. Dr. Heim spoke in its favour in such a way as to do honour tor his historical insight. All honour to him! But, on this point, it does not follow that the Centre to- day or to-morrow will become an enthusiastic supporter of woman’s rights. The difference between theory and practice is, as you know, a very great matter. When the Belgian comrades in 1902 brought forward their motion for Universal Suffrage in communal councils and provincial diets, then the Clericals at once said that they would agitate for Woman Suffrage; and they did, only to get the Liberals to vote against the Socialist proposal. When it came to the voting, however, none of the Clericals voted for the resolution of the Belgian comrades, and one only had the courage to abstain from voting. The tactics which I have described are characteristic, because they prove that the Centre, http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (22 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) in taking part in the agitation for Woman Suffrage, is not – when things are looked at closely – actuated by any principle except the one of securing the ascendancy of the Church, and that of the ruling classes. The Clericals, as they have often declared, are ready to assert that women should be silent in the assembly [2] as long as it suits the interests of their power; but they are now quite prepared to loosen the tongues of women there if by so doing they can strengthen the authority of the Church, and that of the capitalist class, which is the chief supporter of the Church. The reactionary classes are only now beginning to show themselves friendly to the idea of Woman Suffrage, because they think that, by the help of the women’s votes they may thus diminish the power of the men’s votes, and they are actuated in this matter by the following reasons. They believe that their power over the minds of a great number of women, and especially of those belonging to the proletariat, is still strong enough for them to be able to make use of the unemancipated women as against the men that are already emancipated, They reckon on this modified Woman Suffrage to act as a counterpoise against the increasing growth of free thought among men, and to counteract the steady march of Catholic working men into the camp of Social- Democracy. This is a reason why in some countries, and not only in the ranks of the middle class, but also among Social- Democrats, many persons are opposed to the movement in favour of Woman Suffrage. Thus in Holland Troelstra has stated that if the question of extending the franchise was brought forward he would vote against it, because it would undoubtedly http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (23 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906)

lead to a strengthening of reaction, because the women there are still unemancipated.

So that where Clericalism rules there will be a strong movement against Woman Suffrage, because it will be thought to be a source of danger, as by means of it the Clericals would ’receive such an increase of support that the political class struggle of the proletariat would for a long time be in danger. It would be foolish to deny that directly Woman Suffrage was granted, a certain number of women would at once give their votes to reactionary candidates, and so strengthen the party of reaction. But that is no reason for withholding the vote from women. If it were so, the proletariat ought never to agitate for an extension of the Suffrage. For every fresh democratisation of the Suffrage allows large masses of men to take part in voting whose political education is imperfect, and who have not yet been properly trained as to how they should vote. But we ask for Universal Suffrage, not as a means for a political dodge, but as a working means of training and organising the masses properly.

If’we acted otherwise we should always have to disfranchise a large number of citizens, The Revue Socialiste had a series of articles on this question of granting the Suffrage to women. Comrades from different countries sent contributions, and they were all agreed that .the backwardness of women from a political point of view was no reason not to give them the vote, because the very possession of that right would act as a corrective to. the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (24 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) danger. Allemane, for the French’Socialists, Ferri for the Italian, Keir Hardie and MacDonald for the English, and Kautsky and Bernstein for the German, all took the same view of the question. This alleged danger of Woman Suffrage to the cause of the proletariat affords no ground for an alteration of the programme of Social-Democracy.

But now there is another point to be considered. The action of the Social-Democracy with reference to Woman Suffrage is more and more energetic and thorough, and the question that arises is whether we weaken the danger of the granting of a partial Woman Suffrage by agitating as we do for Universal. Suffrage. But to that I reply that by carrying on a propaganda of enlightenment and organisation of working women we shall so improve the political knowledge and outlook of these women that it will be impossible for reaction ever to reckon on the support of women’s votes. After, however, making that point clear, there are yet, in many countries, comrades who have worked hard in order to obtain Universal Suffrage for men, and who are doubtful whether it is wise at present to agitate for Woman Suffrage. That we saw in Belgium in 1902, where the Labour Party, in their struggle for equal Universal Suffrage, gave up the agitation for Woman Suffrage, on the ground that the Liberals declared they would not support the demand for a reform of the Suffrage unless the Socialists gave up the demand for Woman Suffrage. What happened then? The Labour Party in Belgium, in their campaign in and out of Parliament for the advocacy of equal Universal

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (25 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) Suffrage, was most shamefully deserted by the Liberal Party. There has been no practical result, though the demand for Woman Suffrage was abandoned. The same kind of thing happened this year in Sweden. Under the stress of the agitation of the Socialist Party, the Government promised to bring in a Bill for the extension of the Suffrage, but they had previously declared, when asked by the leaders of the middle-class partisans of Woman Suffrage, that if they did so they would also bring in a Bill establishing a modified form of Woman Suffrag’e. The Social- Democratic Party then determined not to ask for Woman Suffrage, but to vote for it if that measure was advocated by another party. The measure for the reform of the Suffrage was passed by the popular Chamber, but was wrecked by the Upper House. Though the working men had reduced their demands, yet the Socialists were left in the lurch by the middle-class parties. The abandonment of the principal demand led to no practical result. Comrade Branting declared recently that the struggle would enter into a new phase, and that a reform of the Upper House would be demanded, and he finished by saying that this struggle would be one of great importance, as it would be a struggle between the power of the classes possessing property and those having none, and that the proletariat must use all its power in the struggle. But a struggle which is to be so important, and which is to have such far-reaching consequences, must be fought on the question of principles, and not carried on in any petty opportunist manner; it must be a fight for universal, equal Suffrage for both men and women. A similar situation has also http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (26 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) occurred in Austria. Here the proletariat, after a long, weary struggle of ten years, has at last compelled the Government to grant a complete reform of the Suffrage, to bring in a measure to establish universal, equal and direct Suffrage for the elections to the Reichsrath, and to do away with the system of class voting which weakened completely the political power of the proletariat in Parliament. The reform in the Suffrage is important, but it does not meet the demands of the Social-Democracy. In this situation the Austrian comrades have determined that it is highly important to secure Universal Suffrage for men, and, as the attainment of this object appears to be endangered by the agitation in favour of Woman Suffrage, they have determined not to agitate for that reform. The Austrian Social-Democracy has thus weakened itself by using all its power against the Government, though they think that by leaving Woman Suffrage aside they will the easier obtain Manhood Suffrage. I do not know how the idea originated, that by foregoing the demand for Woman Suffrage they would more easily obtain the votes for men. The greatness of’the reform to be obtained is one which, indeed, will require all the force of the proletariat, but I cannot see how it would have been hindered, in any way, by also pressing forward the claims of women. We must all recognise the discipline of our female Austrian comrades, and the help which they have given when they accepted the decision of the party; but it is still, to my mind, an open question whether this decision was necessary.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (27 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) No one of us is so foolish as to claim that the demand for Woman Suffrage should have been made a test question in the active programme of our Austrian comrades. That would have been a crime. But it is another question when it is said in the beginning of the struggle, that the question should be entirely kept out of the fight. We, therefore, regret that both in the agitation and in Parliament these questions should have been put on one side, and we hope that afterwards they will receive the consideration they deserve. But at present no action is being taken to show the connection between an extension of the Suffrage and the granting of Woman Suffrage. The Democrat Hock has made a motion in favour of Woman Suffrage, while two reactionaries, Hrubi and Kaiser, have advocated ladies’ Suffrage. Our comrade Dr. Adler then also took part in the question in a determined manner, and it is to be regretted that this was not done from the first. If retaliation was feared from our opponents it would have been easier to meet this if we had presented a united front to our opponents. In such a question as this we should always act from the point of view of principle. For the fight for the Suffrage is a struggle for the capture of political power by the proletariat. This is what the middle classes well understand, and that is why they fight against us with great vivacity, great energy, great wickedness whenever we agitate for an extension of the franchise. They fear the growing power of the proletariat, and they will never concede this reform to us from a sense of justice, but only because they are afraid of us. And this brings me again to the question, and I ask: “Do we strengthen our power, and do we take http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (28 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) the best way of strengthening our cause by putting this demand in the background?” We must broaden the basis of our demands in order to get better terms for the masses.

I must refer to another historical point. When in the mass we agitate for Woman Suffrage we are weak in marching against the enemy because we have to reckon with those who are half- hearted and those who are hostile in our own ranks. We must put on one side all questions which would divide men and women, and we must compel all middle-class parties to take part in the question of granting Woman Suffrage.

We must always press on the question of Woman Suffrage when we are agitating about the Suffrage. We have always argued in the Suffrage agitation that it was a question of equal rights for men and women, and we must continue to do so till we succeed. We must be united. We know that we shall not attain the victory of Woman Suffrage in a short time, but we know; too, that in our struggles for this measure we shall revolutionise hundreds of thousands of minds. We carry on our war, not as a fight between the sexes, but as a battle against the political might of the possessing classes; as a fight which we carry on with all our might and main, without hatred of the other sex; a fight whose final aim and whose glory will be that in the broadest masses of the proletariat the knowledge shall arise that when the day of the historical development shall have made sufficient progress then the proletariat, in its entirety, without distinction of sex, shall be

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (29 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) able to call out to the capitalist order of society: “You rest on us, you oppress us, and, see, now the building which you have erected is tottering to the ground.”

The speaker then submitted the following resolution:–

“The demand for Woman Suffrage is the result of the changes which have occurred owing to the capitalist method of production in modern economic and social conditions, especially since the changes in labour, owing to the position and the destiny of women. Woman is in this position as a consequence of the middle-class democratic principle which regulates the destiny of all social callings, not depending on wealth and on social position, The demand for Woman Suffrage has thus, from the beginning, been connected in the minds of a few thinkers with the struggle in which the middle class has been engaged for the democratisation of political rights as a means of procuring its political emancipation and its rule as a class. This class has received great and increasing power partly through the great and growing wealth produced by woman’s labour, which is continually increasing in modern industry. Woman Suffrage is the assertion of the economic emancipation of woman from home, and her economic independence from the family as an only means of subsistence.

“Active and passive Suffrage for women may be looked upon as a social question; as a practical measure it is the means of obtaining political power, of doing away with legal and social fetters, which hinder the development and the emancipation of woman. But in woman’s world, as well as in that of man, there are class conflicts which render the possession of the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (30 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) Suffrage of great value for woman. The value of the franchise as a means of engaging in the social war is one which depends largely on the greatness of the struggle to be engaged in and the social power to be obtained. Its chief use will be that by means of it the whole proletariat – men and women - will be able to obtain political power, and will thus be able to contribute to bringing about the downfall, of the present class system, and the establishment of a Socialist state of society in which alone the full emancipation of woman will be accomplished.

“Complete emancipation of woman is advisable instead of the middle-class Woman Suffrage movement, and, therefore, it is absolutely necessary that Universal Woman Suffrage should be obtained. Working women, in order to conquer their complete right of citizenship, must rely on- their own strength alone and on their own class. The proletarian needs of the struggle for emancipation, together with the historic, insight and justice, compel the proletariat to energetically take up the cause of the political equality of woman, Social- Democracy, the political fighting organisation of the class- conscious proletariat, therefore, is in favour of Woman Suffrage, both as a matter of principle, and as a practical question.

“The question of Woman Suffrage, owing to the keenness of the class struggle, acquires great importance. On the side of the ruling reactionary classes the belief grows that the granting of a restricted Woman Suffrage would strengthen the political power of the capitalist class. On the side of the proletariat: the necessity is seen of revolutionising the minds of women and of obtaining their help in the struggle. The struggle for Universal Woman Suffrage is the most powerful means of interesting the mass of women in the struggle of the proletariat for freedom.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (31 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906)

“Having considered these historical facts, the Fourth Conference of Socialist women at Mannheim resolves –

“‘That in the struggle which the proletariat has entered into for the obtaining of universal, equal, secret and direct voting in towns and elsewhere, all the energies of the party should be used, in obtaining the same franchise for women, and that the question should constantly be pressed forward. The Conference of women declares that it recognises the duty of all women comrades to take part energetically in the political campaign for the attainment of the Suffrage, and that every effort should be made to induce working women to take an interest in this matter, so that the question may be settled as soon as possible.’”

In the discussion which ensued, Frau Mensing, from Holland, said: Comrade Zetkin has referred to the declaration of comrade Troelstra that he for the moment would not support the extension of the Suffrage to women. This statement was a very heavy blow to our associations of women in Holland. We had hoped that the question would have been raised at our last Congress in Holland, but there was so much time spent in the discussion between Marxians arid Opportunists that there was no time left to do this. We trust, however, that at the next Congress of the party its members will declare against this opinion of Troelstra, and that the agitation in favour of Universal Suffrage for Women will be renewed.

Comrade Bebel, who was received with loud and hearty cheers,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (32 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) said: Comrades, after the long and able speech which you have just heard from our comrade Zetkin, I should have thought that the debate would have come to a close. I quite agree that our comrade Mensing, as our guest, had an undoubted right to speak, but I cannot see for the moment why I should say anything. But the officials at this table have decided otherwise, and they wish me to say a few words to you. It was of no use for me to protest, so here I am. I see once more how I have beem compelled to do what women wish.

I have once more been strengthened in the opinion that this question of Woman Suffrage can only be properly considered and decided from a radical standpoint. Social-Democracy can have no policy except one directed by principles. Freedom and equality for all must be our motto in Parliament, on the platform, and in the press, and in that spirit we must live and act. It is only in that way that we can win over the mass of the people to our side, and exercise a powerful influence which finally will help us to achieve what we desire. Certainly it often happens in Parliament that we ask ourselves the question whether we should insist fully on our principal demands, or whether we should allow some of them to go by, and the Opportunist policy is ever before us. People think that if we asked for less, we should more easily get it; but in my political career in Parliament, which now extends over nearly 40 years, I have made the discovery, which is no less true in private life, that modesty is an ornament, but one often gets on better without it. This remark is often quoted by members of the middle

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (33 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) classes. We might make modest demands, and they would not be complied with unless we had a strong force behind to back them up. Behind our principal demands there are our principles, which are strengthened by our force, We are ready to meet our opponents. They are ready to shamelessly repel if we ask with modesty. In the last weeks and months I have often heard about the weakness of Social-Democracy. There is no falser word. I fearlessly assert that in the German Empire there is no more powerful party in existence than ours. Social-Democracy rules the whole political and social life, both at home and abroad. Without its existence we should still be far from attaining much we now have. As an example of this truth, I may speak of the progress of the woman question in the last 15 years. The Centre in the nineties opposed with all its power our demand that women should be free to attend lectures on all subjec’s in all universities. But before two years had passed one of the most Conservative members of the Centre, Freiherr von Hertling, declared, with great force, that he was quite in favour of women studying whatever they wished. This is a good example of the influence that may be exercised by a powerful party which really knows what it wants.

Another question is the right of forming unions and of holding meetings. In many States, even in reactionary Saxony, women and men have equal rights on this matter. In other States – and Prussia is naturally foremost in the cause of reaction – the right of women to form unions has been much crippled. Some progress

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (34 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) in this question has also been made by the Centre. Now that party is ready to declare, not indeed that women should have freedom to form political unions, but that the millions of women who are struggling in industry for existence should have liberty to form unions and associations, and that no impediments should be placed in their way to prevent them from combining together. These victories show how we should work if we wish to be successful. The question of obtaining for women universal, equal, secret and direct Suffrage is looked upon somewhat askance by middle-class parties. We need not wonder much at this, because in many middle-class circles there is a good deal of dislike to universal, equal, secret and direct Suffrage for men, and a very influential class thinks that this Suffrage should at the first good opportunity be subverted or weakened. These people are naturally not prepared to grant the franchise to women. But, nevertheless, I venture to prophesy that in Germany we shall extend this franchise to women before it shall be taken away from men. I will venture to say that the proposal to do that cannot succeed, and I am sure it would be very imprudent to attempt it, because if it were done all men who have the vote, and who would by the proposal be injured, would raise such a protest and engage in such a struggle as Germany has never seen. And just as the Centre in 1898 declined to follow one of its members when he proposed then the law on penitentiaries, so I do not think it will care to shake up our great mass of voters by trying to curtail the franchise. But on the other hand, as discontent increases in the mass and the power of Socialism grows, it is possible, in order to http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (35 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) weaken our voting power, that our enemies might try to get the support of women, because, undoubtedly, there are a large number of them who are not friendly to the Social-Democratic organisation. Reckoning on this – I will not consider to-night why it is so – and that women are often indifferent, and will either be influenced by Conservatives or by clergymen, the majority may think that the granting of Woman Suffrage would be a disadvantage to the Socialists. That is undoubtedly right. But it will be our own fault if, when women get the vote, they are against us. All the reasons which are urged to-day against Woman Suffrage were formerly used against granting the vote to men. I myself, 43 years ago, as a member of the Builders’ Union, spoke against Universal Suffrage on the ground that working men were not properly educated. That has, in fact, been shown to be true, for now, after having Universal Suffrage in Germany for nearly 40 years, we still have nearly seven and a-half millions of votes against us. There is no doubt that the great majority of these men are working men who vote against the interests of their own class. But no one of our party has, therefore, thought it necessary to speak against Universal Suffrage, but we have gone on agitating and trying to convince people more and more that Social-Democracy is the only cure for the evils of life. Already we have three millions of voters on our side, and I hope that we may get four, five, and six millions, and become the majority. Then when the Reaction calls the women to its aid as a last chance, then we men must work not only among our sex but also among the women. Then the last anchor which holds the middle-class http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (36 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) society will give way.

In Belgium, in Austria, in Sweden, the position of women is more backward than in our country. Those who know what power the priest still has in some Catholic countries near Germany will understand why our comrades did not think that Woman Suffrage was advisable there at present. Yet I do not think that in those countries the Reaction was prepared to give Universal Suffrage to men and to women. But, on the other hand, it would have done our cause a great deal of good if our comrades themselves had agitated for this, and thus have made the reactionaries appear unfriendly to woman. If, then, the question had really become one of practical politics, they could have said: “We were the first in favour of this Woman Suffrage.” But I will not enter here into any polemic with our foreign comrades; I have only felt myself compelled at this moment to give the arguments on both sides as briefly as possible. We can discuss this matter next year at the International Congress at Stuttgart.

For myself I have no doubt in the matter, if we wish to succeed – and we must succeed – we cannot do so if we put our principal demands in the background, and declare that we only expect to get some of our demands. I hold that to be bad tactics, and that is why I am glad that on this occasion the question of Woman Suffrage was argued fairly and openly, and I beg of you to unanimously adopt the resolution which has been read. You thus will pledge the party to carry on the struggle, and, sooner or later,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (37 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: Social-Democracy and Woman Suffrage (1906) to be victorious.

Frau Wengels, of Berlin, moved the closure.

Frau Braun, of Berlin, wished to speak on behalf of English supporters of Woman Suffrage.

The closure was adopted.

The resolution was unanimously adopted, and it was also decided to print as a pamphlet a full report of the speeches.

Footnotes

1. Letters from a Citizen of Newhaven to a Citizen of Virginia on the Use-lessness of Dividing the Legislative Power in Several Bodies.

2. An allusion to the opinion of St. Paul, I. Timothy, C.II, 12. – J.B.

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Last updated on 4.1.2009

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1906/xx/womansuffrage.htm (38 of 38) [14-7-2011 20:53:19] Clara Zetkin: For Adult Suffrage (1909)

MIA > Archive > Zetkin

Clara Zetkin For Adult Suffrage (1 May 1909)

Clara Zetkin, For Adult Suffrage, Justice, 1st May 1909, p.10. Transcribed by Ted Crawford. Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

Our esteemed comrade Clara Zetkin writes:

DEAR Comrade Quelch, – Please excuse it that my thanks come rather late for the welcome you have given me, a welcome so hearty, so friendly, that I enjoyed it as an expression of that solidarity of ideal and struggle uniting us since long years. It is impossible to write the article for the May-Day issue of Justice, you asked me for. And that is the reason why my answer comes so late. I value highly the work Justice and the S.D.P. in general have done in England to make the ideas of revolutionary international Socialism a power in the country. As to the May-

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/05/suffrage.htm (1 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:53:30] Clara Zetkin: For Adult Suffrage (1909) Day manifestation, the Party and its organ have always striven to enlighten the working masses on the real meaning of it: that May- Day is not the exhibition of suffering labour, not a procession of beggars humbly sighing for some compassionate tears from the eyes of some good-natured and good-tempered bourgeois souls, and for some reform-alms of legislation. No; that May-Day must be the pronouncement of the militant, the class-conscious, and revolutionary labour that one day will be the triumphant proletariat upsetting the capitalist system of production, and building up the world of Socialism. The revolutionary meaning of May-Day, which is just in this year strongly emphasised and brought home to us by the economic crisis, this shadow of war and revolution, crying its memento mori to the capitalist order, has always been clearly and boldly emphasised by Justice and the Party it represents. And in consequence of their views they both always affirmed strongly the feeling of international solidarity uniting them with the Socialist Party in all countries, and in Germany particularly. In performing the hard work of international Socialism they meet with many special and great difficulties the Socialists in other countries have not to deal with. I hope in supporting Adult Suffrage I have done a little for the benefit of vour great common cause. Adult Suffrage realised, and the possibility, nay the necessity of one united Socialist movement will greatly increase, and of outspoken, consequent, uncompromising labour politics in Parliament, too. And Adult Suffrage could be realised in England, if – what a pity there is an “if” still! – if all the Socialist and trade unionist forces would http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/05/suffrage.htm (2 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:53:30] Clara Zetkin: For Adult Suffrage (1909) unite their efforts and their action about this reform. I rejoice to see that the S.D.P. stands firmly and bravely at the head of the movement in favour at this most urgent political reform.

I hope it will largely contribute to get that influence and support in the labouring which it merits by its indefatigable Endeavours.

Yours truly Clara Zetkin

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Last updated on 4.8.2004

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/05/suffrage.htm (3 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:53:30] Clara Zetkin: German Socialist Women’s Movement (1909)

MIA > Archive > Zetkin

Clara Zetkin German Socialist Women’s Movement (9 October 1909)

Clara Zetkin, Justice, 9th October 1909, p. 7. Transcribed by Ted Crawford. HTML Markup: Brian Reid Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2007). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

In 1907 the Social-Democratic Party of Germany embraced 29,458 women members, in 1908 they numbered 62,257. These figures show the practical result of political propaganda in favour of Socialism during the last twelve months. 1908 was the first year in which the new law of association for the whole Empire allowed women to join political organisations. Up to then every federated State had a law of association of its own, and http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/10/09.htm (1 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:53:43] Clara Zetkin: German Socialist Women’s Movement (1909) throughout most of the Empire the legal prescriptions forbade women becoming members of organising political societies. Still worse, the authorities interpreted the legal texts so arbitrarily as to declare that a committee of three women comrades constituted a political organisation; and severe punishments were inflicted on women who joined societies or organised them. In some of the federated countries the law up to May, 1908, prohibited to women the attending of political and public meetings and conferences. It is an evidence of a very powerful, class-conscious conviction, and of good practical sense and training, that in spite of the fetters of the reactionary laws and the brutal practices of the authorities the Socialist women had already succeeded in joining the Party to the number of nearly 30,000; and that in the course of one year they have nearly doubled that number. In 257 local sections of the S.D.P. they had elected in 1908 a woman comrade on the Executive, and in more than fifty other sections such elections were to take place. One hundred and fifty lecture and study circles for women have been established by Party sections in order to serve the theoretical and practical instruction of their women members.

Socialist propaganda amongst the workers’ wives and women wage-earners has been carried on by many hundred public meetings, in which women comrades addressed more particularly working-class women. Over a million copies of a leaflet were distributed amongst them which, in a simple and popular manner, analysed the political events of the day, showing for

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/10/09.htm (2 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:53:43] Clara Zetkin: German Socialist Women’s Movement (1909) what reasons women as well as men are interested in politics and must join the S.D.P. Since 1892 “Gleichheit,” the organ of the Socialist women, and which is the property of the Party, has spread Socialist ideas amongst working-class women, and has provided for the theoretical education of the women comrades. Several trade unions with a great women membership give the paper free of cost to their women members; “Gleichheit” had a circulation last year of 73,000 copies.

The office of the Socialist women, that in the former years was the centre of their propaganda work and activity, being managed by their Vertrauensperson (woman confidant) for the Empire, elected at their bi-annual conferences, was attached, in 1908 to the general office of the Party, according to the new form of political organisation for both sexes. The women’s office works now in conjunction with the Party’s Executive, in which one of the two women officers fills the post of assistant-member. In cases where it seems useful—and such happen very often—the women’s office enters also into relation with the general committee of the trade unions. Thus the political leaflet, mentioned above, was issued by our women’s office In common with the Executive of the S.D.P., and together with them and the general committee of the trade unions the office called by circulars the attention of the women comrades to various practical tasks in favour of social reforms. They are to make a vigorous propaganda that the wage-earning women shall in large numbers exercise the franchise to the administrative bodies of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/10/09.htm (3 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:53:43] Clara Zetkin: German Socialist Women’s Movement (1909) the State sick-Insurance, the only kind of franchise women possess in Germany. The women comrades were further engaged to form local committees for the protection of children and to improve those already existing. As the legal inspection of the administration of the children’s protective law is absolutely insufficient, these committees, together with the local trade unions’ councils, have to watch over such administration. Besides this, Socialist women were reminded to found and improve protective committees for women-workers, and collect their grievances on illegal and pernicious conditions of labour, forwarding them to the factory inspector.

Besides their activity in that line, the Socialist women have continued their propaganda in favour of the full political emancipation of their sex. The struggle for universal suffrage, vigorously maintained, particularly in Prussia, was a struggle for adult suffrage for both sexes, vindicated in meetings and leaflets. Public and factory meetings in great number; and an indefatigable activity in other different forms, have served he trade union organisations of the women workers. The number of women trade unionists has increased from 136,429 in 1907 to 138,44.3 in 1908. The work of our trade unions to enlighten, train and organise wage-earning women is not smaller nor less important than what the S.D.P. has done to induce women to join in political struggles of the working class.

The Party and trade unions are inspired with the Socialist

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/10/09.htm (4 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:53:43] Clara Zetkin: German Socialist Women’s Movement (1909) conception of history, therefore they are aware of the great importance, in principle and practice, a Socialist women’s movement has. In consequence the political and trade union organisations give hearty help to the work of the women comrades. Yet how much our Socialist women’s movement is indebted to them for fraternal assistance! It must, however, be emphasised that its development as to extension and maturity is, in the last instance, the very own work of the women comrades themselves

The most prominent feature of the Socialist women’s movement in Germany is its clearness and revolutionary spirit as to Socialist theories and principles. The women who head it are fully conscious that the social fate of their sex is indissolubly connected with the general evolution of society, the most powerful moving force of which is the evolution of labour, of economic life. The integral human emancipation of all women depends in consequence on the social emancipation of labour; that can only be realised by the class-war of the exploited majority. Therefore, our Socialist women oppose strongly the bourgeois women righters’ credo that the women of all classes must gather into an unpolitical, neutral movement striving exclusively for women’s rights. In theory and practice they maintain the conviction that the class antagonisms are much more powerful, effective and decisive than the social antagonisms between the sexes, and that thus the working-class women will never win their full emancipation in a struggle of all women

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/10/09.htm (5 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:53:43] Clara Zetkin: German Socialist Women’s Movement (1909) without difference of class against the social monopolies of the male sex, but only in the class-war of all the exploited, without difference of sex, against all who exploit, without difference of sex. That does not mean at all that they undervalue the importance of the political emancipation of the female sex. On the contrary, they employ much more energy than the German women-righters to conquer the suffrage. But the vote is, according to their views, not the last word and term of their aspirations, but only a weapon—a means in struggle for a revolutionary aim—the Socialistic order.

The Socialist women’s movement in Germany is inspired with the monumental dictum of Karl Marx “The philosophers hitherto have only interpreted the world in different ways; what has yet to be done is to change the world.” It strives to help change the world by awakening the consciousness and the will of working- class women to join in performing the most Titanic deed that history will know: the emancipation of labour by the labouring class themselves.

CLARA ZETKIN.

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Last updated on 3.4.2007

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1909/10/09.htm (6 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:53:43] Clara Zetkin: A Greeting from Abroad (May 1913)

MIA > Archive > Zetkin

A Greeting from Abroad By Clara Zetkin (The Famous Woman Socialist, of Germany) (May 1913)

From The Labour Woman, June 1913, p.28. Thanks to John Partington. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

Dear Comrades,

The little League Leaflet of 4 pages that we have known and appreciated for years, has by and by developed into the stately Labour Woman of 16, issued this month. What a noteworthy progress and what a hopeful May-Day message to the Socialist

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/05/labourwoman.htm (1 of 4) [14-7-2011 20:53:52] Clara Zetkin: A Greeting from Abroad (May 1913) Women in all countries. A noteworthy progress indeed, on which we all abroad congratulate heartily our English sisters. We know the many particular and hard difficulties Socialist Women in England have to deal with in working and striving for our common great aim. And we know that they have to lean on their own forces in performing their duties as Socialists. Therefore the enlargement of the League’s periodical tells us quite a long story of never-failing labour, devotion, courage and enthusiasm; in one word, of all the social virtues of citizenship which the struggle for the emancipation of the working-class asks from women as well as from men. Still more: this step forward is the very proof, that in spite of the difficulties alluded to, progress is possible, the clear consciousness and firm will of Socialist women is overcoming them. Thus the success already gained is a promise and guarantee that in Great Britain too the Socialist Women’s Movement will develop and flourish.

In many other countries experience has shown that a Socialist women’s paper is a most fertile and powerful means to serve the Socialist cause. It is an intellectual and moral bond of unity between Socialist women. It is a beacon, throwing floods of light on the stormy waters and the rocks on the coast, and showing thus the dangers to avoid and the right ways to follow. Therefore we are quite sure that the Labour Woman will influence most favourably the development of the Socialist Women’s Movement in England. It will continue the good work of the League Leaflet, but on a broader basis and with greater means and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/05/labourwoman.htm (2 of 4) [14-7-2011 20:53:52] Clara Zetkin: A Greeting from Abroad (May 1913) forces. The Labour Woman will give a loud and unfalsified voice to all the miseries and injustices capitalist exploitation and political rightlessness bestow on the working-class women; to all the claims of bread, culture and rights, these women have to fight for, because they too are members of the great family of mankind and without their labour and drudgery, without the many duties accomplished by them, social order could not exist a single day. It will equally give a strong and clear voice to the dearest hopes of liberty, equality and fraternity for all, without difference of sex and nation, which Socialism has brought to the exploited ones, to all the light and knowledge which Socialism has taught them and is teaching every day. Thus the Labour Woman will help to concentrate the capacities and forces of Socialist Women for the manifold work they have to do in order to group working-class women round the Socialist banner and to render them capable by making less heavy their burden and by strengthening their intellectual and moral powers, to share in the high task of their class: the emancipation of the workers by the workers themselves.

For this work of the Labour Woman, the Socialist Women of all countries send best wishes. They are sure that they will find the paper as well as the league always with them. They hope that ere long they can greet the Labour Woman as a weekly.

But success to each step forward towards Socialism!

May 1913 http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/05/labourwoman.htm (3 of 4) [14-7-2011 20:53:52] Clara Zetkin: A Greeting from Abroad (May 1913)

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Last updated on 29.12.2008

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/05/labourwoman.htm (4 of 4) [14-7-2011 20:53:52] August Bebel by Clara Zetkin 1913

Clara Zetkin 1913 August Bebel

Source: British Socialist, August 1913, pp. 385-390, Clara Zetkin, “August Bebel” Obituary; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.

“Many are brave whose sword Is not stained with their enemies’ blood,”

August Bebel! The name is in itself a portion of history; the name bears witness of the man. For, when we turn the leaves of the story of Bebel’s life, is not the history of the militant German proletariat .itself, and especially of the Social-Democracy, opened out to us?- a history whose waves, describing circles, have reached over also into the Labour movement of other countries. There is not an important chapter of this history, not a decided turning-point, not a milestone of irrevocable progress in the historic life of the German proletariat, which does not bear the firm and ineradicable mark of Bebel’s creating and directing hand. That has been the case for nearly half a century -from the time of its first confused and halting steps, when the German proletariat began to realise its historic existence and the task that was allotted to it; when it started, politically and economically, on its forward march as an independent class, till to-day, when it is advancing from all directions to

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/08/bebel.htm (1 of 7) [14-7-2011 20:54:01] August Bebel by Clara Zetkin 1913

storm the citadels of bourgeois society. As Bebel was one of the first to sound the call-to-arms, so, after decades of unresting labour and manifold experiences, he still was numbered among the most indefatigable of the advanced guard of the proletarian army.

We find him at the front among the stalwarts to whom the German Social-Democracy owes its firm organisation and who found themselves faced by an extremely difficult task. An organisation had to be created which took into consideration the historic formation of each of the Federated States, which had to deal, with varying political situations and tactics on the part of the authorities, and which would combine the necessary unity and cohesion with the equally necessary freedom of action. Other considerations, too, claimed attention. In view of the spreading and deepening activity of the Social-Democracy, it was necessary to provide for the possibility of incorporating new elements into the organism and to insure that it should be able at any time rapidly to develop its utmost impetus. And no one has done more than Bebel to fill the Party organisation with the fullest conception of proletarian life and to make it serviceable to the purposes of the working class.

A clear-sighted steersman, he guided the ship of Social-Democracy through storms and heavy seas, between the cliffs and reefs of the Anti- Socialist Law; guided it into the calms that precede great storms, and past the shallows of bourgeois Parliamentarism. With the unerring instinct of the born fighter, and the clear vision of the responsible leader, from conceptions and principles firmly anchored in science he drew the right conclusions regarding the often, apparently insoluble

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/08/bebel.htm (2 of 7) [14-7-2011 20:54:01] August Bebel by Clara Zetkin 1913

confusion of daily events. Thus, at all tunes he recognised how necessary is mobility of tactics in the political struggle, the variability and renewal of methods and weapons. At a time when the importance of the suffrage was still unrecognised by distinguished leaders of Germany’s young Labour movement, when it was denounced by whole brother-parties abroad as a means of cheating the masses, it was Bebel who, with strong arms, bore among the “obtuse,” “unripe,” “unorganised “ masses the banner raised by Lassalle, led by the sure insight that history is its own instructor, and that the masses themselves would learn by practice to decide in questions of mass action. And he was at the front likewise when it was a case of proclaiming – with cool consideration of the actual circumstances, leaving calmly on one side all judicial formulas – the same historic justification for the illegal as for the legal means of warfare. He remained equally free on the one hand from will-o’-the-wisp revolutionary romanticism, which loses the solid earth beneath its feet, and on the other from an easily-satisfied “statesmanism,” which slips on the smooth parquet floor of Parliamentarism. Therefore, he knew how to make use of Parliamentary action for all the everyday needs of the suffering and struggling proletariat, thus attracting the masses, while using it none the less for that inexorable criticism, based on principle, of the capitalist order, which welds the masses together and schools them for the struggle towards the Socialist goal. Finally, it was Bebel’s influence which weighed heavily in the scale when the German Social-Democracy adopted the mass strike as one of the weapons which may – indeed, must – be used in certain circumstances.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/08/bebel.htm (3 of 7) [14-7-2011 20:54:01] August Bebel by Clara Zetkin 1913

The development of Social-Democratic tactics rests in the last instance upon the theory which is applied to and verified by practical experience. Consequently, we find Bebel each time in the thick of the fight of opinions, whether regarding theoretical generalisations or the kernel of Socialist conception and principle. Since the Nurnberg Conference of the Workers’ Associations, where the bold avowal of the principles of the International Working Men’s Association was made, up to the Dresden Conference, which emphasised the principles of revolutionary Socialism, Bebel took the most active part possible in all phases of the theoretical ripening of Social-Democracy. They faithfully reflected his own step-by-step development; for Bebel has developed and grown with the Party and with the proletarian class struggle. But he did not face the problems raised by this struggle in the spirit of an academician, whose desk is stuffed full of finished solutions; he faced them as a man of action who would move the masses, who, working and fighting, wrestles hotly for new insight, at the same time having to understand that frequently “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Thus he was able to march at the head of the masses without the cold reflection falling upon him that he was dogmatic or tried to play the pedagogue; thus he was able to be a pioneer without losing touch with them or isolating himself. We have only to think in this respect of his incomparable work for the liberation of women, especially in his book, “Women and Socialism,” from which streams of life poured forth; thus it was that his great firmness in principles and tactics did not appear as dry, rigid dogmatism, but seemed, on the contrary, to breathe forth the natural freshness of life itself.

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Indeed, Bebel’s life and activity are more than a mere reflection of the contemporary history of the proletarian fight for freedom. They are the incarnation of proletarian class-life, the irrepressible expression of whose being forms that history. Therefore Bebel became more than a pillar of history; he helped to make it. Thus it was that he was able to be the agitator as well as the finest type of Parliamentarian, the fiery leader of mass-action throughout the country, and the clever, cool tactician in the Reichstag. So, too, it was that he always found the right relations between the indispensable, dull, every-day political work, and the elevating struggle towards the final goal of Socialism-the end in view which elevates workaday action, by never losing sight of that goal, and looking upon all action only in its relation thereto; and he had the courage to seek even the smallest alleviation of the proletariat’s present- day conditions with as much eagerness as though the great historic day of freedom were itself at stake; and to bear aloft this sublime goal of the masses as though it were to be reached immediately. Bebel was the personal incarnation of the highest historic existence of the contemporary working class; he was the living expression of the realisation, the will, the action of those nameless, numberless ones who fight the decisive battles of the proletarian struggle for emancipation. This oneness with the historic life of the masses was the last and deepest root of his power over them, and made him at the same time their most influential and their best-beloved leader; it was from this source that Bebel’s eloquence drew its burning force, and his conviction its inflexible firmness and its youthful fire. “The breath of humanity, which pants ceaselessly for freedom,” wafted from his being and his actions. It therefore necessarily followed that Bebel’s being and actions http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/08/bebel.htm (5 of 7) [14-7-2011 20:54:01] August Bebel by Clara Zetkin 1913

were animated to the full by the spirit of Socialism.

But the manner in which this historic necessity was carried out in person made manifest the inexhaustible treasury of valuable forces which slumber in the still untilled and uncultivated soil of the masses. These personal forces did their part in raising Bebel, personally and politically, to the highest standard of humanity. In the closest touch with the “herd” of nameless ones, he himself forged the fulness and weight of his life. That which aesthetic dwarfs, despisers of the masses, seek to acquire by the unnatural means of withdrawing themselves, as superior persons, from the common life-the originality of a strong, historic personality – came to him through life with and for the masses.

A man and a work stand before us in Bebel; a man who is quite embodied in his work, and a work which possesses the man. In earlier times, the historic conditions forced the masses to erect thrones for those who led them in the conquest of new lands. The proletarian masses of our day, whose function it is to overthrow the last tyrannies by which human beings are enslaved, give their leaders their gratitude and love. No one received a richer or warmer share of these than Bebel, In him the masses loved and honoured a great man who, without bargaining and haggling for personal happiness, consecrated himself, with burning enthusiasm and selfless devotion, entirely to their great cause – the Moses, who, on the march through the wilderness of capitalist order, ever refreshed anew the parched souls with the vision of the promised land of freedom – the bold assailant, who, with revolutionary defiance, shook the foundations of bourgeois society.

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With him one of the most prominent warriors of the first heroic age of the German Socialist proletariat has fallen just at the moment when the rapid, remorseless steps of development are forcing that proletariat to concentrate all its forces to overcome, during a second and more potent heroic age, the barbarism that is being unchained by capitalism. But this time the masses themselves will be the hero and the leader. To have given his strength till his last breath to unite and make ready the masses for this historic moment is alike Bebel’s happiness and his immortality.

Clara Zetkin Archive

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/08/bebel.htm (7 of 7) [14-7-2011 20:54:01] Klara Zetkin: German Women to Their Sisters in Great Britain (December 1913)

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German Women to Their Sisters in Great Britain By Klara Zetkin (International Secretary of Socialist Women) (December 1913)

From The Labour Woman, December 1913, p.111. Thanks to John Partington. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

Dear Sisters!

The working class women in Germany – as far as they believe in Socialism – have strongly the feeling that at this very moment

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/12/sisters.htm (1 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:54:08] Klara Zetkin: German Women to Their Sisters in Great Britain (December 1913) they must send you a message of peace, fraternity and freedom.

Our minds are still horrified by the infernal pictures of slaughter and destruction which the recent wars in the Balkans have given to a century that boasts of civilisation and humanity. We have before our eyes the streams of foaming blood, the blood of men shed by men, and the flames of ravaged towns and villages, in our ears ring the painful sighs and the mad cries coming from waves of mutilated and dying men, thrown side by side with corpses and torn limbs; we hear the sobbing of wives and sisters, of mothers and children, bereaved of their beloved ones and bread-winners.

We remember that in recent months the people in the Great European States have more than once been at the very borders of the terrible abyss of a gigantic war, such as the world never has seen before. We remember and we tremble with horror. For the dreadful event which not yet has happened, may happen one day. Look at the hands and listen to the talk of the ruling and governing minority in all civilized countries! What are those hands occupied with?

They waste the money which they take out of the working people’s pockets in building barracks and Dreadnoughts; in buying field-artillery, naval-guns and all the most perfect instruments and means of mass-murder and mass-devastation on land, on sea, and even in the air; in drilling thousands and thousands of young workers to be one day the Cains of their brethren abroad. They prepare war by a furore of military and http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/12/sisters.htm (2 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:54:08] Klara Zetkin: German Women to Their Sisters in Great Britain (December 1913)

naval armaments, the expenditure on which crush the nations.

To keep the people willing to pay with goods and with blood the sacrifices of armaments and war, they talk always so that there shall be hostility and hatred between the nations. They shout that the vital interests of each country demand big armies and battleships, ready to carry death and ruin into other countries.

Dear sisters in England! The Socialist working class women in Germany are deeply grieved that so much talk of antagonism and hatred is rumoured about. But we assure you that we do not believe the stories that certain German newspapers and politicians tell us abnout the jealousy and the ferocious animosity of the British against our people. No we do not believe them in spite of all the new Dreadnoughts, in spite of all the outbursts of jingoism, reported from time to time. And we entreat you most earnestly not to take it as truth what certain English Newspapers and politicians tell you of the feelings of the people of Germany. We emphasize, they are not true, though dreadful guns and thousands and thousands of additional young men, forced into the Emperor’s uniform, seem to affirm it; it is a deceitful story with which half a dozen fanatic German jingoes abuse our papers and patience.

Who are the people? In Germany as well as in Great Britain the people are not the Upper-Ten, are not the princes, generals and other gold-braided officers, the mighty landlords, the powerful directors and share-holders of military and naval arsenals, the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/12/sisters.htm (3 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:54:08] Klara Zetkin: German Women to Their Sisters in Great Britain (December 1913)

“kings” of gun, armour-plate, smokeless powder and aeroplane production. The people are not the small number of privileged ones, who pocket enormous profits, thanks to the fantastic expenditure on military and naval armaments, who fish guineas out of the blood-streams on the battlefields, and pluck their laurels from the land fertilised by rotting corpses.

The German people are the millions and millions of hard-toiling men and women, who live away from the wealth, the splendour, the beauty of our days, though without the working hands and brains of these millions neither abundant riches nor culture would exist. And amongst them the knowledge is spreading, that they must not look for their enemy across the frontiers, or across the North Sea; no, their implacable foe is intrenched in the institutions of their own Fatherland. It is Capitalism, it is the power of the possessing classes to exploit and rule the labouring people. They know this monstrous power is the common enemy of the wage-earners, the labouring people in all countries.

We bear the same chains as you, your burdens are our own evils, we share your fate. Therefore we suffer with you, and we hope with you and we take arms with you “against the sea of troubles.” Together with our husbands, sons and brothers we stand for peace and for fratetnity between the workers of all countries. Together with them we fight against Capitalism and for Socialism. We never shall forget how great and important is the part that the enlightened talents and the generous hearts of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1913/12/sisters.htm (4 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:54:08] Klara Zetkin: German Women to Their Sisters in Great Britain (December 1913) prominent Englishmen have contributed to making the National Socialist movement an immortal, invincible power. We have always present to our minds the struggles that working men and women in Great Britain are fighting against the capitalists for bread, right and liberty. “Labour unrest” reveals like an earthquake the volcanic forces that begin to move beneath the lucky hills, where the well-to-do minority dwells. Thus for the working people the time is full of capitalist threatenings and of Socialist hopes.

British sisters! We are convinced that you are with us in our feelings and aspirations. It shall be to the honour of us all to fight against national prejudice and hatred, to oppose with the utmost energy armaments and war. It shall be our happiness to battle in the first ranks of the holy war for the emancipation of the workers by the workers themselves. It shall be our consolation that our children nourished in the Socialist faith, will finish the work we began and will triumph where we have fought. Capitalism is the social war of all against all. The class-war of the workers means the fraternity of the workers of all countries.

Socialism is International Peace!

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Clara Zetkin 1914 The Duty of Working Women in War-Time

Source: Zetkin “The Duty of Working Women in War-Time,” Justice, 19th November 1914, p.2. A stirring call in time of war; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.

The New York “Vorwärts” the weekly edition of the “Neu Yorker Volkszeitung,” publishes an article on this subject from the pen of our esteemed comrade Clara Zetkin, of which the following is a summary The desire of the international proletariat for peace has shown itself powerless to prevent the world war. As cannon balls roll over weak blades of grass, which but yesterday waved gently in the breeze, crushing them to the earth, so the forces of Imperialism, driven on by capitalism, have swept over the proletarian peace demonstrations and hopes. The world is now aflame. A war is raging such as has never been known before ....

Was it necessary?

Workers Towards Socialism.

Martial-law makes it impossible for us to seek an answer. We are face

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to face with the fact that the driving forces of capitalism have burst the bounds of peaceful development. The consequences are incalculable, for whatever the changes may be which the war brings about on the map of Europe, it is certain that it will not be fought to the end without having the most tremendous effect on the economics of the nations, and on the world’s market. It is just this consideration which demands that the working class should become, in increased measure, the conscious bearers of the historic process of development towards the higher social order of Socialism.

It were unworthy of Socialist women to watch these historic events with folded hands, which from their To-day are preparing the To-morrow. The times call them to great tasks, the fulfilment of which requires all the devotion, enthusiasm and self-sacrifice which flows from the “eternal feminine” of their nature and their conviction.

War and Hunger.

The twin-sister of war is hunger. Its shrivelled, merciless hand knocks at the door of each family whose breadwinner is in the field .... Unemployment, too, spreads more quickly than any pestilence; anxiety, hunger, sickness, child-mortality follow in its wake. What will the winter bring? That, question is on millions of lips ....

Here we have the wide field where the Socialist women can fight battles, which are at the same time battles for their rights as human beings. The moment demands their whole strength. And so the Socialist women are working peacefully alongside of the bourgeois nationalist http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1914/11/19.htm (2 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:54:21] The Duty of Working Women in War-Time by Clara Zetkin

“Women’s Service,” and. also with its representatives on communal bodies, without however joining its organisation, which would be a drag upon them in their work. Our comrade Frau Zietz has recently written an article pointing out the necessity of such activity and the lines of demarcation by which it must be guided in each instance.

The Help of Women Essential.

If the municipalities are in earnest in their desire to stem the terrible tide of approaching misery, they cannot do without the help of our women comrades’ day. For they bring to the relief work knowledge and schooling obtained in the Socialist Party and the trade unions, as well as the practical experience which they have gained as proletarians. They know how to find the way to those proud and sensitive sufferers in garret and cellar who do not apply for relief, and they can find the sympathetic word that will loosen their tongues. They have the quick penetrating eye to see where and in what way help is needed. More than anyone else they can “open their mouth for the dumb and for the cause of all that are forsaken.” No alms; help and work as a social duty, that is the demand put convincingly by them to all public bodies. And our women must moreover seek to awaken the Socialist spirit, the proletarian class solidarity, in those they are helping; for let it be remembered that all the loving help and relief are in themselves incapable of shaking the foundations of capitalist society.

Maintain our Organisation

The war has thinned the ranks of our political and economic http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1914/11/19.htm (3 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:54:21] The Duty of Working Women in War-Time by Clara Zetkin

organisations. It is for the women to see that the loosened threads are not entirely sundered. When we speak of preserving the organisations, we mean, above all, the spirit which dwells therein. One of the most important methods of preserving this spirit is by the circulation of our Press, which, above all the turmoil of battle and the heaps of ruins, must keep the banner of International Socialism waving aloft unstained.

The Hardening Effect of War.

International Socialism! Do not the words sound like a mockery? In the days when the representatives of the proletariat should have been assembled in Vienna for the covenant of peace and freedom of the peoples, tens of thousands of the sons of the people were drawing their last breath on the battlefields, tens of thousands more were lying groaning in the field. hospitals, and that death and those wounds had been dealt by a brother-hand. Hundreds of thousands, indeed millions, irrespective of what country’s uniform they wear, are declaring with clenched teeth: “We do not wish to, we must. The rights and independence of our fatherland are menaced.” War has its own logic, its own laws and standards. It creates an atmosphere which indeed calls forth heroism, but which on the other hand, whether the fighters would or no, often rouses the beast that slumbers in the sub-consciousness of man. Letters from the front prove the hardening of the soul and the senses to the horrors of battle, a hardening which in many cases develops into brutality and bestiality. The papers relate the most horrible atrocities which citizens beyond the German boundaries are said to have perpetrated, in the name of patriotism, against the invading

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German soldiers; yes, even against the wounded and those who are caring for them. Even if the descriptions of these deeds are enormously exaggerated, as we believe they are, there is still more than enough of barbarity.

“Avenging” “Outrages.”

But do our ears deceive us? Similar barbarities are to “avenge” these misdeeds. That is what we read in part of the bourgeois Press. For every German maliciously shot, a village burnt down. The “Berliner Neueste Nachrichten” goes further and demands “ the clearance of occupied districts of all inhabitants .... Everyone seen in civil dress in the banned districts 24 hours after the expulsion order should be shot as a “spy.” Hand in hand with the advocacy of barbarism goes, of course, detraction of foreign peoples, whose friendship Germany but yesterday was striving to gain, and the belittling of their contributions to the upward march of humanity. It is as though all the standards were broken by which right and justice used to be measured in the life of nations, all the weights falsified with which the value of national things was weighed. Far away indeed seems the world-wide ideal of proletarian solidarity, the brotherhood of the peoples. Is it possible that the war extinguishes not only human lives, but human goals?

All Peoples have Contributed to Civilisation.

No, a thousand times no. Let us not allow the working masses to forget that the war has been caused by world-wide economic and political complications, and not by ugly and despicable personal qualities in the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1914/11/19.htm (5 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:54:21] The Duty of Working Women in War-Time by Clara Zetkin

peoples with which Germany is fighting. Let us have the courage, when we hear the invectives against “perfidious Albion,” the “degenerate French,” the “barbaric Russians,” etc., to reply by pointing out the ineradicable riches contributed by these peoples to human development, and how they have assisted the fruition of German civilisation. The Germans, who have themselves contributed so much towards the international treasury of civilisation, ought to be able to exercise justice and veracity in judging other peoples. Let us point out that all peoples have the same right to independence and autonomy for the preservation of which the Germans are struggling ....

We Socialist women hear the voices which in this time of blood and iron still speak softly, painfully, and yet consolingly, of the future. Let us be their interpreters to our children. Let us preserve them from the harsh brazen sound of the ideas which fill the streets to-day, in which cheap pride-of-race stifles humanity. In our children must grow up the security that this most frightful of all wars shall be the last. The blood of the killed and wounded must not be a stream to divide that which unites the present distress and the future hope. It must be as a cement which shall bind fast for all time

The “Gleichheit” Suppressed

“The ‘Gleichheit’ Suppressed,” Justice, 17th Dec. 1914, (anon) p.1.

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“Humanité” publishes a report from a Swiss correspondent that the journal “Gleichheit,” published at Stuttgart and edited by our well- known comrade, Clara Zetkin, has been suppressed, and her “Appeal to Socialist Women” confiscated. This action of the Würtemburg Government follows upon the speech delivered on Sunday, December 6, at a Party meeting at Stuttgart. She strongly attacked the attitude of the majority of the Social-Democratic Reichstag Section. At the conclusion of her speech the local Executive of the Party and about thirty delegates left the hall, leaving nearly a hundred delegates present. These delegates passed a resolution congratulating Karl Liebknecht on voting against the further war credits in the Reichstag.

The number of the “Gleichheit” for November 27 contained a stirring article by Clara Zetkin entitled “An Appeal to the Socialist Women of all Countries.” In it she wrote: “The longer the war continues, the more are the masks torn down that have deceived so many people. It is presenting itself in all its naked ugliness as a war of capitalist conquest and world domination.” She makes a passionate appeal to the Socialist women of all countries to preserve the old Social-Democratic ideal and not to permit themselves to be carried away by the pervading Chauvinism. She says “If men must kill, it is we women who must fight for life. If men remain silent, it is our duty to speak out.”

A certain number of copies of the “Gleichheit” were sent across the Swiss frontier before the issue was confiscated.

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1914/11/19.htm (8 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:54:21] Klara Zetkin: The Women of Germany to the Women of Great Britain (January 1915)

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The Women of Germany to the Women of Great Britain

Reply of the German Socialist Women to the Manifesto of the Women’s International Council of Socialist and Labour Organisations (British Section) (January 1915)

From The Labour Woman, Vol.II No.9, January 1915, front page. Thanks to John Partington. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

Dear Comrades, http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1915/01/reply.htm (1 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:54:33] Klara Zetkin: The Women of Germany to the Women of Great Britain (January 1915)

Your message of faith and friendship has reached Germany through the good offices of the comrades in Holland, Norway and Sweden. We now thank you and them with all our hearts for this inspiring proof of international socialist solidarity. You are thanked by the women comrades of all countries, and especially of those in the nations at war, not least among them by the German Social Democrats.

How strong the bands are which bind us all together, and to you, dear comrades, we are learning from the very time of awful murder, which seems to have loosened and torn asunder all the bonds which used to hold the peoples together; this time, when it seems as if all the majestic ideals for which we worked together have taken flight. A message like yours is a source of strength for all women who are filled with a keen desire to do their duty as witnesses for Socialism. It reminds us that we are one in our best endeavours, and that we are determined to bear our ideals inviolate through the storms of this time.

You may rest, assured that we are at one with you in execrating the present world war as the most awful crime which capitalist Imperialism has committed.

We share your deep sympathy for the sufferings of the lands which have been laid waste by this bloody strife. We think with deep grief of the horrors of devastation East Prussia and Galicia, and with no less pain of the disaster which stalks along the roads http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1915/01/reply.htm (2 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:54:33] Klara Zetkin: The Women of Germany to the Women of Great Britain (January 1915) of France, and which in unhappy Belgium has caused a wicked breach of International Law. We join with you in demanding what we claim for ourselves in every land as a matter of course: the safety and inviolability of our native lands, the integrity of national autonomy and independence. We share your conviction that no diplomatic intrigues, no militarist governments, no provocation on the part of jingo patriots should divide the working men and women of the world. We unite our wills to yours and march on together in the fiught for peace. Together with you, we shall unceasingly strive against the exploitation and oppression of Labour by Property. Nothing can make us doubt that the struggle for the freedom of the working people is at the same time the most fruitful preparation, and the truest surety for the peace of nations the whole world round. Does not this very war remind us that the class cleavage between exploiters and exploited in the nations is the root of that enmity which is the first cause of this war between the peoples.

We socialist women of all nations recognise Imperialism as the foe which is now driving on the peoples to fight each other, in order to exhaust and enslave them. There is no possibility of any compact between imperialism and socialism. Therefore it is our fixed determination to give all the strength of our wills and all the ardour of our hearts to make socialism triumph over imperialism. Such a great historical event as that, this war teaches us, is only possible with the socialist international as a foundation, only when the exploited of all lands stand together against their

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1915/01/reply.htm (3 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:54:33] Klara Zetkin: The Women of Germany to the Women of Great Britain (January 1915) exploiters and masters. Socialism will triumph over imperialism, and with it also over capitalism, when men and women of the working class have resolved to bring to the defence of their own interests and the realisation of their aims as much power, passion and inspiration, and to make as great sacrifices of life and property, as imperialism now demands for its own ends.

Women comrades of Great Britain, your sisters in all countries rejoice with proud satisfaction to know that, as your message shows, we stand together unshaken and estimate the violent events of this time from a socialist standpoint. we stand together in sisterly sympathy for all those who are sufering from these events, and with an unshaken determination to fulfil faithfully our duty as socialists, and not to be led astray when the international enemies of the peoples seek to deceive us, nor to be alarmed by the thrat of danger and persecution. Far over the battlefields, with their unspeakable horrors, we stretch out to you our hands with deep emotion, and send you our most heartfelt greetings.

On with international socialism!

Hurrah for the socialist women’s international!

(Signed) Clara Zetkin, International Secretary of Socialist Women

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1915/01/reply.htm (5 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:54:33] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919)

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Clara Zetkin Rosa Luxemburg: Her Fight Against the German Betrayers of International Socialism (1919)

Written: May 1919. Published: Introduction to the Second Edition of the Junius Pamphlet, The Crisis of Social Democracy. Source: The Class Struggle, Vol.III, No.4, November 1919. Transcribed: for marxists.org in June 2002.

Rosa Luxemburg’s Junius Pamphlet has its history and is itself a piece of history – thanks both to the circumstances under which it originated and to the life that emanates from it in a sparkling, glowing stream.

Rosa Luxemburg wrote the pamphlet in April, 1915. A few weeks

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (1 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) before she had been forced to enter the “Royal Prussian Women’s Prison,” where she was to serve the year of imprisonment to which she had been sentenced by the Criminal Court of Frankfort a.M., for her courageous fight against militarism. In the fight, the sentence, and the sequel was gathered as in a nutshell what soon appeared, full grown, virile, unconcealed – Rosa Luxemburg’s clear recognition of the imminent imperialistic tempest and the need of the hour for the proletariat to hurl itself against the onslaught with all the desperate energy of its protest; the courage and spirit of self-sacrifice with which she led the fight against the dangerous enemy in the name of International Socialism; the acute capitalistic class instinct, not to say the wakeful capitalistic class consciousness with which the bourgeois world so ruthlessly applied its instruments of power to protect imperialism and to which the historical evolution of society, with the rise of imperialism, had assigned new tasks and a greater significance for the existence of capitalism; the dishonorable surrender of the German Social-Democracy, or more correctly of its leadership, to militarism and imperialism.

In truth, at that time great masses of proletarians burned with eagerness to go into the fight against militarism and imperialism. If their class consciousness did not yet clearly recognize the mortal enemy, their healthy class feeling sensed, anticipated that enemy. As though illuminated by a search light, militarism in its historic form had become visible on their horizon, glaringly exposed by Rosa Luxemburg’s condemnation and the reason for

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (2 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) it – the conviction expressed by the courageous leader, that proletarians would not obey the command to raise the weapons of murder against their brothers of other nationalities. The rousing, fiery effect of the condemned words were intensified by the speech before the Frankfort Court, a classical document of political defense which in place of legal quibbling about “guilt,” penalty, and degree of punishment, set up the fight for the scientifically firmly established ideal of International Socialism. A wave of splendid, determined fighting spirit rose out of the proletarian masses. It should have been the obvious task of Social- Democratic leaders, if they had the least political insight, to take advantage of this fighting spirit, to intensify it, in order to give militarism and imperialism a fight on a large scale, to give them a staggering blow. The Executive of the Social-Democracy showed once again clearly that it was not convinced of the truth and worth of the great strong bulwark of that consistent Marxian standpoint which affords a free outlook over situations and their obvious development and thus determines the correct basis of judgment, of will, and of action.

In the present situation it gave itself the certificate of weakness that it fell short of everything that makes for political leadership. It avoided the obvious, the natural, the necessary thing – to gather together the protest that was arising everywhere with elemental force against the judgment of the Frankfort Criminal Court, into a tremendous mass action against militarism and imperialism. The Party Executive went even further with its

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (3 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) “Backward, backward, Don Rodrigo” to the proud vow of the Social-Democracy. It tried to dam up the current that had begun without its effort. And all this in the atmosphere of burning indignation not only about the Luxemburg case but also about the triumph of the sabre in the scandalous trial against the little lieutenant, Forstner-Zabern; about the sanguinary judgment of the Erfurt court-martial, which, treading on all that is human, banished proletarians to the prisons for years on account of mere bagatelles; about the numerous cases of terrible abuse of the soldiers that were to he brought to light out of the darkness of the drill-yards and the company rooms through an approaching second trial of Rosa Luxemburg – if recollection does not receive, more than 30,000 mistreated men volunteered to act as witnesses.

But to be sure, by this time the Social-Democratic Party had already turned its misguided steps toward parliamentarism, it was fast becoming a bourgeois party, and its fear of mass action was already leading to its surrender to militarism and imperialism. It was the active and passive connivance of the Social-Democratic group of the Reichstag, and through them the connivance of the Social-Democracy as a whole, that made it possible in 1913 for the tremendous bluff of the “Jubilee gift for the Peace Emperor, Wilhelm II” to go across the political stage successfully, that enabled the Government to prepare unhindered the imperialistic war stroke of 1914, with the army bill – the most gigantic increase of the army which up to that time had ever been

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (4 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) demanded and granted – and the defense contribution of billions – the first war credit for the intended marauding expedition across the Balkans to Bagdad and other “places in the sun.” The Party group in the Reichstag had made it easier for the bourgeois “opposition parties” to nod assent to the army bill, by having itself agreed to the separation of that bill from the general budget. It had given its blessing to the defense contribution and income tax bills as presumptive burdens upon the possessing classes. It had run after the delusive spectre of “modified finance” policies and had skipped the fight against the robust armored fellow called imperialism.

But the sins of commission and omission of the Party faction in the Reichstag had begun to determine the attitude of the entire Party, a few small, criticizing and dickering groups excepted. The Social-Democracy had not collected its forces for a stand against the brazen advance of imperialism greedy for power. Thus it created on the one hand the confident assurance of militarism and imperialism that there was no fear of opposition to their plans on the part of the proletarian masses, and on the other hand a paralyzing dullness in the masses themselves, even a slackening up in the face of danger. In short, the Social- Democracy allowed that atmosphere of war illusion to gather which in the summer of 1914 broke down all the political and moral opposition of the working classes against the crime of the war. Let us not forget that in the attitude of the Social-Democracy at that time, the policy of the “Marxist center” dominated, the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (5 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) policy which Karl Kautsky in our times praises up to the proletariat eagerly as the prerequisite for its victory. Let us not forget, moreover, that it was this high priest of “pure Marxism” who with his extremely un-Marxian tax theory built the ass’s bridge over which the Reichstag faction had proceeded to accepting the defense contribution and income tax measures. Under the given conditions the Social-Democratic Party Executive would have had to jump over its own shadow, if it desired to brace up and make use of the mass sentiment created by the Frankfort decision for a serious fight against militarism and imperialism. In the events which forced Rose Luxemburg into prison during the latter half of February, 1914, the disgraceful bankruptcy of the German Social-Democracy on August 4, 1914, had cast its shadow before, but there was forshadowed in them as well, the loyal, self-sacrificing fight of this inspired pioneer of Socialism against its internal decay.

Hardly had the acceptance of the war credit measure by the Social-Democratic faction in the Reichstag become known, than Rosa Luxemburg together with a few friends raised the flag of rebellion against this treason to the International, to Socialism. Two circumstances prevented this rebellion from at once becoming widely known. The fight was to begin with a protest against the vote in favor of the war credits by the Social- Democratic representatives, which would have to be so managed, however, that it would not be squashed by the tricks and wiles of the state of siege and the censorship. Besides this, and above all,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (6 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) it would certainly have been significant if the protest was from the start issued in the name of a goodly number of familiar Social- Democratic fighters. We therefore tried to put it into such a form that as many as possible of the leading comrades should declare their solidarity with its ideas who had uttered sharp, even absolutely destructive criticism on the policy of August 4th, in the Reichstag faction or within small groups. A consideration which cost much hard thinking, paper, letters, telegrams, and valuable time – and the result of which, despite all that, was nil. Of all the critics of the Social-Democratic majority who had expressed themselves in vigorous speech, only Karl Liebknecht dared, together with Rosa Luxemburg, Franz Mehring and me to defy the idol of Party discipline upon whose altars were sacrificed character and convictions.

Rosa Luxemburg had nearly completed the first number of the magazine Internationale, when she was made to begin her prison sentence on the eve of a trip to Holland which we had intended to take together to prepare the way for the projected International Conference of Socialist Women and in general to bind more strongly the ties of international relations and to encourage the attempts to combine internationally the men and women comrades who were still true to their principles. Now, instead of speeding to the Dutch border with her, I had to visit Rosa in the Barnim Strasse prison. The unexpectedly sudden execution of the sentence had crashed like a thunderbolt into our immediate fighting plans. Nevertheless barely two months later

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (7 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) the Junius Pamphlet was finished. Rosa Luxemburg did not allow her imprisonment to be a “breathing spell” for the enemy. They would not let her fight. With stubborn courage she replied to the power attacking her, “Very well, now I’ll fight all the more!” Her indomitable will converted the place of severest restraint to a site of spiritual liberty. Writing of a political nature was strictly forbidden her. Secretly, under the greatest difficulties, narrowly watched by spying eyes, outside of the permissible occupation with literary and scientific work, she wrote her grand, penetrating final reckoning with the Social-Democracy, using every minute of time, every spark of light for the purpose. Weariness, illness disappeared before the force of the inner voice. That voice helped her to bear the most disconcerting, the most tormenting part of it all – that innumerable times she was wrested out of her train of thought, that she was never sure that she might not be caught at her task and prevented from completing it. It was a relief from the most tyrannical spiritual pressure when at last she was able to put the last stroke to her manuscript and, crafty as Odysseus, to send the last pages out of prison walls by the hand of loyal friendship.

Outside the doors of the women’s prison lay the heavy atmosphere of the World War, reeking with destruction, commingled with the rotten odors of the unbridled passion of profit and usury of the respectable parasites and defenders of the bourgeois order; raged the “will to victory,” artificially inflamed and fanned to a white heat with all the means of perfidy, violence,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (8 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) despicability; waded the Social-Democracy month after month through the fratricidal sea of blood, repeating piously, like an obedient pupil, the sayings of the imperialistic bourgeoisie and its government, with merely a few clumsy variations, breaking every solemn oath of international solidarity, treading upon the ideals of Socialism; outside those prison walls, stood like a gray, oppressive nebular mass, the dullness and stupidity of the workers allowing themselves to be dragged by imperialism into death and ruin instead of resisting it with strength and consciousness of purpose. In the choking atmosphere of those days, the Junius Pamphlet came like the fresh, strong wind that hurries on before the purging storm.

And its significance was even greater than that by far. It was even a part of that same purging tempest of returning consciousness in which German Social-Democrats and German workers began to find the way back to the historical task of, the proletariat – to overcome imperialism and capitalism through the international class struggle and to realize Socialism. It gave a mighty impetus to the awakening of the proletarians out of the social-patriotic war delusion and harmony delusion of civic truce, the process of their rallying to the class struggle and the banner of International Socialism. Clearly, firmly, scientifically, and penetratingly it gave expression and direction to an emotion, a thought, and a will that stirred within the proletarian’ masses, at first fearfully and scatteringly, then more loudly, more imperatively, uniting ever larger groups.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (9 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919)

Karl Kautsky, the official theoretician of the Social-Democracy, had changed from a leader into a misleader. In his supply-kit of “Marxian” formulas, he could find not a single one that would justify the miserable treachery of the Party majority. Ad usum Delphini he invented the famous two-soul theory for the Socialist International, which was “an instrument of peace and not of war,” and the principles of which therefore were, all according to the given situation, “Proletarians of all lands, unite” or on the other hand, “Proletarians of all lands, murder one another!” “Like a beast on the barren heath” he wandered vaguely back and forth between gay logical houses of cards and schoolmaster quibbling, in order to place himself with his authority protectingly before the policy of August 4th. His subsequent opposition was contradictory, uncertain as to principles, weak. Rosa Luxemburg, on the other hand in the Junius Pamphlet placed that policy on trial – consistently, mercilessly, annihilating it. She proved the bankruptcy of the German Social-Democracy, unparalleled in history, and her proofs were not formulas, but hard, stubborn facts. She knocked the bottom out of all the legends and slogans for the justification of Social-patriotism by revealing the causes and the impelling forces of the imperialistic war, baring its character and its aims.

The keynote of the Junius Pamphlet is contained in the following sentence of the last chapter: “The history which gave birth to the present war did not just begin in July, 1914, but dates back decades, where thread was tied to thread with the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (10 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919)

inevitability of a natural law, until the finely woven net of imperialistic world policy had entangled five continents – a tremendous historical complex of phenomena whose roots go deep down into Plutonic depths of economic creation and whose branches point toward the vaguely stirring new world.”

Imperialism, born of capitalistic development, confronts us as an international phenomenon in its radiations and influences, accomplishing with its brutal unscrupulousness of conscience, its gigantic, insatiable appetites, its tremendous means of power, very different wonders from “the construction of the Egyptian pyramids and Gothic cathedrals,” as expressed in the Communist Manifesto. It gives new and deepened content to the difference between Germany and France created by the war of 1870-71; it extinguishes old differences familiar to world- politics between the great powers of Europe and creates new fields of conflict between them; it is tearing the United States and Japan into its powerful current. Dripping with dirt and blood it traverses the earth, destroying ancient civilizations and converting entire despoiled nations into slaves of European capitalism. International imperialism is heaping up fagot upon fagot for the devastating world-conflagration – in Egypt, Syria, Morocco, South and Southeast Africa, in Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, and China, on the islands and the coasts of the Pacific Ocean, and on the Balkan peninsula. But it was German imperialism, late-born and madly aggressive, which, by way of the provoking ultimatum of Austria to Serbia in 1914, carried out

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (11 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) the war stroke that lit the pyre of capitalistic civilization. It was driven on irresistibly by the gold-hunger of German finance – represented in particular by the German Bank, the most concentrated, best organized institution of capitalistic finance in the world – which longed to exploit Turkey and Asia Minor, and the lust of profit of the armament industries; it received its ruinous fool’s liberty from the barely curbed despotism of Wilhelm II and the voluntary weakness of the bourgeois opposition.

Rosa Luxemburg succeeded so well in portraying within the narrow limits of her Junius Pamphlet the imperialistic nature of the World War and its aims, because in her extensive scientific work on the Accumulation of Capital she had traced down in an exposition as thorough as it was brilliant, the last roots of imperialism, as well as its political branchings. But in divesting the World War of its ideological dress, exposing it in its nakedness as a business venture – the business venture, the deal for life and death – of international Capital, she also mercilessly, piece by piece, tears the ideological wrappings of the Social- Democratic policy of August 4th from its body. In the fresh morning atmosphere of scientific examination of the entire historical phenomenon and its associations, the hollow phrases of the “fight for civilization,” “against Czarism,” “for the defense of the Fatherland,” etc., crumble away. Convincingly Rosa Luxemburg proves that in the present imperialistic environment the conception of a modest, virtuous war of defense of the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (12 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) fatherland has forever flown. The Social-Democratic war policy reveals itself in all its primitive ugliness as outright bankruptcy, as the inner expression of a social-patriotic labor-party imbued with bourgeois ideals, a party that has sold the proud revolutionary birthright of the proletariat for even less than the mess of pottage demanded by Kautsky – for the empty words of a Kaiser, “I recognize no parties, I know only Germans,” for the “honor” of a place in the ranks of nationalistic delusion.

The Junius Pamphlet is introduced by observations on the duty and importance of Socialist self-criticism, observations that are among the most wonderful things that have ever emerged out of the depths of pure and strong socialistic feeling and thought. Here the sincerest, most glowing conviction demands the highest and severest standards for our actions as Socialists, directing our glance with prophetic force to the great resplendent perspectives of the future which Socialism opens to us. The approaching heroic hour of the new world-epoch must find a heroic race in the proletariat which during the up and down of victory and defeat of its revolutionary struggles shall train itself through unsparing self- criticism, for the triumph of Socialism. The conclusion of the Junius Pamphlet links on to the beginning, closing the ring. It views the World War as the pioneer of the World Revolution. Victory or defeat in the present gigantic struggle must be equally fateful for the conflicting imperialist groups, and incidentally for the proletariats of the different lands, leading inevitably to the collapse of the capitalistic order and capitalistic culture, to its

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (13 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) world-trial before the judgment seat of the Revolution. Rosa Luxemburg wrote this in March and April of 1915 – long before the heroic Russian proletariat led by the determined Bolsheviki gave the storm signal for the social revolution, long before the slightest ruffling of the waters in Germany and in the Habsburg dual monarchy announced the approach of a revolutionary flood. What we have since experienced, what Rosa Luxemburg herself was still permitted to experience in part, is a splendid corroboration of the sharpness and correctness with which she had in her Junius Pamphlet seen the historical lines of development.

Perhaps on this very account some reader may regrettingly or fault-findingly inquire why the author did not show in perspective the possibility of a revolution in Russia, why she neglected to indicate the possible methods and means of fighting in the revolutionary period that was just dawning. It is true that in 1915, already out of the roaring chaos of the world struggle more and more clearly and visibly the giant form of the Revolution was emerging. But there was no indication of when and where it would begin its triumphal course. The Russian Revolution was to be the subject of a second Junius Pamphlet, some of whose outlines had already been hastily sketched by Rosa Luxemburg. The murderous hand of the German culture- bearing military has deprived us of the projected work, which would also have discussed and evaluated the fighting means and methods of the Russian Revolution – not in Kautsky fashion,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (14 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) certainly, according to a hard and fast scheme to which the actual development had to fit itself. No, Rosa Luxemburg’s view is that of a living, creative stream following out the historic development. “The historical moment each time demands the appropriate form of the people’s movement and itself creates new means, improvises hitherto unknown fighting instruments, enriching the arsenal of the people, unheedful of party rules.” The essential thing for the Revolution, then, is “not a conglomeration of ridiculous rules and prescriptions of a technical nature, but the political slogan, the clear consciousness of the political tasks and interests of the proletariat.” In accordance with this view, Rosa Luxemburg at one time investigated an already tried fighting instrument of the working class – the general strike, which she recognizes as first in historical importance and as “the classical form of the movement of the proletariat in the periods of a revolutionary ferment.’ Her pamphlet on this subject – a pioneer work in the proper estimation of this fighting instrument – has been given a new significance by present events; today it should find millions of readers and sympathizers, rally millions of active fighters, ready for revolutionary deeds.

The Junius Pamphlet is a particularly sparkling treasure of the heritage which Rosa Luxemburg has left the proletariat of Germany, of the world, for the theory and practice of its struggle for liberation, a treasure whose sparkle and glow are a painful reminder of how great and irreparable is the loss we have suffered. What is said of this treasure, here, compares with it as a

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (15 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) dry table of classification of plants compares with a garden full of blossoming, resplendent, fragrant flowers. It is as though Rosa Luxemburg, in anticipation of her sudden end, had gathered together in the Junius Pamphlet all the forces of her genial nature for a great work – the scientific, penetrating, independently searching and pondering mind of the theoretician, the fearless, burning passion of the convinced, daring revolutionary fighter, the inner richness and the splendid wealth of expression of the ever struggling artist. All the good spirits which nature had lavished upon her stood by her side as she wrote this work. Wrote – merely wrote? No, experienced in the depths of her soul. In the precisely coined words that mark both her iconoclastic criticism of the Social-Democratic betrayal and her inspiring vision of the expiation and the resurrection of the proletariat in the Revolution; in the sentences that seem to rush on to their goal; in the extensive chains of thought welded together with iron firmness; in the brilliant sarcasms; in the plastic figures of speech and the simple, noble pathos – in all this one feels that it is suffused with the heartblood of Rosa Luxemburg, that in it speaks Rosa Luxemburg’s that behind it stands her whole being, every fibre of it. The Junius Pamphlet is the outlet of a great personality that has devoted itself wholly and singly to a great, to the greatest cause. So, out of this work, the same Rosa Luxemburg greets us from beyond the grave who today more than ever is leading the world proletariat, going before it and leading it upon its way of Golgotha toward the promised land of Socialism. http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (16 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919)

But within the circle of light that surrounds her form, there stands a second great personality, which it is necessary to draw out from the obscurity in which it has purposely remained with that modesty which is a sign of real worth and the complete merging of all personal characteristics in a great ideal. This personality is Leo Jogisches. More than twenty years he was united with Rosa Luxemburg in an incomparable community of ideals and fighting purpose which had been steeled by the most powerful of all forces – the glowing, all-consuming passion of the two unusual souls for the Revolution. Not many have known Leo Jogisches, and very few indeed have estimated him according to his great significance. He appeared usually only as the organizer, who translated Rosa Luxemburg’s political ideas into practice, as an organizer to he sure of the first order, as a genial organizer. However, this does not exhaust his accomplishments. Of a far- reaching, thorough general education, a rare master of scientific Socialism, a penetrating dialectic mind, Leo Jogisches was the incorruptible critical judge of Rosa Luxemburg and her work, her ever-waiting theoretic and practical conscience, at times too the one who saw further, the one who stimulated, just as Rosa on her part was the more penetrating and the one who created. He was one of those still very rare great masculine personalities who was capable of living side by side in true and joyous comradeship with a great feminine personality, without feeling in her growth and development a bond and a limitation upon his own ego; a gentle revolutionary in the noblest sense of the word, without any

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (17 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (1919) contradiction between belief and action. So, much of Leo’s best lies enshrined in the life-work of Rosa Luxemburg. His increasing, impetuous insistence and his creative criticism contributed their full share in causing the Junius Pamphlet to be created so soon and so masterfully, just as it is due to his iron will that it could be printed and distributed despite the extraordinary difficulties caused by the state of siege. The counter- revolutionists knew what they were doing when, a few weeks after the murder of Rosa Luxemburg, they had Leo Jogisches assassinated too – “in an alleged attempt at flight” in the same Moabite Prison from which it had been possible to abduct Rosa’s assassin, in an elegant private automobile in broad daylight.

The Junius Pamphlet was an individual revolutionary deed. It must give birth to revolutionary mass action. It is of the dynamite of the spirit which is blasting the bourgeois order. The socialistic society rising in its place is the only fitting monument for Leo Jogisches and Rosa Luxemburg. And this monument is being reared by the revolution for which they lived and died.

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/05/junius.htm (18 of 18) [14-7-2011 20:54:44] Clara Zetkin: Karl Liebknecht (September 1919)

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Clara Zetkin Karl Liebknecht (September 1919)

From The Communist International, No.5, 1 September 1919, p.66. Thanks to John Partington. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

We should never forget that in Germany, Karl Liebknecht was the first Social Democrat, and that for long he was the only Social Democrat who dared to throw off the disastrous yoke of party discipline -– hat party discipline which had ceased to be a mere secondary means for the furtherance of practical activities, and had become an end in itself, a great Huitzilopochtli, an idol to which everything was sacrificed. We should never forget that he was the first, and for a long time the only Social Democrat to speak and to act in the German Reichstag as an international Socialist, thus in very truth defending “German honour,” the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/09/karl.htm (1 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:54:54] Clara Zetkin: Karl Liebknecht (September 1919) honour of German Socialism. The majority of the Social Democratic Parliamentary group voted war credits for the murder of their brothers; they darkened and poisoned the judgment of the masses through their repudiation of Socialist ideals and their adoption of bourgeois watchwords. The dissentient minority discreetly submitted and held their peace. Karl Liebknecht alone, every inch a man, had the courage to hurl his invincible “No!” in the face of Parliament and the world.

Scorched by the indignation of the bourgeois parties, reviled and calumniated by the Social Democratic majority, forsaken by the Social Democratic minority, he none the less made of the Reichstag a battlefield against Imperialism and capitalism, missing no chance of unmasking these deadly enemies of the proletariat, and seizing every opportunity of arousing the exploited masses against them. Thus did he continue at work, until the day when the Reichstag, to its everlasting disgrace, surrendering its own privileges, suspended Liebknecht’s Parliamentary immunity, delivering over to the venomous bourgeois class-justice this man alleged to be guilty of high treason. New life sprang from the brave and unceasing struggle. Through Liebknecht’s example popular confidence in Socialism flamed up vigorously once more, and the proletarians, their courage revivified, made ready for battle. Karl Liebknecht transferred the venue of the fight to the place where it has to be decided, among the masses. By word and deed he wrestled with Imperialism for the soul of the masses. This continued down to

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/09/karl.htm (2 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:54:54] Clara Zetkin: Karl Liebknecht (September 1919) the day when bourgeois society wreaked vengeance on the dreaded and detested foe – until the prison, swallowed him. Why was he immured? Because he, soldier of the revolution, had in the open street urged the workers to make the First of May festival a formidable demonstration, to repudate the “truce of parties” in the name of international Socialism, to put an end to the slaughter of the peoples, to sweep away the government of malefactors. The masses made no move to follow their far- sighted and trusty leader. But this disappointment availed just as little as danger and persecution had availed to shake Karl Liebknecht’s convictions or to daunt his fighting spirit. This is evidenced by the brilliant and defiant speech he made at the court-martial, a speech that was a classical example of self- defence on the part of a political champion. Our conviction that his courage was unabated was reinforced by all his subsequent activities.

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Last updated on 29.12.2008

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/09/karl.htm (3 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:54:54] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (September 1919)

MIA > Archive > Zetkin

Clara Zetkin Rosa Luxemburg (September 1919)

From The Communist International, No.5, 1 September 1919, p.5. Thanks to John Partington. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

Rosa Luxemburg was a woman of indomitable will. Severe self- control put a curb upon the mettlesome ardour of her temperament, veiling it beneath an outwardly reserved and calm demeanour. Mistress of herself; she was able to lead others. Her delicate sensitiveness had to be shielded from external influences. Her apparent coldness and strict reserve were the screen behind which was hidden a life of tender and deep feeling; a wealth of sympathy which did not stop short at man, but embraced all living things, and encircled the world as one united whole. Once in a while Red Rosa, weary and worn with work,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/09/rosa.htm (1 of 4) [14-7-2011 20:55:04] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (September 1919) would turn out of her way to pick up a stray caterpillar and replace it upon its appropriate leaf. Her compassionate heart warmed to human suffering and grew more tender as the years went by. Always did she find time to lend a willing ear to those who needed advice and help; often did she joyfully give up her own pleasure in order to succour those who came to her in their need. A severe task-mistress to herself, she treated her friends with an instinctive indulgence; their woes and their troubles were more poignant to her than her own. As a friend she was a model of both loyalty and love, of self-effacement and gentle solicitude. With what rare qualities was she endowed, this “resolute fanatic”! How pregnant with thought and vivacity was her intercourse with intimates! Her natural reserve and dignity had taught her to suffer in silence. Nothing unworthy had any existence for her. Small and delicate in body, Rosa was, nevertheless, consumed with an energy which was unrivalled. She made the most remorseless demands upon her own powers of work, and she achieved positively astounding results. When it seemed that she must succumb to the exhaustion consequent upon her labours, she would embark upon another task demanding yet greater expenditure of vitality. Such endeavours were undertaken “in order to give myself a rest.” Rarely was heard on her lips the phrase, “I cannot”; more frequently were heard the words, “I must.” Her frail health and the unfavourable circumstances of her life did not lessen her vigour. Sorely tried by bodily infirmities, encompassed with difficulties, she remained true to herself. Her inward sense of freedom smoothed every obstacle http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/09/rosa.htm (2 of 4) [14-7-2011 20:55:04] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (September 1919) from her path.

Comrade Mehring was right in affirming that Rosa Luxemburg was one of Marx’s most perspicuous and intelligent followers. Gifted with shrewdness and with complete independence of thought, she refused to accept any traditional formula on trust; she probed every idea, every fact, which thus acquired a special and personal value for her. She combined to a rare degree the power of logical deduction with an acute understanding of everyday life and its development. Her dauntless mind was not content merely to know Marx’s teaching and to elucidate the master’s doctrines. She undertook independent researches, and continued the work of creation which is the very essence of Marx’s spirit. She possessed a remarkable capacity for lucid exposition, and could always find the aptest words wherewith to express her thoughts in all their plentitude. Rosa Luxemburg was never satisfied with the insipid and dry theoretical disquisitions so dear to the heart of our erudite Socialists. Her speech was brilliantly simple; it sparkled with wit and was full of mordant humour; it seemed to be the incarnation of enthusiasm, and revealed the breadth of her culture and the superabundant wealth of her inner life. She was a splendid theoretician of scientific Socialism, but had nothing in common with the paltry pedants who cull their wisdom from a few scientific works. Her thirst for knowledge was insatiable. Her receptive mind, her intuitive understanding, turned to nature and to art as to a wellspring of happiness and moral perfection.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/09/rosa.htm (3 of 4) [14-7-2011 20:55:04] Clara Zetkin: Rosa Luxemburg (September 1919)

Socialism was for Rosa Luxemburg a dominating passion which absorbed her whole life, a passion at once intellectual and ethical. The passion consumed her and was transformed into creative work. This rare woman had but one ambition, one task in life – to prepare for the revolution which was to open the way to Socialism. Her greatest joy, her dream, was to live to see the revolution, to take her share in its struggles. Rosa Luxemburg gave to Socialism all she had to give; no words can ever express the strength of will, the disinterestedness, and the devotion, with which she served the cause. She offered up her life on the altar of Socialism, not alone in death, but in the long days of her labours, in the hours, the weeks and the years consecrated to the fight. Thus has she acquired the right to demand of others that they, too, shall sacrifice their all for Socialism – everything, life not excepted. She was the sword, she was the fire, of the revolution. Rosa Luxemburg will remain one of the greatest figures in the history of international Socialism.

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Last updated on 29.12.2008

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/09/rosa.htm (4 of 4) [14-7-2011 20:55:04] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919)

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Clara Zetkin Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919)

Source: The Communist International, Vol. I, No. 3, 1919; Transcribed: Sally Ryan for marxists.org in August, 2002.

The celebration of the last of May is the only serious attempt of the second socialist International to pass from words to deeds and to weld the proletarians of all countries in common unified action of wide import and impressive force. This attempt was not destined to reap complete success, and the fate of the May celebration was a significant forerunner of the ignominious failure of the Second International at the outbreak of the world war. Still, the May celebration has poured strong currents of http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (1 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919)

rousing, kindling life into the masses of the exploited and oppressed, currents of a new life that has transformed innumerable hopeless sufferers into ardent fighters.

For in it works the might idea of international solidarity that knits the slaving toilers of the whole world together. And this idea is no airy dream of the imagination. It is a living reality, the expression of the identical conditions of existence that the rule of Capital creates all over the earth for the overwhelming majority of the enslaved, exploited workers; it is common knowledge drawn from common need that must lead to common will, to common action. Thus the idea of the international brotherhood of the world proletariat is on essential part of the great idea of liberation, that light on the way of the enslaved in their struggle against capital. Like the idea of liberation itself, it is at once the motive power and the aim that is to be realised in practice, and, therefore, it also shares its fate: to win amid struggles, amid seeking and groping, amid blunderings and defects; slowly, much too slowly, for the fiery impatience of our hearts that long for an International that is to unite liberated mankind.

More than seventy years have gone by since the communist manifesto summoned us to turn the idea of the international solidarity of all the exploited into a powerful act of liberation!

Workers of the world, unite! This idea caught at hearts and called forth wills, and yet it took nearly two decades before it found

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (2 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919) tangible expression in the formation of the International Workmen’s Association In London in 1864. But few years of action more granted to the first International, but weak were its material resources. Soon after the fall of the heroic Paris Commune the organization collapsed. Yet in the short span of its existence it achieved immortal, imperishable deeds. It made the idea of international solidarity, the common property of all workers’ associations that were desirous of leading the proletariat from want and darkness to freedom. The forms of the first International had become too narrow for the nascent, growing life that was the soul of the organisation and that had been aroused by it in all countries. The form passed, the life, the soul remained and continued to act all over the world.

And nearly two decades were to pass again before this life, this idea of the international solidarity of the world proletariat could become embodied in a union of fighting workers. In 1889, the second International was proclaimed at the international socialist and workmen’s congress in Paris. No longer did it unite merely small, weak workmen’s organizations in the first stage of their development, it was the proud league of socialist parties and professional organisations, young, and vigorously pushing ahead. It seemed to knit together a life full of inexhaustible, indomitable inner and external force, to give this life a common direction, a common aim, true to the principles of international socialism. One international congress after the other confirmed it by important, enlightening, unifying discussions, by wisely worded, stirring resolutions, by brilliant, overwhelming demonstrations. http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (3 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919) It seemed that the tremendous material and moral power accumulated in the second International was bound to turn into a mighty action against capitalism.

But the second international confined itself to remaining a mere workshop for the concoction of fine resolutions. Never was the common will, the total power of the united proletarians clenched into a mighty fist for carrying these resolutions into being. In spite of its lustre the Second International did not even accomplish the most urgent of economic reforms that ought to have been the corner-stone of the protection of labour, – the legal eight hours’ working day. And although its activity was determined by its belief in the high mission of parliamentarism, of bourgeois democracy, in no country had it brought about even the establishment of a true, full political democracy. And when its power and its worth were put to the test of tests it failed ignominiously. When the world war broke out it shrank from opposing the golden international of the power-maddened imperialists, the red International of the proletariat longing for freedom and resolved to fight for it.

The second International could not even say, with Francis I: “All is lost, except honour”. It lost its honour first of all, for it was defeated without showing fight. Loaded with shame it perished on the battle-fields where German proletarians and French proletarians murdered one another with the blessing of German social democracy and the united socialist party of France. The

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (4 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919) grand body of the Second International, its glittering pompous garments contained but a small, weak and timorous soul. A soul that over its joy of the earthworms of reform had lost its craving for the golden treasures of socialism. A spirit that failed to understand that the epoch of slow social evolution had been replaced by a period of stormy revolutionary progress. A will that preferred trading with bourgeois society for small concessions rather than fighting it for a high stake. The spirit, will and activity of the Second International in their main outlines had been minted by its “jewel” German social democracy. The decay of German social democracy, which concealed an opportunist bourgeois policy of reforms with socialistic phrases, was the chief cause of the death of the Second International. No attempts at galvanisation after the Stockholm or Bern pattern can resuscitate it.

But the idea of international solidarity did not perish with the Second International in the fratricidal war. It lived on in the proud “no” with which the social democrats in the Russian Duma and in the Serbian Skuptchina, and later on in the Italian Parliament, refused to grant the war credits to their governments, it added wings to the tenacious peace agitation of the British Independent Labour Party. While the patriotic war songs of the German, French, British and Austrian social democrats intermingled with the death-rattle of dying proletarians, with the cries of pain of the wounded, the idea of solidarity rose again to be the finger-post of the working masses

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (5 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919) in their struggle onward. It rose, bleeding from the mire, with countenance drawn and haggard with pain, covered with dirt and yet resplendent with sublime, immortal life. At the Women’s International Socialist Conference at Bern in March, 1915, it pointed out to the socialists, true to their principles, to the proletarians aroused from their torpor, the path they ought to take. It called out to them: enough talk, it is time to act. United be your will, united your action!

Like the dawn precursing the sunrise did this Bern Conference herald the Third Socialist International. The conferences at Zimmerwald, Kienthal and Moscow have drawn up its birth certificate, but the strongest evidence of its existence is furnished by the activity of the new International. To be sure, this existence is not yet regulated by rules and statutes. But it is bound by something infinitely higher; infinitely more binding: by the principles of International Socialism. To turn these principles from lip-service into action such is the historical task, the raison d’etre of Third Socialist International. This it is that distinguishes it from its predecessor.

The idea of the international solidarity of the proletarians of all countries that has made the socialists set themselves courageously and self-sacrificingly against the madness of the fratricidal world war, this idea by its action has welded together the Third International. Amid the storms and flames of the world revolution it now binds it together still more closely, more

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (6 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919) insolubly. The disgrace of the unprincipled world war policy of the second International has to sink into nothingness before the glory of the true socialistic policy of world revolution upheld by the Third International. By means or the world revolution the Proletariat must rise once more from its deep fall during the world war to the heights of conscious fulfillment of its historical mission. The world revolution is the touchstone upon which the Third International must prove its right to existence. For in defiance of all negators of world revolution, of all sceptics, we already hear the roaring of the storm of world revolution.

For the revolution heroically begun in Russia has established and strengthened itself. By means of sabotage and white terror the propertied minority and its intellectual following tried to destroy the work of revolutionary socialism. With their power concentrated in the soviets the proletarians and landless peasants broke their resistance. The Red Army victoriously repulsed the foreign troops, which as hirelings of international imperialism were expected in union with the counter revolutionaries to throttle the young socialist republic. The latter did not succumb in the struggle, not withstanding its having been robbed of its richest grain stores and cut off from the coal and petroleum districts, from all connection with the seas. Nay, the “bolshevik savages” even succeeded in alleviating the blackest misery of the masses, by means of far-reaching reforms and social provision in laying the foundation for a new economic order and, in particular, as regards public education, achieving work that,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (7 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919) according to civilisation, the unquestionable testimony of Maxim Gorki, stands unprecedented in history.

In Germany the revolution has swept the crown off the head of the monster of capital. Now the struggle against the monster itself is at its hottest. For the German proletariat it is no longer a question of more or less political democracy and social reform in a capitalistic state. The aim of the struggle is the annihilation of capitalism itself, is the realisation of socialism. With violence and bloody terror the class dictatorship of the exploiter, exercised by the “proletarians” Ebert, Scheidemann and Noske opposes this aim. It is a deep tragedy in the German workers’ struggle for liberation that proletarian upstarts, would-be social democrats with bombs and rifles in hand place themselves before the capitalistic order as its protectors. But this handful of political jugglers will be swept away soon enough by the impetus of the revolutionary storm, irresistibly rushing on and preceded by the foaming billows of the strike movement.

The triumph of the proletariat in Hungary speaks with fiery tongues to the slaves of capitalism in all countries. With wonderful speed the revolution burst through the shell of national discord and exhibited its real kernel as class struggle between the indigent and enslaved producers and the idle pleasure-seeking ruling appropriators of social wealth. Overnight the Social Democratic party of Hungary “re-learned” its lesson and took its course to the left, and on its way to Damascus it met

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (8 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919) and joined the communists whom but a short time ago conjointly with the bourgeois democracy it had fought against and persecuted bitterly for the sake of preserving the national state.

The establishment of the socialist soviet republic in Hungary will increase the fears and the rage of the propertied minorities and their advocates in all countries, more than ever will they put their trust in the trinity of the rifle, the maxim gun and the trench mortar. Yet the daring action of the Hungarian proletarians simultaneously strengthens the self-reliance, the fighting spirit and the creative will of the sweated and exploited working masses. It will stimulate the course of the revolution in places where it already rushes on to the fight against bourgeois rule. It will help to unchain revolution in places where imperialism believes to have overcome socialism. In the Allied countries also the appallingly glorious flames of revolution will burst forth out of the volcano of class contradictions. Already the earth is shaking with the blows of labour movements that continuously gain in strength, clearness of aim and resolution.

“The day will come!”

The idea of the International brotherhood of the proletarians of all countries asserts itself victoriously in the gigantic struggle of world revolution. The world revolution is the essence and the goal of the Third International. The Second International had for

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (9 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: Hail to the Third Socialist International! (1919) its ambition to achieve a world manifestation of the fighting proletarians. The victory of the world revolution has to be the title of honour of the Third International. For this victory we have to arm ourselves on the 1st of May, our eyes unswervingly turned towards our goal, our hearts full of glowing self-sacrifice, our will strong and dauntless. We lower our flags in sign of mourning for the heroic victims of the revolution, we nourish them joyously in the victorious battle, we carry them firmly and resolutely ahead in the last holy war of the workers. The greetings on the occasion of the May celebrations resounding in all corners of the world can only be: “Hail to the world revolution! Hail to the Third Socialist International!”

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Last updated on 29.2.2004

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/hail.htm (10 of 10) [14-7-2011 20:55:14] Clara Zetkin: In Defence of Rosa Luxemburg (1919)

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Clara Zetkin In Defence of Rosa Luxemburg (1919)

Source: The Communist International, Vol. 1, No.2, 1919. Transcribed: Sally Ryan for marxists.org in August, 2002.

The article written by comrade Louisa Kautsky in commemoration of Rosa Luxemburg (see the Freiheit of January 20, No.36) challenges to energetic opposition all those who intimately knew the greatness of soul of our so foully assassinated comrade. It goes against my inclination to dispute about the deceased as it were before her open grave. Yet truth and friendship prompt me to refute some of the assertions made by Louise Kautsky. I believe I owe it not only to the departed, but also to the living to prevent the caricature of Rosa Luxemburg, as drawn and spread by her numerous enemies, from being any http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/defencerosa.htm (1 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:55:23] Clara Zetkin: In Defence of Rosa Luxemburg (1919)

further coarsened and distorted by ill-drawn lines from the hand of a friend.

Louisa Kautsky is right when she says of Rosa Luxemburg as a fighter that “she did not spare even her best friends, on the contrary”. Yet as a friend thoroughly understanding the deceased comrade L. Kautsky ought to have laid stress on some other points besides. The tenacious, thoughtful patience with which she fought for the soul of her oldest friends before setting out top combat them! The sincerity of her grief when she had to take arms against a former confederate, the bitterness of her disappointment when his way of fighting and wielding arms made he recognize that he did not come up to the high ideal she had formed of him. To be sure, Rosa Luxemburg did not spare even her oldest friend if she was honestly convinced that he was detrimental to and wronging the proletarian class-struggle. The cause in her eyes always stood above the person. Once she considered it her duty to combat even her dearest friend she did so with all the weapons at her disposal. With the heavy artillery; of serious scholarly methods and mature theoretical training, with the weighty blows of brilliant dialectics, the dainty foil of irony, wit and derision. Yet at no time did she make use of unchivalrous methods. Here was a thoroughly noble character, incapable of retaliating upon anyone, of weilding the weapons of baseness, even if such were used against herself.

Louisa Kautsky is therefore wrong when she characterizes Rosa

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/defencerosa.htm (2 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:55:23] Clara Zetkin: In Defence of Rosa Luxemburg (1919) Luxemburg thus: “I am sorry to say that in such cases she acted like Lenin, much admired by her, who having once been brought up before a party-tribunal for libelling a party-comrade declared: ‘A political opponent, in particular if he be of our own socialist camp, ought to be fought with poisoned weapons by seeking to arouse the worst possible suspicion against him’.” By the way, I strongly doubt whether the above-mentioned utterance ought really to be taken as characteristic of the great bolshevik leader. I know from the history of the Russian revolution as also from my own experience what a relentless and fear-inspiring opponent comrade Lenin was. Yet libel I did not find among his weapons. Before granting conclusive force to that alleged statement of his I ought to know all the details of the context and the circumstances in which it is said to have been made.

According to my knowledge and feelings Louisa Kautsky ought to have guarded against passing at the end of her commemorative essay, from the purely personal ground to the political one and here insinuating a change – incomprehensible to her – in the ideas and attitude of Rosa Luxemburg. I fully and with heartiest sympathy appreciate what Louisa Kautsky is endeavoring to do for socialism within the limits of her circle and her nature. By no means do I question her right to hold her own opinion on the events and phenomenon that occur in the camp of international socialism. But all this does not alter the fact that in the struggle for socialism she only partakes of the experience of others but has no experience of her own. In consequence, notwithstanding her

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/defencerosa.htm (3 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:55:23] Clara Zetkin: In Defence of Rosa Luxemburg (1919) striving after objectivity, she lacks the true independent attitude towards those phenomena. She regards them from the point of view of her entourage, of a wife trying to understand, closely taking part in the struggle of her husband, but herself not standing in the midst of the fray. Rosa Luxemburg, on the other and, was in the thickest of the fighting and kept a sharp lookout from the high watch-tower she had erected for herself.

Thus it is easily understood, that while the one, scrutinizing and weighing, fought for the historical appreciation of the Russian revolution, the other in lofty self-confidence sat in preconceived judgement upon the “bolshevik heresies” which, “contrary to all reasons have so dazzled and deluded the clear mind of Rosa Luxemburg that she desired to repeat in Germany the experience that had miscarried in Russia.” No need for me to further pursue this crushing verdict, for I am certain that the “experiments that miscarried in Russia” will still have a creative role assigned to them in future history wen what the socialist compromisers have written against them will no longer be able to harm even a mouse. Rosa Luxemburg’s attitude towards the Russian November revolution was consistent and clear. It has not to be judged by incidental utterances about persons and events, utterances that are pardonable with high-spirited persons of subtly differentiated and high-strung sensitiveness, influenced by impressions and things. Rosa Luxemburg valued bolshevism as a whole by its prominent historical importance, and she did not fail to criticize those detail inclinations and her tact forbade her to act

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/defencerosa.htm (4 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:55:23] Clara Zetkin: In Defence of Rosa Luxemburg (1919) as Louisa Kautsky’s demand for consistency in political action obviously seems to have required. That means, to unearth old feuds and antiquated judgement just at the moment when the spies and hangmen of Ebert and Noske were dogging the footsteps of Radek.

I do not desire to argue within the limits of these lines with Louise Kautsky on the question as to which really are the “bolshevik methods that Rosa Luxemburg not only confessed, but unfortunately, even began to practice herself”. All I wish to say is that those “methods” do not correspond to the figure that, for the benefit of the unprincipled and faint-hearted policy of the right wing of the Independent Socialist Party is being drawn on the wall, – a counterfeit that comes very close to the “bolshevik” and “Spartacus” bogey of the government socialists. However, let us mention the “bolshevik methods” no more. With this catchword to explain the miscarriage of the January revolt of Berlin is just as foolish as to attribute the failure of the Paris Commune to its having anticipated the “bolshevik heresies” and “methods”. Rosa Luxemburg did not take her methods of combat from the Russian conditions. She rather deduced them by means of deep research of insight into international development. For Germany she based them on the German conditions, yet not on the conditions of the past period of slack evolution, but on those of the stormy chapter of revolution that began after the rise and unfolding of imperialism.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/defencerosa.htm (5 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:55:23] Clara Zetkin: In Defence of Rosa Luxemburg (1919) My friend, Louisa Kautsky, will not be offended if I say what I think, i.e. that the commemoration article was begun by the grateful friend of Rosa Luxemburg and finished by the wife of Karl Kautsky. Rosa Luxemburg would have been the last person to reproach her for it. Out of her consciousness of her own freedom there grew up a leniency towards the inner constraint and dependence of others. It is not the patronage of Louisa Kautsky that will have spoken the last word on Rosa Luxemburg “delusion” and “bolshevik methods”. The final word will be uttered by history. We all who take pride in having been Rosa Luxemburg’s friends and comrades in arms await this verdict.

Clara Zetkin (Germany)

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Last updated on 28.2.2004

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/defencerosa.htm (6 of 6) [14-7-2011 20:55:23] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919)

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Klara Zetkin Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919)

First published in English as a pamphlet in Glasgow by Socialist Labour Press in about 1926. Translated by Eden and Cedar Paul. Transcribed by Ted Crawford. [1] Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

In a recent article entitled Democracy versus Dictatorship, Comrade Kautsky opposed the dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry as it has been established in Russia by the bolshevist overthrow of the state authority. He expressed his dissent from the views of those socialists who have contended

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (1 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) that in existing circumstances this dictatorship is historically justified. Substantially Kautsky’s opinions are identical with those recently published by Martoff, a menshevik comrade, in his writing Marx and the Problem of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. My answer to Kautsky’s criticism of the bolsheviks runs as follows:

Bolshevism and the Strong Hand

The use of the strong hand is the essential characteristic of bolshevist activity. This is not ideal, but unavoidable. It may be contrary to the prescriptions of democracy, and yet it subserves the interests of democracy. If, for all who live in Russia, democracy is to become an energy-diffusing socialistic reality, the bolsheviks cannot escape the necessity of sacrificing, as a transient measure, the rights of certain individuals and of certain social groups. That this should happen is an inevitable feature of historic evolution. Democracy is of a twofold nature, being simultaneously means and end of historic evolution. As end or goal of historic evolution it may come into conflict with itself as means of historic evolution. The dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry in Russia bears the insignia of this contradiction. Plaintive voices from Russia, the criticisms uttered by the adversaries of “bolshevism” in other lands, assure us that since the bolsheviks attained to power they have everywhere infringed and sacrificed democratic principles. Democracy, we

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (2 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) are told, has repeatedly been given the go-by: in the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly; in the deprivations of civil rights announced in the soviet constitution; and in the declaration of the mass terror. Doubtless! But without such infringements could the revolution have been saved, could it have been carried a stage further, could the revolutionists have continued to work for socialism, which alone guarantees democracy for all? This is the crucial question, and for me the answer is self-evident, considering the circumstances attendant upon the Russian revolution.

Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly

I hold that the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, far from involving a sacrifice of democracy, made democracy more effective. No doubt that assembly had been elected upon the basis of a democratic suffrage, but the elections had taken place before the bourgeois watchwords and the bourgeois-socialist programme of compromise had lost their allurements for the broad masses of the workers. They had taken place before the decisive historic moment in which the November revolution and the acceptance of the soviet government by the organised workers, peasants, and soldiers, had effectively “condemned as partial and inadequate” the programmes of the two opening phases of the revolution and of the parties that had put these programmes forward. It should be added that, during the opening periods, the economic and social power of the possessing

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (3 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) classes was still sufficient to exercise considerable influence upon the electoral results. The Constituent Assembly could not possibly be regarded as an unfalsified expression of the opinions and the will of the workers. In so far as in Russia we can speak of a popular will, that will was indubitably incorporated in the decisions of the soviets. Was the provisional soviet government to abdicate its real power in favour of the will-o’-the-wisp democracy of the Constituent Assembly? Was the soviet government to entrust the work of revolution to bourgeois hands, to hands that were itching to fetter, nay to strangle, this unruly intruder? Or was power to be handed over to the social revolutionaries, who had proved too weak to protect the revolution? To take such a step would have been no less foolish than criminal.

Revolutionary Wine and Parliamentary Bottles

There is another point to consider. The revolution had not arrested its progress at the goal of a bourgeois revolution. Transcending any such aim, it had revealed the titanic figure of a proletarian revolution, of one aiming at socialistic reorganisation. Had they accepted parliamentarism, the bolsheviks would have accepted an institution which, however important, is of very limited value; an institution which even in times of peaceful evolution has proved obviously inadequate to the needs of the proletarian struggle for emancipation; an institution which,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (4 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) adapted to the requirements of the capitalist order, must necessarily fail to meet the necessities of those whose purpose it is to subvert that order. It is undeniable that the proletariat must derive all the advantage that can be derived from parliamentary institutions. But parliament is one of those state institutions which a victorious proletariat cannot simply take over and use for its own purposes. The new revolutionary wine must not be poured into old bottles. From this outlook, “bolshevism” was assuredly justified in replacing the Constituent Assembly by the soviets, in replacing the activity of a determinative and legislative assembly, by the activity of organisations upon the broadest possible democratic basis, and simultaneously legislative, administrative, and executive.

Proletarian Dictatorship Provisional

It is undeniable that the democracy created by the soviet constitution is incomplete; it is incontestable that thereby large groups of persons are excluded from the suffrage. But the critics seem to forget that these disqualifications are merely provisional, that they will be enforced solely for the period during which the dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry persists and must persist. The constitution leaves no doubt upon this matter. The dissolution of Old Russia, the coming of New Russia, are not yet so far advanced as to enable the soviet government with one stroke of the pen or with a single mighty blow to abolish private ownership of the means of production. In Russia, the knell of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (5 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) private property has not yet sounded, the hour for the expropriation of all expropriators has not yet struck. Minorities still possess economic power and social power, can still use and misuse these powers against the overwhelming majority of the workers. Is political power to be superadded, to enable them to pursue their egoistic aims in defiance of the interests of the community at large? Let us clear our minds of phrases; let us cut loose from formalities; let us cease to reiterate the shibboleth that “the masses have the right and the power” to counteract the anti- social machinations of the possessing minorities. Is it not obvious that, in reality, things will be very different until economic freedom and economic equality shall have endowed the entire nation with spiritual freedom and maturity? Who would not laugh at a military commander so unwise as to send artillery and shells as a gift to the hostile army? Yet the Bolshevists are supposed to have committed a deadly sin in that they refused to arm and equip the reactionary minorities for the struggle against the revolution. This too at the very moment when revolution and counter-revolution were at life-and-death grips; when the counter-revolution was not merely supported by all the reactionary energies of Russia, but was being furnished by the Allied governments with troops, money, and moral support.

Measures of Military Necessity

The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the use of forcible

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (6 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) measures against opponents, the declaration of the mass terror - these are bitter fruits of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry. They must be regarded as measures of military necessity. “A la guerre comme la guerre.” (When you are making war, make war.) The bolshevist leaders of revolutionary Russia are engaged in a war of unparalleled significance. Here the moral and political standards of everyday life fail us. On this colossal stage, individual measures and individual phenomena are dwarfed into insignificance. The drama is one of overwhelming historic import, and it must be accepted or rejected as a whole. Who wills the ends must not shrink from the means. A proletarian revolution aiming at socialism cannot be effected without dictatorship. Above all is this true under existing conditions in Russia.

The Appeal to Marx

The, ungracious critics of our Russian friends do not, indeed, absolutely reject dictatorship on principle. What they take amiss is the character of the dictatorship in Russia. Karl Kautsky endeavours to prove that dictatorship and democracy must go hand in hand. The dictatorship must not sacrifice democratic principles but must realise them. The dictatorship must be an effluence of democracy. It most subserve the will of the majority and the interests of the majority. According to the critics, neither of these requirements is fulfilled in Russia. The small bolshevist minority, we are told, employing brutal and forcible measures.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (7 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) constrains the overwhelming majority of Russians to accept bolshevist policy. This policy, far from safe-guarding the revolution, endangers the revolution; far from advancing socialism, compromises socialism. This is the kernel of the critical onslaughts, which are directed at a mark beyond “bolshevism,” which aim at clarifying, at revising, the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat. We are given chains of logical inferences, attempts at a new outline of the concept of dictatorship, as contrasted with the old theory, which is rejected as “blanquist” or “Jacobin” The arguments are, of course, peppered with appeals to Marx and Engels, and with quotations from these authors. I have carefully read the expositions, but my general outlook upon the question, upon the application of the doctrine to the special case of the Russian revolution, and upon the part played by the bolsheviks in that revolution, remains unchanged. As concerns the contentious questions of our own day, what does it matter whether the historic phenomena which Marx witnessed during his lifetime led him to codify his conception of the dictatorship of the proletariat; what does it matter if, having at first been inclined to a “Jacobin” outlook, he subsequently came rather to adopt an “evolutionist and parliamentarist” view. With all due deference to Comrade Martoff’s wide knowledge of Marxist theory, and to the indisputable acumen with which he applies that theory, we may none the less feel inclined to challenge his deductions, and the way in which he contrasts his interpretation of Marx with the dictatorship exercised by the bolsheviks. But even if we believe http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (8 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) Martoff to be right concerning Marx’s opinions and concerning the applicability of those opinions to the Russian situation, there is one simple fact still to be remembered, and it is that historical evolution was not arrested when the pen fell from Marx’s hand.

The New Capitalism

Since that day, the capitalist economy has not merely grown, but has exhibited entirely new phenomena, phenomena of notable importance. To enumerate a few of these, we have: formation of rings, trusts, and syndicates; the assumption of the premier place in industry by iron and steel products in place of textiles; the revolutionary transformation effected by improvements in electrical technology; the interlacements of industrial capital, commercial capital, and banking capital to constitute financial capital, and the world-wide dominion of the latter, etc. In the home policy and the foreign policy of all the more highly evolved states can be traced the influence of a further developed and maturer capitalism. Although on the surface the amenities of life now seem to have improved, the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie has in reality been intensified. Among the struggling classes we see a medley and a confusion of impulses towards far-reaching settlements and dread of such settlements, of great schemes and little deeds. The dominant classes are increasingly inclined to cling to the fugitive political past. We note the decay of bourgeois parliamentarianism, and its

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (9 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) more and more obvious incapacity to assist the proletarian struggle for freedom towards decisive issues. Above all we are impressed by the mighty expansion of imperialism, with its insatiable thirst for world dominion, with its overgrown armaments, its colonial undertakings and its wars, its extremist policy of exploitation and oppression alike at home and abroad.

Marxism a Progressive Doctrine

Who dares maintain that in face of the developments of the last decades, Marx, an out-and-out revolutionary thinker, would not have modified his conception of the dictatorship of the proletariat in accordance with the teaching of towering facts? If we assume Comrade Martoff to be right as to the theory Marx held more than forty years ago, can we not rest assured that Marx would have revised that theory had he been alive today. To Marx, theory was something greater than a means of elucidating the world; it was a means for transforming the world. But, for this very reason, he never regarded his theories as eternal and immutable truths to which reality must conform; for him, reality always remained the object of research, the thing to be conscientiously investigated, the thing from which his theories were acquired, and in accordance with which his theories must in case of need he modified. I am confident that at this juncture Marx’s conception of the dictatorship of the proletariat would display remarkably little similarity with the meek and lowly ideal, the ideal of those who aim only at harmony and at the co-

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (10 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) operation of all persons of “good will,” the ideal which bashfully simpers at us from the expositions of the adversaries of bolshevism. Marx’s revolutionary intelligence was as keen as a sword; his heart glowed with revolutionary fire; his revolutionary will was hard as steel. Marx was ever a revolutionary fighter, a man of action, and I cannot believe that he would be found to-day among the critics of bolshevism.

On paper “the dictatorship of the proletariat” and “the ideal of complete democracy” may be linked with the simple copula. In the world of reality, it is otherwise. The historic essence of dictatorship is dominion - stark, coercive dominion. Without infringing the rights and interests of minorities, it is as impossible as the quadrature of the circle. The historic justification of the dictatorship of the proletariat lies in this, that the dictatorship is exercised in the interests of the enormous majority of the population, and that it is no more than a means of transition, for it aims at suspending itself, at rendering itself impossible, at realising the ideal of democracy - a free people, in a free land, living by free labour.

The Perdurability of Bolshevism

Our anti-bolsheviks deny that the extant dictatorship in Russia possesses these justifications. They declare that the bolshevik dictatorship is the work of an inconsiderable minority of dogmatists and fanatics who, in the interests of narrow-minded http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (11 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) partisan conceptions and a narrow partisan policy, desire by the brutal exercise of force to constrain the enormous majority of the Russian people to swallow the bolshevist prescriptions now and for the future. Whence do those who hold such views derive the certainty that the bolshevist policy is that of an inconsiderable minority of Russian workers and peasants? In my opinion, the number, the loudness, and the passion of the attacks on the coercive rule of the Bolsheviks should not make us overestimate the extent or the importance of serious hostility to the policy of the soviet government. It is an old experience, and one readily explicable, that, in the struggles of faction, minorities which are greatly outnumbered are apt to display peculiar violence. It is for them a natural need to convince the world that in spite of defeat they have power and are in the right.

Who will deny that many of the workers, numbers of the peasants, and above all most of the intelligentsia, neither share the views nor endorse the policy of the bolsheviks? None the less, a very large proportion, if not the majority, of those proletarians and peasants who take an active interest in political matters, support the bolsheviks, and the same is true of the social revolutionaries of the left. This opinion is confirmed by the fact that those who are, it is alleged, in an infinitesimal minority, though reproached with errors, deeds of violence, breaches of principle, and so on, have retained power for a considerably longer period than that for which the provisional governments of the two opening phases of the revolution hold sway. Moreover,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (12 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) this has taken place under conditions of almost unprecedented difficulty, throughout the terrible ordeal of the peace of Brest- Litovsk, and in face of the ever-present menace of famine. The anti-bolsheviks may say what they please, but the mere use of force cannot account for the perdurability of the soviet government - which has lasted far longer than is usual in time of revolution. No minority whose power rested only upon force could continue in such circumstances and for so long a time to sit on bayonets.

Through Dictatorship to Democracy

The persistence of soviet rule, which, the confident prophets assured us, could not possibly last more than a few weeks, enables us to infer with certainty that this government is supported by the broad masses of the Russian people. The bolsheviks, and the left social revolutionaries who co-operate with them, constitute the stalwart framework of the Russian revolutionary army. Through their readiness for action, through their capacity, they inspire confidence in the masses and rally the masses to their support. The need for dictatorship shows us, indeed, that the number and importance of the opponents of the soviet government must by no means be underestimated. Power must he used to repress power. Our hope is that the dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry will maintain itself long enough to abolish itself when it has fulfilled its function and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (13 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: Through Dictatorship to Democracy (1919) reached its goal. For whereas during the two opening periods of the revolution the path of the governments led from the fine ideal of democracy to the harsh and cruel reality of dictatorship, the path of the soviet dominion will lead from the harsh and cruel reality of dictatorship to the beautiful and realised dream of democracy.

Transcriber’s Note

1. This short pamphlet was translated by Eden and Cedar Paul and published by the Socialist Labour Press, in Glasgow in about 1926 but the pamphlet is not dated and this seems to be the case from internal evidence since it contains a picture of Zetkin taken when she was 69.

The German text seems much earlier - 1919 has been suggested by Einde O’Callaghan

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Last updated on 6.7.2004

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1919/xx/dictdem.htm (14 of 14) [14-7-2011 20:55:41] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920)

MIA > Archive > Zetkin

Clara Zetkin The Situation in Germany (1920)

Source: The Communist International, Vol.2, No.13, 1920. Transcribed: Sally Ryan for marxists.org in August, 2002.

THE military-monarchist mutiny of Kapp-Luttwitz was an inevitable stage of development in the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie under the disguise of democracy and social- democracy; its object was to revive the capitalist regime and to prevent the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat and the realisation of the Soviet order. The National Assembly, the coalition government, as well as the deceptive laws of socialisation and the factory committees had prepared the ground for this mutiny, and the government of Noske collected and armed the requisite fighting detachments. The regime http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (1 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920)

introduced by this government was really the bloody class terror of the bourgeoisie under the mask of democracy. The mutiny cast this mask aside and laid bare the class dictatorship of militarism. Kapp’s partisans are striving for the class dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, under which the junkers and the representatives of the larger industry might play the leading role, and which would be realised in the form of a monarchist power by means of the military apparatus. The partisans of Ebert desire a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie under which the leading and ruling role would be played by the representatives of other branches of industry, of commercial and financial capital, and which would take the form of a bourgeois democracy. The only reliable guarantee of victory over monarchist militarism would be the destruction of the very ground in which it is rooted and which feeds it, and for this purpose a further development of the proletarian revolution is absolutely necessary – the arming of the workers, the disarmament of the well-to-do classes, and consequently, a radical extermination of the newly reviving militarism, which has been so fondly cultivated by Noske. The government of the bourgeois and the Socialists of the majority were afraid to take this course. It was aware that by this means it would break the sword which defends and supports the class power of the capitalists, and at the same time it would help to arm the mortal enemy of this class power for a deadly blow ...

Occupying the standpoint of political collaboration between the exploited and the exploiters, and considering it its duty to protect

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (2 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) the bourgeois order and bourgeois property, this government would be fated to merely a senseless and pusillanimous marking of time; It is understood, however, that only the proletariat alone is in a position to overthrow the military-monarchist clique and to defend successfully the so-called “achievements of the revolution” and the revolution itself. But for this government the “achievements of the revolution” consisted of ministers’ portfolios, government positions for its Party adherents and for its political clients. By means of a martial law, arrests, censorship, courtmartials, general conscription, corps of volunteers, etc:, it reduced these achievements to a lower level than that of the ordinary bourgeois-democratic liberty and, by closing series of railway-workshops, and introducing compulsory voluntary piece-work, and by organising of a ‘Technical Emergency Aid’ (Technische Nothilfe) and by the laws on Labour councils, and the shooting of strikers, it again enforced the almost tottering capitalistic front.

Not for the sake of the revolution, but exclusively for the prolongation of their own ministerial well-being did Ebert and Noske call the proletariat to a general strike which they but the day before had condemned as the basest of crimes against the German nation. The idea of arming the proletariat awoke a feeling of mortal terror in their hearts. They knew perfectly well that the armed proletariat, once roused to the defense of the revolution and the republic, would not stop at the attainment of its nearest object – rendering harmless of the Kapps and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (3 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) Luttwitzes; that its movement would inevitably pass into a struggle against capitalism and against the coalition government, existing only, thanks to the bourgeoisie, and defending the latter’s interests. And thus, on the first day of the crisis it became evident that the Government having nothing against being saved by the workers on strike, was totally averse to allowing the armed workers to become carried away by the struggle for Socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Its flight from Berlin under cover of the motto, “In a civil war not a single drop of blood should be shed”, had a symptomatic meaning. But its motto was sharply contradicted by the relentlessly harsh measures with which the Ebertists, in no wise stopped by the bloody civil war, mercilessly, put down by means of guns and machine guns all revolutionary attempts of the proletariat. This flight only served to prove the fact that the Government was willing to enter into an agreement with the mutinous imperialists and that all the bourgeois democrats, with the exception of a small group of no influence at all, were in their secret hearts passionately desirous of uniting with the restored militarist power for the oppression of the proletariat. It became evident also that the protection of the bourgeois property was much, more important for these gentlemen than the much lauded welfare of the bourgeois democracy, to the defense of which the coalition Party called them.

In this way the proletariat found itself compelled to enter into the fight against the militarist counter revolution without deceiving

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (4 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) itself by any illusions in regard to the general situation or the intentions of its to enter into the fight against the militarist counter revolution without deceiving itself by any illusions in regard to the general situation of the intentions of its enemies, but inspired only by the clear consciousness of its historical mission and class interests, which demanded the further development of the revolution. The proletarian masses felt and understood that they ought to put down militarism in order to wrench this weapon out of the hands of the capitalist exploiters who were defending the class rule of the bourgeoisie that by means of the disarmament of the state militia, the provisional army of volunteers, the civil and citizen militia, in a word by means of a complete disarmament of the well-to-do classes and the arming of the workers, they would acquire a position strong enough to make it a base for the seizure of the political power. Without the arming of the workers no realisation of the Soviet order, no dictatorship of the proletariat could be possible. Such was the general conviction of all the representatives of the advance guard of the proletariat, and now the masses became convinced of this as well. And another fact became clear to the masses: neither the Government nor the bourgeois democracy could realise these demands for the disarmament of the bourgeoisie and the arming of the workers. This must be accomplished by the proletariat itself. Political Workers’ Councils and Fighting Committees arose which became the organisers and leaders of the new struggle.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (5 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) In a grand impulse, and with heroic courage, the workers everywhere rushed to the fight. A general strike passed over the whole country. Even the technical personnel, the shop employees and the government officials were caught by the general wave. The railwaymen, the employees of the street-car traffic, the post and telegraph workers stopped work. Enormous agricultural strikes took place. It is true also that for some categories of the proletariat – and first of all for the employees and officials – the inducements to participate in the strike were mottoes of the majority Social Democrats and the Democrats, namely: for the Republic, for democracy, for the Constitution, against the restoration of the Monarchy. But it is also without doubt that the wider circles of the masses did not enter the strike in favour of the bourgeois order. Their motto was: “Down with Kapp and Hindenburg, and with Bauer and Ebert; down with both Luttwitz and Noske”. The masses understood clearly that it was not the bourgeois democracy, nor the harmonious political “collaboration” of the exploited and the exploiters; that should be the object of their struggle, but that this object, both in the present and in the future, must be the establishment of a proletariat class-dictatorship. They in nowise deceived themselves as to the fact that this aim cannot yet be the concrete object of the struggle at the given historical moment. At the present moment they had only to see about the enforcement and strengthening of the proletarian position for the conquest of the government.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (6 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) The strike was carried on everywhere under the motto of the disarmament of the bourgeoisie and the arming of the workers. To this were added the demands for the immediate liberation of all condemned or detained revolutionists, for the immediate cessation of all pending lawsuits against the fighters for the revolution, for the cessation of martial law, the suppression of censorship; etc. Notwithstanding the diversity of the fighting mottoes, proclaimed by the various socialist parties and labour organisations, the proletarian masses formed one common battle- front; they were united not by resolutions written on paper, or formulas invented by the leaders, they were closely welded by the process of the revolutionary action brought about by the experience of the consciousness of their class position. This remarkable fact was slightly shadowed and concealed by the participation in the strike of followers of the Social Democratic Majority Party and the mottoes of the labour bureaucracy. The social patriot leaders consciously tried to mask and conceal the importance of the single front. But, notwithstanding all their efforts or in spite of them, the above fact exercised a great influence on the consciousness of the proletarian masses, who partly mentally, partly by intuition, comprehended all its significance.

During this crisis the importance of the line of the Main, as a social-political frontier, became evident. It was not accidental that the Ebert government fled to Stuttgart. The government found here a defense against the counterrevolution from the right

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (7 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) and against the still threatening danger of a revolution from the left, not in a few thousands of militaristically inclined state militia, but in the public safety militia and a militia of citizens, consisting of students, sons of bourgeois, petty bourgeois, peasants fighting on their own account, defending democracy against the attempts of “Bolshevism”. It was perfectly clear that, as the Marxists had always affirmed, at the given stage of social development, the political democracy of South Germany is a result of economical backwardness, not political progress.

Notwithstanding the class consciousness and courage evinced by the Communist Party in Wurtemberg, which boldly raised the banner of proletarian revolt in South Germany the influence of the badly developed industry and class distinctions, and the absence of proletarian masses welded together by the consciousness of their numbers and their force, made itself felt in the course of the revolution, owing to the existence of wide stratifications, of petty-bourgeoisie and peasantry. It is even possible that during the coming revolutionary fights the province lying south of the line of the Main will play the role of a “Democratic Vendee”, in which will be revived, mutatis mutandis, the idea of “the Rhine League”, the whole force of the movement being directed against the revolutionary proletariat of the industrial north.

It was sufficient for the giant proletariat to declare a strike and the phantom of the mutinous Kapp-Luttwitz government

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (8 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) dispersed like smoke. The decisive role was played not only by the universality of the strike, but the unexampled staunchness and solidarity with which the strike was carried out at Berlin. But, although Kapp and Luttwitz were soon driven away, there are Kapps and Luttwitzes still in Germany. It has not been possible to annihilate militarism completely, because the bourgeoisie, desirous of retaining its own power, cannot dispense with its services. It was not possible either to obtain the disarmament of the bourgeois counter revolution, or the arming of the workers, with the exception of such places where the proletariat had seized the arms, dispersed all the state militia, and disarmed the public guards, the civil and citizen militia and the provisional volunteers. It was thus in Central Germany, namely in Thuringen, some parts of Saxony, the Rhine-Westphalian Region, where numerous closely-welded masses of industrial workers are concentrated. They are numerous here, and conscious of their own power; and here the industrial proletariat taught by experience, is free of all illusions regarding bourgeois democracy end coalition-government. “The revolution” passed quietly here without bloodshed and even without “violence” in such places where (as in Chemnitz and the mining region) the proletariat was led by, the well-organised Communist Party, clearly cognisant of its aims and the paths leading towards them. In Thuringen, in Leipzig and in the Central Germany, in the brown coal region, the revolution after a stubborn defense on the part of the proletariat, ended in a regime of white terror. This was due to the open or scarcely concealed treachery of the Social-Democratic majority http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (9 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) and the labour union bureaucracy, and not without fault were the leaders of the Independent Socialist Party, who with religious fanaticism remained faithful to the old mistakes of the Party: not having any clear tactics, they fluctuated all the time between refusal to fight and breaking out into attempts, they entered into negotiations at the very moment when it was necessary to act, and thus weakened the effect of the onslaught and paralyzed the energy of the fighters.

Nevertheless the crisis in general ended in the victory of the revolutionary workers. After the collapse of the government of Kapp-Luttwitz, that of Bauer-Noske fell, too. Undoubtedly this was not much of a success. The men who stood at the helm of the government, playing the part of puppets in the hands of the ruling bourgeoisie, were replaced by others, while the programme of the government and the whole system of the bourgeois class order remained the same. The state chancellor Muller is continuing the work of Bauer. For the protection and further glorification of the bourgeois and exploiters’ regime based on capitalistic property, he is continuing to oppress, deceive and shoot down the workers. Noske is not there but “Noskeism” still continues to exist, and triumphant white terror is flourishing. The fault of all this lies first of all in the criminal mode of action of the labour union bureaucracy, which with the social traitor Legien at its head, has managed by its speeches to deceive the workers to such an extent that they were satisfied with the verbal promises of the government to carry out the nine most modest

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (10 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) demands put forward by the labour unions and even still more reduced in the course of the negotiation. These gentlemen beat the retreat demanding the ending of the strike, which had not had time to attain its fullest development.

This result was also the fault of the leaders of the Right Wing of the Independent Socialist Party, who had bound indissolubly the fate of the activity of the Party with the activity of the labour union bureaucracy and the Social-Democratic majority; and, moreover, the fault lay in the weakness of the revolutionary consciousness and lack of energy of the “Left” leaders of the Independent Socialists, who had not been able to withstand the Hilferdings and Crispiens. But, nevertheless, in the same way as falsehood is a covert acknowledgement of the superiority of virtue over vice, the change of government bears witness to the recognition of growing might of the proletariat, a concession to its force. In the depths of the capitalistic society a certain heave has taken place in the mutual relations between the class forces struggling against each other for the power, a heave which is showing its cracks and splits in the external political covering. The social order has not fallen to pieces yet, but the threatening premonitory cracks are to be heard.

The enforcement of the power of the bourgeois democracy and the formation of a new coalition government are but fleeting successes purchased at the price of a submission to militarism. The outbreak of the revolutionary proletariat has joined in a

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (11 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) political union the bourgeois democracy and the militarist- monarchist conspirators. They have extended a brotherly hand to each other, frightened by the common danger of a proletarian dictatorship. The merging of all the counter revolutionary elements into one mass inimically inclined towards the working class is an open fact. This mass does not include only a certain insignificant minority of bourgeois democrats preaching the necessity of a struggle against the danger from the “Right” and insisting on the necessity of concessions and compromises in respect to the “Left” the organ of this group is the Frankfurter Zeitung; the same must be said of several circles of small peasants, employees and soon, who are manifesting an inclination to flirt with “nationalistic Bolshevism”. The motto of the democrats in general now is not the struggle against militarism but rather a joint struggle with militarists against “Bolshevism”. This course of development which led to a counter revolutionary, denouement must sooner or later end in the fall of the bourgeois democracy. It is undermining the latter’s bases, destroying the last illusions, annihilating the blind confidence on the part of the workers, rendering the class struggle more acute and directing it towards its historically inevitable end.

At the other pole of the social order a colossal consolidation of forces has also taken place. Since the time of the revolutionary fights in 1919 the process of the deepening of the revolutionary self-consciousness and solidarity of the proletariat has progressed enormously. The revolutionary will, fighting capacity,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (12 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) and readiness for self-sacrifice are growing in the working masses together with the revolutionary consciousness. The tactics and strategy of the masses have become firmer and more definite; their estimation of the mutual relations between the conflicting forces more accurate; their vision has become clearer in regard to the distinction between the constant object of the fight and its temporary aims; they are recognising more thoroughly the necessity of solidarity, simultaneousness in all actions and demonstrations. The experiences of the revolutionary period have taught the proletariat as a whole very much. The force of revolutionary tradition acquired in the fights of last year is showing itself now in practice. The revolutionary advance guard of the working class has gained considerably as to numbers, consciousness, and the force of its decisive influence on the wider masses. This may be explained not only by the great and profitable lessons given by events, but to a considerable degree also by the agitation and the whole activity of the Communist Party, which was spread not only over the members of the Party but on such proletarian masses as well, that had up to then been standing apart from the proletarian class struggle, as, for instance, the numerous adherents of the Independent Social Democratic Party and especially its Left Wing. Owing to the last fights the proletariat has acquired a greater consciousness of its own forces; it has come out of them with a clearer understanding how to find support for its forces only in self-armament, of the necessity of having its own revolutionary fighting organisations, the Workers’ Councils, in order to realise such arming. To http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (13 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) preserve the Workers’ Councils which have arisen during the struggle and for the struggle, to breathe life into them, to make them capable of fighting by means of revolutionary demonstrations and not by means of dead formulas, is one of the most important tasks of the revolutionary advance guard. In accomplishing this task the advance guard must direct the forward-rushing revolutionary life of the present historical moment and even accelerate its pace still more. The struggle of the present period will in all probability acquire other forms during the forthcoming elections, which will not then be the traditional parliamentary elections in the generally accepted sense of the word, but they will be revolutionary elections.

It is possible, even, that the Reichstag will be elected only to be dissolved, dispersed ...

How far the course of events will modify the political situation in the Rhine-Westphalian province we cannot as yet foresee, because of the indefiniteness and inaccuracy of the information arriving from there. Up to now, evidently, the struggle between the bourgeois and the proletariat has been not only of a more obdurate and wider nature, but it differed also as to its inner purport. In this struggle the new coalition government existing, thanks to Legien and with the blessing of the labour unions, has manifested all its dishonesty and falsehood. It entered into agreements in Bielefeld and Munster only for the purpose of violating them. The object of these agreements was to postpone

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (14 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) the struggle to gain time to the end of the Easter holidays in the hope that it would be impossible to bring the workers who had gone home for the holidays again together for the renewal of the struggle. At the same time the new coalition government demonstrated a readiness to serve the interests of the capitalists with a blind fury and shortsighted zeal. It provoked the demonstrations of the French at Frankfurt and Darmstadt, by sending its white guard into the neutral zone for the pacification of the workers.

How will the struggle end? This depends not on the degree of wisdom of the government which consists of social-patriots, representatives of the centre and the Democrats, nor on the intensity of the friction going on inside it. The result of the struggle does not depend upon the fierce character of the military reprisals, which the government will apply for the defense of the magnates of capital and the bourgeois order. It will depend exclusively on the class consciousness, readiness for self-sacrifice and revolutionary will which will be manifested by the proletariat of the whole of Germany in defending the cause for which their brothers in the Rhine-Westphalian province are fighting with such heroism and the courage of despair. They may conquer, they may acquire a very strong position in the struggle for political power if they will wish this, if they will act. Have the revolutionary consciousness and revolutionary will of the German proletariat attained such a height that it will venture immediately after the great fights just ended to try its forces in

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (15 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Clara Zetkin: The Situation in Germany (1920) this new grandiose warfare? ...

This is the fatal question, the answer to which can be given only by the proletariat itself.

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/xx/germany.htm (16 of 16) [14-7-2011 20:55:51] Communist Unity Convention: Fraternal Greetings from Clara Zetkin

Clara Zetkin Fraternal Greetings from Clara Zetkin

Source: Communist Unity Convention: Official Report Date: September 1920 Publisher: Communist Party of Great Britain Transcription/Markup: Brian Reid Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2006). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

Dear Comrades,—

To our thanks for your kind invitation we join our congratulations on the progress achieved in bringing about this very important Congress. We are sorry not to be able to send a fraternal delegate, but the political situation is so loaded up with the elements of conflicts, above all is so rich in tasks and duties which are imposed on us by the struggle in which we are engaged, that the Party cannot spare anyone for any length of time, at least, for the present.

Yet, dear comrades, we are aware of the very great importance of your Congress, which is to give to the growing revolutionary movement of the British working class a leading Communist Party, whose force will be unity of action, based on and guaranteed by a unity of principle, http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/subject/unity_convention/zetkin.htm (1 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:56:09] Communist Unity Convention: Fraternal Greetings from Clara Zetkin

tactics and organisation. Such a Party will have the consciousness and the power to use all weapons in the hands of the proletariat—parliamentarism included—as revolutionary means for the revolutionary aim, overthrowing capitalist order and building up Communism by Soviet order. And it will largely contribute to bring the Communists into the closest touch and connection with the labouring masses themselves. This Party will realise the revolutionary actions of the labouring masses and can never share the childish ambition to replace such actions by revolutionary trifling. The international political situation makes most urgent the international revolutionary collaboration of Communists in all countries. The Entente Imperialists continue their criminal efforts to crush Communist Soviet Russia by all means. For this purpose they now sustain and arm the rapacious Polish Imperialism. At Spa the counter-revolutionaries of the victorious Entente and of vanquished Germany have come to a fraternal understanding in order to disarm and kill the proletarian revolution in Germany and to re-establish the weakened and crumbling capitalist system by aggravating the exploitation and servitude of the working class people. Against international capitalism and international counter- revolution—international Communism, the Third International, the world revolution. We are quite sure the British Communist Party will be a very strong force in the struggle, while the Third International will have to fight against the counter-revolution all over the world and not least against the Capitalists and Imperialists of Great Britain.

Dear comrades, we trust in the good solid work which the Congress will achieve in this respect. We know by hard experience how great the

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difficulties are which confront those who wish to constitute a Communist Party, united in principles and tactics. But we have learned to deal with those difficulties and to overcome them. All our Party’s discussions and splits have served to increase the consciousness and power of the Party. We are convinced you will have the same experience. By fighting confusions and illusions we arrived at clearness and strength and succeeded in becoming all the more powerful against our national and international foes.

Our most hearty wishes for the work of the Congress, for the development of the young British Communist Party.

We are, dear friends and comrades, with you in your efforts, with the fighting proletarian class of Great Britain, with the exploited and struggling wage-slaves in all countries. For the world revolution!

Sincerely yours, For the Communist Party of Germany, (by order) CLARA ZETKIN.

Clara Zetkin Archive Unity Convention Main Page| Communist Party Great Britain

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/subject/unity_convention/zetkin.htm (3 of 3) [14-7-2011 20:56:09] The Struggle Against New Imperialistic Wars

Clara Zetkin The Struggle Against New Imperialistic Wars

Source: The Communist Review, July 1922, Vol. 3, No. 3. Publisher: Communist Party of Great Britain Transcription/Markup: Brian Reid Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2006). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

WHEN the last war broke out, when the Powers were flying at each other’s throats, they all came to the conclusion that that must be the last war. The battle cry was that it was the war to end wars, to make it absolutely the last war. Two years have passed since peace was declared, and what do we see? We are now as near to war as we have ever been before. Preparations for war are visible the world over. Conditions are more dangerous than they were in 1914. The war danger still exists. The conditions that led to the great slaughter are still in existence. The balance of power has been shifted, but the war has not solved the original problem that led up to it. On the contrary, alongside of the antagonisms which led up to the war, new antagonisms have developed and sharpened. Colonial opposition to the mother countries

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grows. Russia was excluded from the world economic and political systems. Now the powers are considering what specific stand they must take towards Russia, and are fighting each other about it. Smaller states have developed. The former Austrian empire has brought forth a number of smaller states, such as Czecho-Slovakia and Jugo-Slavia. Border states, like Latvia, Esthonia, etc., have risen. The original cause of the war was not due to the antagonisms between France and Germany, but was a clash between England and Germany. The struggle was for world power, but German Imperialism is destroyed, its militarism is defeated, and still the antagonisms between England and Germany exist. France tries to save itself from bankruptcy by squeezing Germany like a lemon. Germany is impoverished. It can save France from bankruptcy. England won the war, but England has been a country manufacturing finished products in great quantities and Germany was one of its greatest markets. Now England finds German markets closed to it, because Germany is pauperised. On the other hand, in order to pay the indemnities required of it, Germany must export its products extensively, and must consequently compete with English products. The present condition in Germany, through the sinking of the mark, has made Germany the bargain counter of the world. Germany is trying to sell everything, machinery as well as finished products. The German capitalists would sell the moon and stars if they could get at them. They are selling their land to foreign capitalists. After all, the German bargain sales mean nothing but dirty competition, that is, unfair competition with the products of other countries, because the German worker is the most exploited worker in the world. The products thrown on the market by Germany are produced by absolute exploitation. The German http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comint...in/periodicals/communist_review/1922/03/imp_wars.htm (2 of 11) [14-7-2011 20:57:31] The Struggle Against New Imperialistic Wars

working class is under paid as no other working class is underpaid. The German worker is at a lower stage of payment than the coolie of Japan. He gets eight times less than the English workers, and it is impossible for other countries, despite their tariffs, to prevent German goods from coming in and still selling at a tremendous profit. England did not gain anything by its victory, but French militarism has been strengthened. Before the war France was a nation of bankers. Now, after the war, industrial capital has developed in France. It is no longer a place where luxuries are produced; it is also producing iron and steel wares. Through the war it got hold of the great iron deposits of Lorraine, and got the German coal basins near to its doors. Germany, through the coal indemnity it has to pay, has influenced the development of industrial production in France. This is also a reason why France wants to get hold of the Ruhr district for the sake of the coal on the other side of the Rhine. England, of course, is against that; it knows that if the deposits of ore that France possesses were reinforced by the possession of such additional coal deposits, France would become a very dangerous industrial competitor. France has extended its political influence. It has created a new form of vassals in Jugo-Slavia, Poland and the Little Entente, etc. Through this influence it has also got connections with the coal and oil resources of Roumania and the Balkan States. It can also block England’s way from Europe to Asia Minor and to the lower Balkan states. France is also in a stronger position than England in another respect. Its colonies are so close that they are of great importance and benefit to the militaristic designs of the French capitalists. The Angora Treaty that France signed with the Young Turks has strengthened France in Asia Minor just where England is weakest. http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comint...in/periodicals/communist_review/1922/03/imp_wars.htm (3 of 11) [14-7-2011 20:57:31] The Struggle Against New Imperialistic Wars

The German Government has always speculated upon the antagonism between England and France. When the Upper Silesian question was under discussion, Germany thought that England would prevent the division of Upper Silesia. It thought that the antagonism would prevent Poland from getting these deposits. But the German Government did not see the real factors. Germany, after all, is only an object in any dispute that exists between England and France. The real question with England lies in the route to India, in the control of the direct route that England must have to India. At the present moment the control of Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, Egypt, and independent Arabia—nominally independent, but in reality under the supervision of England—still guarantees such a route. And it is over this that the real conflict may come.

Another product of the war was the fact that England, which had been capitalistically and politically in the forefront of worldpower, has been pushed back by America. America exploited the war to its greatest advantage. Its industries have intensified and extended. It has organised production on a very large scale, and it is significant that much of this organisational work was done by German engineers, etc., which proves that capitalism knows no country. Formerly America was known as an exporter of raw products, steel and food products. Now it is extensively exporting finished products. During the war it conquered the home and South American markets. It has now extended its raw products to Europe. Even the coal market was conquered by America, although it was England’s coal that won for her her great position. Lately England has got back her coal supremacy. The President of America had to ask

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the United States railway companies to reduce the rates for coal transport, to enable the American mineowners to compete against English coal. Another source of antagonism between America and England is oil. Oil is superior to coal as fuel. Is is easier to transport, and gives quicker results. It has become important, especially for war vessels and for ships generally. America controls about 70 per cent. of the oil production. England wants to get the Baku and the Mesopotamian oil wells, A steady stream of gold has found its way to America since the war, and even more so at the present moment than before.

Another source of antagonism between England and France is China. China has about one-third of the population of the world. Her peoples have been trained for centuries to be subservient and willing workers. These workers can give unlimited profits to capitalists. The United States is trying to conquer China by so-called peaceful penetration, but still in this effort it comes into conflict with England and Japan. Japanese capitalism developed more during the war than even American capitalism. Japanese capitalism has developed the militaristic side of capitalism more than any other country. The apparent parliamentarianism that exists in Japan is still ruled by cliques and castes. They have built such a military system in Japan that it is just to say that Japan is the Prussia of the Far East. It combines the features of the highest developed capitalist State with the highest developed military features of an Imperial State. Japan wants to get certain strongholds in the Pacific Ocean. It might appear that the attempt to get these would be a course of war, but that is not so. The cause of war in

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the Far East is in China itself. Japan was successful in taking hold of a large part of China during the war. It got the province of Shantung, and also that part that was controlled by Germany, Kiao-Chow. England did not oppose the Japanese occupation of these places, because she was entrenched in the South of China. She controls there the production, which has developed, to a certain degree, in a European manner. England looked at the Japanese occupation with no tearful eye. A conflict will sooner or later break out between Japan and England. Antagonism will increase between Japan and America, and any such antagonism will benefit England.

England is somewhat hampered by its over-sea dominions. These, at the last Imperial Conference, demanded their say on the foreign policy of England. As far as the Dominions are concerned, they are not at all completely in agreement with English foreign policy. South-Africa has very little interest in shedding its blood in a conflict that England may be embroiled in over America and Japan. Australia has many more points of connection, politically and economically, with America than it has with England, especially regarding Japan. Australia would not want to go to war against America if she attacks Japan. The chances are that all these oppositions that arise, even between the Dominions and England, will lead sooner or later to a complete separation of these dominions from the mother country. England is also hampered by the rebellion that is taking place in all its colonies. For instance, the revolt in Ireland was very much supported by America, by official America, as well as by the Irish in America. The position of Ireland as a friend of America would greatly improve the chances of America in a war with

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England.

The Egyptian revolution is of exceptional importance to England. With the penetration of Asia-Minor by France, England is more and more compelled to look upon the Suez Canal as its most important connection with India. If it loses its hold on Egypt, the fate of the Suez Canal would become problematical. India has been for forty years in a state of ferment. England has tried both to crush this rebellion and to bribe it. It has used both the whip and sugar in dealing with it. But still it has not succeeded in crushing it. It is a revolution of the Mohammedan world, as well as a national revolution, and these elements are reinforced with a growing class-struggle. In Madras and Bombay, in all the States of India where there are industries, great strikes are constantly taking place, and the class struggle becomes more intense every day. The rebellions that have appeared in all the colonial countries have been greatly influenced by the world war. It is true that the world war has decreased the influence of the white races, or the respect that the coloured races have had for them. But the rebellion has been even more influenced by the Russian revolution which has inspired the colonial peoples with the rebellious spirit.

All these antagonisms among the capitalist countries are tending towards a conflict, but all these countries, despite their opposition to each other, find a point of contact in a struggle against Soviet Russia. Russia has inspired the Eastern peoples against Europe. Soviet Russia is obnoxious to the capitalist world. It is a perpetual reminder to the capitalists that their days are numbered. Russia has proved to them that

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the day will come when they will disappear from the earth. The capitalists are afraid, and for this reason they are everywhere trying their best to crush Russia. France has spent a billion francs to bring this about. It is using its influence with the Little Entente and with Poland for the purpose of using these powers in an eventual attack on Russia. Even the neutrality of Germany in such a struggle is only a myth. At best its neutrality would be only a preparation for war against Russia. It is quite certain that it would turn against Russia despite any treaty entered into between the two countries.

The neutrality of Germany is no safeguard for Russia. Its only safeguard would be the revolutionary integrity of the German proletariat, which would prevent Germany from taking part in any war against Russia, and would prevent France from using Germany against Russia.

The world is still in arms. In 1914 there were 7,000,000 in the armies. In 1922 there are 11,000,000 under arms. If one considers that the German army has been completely disbanded, with the exception of about 100,000 reichswehr, and the Austrian army is practically eliminated, still there is an increase of 4,000,000 in the armies of imperialism. France has nearly 1,000,000 men in the army. It is costing five billion francs per annum. The social institutions of France, the laws for social insurance, etc., are only given one and a-half billions. France was a creditor to the amount of 50 billion francs. Now there is a deficit of 35 billion francs against her. France owes this sum to other nations.

England spends a large percentage of her income on the fleet. The http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comint...in/periodicals/communist_review/1922/03/imp_wars.htm (8 of 11) [14-7-2011 20:57:31] The Struggle Against New Imperialistic Wars

Geddes Commission was formed for the purpose of finding ways and means of economising the national household. There is a conflict now because that commission submitted a report which demanded a reduction of the army to the number of 75,000 and a reduction of the naval forces to the number of 50,000, and the unification of the ministries of the air and the army and other measures.

The world war did not solve the antagonisms and the problems which brought it about. It did not end with the Peace of Versailles. It can only end with the proletarian revolution. The proletariat is exploited more than ever before. In England six and one-third millions of wage earners have had their wages decreased since the peace was declared, while only 130,000 have gained increases. The only right of existence that capitalism ever had was that it developed the forces of production. But capitalism itself now limits the further development of industry. It is slacking the forces of production, and therefore it has no more right to exist; its historic mission has ended. This impossibility of capitalism to develop its own productive forces further is increasing, and will intensify the existing antagonisms which are increasing the danger of the conflict.

The danger of war is increasing rather than decreasing. But even among the bourgeoisie there is opposition to war. Commercial capital cannot find its markets in other countries without first sending armies to these countries, but financial capital can exploit its forces only through the political dominance in the countries in which it invests its money, and this can only be got by military conquests, and therefore the policy of

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the governments is for war all the time. War shows the crisis of capitalism. As war becomes a permanent institution, it exposes the critical character of the position in which capitalism finds itself, and this proves the necessity for the abolition of the present ruling powers and the creation of a new society. The Washington Conference for England, America, and Japan only resulted in a weak treaty which says that if a conflict arises, all these powers will cony together to discuss it. The Conference resulted in nothing. They want to scrap some battleships and not build any more for the next ten years. This is the only result of the Washington Conference. Big battleships are worth nothing in view of the development of new instruments of murder. England would recognise Russia, but France is refusing to do this. Russia, of course, does not need to be recognised. Its very existence is proof enough that it does not need a paper recognition. It is forced, no doubt, to make certain concessions through its position. The capitalists are using this position to try to make Russia a dependency, but the Red Army will see that capital is only an instrument for the development of Soviet Russia.

Pacificism, too, must be fought by our comrades. We must not permit the idea of pacificism to be used against the Red Army. The working class must get all the means of life into its hands, and this must be preceded by getting the means of death out of the hands of the capitalist class. This is only to be got by struggle. The class struggle alone can be a struggle against war. Pacificism is not a struggle against war. In France pacificism grows because the country has lost about 2,000,000 of its population since 1914. Even counting the new population gained by the acquisition of Alsace-Lorraine, the population of France is

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500,000 less than it was in 1911. The peasantry which adheres to the two children system, is against war because it sees its sons used for militarist purposes. So pacificism is growing in France. We may be glad to note that pacificism exists among certain sections of the capitalist class, but we must not allow Pacificism to exist in our own ranks in a struggle against war. We must agitate among the soldiers, so that when they are called to war they shall know what to do. The whole policy of the Communist International must be to mobilise the working class against war. The Genoa Conference ought to have had a brother conference for a mobilisation of the working class. Genoa had only one object—the reconstruction of capitalism at the expense of the working class. We must reconstruct the working class state at the expense of capitalism. Capitalism is doomed. Our struggle and our tactics must be directed towards the great goal, to organise the powers of the workers; to inspire them for the struggle and to develop it, so that when capitalism calls again for war the working class of the world can answer with a call for world revolution.

Zetkin Archive| Communist Review

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comint...in/periodicals/communist_review/1922/03/imp_wars.htm (11 of 11) [14-7-2011 20:57:31] Clara Zetkin: Organising Working Women (November 1922)

MIA > Archive > Zetkin

Clara Zetkin Organising Working Women (November 1922)

Source: International Socialism (1st series), No.96, March 1977, pp.22-24. Transcription & HTML Markup: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive. Public Domain: Marxists’ Internet Archive (2008). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/women.htm (1 of 12) [14-7-2011 20:57:40] Clara Zetkin: Organising Working Women (November 1922)

The following extracts are taken from the speech Clara Zetkin made to the Fourth Congress of the Communist International in November 1922. At the time she was the German representative on the Executive Committee of the International, and General Secretary of the International Women’s Secretariat.

The Fourth Congress took place at a time of retrenchment in the face of attacks from the employing class, after the defeat of the revolutionary wave that swept Europe at the end of the first world war. The United Front and mass work were now the strategies that were necessary.

Although the historical circumstances are very different today, the arguments Zetkin raises are still valid because the question of how to reach and organise working class women is once again on the agenda.

The forty years from the early 1920’s to the 1960’s saw the almost complete suppression of revolutionary socialist ideas. In the atmosphere created by Stalinism the ideas of fighting for an end to women’s oppression and actively seeking to organise women had no place. Only with the outbursts of 1968, the explosion of the student movement, and the enormous possibilities that opened up for revolutionary organisations, did the women’s movement begin to develop again. Most revolutionary socialists shied away from the debate. They argued against involvement in the women’s movement, seeing it as middle-class rather than developing a strategy for intervening in it and organising among working-class women. Now women are in the front line of attack in the economic crisis. And with thousands of women angry at the prospect of unemployment, being denied equal pay and equal jobs, demonstrating in huge numbers against the cuts and closures, socialists have to find a way of pulling them towards revolutionary ideas. Something is inevitably lost in shortening an extremely long speech. But the substance of the argument is here. The central argument which Clara Zetkin raised is as relevant today as it was in 1922.

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Comrades, before I begin my report on the activities of the International Women’s Secretariat and the development of Communist activity among women, allow me a few short remarks. They are necessary because our work is still misunderstood not only by our opponents but even by our own comrades. This is with some the remains of an old view, and with others it is wilful prejudice because they do not sympathise with our cause, and even partly oppose it.

The International Women’s Secretariat is a branch of the Executive of the Comintern. It conducts its activity not only in constant cooperation with the Executive, but under its immediate leadership. What we usually designate the Communist Women’s Movement is not an independent women’s movement. It exists for systematic Communist propaganda among women. This has a double purpose: First, to incorporate within the national sections of the Comintern those women who are already filled with the Communist ideal, making them conscious co-workers in the activity of those sections. Second, to win over to the Communist ideal the indifferent women and draw them into the struggles of the proletariat. The masses of working women should be mobilised for these fights. There is no work in the Party, no struggle of the movement in any country in which we women do not regard it as our first duty to participate. Moreover, we desire to take our place in the Communist Parties and in the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/women.htm (3 of 12) [14-7-2011 20:57:40] Clara Zetkin: Organising Working Women (November 1922) International where the work is hardest and the bullets fly thickest, without shunning the most menial, most modest every- day work.

One thing has become apparent; we require special organs to carry on the Communist work of organisation and education among women and to make it a part of the life of the Party. Communist agitation among women is not only a women’s task, it is the task of the whole Communist Party of each country, of the Communist International. To accomplish our purpose it is necessary to set up party organs, Women’s Secretariats, Women’s Departments, or whatever we may call them, to carry on this work.

Of course we do not deny the possibility that some strong personality, man or woman, might be able to do the same work in some local or district organisation, But however much we may admit such individual accomplishments in the Party, we must ask ourselves how much greater the benefits would have been if instead of the work of a single individual we had the co-operation of many forces. United action by many towards a common goal must be our slogan in the Party, in the International, and in our work with women.

As a matter of expediency, of practical division of labour, women are usually the best fitted to take part in the special organs for Communist work among women. We cannot escape the fact that the large masses of the women live and work to-day under special http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/women.htm (4 of 12) [14-7-2011 20:57:40] Clara Zetkin: Organising Working Women (November 1922)

conditions. That is why, in general, women usually find the best and quickest method of approach to the working woman to begin Communist propaganda. Just as we Communist women consider it as our right and duty to take part in every activity in the Party – from the most modest work of distributing leaflets to the final, tremendous, decisive fight – just as we would regard it as an insult to be considered unworthy of taking part in the great historical life of the Party and the Communist International, so do we not exclude any man from taking part in the special Communist work among women.

During the last year we have had evidence of the good and the bad sides of Communist work among women. We have seen the good sides in those countries where the Communist sections of the International have created bodies, as in Bulgaria and Germany where the Women’s Secretariats have carried on the work of organising the educating the women Communists, mobilising the working women, and led them into the social struggle. In those countries, the Communist Women’s movement has become one of the strong points of the general life of the Party. In those countries we have many women members and militants in the Party and still larger masses of women as comrades-in-arms outside the Party.

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“Where there’s a will there’s a way. We have the will to world revolution, therefore we must find the way to reach the masses of the exploited and the enslaved women, whether the historical conditions make it easy or difficult.”

Let me give you a few examples of the bad effects of the lack of special organs for work among women in Communist parties. Whenever there are no Women’s Secretariats or similar bodies, we have observed a falling off in the participation of women in the life of the Communist Party and the withdrawal of the feminine proletariat from the struggle of their class. In Poland, the Party has refused until now to set up special bodies for work among women. The Party was content to allow women to fight in its ranks, and participate in strikes and mass movements. However, we are beginning to realise that this is not sufficient to permeate to the feminine proletariat with the Communist ideal. The last elections to the Diet have proved that reaction finds its strongest support among the ignorant masses of women who have not yet been permeated by Communism. This should never happen again.

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In England, organisation for conducting systematic agitation among the feminine proletariat is altogether lacking, the Communist Party of Great Britain excused itself by its weakness, and has continually refused or postponed the setting up of a special body for systematic agitation among women. All the exhortation of the International Women’s Secretariat have been in vain. No Women’s Secretariat has been established: the only thing that has been done is the appointment of a women comrade as general Party agitator. Our women comrades have organised various meetings for the political education of the Communist women out of their own feeble numbers. These meetings have achieved such good results that the establishment of similar meetings must be encouraged by the Communist Party.

The attitude of the Executive of the Communist Party of Great Britain is, in my opinion, not only an outcome of its financial weakness, but partly also to its youth and the shortcomings resulting from it. I do not want to submit the Party to severe criticism here. The success of the British Communist Party at the last general election in Great Britain is proof of its strong determination and its practical success. However, this election victory, as well as the political activity and reorganisation which were decided upon, make incumbent on the British Communist Party at a time when from being a small propagandist party, it goes right into the masses, to strive to organise the proletarian women. The British section of the International cannot remain indifferent to the fact that in its country many millions of http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/women.htm (7 of 12) [14-7-2011 20:57:40] Clara Zetkin: Organising Working Women (November 1922)

proletarian women are organised in women’s suffrage societies, women’s trade unions of the old type, in consumers’ co- operatives, in the Labour Party and in the Independent Labour Party. It behoves the Communist Party to struggle with all these organisations for the capture of the minds, the hearts, the will power and the actions of the proletarian women. Therefore it will in the long run realise the necessity for the organisation of special organs by means of which it will be able to organise and train the Communist women within the Party, and make the proletarian women outside the Party willing fighters for the interests of their class.

In various countries, the Communist women, under the leadership of their Party, have used every opportunity to awaken the proletarian women and to lead them into the struggle against the capitalist system. Such was the case for instance in Germany in the fight against the so-called Abortion Law, which was used for a far-reaching and successful campaign against bourgeois class rule and the bourgeois State. This campaign secured for us the sympathy and adherence of large masses of women. It was presented, not as a women’s question, but as a political question of the proletariat.

We fully realise the importance of spirited and thorough work in the trade unions and co-operatives. In order to carry on energetic and systematic work in these two fields, it is necessary that we gain influence over large sections of women and recruit them for

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/women.htm (8 of 12) [14-7-2011 20:57:40] Clara Zetkin: Organising Working Women (November 1922) the struggle. This we shall do by influencing working women through their trade unions, and proletarian and petty bourgeois house wives through the co-operative movement. However, I want to point out that in our work we must not raise false illusions. We must, on the contrary, do our utmost to destroy the illusion that the trade union movement and co-operative movements within the capitalist system are capable of bringing about legislation for the benefit of the proletariat and of destroying the foundations of capitalism. However useful and indispensable the work of trade unions and co-operatives they cannot undermine the overthrow capitalism.

The conditions are especially favourable for rallying also non- proletarian women around the banner of Communism. The capitalist decay has created in Great Britain, in Germany and other bourgeois states a large new class of new rich as well as a large class of new poor. The middle class is being proletarianised. Consequently the exigencies of life are pulling at the heart strings as well as the purse strings of many women who hitherto had a terribly secure and happy existence under the capitalist system. Many professional women, especially the intellectuals, such as teachers, civil servants and office employees of all kinds are getting rebellious and are pressed into the struggle against capitalism. Comrades, we must take advantage of the ferment in these women’s circles and fan their resigned hopelessness into a flame of indignation that will lead to revolutionary consciousness and action.

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What about he conditions that can make this possible? I have already mentioned what pitiless inroads present day conditions make into the lives of millions of women, causing many of them to awaken from their torpor. All that has hampered us previously, the political backwardness and the indifference of women in general, can, under the pressure of unbearable suffering, bring adult women into the Communist camp. Their mentality is less affected by the false and deceptive watchword of the Social Democratic reformists, or the bourgeois reformers. Their mentality is frequently like a blank sheet, so we shall subsequently find it easier to bring the hitherto indifferent female masses into our struggle without the preliminary transition through suffrage, pacifist and other reformist organisations. However, I want to sound a note of warning. We must not be too sanguine and expect that the women will join immediately in the struggle for our final aims, but we may depend on them in our defensive struggle against the general offensive of the bourgeoisie.

I believe that our women comrades in Bulgaria have shown us a good way to organise women. They have established Unions of sympathising women. These unions are not only preparatory training centres for entry into the Communist Party, but are also effective rallying points for the attraction of the female masses to all the activities and actions of the Party. Our Italian women comrades have begun to follow this example. They have also established groups of sympathising women, including women http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/women.htm (10 of 12) [14-7-2011 20:57:40] Clara Zetkin: Organising Working Women (November 1922)

who are still loath to enter political parties, or attend political meetings. The example must not only receive the recognition of all those who do Communist work among women in all countries, but must also be followed.

Comrades, are the Communist women within the sections of the International endowed with the consciousness, the will and energy required for this work among the female masses? We must not conceal the fact that the women as well as the men Communists (for on the whole we are not worse, or more stupid than you are), frequently lack the necessary fundamental, theoretical and practical training. The backwardness and weakness of the women in the political movement only reflects the backwardness and the weakness in the Communist ranks in general. It is of the greatest importance to overcome as quickly as possible the lack of training and weakness of those who are to carry out the Communist work among the female proletariat. Therefore I enjoin you all to take care that the Communist women within your ranks are individually made responsible for the carrying out of the practical tasks of the Party. See to it that they have all the educational opportunities possible. Comrades, the fundamental and practical training of women into valuable Communist workers in the Communist struggle is part of your own educational work, and is an important and indispensable prerequisite for your success.

All the signs of the times show us that society is objectively ripe,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/women.htm (11 of 12) [14-7-2011 20:57:40] Clara Zetkin: Organising Working Women (November 1922) nay even over-ripe for the overthrow of capitalism. But we have had no proof that the will of the proletariat, the will of the class destined to be the grave-digger of the capitalist order is ripe in the historical sense of the word. But Comrades, this historic situation is like an alpine landscape in which the gigantic masses of snow repose on the mountain tops for centuries, seemingly impervious to sun, rain or storm. But despite appearances they are undermined, they have grown soft and are ‘ripe’ to be hurled down. Perhaps the beating of a little bird’s wings will be enough to move this avalanche which will bury the valleys under its weight. We do not know how soon we, men and women, will be faced with the world revolution. Therefore, we must not lose a single hour, nay, let a single minute pass without working for the world revolution. World revolution does not only mean world destruction and the destruction of capitalism. It also means world construction and the creation of Communism. Let us get our inspiration from the real meaning of the word: let us be ready, and let us make the masses ready, in order that they might become the world creators of Communism.

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Clara Zetkin The Russian Revolution & the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922)

Source: The Communist International, No. 24, pp. 10-19, (5,433 words) Transcription: Ted Crawford HTML Markup: Brian Reid Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2007). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

John Reed gave the book in which he described the events and impressions of the brief but decisive period in which the Russian

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (1 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) proletariat, under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, captured political power and established its dictatorship, Ten Days That Shook the World, John Reed came to Russia as a journalist from the United States to seek an ideal. The proletarian revolution led to his becoming a Communist. With the intuition born of his great talent, he perceived the world-historical significance of the feverish events and life of the November days. Yes! These ten days indeed shook the world, and the effects of the shock are still being felt in the world. For the proletarian revolution, surging forward with a mighty impulse, must become a world revolution, carrying the new principles of humanity to victory; those principles that conceive the development of society as the conscious act of man, immediately embodied in the will and the work of the proletariat to destroy capitalism and establish communism.

An echo of the world-shattering days of the Russian revolution was heard at the Fourth Congress of the Communist International in the almost unceasing applause that preceded and followed the speeches of Comrades Lenin and Trotsky, in which they dealt with the achievements of the revolution. This echo was heard also in the enthusiastic scenes that were witnessed at the close of the Congress, when the delegates spontaneously rose like one man, and deeply inspired, made the magnificent hall of the Kremlin ring with the triumphant strains of the “Internationale.”

Indeed, the Congress was a tribute to the remarkable

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (2 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) personalities of these two leaders of the Russian revolution and the world proletariat. And yet this demonstration was quite free from bourgeois “hero worship.” Tribute was paid to them as the personification of all those—the famous and the thousands of unnamed—who in toil and suffering and blood, carried the banner of the revolutionary proletariat to victory; as the personification of the undying Russian revolution.

Those who paid this tribute were not a chance crowd moved by sentiment. They were the representatives of sixty-one nations from all parts of the world, stirred by the Russian revolution, and whose historic power, and the consciousness of their will and readiness to act, is reflected in the Communist International. The Communist International is the expression of the profundity and durability of the world-shaking Russian Revolution; and this expression is not merely objective, but to a greater degree, even, subjective, in the consciousness of the exploited and oppressed. It is the child of the Revolution, born to enjoy the fruits of the victory and the lessons of the Russian proletariat. It is the pioneer, clearing a path for its ideals in other countries. It was out of sheer necessity and not out of any desire for decoration that this great Congress had on its agenda the item: “Five Years of the Russian Revolution.” The review of the work and achievements of the five years of revolution and work in Russia was to serve as an object lesson and guide to the proletariat in those countries still under the domination of capitalism.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (3 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) A Congress of the Communist International is no more a gathering of learned historians than is a Convocation of Churchmen. It is a gathering of revolutionary fighters who consciously desire to make history, it is an international Council of War, to plan the storming of capitalism. This simple fact determined the manner and the limitations of the discussion that centred round this great question.

The desire for a clearer, and a historical understanding of the five years of the revolutionary life and labour of Soviet Russia is quite understandable. In fact, it shows that the international proletariat wishes clearly to understand what the establishment of the first State under the proletarian dictatorship, and five years of self-sacrificing struggle and labour mean for it. This knowledge is the material out of which it will forge the weapons in its fight for emancipation and its tools in its work of construction.

The discussion of this comprehensive question was divided into five sections, and each One was to be dealt with by a separate comrade. These were: Comrade Lenin, the greatest personality of the Revolution, its brain, its heart, its will; Comrade Trotsky, the organiser of the Red Army, the organiser of the defence and the victory of the Revolution; Comrade Bela Kun, the warrior in the Russian and the leader of the Hungarian Revolutions; Comrade Roland-Holst and Comrade Clara Zetkin. Thus the survey and estimation of the development of the Russian Revolution was to be handled by non-Russian communists. Unfortunately, this was

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (4 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) not fulfilled to the degree anticipated; Comrade Roland-Hoist was prevented from taking part in the Congress.

The four reports indicated above formed one whole. The very nature of the subject required that the non-Russian communists deal with the fundamental and tactical lessons of what is historically “completed” and “ended,” whereas comrades Lenin and Trotsky had to deal with the character, the significance and the experiences of the “New Economic Policy.” This division, of course, is somewhat artificial. The Revolution is a living continuous process and cannot be divided by rigid partitions. Comrades Lenin and Trotsky could not deal with the “New Economic Policy” without at the same time dealing with beginning of the Revolution with which it is inseparably connected, and he could not therefore, avoid touching a number of questions of tactics and principle. In the same way, in dealing with fundamentals of the Russian Revolution, the “New Economic Policy” cannot be avoided. Thanks to the tremendous wealth of experience contained in the five years of proletarian revolution, dull repetition was avoided, and it was possible to discuss the various events from various points of view, and in their manifold connections. Below we will attempt to give a brief survey of the four reports submitted.

The February revolution in Russia was in its nature, a dual revolution—a bourgeoise and a proletarian revolution. But with every new lesson the revolution taught, the most important social

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (5 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) class—the proletariat—the untenability of such a dualism became more and more apparent.

From the very first moment, the October Revolution was recognised as the legitimate proletarian revolution. The very fact that it took place is evidence of its proletarian character. With the conquest of political power by the proletariat with the aid of the peasantry and the establishment of the Dictatorship in the form of the Soviet system, the proletarian character of the revolution took definite shape. The proletariat is essentially international. With the outbreak of the Russian proletarian revolution, world revolution appears on the scene of history. For world capital it foreboded the inevitable Day of Judgment, not announced, it is true, by the trumpets of the Lord of Hosts, but not less terrible and menacing for the imperialist bourgeoisie and their vassals.

It was not merely the manifold connections with the Imperialist War that marked the great historical events in Russia, as the first battle in the world proletarian revolution. What marked it as that were the measures taken by the Russian Revolution reflecting its lofty and all-embracing aim. These were the most radical measures ever adapted by human society; their object was to destroy capitalism by abolishing private ownership of the means of production—the realisation of communism. Around this aim are crystallised, not only the Russian tendencies of development towards higher forms of historical life as a result of the conscious striving of the proletariat, but also the driving forces of revolution

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (6 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) in countries standing on a much higher plane of development than Russia. The Russian proletariat entered the arena of history as the champion of the oppressed of all countries; it opened a new era of freedom. In smashing the Russian bourgeoisie with the Thor’s hammer of its dictatorship, it at the same time delivered a smashing blow to the capitalists, the exploiters and the oppressors of all countries. The first proletarian State in which the creators of social wealth and social culture are honoured and those who acquire these things without working are condemned, is the memento mori of the domination of the class that distilled gold out of the sweat and blood of those it enslaved, thus converting inanimate property into a power over the living.

Born out of the flames of revolution, the Russian Soviet Republic was a climax of the class struggle, but it by no means marked its end. On the contrary, the conquest of political power by the proletariat brought this struggle to boiling point, and transformed it into civil war, full of passion and horror. The dictatorship of the proletariat, the historic mission of which was to make secure the work of constructing the new society in which there would be no classes, was at first compelled to fight to save the very life of the young proletarian State from the savage attacks of the counter-revolution, and in doing so it brought into play all the means at its disposal. As Engels predicted when speaking of the proletarian revolution, all the counter- revolutionary forces of Russia, from Tsarist generals, and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (7 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) Liberals of all possible shades, to the S.R.’s and Mensheviks united under the banner of bourgeois “democracy.” The civil war inevitably had to give rise to the “Red Terror” as a means of protection against the “White Terror.” This most dangerous moment for the revolution dictated the necessity, not only for subduing the counterrevolution, and rendering it harmless, but also to deprive it of its energy, thus preventing the civil war from being too prolonged and recurrent.

Comrade Trotsky aptly remarked that the civil war surged around the peasantry as the most numerous section of the population. The Bolshevists’ agrarian policy, still largely misunderstood and still attacked from all sides, inclined the peasantry towards the revolution. It played a decisive role, and guaranteed victory in the war which the Soviet State was conducting against its external enemies, which war was closely interconnected with the civil war of “pure democracy” against the remnants of the Tsarist armies which, with the aid of the capitalist States, strove to crush the new society. The comparatively weak Russian bourgeoisie found allies among the capitalists in all countries, who, conscious of their international solidarity, exerted all their efforts to save their power to exploit the workers by overthrowing the dictatorship of the proletariat in Soviet Russia. Without this agrarian policy, the proletarian revolution would not have been able to create the Red Army, with its heroic, indomitable will to defence and victory.

The Paris Commune clearly showed that the proletariat, striving

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (8 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) to break the class domination of the bourgeoisie and, by capturing political power, to emancipate itself, cannot merely take over and subordinate to its great aims the old State apparatus. It must “build it anew”—it must destroy the old apparatus and then construct its own. The Russian Revolution confirmed this historical lesson. In order to live and to build, it was first of all necessary for it to destroy. The institutions and the organs of the old Stateparliamentarism and its franchise—were the embodiment of the bourgeoisie and its auxiliary detachments for oppressing the proletariat. They had to be cleared out of the road to give place to the legislative and administrative Soviets of toilers and Soviet organs in which power was concentrated in the hands of the workers and peasants. Experience brought to the front yet another necessity—to destroy the economy of the old social order; every industrial and commercial enterprise was a fortified position of the bourgeoisie in its fight against the proletariat. In agriculture methods were employed that were in operation before the deluge; industry and trade, except for a few enterprises conducted on modern lines, were weakly developed and obsolete, Tsarism and the imperialist war completely ruined the economy of the country Meanwhile it was necessary at all costs to satisfy the vital needs of the urban proletariat and the masses of the toilers as a whole, and in addition to supply all the needs of, and to maintain, the Red Army. In the exceptional circumstances prevailing at the time this was a task of incredible difficulty which the proletarian State, fighting for its very existence, could fulfil only by resorting to the most radical and http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (9 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) revolutionary measures.

The Communist leaders of the revolutionary Russian proletariat fully understood that a proletarian revolution is a much greater and more difficult affair than any bourgeois revolution. A proletarian revolution not only has to reconstruct the State, but also the economic basis and the whole superstructure of society. The abolition of capitalism and the introduction of communism can be the task only of the toilers themselves, and is the product of long years and decades of struggle and work towards this definite aim. Even the most powerful and centralised political power cannot perform this in one day, even with the aid of the wisest decrees. In view of this knowledge, the Bolsheviks at first presented to the proletarian State a limited, revolutionary economic programme. This programme aimed merely at the nationalisation of the land, of large scale industry, the means of communication and the banks, the establishment of a State monopoly of foreign trade and workers’ control of production.

But the exceptional circumstances referred to above compelled the Soviet Government to exceed this programme. In order to overcome the counter-revolution it was not sufficient to deprive the propertied classes of political power. It was necessary, also, to tear economic power from their hands and to transfer to the proletarian State all the means of production, all goods and valuables, and, with the aid of a centralised apparatus, itself to proceed to the organisation of national economy. Thus, amidst

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (10 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) the storm and stress of civil war, and wars against external foes, “military communism,” this “substitute” arose, which prevented the worst from happening, and at the price of unparalleled sacrifices and suffering, and the progressive decline of the economy of the country, enabled Soviet Russia to defend itself against its enemies. As Comrade Trotsky remarked, political and military necessity did not always coincide with economic expediency.

In spite of the crudeness of this “military communism,” in the economic sphere of Soviet Russia, it appeared to the industrial proletariat as the outward expression of its power, and as a step in advance along the path to the realisation of communist society. It would have developed directly into communism if what appeared at the beginning of the proletarian revolution to be so palpably near, was destined to pass; if the revolutionary conflagration had spread to other countries where capitalism was in a more mature stage of development. Unfortunately, the proletariat in those countries did not reveal sufficient class- consciousness and a sense of international solidarity, i.e., they did not understand the imperative conditions of their own existence and the historical tasks that confronted them but allowed themselves to be led by their mortal enemies, the world bourgeoisie.

In spite of the monstrous lessons of the imperialist war, they failed to understand that the Russian proletarian revolution was

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (11 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) their revolution, was their cause, was the first proud, bold, conscious manifestation of the world social revolution. These slaves dared not rise in revolt and deliver the death blow to the domination of the bourgeoisie. With their own hands they endeavoured, at the price of intensified exploitation and slavery, to restore the capitalist system, shaken to its foundations by the predatory war and its consequences.

Not a single proletarian State having a higher economy and culture arose to express fraternal solidarity and render aid to Soviet Russia. The proletariat in countries having an old and strong labour movement, with Socialist schools and revolutionary traditions, permitted their bourgeois governments to render political and military aid to the Russian counter-revolution and attempted to strangle the Soviet Republic by blockades, by refusing to have economic and political intercourse with it and by all other means of force and cunning. The first proletarian State was left to itself in its task of self-defence and construction. Under these circumstances, the historical conditions which placed enormous obstacles in the path of development of communism in Russia acquired monstrous force. In the first place, there was the backwardness, the weakness and the low productivity of the economic apparatus. Then, also, there was the comparative weakness and lack of experience, lack of training, the weakness of labour discipline of the industrial proletariat—which had its roots in the past—and the backward methods of production, outlook, ideology and the low cultural

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (12 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) level of the enormous majority of the masses of the toilers. The necessity of defending the gains of the revolution held together the masses of middle-peasantry that now arose, with the industrial proletariat as with an iron ring. But, while the Soviet. Government was fighting, sword in hand, against the international counter-revolution to defend its right of existence, this peasantry by a number of revolts and refusal to deliver food to the towns expressed its protest against “military communism” as a system which seemed to doom the country to poverty and need. A ferment arose even in the ranks of the industrial proletariat. For four years the latter had been carrying on a severe struggle for freedom with incredible courage and inspiration amidst untold suffering and sacrifice.

A turning point had now been reached. Criticism and dissatisfaction was directed not against “military communism” as a system, but against the defects and failures of its organising and administrative apparatus. The far-sighted leaders of the Russian revolution desiring to retain the proletariat in their hands, and to use its strength to construct communism, had to recognise that the hour of “military communism” had struck, and the Soviet Government was compelled to substitute it by “N.E.P.”—the New Economic Policy. Without a doubt this was a policy of compromise with the petty bourgeois individualist peasantry and with Russian and foreign capital. The kernel of this policy was the substitution of the food tax-in-kind for the requisitions. In connection with this it was necessary to permit freedom of trade

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (13 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) and freedom to conduct handicraft and petty production, and to give to capitalists the right to lease and receive as concessions large enterprises. But to assert that in doing this, the Russian revolution betrayed communism and abandoned its lofty aims, or even that it has blocked the path to these aims, is a falsehood or a misunderstanding. The efforts of the leaders are undeviatingly directed along this path. Passionately loyal to what should be, but calmly weighing up the situation as it is, they have kept the path clear for Soviet Russia to reach its aim. In spite of hesitations and waverings, the industrial proletariat are marching with their leaders through gloomy canyons and over towering crags towards communism, with the support, the confidence and the sympathy of the peasantry.

The New Economic Policy is dictated not only by the desire to preserve the Soviet system; it was economically inevitable and necessary to reconstruct society in a spirit of communism. Indeed, what is the calculation upon which it is ultimately based? On Russian capitalism fulfilling its historical tasks, which hitherto it had hardly attempted; the perfection of the means and instruments of labour; the expansion and growth of the productive forces; the systematic regulation, of labour in enterprises, in groups of enterprises and in whole branches of industry. Briefly, on raising the technical arid organisational level of economy for the purpose of increasing not only the productivity of human labour-power, but also the training, experience, discipline and the fitness of the worker.

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The decisive factor in the role of capitalism in Soviet Russia is the fact that it is no longer master in the State and therefore can no longer be absolute master in the factory. An enterprise, under the economic control of a private capitalist, is not “his enterprise”; it is the property of the proletarian State, leased to him, or granted as a concession governed by laws strictly fixing the limits of extracting profits. Side by side with private capitalism there is its powerful competitor, the “State capitalism” of the Proletarian Republic. The very thing which the private capitalist does unconsciously—or consciously strives to prevent—is for proletarian State capitalism a conscious aim and a supreme law, viz.: to lay down the economic basis of communism and to secure its most speedy and perfect realisation. It is true that owing to the pressure of circumstance, it is compelled to achieve this aim by capitalist methods and all the time must bear in mind the contemptible “business basis,” However, State Capitalism is radically different from ordinary capitalism in view of the revolutionary circumstance that State Capitalism is headed by the proletariat as a dominant class. In this the trades unions and the co-operatives acquire enormous importance. With the aid and support of the proletarian State these institutions grow up, not only into organs of struggle against capitalist exploitation and oppression, but also into organs of communist production and centres for training communist organisers and managers of production.

The New Economic Policy of the Soviet Government is the first http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (15 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922)

example of proletarian national economy forming a transition stage from capitalism to socialism and communism. Naturally, this form must bear all the birthmarks and scars inflicted by the historical conditions of the period prevailing in Soviet Russia. When the proletariat in more highly developed capitalist countries establish their dictatorship, their period of transition towards socialism will be accomplished with far fewer difficulties and dangers; there will be less groping and blundering than was the case with their Russian brothers, who have acted here the part of pioneers. However, yet even in these countries—and this is often denied by dreamers—there will inevitably be a transitional period and a transitional system of economy from capitalism to communism, which will raise difficult problems similar to those which the proletarian revolution of Soviet Russia is solving successfully to-day. Of course, the conditions will be different, but essentially the problems will be the same. Just as the Russian workers and their leading class party paid for the lesson to the workers of other countries by their struggle for political power, so are they now paying for the lesson in communist construction.

The price—the New Economic Policy—is a high one, but it is justified by the political and economic results. The stubborn sabotage of the peasantry is giving way to a striving to increase output.

The food tax is collected almost without the application of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (16 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) measures of compulsion. These taxes, together with the programme for reviving agriculture drawn up by the Soviet departments, are making the peasant farming part of the economy of the country. Side by side with the old traditions of small, individual peasant farming there is developing the beginnings of co-operative farming. The relations between town and country are improving; the peasantry has become a strong bulwark of the Soviet system.

The light industry is undoubtedly passing through a period of boom and the number of enterprises started and the number of workers employed in them, as well as the productivity of labour, are increasing. Only the heavy industry, which is mainly in the hands of the Government, and whose resources are yet small, is rising but slowly; but even here, improvement is to be observed. The fear that private capitalism would hinder the development of the young State capitalism, would out-compete it and have a damaging influence on wages and working conditions, have proven unfounded. The State enterprises, including transport, employ nearly two million working men and women, whereas the private enterprises employ only eighty thousand. If from the latter figures we subtract the number of workers employed in enterprises leased from the State by co-operative societies, it would be reduced to forty-five thousand.

Of not less importance is the fact, that, generally speaking, the State enterprises are the largest and technically best-equipped

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (17 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) productive enterprises. The average number of workers per factory employed in private enterprises is eighteen, while that in State enterprises is two hundred and fifty.

During 1921 the rouble remained stable for three months, while in 1922 it remained stable for five months. Taken as a whole the prices of articles of general consumption declined, while wages, on the other hand, increased. The standard of living of the workers employed in industry is approaching to pre-war level, and for some groups and places it even exceeds it. Undoubtedly, unemployment, the house shortage, and the effects of the famine- period still make themselves felt, but for all that the masses feel that they are recovering and the whole country seems to seethe with economic life. The people are inspired with the prospects of better times and are filled with hope. The new economic policy has not weakened the inherent ties of the Russian proletariat and the Communist Party nor its inspiration with Communist ideas. They have learned to estimate the new economic policy objectively and recognise it to be inevitable and useful. They know the value of the Soviet system and are fully aware that it can be preserved only so long as the Communists remain at its head. The people are filled with an unquenchable desire for education, to acquire knowledge and ability to master production and all the mighty forces of social construction, in order to be able consciously to develop their mighty energy.

Thus after five years of revolution, the Soviet Government, the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (18 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) Russian Soviet System, stands much more solidly and is much more fruitful than ever. Thanks to it, the Russian proletariat can justly pride itself on its great communist gains. Looking back to the position in 1917, we have to confess that the only thing that the Soviet Government has surrendered in the economic sphere is that which the Russian proletarian State had been unable to organise and run itself. By doing this, however, it has merely strengthened its economic positions which command the main route to communism. The nationalisation of land, transport and communication and the large and important industrial enterprises, the banks and the State monopoly of foreign trade—all these have been retained without the necessity for attacks and retreats, which compels the admiration and tribute of even the enemies of Soviet Russia. The proletarian dictatorship, in a ridiculously short time, has put an end to the strongest survivals of feudalism much more effectively than any bourgeois revolution has ever done, and has sown the germs of a new and better social life in social institutions and in the consciousness and free impulses of millions, which no counter-revolution can destroy.

The existence of the Soviet system, guaranteed by the new economic policy, is a conditio sine qua non for the constructive development of the Russian proletarian revolution along the path towards communism. The only power capable, and historically destined to carry out the glorious ideals of communism stands or falls by the class domination of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (19 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922)

The mighty and decisive significance of the conquest and retention of political power by the proletariat is strikingly illustrated by comparing the process of development of the proletarian revolution and dictatorship in Soviet Russia with that monstrosity, the bourgeois revolution and bourgeois dictatorship in Germany. No matter what sphere one takes—economic, social or cultural, home politics or foreign politics—in Germany we see weakness, disintegration, decline, retrogression and resignation. In Russia we see revival, growing strength, unrestrained progress, hope and activity.

The five years of the Russian revolution from the first day to the last covers the Communist Party of Russia with undying glory as the leading class party, the leading revolutionary party of the proletariat. Simultaneously with boldness and daring along the path towards its ideal, it was able to exhibit calm calculation in the estimation of realities. Of course, in its revolutionary policy it sometimes committed mistakes and was compelled now and again to deviate from its path. But, taken as a whole, it directed its aim towards the achievement of communism, with classical consistency and directness. It was the first titanic attempt to apply the theories of Marx to the practical every-day labours and struggles, and to convert the development of society from a play of blind, anarchic forces, into an instrument of human will and consciousness.

The five years of the Russian revolution glaringly reveals the two

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (20 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) mighty roots of the iron will and the colossal executive powers of the Russian Communist Party. The first is the inherent organic ties between the leaders of the party and the rank and file and between the party and the proletarian masses which it leads. Thanks to this the conscious will and vital energy of the leaders are nothing more or less than the crystallisation of the will and energy of the party, of the revolutionary movement. Only thanks to this could the Bolsheviks become and remain the revolutionary class party of the proletariat, and inspire the revolutionary movement of the broad masses of the proletariat. The second root is its strong, ideological and organisational compactness and discipline, which sternly reflect all that is best in the historical life of the proletariat, and energetically puts it into operation. The compactness and discipline of the Russian Communist Party are by no means based upon compulsory and blind obedience. They are the fruit of the training, of the penetration, the power of analysis and the ability of the leaders to make their influence felt upon and win the confidence of the rank and file. It is a clear and strong expression of mutual solidarity. Every member is trained to a conscious fulfilment of duty. In the Russian Communist Party there are no such things as “merely dues-paying members.” Everyone of its members must serve it and fulfil some definite task.

Apart from the lessons of principles and tactics which they have taught to the class-conscious vanguard of the proletariat, the five years of the Russian Revolution lead us to conclusions that

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (21 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) should be engraved in letters of fire on the hearts of everyone of us; and that is, that the subjective factor in history is a great and decisive factor for the revolution. “Men are making history as they must, but they are making it,” said Engels. The Russian Communist Party and the Russian proletariat have converted this phrase from theory into practice. This is the great historical service they have rendered; the Russian Revolution is the mightiest product of the human mind that history has ever known. This great task may have been commenced within the borders of a single nation, but it must be completed on an international scale. From the greatness of the first act can be judged the greatness of that which the proletariat living beyond the frontiers of Soviet Russia have so far failed to do, but which they must do as a matter of duty in order to advance the world revolution. The further progress of social construction of the proletarian State depends on the unrestrained rise of the tide of world revolution, destined to sweep away the domination of the world bourgeoisie. On the other hand, the fate of the proletarian State will determine the fate of the exploited and enslaved workers of all other countries. The Russian Revolution will do one of two things: either it will give an impetus to the mortal enemies of the proletariat to strengthen the positions of bourgeois class domination, or rouse the exploited and oppressed to break their chains and win the world.

The Congress did not discuss the question of the Russian Revolution. It stood in profound respect before its mighty

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (22 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: The Russian Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (November 1922) accomplishments and its unrestrained, rising power and limited itself merely to a brief resolution of sympathy and solidarity. The shock which the Russian. Revolution has dealt the world has not subsided and demands deeds.

The discussions and the decisions of the Congress on all questions were all conducted from the point of view of the Russian Revolution, and were influenced by it. Face to face with the Russian proletariat, wounded and scarred in the storms of battle and suffering through which the sacred torch of Communism has guided it, the Congress of the Communist International could not, like the reformists, with an obsequious gesture say to the rulers and exploiters “Look! Take warning!” but turned to the exploited and the enslaved of the capitalist world with the appeal “Look! You must act!”

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1922/ci/fourth_congress.htm (23 of 23) [14-7-2011 20:57:50] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed

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Clara Zetkin From the International of Word to the International of Deed

Source: The Communist International, No. 1 (New Series), pp. 111-126, (6,492 words). This issue was produced immediately after the death of Lenin and contains a number of eulogies to him. Note by transcriber—ERC Translation: M.L. Kortchmar Transcription: Ted Crawford HTML Markup: Brian Reid Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2007). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (1 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed “In the beginning was the deed!” This was the motto chosen by history itself for the Communist International at the time when it was founded. No other motto would be more suitable than this exclamation of the inquiring spirit of Faust, who passionately strives to learn all the mysteries, “on which heaven and earth depend,” and who enjoys the moment of supreme bliss when contemplating the ultimate achievement of creative activity: “to stand upon free soil, amid free people.” The founding of the Communist International was preceded by a deed of the greatest historical import, to wit, the November revolution in Russia. Nay, one may even go further and say that without this immortal deed the founding of the Third International could hardly be thought of. This world-wide militant organisation of the proletariat is the child of the Russian Revolution, and its nature and activity are determined by this origin. It is based on the deed, on the revolutionary deed, and this must continue to be its basis, if it does not wish to forfeit its historic right to existence. In this respect it differs both from the First and Second Internationals (although not in the same manner as regards the two internationals), and this difference reflects the progress and the gigantic strides of human history during the last decades, although to our revolutionary longing and aspirations the pace of progress seems at times tortoise-like.

The first International was the fruit of theory and not of action. It was conceived in the great scientific principles of the materialist conception of history as propounded by Marx and Engels, which

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (2 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed taught that the development of capitalist production was inevitably bound to lead to ever-increasing national and international solidarity of the workers of all countries, who have nothing to lose but their chains and a whole world to gain. Such was the goal that was set out with unsurpassed scientific lucidity and supreme pathos in the “Communist Manifesto.” It was a theory that could not be an active factor in the creation of a decisive revolutionary action of the proletariat in any particular country, but it could well serve as a guide and programme to the Communists, to the workers of all countries, under circumstances of revolution. The weak Communist groups (nearly all of them clandestine) were rather loosely associated internationally. Fruitful seed was sown everywhere for future development, but those groups did not possess the power to exercise decisive influence upon the events and to spur the march to victory. The movements and fights of a social and proletarian nature were crushed by the bourgeoisie without mercy. The bourgeoisie in Germany, Austria and Hungary was so much afraid of the “red spectre” that it dared not prosecute to a victorious conclusion its own revolution against autocracy and feudalism. The Chartist movement in England broke down after having made a hopeful start. The June massacre of Paris was the reward of the French bourgeoisie to the generous folly of the workers who had granted three months’ credit to the bourgeois republic at the cost of their own starvation.

Some fifteen years later, the First International was founded at

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (3 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed London, in 1864, at a time when the workers in the capitalist countries were invariably defeated in their struggles. The revolutionary wave of the 30s’ and 40s’ had abated, and there was not the least indication of any new wave impending. The workers’ organisations in the international movement had small membership and influence, and constituted rather the nuclei of a solid organisation of the future than an active force in the present. Thus the founding of the International Working-men’s Association was in itself a deed, a daring, ideological deed. The object of this deed was the revolution. A master-mind had anticipated things as they should be. This is demonstrated by the conferences and by the history of the First International. It could only foreshadow in general outline the way which the workers of all countries will have to march towards freedom through revolution; it could only outline the development of workers’ parties and organisations which should break loose from the bourgeoisie and wage their own fight against capitalism and the capitalist state; it could only gather and train a body of pioneers and leaders. The Franco-German war exposed the political and organisational impotence of the First International. It showed how little it had struck root among the proletariat of the capitalist countries, and how little was its influence upon the minds of the people.

This was confirmed also by the Commune of Paris. It was not the work of the International, nevertheless, it was a great revolutionary upheaval of workers and petty-bourgeoisie, the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (4 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed first to take place since the terrible defeats of the middle of the century. It started in a great revolutionary deed, in the seizing of political power by the workers and petty-bourgeoisie. It was but natural for the International to declare itself in solidarity with the Commune of Paris. Some of the best members of its French section took part in the council of the Commune, worked for it and fought for it with arms in their hands, and either fell in battle or were subsequently banished into exile. The bloody suppression of the Commune, and the immediate consequences thereof to the proletariat of France and its effect upon the workers of other countries, was no doubt one of the contributing factors to the downfall of the First International. Nevertheless, its revolutionary solidarity with the Commune constitutes the crowning glory of its life and activity as something immensely greater than the general extent of its influence.

To that solidarity we owe not only the illuminating and inspiring work of Marx: “The Civil War in France,” but it has also caused the followers of revolutionary Socialism in all countries to defend the Commune against the torrents of calumny and abuse that were showered upon it by the bourgeoisie. It acted as a strong stimulus which accentuated the class-antagonism between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and brought the light of class- consciousness to the large masses. It helped to crystallise the convictions and to stimulate the spread of the revolutionary ideas and aims of the International among the widest circles. The International Working-men’s Association lived and died, and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (5 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed triumphed over death, as the bearer of the unadulterated revolutionary spirit and of the inalterable revolutionary will, as the educator and the paver of the path for the revolutionary deed. By its nature it did not differ from the Third International: the difference was only one of longevity, of the number of years of existence, and also of the diverse historical situations in which the First and the Third Internationals came into being. They are both alike in so far as the undying factor of the creative revolutionary will is concerned.

In this respect there is an unbridgeable gulf between the Second and Third Internationals, and even between the former and the International Working-men’s Association of Marx. If not at the very birth of the Second International, at any rate in the further course of its development this gulf was growing steadily. Its development, in spite of splendid external unfoldment meant the decline and extinction of the revolutionary spirit, which alone can give the breath of life to the international proletarian organisation and equip it for actions of big scope. The Second International, like its predecessor, was founded for the purpose of arousing the working class internationally from the slough of despond into which they were thrown after the big defeat of the Commune and to rally them again to the active defence of their class interests. The revival and invigoration of the proletarian class-consciousness had already achieved a forceful and glorious deed of historic importance, to wit: the eleven-year struggle which the German social-democracy fought with increasing

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (6 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed success against the gagging of the proletariat by means of exceptional laws. The struggle had its recognised as well as unknown heroes, it exacted thousands of victims who languished and died either in jail or in exile; nevertheless, it did not lead to an open revolutionary battle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. It consisted mostly of guerilla warfare on the part of the proletariat against the police, the state attorneys and the judges. The weapons in this fight consisted chiefly of adequate knowledge of the legal penalties and police regulations and of a close scrutiny of the ballots and of the lists of voters.

It is characteristic that the German Social-Democrats used to sing in their old official campaign-song, the “Workers’ Marseillaise,” the words, “The free ballot is the sign under which we conquer….” and in a later “Socialist March,” they vowed: “We wield not the weapons of the barbarians, neither sword nor sabre.” This solemn self-praise, however, did not prevent them in 1914 from using the “cultured” weapons of torpedo-boats, aeroplane-bombs, and poisonous gas in the service of German imperialism for the murdering of the workers of the Entente countries. Again in November, 1918, they used similar weapons, machine guns and bombs, in order to help the bourgeoisie re- establish its domination in Germany, and to crush the revolutionary vanguard of the German working-class. The ballot triumphed over the exceptional laws in 1830, because the economic and political situation was propitious. That victory germinated the seed of the foolish belief in the omnipotence of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (7 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed the ballot which, in conjunction with other factors, steadily denuded the German Social-Democracy of all ability to think and to act as a live revolutionary force. It was like unto a canker eating out the life-juice of the green tree, and turning it into rotten dead wood. The German social-democracy, the erstwhile “revolutionary watchdog,” became the guardian of the property of the exploiters and the defender of capitalism and of the bourgeois state. The development and history of the German social- democracy afford a typical picture of the fortune and fate of the Second International.

At all events, when it was founded at Paris in 1889, it was guided by the luminant stars of genuine proletarian class-consciousness and revolutionary ardour. It was animated by the fiery spirit of the “Communist Manifesto.” The French proletariat was still smarting under the wounds of the glorious Commune, which prevented them from losing their class-consciousness through democratic illusions. The clearest and most revolutionary elements, the Guesdists, parted company with the “possibilities” after sharp debates and formed the Marxian “workers’ party.” The German social-democracy was overwhelmingly revolutionary, it was still “agin’ the law,” and did not yet think of “opening its hand to the goodwill of the bourgeoisie,” as was to be done by Vollmar later on. At the same time, the Austrian party was equally developing as a party of revolutionary action. In England a party was formed which undertook to carry the ideas of scientific Socialism to the proletariat, and the new trade

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (8 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed unionist movement of the unskilled workers put itself determinedly upon the platform of the class-struggle, showing equal determination in its fight against the old craft unionism which was negotiating with the exploiters instead of fighting them. Hopes were encouraged by the Social-Democratic organisations which were formed for the revolutionisation of the masses in Russia and Poland in spite of the ruthlessness of the bloody Czarist regime. Every, where in Europe, and across the Atlantic, a rising wave of revolutionary forces was surging.

The Second International was formed as a revolutionary militant organisation for the overcoming of capitalism, and for the overthrow of the domination of the bourgeoisie. It was to be a keen-edged weapon for the destruction of the enemy in the class- struggle, and not an “instrument of peace,” as was to be announced later on, in the course of the imperialist war, by Kautsky the man of many wanderings, and of many changes, and in the declarations of the Second International, since the 4th of August, 1914, which were so at variance with their past utterances. It is interesting in this connection to recall an episode of the first congress of the Second International, which is of historic significance. It shows quite plainly how the participants and leaders of that congress were entirely alien to the idea of a “fatherland” that should be defended at the price of treason to international proletarian solidarity. The best leaders of the proletariat in the great countries, including Victor Adler and Plekhanov, were arguing the question as to which bourgeoisie

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (9 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed was the most brutal and rapacious. Everyone of them tried to represent his own “fatherland” as the seat of all the horrors for the workers and the exploited. Since the outbreak of the murderous war, we saw how Scheidemann, Renaudel, Henderson and Mussolini and the rest of them vied with each other in trying to demonstrate that their own particular country was a peaceful nest where the bourgeoisie and the proletariat were living happily together as “fellow countrymen” and brothers, and that it was therefore to be defended by the workers “to the bitter end,” as the home of democracy, culture, and so on. This comparison portrays fully the unparalleled and ignominious downfall of the Second International. What was the historical background for the rapid development of the Second International? It should be looked for in the profound depths of society, in the economic sphere, where the elemental forces are at work. Since the Franco-German war, and during its aftermath, there was a rapid and colossal growth of industrial capitalism and a tremendous expansion of capitalist production, with unprecedented progress in technique and organisation, and with the greatest concentration of industry under the domination of trusts and monopolies on a national and international scale. The circumstances were favourable to the development of strong national Labour parties and workers’ organisations, with large memberships and funds. At the same time it was made possible for the capitalists to hand out sops to the industrial workers who were getting restless, without in any way diminishing the profits of capitalism, but rather increasing them. It was far more advantageous for the capitalist to make http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (10 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed small concessions than to have the splendid business interrupted by frequent movements and strikes, and what is more it lulled the militant spirit of the exploited to sleep and prevented the growth of revolutionary tendencies.

The Second International may boast of its proud historic achievement. It has gathered and united millions of organised workers of all countries, both politically and industrially into an international alliance. But this achievement is overshadowed by a great historical error. The Second International urged its millions of followers to give the whole of their attention to the final struggle, and to direct all their daily efforts towards the ultimate goal of the social revolution. The national Labour parties and trade unions, who were affiliated with the Second International, adapted themselves to the capitalist economy and to the bourgeois state and came to terms with them. They became the organs of Labour aristocracy and Labour bureaucracy which firmly established themselves within the bourgeois order. The glorious time of the Second International was the period of Labour protection and social legislation, of the amelioration of working conditions by negotiations and agreements with the employers and by the extension of political rights, particularly of the suffrage.

To be sure, improved working conditions and political and social reforms cannot be attained without any pressure from the bottom, without economic and political fights. In Belgium the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (11 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed working class fought for the suffrage by means of the general strike, and with some success, but was defeated in the second attempt on account of the infamous betrayal of the leaders. The fire of the Russian revolution of 1905 kindled the general strike of the workers in Austria who forced the bourgeoisie to carry out electoral reforms. Nevertheless, the leading tendency of the parties and organisations of the Second International was to stultify and to prevent any sharp conflicts between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and above all, to avoid the use of revolutionary fights and weapons. All this was done for the alleged purpose of sparing the precious blood of the workers for the sacred “final struggle,” which eventually found its profane translation in the imperialist scramble for world-power, from which the bourgeoisie netted immense gains and the workers got only increased misery. The congresses of the Second International adopted resolutions which surrounded the idea of the general strike with a veritable barbed wire of if’s and but’s. On the other hand they opened the gate wide to “ministerialism,” misleading the wage-slaves to believe that the gaining of a seat upon the government for an ambitious Labour leader was tantamount to the conquest of power by the proletariat.

While the development of capitalist production drove the capitalists of the different countries into close international unity, the workers’ parties and organisations became ever more attached to their respective countries, with the result that they gradually lost the sense of duty in regard to international

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (12 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed solidarity which should unite the workers of all countries into one revolutionary organisation. Their leaders, far from counteracting such fatal development, acted on most occasions in close unity with the bourgeoisie of their respective countries on so-called “constructive work” in the parliaments, trade unions and co- operative societies. National interest took precedence to the international cause, and the movement was steadily sinking into reformism. Owing to this steady decline of international unity of the revolutionary proletariat, the Second International was bound to become a loose affiliation of political and industrial organisations of the various countries, of which each one was carrying on its own life and its own politics. It did not grow into a united and solid world-organisation with one goal and with strong and binding discipline, and thus it was incapable of carrying out any forceful actions upon an international scale. Regardless of the numbers and strength of its affiliated organisations, it was at best a “moral authority,” but never a compelling political force either to their own adherents or to their opponents.

The Second International resolved actually only upon one united international action at its first congress, and it is characteristic. We speak of the May-day demonstration for the eight-hour day, and for laws for the protection of Labour. In its original form the May-day celebration was to take place everywhere on the first of May, as a day of rest. Its purpose was to declare war upon bourgeois society, and to fight wherever necessary for the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (13 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed observance of this day of rest and for street demonstrations, even at the cost of sacrifices. It was only the Russian and Polish workers who courageously fulfilled their international duties and carried out loyally the decision of the international congress of Paris, unafraid of the whip of starvation wielded by the employers, nor of the whips of the cossacks. In the countries of the wealthy trade unions of the Social-Democratic parties, with many members and voters, the May-day demonstration became transformed sooner or later into a tame indoor “celebration.” It was thus reduced to the rank of usual evening meetings, associated with theatrical plays and social suppers, etc., and not exactly on the first of May everywhere, but on the first Sunday in May. Thus, the revolutionary sense and the international solidarity of this action went to the devil. In the history of the May-day celebration we see in a nutshell the whole history of the Second International itself, which was the forerunner of the great betrayal that was to take place at the outbreak of the world-war.

From the moment that Scheidemann, Vandervelde, Renaudel and the rest of them refused to answer to the war-declaration of the bourgeoisie by the declaration of the proletarian fight for the revolution, from the moment that its parties urged the proletarians of one country to fight against those of another country under the trickery slogan of “national defence,” the Second International lost actually every whit of its historic part as the organ of the world-proletariat. Inasmuch as it still drags on its existence of shame and pollution, it is a tool of the exploiters

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (14 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed and rulers against the proletariat of the world. The workers in the various countries, who are still loosely affiliated with it, are dominated by political parties and trade unions which are bent on reforming, not on revolutionising the social world, and who therefore take care of the business of the bourgeoisie whether consciously or unconsciously, whether they wish it or not. It is the deed that decides, not the word, nor the intention. The war period and the post-war period furnish uninterrupted historical proof of the fact that the Second International has nothing left of Marxism, out of whose revolutionary ideas it has grown, save empty words and formulae which have been reduced to meaningless phraseology. At history’s hour of destiny it was weighed in the scales and found wanting.

Cowardice and treason revealed that which was hidden under a cloak of external glory. Tied and manacled by bourgeois influences and association, the Second International was rendered incapable of progressing from agitation and. propaganda of international solidarity to international revolutionary action. It could organise imposing demonstrations and frame well-chiselled resolutions, but it was absolutely powerless to act, particularly to act in a revolutionary manner. It started as an International of the desire for revolution, and it ends as an International of the negation of revolution, of betrayal of the revolution. Its first conference on the morrow after the day when the guns on the imperialist battlefields ceased to roar, the international Socialist conference at Berne, in February, 1919,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (15 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed laid heavy stress upon this fact. It fully concurred in the theory propounded by Kautsky that the most important task for the present was to resume production and to increase the wealth of mankind. Once again it failed to answer and even to touch upon the question of questions, whether production should be based on capitalism or on Socialism, and who was meant by the term “mankind” whose wealth was to be increased. It was opened with eulogies for Wilson and concluded with the sending of a delegation to see Clemenceau. That conference endeavoured to patch up the dissensions in the ranks of the Second International, which were strongly influenced by the antagonistic feelings that existed among the various imperialist groups. On one point alone there was touching unanimity in which social-patriots and social- pacifists embraced each other. It was in the condemnation of “Bolshevism” and of “soviet government,” hence of the Russian Revolution. And this was nothing but right, this was the inner logic of things. For the Second International, whose tatters were to be patched up at Berne, was an International of word, and not of deed.

The Third, the Communist International, arises out of the break with the Second, it must be an organisation that fights against the latter, because it is the fighting organisation of the world- proletariat for the world-revolution. By its nature and goal it is directly linked with the International Working-men’s Association of Marx, with the “Communist Manifesto.”

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (16 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed The Third International too, was founded after a defeat of the proletariat, after a colossal defeat without precedent in history. The bloodthirsty bourgeoisie had murdered 6,000 revolutionary heroes during the battle of June. The “victory of law and order” over the Commune was crowned with a hill of 35,000 slain workers. The imperialist world-war has murdered many millions. Yet another thing has to be taken into consideration in judging about the nature of the defeat. The June revolt and the Commune had brought defeat directly and formally to the proletariat of one particular country, and only in its further influence it came to be considered as the defeat of the workers of all countries, in view of the international class-solidarity of the proletariat. On the other hand, the wholesale imperialist butchery of the four years of war was the most terrible and crushing historical defeat for the world- proletariat as a whole. It consisted not only of the fact that the workers of the large capitalist states were directly thrown into this criminal game of murder, and that the exploited masses of the so-called “neutral” countries were promptly made to feel the effects of the war. No, the defeat went far deeper, because the international class-solidarity of the proletariat breathed its last upon the battlefield and the “sacred unity” between proletariat and bourgeoisie reared its head. Victorious or vanquished, the proletarians emerge from the world-war defeated and enslaved. Their deadly enemy has strengthened the grip of his domination over them. The glorious victims of the June battle and of the Commune had fallen for the cause of their class, as daring rebels against bourgeois society. The soldiers of the imperialist armies http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (17 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed fought and died as abject slaves at the behest of their masters, defending the order which perpetuates their slavery.

The imperialist war brought the profoundest humiliation to the proletariat and the highest triumph to capitalism, to the bourgeois order. At the same time it marked the rapid pace of development in society. In spite of defeat, the world-proletariat carried revolution in its lap. This time it did not take fifteen or twenty years for the proletariat to rally internationally and to engage in the fight. The magnitude of the defeat has quickly aroused and mobilised the masses. Barely five years after the pitiful collapse of the Second International the representatives of revolutionary workers’ parties founded the Third International. At “Red Moscow,” in Soviet Russia. Already the place in founding suggests a chapter of history, in which the development of society has entered upon a new stage. From the “peaceful” period in which the Second International sank in the quagmire of revisionism and opportunism, into the era of revolution, when the proletariat must sever every connection with the bourgeoisie and establish its own rule upon the ruins of class-domination. When the Communist International was constituted in March, 1919, the voice of the revolution had already spoken.

Indeed, the founding of the Communist International was preceded not only by an unparalleled defeat, but also by an unparalleled revolutionary deed. The November Revolution in Russia. It was this fiery token which united the workers of all

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (18 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed countries. When the Second International retreated before the imperialist guns, the large mass of the workers lost their faith in the efficacy of international proletarian solidarity. The victory of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat upon the blood-drenched battlefields of murder had caused them to lose confidence in the invincible power of their class, and in the power of Socialism to save them. To many millions of proletarians the deed of the Second International had crushed the theory of Marx. It was only by deed that their faith could be restored to them. The Third International would therefore not be started upon theory alone, but upon deed, in which theory became incarnate. This deed was the proletarian revolution in Russia. Under, its protection, and inspired by its example, the broken ranks of the revolutionary vanguard rallied in the different countries and joined in the Communist International. Because the masses of the workers, while losing faith in the existence and efficacy of international solidarity, never lost the sense of the necessity and importance of such solidarity. While faith was destroyed, there still lingered the flame of passionate hope which was fanned by the sorrows and sufferings of proletarian existence. The firm faith in the saving power of Socialism may have gone, but the iron need remained for the exploited and oppressed to defend themselves against the insatiable lust of the exploiters for profit and power. The Russian November revolution gave to the workers of all capitalist countries the balm for their wounds, which they needed as badly as bread. The great immortal example of a proletariat who was victorious in the revolution by courageous fighting, and who http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (19 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed wrested from the enemy the first decisive position, the power of the state; the clear consciousness about the road which leads to victory; the rock of faith in international proletarian solidarity for the revolutionary fight against capitalism—these were the things that the victorious Russian revolution gave to the workers throughout the world.

Noblesse oblige! Rank has its obligations. The deed of the revolutionary Russian proletariat, which stands inscribed upon the annals of history for ever, must give birth to deed. Deed should be not merely the symbol, but the essence and goal of the Communist International. Only in sharpest antagonism to the International of Word will it signify the higher development in history, only then it will be able to lead from this capitalist bourgeois world of profit-hunting and exploitation to the Communist world of social production for use and of society without classes. Therefore the Communist International should apply itself entirely to the deed of the proletarian revolution. This means that it should be organically linked with the Russian November revolution, which represents the first decisive step forward in the proletarian world-revolution. It is the chief task of the Communist International “to make” the proletarian world- revolution in clear consciousness and with a steadfast will, to make it in the historic sense, i.e., to prepare the historic ground and tendency for the deed, for the world-revolution, and to facilitate and accelerate its advent. This can only be the deed of the only social force capable of such gigantic work as the deed of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (20 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed the proletariat, of the largest and most important and most revolutionary producing class.

For five years the Communist International has been wrestling with its task. It may indeed be proud of what has been achieved, although it may appear small as compared with the whole of the task. With Marx it is leading the masses to the sources of revolution, to the economic system. The reformist gentlemen of the Second International lisp and lie about the force and worth of capitalist economy just at this stage in history, which they urge the proletariat to sacrifice its blood and treasure to bolster up again, as its alleged duty and interest. The Communist International points out to the proletarian masses, by means of profound and penetrating examination of capitalist economy, the relentless progressive decay and dissolution of capitalism. It points out to the proletariat that it alone will have to pay the price of the maintenance of capitalism, in the shape of increasing exploitation and enslavement. It imbues the workers with confidence in their own strength and in the inevitable proletarian victory, by associating closely with the revolution of the Russian proletariat and the work that it wrought. In this way it has turned large masses of despairing slaves of capitalism into convinced and determined fighters, and it gathers them in a united and solid organisation, with strict discipline, around the red banner of the revolution.

Based on the deed of the proletarian revolution, the Communist

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (21 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed International prizes every form and manifestation of the historical experiences of the workers as a class, to wit, the trade unions, the co-operative societies, the women’s movement, the youth movement, the educational movement and so on. It does not treat these movements with lukewarm sympathy, like the Second International. It brings them into closest union with the Communist parties of the various countries, and either incorporates or affiliates them, according to circumstances. In this way it leads new and strong currents into the channel of revolution. This channel it widens and deepens by supporting the colonial slaves of capitalism in Africa and in Asia in their national struggles against the yoke of foreign imperialism, and by calling them into the social fight against every form of exploitation and oppression. It thus strikes at capitalism in its last and firmest strongholds, and by undermining these it eliminates at the same time the strongest economic roots of reformism. Revolutionary fights by the colonial and semi-colonial peoples deprive the capitalists of the possibility of pacifying and corrupting their own domestic wage-slaves by paltry compromises.

As the trainer and educator of the proletarian masses for the revolution, the Communist International imparts to the dispossessed the sum total of the experiences of all the revolutionary struggles that took place particularly the experiences and lessons of the Russian revolution, which are the richest and most inexhaustible source of theoretical and practical knowledge in these matters. It thereby sheds a bright light upon

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (22 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed the way and means to be used by the proletariat for the conquest of power and for the establishment of its dictatorship. The proletariat should not be content with the mere capture of power, but should go on to destroy the old bourgeois machinery of state and to organise its own power of the state, in order to overthrow the forces of capitalism. The workers’ councils are therefore something more than mere standard-bearers of the revolutionary fight for power. As self-governing organisations of the masses, at once legislative as well as administrative, they become the very organs of the authority of the state after the conquest of power. They represent the form in which the proletariat exercises its dictatorship. Therefore, all power to the soviets! The bourgeois democracy is and remains the bourgeois class domination, and only the proletarian dictatorship leads from capitalist bondage into the freedom of Communism. These fundamental lessons of the Russian November revolution were made by the Communist International the common property of millions of toilers.

This is a revolutionary deed. These millions are no longer held captive by the pale-faced reformist illusions about democracy and reform. They have been aroused to new strength and determination for the revolution. The Communist International would fail in its mission of organising the proletariat for the world-revolution if it did not destroy these illusions in the sharpest and most determined fashion. They are the bulwark of the reformists of all countries for the defence and perpetuation of the bourgeois system of exploitation. This state of affairs has

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (23 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed been exposed by the Communist International with relentless clarity. In its ranks there cannot be and should not be any place for those elements who are still possessed of the survivals of reformist or centrist superstitions, which are a handicap and a crippling factor to revolutionary aspiration and determination. With no less emphasis and clearness the Communist International has rejected the putsch (foolhardy attempt) illusions of revolutionary romanticists who imagine that brave and self-sacrificing party action could take the place of revolutionary action by the masses. The conquest of power as the deed of the masses, this slogan which was announced by Lenin at the very first congress of the Third International, is the key-note of Communist activity.

In its five years of existence, the Communist International has drawn appreciably nearer to this goal, and thereby also to the revolution. It has kindled the flame of revolutionary consciousness and aspiration among the masses on every spot of the globe where human labour and life are held in bondage and exploited. It is a flame which will inevitably burst out in world- revolution which will wipe out the bourgeois order. In the leading capitalist countries the masses are becoming imbued with the will for revolutionary deed, and thus the Communist ranks are being swelled by hosts of determined fighters ready to follow their lead. Party-will and mass-will for revolution, these two objective historic factors of revolution are turned into one. This augurs for victory, for sure victory; if not to-day, then to-morrow.

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What matters it if the reformists and their friends deride us in chorus with the bourgeoisie: “What became of your world- revolution? It is a prophecy for St. Never’s Day. It cannot and will not come true.” These gentlemen should mock at themselves, for it is people like Wells and Henderson, Treves and Kautsky, and Gompers and the others who should hear the shame and ignominy of the continued weakness of the proletarian will for revolution. There are facts galore which point to the hopeless decay of capitalist economy and to the ripeness, nay even over- ripeness, of the bourgeois order for its doom. All the force and violence of the bourgeoisie could not defend and protect this order if the workers were determined on its overthrow. That the will for freedom by deed is still weak and repressed among the majority of the workers, is the historic crime of the reformists who constitute the International of Word.

The International of Deed will put an end to this crime. It will triumph over the International of Word in its fight for the will and action and spirit of the masses. The “Labour Government” in England (from which the high priests and worshippers of “anti- Bolshevism” expect a new lease of life to the Second International) will not give victory to the reformists over the revolution, but will rather precipitate the end of reformism. This is the real historic significance of the advent of the Labour Government. It shows that large masses of the English working class have become sufficiently class-conscious to turn their backs on the bourgeois parties. And it will be the business of the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (25 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed

rebellious of the colonial slaves of England to see to it that this growing class-consciousness should not be put to sleep by shilly- shally reforms, but should mature into sound and robust revolutionary will.

The vainglorious “victory” of reformism in England would be the last thing to mar the felicity of Communists upon the fifth anniversary of the founding of their International. Because, paradoxical as it may sound to some, this will but accelerate the advent of the proletarian world-revolution. This only enhances the painful feeling in all of us that at this moment which is so fraught with tremendous revolutionary possibilities for the Communist International, we are deprived of the personal leadership of Lenin. Lenin, the great architect and teacher of the Communist International its incomparable and unreplaceable leader, as well as the immortal leader of the Russian November revolution and of Soviet Russia. Much as the Communist International appreciates the services rendered by the talented and seasoned thinkers and workers who collaborated with Lenin in the Russian revolution and in the founding and development of the Communist International, it was he who has done more than anyone else to sever the International of Deed from the International of Word, and to render it into a revolutionary organisation of the masses. Let us learn from Lenin to believe implicitly that within the bosom of every proletarian and of every oppressed human being, there dwells the titanic promethean defiance which says to the strongest oppressors: “And yet you

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (26 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: From the International of Word to the International of Deed cannot slay me!” Let his spirit teach us to snap the chains of Prometheus and forge them into weapons for freedom and into tools for construction. Let us be like him in cool and keen deliberation, and the masses of the proletariat, the masses of the suffering and heavy-laden throughout the world, will rally to the International of Deed. These masses and this International will merge into one will and into one fight and will secure the victory for the world-revolution.

CLARA ZETKIN

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/international.htm (27 of 27) [14-7-2011 20:58:11] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern

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Clara Zetkin World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern

Source: The Communist International, No. 4 (New Series), pp. 18-40 (9,222 words) Transcription: Ted Crawford HTML Markup: Brian Reid Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2007). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

To the distant and detached observer the full and bubbling life and activities of the Communist International may seem incomprehensible and confusing. He does not understand the historic inevitability, the fruitfulness and the inner meaning of the historic growth and development which is powerfully and consciously expressed in the Third International. Of course, it is a

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (1 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern gradual day by day growth and development, and frequently accompanied by seemingly insignificant work and struggles. Its importance becomes manifest to the masses and to the world at large only from time to time, whenever important events and stages of development arise in the national sections, and when the revolutionary vanguard of the proletarians of the various countries makes an important advance. This growth and development becomes evident at the world congresses; here not only retrospective surveys of the development of the life and struggles of the Communist International are made, the tasks confronting the International are defined and the measures for their fulfilment determined on, but also the preparedness and strength of the movement of the world revolution is gauged and estimated.

The congresses of the Communist International are stupendous events. The number and variety of the phases of development of the countries represented at these congresses, the number of active participators, the length and variety of the agenda handled by the various commissions and delegations, the number and detailed character of the theses, resolutions, etc., which have to be elaborated and decided upon, astound the observer. Each succeeding congress shows a growth and not a diminution of these features. There is a tendency, however (for obvious reasons), to limit the number of delegates who only come merely to listen and to learn, and to concentrate on assembling working delegates.

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Certain questions recur at every congress, as for instance the trade union and co-operative question, educational work, the organisation of the youth, work and propaganda among women, etc. A great deal of tedious and exacting preparatory work by the Executive, its secretariats, and various comrades and commissions, precedes the sessions. This work takes up many weeks during which hundreds of people are busily engaged seeking solutions for the basic problems. The printed reports of our world congresses have grown from a thin little booklet into a very thick volume, and yet these do not contain the reports of the meetings of commissions and delegations. Congresses alone cannot any longer cope with the storm and stress of the activities of the Communist International. They are supplemented and prepared for by meetings of the Enlarged Executive.

There are many, even in our own ranks, who fail to understand and appreciate the historic significance of the main features of the Communist world congresses as an expression of the historic development of the proletariat. If that is so, how can we expect an unprejudiced appreciation on the part of opponents and enemies who cannot and will not understand? All of them see the foam on the crest of the waves, but are unable to see the gigantic power which raised the wave whose foam crest arrests their attention. The growing length of the agenda and of the duration of our international congresses, with their protracted discussions, are interpreted as confusion, nay even helplessness, in the face of an exacting situation, as discrepancy between promising theory and http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (3 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern

unsatisfactory practice, as a substitution of numerous resolutions for the advertised liberating revolution, as incapacity to recognise “what is possible and most needed” and to concentrate the energies of the working masses on it, as incapacity to organise and regulate events, and so on.

Consciously or unconsciously, such criticism is based on a definite fact—the character of the world congresses by which the Second International endeavoured to unite the proletariats of all countries for uniform action in the pre-war period. It must be admitted that the organisation of these gatherings reached well- nigh perfection. Their preparation was in the hands of past masters in the art of organisation and direction, who did not neglect the decorative and propagandist sides of these functions. But the work and life of the Third International cannot be measured by the congresses of the Second International, as the former is, by its nature not a substitute and renewal of the Second International, but an organisation with a new historic life of its own. It goes without saying that we have still much to learn in connection with the organisation and effective staging of our world congresses, especially for the purpose of long distance propagandist effects. But it would be utterly wrong to imagine from the character, shortcomings and weak points of these congresses, that the Communist International lacks the stamina for a proper development of its forces.

There is a mighty pulsation in the Communist world congresses.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (4 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern They give you a sensation of ferment which demands to be put into shape, of contradictions which must be reconciled, of something which is in the making and which must be given a final and definite form. The atmosphere which pervades these congresses is pregnant with great creative possibilities. It is an environment in which the powerful historic process, whereby the old and obsolete sinks into oblivion and the new and vigorous comes to the surface, in which capitalism becomes extinct and Communism is born, culminates.

We have no control over the objective forces of development, but, as far as human consciousness, will and action is concerned, the Communist International will be the herald and determined champion of the future world order. Its congresses, its life and activities are evidences of its rapid development, and of the vital differences between it and the Second International.

The latter was the child of a period of evolution. It was content to explain capitalism and its most prominent features, the laws by which it is governed and the process of its development; to rally the workers of the capitalist countries and to prepare them for a change in the world order. But most of its influential leaders relegated the change to the dim and distant future, to be reached along the comfortable path of democracy and social reforms. This limited the activities of the Second International. Its development went on peacefully and steadily. It did not try to undermine the foundation of the bourgeois world order in the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (5 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern belief that what is necessary is also possible. The Second International considered this world order so firmly established, and so little affected by the volcanic forces under its surface, that it advised the proletariat to settle in it as comfortably as possible and to wait patiently for the time when things and men will become permeated with the idea of Socialism.

The questions which emerged one by one from the evolutionary period and the narrow fenced-in field of action of the Second International were settled at its congresses by discussions and resolutions. The more they stood in conflict with capitalist economy, the capitalist State and social order, the weaker was the influence of these resolutions, for the Second International was only a loose conglomeration of Socialist and proletarian organisations, and not a firmly-welded Party with a uniform and strongly centralised structure and strict discipline. The resolutions of its congresses were in the nature of “guiding principles” and not of binding obligations. The various national organisations treated these resolutions in an off-hand way, for they were not actuated by the desire and determination to carry them out faithfully. To carry them out would have meant a serious conflict with bourgeois society, and this is what these organisations tried to avoid. The spirit animating them was reformist and not revolutionary. Only on festive occasions did they indulge in revolutionary ideas which degenerated into hollow phraseology.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (6 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern Even the most decisive resolutions on important and contentious questions were mostly in the nature of a disguised compromise between the reformism they practised and revolutionary ideas. The left wing of the Second International strove passionately but in vain to draw attention to the signs of the approaching period of revolutionary struggles and to impregnate the “evolution” atmosphere with the impetuousness of revolutionary determination. The Second International was impervious to anything but “academic questions,” in fact, to anything but “storms in a teacup.” The flourishing period of imperialism favoured the perpetuation of reformism, the evasion of decisions on matters of principle and the postponement of the solution of old and new problems. The Second International lacked strong and compelling impulses and attributes which result from open struggle to abolish bourgeois class domination and for the liberation of the proletariat through the establishment of its dictatorship. In short, in its activities the Second International was a well-oiled apparatus for maintaining bourgeois “ law and order.”

What a different impression does one obtain when observing the surging activity in the Communist International. This is because this International is not only the daughter of a revolutionary period, but revolution itself. It is the daughter of the Russian Revolution, the first powerful precursor of proletarian world revolution. Had not the Russian proletariat conquered power, had not the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of Soviet Russia

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (7 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern been established—there could have been no Third International! It came into being not only because the country of proletarian dictatorship protects and supports the revolutionary parties and movements throughout the world, not only because the rallying call to the international revolutionary forces came from this country, but also for quite another reason. After the shameful bankruptcy of the Second International, the revolutionary action of the Russian proletariat was required to restore the confidence of the wage slaves of capitalism everywhere in the liberating power of international Socialism and in their own might and strength. Inspired by the great accomplishment of the Russian proletariat, the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat in other countries proceeded boldly and confidently under Russian leadership to establish the Third International.

“What is bred in the bone….” As a child of revolution, the Communist International must itself be the embodiment of revolution. It must “make revolution” in the historic sense taught us by Marx, Engels and Lenin. To further and to accelerate the proletarian world revolution is the life task of the Communist International and the historic justification of its existence. Its work must consist in rallying the exploited and oppressed of all countries and in training and developing them into sterling revolutionary forces capable of taking up a relentless struggle against capitalism, which is the classical form of the class domination of those who have over those who have not, of dead riches over living human beings. Although the conquest of power

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (8 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern by the proletariat and the establishment of its own dictatorship is the climax of this struggle, it is by no means its conclusion. Therefore, the work of the Communist International will not end with the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will be confronted with the more difficult task of leading the proletariat during the period of construction, during the gigantic work of transferring capitalist economy and of its entire social structure in the direction of Communism.

This means that the activities of the Communist International must be greatly extended, for its field is the whole world even from the geographical and ethnographical point of view. The Second International limited itself to organising and uniting the workers of the advanced capitalist countries, namely, the workers of the white race. The appearance of Sen Katayama at the Amsterdam Congress as the representative of Japanese proletariat eager to find the way to Socialism was regarded as an extraordinary event. His presence at this congress was interpreted as a pacifist symbol of international proletarian brotherhood standing above the conflicts between nations created by bourgeois greed for exploitation. It was not in the least regarded as the initiation of a determined campaign against capitalist exploitation and enslavement of the colonial peoples.

Against this, one should consider the fact that among the adherents of the Communist International there are 62 sections, some of whom comprise several nationalities and peoples as, for

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (9 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern instance, the large sections of the Caucasus and of the adjoining territories. Its congresses are made picturesque and are given a special oriental charm not only by the presence of the representatives of the Southern and Eastern Soviet Republics (from the Crimea to Vladivostok), but also by delegations of Persians, Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Malays, in short, of all the peoples of the Near and Far East which capitalism has either already brought under its rule, or intends so to bring. These delegates (men and women) do not by any means attend these congresses for decorative purposes, neither are the women exotic “prima donnas” intent on treating the audience to an aria di bravura on the misery of their brothers and sisters and on their aspirations to freedom and equality. They are active working members of the Communist International, alert and energetic outposts of the proletarian world revolution. One of the main objects of the Communist International is—to encourage and support the awakening, the revolt and struggle of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples against capitalism, and against any form of slavery and exploitation. True to the spirit of the Communist Manifesto, it helps the native bourgeoisie in the Eastern countries when this bourgeoisie takes part in the revolutionary national struggles for the overthrow of capitalist imperialism. It does its utmost to bring to power exploited proletarian and peasant masses under the banner of Communism and revolution, and to endow them with strength to throw, off the yoke of foreign and native masters and tormentors.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (10 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern Communist sympathy for the colonial slaves of the capitalist States is sheer hypocrisy, the Communist International with its colonial policy is nothing but a tool of the new Russian imperialism behind which the Bolsheviks try to conceal the bankruptcy of their revolutionary policy! Thus, echoing the words of the imperialists of all countries, the reformists, under the cloak of the “liberation of Georgia and Armenia,” work for the delivery of the rich oil wells of the Baku district to the big capitalist trusts, and MacDonald, their leader, the head of the pseudo-Labour Government of Great Britain, defends the colonial enslavement of India. Let them talk and abuse us. The Communist International fully realises all the consequences of its colonial policy. It is convinced that a complete victory of the proletarian revolution and the complete destruction of bourgeois capitalist domination and exploitation can only be achieved through world revolution.

The wage slaves of the capitalist States cannot be free and happy as long as the colonial slaves of capitalism, the serfs of landowners and the victims of patriarchal traditions and customs remain in their present state of misery and slavery. The colonies are a fertile ground and a sound foundation for capitalism. From them capitalism draws enormous excess profits by the old method of primitive accumulation, as well as by the most refined methods and tricks of modern production and speculation. They enable the capitalists to placate the contented “rebellious” proletarians of the home countries with sops in the form of small

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (11 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern concessions. If the irresistible rebellion of the exploited in the colonial and semi-colonial territories tears out of the hands of the world bourgeoisie the fabulous wealth accumulated there, the latter lose the means and the inclination to fiddle about with “tariff concessions,” and social reforms. In the hearts of the bourgeoisie there will be nothing left for the “dear fellow nations,” (dear, but not in the endearing sense of the word) but grim determination and power to exploit. In the highly developed capitalist States, the last illusions of the working masses about the possibility of making bourgeois social order bearable, and of being gently and gradually transferred into a higher social order, have been shattered. Reformism is being undermined at the root, while the masses are realising the necessity for revolution and the will to revolution of the proletarian vanguard grows and becomes the will of the masses. The time has come for the “expropriation of the expropriators.”

There is no doubt whatever that the conditions created by the Russian revolution in the Union of Soviet Republics have brought home to the Communist International the enormous importance of the colonial question. Could the leading Russian comrades adopt an attitude of “benevolent neutrality” towards the attempts of the imperialist robber States (and above all of intriguing, conspiring Great Britain) to convert the adjoining belt of countries (from Turkey to China) into a rallying point for an attack on the Soviet regime? Could they allow these Powers to inundate Soviet Russia and its allied Republics with their

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (12 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern journalistic, political and military agents and spies for the purpose of working up conspiracies and risings? From the first the leaders of the Bolshevik party considered the Russian Revolution as the beginning of the proletarian world revolution. It was but natural, therefore, that, while intent on world revolution, they fully appreciated the necessity to protect the achievements of the Russian Revolution from imperialist designs and malignant machinations. It is one of the chief merits of Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin that he fully recognised and exposed the historic connection between the colonial question and the continued existence of capitalism. Thereby he opened before the Communist International a wide and important field of activities bristling with new and difficult tasks.

In connection with two other questions, the Russian revolution has made the field of activity of the Third International much wider than that of its predecessor, namely, in connection with the peasant and national questions, which are, moreover, closely connected with the colonial question. In fact, the colonial question by its nature is to a great extent a national and peasant question. The attitude of the Second International towards these two problems, as well as towards colonial policy, to say the least was passive. On the other hand, the Communist International adopted a very positive attitude towards these questions because the Russian Revolution showed with great clearness the necessity of developing the utmost activity in these questions for the purpose of ensuring and facilitating the trend and work of the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (13 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern revolution. The fact that proletarian dictatorship was established in a country 80 per cent, of the population of which are peasants, that the economic and social structure of that country has undergone a change in the direction of Communism, and the very boldness of this achievement, showed the enormous importance of the peasant question. In such a gigantic country whose population, origin, languages, economy and culture are in themselves an International—a conglomerate of nationalities and various stages of historic development—the national question was bound to come to the surface with the advent of revolution. All honour is again due to Lenin that in both these questions the Russian Revolution policy and the Communist International adopted the right methods and tactics in theory as well as in practice.

In all more or less agrarian countries, agrarian crises of varying degrees of acuteness and duration are arising. In all these countries the peasantry is making efforts to organise itself into political parties and to gain political power. Both these phenomena indicate that in spite of spasmodic capitalist economic revival, bourgeois domination and exploitation, capitalism, and with it the entire bourgeois social order, have been deeply shaken. The former economic and social equilibrium has not been restored. On the contrary, a very painful state of uncertainty has taken its place. The thunder of world revolution is approaching nearer and nearer, although its progress is perhaps too slow for the fierce determination of the masses to

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (14 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern free themselves.

In this fateful period the Communist International, as the leading world organisation of the proletariat, must give a direct answer to two very difficult questions: (1) in this struggle for power between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, will the small working peasants be the allies of opponents of, the revolutionary workers, and will the middle peasants be their bitter enemies or benevolent neutrals?; and (2) in transferring the methods of production in the direction of Communism, can the farms of the small and middle peasantry be brought into line with large scale collective farming? In other words, will be it possible after the conquest of power by the proletariat to enlist the sympathy and support of the small and middle peasantry in the work of economic and social construction, or will these elements sabotage and hinder this work by standing aside? In the Soviet Republics, proletarian dictatorship, which under the existing historic conditions considers these questions as vital revolutionary questions, has answered in the affirmative the first part of the question.

In all bourgeois countries the small peasantry, as well as a considerable section of the middle peasantry, have come into sharp conflict with finance capital. Hundreds, nay, millions of these peasants were expropriated, proletarianised and even pauperised by Joint Stock Companies, Trusts, Banks and big landowners. They are at last rebelling against this state of affairs.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (15 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern In the situation which has arisen, the old ingrained hatred of the peasantry against the bourgeois State with its bureaucracy, taxes and interference with individual life has become more acute. Also in the countries of bourgeois “freedom and democracy,” the oppressed and impoverished small peasantry looks upon the State as a hostile power, as an apparatus for exploitation and oppression in the hands of the “mighty.” Economically and politically they feel they are “shorn lambs,” so to speak. At the same time they are attached to their plot of land and their farms with all the fervour and ideology of property owners. Therefore, their attitude to the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat for power is not wholehearted, their sympathies waver between proletarian revolution and capitalist counter-revolution.

An important factor in the struggle for power between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is the side which the small peasants will chose to support. This will be the case in most capitalist countries, perhaps with the exception of Great Britain, where there are no peasant masses and where for this reason the agrarian question assumes a different form. The revolutionary struggle of the proletariat for the overthrow of the class domination of the bourgeoisie must everywhere assume the form of a final settlement between the exploited and oppressed and capitalism. Alliance with the small peasantry is one of the pre- requisites of a proletarian victory. In the face of fascism, revolutionary workers begin to realise that such alliance is necessary not only for great political campaigns and in the time

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (16 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern of rebellion, but also for the solution of the food question for the urban and industrial population during civil war. This problem cannot be solved anywhere by the revolutionary land proletariat on the basis of the existing big agricultural enterprises. Hence, the importance of the co-operation of the small peasant after the establishment of the proletarian Power.

It behoves the Communist International to effect the union between the proletariat and the small peasantry for revolutionary co-operation in the overthrow of capitalism. For this purpose, its national sections must adopt a strong unequivocal agrarian policy, capable of defending with the utmost energy the interests of the small peasantry against big capital and the bourgeois State. At the same time, the sections must remain the leaders of the revolutionary proletariat and must do their utmost to develop economic and agrarian conditions, as well as the workers and peasants themselves in the direction of Communism. The agrarian policy of the Bolsheviks has revealed the enormous difficulties attending this question. It has served to guide and facilitate the work of the Communist International. It goes without saying that it could not provide all countries with suitable recipes for a Communist agrarian policy. For, in spite of international unity of interests and principles, an agrarian policy must be adapted to the specific conditions prevailing in the respective countries. For instance, the agrarian programme and the agrarian policy for Bulgaria and for the U.S.A. cannot be concocted after the same recipe. The best forces of the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (17 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern Communist International will have to be concentrated in drawing up satisfactory agrarian programmes and methods of successfully conducting a truly Communistic agrarian policy. Important problems cannot be settled in the twinkling of an eye.

The consequences of the monstrous imperialist slaughter of 1914, which the so-called peace treaties perpetuates, the clash of the economic and imperialistic interests of the various States and groups of States, the renewed preparations for fresh mad adventures, the tendencies and conditions of the economic and, political development in the period of imperialism: all these make it incumbent on the proletariat and its leaders to concentrate their attention on the national question in theory and practice. What a host of “national questions” was brought into being by the peace treaty of Versailles, with its off-shoots of St. Germain, Trianon, Neuilly! To mention only a few of them, there are the struggles for Memel and Upper Silesia and for the delimination of Czecho-Slovakia and Yugoslavia, the incorporation of Bessarabia into Roumania, the isolation of German-Austria from Germany and the colonisation of this victim of anti-national imperialism, which is going apace. The fierce rivalry between France and Great Britain for supremacy in the Balkans and in the Dardanelles, the competition of American and British trusts for the great oil reserves of the world, the intention of the greedy imperialist States to dismember and enslave China and Eastern Asia—raise complicated questions concerning national self-determination of peoples and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (18 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern nationalities, etc.

While there was still a spark of revolutionary spirit in the Second International, it rejected bourgeois patriotism, basing itself on the saying of the Communist Manifesto, “The proletariat has no country.” But this was only a showy declaration, for in practice the Second International was not at all inclined to adopt the principle proclaimed by Rosa Luxemburg after war was declared—“that the international solidarity of the proletarians of all countries is the supreme law.” It was at all times influenced by truly petty-bourgeois unrevolutionary considerations for “national peculiarities” and was never truly international. Therefore, its attitude towards the national question could not be anything but negative. In view of the economic and political complications resulting from the capitalist system, proletarian internationalism is the inevitable pre-requisite of a correct attitude towards the national question. By giving up its internationalism, the Second International was deprived of its capacity to understand and represent the national question in a Socialist, that is, in an historic sense. Instead of advancing social development, it was itself driven by the ebb and flow of bourgeois class interests and by “defence of the fatherland” psychology.

When the carnage let loose by capitalism compelled the Scheidemanns, Vanderveldes, Renaudels and Hendersons to realise the significance of the national question and demanded from them decisive and prompt action, the Second International

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (19 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern became the champion of vulgar bourgeois patriotism and its Chauvinist leaders, to the sound of trumpets, drove the workers into the gigantic slaughterhouse of the capitalist world war. In their eagerness to compete with the patriotism of the bourgeoisie and to identify themselves with the bourgeois social order, they forgot that sentence of the “Communist Manifesto” which complements the above quotation and clearly defines the Communist attitude to the national question. It states that, in its revolutionary struggles for emancipation, the working class must become the nation by capturing political power. The leading reformists of the Second International failed as positively in replying to the question “What is to be done?” as they ignored the axiom that in the bourgeois world, proletarians, as the exploited class, have no country.

The prosperity and independence of the nations which were plunged into the world war should have induced the Second International to explain to the workers the positive and historic meaning of their being without a country. It was its duty to make them realise the necessity of international solidarity for the purpose of making their respective countries their own by tearing the political power out of the hands of the ruling minority and by establishing the rule of their own class—the rule of the overwhelming majority of the nations. Ebert and Co. failed ignominiously to do this. They induced the proletarian masses to believe that the capitalist State was their country and that in the interests of the Empire it was justified in oppressing and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (20 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern exploiting national minorities and to expropriate and enslave large populations. They concealed the fact that the workers can secure a fatherland only through revolutionary struggle, proletarian dictatorship, and the establishment of the Communist social order. Had they done their duty, the bourgeois imperialist war would have been converted into proletarian civil war for the destruction of the exploiting bourgeois State. National independence and free development can only be secured through the new type of State power—workers’ dictatorship.

The reformist leaders of the Second International shrank from this solution, owing to their lack of confidence in the destructive, and constructive and liberating power of the proletariat and of Socialism. With slavish submission, they sacrificed to bourgeois dictatorship the very ideals which served them as the pretext for their betrayal of the workers at the outbreak of war—national independence and peace among nations. They deluded the confiding proletarian masses into believing that the rough but effective methods of revolution can be substituted by clever clauses in a treaty drawn up by the expert representatives of Entente imperialists in the “League of Nations.” The war and the Peace Treaties have exposed the total impotence of this bourgeois caricature of the proletarian international and the imperialist designs hidden behind pacifist phraseology. By its very nature the “League of Nations” is unable to prevent the state of war existing between bourgeois national states and to solve the national question. Nothing would be changed even if the ardent desire of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (21 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern the reformist leaders, that the States, which are still outside this congregation of capitalist saints, (especially Germany) be included into the League of Nations, were to be fulfilled.

The deliberations and decisions of the League of Nations on national questions had precisely the same result as all other national and international conferences of Ministers, diplomats, politicians and great financiers. They leave all the problems arising out of the existing conflicts untouched, and in some instances made them even more complicated. This “peacemaker” and “advocate of all nations” understands to perfection the S.O.S. of the capitalist syndicates of the various States for complete domination (without competition) over territories which provide raw material, cheap labour and markets, as well as the imperialist call for submarines, long range guns, aircraft, bombs and poison gases. But it turns a deaf ear to the humble and stammering bequests of the conquered and subjected nations for right and justice. It is impervious to these demands, for it is deaf and blind to the just demands of the enslaved and exploited classes.

Nevertheless, the Second International, which has been galvanised into some semblance of life, continues to pretend that the League of Nations will unravel the complicated national questions. The significant attempts of the Austrian Social- Democrats (forced on them by the conglomerate of nationalities which constituted the Hapsburg dual monarchy) to solve the national question in theory and in practice ended after all in

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (22 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern opportunism and made no impression whatever on the attitude of the Second International towards this question. The national policy of the latter is in theory a bourgeois-pacifist game of hide and seek, and in practice an anti-labour defence of capitalist interests. This is borne out by the shameful and mendacious decisions of the Hamburg “Unity Congress” on the national question, “fraticidal war” between the German and Czech social democracy in Czecho-Slovakia, occupation of the Ruhr, and reparation questions, etc. The national policy of the British Labour Government under the leadership of MacDonald strikingly shows how the Second International is wallowing in a morass of contradictions. The inspired champion of national self- determination, the passionate advocate of pacifism, in his capacity of head of the government regards the alliance with French imperialism sacrosanct in spite of the fact that it aims at the colonisation of Germany. With the support of the Conservative and in the face of Liberal and some Labour opposition, he secured the passage of a resolution in the House of Commons in favour of a considerable increase of the air fleet. He demonstrated his belief in the “liberty and independence of nations” by sending a “large armed force to India for manoeuvres.” He approves of the perpetuation in that country of the oppressive measures against national and social movements and allows workers on strike and rebellious peasants to be shot down.

Thus we see that in the national question the heritage received by

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (23 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern the Communist International from the Second International was nothing but a waste of tares and weeds, and not a fertile field yielding rich harvest of ideas.

The Second International could not serve the Communist International except as a warning. The latter had to go back to Marx and Engels to define its position as a revolutionary international in connection with the manifold national questions of the times. Since the summer of 1914, these questions have been springing up like mushrooms on the blood-drenched soil of the capitalist State. The revolution also had a share in forcing them into the foreground, but the revolution provided also the means and possibilities to solve them. It brilliantly vindicated the revolutionary proletarian attitude on the national question as laid down in the “Communist Manifesto.”

What the Communist Manifesto briefly outlines has been thoroughly elaborated by Lenin, who based his deductions on actual historic facts and experiences of the times. He gave to revolutionary policy on the national question a combination of firmness of principles and aims with the flexibility of “realpolitiken,” and it is to this that the first Workers’ and Peasant State of the world owes its firm establishment and the “Union of Socialist Soviet Republics” its existence.

Russian bourgeois “democracy” proved unable to protect Russia against the predatory intentions of the other imperialist States by a continuation of the imperialist war. On the contrary, it placed http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (24 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern

the safety of Russia into jeopardy. The proletarian revolution saved Russia. While the Russian workers assumed State power with the support of the peasantry and established their dictatorship in the Soviet Government, the revolution roused the social forces of the country and almost out of nothing produced armies of fighters for the independence of the newly-created State. The peasants flocked into the “Red Army” determined never to give back the land to its former owners. And proletarians filled its ranks because they needed the Soviet power in order to destroy the domination of the exploiters and to put an end to the oppressive economic power of the bourgeoisie through Communism.

The emancipation of the socially enslaved and exploited elements from age-long class domination enabled Soviet Russia to frustrate all the attempts of the imperialist States and of the world bourgeoisie to destroy the new workers’ and peasants’ state by violence, blockade, diplomatic tricks, financial machinations, etc., and to make its existence secure. Russia solved the national question as a social question, for it gave autonomy to and abolished the racial and religious disabilities of the many nationalities which the Muscovite power had brought under its sway and had exploited and oppressed.

When the revolutionary workers’ and peasants’ State had proved its vitality in the struggle against the capitalist powers and proved to be unconquerable, it turned its attention towards constructive

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (25 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern work, and at the same time proclaimed in its territories the right of all nations (including small national minorities) to self- determination. The end of the class domination of the bourgeoisie and of the aristocracy over the proletariat and the peasantry was also the end of the domination of the nationally strong over the nationally weak. The Soviet social order created the political prerequisites for the future Communist order by such revolutionary economic and social measures as, for instance, the nationalisation of land. The constitution of the “Union of Socialist Soviet Republics” has brought into being a new Soviet Great-Russia which, notwithstanding strict centralisation in questions of State, has granted a liberal autonomy to the various nationalities and peoples contained in it. The little Republic of the German Volga Commune has autonomous rights of which the States federated in the much vaunted “democratic” Ebert-Seeckt Republic may be justly envious.

And what is the result of the Bolshevik national policy? Outwardly, a Great-Russia has come into being whose free and atuonomous component parts are much more firmly welded together than was the case under the military and knout regime of Czarism—a Great-Russia which holds together much better than the bloodstained colonial empire of Great Britain or of any other colonial power. The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics has proved itself strong enough to protect its independence and revolutionary institution against its capitalist enemies. It has

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (26 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern compelled its enemies finally to recognise it de jure. It repulsed Curzon’s provocative attempt to violate its rights and interfere in its home and foreign policy, and to force from it big concessions to British capitalists. It will deal in the proper fashion with the shameless provocation of Stresseman—the pigmy Curzon who acts at the behest of Poincare and the magnates of the heavy industry.

In spite of its mixture of nationalities, the revolutionary transformation of its economic and social conditions and the long years of civil war, the “Union of Socialist Soviet Republics” is, internally, the most firmly established State in the world. Although surrounded by enemies to a greater extent than any other country, the Union of Soviet Republics is the only country which has considerably decreased its armed forces, having sent hundreds of thousands of its citizens in the army back to the plough and to the bench. This characteristic fact does not only proclaim Soviet Russia’s determination not to draw the sword except in the service of freedom and revolution, but is also a sign of the calm strength and determination of a great people not to allow the achievements of the revolution to be tampered with.

Let us now consider the result of the Bolshevik national policy in its application to the various peoples and nationalities of the Soviet Union. By conferring autonomy this national policy encouraged the economic, political and social development of the new autonomous Republics. It revived the true culture of these

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (27 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern nationalities which lay dormant for many centuries, and overcame traditions which helped to keep these peoples in bondage. For instance, the Soviet social order in the Caucasus and elsewhere succeeded in abolishing the blood feuds between nationalities, peoples and races—a relic of the past. It provided an outlet for national and racial peculiarities in the movements for social development in which it gives these nationalities scope. The national policy of the Bolsheviks has created in the remotest parts of this gigantic State and among its wildest and most backward peoples desire for union and for collaboration in lieu of the former seclusion, surliness, hatred, internecine struggle and struggles against the oppressive and, predatory central power. The seed sown there fell on good ground.

In the “Union of Soviet Republics” all the nationalities are engaged in fruitful and joyful activities, and one cannot help marvelling at the pristine freshness and natural impetuosity of these nationalities. It is as if they were determined to make up for all their former lost opportunities. Of course, the results of the national policy are not the same everywhere. Frequently, old traditions and customs are an obstacle in the way of social revolution. Step by step the impetuous new displaces the tenacious old. Step by step characteristic feature of all this is the determination to develop and to go forward at all costs. The desire for international unity is stronger than all the national peculiarities of the Soviet conglomerate of nationalities. It is an historic fact of considerable significance that this will to

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (28 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern international unity is not limited to the nationalities within the Soviet Union, but is meant to include the proletarians and exploited of the whole world. The common aim and the common desire of all are—maintenance and development of the Soviet order and overthrow of the capitalist order. The national peculiarities develop in the warm sunlight of internationalism into active revolutionary forces.

The Russion revolution and the Bolshevik national policy gave to the Communist International clear and definite directions on the national question. Unlike the policy of the Second International, this policy has a positive character and is full of revolutionary possibilities. I believe that this policy, based on the Soviet system, has hastened the advent of the type of State of the near future, determined by the present development of the capitalist system. This development has produced the supernational colonial State, the “Empire,” which transcends national boundaries. By its historic nature it is twofold, for it is an affirmation and at the same time a negation of the national, and international in world economics and world politics. To reconcile these contradictions the “League of Nations” was established. But this is an abortive institution built up of capitalist national refuse, lacking revolution. The “League of Nations” cannot solve the task imposed on it, because it contains within itself all the contradictions which it is supposed to overcome. In those parts of the world where the revolution has destroyed the bourgeois order and has placed power into the hands of a proletariat inclined

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (29 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern towards Communism, the economic and political development takes the form of the new super-national type of State, the “Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.” As the contradictions of its social foundation have either been solved or are on the way to solution, such a State is the strongest vindication of internationalism, the creative synthesis between it and nationalism. It does not need an international corrective, but an international pioneer who will break down the resistance which capitalism still offers to its progress. This pioneer is the Communist International—the leader of the proletariat on the road to world revolution, the pre-requisite of the World League of Socialist Communist Soviet Republics.

The results of the Bolshevik national policy are restful islands in the turmoil of the national phenomena created by world capitalism in the process of its collapse. These results are the guiding stars of the world Communist movement. The Communist International must give definite directions to its various sections on the treatment of the national question. Our Parties must find definite solutions for the many problems connected with this question. The reparation demands of the Entente to Germany, the Irish struggle for independence, the national movements, and struggles of colonial peoples or of countries threatened with colonisation, etc., etc.—everyone of these problems must be studied and appreciated according to their influence on mass psychology. In taking into account this mass psychology the sections of the Communist International

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (30 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern while not ignoring the capitalist present must not forget the Communist future which can only be achieved through world revolution.

By a positive revolutionary attitude to the national question, Communist parties can get into touch with large masses other than the proletariat. As yet Communists have not done much in this direction. Some of our sections “are afraid” to come into conflict with strong, bourgeois-patriotic convictions. Others are, consciously or unconsciously, still influenced by the negative attitude of the Second International, and fear that by insisting on a more positive attitude towards the national question, we shall get a repetition of what took place in the Second International—bourgeois patriotism and betrayal of working class interests. The fear of failure, of losing one’s Communist bearings in the chaos of contradicting phenomena, is the cause of the greatest mistake of all—passivity, which is the worst enemy of revolution for which even the most plausible radical reasons are not an excuse. The Communist International must not limit itself to general directions to its sections, but must encourage and urge them to accept a positive policy on the national question. It is a revolutionary path with a revolutionary aim of world wide significance.

This article has already assumed such proportions that I refrain from dealing in detail with other activities of the Communist International. On this subject I will limit myself to a few cursory

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (31 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern remarks. On the eve of the proletarian revolution, the question of the middle class claims the attention of the Communist movement. It is a supplementary question to the peasant question and presents problems of its own, for example, the problem of civil servants and intellectuals. Both these questions may become important factors in the dissolution and destruction of the bourgeois State, and of bourgeois social order, as well as important factors in revolutionary construction after the assumption of power by the victorious proletariat. This can only be the case, however, if Communists take up the right attitude towards these problems and develop the necessary activities. The Russian revolution has thrown light on the question of civil servants and intellectuals, and has emphasised its importance for the transition period from capitalism to Communism.

In connection with these problems we have to deal with various forms of differentiation between “manual and brain work.” This differentiation has been accentuated by capitalism to such an extent that it makes the already difficult question of the relations between masses and bureaucracy still more acute during the transition period. This problem will not be completely solved until we have a society of free human beings with equal rights and obligations and no class distinctions whatever. For it is only by the abolition of private ownership of the means of production that labour power will cease to be a purchasable commodity and. will become the expression of free individual effort for the welfare of society as a whole. During the transition period the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (32 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern social contrast between manual and brain work is bound to be the cause of acute conflicts.

There are two ways of making this problem less acute and of hastening its solution. In the course of the revolutionary process the workers, as the chief actors in this process, are given an opportunity to raise their cultural level. Their ranks yield an ever- growing crop of “civil servants” and “intellectuals.” The workers themselves begin to appreciate the importance of this kind of work. On the other hand, “civil servants” and “intellectuals” begin to realise the enormous significance and the liberating character of the revolutionary change not only for the workers but also for themselves. This results also in a correct appreciation of their part of the difficulties connected with such a process. Raving become participators in this process, they do their bit in the constructive work of the masses willingly and joyfully. To put s it briefly: “civil servants” and “intellectuals” cease to exist as separate groups or “castes.” The tasks of the Communist International in connection with this process of development are numerous and difficult, for in the period when the proletariat is struggling for State power; it must divide its attention between social and political activities. In all capitalist countries the State apparatus is in the hands of civil servants and intellectuals who are ardent champions of imperialism and the mainstay and driving power of fascism.

Our revolutionary times demand that the Communist

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (33 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern International should assume the leadership of the large non- proletarian section of the population. The Communist International has also greatly extended and intensified Communist work and propaganda among the proletariat. In this connection one has only to compare the agenda of international congresses and the subjects with which the sections, of our international and their leaders have to deal with the questions occupying the attention of the Second International. A comparison of the agenda of the First and Second Congresses with the agenda of the Fifth Congress of the Communist International itself is also instructive. What a testimony of growth! The Communist International has drawn into the orbit of its activities everything connected with the historic life of the proletariat as a fighting class, everything which indicates the growth of proletarian strength and can benefit revolution: trade union and co-operative movement, women and youth movement, educational work and sports, solidarity in rendering help wherever needed, etc., etc.

Of course, some of these branches of work were by no means neglected by the Second International. But most of them were considered secondary and unimportant, and were left to be managed by the Parties and organisation of the various countries instead of being given international importance. One must say that on these fields of proletarian life and activities one generally met the notice: “rubbish heap”—for the refuse of every variety of petty and big bourgeois ideas and aspirations, a hotch-potch of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (34 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern the most variegated illusions and confusions. It is only when political or economic conditions were exceptionally bad that the Second International deigned to discuss “the question.” It lacked the main attribute of a workers’ organisation—the will to revolution, as an immediate aim. It concentrated all its energies on the development of large national Social-Democratic parties with restricted political activities which degenerated into parliamentarism pure and simple and lost all revolutionary impulse. Therefore, there was no real connection in these parties between “politics” and other aspects of proletarian life.

This applies to a great extent even to such an elementary historic phase of revolutionary life as the trade union movement. Its value and its relation to the political party was for a long time a contentious question in the Second International. Party movement and trade union movement were not welded together as part and parcel of the revolutionary movement. They ran parallel to each other as two in dependent movements. This was greatly due to the fact that after the collapse of the Chartist movement in Great Britain, trade unions became strong organisations imbued with the craft and compromising spirit, while socialism only formed small, weak and scattered parties, and in Germany the anti-Socialist laws and the reactionary association law caused a split in the social democracy. The false theory of “trade union” neutrality triumphed. This separation of the two movements made trade unions an easy prey to opportunism. But as proletarian class parties and trade unions

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (35 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern are of the same origin, opportunism also invaded the Socialist parties. When the prominent German trade union leader Doemburg concluded an impassioned oration on relations between trade unionism and social democracy with the famous remark: “The Party and the trade unions are one,” he was right in the sense that they were one in the morass of opportunism and reform. This applies not to Germany alone.

How different are conditions in the Communist International in connection with the various forms and events of proletarian life. All these forms and events are made to harmonise with the activities of the Communist Parties, and the union between the latter and the proletariat is becoming stronger every day. The Communist International personifies the unity of a powerful and extensive fighting apparatus whose component parts intertwine nationally and internationally in joint action. The driving power of this apparatus is the world proletariat’s will to revolution as an immediate aim. Trade union, co-operative, women’s and youth movements, cultural and educational work, etc., are only the emanation of this will in various directions and forms and on various fields. All these movements culminate in the one aim—to rally, to prepare and mobilise the working masses for revolution.

We cannot afford to lose a single moment or a single opportunity.

A crisis within the Communist International would have incalculable consequence for the proletariat. Therefore, every branch of activities with its manifold tasks must be carefully http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (36 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern

studied, separately as well as in connection with Communist activities as a whole, in order that they might be put to a good use. We must not miss a single opportunity of leading the workers into the decisive struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. We have already given the reasons for active interference by the Communist International in the question of revolutionising petty and middle bourgeois and peasant sections of society, as well as colonial peoples. Its tasks and obligations gain in magnitude. To cope with them successfully one must have a good knowledge and appreciation of the smallest details as well as of the big and important matters connected with the workers’ movement, and also of their interrelation. The demands which the important events of the last few years make on the Communist International cannot be always regulated once and for all according to statutes, clauses and agenda items.

Some questions crop up again and again in various forms and claim the attention of the Communist International. They do not come before it in proper sequence allowing sufficient time for their discussion and solution. On the contrary, they frequently take the Communist International unawares and insist on being dealt with at once. For all these questions are the outcome of the ever-changing events and rapid progress of our epoch. Thus decisions made to-day are perhaps of no avail to-morrow. For whatever bourgeois sages and their reformist echo may say about the stability of capitalism, the Communist International lives and works in an epoch of revolution and for revolution.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (37 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern

Its activities are as wide and as varied as the world. Therefore, its methods and tactics must also be varied. Our revolution is a world revolution with definite tasks and aims. This is reflected in the Communist world congresses. It became the custom to call the meeting of the Second International “The Parliament of Labour.” There was an unconscious, profound meaning in this simile, for its represents exactly the nature of the Second International, and it shows to-day how obsolete this institution is for present working class aspirations. It is as obsolete as parliamentarism itself, in spite of MacDonald’s attempts to rejuvenate it in Great Britain through the reformist Labour Government. Who would dream of calling the congresses of the Communist International “the parliament of labour?” It would be more appropriate to compare them to the war council of a gigantic army whose battlefield is the capitalist world.

It is a war council the like of which has never existed before. In the midst of the present struggles it prepares the ground for the future. It rallies to its banner all the vital historic forces for the purpose of destroying the old bourgeois order based on exploitation and oppression. But it also rallies forces for the construction of the Soviet State and for the establishment of the Communist social order. The Communist International teaches the proletariat, among other important lessons of the Russian revolution, the close connection between the process of destruction and the process of construction, and also the great difficulties not only of the seizure of power, but of its http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (38 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: World Wide Field of Activity of the Comintern

maintenance and right application. But these difficulties do not frighten the revolutionary proletariat. The stern demands of history make it incumbent on all proletarians to get rid of their chains, and not only to conquer the world but to change and rejuvenate it. Under the leadership of the Communist International they will accomplish this. The revolution, whose champions they are, is a conqueror as well as a rejuvenator. It is at the same time the Titan of destruction and of construction, the mighty embodiment of human will to power and action.

CLARA ZETKIN

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/activity.htm (39 of 39) [14-7-2011 20:58:19] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party

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Clara Zetkin To the Congress of the German Communist Party

Source: The Communist International, No. 3 (New Series), pp. 75-94, (7,382 words) Transcription: Ted Crawford HTML Markup: Brian Reid Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2007). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

DEAR COMRADES, I had greatly wished to come to our Party Congress and to take part in its work. Unfortunately the state of my health prevents me from satisfying my wish. I am greatly pained at this, for I realise the enormous national and international significance of the present Congress. Will you permit me, therefore, to express to

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (1 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party you my views in writing.

We are all agreed that our Congress will be of service for the immediate future only if it investigates and throws light on the “October events.” If it is to fulfil this task then it must destroy the legend which has become as rigid as a dogma, and in which many believe, namely, that the “October retreat” was not in the least inevitable, and was not caused by concrete circumstances. According to this theory the fight for the capture of power can be taken up at any time under all circumstances, and in this instance it was hindered by bad leadership, embodied in Comrade Brandler’s fostering of the policy of the United Front. This not only led to great mistakes, but is in itself a great mistake which, if not forestalled, will lead to the liquidation, not only of the German Communist Party, but of the Communist International itself. The German “October events” have made this perfectly clear.

Comrades, without the least fear of contradiction, I declare that this theory is more than false; it is dangerous. It beclouds the view of the great and absorbing problems that confront us, and also the weaknesses and the defects of the Party which were revealed in the “October retreat.”

The critical investigation of the “October events” implies something more than the estimation of the tactics of the united front. It is the question of the organisation, the preparation and the carrying out of the armed revolt. In this, the tactics of the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (2 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party

united front are important details, but it is not the most important and decisive point. By its attitude the Communist Party of Germany failed to carry out the task that confronted it. The October retreat was not a result of the united front tactics, but more decidedly the result of the political incapacity, the organisational weaknesses, the course of the history, the state of development, and the inexperience of the Party in leading the revolutionary struggle. Above and below, right and left, all in the Party share in the mistakes and weaknesses that were revealed.

Since May, as a consequence of the occupation of the Ruhr, the revolutionary situation became increasingly acute, and we witnessed the growing consciousness of increasing numbers of exploited proletarians and expropriated petty and middle bourgeois. Wage movements, strikes, unemployment, hunger demonstrations, the plundering of shops and fields, all indicated the revolutionary temper of the masses, in the same way as the small and large geysers in volcanic regions indicate the raging fires burning beneath the surface. The revolutionary mass mood as yet had no political content, no political aim. It remained elementary, instinctive and was not clear revolutionary consciousness, convinced will or bold readiness to fight. The task of the Communist Party was to give it what it lacked.

The Party lacked ability to take advantage of the situation. It was incapable of conducting a policy which would place it in the position of leader in a planned campaign in close contact with the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (3 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party rebel masses, its consciousness and its will, for the capture of power. It did not understand how to convert every cry of pain wrung from the exploited masses into the cry “Carthago delenda est”—the class domination of the bourgeoisie must be overthrown by the dictatorship of the proletariat. It was dominated by the conviction that the “final struggle” must set in with an immediate violent and decisive battle. For it the beginning was, what is really the culminating point in a chain of partial struggles; and for this brilliant beginning it desired to reserve all its revolutionary mass force. It did not behave as a bold, political leader, sure of its aim and direction. It delayed in forming and bringing under its leadership powerful, organised centres outside of its own ranks for revolutionary mass action. Instead of extending and concentrating the factory committee movement, and giving it a definite political aim in the struggle, it allowed the movement to fizzle out. In other words, the situation demanded that the factory councils be given the functions of political workers’ councils, i.e., to set up revolutionary Workers’ and Peasants’ Councils. In a phrase, the attitude of the Party during this period of rising revolutionary temper of the masses, was anything but politics.

For the Party the lesson of Clausewitz that- “War is the continuation of politics conducted by other means,” was completely lost. This lesson applies with even greater force in civil war than in ordinary war. In civil war mass action, mass struggle, revolutionary will and determination, inspiration and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (4 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party self-sacrifice must frequently take the place of military technique. The Party, however, as a result of its policy, failed to prepare the masses for an armed uprising. The hundreds were no substitute for this. This organ of the united front in the main remained but a military parade of the revolutionary temper of the masses. The Party did nothing to link up the hundreds with the mass struggle of the proletariat. It remained up to its ears in the superstition that eager and strenuous military preparation at the last moment of the revolution will guarantee to the proletariat victory in the struggle and the possibility of attaining power.

Comrades, the greatest mistake committed by the Party was that it did not make use of the valuable revolutionary mood of the masses. The anti-Cuno strike clearly shows this, and also that the Party had not yet become the leading class party of the proletariat. Cuno fell without the pressure from the masses, without the establishment of a Workers’ Government; of course, the dictatorship of the proletariat was not to be thought of. The masses swallowed the Stressemann-Hilferding-Sollman Cabinet. The Hilferding finance tricks even brought about an easing of the situation. Unhindered by any powerful protests, the Social- Democratic Reichstag poodle brought the two Emergency Laws to the business managers of the bourgeoisie. The Social- Democrat Ebert sends his General Mueller with his Reichswehr to Saxony, and his transport facilities were not in the least interfered with. This is evidence of another act of omission of our Party in not having conducted any work among the railwaymen

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (5 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party for mobilising a political force for the armed uprising and in not having organised an auxiliary post among them.

In spite of all, the Party imagined that under its leadership the majority of the proletariat would rise up to the revolutionary struggle. The Party majority imagined that by a clever utilisation of the antagonisms and tendencies towards a split among the social-democracy, at least to win over the “left-wing” Social- Democratic workers and non-party workers who sympathised with them, for the “final battle.” Our Communist “left,” looking at the thing with eyes of hatred for the united front, saw the position much more clearly and correctly. As against this, however, they were deceived by the illusions of the March action, namely, the Party can, without the masses, successfully enter into defensive and offensive conflicts. They believed that their bold uprising for the proletarian dictatorship must, like Merlin’s magic horn, serve as the irresistible signal for the revolutionary revolt of the masses. In the sacred belief that the great historical hour had come, the Party put forward feverish organising and military efforts. It is natural that in this it should commit a number of serious errors, but far more serious than all this, was the fact that the Party had forgotten the fundamentals of the revolutionary fight for power, namely, an extensive political activity to imbue the widest possible masses of the workers with the urgency of such a struggle and to rally them round the banner of Communism. As the battle became imminent, the Party found itself alone, isolated from the masses.

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In view of the fascist plan to surround Berlin from the North and South, it would appear that the geographical position and social structure of Saxony and Thuringia would make it possible for the revolutionary proletariat in those places successfully to break up the resistance of the counter revolution. But a “red Middle Germany” as the cornerstone of a “Revolutionary Germany,”—the political significance of Berlin as the centre of the bourgeois machinery of government, and the economic significance of the large towns along the water routes, in the industrial centres in Silesia and South Germany, including North Bavaria and particularly the Rhine-Ruhr district, was very much overlooked. It was a mistake on the part of the Party to stake so much on Saxony and Thuringia. The cause of this was undoubtedly the exaggerated estimation of the extent and firmness of the proletarian united front, and connected with this was the other mistake—the so-called “Saxon Experiment,” for which the Executive Committee of the Communist International is, partly to blame.

Under the circumstances then prevailing, this experiment should not have been made. It was the result of an arrangement between the Party leaders of two tendencies, and not the culminating point of a unified revolutionary mass movement. It regarded as accomplished what had yet to be accomplished—to bring about unification of the revolutionary mass will and readiness for battle under the leadership of the Communist Party. As the situation was in Saxony, this “road to power” clearly must have been the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (7 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party

wrong one. It was clear beforehand that the whole of the bourgeoisie would regard the entry of the Communists into the government of Saxony as an act of provocation. It would not be merely the question of constitution for Saxony, but a real question of power for the whole of Germany, as a question affecting its own class domination. Its obedient Stattholter Ebert knew only one reply to this provocation, viz.: the Reichswehr. The German proletariat was very far from regarding the “Saxon Experiment” as its own class affair. Even the class consciousness of the masses of the workers in Saxony was not sufficiently developed for this.

Our Party did far too little, almost nothing, to link up in the minds of the proletarian masses of Germany the political significance of the “Saxon Experiment” with the armed rising. Its best forces were passionately absorbed in technical preparations. The Party had ceased to stand openly before the masses as its political leader, and to conduct a Communistic Reichs policy. It saw nothing else but the Saxon experiment, and that only locally, and did not regard it as a policy for mobilising the masses. Thus, the Saxon experiment remained nothing but a parliamentary entr’acte, and ended with the Communist minister being thrown out of the government by the Reichswehr over the torn-up constitution, to the accompaniment of fascist parade music. It was not a victorious stage in the capture of power by the advancing proletariat.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (8 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party We see, therefore, comrades, that the collapse of the “Saxon Experiment” was not the logical outcome of the tactics of the united front, but was caused by the circumstances indicated. Who among us will deny that mistakes, and very serious mistakes, have been committed? I have dealt separately with the attitude of the Communist minister towards the Socialist arrangement with the House of Wettin. And yet our comrades in the Saxon government were neither idiots full up with illusions nor cowardly traitors to the class struggle, as they have been described by the growing Communist “left.” To my mind, they did right in taking advantage of the bargaining for an important post to secure a weapon by staging melodramatic discussions with the Zeigner people about the arming of the proletariat. It is true they emphasised the “constitutional” character of the government. By this they helped the masses to see the true value of democracy and to understand the paper character of the constitution, helped them to free themselves from democratic superstitions, and to find the way out of the Social-Democratic sheepfold into the camp of the revolutionary Communist fighter. The error committed by our comrades, in my opinion, is that in their activity in the government they did not lay sufficient emphasis upon the socio-economic aspect. It was, precisely from this aspect, that the Communist proletarian character of the “experiment” was not a fanfare heralding the opening of the battle for the conquest of power necessarily converted into a Chamade. Comrades, there is certainly not one among you who did not regard the “October retreat” with the most profound http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (9 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party inward bitterness. Too grey and cold did this event fall upon us in the spring-time of our hopes for a victorious revolutionary struggle for the proletarian vanguard of Germany. But instead of the hope for decisive advance we had a retreat without fighting, a retreat without rearguard action. So greatly had the Party erred in its estimation of its influence on the non-Communist masses, and consequently in the relation of the forces between the revolution and the counterrevolution, that it did not forsee the retreat, and made no preparations for any covering action. Let us, however, investigate the event with sober judgment and not in the heat of passion. We must then admit that this retreat was an absolute necessity, and its carrying out was the deliberate policy of the Party. In its attempt to capture political power, the Communist Party stood in “splendid isolation,” not understood, not supported, and abandoned by the broad masses of the workers. Its entry into the fight for power was not the signal for the armed mass uprising, but merely for a few isolated local military conflicts between the Communist units and the Reichswehr. How did it end? By the break-up of the Party, squad after squad, and the suppression of the revolutionary proletariat in Saxony and Thuringia.

In the face of the unrealised dream of the Party of the establishment of a proletarian dictatorship, there is really more courage shown in the “October retreat” than in the all or nothing theory of the Party itself taking up the struggle. Comrade Brandler revealed this greater courage, and has rendered a

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (10 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party service to our Party and to the German proletariat. It was a piece of pardonable frivolity and stupidity to believe that the Communist Party isolated from masses, could, by mere example in plunging into the battle, rouse the revolutionary will to struggle among the greater part of the proletariat.

While the Party was preparing for the armed revolt, and while the Reichswehr in Saxony, and later on in Thuringia, were, with Hunnish rage, destroying with proletarian bodies, the clay idol of democracy, there was not a single spontaneous proletarian uprising, not even a weak demonstration of solidarity. The toleration of the military dictatorship of Seekt and the triumphant advance of fascism showed that workers were no longer willing to fight for bourgeois democracy, but it also showed that they were not prepared to rise in arms to establish the proletarian dictatorship. The three hundred Spartans could not have been more or self-sacrificing than the handful of Communists sympathisers in Hamburg. Ten thousand workers were on strike there. Many thousands during the days of fighting were imbued with the spirit of fighting and sympathy, so we are assured, but they kept their hands in their trousers pockets. In Berlin “the factories were ablaze with enthusiasm” for the Hamburg fight, but not a single factory came out into the streets to demonstrate its sympathy. Neither is there any justification for the whinings that the “October retreat” is responsible for the “right moment” for the armed rising—and this indefinitely postponed the revolution. The victory of revolution does not

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (11 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party depend on some favourable “right” moment, and certainly not on one single moment. In July, 1917, the Bolsheviks and Petersburg workers suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of “pure democracy.” In November, the proletarian revolution triumphed.

Comrades, I do not think that I need waste many words about the blame which attaches to the Social-Democrats of the right, as well as of the left, for our “October retreat,” which was a defeat of the German proletariat. We are all agreed on this point, just as we are agreed that this is only a part of the enormous historic blame which attaches to this Party. We are also agreed on the political and practical deductions which we can draw from this fact. To- day many Social-democratic leaders do not even belong to the left wing of bourgeois democracy. Their stand is much more to the right than the stand of many honest and steadfast bourgeois Democrats. The “left” rebels of the Social-Democratic would-be leaders perpetuate the role of the former U.S.P. (Independent Socialist Party) leaders. Their accompaniment of the bourgeois policy of the right wing is the old Social-Democratic music of empty phrases. For the time being they are again the obedient servants of the Party Managing Committee, and of the Reichstag’s majority, because the disagreeable pressure of the workers’ hob-nailed boots on the portion of their anatomy which is not mentioned in polite society has somewhat relaxed. As a result of the “October events” a section of the left Social- Democratic workers certainly finds itself in our ranks. Another section has once more allowed itself to be lulled into inaction by

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (12 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party the dulcet tones of the leaders. The “October retreat” has certainly convinced even the most optimistic Communists that the necessary pre-requisite for the overthrow of bourgeois class domination and for the establishment of proletarian dictatorship is: the overthrow of social democracy, of the crafty, political defence force of the bourgeoisie within the working class itself.

Comrades, the German Communist Party would not be worthy of its name if it were to rest content with this one obvious lesson of the “October retreat,” which by-the-by is not by any means a new wisdom, but only the confirmation of an old truth. The depression, nay the despair, which took possession of the Party gave rise to the belief that there was only one way out of the defeat: an ordered retreat with a minimum of casualties, energetic preparations for renewed struggle. The inevitable pre- requisite for this was calm and collected objective examination of the situation and open, ruthless and relentless criticism of the shortcomings and weaknesses of the Party, which made the retreat inevitable.

This aim could not be achieved merely by the conferences of the Central Committee held in the beginning of November, and by the theses which it adopted. They had to serve the need of the moment; an ordered and not too protracted retreat and the keeping together and preparation of the Party for a new advance. With the enemy at its heels, the Session could not indulge in a searching criticism of the Party, especially as the latter itself,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (13 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party neither the leaders nor the rank and file, could not explain the causes and consequences. It was only just beginning to see the situation clearly. The “left opposition” alone was fortunate enough have a clear view of these events. With rigid dogmatism it was ready with its explanation for the shortcomings of the Party: united front tactics. Thus the theses had to be limited only to what was most necessary. They marked the field of the coming struggles, indicated the ferment and clash of interests in the camp of the bourgeoisie, which we must put to the best possible use, and declared themselves for the united front from below, in strong opposition to the left, as well as to the right Social- Democrats. Not too much significance must be attached to the very contentious phrase about “the victory of fascism over the November Republic.” Neither should an “opportunist tendency” be ascribed to it. It is certainly not quite to the point, for there are various forms of fascism. But in the situation then prevailing it had a political meaning. It could be used in our agitation to dispel the petty-bourgeois illusions about fascism.

The theses of the Central Committee helped the Party, to realise the meaning of the “October retreat.” The various theses in the special issue of the International and the numerous heated discussions in the Party organisations brought it home to the Party still more forcibly. The endeavour to realise that the lessons of the past should serve as an indication of what should be in the future was diverted by the “left” into the domain of fractional strife. Fraction strife has obscured the issue. The Party has not

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (14 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party yet go over the process of coming to a clear and definite conclusion about the “October events.” I am of the opinion that even the theses of the Executive of our International are not sufficiently definite on this question. Comrades, one of the main tasks of the Party Conference and, therefore, one of your main tasks will be—to give, regardless of any tendencies, a clear and well defined exposition of the most important features the situation which led to the October retreat, and of the lessons to be drawn from it. The conclusion of the Party discussion on this matter should release all the forces of the Party for the great historic tasks which are before it. In connection with this, you must not forget for a single moment that the question of the “October events” is not only the concern of German Communists, but also of all Communists adhering to the Communist International. The present situation in Germany shows clearly what kind of work and activities will make the Party strong and active. At present the bourgeois economic system and the bourgeois State are disintegrating, in spite of sporadic attempts to steady the finances of the Reich and to consolidate the capitalist social order. I believe that even foreign credits on a large scale will be unable to bring about a thorough and permanent improvement of conditions in Germany. It seems to me that things will be just kept going by means of a still great exploitation and enslavement of the proletariat and by the complete expropriation of ever-growing sections of the small and middle bourgeoisie, as well of the small and middle peasantry. Objectively, the situation in Germany is as revolutionary as http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (15 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party before.

But we must admit that on this disintegrating and shaky basis the German bourgeoisie has succeeded in consolidating its economic and political power. The proletariat has been compelled to retreat beyond the positions it had captured during the last decades. Of course, this is largely due to the treacherous attitude of the Social- Democrats and trade union bureaucrats. The further development, and especially the tempo, of the revolution greatly depends on our success or non-success in overcoming the discrepancy between the objective forces of the history of mankind, which drive towards revolution, and the weak will to revolution of the German proletariat. Will the proletariat submit to increased exploitation and oppression without putting up a fight which must culminate in an armed rising and in the establishment of proletarian dictatorship? This is the fateful question that confronts us more than ever before. We have learned by bitter experience that a proletariat of over twenty millions, whose self-confidence and revolutionary spirit and determination have been weakened by fifty years of reformist theory and practice and whose traditions are proverbially “peaceful,” cannot be easily moved to take up a revolutionary attitude.

It is true that the starvation policy of the great industrial magnates of the Junkers has awakened the proletarian masses and even the petty-bourgeoisie and small peasantry from their

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (16 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party fatal apathy. In the long rum, distress and misery speak more eloquently than the batons and Brownings of the special police and the rifles of the Reichswehr. All over the country and throughout the entire economic system exploited workers by hand and brain are rebelling by a series of small and big strikes against capitalist domination, against longer working hours, reduction of wages, etc. The heroic struggles of the Rhenish metal workers for the 8-hour day, the mighty fight put up by the workers in the chemical industry, the dockers, etc., are promising signs of the times. But these partial struggles are pre-eminently of an economic nature and must not blind us to other facts. The overwhelming majority of, the German proletariat is either still under the spell of old and deep-rooted illusions and also of new ones (the Labour Government in Great Britain, stabilisation of the mark, etc.), or maintains an attitude of passive hatred of revolution. Moreover, disillusioned by the persistent and shameful treachery of the Social-Democrats, intimidated by the Communist defeat, many an active proletarian has gone over to fascism—the hope of the petty-bourgeoisie.

Comrades, to be able to bring large masses of workers into the decisive revolutionary struggles, the Communist Party must awaken and strengthen the confidence of the masses in their own power, for reformism has systematically lulled to sleep and paralysed the self-confidence of the proletariat. At the same time it must gain and strengthen their confidence in the Communist Party. The Party must win recognition and acknowledgment as

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (17 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party the only rightful leader of the exploited and enslaved, as the only true and determined representative of working class interests. One cannot separate proletarian self-confidence from proletarian confidence in the Communist, Party. It goes without saying that both have been seriously impaired by the “October retreat.” The precious possession which was lost must not only be regained, but added to. Words will not do it, deeds are required.

With this object in view, our Party must identify itself most intimately with the partial struggles of the working class. It must extend and co-ordinate these struggles and must make them more profound. It must give them political meaning and leadership, and it must practice the art of manoeuvring so as to be able to break off any partial struggle before it is defeated. The every-day demands and struggle must at the same time serve as revolutionary training for the masses. The Party must instil our great revolutionary slogans in the masses, so as to spread them rapidly throughout the country and make them in the very near future the object of the proletarian struggle. The Communist Party must teach the wage slaves of the bourgeoisie, who are being shaken out of their apathy, that these partial struggles will lead them to something greater which will have tangible results. We must instil into the workers the knowledge that capitalism is their arch enemy, the need for class solidarity and the proud knowledge that they can fight—for this is an indispensable pre- requisite of future victories. We must not forget that defeats will teach the workers, that we would have been victorious to-day if

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (18 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party the Social-Democratic and trade union leaders had not shamefully left us in the lurch and had not delivered us to our capitalist masters and tormentors. This is the great political advantage of partial struggles, which lead to the establishment of the united front “from below.” The object lesson, most likely to restore self- confidence in the ranks of the timorous German workers and to educate them in a revolutionary spirit—is the Russian revolution, which was the work of the masses under the leadership of a revolutionary proletarian class Party. The matchless revolutionary virtues of these masses and of the Party are a proof of the strength of a united proletariat, and are an incentive for the workers of Germany to go and do likewise.

Comrades, it is, of course, only natural, as well as advantageous for our Party to show in the occasional partial struggles its solidarity with those whom dire misery drives into revolt against the economic and political domination of the bourgeoisie. But this is not enough. Our Party must (to use bourgeois jargon) “incite” the masses to a class-conscious initiation and systematic conduct of partial struggles. It must qualify for its mission—representation of the interests of the oppressed and exploited—by a programme of action which must show an intimate knowledge of the needs and grievances of those it represents, and a capacity to find right ways and means for their mitigation. This programme must not be confined to specifically proletarian demands. It must concern itself with the grievances of all sections of society whose interests clash with the interests

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (19 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party and class domination of big capital.

It must draw practical conclusions from a thorough and comprehensive investigation of the so-called middle class question (including the question of the civil servants and intellectuals, as well as the agrarian question). These conclusions are of twofold significance, for during the revolutionary struggle, we must convert these now hostile sections of society into allies or at least into benevolent neutrals, who after victory, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, will prove to be willing helpers in the work of reconstruction instead of disgruntled sabotagers. All economic and social demands of the much needed programme of action must be directed towards the economic and social expropriation of the bourgeoisie, and all political demands towards depriving it of its present political power. We must state clearly and emphatically that the innovations which we demand are not reforms intended to prop up the bourgeois social order, but rather means to maintain and increase the fitness of the workers for the overthrow of the present social order.

Our Conference has before it the great and important task of drawing up a programme which will lay down definite and uniform lines for the policy and action of the Party. This means that it must give a logical and firm lead to the masses in the struggle for their daily bread, against the enslavement of the proletariat, for adequate wages, the right to strike for government officials, for the right to work and to cultural development for the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (20 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party intellectuals, as well as in the historic struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Our programme of action must not remain a mere paper programme. Its demands must become objects to fight for. This simply means that the Party must acquire the strength and the ability to lead the masses. Comrades, in all sincerity, how does it stand with the Party in this respect? The reply to this is promising. The “October retreat” has strengthened the radical spirit among the Party masses: this partly due to the fact that the non-Communist masses have become more radical. But this by itself is not enough, this new radical temper must be imbued with the spirit of Communism. This decisive factor, however, has not yet gained prominence within the Party.

There is no doubt whatever that the Party masses desire greater Party activity, that more prominence be given to the Communist character and features of the Party. This spirit among the Party masses must be encouraged and supported. But it is precisely this task which must make us alive to the condition of the Party at the top, as well as at the bottom. The radicalised Party masses are to a great extent under the sway of revolutionary feelings and moods. They are deficient in training and they lack clarity of ideas and firmness. The “left” Party majority includes, in a truly brotherly fashion K.A.P.’ists (Communist Workers’ Party), syndicalists, anti-parliamentarians and -horrible dictum—even reformists, and latterly fascist anti-semites. Hitherto the spokesmen of the “left” were not in reality political leaders. It is true that they voiced the moods and ideas of their followers, but

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (21 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party they were unable to rally them and to lead them forward under a well-defined, logical and comprehensive slogan. They allow themselves to be pushed along instead of leading themselves. There is nothing to show that they would act differently as Party leaders. There are, of course, splendid proletarian elements among the “left” upper strata who understand the situation and will learn to lead. But just as wearing a cowl does not make one a monk, taking office does not give one at once the necessary moral training, clarity, firmness and practical experience.

Of course; being a composite mixture, the managing body which is an outcome of the “radicalisation” of the Party, comprises also the “left centre” of the old Central Committee. It was to regulate and train the raw revolutionary eagerness in the upper and lower strata of the Party by Communist steadfastness. There is a fatal obstacle in the way of the, fulfilment of this task. This obstacle is the weakness of the most prominent men of the “left centre,” and their lack of firm principle. If the “left” leaders allow themselves to be pushed along by the “left” masses, these “left centrists” allow themselves to be driven by the “left” leaders and masses. Their political leadership amounts to nothing more than meek and contrite self-accusations of not having gone far enough to the “left” and “submission to any punishment” for having allowed the wicked fellow Brandler to convert their “leftism” into “rightism.” “Unwittingly, they deride themselves.”

And what is the result? Comrades, the thought of it alone is

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (22 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party maddening. Since the “October events” all the strength of the Party is being wasted in factional quarrelling, instead of being used and increased in the struggle with the arch enemies of the proletariat. Never before, not even after the crashing defeat of the March action, has such a chaos reigned in the Party, and never before has the Party been so passive. The demonstrations against the prohibition of our Party were miserable affairs. There was no determined struggle on a large scale against Seeckt’s dictatorship, and no big campaign for the defence of the eight Our day, for higher wages and salaries, for the preservation of the right to strike and for the right to have factory councils. The Lenin memorial meetings were a complete fiasco. The breakdown of the Party allowed the Social, Democratic leaders to parade as the sturdy defenders of the Proletariat against humiliating conditions, for which they are, in fact, responsible. The illegal position of the Communist Party is not an excuse for its passivity. On the contrary, it is one more reason for blaming it. Instead of action there was the artificially fomented campaign against “Brandler and Co.” an epidemic of expulsions against “suspects” and a hunt or “right tendencies”. No matter how hard it is to have to struggle against opportunist tendencies within the Party, we must admit that what is going on now under the pretence of such a struggle is unhealthy and demoralising.

Comrades, allow me to express my sincere personal opinion on this matter. My respect for you, my solidarity with you and my Party duty make it incumbent on me to be quite frank with you. It

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (23 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party makes me only smile when, following the latest fashion, I am labelled “opportunist,” or what is still more fashionable, “Social- Democrat.” I know that my life’s work and not the verdict of fractional narrow-mindedness is the test of my political character. I do not know for what sins of commission or omission I am to be associated with Brandler. I confess that I have committed the offence of not considering every “left” leader a paragon of theoretical knowledge and clarity, and of not looking upon every member of the “left centre” as a model of heroic manhood. And I make this confession, if not before the throne of royalty, yet before the thunder and lightning of the Communist Olympians—Maslov, Scholem and Ruth Fischer. I deem it my duty to make this statement in spite of the fever against all tendencies, which is at present raging within the Party. I would not appreciate it at all if I were to be amnestied because of my long service in the workers’ movement by a party, in the leading organs of which there is no room for men like Brandler, Thalheimer, Walcher and Pieck, who founded the Party under very difficult circumstances under the fire of the enemy, who were always faithful and trustworthy fighters for Communism and for revolution, which is the path to Communism, and who, from the very beginning carried the hammer and sickle, the banner of the Communist International before the German proletariat. I, together with them, will remain in the ranks of our Party as a “soldier of the revolution” who honours national and international discipline and who struggles and works with the Party and with the Communist International for a speedy victory http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (24 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party of the social revolution.

It behoves us more than ever before to be inseparably united with the Party and with the Communist International. Through an open and honest exchange of opinions, which eliminates all disintegrating fractional strife, we shall all of us do our utmost to help the Party to get over its “infantile sickness.” If these sicknesses were allowed to develop unhindered, the Party would be reduced to the status of a sect. I have already spoken of one of these “infantile sicknesses.” Unfortunately, it is not the only one of its kind. In the historical development which the “left” leaders anticipate for Germany we can clearly see their hereditary failing: that rigid and dogmatic attitude which made them see the imminence of revolution before the “October events,” and which makes them now assume that revolution is further away than ever. Comrade Maslov prophesies a period of stagnation of ten to fifteen years. But, does not the capitalist economic system and the bourgeois State contain strong revolutionary explosive forces, as well as stagnation, and are there not many opportunities for these explosive forces in the revolutionary will of the masses? I will admit that the situation is such that we shall have to wait some time before the revolution will be able to say: “I am! In spite of all!” The foundations of the capitalist world are so thoroughly shaken that revolution can come upon us unexpectedly “like a thief in the night.”

This situation demands the utmost elasticity of tactics. The

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (25 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party German Communist Party must be prepared for steady advance, as well as for stubborn holding out and cautious manoeuvring. The main feature of its tactics must be a combination of daring and caution. But whether our tactics be adapted to an early or late advent of the revolution, the success of our caution and daring depends on the development of the Communist Party into a mass party, into a leading revolutionary class party of the proletariat. As the conquest of power by the proletariat and the establishment of its dictatorship are still our historic aims, the winning over of the majority of the working class for proletarian dictatorship and proletarian revolution must be our main concern.

This is impossible without the united front tactics of the Party and without the Party’s participation in the partial struggles of the majority of the working class for partial demands and transition slogans. While Comrade Maslov foresees a long period of stagnation, influential “left” leaders protest, not without justification, against mistakes made in the application of united front tactics, against a misleading estimation of partial demands and transition slogans. But they demand “on principle” that there shall be an end to united front tactics, partial demands and transition slogans. Do they in all earnest believe that the slogans of “civil war” and “dictatorship of the proletariat” are sufficient to rally the masses and to lead them into the revolutionary struggle? I am sufficiently “un-Marxian” and “un-Bolshevik” to think that this is impossible.

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Comrades, not less contradictory and vague is the attitude of the “left” leaders towards the questions of trade unionism and organisation. Especially in connection with the trade union question, it is clear that these leaders allow themselves to be guided by the vague moods of the masses, instead of guiding these masses on to the right path. The trade union question can become a life and death question for our Party. It is a political and not an organisational question. It is in the interests of the Party that the trade unions remain accessible to it as a recruiting and rallying ground of non-Communist workers for revolutionary struggles under Communist leadership. But “left” leaders talk, write and act as if the time had come for the slogan “get out of the trade unions”! And this, in a period of utmost economic depression and organisational slackness, when material and financial obstacles are in the way of organisational work and when there are political reasons for making a systematic use of trade unions which have steered clear of splits. I have only to remind you of the necessity to develop the factory councils movement, and of the Party’s attitude towards the organisation of factory nuclei.

Comrades, I draw your attention to the fact that the “left” leaders go to the masses with the war cry “Down with united front tactics, with partial demands and with the transitional slogans—organise factory nuclei! Get out of the trade unions!”—all of which is contrary to the attitude of the Communist International and tends to a breach of the latter’s discipline. Is not this a http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (27 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party

recantation of the decisions of the Executive of our World Organisation, of decisions which they helped to make and with which they agreed? And this while they swear allegiance to the policy of Lenin which demands the development of the Communist Parties into mass parties and the winning over of the majority of the working class through united front tactics, which this policy considered to be one of the strongest weapons in the struggle for the conquest of power; this, while they cannot find enough praises for the Bolshevik party, one of the main features of which is strict and binding discipline. With such facts before us, who could deny the magnitude of the coming peril? To meet this peril, in all consciousness and with all our might, is a duty which we owe to the Party and to the Communist International.

Owing to the length of my letter, I must abstain from dealing, even imperfectly, with the discussions in the Russian Communist Party, although the hotspurs of left Communism, like the dulcet flautists of the “left centre,” endeavour to take shelter behind them. There is no doubt whatever that struggle against any form and any tendency of opportunism is the imperative national, as well as international, task of all Communists. Opportunism must not be allowed to gain a footing anywhere. It is an enemy between whom and us there can be no rapprochement. But in all this we must not forget a precept left to us by the wise revolutionary: “Realpolitiker”—Lenin. To overcome opportunism we must also overcome revolutionary romanticism, as well as avert attempt at putschism. Opportunism engenders putschism

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (28 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: To the Congress of the German Communist Party and vice versa. They are closely related and have their origin in the wish to get the exploited and oppressed as quickly as possible out of the misery of this transition period, and in confused notions about the nature and conditions of the revolution which is to save humanity. The ship of Communism must not be wrecked on the rocks of revolutionary romanticism and putschism, and it must not be allowed to founder on the shoals of opportunism. Our ship must steer a straight course, full steam ahead over the stormy waves of revolutionary mass actions and mass struggles. To the masses! Win over the masses! Let us therefore, while not neglecting the struggles for the every-day needs of the masses, reveal to them the ideal of Communism. “Man does not live by bread alone,” the world, as far as it is not poisoned by the capitalist system, longs for ideals of a noble existence. Let us show that this longing can only be stilled by Communism, which is the strongest and most extensive cultural movement that aims at the realisation of the highest ideal for all. In view of the dissolution and rottenness of bourgeois society and culture, the lofty ideals of Communism gain recruits for the revolution. These fighters of the revolution will be in the foremost ranks at the time of the final struggle. Mass struggle, as a material necessity, and pure and lofty idealism will ensure their victory.

CLARA ZETKIN

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/xx/xx/congress.htm (30 of 30) [14-7-2011 20:58:28] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923)

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Clara Zetkin Fascism (August 1923)

From Labour Monthly, August 1923, pp.69-78. Thanks to John Partington. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

IN Fascism, the proletariat is confronted by an extraordinarily dangerous enemy. Fascism is the concentrated expression of the general offensive undertaken by the world bourgeoisie against the proletariat. Its overthrow is therefore an absolute necessity, nay, it is even a question of the every-day existence and of the bread and butter of every ordinary worker. On these grounds the whole of the proletariat must concentrate on the fight against Fascism. It will be much easier for us to defeat Fascism if we clearly and distinctly study its nature. Hitherto there have been extremely vague ideas upon this subject not only among the large

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (1 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) masses of the workers, but even among the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat and the Communists. Hitherto Fascism has been put on a level with the White Terror of Horthy in Hungary. Although the methods of both are similar, in essence they are different. The Horthy Terror was established after the victorious, although shortlived, revolution of the proletariat had been suppressed, and was the expression of vengeance of the bourgeoisie. The ringleaders of the White Terror were a quite small clique of former officers. Fascism, on the contrary, viewed objectively, is not the revenge of the bourgeoisie in retaliation for proletarian aggression against the bourgeoisie, but it is a punishment of the proletariat for failing to carry on the revolution begun in Russia. The Fascist leaders are not a small and exclusive caste; they extend deeply into wide elements of the population.

We have to overcome Fascism not only militarily, but also politically and ideologically. The reformists even to-day consider Fascism to be nothing else but naked violence, the reaction against the violence begun by the proletariat. To the reformists the Russian Revolution amounts to the same thing as Mother Eve’s biting into the apple in the Garden of Eden. The reformists trace Fascism back to the Russian Revolution and its consequences. Nothing else was meant by Otto Bauer at the Unity Congress at Hamburg, when he declared that a great share of the blame for Fascism rests on the Communists, who had weakened the force of the proletariat by continual splits. In saying this he

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (2 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) entirely ignored the fact that the German Independents had made their split long before the demoralising example was given by the Russian Revolution. Contrary to his own views, Bauer, at Hamburg, had to draw the conclusion that the organised violence of Fascism must be met by forming defence organisations of the proletariat, because no appeal to democracy can avail against direct violence. At any rate, he went on to explain that he did not mean such weapons as insurrection or a general strike which did not always lead to success. What he meant was the co-ordination of parliamentary action with mass action. What was to be the nature of these actions Otto Bauer did not say, but this is the very point of the question. The only weapon recommended by Bauer for the fight against Fascism was the establishment of an International Bureau of Information on world reaction. The distinguishing feature of this new-old International is its faith in the power and permanence of bourgeois domination, and its mistrust and cowardice towards the proletariat as the strongest factor of the world revolution. They are of the opinion that against the invulnerable force of the bourgeoisie the proletariat can do nothing else but act with moderation and refrain from teasing the tiger of the bourgeoisie. Fascism, with all its forcefulness in the prosecution of its violent deeds, is indeed nothing else but the expression of the disintegration and decay of capitalist economy, and the symptom of the dissolution of the bourgeois State. This is one of its roots. Symptoms of this decay of capitalism were observed even before the war. The war has shattered capitalist economy to its foundation, resulting not only http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (3 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) in the colossal impoverishment of the proletariat, but also in deep misery for the petty bourgeoisie, the small peasantry and the intellectuals. All these elements had been promised that the war would bring about an amelioration of their material conditions. But the very opposite has happened. Large numbers of the former middle classes have become proletarians, having entirely lost their economic security. Their ranks were joined by large masses of ex-officers, who are now unemployed. It was among these elements that Fascism recruited quite a considerable contingent. The manner of its composition is also the reason why Fascism in some countries is of an outspoken, monarchist character. The second root of Fascism lies in the retarding of the world revolution by the treacherous attitude of the reformist leaders. Large numbers of the petty bourgeoisie, including even the middle classes, had discarded their war-time psychology for a certain sympathy with reformist socialism, hoping that the latter would bring about a reformation of society along democratic lines. They were disappointed in their hopes. They can now see that the reformist leaders are in benevolent accord with the bourgeoisie, and the worst of it is that these masses have now lost their faith not only in the reformist leaders, but in socialism as a whole. These masses of disappointed socialist sympathisers are joined by large circles of the proletariat, of workers who have given up their faith not only in socialism, but also in their own class. Fascism has become a sort of refuge for the politically shelterless. In fairness it ought to be said that the Communists, too – except the Russians – bear part of the blame for the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (4 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) desertion of these elements to the Fascist ranks, because our actions at times failed to stir the masses profoundly enough. The obvious aim of the Fascists, when gaining support among the various elements of society, must have been, as a matter of course, to try and bridge over the class antagonism in the ranks of their own adherents, and the so-called authoritative State was to serve as a means to this end. Fascism now embraces such elements which may become very dangerous to the bourgeois order. Nevertheless, thus far these elements have been invariably overcome by the reactionary elements.

The bourgeoisie had seen the situation clearly from the start. The bourgeoisie wants to reconstruct capitalist economy. Under the present circumstances reconstruction of bourgeois class domination can be brought about only at the cost of increased exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie is quite aware that the soft-speaking reformist socialists are fast losing their hold on the proletariat, and that there will be nothing for the bourgeoisie but to resort to violence against the proletariat. But the means of violence of the bourgeois States are beginning to fail. They therefore need a new organisation of violence, and this is offered to them by the hodge-podge conglomeration of Fascism. For this reason the bourgeoisie offers all the force at its command in the service of Fascism. Fascism has diverse characteristics in different countries. Nevertheless it has two distinguishing features in all countries, namely, the pretence of a revolutionary programme, which is cleverly adapted

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (5 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) to the interests and demands of the large masses, and, on the other hand, the application of the most brutal violence. The classic instance is Italian Fascism. Industrial capital in Italy was not strong enough to reconstruct the ruined economy. It was not expected that the State would intervene to increase the power and the material possibilities of the industrial capital of Northern Italy. The State was giving all its attention to agrarian capital and to petty financial capital. The heavy industries, which had been artificially boosted during the war, collapsed when the war was over, and a wave of unprecedented unemployment set in. The pledges given to the soldiers could not be redeemed. All these circumstances created an extreme revolutionary situation. This revolutionary situation resulted, in the summer of 1920, in the occupation of the factories. Upon that occasion it was shown that the maturity of the revolution makes its first appearance among a small minority of the proletariat. The occupation of the factories was therefore bound to end in a tremendous defeat instead of becoming the starting point for revolutionary development. The reformist leaders of the trade unions acted the part of ignominious traitors, but at the same time it was shown that the proletariat possessed neither the will nor the power to march on towards revolution. Notwithstanding the reformist influence, there were forces at work among the proletariat which could become inconvenient to the bourgeoisie. The municipal elections, in which the social democrats gained a third of all the councils, were a signal of alarm to the bourgeoisie, who immediately started to seek for a force which could combat the revolutionary http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (6 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) proletariat. It was just at that time that Mussolini had gained some importance with Fascismo. After the defeat of the proletariat in the occupation of the factories, the number of the Fascisti was over 1,000 and great masses of the proletariat joined the Mussolini organisation. On the other hand, large masses of the proletariat had fallen into a state of indifference. The cause of the first success of the Fascisti was that it made its start with a revolutionary gesture. Its pretended aim was to fight to retain the revolutionary conquests of the revolutionary war, and for this reason they demanded a strong State which would be able to protect these revolutionary fruits of victory against the hostile interests of the various classes of society represented by the “old State.” Its slogan was directed against all the exploiters, and hence also against the bourgeoisie. Fascism at that time was so radical that it even demanded the execution of Giolitti and the dethronement of the Italian dynasty. But Giolitti carefully refrained from using violence against Fascism, which seemed to him to be the lesser evil. To satisfy these Fascist clamours he dissolved Parliament. At that time Mussolini was still pretending to be a republican, and in an interview he declared that the Fascist faction could not participate at the opening of the Italian parliament because of the monarchist ceremony accompanying it. These utterances provoked a crisis in the Fascist Movement, which had been established as a party by a merger of the Mussolini adherents and the representatives of the monarchist organisation, and the executive of the new party was made up of an even number of members from both factions. The Fascist http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (7 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) Party created a double-edged weapon for the corruption and terrorisation of the working class. For the corruption of the working class the Fascist Trade Unions were created, the so- called corporations in which workers and employers were united. To terrorise the working class, the Fascist Party created the militant squads which had grown out of the punitive expeditions. Here it must be emphasised again that the tremendous treason of the Italian reformists during the general strike, which was the cause of the terrible defeat of the Italian proletariat, had given direct encouragement to the Fascists to capture the State. On the other hand, the mistakes of the Communist Party consisted in their regarding Fascism as merely a militarist and terrorist movement without any profound social basis.

Let us now examine what Fascism has done since the conquest of power for the fulfilment of its intended revolutionary programme, for the realisation of its promise to create a State without class. Fascism held out the promise of a new and better electoral law and of equal suffrage for women. The new suffrage law of Mussolini is in reality the worst restriction of the suffrage law to favour the Fascist Movement. According to this law, two- thirds of all the seats must be given to the strongest party, and all the other parties together shall hold only one-third of the seats. Women’s franchise has been nearly entirely eliminated. The right to vote is given only to a small group of propertied women and the so-called “war-distinguished” women. There is no longer any mention made of the promise of the economic parliament and

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (8 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) National Assembly, nor of the abolition of the Senate which had been pledged so solemnly by the Fascists.

The same can be said about the pledges made in the social sphere. The Fascists had inscribed on their programme the eight- hour day, but the bill introduced by them provides so many exceptions that there is to be no eight-hour day in Italy. Nothing came also of the promised guarantee of wages. The destruction of the trade unions has enabled the employers to effect wage reductions of 20 to 30 per cent, and in some cases of even 50 to 60 per cent. Fascism had promised old age and invalid insurance. In practice the Fascist Government, for the sake of economy, has struck off the miserable 50,000,000 lire which had been set aside for this purpose in the budget. The workers were promised the right of technical participation in the administration of the factories. To-day there is a law in Italy which proscribes the factory councils completely. The State enterprises are playing into the hands of private capital. The Fascist programme had contained a provision for a progressive income tax on capital, which was to some extent to act as a form of expropriation. In fact the opposite was done. Various taxes on luxuries were abolished, such as the automobile tax, for the pretended reason that it would restrict national production. The indirect taxes were increased for the reason that this would curtail the home consumption and thus improve the possibilities for export. The Fascist Government also abrogated the law for the compulsory registration of transfers of securities, thus reintroducing the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (9 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) system of bearer-bonds and opening the door wide to the tax- evader. The schools were handed over to the clergy. Before capturing the State, Mussolini demanded a commission to inquire into war profits, of which 85 per cent were to be restored to the State. When this commission had become uncomfortable for his financial backers, the heavy industrialists, he ordered that the commission should only submit a report to him, and whoever published any of the things that transpired in that commission would be punished with six months’ imprisonment. Also in military matters Fascism failed to keep its promises. The army was promised to be restricted to territorial defence. In reality, the term of service for the standing army was increased from eight months to eighteen, which meant the increase of the armed forces from 250,000 to 350,000. The Royal Guards were abolished because they were too democratic to suit Mussolini. On the other hand, the carabinieri were increased from 65,000 to 90,000, and all the police troops were doubled. The Fascist organisations were transformed into a kind of national militia, which by latest accounts have now reached the number of 500,000. But the social differences have introduced an element of political contrast in the militia, which must lead to the eventual collapse of Fascism.

When we compare the Fascist programme with its fulfilment we can foresee already to-day the complete ideological collapse of Fascism in Italy. Political bankruptcy must inevitably follow in the wake of this ideological bankruptcy. Fascism is unable to keep

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (10 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) together the forces which helped it to get into power. A clash of interests in many forms is already making itself felt. Fascism has not yet succeeded in making the old bureaucracy subservient to it. In the army there is also friction between the old officers and the new Fascist leaders. The differences between the various political parties are growing. Resistance against Fascism is increasing throughout the country. Class antagonism begins to permeate even the ranks of the Fascists. The Fascists are unable to keep the promises which they made to the workers and to the Fascist Trade Unions. Wage reductions and dismissals of workers are the order of the day. Thus it happens that the first protest against the Fascist trade union movement came from the ranks of the Fascists themselves. The workers will very soon come back to their class interest and class duty. We must not look upon Fascism as a .united force capable of repelling our attack. It is rather a formation, which comprises many antagonistic elements, and will be disintegrated from within. But it would be dangerous to assume that the ideological and political disintegration of Fascism in Italy would be immediately followed by military disintegration. On the contrary, we must be prepared for Fascism to endeavour to keep alive by terrorist methods. Therefore, the revolutionary Italian workers must be prepared for further serious struggles. It would be a great calamity if we were satisfied with the role of spectators of this process of disintegration. It is our duty to hasten this process with all the means at our disposal. This is not only the duty of the Italian proletariat, but also the duty of the German proletariat in the face of German Fascism. http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (11 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923)

After Italy, Fascism is strongest in Germany. As a consequence of the result of the war and of the failure of the revolution, the capitalist economy of Germany is weak, and in no other country is the contrast between the objective ripeness for revolution and the subjective unpreparedness of the working class as great as just now in Germany. In no other country have the reformists so ignominiously failed as in Germany. Their failure is more criminal than the failure of any other party in the old International, because it is they who should have conducted the struggle for the emancipation of the proletariat with utterly different means in the country where the working-class organisations are older and better organised than anywhere else.

I am firmly convinced that neither the Peace Treaties nor the occupation of the Ruhr have given such a fillip to Fascism in Germany as the seizure of power by Mussolini. This has encouraged the German Fascists. The collapse of Fascism in Italy would greatly discourage the Fascists in Germany. We must not overlook one thing: the prerequisite for the overthrow of Fascism abroad is the overthrow of Fascism in every single country by the proletariat of these countries. It behoves us to overcome Fascism ideologically and politically. This imposes enormous tasks on us. We must realise that Fascism is a movement of the disappointed and of those whose existence is ruined. Therefore, we must endeavour either to win over or to neutralise those wide masses who are still in the Fascist camp. I wish to emphasise the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (12 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) importance of our realising that we must struggle ideologically for the possession of the soul of these masses. We must realise that they are not only trying to escape from their present tribulations, but that they are longing for a new philosophy. We must come out of the narrow limits of our present activity. The Third International is, in contradistinction to the old International, an International of all races without any distinctions whatever. The Communist Parties must not only be the vanguard of the proletarian manual workers, but also the energetic defenders of the interests of the brain workers. They must be the leaders of all sections of society which are driven into opposition to bourgeois domination because of their interests and their expectations of the future. Therefore, I welcomed the proposal of Comrade Zinoviev (speaking at a session of the Enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International in June of this year) to take up the struggle for the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government. I was jubilant when I read about it. This new slogan has a great significance for all countries. We cannot dispense with it in the struggle for the overthrow of Fascism. It means that the salvation of the wide masses of the small peasantry will be achieved through Communism. We must not limit ourselves merely to carrying on a struggle for our political and economic programme. We must at the same time familiarise the masses with the ideals of Communism as a philosophy. If we do this, we shall show the way to a new philosophy to all those elements which have lost their bearings during the historical development of recent times. The necessary prerequisite for this

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (13 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) is that, as we approach these masses, we also become organisationally, as a Party, a firmly welded unit. If we do not do that, we run the risk of falling into opportunism and of going bankrupt. We must adapt our methods of work to our new tasks. We must speak to the masses in a language which they can understand, without doing prejudice to our ideas. Thus, the struggle against Fascism brings forward a number of new tasks.

It behoves all the parties to carry out this task energetically and in conformity with the situation in their respective countries. However, we must bear in mind that it is not enough to overcome Fascism ideologically and politically. The position of the proletariat as regards Fascism is at present one of self-defence. This self-defence of the proletariat must take the form of a struggle for its existence and its organisation.

The proletariat must have a well organised apparatus of self- defence. Whenever Fascism uses violence, it must be met with proletarian violence. I do not mean by this individual terrorist acts, but the violence of the organised revolutionary class struggle of the proletariat. Germany has made a beginning by organising factory “hundreds.” This struggle can only be successful if there is a proletarian united front. The workers must unite for this struggle regardless of party. The self-defence of the proletariat is one of the greatest incentives for the establishment of the proletarian united front. Only by instilling class-consciousness into the soul of every worker will we succeed in preparing also for the military overthrow of Fascism, which, at this juncture, is

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (14 of 15) [14-7-2011 20:58:35] Clara Zetkin: Fascism (August 1923) absolutely necessary. If we succeed in this, we may be sure that it will be soon all up with the capitalist system and with bourgeois power, regardless of any success of the general offensive of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. The signs of disintegration, which are so palpably before our eyes, give us the conviction that the giant proletariat will again join in the revolutionary fray, and that its call to the bourgeois world will be: I am the strength, I am the will, in me you see the future!

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Clara Zetkin Lenin on the Women’s Question

From My Memorandum Book

Source: The Emancipation of Women: From the Writings of V.I. Lenin; Publisher: International Publishers; Transcribed: Sally Ryan.

Comrade Lenin frequently spoke to me about the women’s question. Social equality for women was, of course, a principle needing no discussion for communists. It was in Lenin’s large study in the Kremlin in the autumn of 1920 that we had our first long conversation on the subject.

“We must create a powerful international women’s movement, on a clear theoretical basis”, Lenin began. “There is no good practice without Marxist theory, that is clear. The greatest clarity of principle is necessary for us communists in

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (1 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 this question. There must be a sharp distinction between ourselves and all other Parties. Unfortunately, our Second World Congress did not deal with this question. It was brought forward, but no decision arrived at. The matter is still in commission, which should draw up a resolution, theses, directions. Up to the present, however, they haven’t got very far. You will have to help.”

I was already acquainted with what Lenin said and expressed my astonishment at the state of affairs. I was filled with enthusiasm about the work done by Russian women in the revolution and still being done by them in its defence and further development. And as for the position and activities of women comrades in the Bolshevik Party, that seemed to me a model Party. It alone formed an international communist women’s movement of useful, trained and experienced forces and a historical example.

Movement of Working Women

“That is right, that is all very true and fine”, said Lenin, with a quiet smile. “In Petrograd, here in Moscow, in other towns and industrial centres the women workers acted splendidly during the revolution. Without them we should not have been victorious. Or scarcely so. That is my opinion. How brave they were, how brave they still are! Think of all the suffering and deprivations they bore. And they are carrying on because they want freedom, want communism. Yes, our proletarian women are excellent class fighters. They deserve admiration and love. Besides, you must remember that even the ladies of the ‘constitutional democracy’ in Petrograd proved more

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (2 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 courageous against us than did the junkers. That is true. We have in the Party reliable, capable and untiringly active women comrades. We can assign them to many important posts in the Soviet and Executive Committees, in the People’s Commissariats and public services of every kind. Many of them work day and night in the Party or among the masses of the proletariat, the peasants, the Red Army. That is of very great value to us. It is also important for women all over the world. It shows the capacity of women, the great value their work has in society. The first proletarian dictatorship is a real pioneer in establishing social equality for women. It is clearing away more prejudices than could volumes of feminist literature. But even with all that we still have no international communist women’s movement, and that we must have. We must start at once to create it. Without that the work of our International and of its Parties is not complete work, can never be complete. But our work for the revolution must be complete. Tell me how communist work is going on abroad.”

Lenin listened attentively, his body inclined forward slightly, following, without a trace of boredom, impatience or weariness, even incidental matters.

“Not bad, not at all bad”, said Lenin. “The energy, willingness and enthusiasm of women comrades, their courage and wisdom in times of illegality or semi-legality indicate good prospects for the development of our work. They are valuable factors in extending the Party and increasing its strength, in winning the masses and carrying on our activities. But what about the training and clarity of principle of these men and women comrades? It is of fundamental importance for work among the masses. It is of great influence on what closely concerns the masses, how they can be won, how made enthusiastic. I forget for the moment who said: ‘One must be

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (3 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 enthusiastic to accomplish great things.’ We and the toilers of the whole world have really great things to accomplish. So what makes your comrades, the proletarian women of Germany, enthusiastic? What about their proletarian class- consciousness; are their interests, their activities concentrated on immediate political demands? What is the mainspring of their ideas?

“I have heard some peculiar things on this matter from Russian and German comrades. I must tell you. I was told that a talented woman communist in Hamburg is publishing a paper for prostitutes and that she wants to organise them for the revolutionary fight. Rosa acted and felt as a communist when in an article she championed the cause of the prostitutes who were imprisoned for any transgression of police regulations in carrying on their dreary trade. They are, unfortunately, doubly sacrificed by bourgeois society. First, by its accursed property system, and, secondly, by its accursed moral hypocrisy. That is obvious. Only he who is brutal or short-sighted can forget it. But still, that is not at all the same thing as considering prostitutes – how shall I put it? – to be a special revolutionary militant section, as organising them and publishing a factory paper for them. Aren’t there really any other working women in Germany to organise, for whom a paper can be issued, who must be drawn into your struggles? The other is only a diseased excrescence. It reminds me of the literary fashion of painting every prostitute as a sweet Madonna. The origin of that was healthy, too: social sympathy, rebellion against the virtuous hypocrisy of the respectable bourgeois. But the healthy part became corrupted and degenerate.

“Besides, the question of prostitutes will give rise to many serious problems here. Take them back to productive work, bring them into the social economy. That is what we must do.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (4 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 But it is difficult and a complicated task to carry out in the present conditions of our economic life and in all the prevailing circumstances. There you have one aspect of the women’s problem which, after the seizure of power by the proletariat, looms large before us and demands a practical solution. It will give us a great deal of work here in Soviet Russia. But to go back to your position in Germany. The Party must not in any circumstances calmly stand by and watch such mischievous conduct on the part of its members. It creates confusion and divides the forces. And you yourself, what have you done against it?”

Sex and Marriage

Before I could answer, Lenin continued: “Your list of sins, Clara, is still longer. I was told that questions of sex and marriage are the main subjects dealt with in the reading and discussion evenings of women comrades. They are the chief subject of interest, of political instruction and education. I could scarcely believe my ears when I heard it. The first country of proletarian dictatorship surrounded by the counter-revolutionaries of the whole world, the situation in Germany itself requires the greatest possible concentration of all proletarian, revolutionary forces to defeat the ever-growing and ever-increasing counter-revolution. But working women comrades discuss sexual problems and the question of forms of marriage in the past, present and future. They think it their most important duty to enlighten proletarian women on these subjects. The most widely read brochure is, I

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (5 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 believe, the pamphlet of a young Viennese woman comrade on the sexual problem. What a waste! What truth there is in it the workers have already read in Bebel, long ago. Only not so boringly, not so heavily written as in the pamphlet, but written strongly, bitterly, aggressively, against bourgeois society.

“The extension of Freudian hypotheses seems ‘educated’, even scientific, but it is ignorant, bungling. Freudian theory is the modern fashion. I mistrust the sexual theories of the articles, dissertations, pamphlets, etc., in short, of that particular kind of literature which flourishes luxuriantly in the dirty soil of bourgeois society. I mistrust those who are always contemplating the several questions, like the Indian saint his navel. It seems to me that these flourishing sexual theories which are mainly hypothetical, and often quite arbitrary hypotheses, arise from the personal need to justify personal abnormality or hypertrophy in sexual life before bourgeois morality, and to entreat its patience. This masked respect for bourgeois morality seems to me just as repulsive as poking about in sexual matters. However wild and revolutionary the behaviour may be, it is still really quite bourgeois. It is, mainly, a hobby of the intellectuals and of the sections nearest them. There is no place for it in the Party, in the class-conscious, fighting proletariat.”

I interrupted here, saying that the questions of sex and marriage, in a bourgeois society of private property, involve many problems, conflicts and much suffering for women of all social classes and ranks. The war and its consequences had greatly accentuated the conflicts and sufferings of women in sexual matters, had brought to light problems which were formerly hidden from them. To that were added the effects of the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (6 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1

revolution. The old world of feeling and thought had begun to totter. Old social ties are entangling and breaking, there are the tendencies towards new ideological relationships between man and woman. The interest shown in these questions is an expression of the need for enlightenment and reorientation. It also indicates a reaction against the falseness and hypocrisy of bourgeois society. Forms of marriage and of the family, in their historical development and dependence upon economic life, are calculated to destroy the superstition existing in the minds of working women concerning the eternal character of bourgeois society. A critical, historical attitude to those problems must lead to a ruthless examination of bourgeois society, to a disclosure of its real nature and effects, including condemnation of its sexual morality and falseness. All roads lead to Rome. And every real Marxist analysis of any important section of the ideological superstructure of society, of a predominating social phenomenon, must lead to an analysis of bourgeois society and of its property basis, must end in the realisation, “this must be destroyed”.

Lenin nodded laughingly. “There we have it! You are defending counsel for your women comrades and your Party. Of course, what you say is right. But it only excuses the mistakes made in Germany; it does not justify them. They are, and remain, mistakes. Can you really seriously assure me that the questions of sex and marriage were discussed from the standpoint of a mature, living, historical materialism? Deep and many-sided knowledge is necessary for that, the dearest Marxist mastery of a

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (7 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 great amount of material. Where can you get the forces for that now? If they existed, then pamphlets like the one I mentioned would not be used as material for study in the reading and discussion circles. They are distributed and recommended, instead of being criticised. And what is the result of this futile, un- Marxist dealing with the question? That questions of sex and marriage are understood not as part of the large social question? No, worse! The great social question appears as an adjunct, a part, of sexual problems. The main thing becomes a subsidiary matter. That not only endangers clarity on that question itself, it muddles the thoughts, the class-consciousness of proletarian women generally.

“Last and not least. Even the wise Solomon said that everything has its time. I ask you: Is now the time to amuse proletarian women with discussions on how one loves and is loved, how one marries and is married? Of course, in the past, present and future, and among different nations-what is proudly called historical materialism! Now all the thoughts of women comrades, of the women of the working people, must be directed towards the proletarian revolution. It creates the basis for a real renovation in marriage and sexual relations. At the moment other problems are more urgent than the marriage forms of Maoris or incest in olden times. The question of Soviets is still on the agenda for the German proletariat. The Versailles Treaty and its effect on the life of the working woman – unemployment, falling wages, taxes, and a great deal more. In short, I maintain that this kind of political, social education for proletarian women is false, quite, quite false. How could you be silent about it. You must use your authority against it.”

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Sexual Morality

I have not failed to criticise and remonstrate with leading women comrades in the separate districts, I told him. By my criticism I had laid myself open to the charge of “strong survivals of social democratic ideology and old-fashioned philistinism”.

“I know, I know”, he said. “I have also been accused by many people of philistinism in this matter, although that is repulsive to me. There is so much hypocrisy and narrow- mindedness in it. Well, I’m bearing it calmly! The little yellow- beaked birds who have just broken from the egg of bourgeois ideas are always frightfully clever. We shall have to let that go. The youth movement, too, is attacked with the disease of modernity in its attitude towards sexual questions and in being exaggeratedly concerned with them.” Lenin gave an ironic emphasis to the word modernity and grimaced as he did so. “I have been told that sexual questions are the favourite study of your youth organisations, too. There is sup posed to be a lack of sufficient speakers on the subject. Such misconceptions are particularly harmful, particularly dangerous in the youth movement. They can very easily contribute towards over-excitement and exaggeration in the sexual life of some of them, to a waste of youthful health and strength. You must fight against that, too. There are not a few points of contact between the women’s and youth movements. Our women comrades must work together systematically with the youth. That is a continuation, an extension and exaltation of motherliness from the individual to the social sphere. And all the awakening social life and activity of women must be encouraged, so that they can

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (9 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 discard the limitations of their philistine individualist home and family psychology. But we’ll come to that later.

“With us, too, a large part of the youth is keen on ‘revising bourgeois conceptions and morality’ concerning sexual questions. And, I must add, a large part of our best, our most promising young people. What you said before is true. In the conditions created by the war and the revolution the old ideological values disappeared or lost their binding force. The new values are crystallising slowly, in struggle. In relations between man and man, between man and woman, feelings and thoughts are becoming revolutionised. New boundaries are being set up between the rights of the individual and the rights of the whole, in the duties of individuals. The matter is still in a complete chaotic ferment. The direction, the forces of development in the various contradictory tendencies are not yet clearly defined. It is a slow and often a very painful process of decay and growth. And particularly in the sphere of sexual relationships, of marriage and the family. The decay, the corruption, the filth of bourgeois marriage, with its difficult divorce, its freedom for the man, its enslavement for the woman, the repulsive hypocrisy of sexual morality and relations fill the most active minded and best people with deep disgust.

“The constraint of bourgeois marriage and the family laws of bourgeois states accentuate these evils and conflicts. It is the force of ‘holy property’. It sanctifies venality, degradation, filth. And the conventional hypocrisy of honest bourgeois society does the rest. People are beginning to protest against the prevailing rottenness and falseness, and the feelings of an individual change rapidly. The desire and urge to enjoyment easily attain unbridled force at a time when powerful empires are tottering, old forms of rule breaking down, when a whole social world is beginning to disappear. Sex and marriage

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (10 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 forms, in their bourgeois sense, are unsatisfactory. A revolution in sex and marriage is approaching, corresponding to the proletarian revolution. It is easily comprehensible that the very involved complex of problems brought into existence should occupy the mind of the youth, as well as of women. They suffer particularly under present-day sexual grievances. They are rebelling with all the impetuosity of their years. We can understand that. Nothing could be more false than to preach monkish asceticism and the sanctity of dirty bourgeois morality to the youth. It is particularly serious if sex becomes the main mental concern during those years when it is physically most obvious. What fatal effects that has!

“The changed attitude of the young people to questions of sexual life is of course based on a ‘principle’ and a theory. Many of them call their attitude ‘revolutionary’ and ‘communist’. And they honestly believe that it is so. That does not impress us old people. Although I am nothing but a gloomy ascetic, the so-called ‘new sexual life’ of the youth – and sometimes of the old – often seems to me to be purely bourgeois, an extension of bourgeois brothels. That has nothing whatever in common with freedom of love as we communists understand it. You must be aware of the famous theory that in communist society the satisfaction of sexual desires, of love, will be as simple and unimportant as drinking a glass of water. This glass of water theory has made our young people mad, quite mad. It has proved fatal to many young boys and girls. Its adherents maintain that it is Marxist. But thanks for such Marxism which directly and immediately attributes all phenomena and changes in the ideological superstructure of society to its economic basis! Matters aren’t quite as simple as that. A certain Frederick Engels pointed that out a long time ago with regard to historical materialism.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (11 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 “I think this glass of water theory is completely un-Marxist, and, moreover, anti-social. In sexual life there is not only simple nature to be considered, but also cultural characteristics, whether they are of a high or low order. In his Origin of the Family Engels showed how significant is the development and refinement of the general sex urge into individual sex love. The relations of the sexes to each other are not simply an expression of the play of forces between the economics of society and a physical need, isolated in thought, by study, from the physiological aspect. It is rationalism, and not Marxism, to want to trace changes in these relations directly, and dissociated from their connections with ideology as a whole, to the economic foundations of society. Of course, thirst must be satisfied. But will the normal person in normal circumstances lie down in the gutter and drink out of a puddle, or out of a glass with a rim greasy from many lips? But the social aspect is most important of all. Drinking water is, of course, an individual affair. But in love two lives are concerned, and a third, a new life, arises, it is that which gives it its social interest, which gives rise to a duty towards the community.

“As a communist I have not the least sympathy for the glass of water theory, although it bears the fine title ‘satisfaction of love’. In any case, this liberation of love is neither new, nor communist. You will remember that about the middle of the last century it was preached as the ‘emancipation of the heart’ in romantic literature. In bourgeois practice it became the emancipation of the flesh. At that time the preaching was more talented than it is today, and as for the practice, I cannot judge. I don’t mean to preach asceticism by my criticism. Not in the least. Communism will not bring asceticism, but joy of life, power of life, and a satisfied love life will help to do that. But in my opinion the present widespread hypertrophy in sexual matters does not give joy

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (12 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 and force to life, but takes it away. In the age of revolution that is bad, very bad.

“Young people, particularly, need the joy and force of life. Healthy sport, swimming, racing, walking, bodily exercises of every kind, and many-sided intellectual interests. Learning, studying, inquiry, as far as possible in common. That will give young people more than eternal theories and discussions about sexual problems and the so-called ‘living to the full’. Healthy bodies, healthy minds I Neither monk nor Don Juan, nor the intermediate attitude of the German philistines. You know, young comrade –– ? A splendid boy, and highly talented. And yet I fear that nothing good will come out of him. He reels and staggers from one love affair to the next. That won’t do for the political struggle, for the revolution. And I wouldn’t bet on the reliability, the endurance in struggle of those women who confuse their personal romances with politics. Nor on the men who run petticoat and get entrapped by every young woman. That does not square with the revolution.

“The revolution demands concentration, increase of forces. From the masses, from individuals. It cannot tolerate orgiastic conditions, such as are normal for the decadent heroes and heroines of D’Annunzio. Dissoluteness in sexual life is bourgeois, is a phenomenon of decay. The proletariat is a rising class. It doesn’t need intoxication as a narcotic or a stimulus. Intoxication as little by sexual exaggeration as by alcohol. It must not and shall not forget, forget the shame, the filth, the savagery of capitalism. It receives the strongest urge to fight from a class situation, from the communist ideal. It needs clarity, clarity and again clarity. And so I repeat, no weakening, no waste, no destruction of forces. Self-control, self-discipline is not slavery, not even in love. But forgive me, Clara, I have wandered far from the starting point of our

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (13 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 conversation. Why didn’t you call me to order. My tongue has run away with me. I am deeply concerned about the future of our youth. It is a part of the revolution. And if harmful tendencies are appearing, creeping over from bourgeois society into the world of revolution – as the roots of many weeds spread – it is better to combat them early. Such questions are part of the women question.”

Principles of Organisation

Lenin glanced at the clock. “Half of the time I had set aside for you has already gone”, he said. “I have been chattering. You will draw up proposals for communist work among women. away. What sort of proposals have you in mind?”

I gave a concise account of them. Lenin nodded repeatedly in agreement without interrupting me. When I had finished, I looked at him questioningly.

“Agreed”, said he. “I only want to dwell on a few main points, in which I fully share your attitude. They seem to me to be important for our current agitation and propaganda work, if that work is to lead to action and successful struggles.

“The thesis must clearly point out that real freedom for women is possible only through communism. The inseparable connection between the social and human position of the woman, and private property in the means of production, must be strongly brought out. That will draw a clear and ineradicable line of distinction between our policy and feminism. And it will also supply the basis for regarding

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (14 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 the woman question as a part of the social question, of the workers’ problem, and so bind it firmly to the proletarian class struggle and the revolution. The communist women’s movement must itself be a mass movement, a part of the general mass movement. Not only of the proletariat, but of all the exploited and oppressed, all the victims of capitalism or any other mastery. In that lies its significance for the class struggles of the proletariat and for its historical creation communist society. We can rightly be proud of the fact that in the Party, in the Communist International, we have the flower of revolutionary woman kind. But that is not enough. We must win over to our side the millions of working women in the towns and villages. Win them for our struggles and in particular for the communist transformation of society. There can be no real mass movement without women.

“Our ideological conceptions give rise to principles of organisation. No special organisations for women. A woman communist is a member of the Party just as a man communist, with equal rights and duties. There can be no difference of opinion on that score. Nevertheless, we must not close our eyes to the fact that the Party must have bodies, working groups, commissions, committees, bureaus or whatever you like, whose particular duty it is to arouse the masses of women workers, to bring them into contact with the Party, and to keep them under Its influence. That, of course, involves systematic work among them. We must train those whom we arouse and win, and equip them for the proletarian class struggle under the leadership of the Communist Party. I am thinking not only of proletarian women, whether they work in the factory or at home. The poor peasant women, the petty bourgeois – they, too, are the prey of capitalism, and more so than ever since the war. The unpolitical, unsocial, backward psychology of these women, their isolated sphere of activity, the entire manner of their life

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (15 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 – these are facts. It would be absurd to overlook them, absolutely absurd. We need appropriate bodies to carry on work amongst them, special methods of agitation and forms of organisation. That is not feminism, that is practical, revolutionary expediency.”

I told Lenin that his words encouraged me greatly. Many comrades, and good comrades at that, strongly combated the idea that the Party should have special bodies for systematic work among women.

“That is neither new nor proof”, said Lenin. “You must not be misled by that. Why have we never had as many women as men in the Party – not at any time in Soviet Russia? Why is the number of women workers organised in trade unions so small? Facts give food for thought. The rejection of the necessity for separate bodies for our work among the women masses is a conception allied to those of our highly principled and most radical friends of the Communist Labour Party. According to them there must be only one form of organisation, workers’ unions. I know them. Many revolutionary but confused minds appeal to principle ‘whenever ideas are lacking’. That is, when the mind is closed to the sober facts, which must be considered. How do such guardians of ‘pure principle’ square their ideas with the necessities of the revolutionary policy historically forced upon us? All that sort of talk breaks down before inexorable necessity. Unless millions of women are with us we cannot exercise the proletarian dictatorship, cannot construct on communist lines. We must find our way to them, we must study and try to find that way.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (16 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 Immediate Demands

“That is why it is right for us to put forward demands favourable to women. That is not a minimum, a reform programme in the sense of the Social Democrats, of the Second International. It is not a recognition that we believe in the eternal character, or even in the long duration of the rule of the bourgeoisie and their state. It is not an attempt to appease women by reforms and to divert them from the path of revolutionary struggle. It is not that nor any other reformist swindle. Our demands are practical conclusions which we have drawn from the burning needs, the shameful humiliation of women, in bourgeois society, defenceless and without rights. We demonstrate thereby that we recognise these needs, and are sensible of the humiliation of the woman, the privileges of the man. That we hate, yes, hate everything, and will abolish everything which tortures and oppresses the woman worker, the housewife, the peasant woman, the wife of the petty trader, yes, and in many cases the women of the possessing classes. The rights and social regulations which we demand for women from bourgeois society show that we understand the position and interests of women, and will have consideration for them under the proletarian dictatorship. Not of course, as the reformists do, lulling them to inaction and keeping them in leading strings. No, of course not; but as revolutionaries who call upon the women to work as equals in transforming the old economy and ideology.”

I assured Lenin that I shared his views, but that they would certainly meet with resistance. Nor could it be denied that our immediate demands for women could be wrongly drawn up and expressed.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (17 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 “Nonsense!” said Lenin, almost bad temperedly. “That danger is present in everything that we do and say. If we were to be deterred by fear of that from doing what is correct and necessary, we might as well become Indian Stylites. Don’t move, don’t move, we can contemplate our principles from a high pillar! Of course, we are concerned not only with the contents of our demands, but with the manner in which we present them. I thought I had made that clear enough. Of course we shan’t put forward our demands for women as though we were mechanically counting our beads. No, according to the prevailing circumstances, we must fight now for this, now for that. And, of course, always in connection with the general interests of the proletariat.

“Every such struggle brings us in opposition to respectable bourgeois relationships, and to their not less respectable reformist admirers whom it compels, either to fight together with us under our leadership – which they don’t want to do – or to be shown up in their true colours. That is, the struggle clearly brings out the differences between us and other Parties, brings out our communism. It wins us the confidence of the masses of women who feel themselves exploited, enslaved, suppressed, by the domination of the man, by the power of the employer, by the whole of bourgeois society. Betrayed and deserted by all, the working women will recognise that they must fight together with us.

“Must I again swear to you, or let you swear, that the struggles for our demands for women must be bound up with the object of seizing power, of establishing the proletarian dictatorship? That is our Alpha and Omega at the present time. That is clear, quite clear. But the women of the working people will not feel irresistibly driven into sharing our struggles for the state power if we only and always put forward that one demand, though it were with the trumpets

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (18 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 of Jericho. No, no! The women must be made conscious of the political connection between our demands and their own suffering, needs, and wishes. They must realise what the proletarian dictatorship means for them: complete equality with man in law and practice, in the family, in the state, in society; an end to the power of the bourgeoisie.”

“Soviet Russia shows that”, I interrupted.

“That will be the great example in our teaching”, Lenin continued. “Soviet Russia puts our demands for women in a new light. Under the proletarian dictatorship those demands are not objects of struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. They are part of the structure of communist society. That indicates to women in other countries the decisive importance of the winning of power by the proletariat. The difference must be sharply emphasised, so as to get the women into the revolutionary class struggle of the proletariat. It is essential for the Communist Parties, and for their triumph, to rally them on a clear understanding of principle and a firm organisational basis. But don’t let us deceive ourselves. Our national sections still lack a correct understanding of this matter. They are standing idly by while there is this task of creating a mass movement of working women under communist leadership. They don’t understand that the development and management of such a mass movement is an important part of entire Party activity, indeed, a half of general Party work. Their occasional recognition of the necessity and value of a powerful, clear- headed communist women’s movement is a platonic verbal recognition, not the constant care and obligation of the Party.”

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (19 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 What About the Men?

“Agitation and propaganda work among women, their awakening and revolutionisation, is regarded as an incidental matter, as an affair which only concerns women comrades. They alone are reproached because work in that direction does not proceed more quickly and more vigorously. That is wrong, quite wrong! Real separatism and as the French say, feminism à la rebours, feminism upside down! What is at the basis of the incorrect attitude of our national sections? In the final analysis it is nothing but an under-estimation of woman and her work. Yes, indeed! Unfortunately it is still true to say of many of our comrades, ‘scratch a communist and find a philistine’. 0f course, you must scratch the sensitive spot, their mentality as regards women. Could there be a more damning proof of this than the calm acquiescence of men who see how women grow worn out In petty, monotonous household work, their strength and time dissipated and wasted, their minds growing narrow and stale, their hearts beating slowly, their will weakened! Of course, I am not speaking of the ladies of the bourgeoisie who shove on to servants the responsibility for all household work, including the care of children. What I am saying applies to the overwhelming majority of women, to the wives of workers and to those who stand all day in a factory.

“So few men – even among the proletariat – realise how much effort and trouble they could save women, even quite do away with, if they were to lend a hand in ‘women’s work’. But no, that is contrary to the ‘rights and dignity of a man’. They want their peace and comfort. The home life of the woman is a daily sacrifice to a thousand unimportant trivialities. The old master right of the man still lives in secret. His slave takes her revenge, also secretly. The backwardness of women, their lack of understanding for the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (20 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 revolutionary ideals of the man decrease his joy and determination in fighting. They are like little worms which, unseen, slowly but surely, rot and corrode. I know the life of the worker, and not only from books. Our communist work among the women, our political work, embraces a great deal of educational work among men. We must root out the old ‘master’ idea to its last and smallest root, in the Party and among the masses. That is one of our political tasks, just as is the urgently necessary task of forming a staff of men and women comrades, well trained in theory and practice, to carry on Party activity among working women.”

Millions Building New Life

To my question about the conditions in Soviet Russia on this point, Lenin replied:

“The Government of the proletarian dictatorship, together with the Communist Party and trade unions, is of course leaving no stone unturned in the effort to overcome the backward ideas of men and women, to destroy the old un- communist psychology. In law there is naturally complete equality of rights for men and women. And everywhere there is evidence of a sincere wish to put this equality into practice. We are bringing the women into the social economy, into legislation and government. All educational institutions are open to them, so that they can increase their professional and social capacities. We are establishing communal kitchens and public eating-houses, laundries and repairing shops, nurseries, kindergartens, children’s homes, educational institutes of all kinds. In short, we are seriously carrying out the demand in our programme for the transference of the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (21 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 1 economic and educational functions of the separate household to society. That will mean freedom for the woman from the old household drudgery and dependence on man. That enables her to exercise to the full her talents and her inclinations. The children are brought up under more favourable conditions than at home. We have the most advanced protective laws for women workers in the world, and the officials of the organised workers carry them out. We are establishing maternity hospitals, homes for mothers and children, mothercraft clinics, organising lecture courses on child care, exhibitions teaching mothers how to look after themselves and their children, and similar things. We are making the most serious efforts to maintain women who are unemployed and unprovided for.

“We realise clearly that that is not very much, in comparison with the needs of the working women, that it is far from being all that is required for their real freedom. But still it is tremendous progress, as against conditions in tsarist- capitalist Russia. It is even a great deal compared with conditions in countries where capitalism still has a free hand. It is a good beginning in the right direction, and we shall develop it further. With all our energy, you may believe that. For every day of the existence of the Soviet State proves more clearly that we cannot go forward without the women.”

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm (22 of 22) [14-7-2011 20:58:44] Clara Zetkin: A May-Day Message from Germany (1920)

MIA > Marxist Writers > Zetkin

Clara Zetkin A May-Day Message from Germany

Source: The Call, April 29, 1920, p. 7 (1,661 words) Transcription: Ted Crawford HTML Markup: Brian Reid Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2007). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

For a second time the German working class has behind them on the eve of the 1st the May a revolutionary battle that seems lost, yet has led them some good steps forward, a revolutionary battle; from which they return beaten but not vanquished, not subdued.

Just as on the 1st of May last year, Noske’s White Guards entered Munich and smothered the Soviet Republic in the blood of thousands of workers: The bourgeoisie was under the delusion that, together with the Munich workers, the whole German

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/04/29.htm (1 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:58:56] Clara Zetkin: A May-Day Message from Germany (1920) proletariat had been crushed; that in massacring the Soviet Republic, prematurely erected in Munich, the future Soviet Republic of Germany, the proletarian revolution itself had been strangled. For the Munich battles between revolution and counter-revolution had been the climax of that struggle which had been waged from January, 1919, in a valiant and self-denying spirit by the revolutionary vanguard of the German working class. In strikes and armed revolts they had stood bravely against the restoration of capitalism and the bourgeois class dictatorship that was tried. under the cloak of democracy, with the assistance of the treacherous social patriots. Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Leo Jogiches, Eugen Levine, had been assassinated and murdered in these fights. About 15,000 workers, men, and women, have paid with their lives, having fought for freedom. Thousands and thousands of revolutionary fighters filled the prisons, workhouses, fortresses, and internment camps. Certainly, the revolution was dead and buried.

Yet, wonder of wonders! Barely a year has passed and that immortal being rises again, her weapons rattling; she returns more formidable than before. The Kapp affair was her signal to the working class, not her moving cause or power. The militarist coup d’etat that is to prepare the restoration of monarchy has this effect. It transforms into will and action the feeling and the understanding of the proletariat that their duty is to chase to the devil not only the one Lüttwitz, but all the Lüttwitzes, the militarists, even though they call themselves Noske. In other

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/04/29.htm (2 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:58:56] Clara Zetkin: A May-Day Message from Germany (1920) terms: that the workers’ historical duty is to exterminate the whole system of militarism, to smash with it the very sword of the bourgeois class domination, of exploiting capitalism, that is the main aim of the struggle. Disarmament of the bourgeoisie, armament of the working class, is the chief battle-cry, joined to it smaller political claims, such as immediate release of imprisoned revolutionists, etc. And that is a very important token to show how much revolution has advanced. The battle-cry is not only followed by the revolutionary vanguard, but also by very large proletarian masses who hitherto had been captivated by Scheidemann and Ebert, by bourgeois democrats and clericals.

The possessing classes and their servants soon forget their little domestic quarrel, whether militarism was to have the supreme command only to the benefit of the bourgeois order, or even over the bourgeois order itself. Democracy and militarism embraced each other and united for the common struggle against the Left, against Bolshevism, that means against the workers who long for liberty. Democracy gave to these poor devils futile and hollow negotiations and conceptions, whilst militarism lured into them the bullets and balls of its machine guns and minenwerfers. The revolutionary part of the workers had enough clearness of aim as to the way of historical revolution, to understand well the necessity and the object of the struggle, but they had not yet grown enough in number and unity to be able to win victory. Thanks to militarism, democracy remained triumphant over revolution. In those places where the workers had had been able

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/04/29.htm (3 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:58:56] Clara Zetkin: A May-Day Message from Germany (1920) to vanquish militarism by seizing arms, there rages now the white terror. After Thuringia, Leipzig„ Halle, etc the Rhine provinces and Westphalia are the victims of Noske’s guards. The “modest police action” to restore “order and peace,” to which the Government of Ebert and Muller were bound by oath, has proved to be the most ferocious, unscrupulous dictatorship of sabres, guns, shells, and martial law. The thousands of wounded, torn, slaughtered bodies of workers tell another tale; the heroic courage and self-denying devotion with which the exploited have fought, because they ventured to dream of freedom and the highest human development for their class.

And yet, in spite of the enormous bloody sacrifices, in spite of the apparent defeat, the German working class does not return from this battle in a humiliated and depressed spirit. They are embittered, exasperated, but not discouraged at all. They are quite aware that they are not yet powerful enough to subdue their mortal foe, but they are equally conscious that they have advanced on the way to its final defeat. The last struggles have shown how far the German proletariat has advanced in one year towards understanding the aim and the way of their endeavours for emancipation from the point of view of insight and unity. The most precious fruit of their struggles is a developed consciousness of the proletarian power, that means more confidence in their own forces and a consolidation of the still young tradition of revolutionary fighting. In the period, where the French proletariat as the revolutionary vanguard of the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/04/29.htm (4 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:58:56] Clara Zetkin: A May-Day Message from Germany (1920) disinherited of all countries fought their glorious battles against the bourgeois order, there were years and decades between their proud uprisings. In 1830 took place the revolt of the Lyons weavers and the revolution of July; 1848 the revolution of February and the immortal battle of June; in 1871 the Paris Commune. In our days the German working class, after a most bloody defeat, within one year rose against their masters and tormentors a second time in revolutionary fight. In the school a hard experience and revolutionary struggle the processes of self- consciousness and the rallying a the German Proletariat goes on with gigantic steps.. This fact confirms once more the conception that we live in a revolutionary period of human history, and that now the tempo of development differs from that an era of peaceable evolution as the rapidity of a motor car differs from the snail’s pace of the old stage coach.

Thus in 1919 and 1920 revolutionary struggles in Germany underline strongly what in November 1917 the heroic, glorious revolution of the Russian proletariat has taught. The world- revolution is following the world-war as the last judgment on capitalism. World-revolution is marching. The revolution of workers and poor peasants in Russia has victoriously maintained its ground against a world of enemies. Allied to the counter- revolutionists within the country, the imperialists and capitalists of all states try at the frontiers to strangle Socialist Soviet Russia. Led by the Communist Party, the workers are not vanquished by military Power, they stand firmly, against hunger and the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/04/29.htm (5 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:58:56] Clara Zetkin: A May-Day Message from Germany (1920) economic disorganisation, the terrible legacies of Tsarism and capitalism, and the fearful crime of the counter-revolution; they fight to protect and maintain revolution, they work to build up a new social world, a better, happier social world. An example of historical greatness such as mankind has never seen before. Germany is shaken by revolutionary convulsions. It would be futile to prophesy the date of the next great uprising of the German workers. For the moment it is sufficient to know that in the near future the Germany of capitalism must succumb inevitably to the storming of the labouring and exploited masses. For the other possibility is impossible, unthinkable, namely, that the masses themselves abandon the revolutionary struggle and become willing to succumb to the barbarism of increased capitalist exploitation and servitude.

Over Italy roar the thunders of the coming storm; in France there is sheet-lightning; storms rage through the proud empire of Great Britain. In England and Scotland growing masses of workers unite round the Socialist, the Communist, flag. Ireland, Egypt, and India are in revolt. The wage slaves in the United States muster for the class struggle; their strikes become greater and greater in extent, more important, and take on a revolutionary character. The international situation, in consequence of the diplomatic squabbling among the Allied powers for the booty of the world-war, becomes more and more complicated, rich in conflicts, pregnant with future wars. Here, too, the economic basis of capitalist order, class antagonisms and class struggles,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/04/29.htm (6 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:58:56] Clara Zetkin: A May-Day Message from Germany (1920) grow in intensity and bitterness. From beneath the volcanic depths of society rises Socialism, Communism.

Amidst the storms and flames of this historical development the 1st of May has gained a new and higher significance and importance. It was a symbol which the Second International had left us. It must become an action of the Third International. A May demonstration, in the form of a one day’s strike, was the only attempt made by the Second International to unite the workers of all countries in common action. The aim of this demonstration was to obtain reforms in the capitalist order, reforms meant to increase the fighting force of the workers in their struggle against capitalism. The Second International abandoned the policy of common international action, thus solemnly resolved upon, and contented itself with propaganda alone. In consequence the Second International had to renounce the reforms themselves, Now the battle between workers and bourgeois is no longer one for reforms in the capitalist order, its aim is to overthrow, to subdue this order. Capitalism or Socialism and Communism is the battle-cry. No resolutions on paper must be the aim, but the living, powerful action of the working masses. The 1st of May must show that in all countries the proletariat, conscious of its international solidarity, is firmly decided to apply its entire power and energy to immediate aims, viz., conquest of political power, dictatorship of the working class and Soviet Republics in order to overcome capitalism and prepare the way for Communism. No humble bowing before capitalism on the 1st

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/04/29.htm (7 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:58:56] Clara Zetkin: A May-Day Message from Germany (1920) May! Hands free, hearts high and proud! Forward, rally to the red banner of the Third International!

From Germany in revolution Communists send on the 1st of May this brotherly message.

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http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/04/29.htm (8 of 8) [14-7-2011 20:58:56] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2

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Clara Zetkin Lenin on the Women’s Question

(An Interview with Lenin on the Woman Question)

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/19980214215148/uns.org/theory/study/texts/zetkintext.htm (this text is no longer available at this site). Translated from the German. Publisher: International Publishers. Transcribed: Sally Ryan.

Comrade Lenin repeatedly discussed with me the problem of women’s rights. He obviously attached great importance to the women’s movement, which was to him an essential component of the mass movement that in certain circumstances might become decisive. Needless to say he saw full social equality of women as a principle which no Communist could dispute.

We had our first lengthy talk on this subject in the autumn of 1920, in Lenin’s big study in the Kremlin. Lenin sat at his desk, which was

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (1 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 covered with books and papers, indicating study and work without the “brilliant disorder” associated with genius.

“We must by all means set up a powerful international women’s movement on a clear-cut theoretical basis,” he began after greeting me. “It is clear that without Marxist theory we cannot have proper practice. Here, too, we Communists need the greatest clarity of principle. We must draw a sharp line between us and all other parties. Our Second International Congress unfortunately did not come up to expectations in discussing the question of women. It posed the question but did not get around to taking a definite stand. A committee is still in charge of the matter. It is to draft a resolution, theses and directives but has made little progress so far. You must help it.”

I had already heard from others what Lenin was now telling me and I expressed my amazement. I was full of enthusiasm for everything Russian women had done during the revolution and what they were doing now for its defense and further development. As for the standing and activity of women in the Bolshevik Party, I thought that it was a model party indeed, the model party. It alone supplied the international Communist women’s movement with a valuable trained and experienced force and set a great example for history.

“That is true, it’s wonderful,” Lenin remarked with a faint smile. “In Petrograd, here in Moscow, and in other cities and industrial centres, proletarian women showed up splendidly during the revolution. We would not have won without them, or hardly. That is my opinion. What courage they showed and how courageous they still are! Imagine the suffering and privation they are enduring. But they are holding out because they want to defend the Soviets, because they want freedom and communism. Yes, our working women are magnificent class fighters. They are worthy of admiration and love. In general, it must be acknowledged that even the ladies of the ‘Constitutional Democrats’ in Petrograd http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (2 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2

showed greater courage in fighting us than those wretched military Cadets.”

“It’s true that we have reliable, intelligent and tireless women in our Party. They hold important posts in the Soviets, Executive Committees, People’s Commissariats, and public offices of every kind. Many of them work day and night either in the Party or among the workers and peasants or in the Red Army. That is of great value to us. It is important for women all over the world, as it is evidence of the capacity of women, of the great value of the work they do for society. The first proletarian dictatorship is truly paving the way for the complete social equality of women. It eradicates more prejudice than volumes of feminist literature. However, in spite of all this, we do not yet have an international Communist women’s movement and we must have one without fail. We must immediately set about starting it. Without such a movement, the work of our International and of its parties is incomplete and never will be complete. Yet our revolutionary work has to be fulfilled in its entirety. Tell me how Communist work is getting on abroad.”

I did as well as I could at the time, with the links between the Comintern parties still very loose and irregular. Lenin listened attentively, leaning slightly forward, with no sign of boredom, impatience or fatigue, keenly following even details of secondary importance. I have never known anyone who was a better listener or who could co-ordinate and generalize all that he had heard as fast as he did. That was evident from the short and always very specific questions he asked from time to time about what I told him, and from the fact that he returned to this or that particular of my narrative later on. Lenin made some brief notes.

Naturally, I spoke in great detail about the state of affairs in Germany. I told Lenin of the vast importance which Rosa Luxemburg attached

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (3 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 to drawing the greatest number of women into the revolutionary struggle. When the Communist Party had been founded, she insisted that a women’s newspaper be published. When Leo Jogiches and I met for the last time thirty-six hours before he was murdered he discussed the Party’s plan of work with me. He gave me various tasks to perform, among them a plan for the organization of work among working women. The Party tackled this question at its first illegal conference. The trained and experienced women agitators and leaders who had become prominent before and during the war had almost without exception remained Social-Democrats of the one or the other shade, and kept the agitated and active proletarian women under their sway. However, there was already a small nucleus of energetic, devoted women who took part in the Party’s every job and every battle. Furthermore, the Party itself had already organized methodical activity among the working women. Of course all this was merely a start, but a good start nevertheless.

“Not bad, not bad at all,” Lenin said. “The Communist women’s energy, devotion and enthusiasm, their courage and intelligence during the illegal and semi-legal periods, promise well for the development of our work. It would be useful for the expansion of the Party and the growth of its strength to win over the masses and carry through actions. But how about giving all the comrades a clear understanding of the fundamentals of this question and training them how are you getting along in this respect? This is what counts most in the work among the masses. It is very important in terms of the ideas we convey to the masses, and of the things we want the masses to adopt and take inspiration from. I cannot remember at the moment who said ‘It takes inspiration to do great deeds.’ We and the working people of the whole world still have really great deeds to perform. What inspires your comrades, the proletarian women of Germany? What about their proletarian? Do their interests and activities center on the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (4 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2

political demands of the moment? What is the focal point of their thoughts?

“I have heard strange things about that from Russian and German comrades. I must tell you what I mean. I understand that in Hamburg a gifted Communist woman is bringing out a newspaper for prostitutes, and is trying to organize them for the revolutionary struggle. Now Rosa a true Communist, felt and acted like a human being when she wrote an article in defense of prostitutes who have landed in jail for violating a police regulation concerning their sad trade. They are unfortunate double victims of bourgeois society. Victims, first, of its accursed system of property and, secondly, of its accursed moral hypocrisy. There is no doubt about this. Only a coarse-grained and short- sighted person could forget this. To understand this is one thing, but it is quite another thing how shall I put it? To organize the prostitutes as a special revolutionary guild contingent and publish a trade union paper for them. Are there really no industrial working women left in Germany who need organizing, who need a newspaper, who should be enlisted in your struggle? This is a morbid deviation. It strongly reminds me of the literary vogue which made a sweet madonna out of every prostitute. Its origin was sound too: social sympathy, and indignation against the moral hypocrisy of the honorable bourgeoisie. But the healthy principle underwent bourgeois corrosion and degenerated. The question of prostitution will confront us even in our country with many a difficult problem. Return the prostitute to productive work, find her a place in the social economy that is the thing to do. But the present state of our economy and all the other circumstances make it a difficult and complicated matter. Here you have an aspect of the woman problem which faces us in all its magnitude, after the proletariat has come to power, and demands a practical solution. It will still require a great deal of effort here in Soviet Russia. But to return to your special problem in Germany. Under no circumstances should the Party look calmly upon such improper acts of its members. It causes confusion and splits our forces. Now what have you done to stop it?”

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Before I could answer Lenin continued: “The record of your sins, Clara, is even worse. I have been told that at the evenings arranged for reading and discussion with working women, sex and marriage problems come first. They are said to be the main objects of interest in your political instruction and educational work. I could not believe my ears when I heard that. The first state of proletarian dictatorship is battling with the counter-revolutionaries of the whole world. The situation In Germany itself calls for the greatest unity of all proletarian revolutionary forces, so that they can repel the counter- revolution which is pushing on. But active Communist women are busy discussing sex problems and the forms of marriage ‘past, present and future’. They consider it their most important task to enlighten working women on these questions. It is said that a pamphlet on the sex question written by a Communist authoress from Vienna enjoys the greatest popularity. What rot that booklet is! The workers read what is right in it long ago in Bebel. Only not in the tedious, cut-and- dried form found in the pamphlet but in the form of gripping agitation that strikes out at bourgeois society. The mention of Freud’s hypotheses is designed to give the pamphlet a scientific veneer, but it is so much bungling by an amateur. Freud’s theory has now become a fad. I mistrust sex theories expounded in articles, treatises, pamphlets, etc. in short, the theories dealt with in that specific literature which sprouts so luxuriantly on the dung heap of bourgeois society. I mistrust those who are always absorbed in the sex problems, the way an Indian saint is absorbed In the contemplation of his navel.

“It seems to me that this superabundance of sex theories, which for the most part are mere hypotheses, and often quite arbitrary ones, stems from a personal need. It springs from the desire to justify one’s own abnormal or excessive sex life before bourgeois http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (6 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 morality and to plead for tolerance towards oneself. This veiled respect for bourgeois morality is as repugnant to me as rooting about in all that bears on sex. No matter how rebellious and revolutionary it may be made to appear, it is in the final analysis thoroughly bourgeois. Intellectuals and others like them are particularly keen on this. There is no room for it in the Party, among the class-conscious, fighting proletariat.”

I interposed that where private property and the bourgeois social order prevail, questions of sex and marriage gave rise to manifold problems, conflicts and suffering for women of all social classes and strata. As far as women are concerned, the war and its consequences exacerbated the existing conflicts and suffering to the utmost precisely in the sphere of sexual relations. Problems formerly concealed from women were now laid bare. To this was added the atmosphere of incipient revolution. The world of old emotions and thoughts was cracking up. Former social connections were loosening and breaking. The makings of new relations between people were appearing. Interest in the relevant problems was an expression of the need for enlightenment and a new orientation. It was also a reaction against the distortions and hypocrisy of bourgeois society. Knowledge of the modifications of the forms of marriage and family that took place in the course of history, and of their dependence on economics, would serve to rid the minds of working women of their preconceived idea of the eternity of bourgeois society. The critically historical attitude to this had to lead to an unrelenting analysis of bourgeois society, an exposure of its essence and its consequences, including the branding of false sex morality. All roads led to Rome. Every truly Marxist analysis of an important part of the ideological superstructure of society, of an outstanding social phenomenon, had to lead to an analysis of bourgeois society and its foundation, private http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (7 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2

property. It should lead to the conclusion that “Carthage must be destroyed”.

Lenin nodded with a smile.

“There you are! You defend your comrades and your Party like a lawyer. What you say is of course true. But that can at best excuse, not justify, the mistake made in Germany. It remains a mistake. Can you assure me in all sincerity that during those reading and discussion evenings, questions of sex and marriage are dealt with from the point of view of mature, vital historical materialism? This presupposes wide-ranging, profound knowledge, and the fullest Marxist mastery of a vast amount of material. Do you now have the forces you need for that? Had you had them, a pamphlet like the one we spoke about would not have been used for instruction during reading and discussion evenings. It is being recommended and disseminated instead of being criticized. Why is the approach to this problem inadequate and un-Marxist? Because sex and marriage problems are not treated as only part of the main social problem. Conversely, the main social problem is presented as a part, an appendage to the sex problem. The important point recedes into the background. Thus not only is this question obscured, but also thought, and the class- consciousness of working women in general, is dulled.

“Besides, and this isn’t the least important point, Solomon the Wise said there is a time for everything. I ask you, is this the time to keep working women busy for months at a stretch with such questions as how to love or be loved, how to woo or be wooed? This, of course, with regard to the ‘past, present and future’, and among the various races. And it is proudly styled historical materialism. Nowadays all the thoughts of Communist women, of working women, should be centered on the proletarian revolution, which will lay the foundation, among other things, for the necessary revision of material and sexual relations. Just now we must really give priority to problems other than the forms of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (8 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 marriage prevalent among Australia’s aborigines, or marriage between brother and sister in ancient times. For the German proletariat, the problem of the Soviets, of the Versailles Treaty and its impact on the lives of women, the problem of unemployment, of falling wages, of taxes and many other things remain the order of the day. To be brief, I am still of the opinion that this sort of political and social education of working women is wrong, absolutely wrong. How could you keep quiet about it? You should have set your authority against it.”

I told my fervent friend that I had never failed to criticize and to remonstrate with the leading women comrades in various places. But, as he knew, no prophet is honored in his own country or in his own house. By my criticism I had drawn upon myself the suspicion that “survivals of a Social-Democratic attitude and old-fashioned philistinism were still strong” in my mind. However, in the end my criticism had proved effective. Sex and marriage were no longer the focal point in lectures at discussion evenings. Lenin resumed the thread of his argument.

“Yes, yes, I know that,” he said. “Many people rather suspect me of philistinism on this account, although such an attitude is repugnant to me it conceals so much narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy. Well, I’m unruffled by it. Yellow-beaked fledglings newly hatched from their bourgeois-tainted eggs are all so terribly clever. We have to put up with that without mending our ways. The youth movement is also affected with the modern approach to the sex problem and with excessive interest in it.”

Lenin emphasized the word “modern” with an ironical, deprecating gesture.

“I was also told that sex problems are a favorite subject in your youth organizations too, and that there are hardly enough

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (9 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 lecturers on this subject. This nonsense is especially dangerous and damaging to the youth movement. It can easily lead to sexual excesses, to overstimulation of sex life and to wasted health and strength of young people. You must fight that too. There is no lack of contact between the youth movement and the women’s movement. Our Communist women everywhere should cooperate methodically with young people. This will be a continuation of motherhood, will elevate it and extend it from the individual to the social sphere. Women’s incipient social life and activities must be promoted, so that they can outgrow the narrowness of their Philistine, individualistic psychology centered on home and family. But this is incidental.

“In our country, too, considerable numbers of young people are busy ‘revising bourgeois conceptions and morals’ in the sex question. And let me add that this involves a considerable section of our best boys and girls, of our truly promising youth. It is as you have just said. In the atmosphere created by the aftermath of war and by the revolution which has begun, old ideological values, finding themselves in a society whose economic foundations are undergoing a radical change, perish, and lose their restraining force. New values crystallize slowly, in the struggle. With regard to relations between people, and between man and woman, feelings and thoughts are also becoming revolutionized. New boundaries are being drawn between the rights of the individual and those of the community, and hence also the duties of the individual. Things are still in complete, chaotic ferment. The direction and potentiality of the various contradictory tendencies can still not be seen clearly enough. It is a slow and often very painful process of passing away and coming into being. All this applies also to the field of sexual relations, marriage, and the family. The decay, putrescence, and filth of bourgeois marriage with its difficult dissolution, its license for the husband and bondage for the wife, and its disgustingly false sex morality and relations fill the best and most spiritually active of people with the utmost loathing.

“The coercion of bourgeois marriage and bourgeois legislation on http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (10 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 the family enhance the evil and aggravate the conflicts. It is the coercion of ‘sacrosanct’ property. It sanctifies venality, baseness, and dirt. The conventional hypocrisy of ‘respectable’ bourgeois society takes care of the rest. People revolt against the prevailing abominations and perversions. And at a time when mighty nations are being destroyed, when the former power relations are being disrupted, when a whole social world is beginning to decline, the sensations of the individual undergo a rapid change. A stimulating thirst for different forms of enjoyment easily acquires an irresistible force. Sexual and marriage reforms in the bourgeois sense will not do. In the sphere of sexual relations and marriage, a revolution is approaching in keeping with the proletarian revolution. Of course, women and young people are taking a deep interest in the complex tangle of problems which have arisen as a result of this. Both the former and the latter suffer greatly from the present messy state of sex relations. Young people rebel against them with the vehemence of their years. This is only natural. Nothing could be falser than to preach monastic self-denial and the sanctity of the filthy bourgeois morals to young people. However, it is hardly a good thing that sex, already strongly felt in the physical sense, should at such a time assume so much prominence in the psychology of young people. The consequences are nothing short of fatal. Ask Comrade Lilina about it. She ought to have had many experiences in her extensive work at educational institutions of various kinds and you know that she is a Communist through and through, and has no prejudices.

“Youth’s altered attitude to questions of sex is of course ‘fundamental’, and based on theory. Many people call it ‘revolutionary’ and ‘communist’. They sincerely believe that this is so. I am an old man, and I do not like it. I may be a morose ascetic, but quite often this so-called ‘new sex life’ of young people and frequently of the adults too seems to me purely bourgeois and simply an extension of the good old bourgeois brothel. All this has nothing in common with free love as we Communists understand it. No doubt you have heard about the famous theory that in

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (11 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 communist society satisfying sexual desire and the craving for love is as simple and trivial as ‘drinking a glass of water’. A section of our youth has gone mad, absolutely mad, over this ‘glass-of-water theory’. It has been fatal to many a young boy and girl. Its devotees assert that it is a Marxist theory. I want no part of the kind of Marxism which infers all phenomena and all changes in the ideological superstructure of society directly and blandly from its economic basis, for things are not as simple as all that. A certain Frederick Engels has established this a long time ago with regard to historical materialism.

“I consider the famous ‘glass-of-water’ theory as completely un- Marxist and, moreover, as anti-social. It is not only what nature has given but also what has become culture, whether of a high or low level, that comes into play in sexual life. Engels pointed out in his Origin of the Family how significant it was that the common sexual relations had developed into individual sex love and thus became purer. The relations between the sexes are not simply the expression of a mutual influence between economics and a physical want deliberately singled out for physiological examination. It would be rationalism and not Marxism to attempt to refer the change in these relations directly to the economic basis of society in isolation from its connection with the ideology as a whole. To be sure, thirst has to be quenched. But would a normal person normally lie down in the gutter and drink from a puddle? Or even from a glass whose edge has been greased by many lips? But the social aspect is more important than anything else. The drinking of water is really an individual matter. But it takes two people to make love, and a third person, a new life, is likely to come into being. This deed has a social complexion and constitutes a duty to the community.

“As a Communist I have no liking at all for the ‘glass-of water’ theory, despite its attractive label: ‘emancipation of love.’ Besides, emancipation of love is neither a novel nor a communistic idea. You will recall that it was advanced in fine literature around the middle of the past century as ‘emancipation of the heart’. In bourgeois practice it materialized into emancipation of the flesh. http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (12 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 It was preached with greater talent than now, though I cannot judge how it was practiced. Not that I want my criticism to breed asceticism. That is farthest from my thoughts. Communism should not bring asceticism, but joy and strength, stemming, among other things, from a consummate love life. Whereas today, in my opinion, the obtaining plethora of sex life yields neither joy nor strength. On the contrary, it impairs them. This is bad, very bad, indeed, in the epoch of revolution.

“Young people are particularly in need of joy and strength. Healthy sports, such as gymnastics, swimming, hiking, physical exercises of every description and a wide range of intellectual interests is what they need, as well as learning, study and research, and as far as possible collectively. This will be far more useful to young people than endless lectures and discussions on sex problems and the so-called living by one’s nature. Mens sana in corpore sana. Be neither monk nor Don Juan, but not anything in between either, like a German Philistine. You know the young comrade X. He is a splendid lad, and highly gifted. For all that, I am afraid that he will never amount to anything. He has one love affair after another. This is not good for the political struggle and for the revolution. I will not vouch for the reliability or the endurance of women whose love affair is intertwined with politics, or for the men who run after every petticoat and let themselves in with every young female. No, no, that does not go well with revolution.”

Lenin sprang to his feet, slapped the table with his hand and paced up and down the room.

“The revolution calls for concentration and rallying of every nerve by the masses and by the individual. It does not tolerate orgiastic conditions so common among d’Annunzio’s decadent heroes and heroines. Promiscuity in sexual matters is bourgeois. It is a sign of degeneration. The proletariat is a rising class. It does not need an intoxicant to stupefy or stimulate it, neither the intoxicant of sexual laxity or of alcohol. It should and will not forget the

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (13 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 vileness, the filth and the barbarity of capitalism. It derives its strongest inspiration to fight from its class position, from the communist ideal. What it needs is clarity, clarity, and more clarity. Therefore, I repeat, there must be no weakening, no waste and no dissipation of energy Self-control and self-discipline are not slavery; not in matters of love either. But excuse me, Clara, I have strayed far from the point which we set out to discuss. Why have you not called me to order? Worry has set me talking. I take the future of our youth very close to heart. It is part and parcel of the revolution. Whenever harmful elements appear, which creep from bourgeois society to the world of the revolution and spread like the roots of prolific weeds, it is better to take action against them quickly. The questions we have dealt with are also part of the women’s problems.”

Lenin spoke with great animation and deep persuasion. I could feel that his every word came from the heart, and the expression on his face added to this feeling. From time to time he punctuated some idea with energetic gestures. I was astonished to see how much attention he devoted to trivial matters and how familiar he was with them, side by side with highly important political problems. And not only as concerned Soviet Russia, but also the still capitalist countries. Splendid Marxist that he was, he grasped the particular wherever and in whatever form it revealed itself, in its relation to, and its bearing upon, the whole. All his zest and purpose was concentrated with unshakeable singleness, like irresistible forces of nature, upon the one goal of speeding the revolution as a work of the masses. He evaluated everything in terms of its effect on the conscious motive forces of the revolution, both national and international, for while he evaluated the historically conditioned features of the individual countries and their different stages of development, he always had his eyes on the indivisible world-wide proletarian revolution.

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“Comrade Lenin, how I regret,” I exclaimed, “that your words have not been heard by hundreds and thousands of people. As you know, you do not have to convert me. But how important it would be for friend and foe to hear your opinion!”

Lenin smiled amiably.

“I may speak or write some day on the questions we have discussed. But later, not now. Now all our time and strength must be concentrated on other things. There are bigger and more difficult jobs to do. The struggle to maintain and strengthen the Soviet state is not yet over by any means. We have to digest the outcome of the Polish War and to make the most we can of it. Wrangel is still hanging on in the South. It is true, I am deeply convinced that we shall cope with him. That will give the British and French imperialists and their small vassals something to think about. But the most difficult part of our task, reconstruction, is still ahead. That will also bring the problems of sex relations, marriage and the family to the foreground. In the meantime, you will have to handle it as best you can where and when it is necessary. You should not allow these questions to be handled in an un-Marxist way or to serve as the basis for disruptive deviations and intrigues. Now at last I come to your work.”

Lenin consulted his watch.

“Half of the time I have at my disposal for you,” he said “has already expired. I have chatted too long. You are to work out the leading theses on communist work among women. I know your principled approach and practical experience. So our talk about this will be brief; you had better get busy. What do you think the theses should be?”

I gave him a concise account on this score. Lenin nodded approvingly a few times without interrupting. When I was through I looked at him

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (15 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 questioningly.

“Right,” he remarked. “It would also be a good thing if you were to inform a meeting of responsible women Party comrades about it and to discuss it with them. Too bad Comrade Inessa [1*] is not here. She is sick and has gone to the Caucasus. Put the theses in writing after the discussion. A committee will look them over and the Executive Committee will make the final decision. I give my opinion on only some of the main points, on which I fully share your views. They seem important to me also for our present agitation and propaganda work if it is to pave the way for action, for successful fighting.

“The theses must emphasize strongly that true emancipation of women is not possible except through communism. You must lay stress on the unbreakable connection between woman’s human and social position and the private ownership of the means of production. This will draw a strong, ineradicable line against the bourgeois movement for the ‘emancipation of women’. This will also give us a basis for examining the woman question as part of the social, working-class question, and to bind it firmly with the proletarian class struggle and the revolution. The communist women’s movement itself must be a mass movement, a part of the general mass movements; and not only of the proletarians, but of all the exploited and oppressed, of all victims of capitalism or of the dominant class. Therein, too, lies the significance of the women’s movement for the class struggle of the proletariat and its historic mission, the creation of a communist society. We can be legitimately proud that we have the flower of revolutionary womanhood in our Party, in the Comintern. But this is not decisive, we have to win over the millions of working women in town and country for our struggle and, particularly, for the communist reconstruction of society. There can be no real mass movement without the women.

“We derive our organizational ideas from our ideological conceptions. We want no separate organizations of communist

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (16 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 women! She who is a Communist belongs as a member to the Party, just as he who is a Communist. They have the same rights and duties. There can be no difference of opinion on that score. However, we must not shut our eyes to the facts. The Party must have organs working groups, commissions, committees, sections or whatever else they may be called with the specific purpose of rousing the broad masses of women, bringing them into contact with the Party and keeping them under its influence. This naturally requires that we carry on systematic work among the women. We must teach the awakened women, win them over for the proletarian class struggle under the leadership of the Communist Party, and equip them for it. When I say this I have in mind not only proletarian women, whether they work in mills or cook the family meal.

“I also have in mind the peasant women and the women of the various sections of the lower middle class. They, too, are victims of capitalism, and more than ever since the war. The lack of interest in politics and the otherwise anti-social and backward psychology of these masses of women, the narrow scope of their activities and the whole pattern of their lives are undeniable facts. It would be silly to ignore them, absolutely silly. We must have our own groups to work among them, special methods of agitation, and special forms of organization. This is not bourgeois ‘feminism’; it is a practical revolutionary expediency.”

I told Lenin that his arguments were a valuable encouragement for me. Many comrades, very good ones, too, vehemently opposed the Party’s setting up special groups for planned work among women. They denounced it as a return to the notorious “emancipation of women” movement, to Social-Democratic traditions. They claimed that since the Communist Parties gave equality to women they should, consequently, carry on work without differentiation among all the working people in general. The approach to men and to women should be the same. Any attempt to consider the circumstances which

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (17 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 Lenin had noted concerning agitation and organization would be branded by the exponents of this view as opportunism, as renunciation and betrayal of fundamental principles.

“This is not new and not conclusive,” Lenin said. “Do not let it mislead you. Why are there nowhere as many women in the Party as men, not even in Soviet Russia? Why is the number of women in the trade unions so small? These facts give one food for thought. Denial of the indispensable special groups for work among the masses of women is part of the very principled, very radical attitude of our dear friends of the Communist Workers’ Party. They are of the opinion that only one form of organization should exist a workers’ union. I know about it. Principles are invoked by many revolutionary-minded but confused people whenever there is a lack of understanding, i.e., whenever the mind refuses to grasp the obvious facts that ought to be heeded. How do such guardians of the ‘purity of principles’ cope with the historical necessities of our revolutionary policy? All their talk collapses in face of the inexorable necessities. We cannot exercise the dictatorship of the proletariat without having millions of women on our side. Nor can we engage in communist construction without them. We must find a way to reach them. We must study and search in order to find this way.

“It is therefore perfectly right for us to put forward demands for the benefit of women. This is not a minimum program, nor a program of reform in the Social Democratic sense, in the sense of the Second International. It does not go to show that we believe the bourgeoisie and its state will last forever, or even for a long time. Nor is it an attempt to pacify the masses of women with reforms and to divert them from the path of revolutionary struggle. It is nothing of the sort, and not any sort of reformist humbug either. Our demands are no more than practical conclusions, drawn by us from the crying needs and disgraceful humiliations that weak and underprivileged woman must bear under the bourgeois system. We demonstrate thereby that we are aware of these needs and of the oppression of women, that we are http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (18 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 conscious of the privileged position of the men, and that we hate yes, hate and want to remove whatever oppresses and harasses the working woman, the wife of the worker, the peasant woman, the wife of the little man, and even in many respects the woman of the propertied classes. The rights and social measures we demand of bourgeois society for women are proof that we understand the position and interests of women and that we will take note of them under the proletarian dictatorship. Naturally, not as soporific and patronizing reformists. No, by no means. But as revolutionaries who call upon the women to take a hand as equals in the reconstruction of the economy and of the ideological superstructure.”

I assured Lenin that I was of the same opinion, but that it would no doubt be opposed. Uncertain and timid minds would reject it as suspicious opportunism. Nor could it be denied that our present demands for women might be incorrectly understood and interpreted.

“What of it?” Lenin exclaimed, somewhat annoyed. “This risk exists in everything we say and do. If we are going to let fear of this stop us from doing the advisable and necessary, we might as well turn into Indian stylites. We mustn’t budge, we mustn’t budge on any account, or we shall tumble from the lofty pillar of our principles! In our case it is not only a matter of what we demand, but also of how we demand. I believe I have made that sufficiently clear. It stands to reason that in our propaganda we must not make a fetish out of our demands for women. No, we must fight now for these and now for other demands, depending on the existing conditions, and naturally always in association with the general interests of the proletariat.

“Every tussle of this kind sets us at loggerheads with the respectable bourgeois clique and its no less respectable reformist lackeys. This compels the latter either to fight under our leadership which they do not want or to drop their disguise. Thus, the struggle fences us off from them and shows our communist

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (19 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 face. It wins us the confidence of the mass of women, who feel themselves exploited, enslaved and crushed by the domination of the man, by the power of their employers and by bourgeois society as a whole. Betrayed and abandoned by all, working women come to realize that they must fight together with us. Must I avow, or make you avow, that the struggle for women’s rights must also be linked with our principal aim the conquest of power and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat? At present, this is, and will continue to be, our alpha and omega. That is clear, absolutely clear. But the broad masses of working women will not feel irresistibly drawn to the struggle for state power if we harp on just this one demand, even though we may blare it forth on the trumpets of Jericho. No, a thousand times no! We must combine our appeal politically in the minds of the female masses with the sufferings, the needs and the wishes of the working women. They should all know what the proletarian dictatorship will mean to them complete equality of rights with men, both legal and in practice, in the family, the state and in society, and that it also spells the annihilation of the power of the bourgeoisie.”

“Soviet Russia proves this,” I exclaimed. “This will be our great example!”

Lenin went on:

“Soviet Russia casts a new light on our demands for women. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat they are no longer an object of struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Once they are carried out, they serve as bricks for the building of communist society. This shows the women on the other side of the border the decisive importance of the conquest of power by the proletariat. The difference between their status here and there must be demonstrated in bold relief in order to win the support of the masses of women in the revolutionary class struggles of the proletariat. Mobilization of the female masses, carried out with a clear understanding of principles and on a firm organizational http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (20 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 basis, is a vital question for the Communist Parties and their victories. But let us not deceive ourselves. Our national sections still lack the proper understanding of this question. They adopt a passive, wait-and-see attitude when it comes to creating a mass movement of working women under communist leadership. They do not realize that developing and leading such a mass movement is an important part of all Party activity, as much as half of all the Party work. Their occasional recognition of the need and value of a purposeful, strong and numerous communist women’s movement is but platonic lip-service rather than a steady concern and task of the Party.

“They regard agitation and propaganda among women and the task of rousing and revolutionizing them as of secondary importance, as the job of just the women-Communists. None but the latter are rebuked because the matter does not move ahead more quickly and strongly. This is wrong, fundamentally wrong! It is outright separatism. It is equality of women à rebours, as the French say, i.e., equality reversed. What is at the bottom of the incorrect attitude of our national sections? (I am not speaking of Soviet Russia.) In the final analysis, it is an underestimation of women and of their accomplishments. That’s just what it is! Unfortunately, we may still say of many of our comrades, ‘Scratch the Communist and a Philistine appears.’ To be sure, you have to scratch the sensitive spots, such as their mentality regarding women. Could there be any more palpable proof than the common sight of a man calmly watching a woman wear herself out with trivial, monotonous, strength- and time-consuming work, such as her housework, and watching her spirit shrinking, her mind growing dull, her heartbeat growing faint, and her will growing slack? It goes without saying that I am not referring to the bourgeois ladies who dump all housework and the care for their children on the hired help. What I say applies to the vast majority of women, including the wives of workers, even if these spend the day at the factory and earn money.

“Very few husbands, not even the proletarians, think of how much they could lighten the burdens and worries of their wives, or http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (21 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 relieve them entirely, if they lent a hand in this ‘women’s work’. But no, that would go against the ‘privilege and dignity of the husband’. He demands that he have rest and comfort. The domestic life of the woman is a daily sacrifice of self to a thousand insignificant trifles. The ancient rights of her husband, her lord and master, survive unnoticed. Objectively, his slave takes her revenge. Also in concealed form. Her backwardness and her lack of understanding for her husband’s revolutionary ideals act as a drag on his fighting spirit, on his determination to fight. They are like tiny worms, gnawing and undermining imperceptibly, slowly but surely. I know the life of the workers, and not only from books. Our communist work among the masses of women, and our political work in general, involves considerable educational work among the men. We must root out the old slave-owner’s point of view, both in the Party and among the masses. That is one of our political tasks, a task just as urgently necessary as the formation of a staff composed of comrades, men and women, with thorough theoretical and practical training for Party work among working women.”

To my question about present-day conditions in Soviet Russia, Lenin replied: “The government of the proletarian dictatorship jointly with the Communist Party and the trade unions of course makes every effort to overcome the backward views of men and women and thus uproot the old, non-communist psychology. It goes without saying that men and women are absolutely equal before the law. A sincere desire to give effect to this equality is evident in all spheres. We are enlisting women to work in the economy, the administration, legislation and government. All courses and educational institutions are open to them, so that they can improve their professional and social training. We are organizing community kitchens and public dining-rooms, laundries and repair shops, creches, kindergartens, children’s homes and educational institutions of every kind. In brief,

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (22 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 we are quite in earnest about carrying out the requirements of our program to shift the functions of housekeeping and education from the individual household to society. Woman is thus being relieved from her old domestic slavery and all dependence on her husband. She is enabled to give her capabilities and inclinations full play in society. Children are offered better opportunities for their development than at home. We have the most progressive female labor legislation in the world, and it is enforced by authorized representatives of organized labor. We are establishing maternity homes, mother-and-child homes, mothers’ health centers, courses for infant and child care, exhibitions of mother and child care, and the like. We are making every effort to provide for needy and unemployed women.

“We know perfectly well that all this is still too little, considering the needs of the working women, and that it is still far from sufficient for their real emancipation. Yet it is an immense stride forward from what there was in tsarist and capitalist Russia. Moreover, it is a lot as compared with the state of affairs where capitalism still holds undivided sway. It is a good start in the right direction, and we shall continue to develop it consistently, and with all available energy, too. You abroad may rest assured. Because with each day that passes it becomes clearer that we cannot make progress without the millions of women. Think what this means in a country where the peasants comprise a solid 80% of the population. Small peasant farming implies individual housekeeping and the bondage of women. You will be far better off than we are in this respect, provided your proletarians at last grasp that the time is historically ripe for seizure of power, for revolution.

“In the meantime, we are not giving way to despair, despite the great difficulties. Our forces grow as the latter increase. Practical necessity will also impel us to find new ways of emancipating the http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (23 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2

masses of women. In combination with the Soviet state, comradely solidarity will accomplish wonders. To be sure, I mean comradely solidarity in the communist, not in the bourgeois, sense, in which it is preached by the reformists, whose revolutionary enthusiasm has evaporated like the smell of cheap vinegar. Personal initiative, which grows into, and fuses with collective activity, should accompany comradely solidarity. Under the proletarian dictatorship the emancipation of women through the realization of communism will proceed also in the countryside. In this respect I expect much from the electrification of our industry and agriculture. That is a grand scheme! The difficulties in its way are great, monstrously great. Powerful forces latent in the masses will have to be released and trained to overcome them. Millions of women must take part in this.”

Someone had knocked twice in the last ten minutes, but Lenin had continued to speak. Now he opened the door and shouted: “I’m coming!”

Turning in my direction, he added with a smile:

“You know, Clara, I am going to take advantage of the fact that I was conversing with a woman and will name the notorious female loquacity as the excuse for being late. Although this time it was the man and not the woman who did most of the talking. In general, I must say that you are really a good listener. But it was this that probably prompted me to talk so much.”

With this jocular remark Lenin helped me on with my coat. “You should dress more warmly,” he suggested solicitously. “Moscow is not Stuttgart. You need someone to look after you. Don’t catch cold. Good- bye.”

He shook my hand firmly.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (24 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2

I had another talk with Lenin on the women’s movement about a fortnight later. Lenin came to see me. As almost always, his visit was unexpected. It was an impromptu visit and occurred during an intermission in the gigantic burden of work accomplished by the leader of the victorious revolution. Lenin looked very tired and worried. Wrangel had not yet been crushed and the question of supplying the big cities with food confronted the Soviet Government like an inexorable sphinx.

Lenin asked how the theses were coming along. I told him that a big commission had been in session, which all prominent women Communists then in Moscow had attended and where they had spoken their opinions. The theses were ready and were now to be discussed by a small committee. Lenin pointed out that we should strive to have the Third World Congresses examine the problem with due thoroughness. This fact alone would break down the prejudice of many comrades. Anyhow, the women Communists should be the first to take things in hand, and with vigor.

“Don’t twitter like a bunch of chatterboxes, but speak out loudly and clearly like fighters should,” Lenin exclaimed with animation. “A congress is not a parlor where women display their charm, as we read in novels. A congress is a battlefield in which we fight for the knowledge we need for revolutionary action. Show that you can fight. In the first place, of course, against our enemies, but also within the Party, should the need arise. After all, the broad masses of women are at stake. Our Russian Party will back all proposals and measures that will help to win these masses. If the women are not with us, the counter-revolutionaries may succeed in setting them against us. We must always bear this in mind.”

“We must win the mass of women over even if they are riveted to http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (25 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2

heaven by chains, as Stralsund puts it,” I said, pursuing Lenin’s idea. “Here, in the center of the revolution with its richly seething life, with its strong, rapid pulse, a plan has occurred to me of a big, joint international action among the working women. It was prompted primarily by your big non-partisan women’s conferences and congresses. We should try to transform them from national into international ones. It is a fact that the world war and its aftermath have deeply shaken the bulk of the women of various classes and sections of society. They are in ferment. They have been set in motion. Their distressing worries about securing a livelihood and the search for the purpose of life confront them with problems which most of them had hardly suspected and only a small minority had grasped in the past. Bourgeois society is unable to provide a satisfactory answer to their questions. Only communism can do it. We must rouse the broad masses of women in the capitalist countries to consciousness and should for that purpose call a non-partisan international women’s congress.”

Lenin did not reply at once. He sat lost in thought, considering the problem, his lips pursed, the lower lip protruding slightly.

“Yes, we ought to do it,” he said finally. “The plan is good. But a good plan, even an excellent one, is worthless unless it is well executed. Have you thought about how it should be executed? What are your ideas on this score?”

I set out my ideas to Lenin in detail. To begin with, we ought to form a committee of Communist women from various countries in close and constant contact with our national sections. This committee would prepare, conduct and make use of the congress. It had to be decided whether it would be desirable for the committee to work openly and officially from the very beginning. At any rate, it would be the first task of the committee members to make contact with the leaders of the organized female workers in each country, the proletarian http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (26 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2

political women’s movement, bourgeois women’s organizations of every trend and description, and finally the prominent female physicians, teachers, writers, etc., and to form national nonpartisan preparatory committees. An international committee would be formed from among the members of these national committees to prepare and convene the international congress, to draw up its agenda and to pick the time and place for the congress.

In my opinion, the congress ought first to discuss the women’s right to engage in trades and professions. In doing so it should deal with the questions of unemployment, equal pay for equal work, legislation on the 8-hour day and labor protection for women, organization of trade unions, social care of mother and child, social measures to relieve housewives and mothers, etc. Furthermore, the agenda should deal with the status of women in marriage and family legislation and in public and political law. After substantiating these proposals I explained how the national committees in the various countries should thoroughly prepare the ground for the congress by a planned campaign at meetings and in the press. This campaign was particularly important in rousing the biggest possible number of women, to stimulate a serious study of the problems submitted for discussion, and to draw their attention to the congress and thereby to communism and the parties of the Communist International. The campaign had to reach the working women of all social strata. It would have to secure attendance and participation in the congress of representatives of all organizations concerned, and also of delegates from public women’s meetings. The congress was to be a “popular representative body” entirely different from a bourgeois parliament.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (27 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 It went without saying that women Communists were to be not merely the motive but also the leading force in the preparatory work, and should have the energetic support of our sections. Naturally, the same applied also to the work of the international committee, the work of the congress itself, and to its extensive use. Communist theses and resolutions on all items on the agenda should be submitted to the congress. They should be carefully worded and well reasoned with scholarly mastery of the relevant social facts. These theses should be discussed and approved beforehand by the Executive Committee of the Comintern. The communist solutions and slogans should be the focal point on which the work of the congress and public attention would concentrate. After the congress they should be disseminated among the broad masses of women by means of agitation and propaganda, so that they may become determinative for international women’s mass actions. Needless to say, all this requires as an essential condition that women Communists work in all the committees and at the congress itself as a firm, solid body and that they act together on a lucid and unshakeable plan. There should be no out-of-turn actions.

In the course of my explanation Lenin nodded several times in approval and interposed a few remarks.

“It seems to me, dear comrade,” he said, “that you have considered the matter very thoroughly in the political sense, and also the main points of the organizational angle. I fully agree that such a congress could accomplish much in the present situation. It offers us the opportunity of winning over the broad masses of women, particularly women in the various trades and professions, the industrial women workers and home-workers, the teachers and other professional women. This would be wonderful. Think of

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (28 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 the situation in the big economic struggles or political strikes. What a reinforcement the revolutionary proletariat would gain in the class-conscious masses of women. Provided, of course, that we are able to win them over and keep them on our side. Our gain would be great. It would be nothing short of immense. But what would you say to the following few questions? The authorities will probably frown very severely upon the idea of this congress and will try to prevent it. However they are not likely to dare suppress it by brute force. Whatever they do will not frighten you. But are you not afraid that the women Communists will be over-whelmed in the committees and at the congress itself by the numerical superiority of the bourgeois and reformist delegates and their unquestionably greater experience? Besides, and most important, do you really have confidence in the Marxist schooling of our communist comrades, and are you sure that a shock group can be picked among them that will come out of the battle with honor?”

I told Lenin in reply that the authorities were not likely to use the mailed fist against the congress. Intrigues and boorish attacks against it would only act in its favor, and ours. We Communists could more than match the greater number and experience of the non-communist elements by the scientific superiority of historical materialism with its study and illumination of social problems, the perseverance with which we would demand that they be solved, and last but not least, by references to the victory of the proletarian revolution in Russia and its fundamental accomplishments in the work of emancipating the women. The weakness and lack of training of some of our comrades, their inexperience, could be compensated by planned preparation and teamwork. In this respect, I expect the very best from the Russian women comrades. They would form the iron core of our phalanx. In their company I would calmly brave much more hazardous clashes than the congress battles. Besides, even if we are outvoted, the very fact that we fought will put communism in the foreground and will http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (29 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2

have a big propaganda effect. Furthermore, it will give us points of departure for subsequent work.

Lenin laughed heartily.

“You are as enthusiastic as ever about the Russian women revolutionaries. Yes indeed, old love is not forgotten. I think you are right. Even defeat after a stubborn struggle would be a gain; it would prepare the ground for future gains among the working women. All things considered, it is a risk worth taking. It cannot possibly prove a total failure. But naturally, I hope for victory and wish you success from the bottom of my heart. It would considerably enhance our strength, it would widen and fortify our battlefront, it would put life into our ranks and set them in motion. That is always useful. Moreover, the congress would foment and increase unrest, uncertainty, contradictions and conflicts in the camp of the bourgeoisie and its reformist friends. One can just imagine who is going to sit down with the ‘hyenas of the revolution’, and, if things go well, to deliberate under their leadership. It will be the brave, well-disciplined female Social- Democrats under the supreme guidance of Scheidemann, Dittmann and Legien; the pious Christian women blessed by the Pope or devoted to Luther; daughters of privy counsellors, wives of newly-appointed councillors of state, lady-like English pacifists and ardent French suffragettes. What a picture of chaos, of the decay of the bourgeois world the congress is bound to present! What a portrayal of its hopeless conditions! The congress would add to the division and thereby weaken the forces of the counter- revolution. Every weakening of the enemy is tantamount to a strengthening of our forces. I am in favor of the congress. You will get our vigorous support. So get started, and I wish you luck in the struggle.”

We spoke then about the situation in Germany, particularly the impending “Unity Congress” of the old Spartacists and the Left wing of the Independents. Thereupon, Lenin left in a hurry, exchanging http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (30 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 friendly greetings with several comrades working in the room he had had to cross.

I set about the preparatory work with high hopes. However, the congress floundered, because it was opposed by the German and Bulgarian women comrades who were then leaders of the biggest communist women’s movements outside Soviet Russia. They were flatly against calling the congress.

When I informed Lenin of this he answered:

“It is a pity, a great pity! These comrades missed a splendid opportunity to give a new and better outlook of hope for the masses of women and thereby to draw them into the revolutionary struggles of the proletariat. Who can tell whether such a favourable opportunity will recur in the near future ? One should strike while the iron is hot. But the task remains. You must look for a way to reach the masses of women whom capitalism has plunged into dire need. You must look for it on all accounts. There is no evading this imperative task. Without the organized activity of the masses under communist leadership there can be no victory over capitalism and no building of communism. And so the hitherto dormant masses of women must be finally set into motion.”

* * *

The first year spent by the revolutionary proletariat without Lenin has passed. It has shown the strength of his cause. It has proved the leader’s great genius. It has shown how great and irreplaceable the loss has been. Salvoes mark the sad hour when Lenin closed his far- seeing, penetrating eyes for ever, a year ago. I see an endless procession of mourning working people, as they go to Lenin’s resting-

http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1925/lenin/zetkin2.htm (31 of 32) [14-7-2011 20:59:05] Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question - 2 place. Their mourning is my mourning, the mourning of the millions. My newly-awakened grief evokes overwhelming memories in me of the reality that makes the painful present recede. I hear again every word Lenin spoke in conversation with me. I see every change in his face ... Banners are lowered at Lenin’s tomb. They are banners steeped in the blood of fighters for the revolution. Laurel wreaths are laid. Not one of them is superfluous. And I add to them these modest lines.

Note

1*. Inessa Armand. – Ed.

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Two printed guides to the archives are available from the Institute: - Mies Campfens, De Nederlandse archieven van het Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis te Amsterdam, 2nd ed, Amsterdam 1989, 504 p. - Jaap Haag and Atie van der Horst (eds), Guide to the International Archives and Collections at the IISH, Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1999, 608 p. Some inventories of larger archival collections are published in the series IISG Working Papers top http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/index.php - Last updated: 24 October 2006

http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/ (2 of 2) [14-7-2011 20:59:17] MIA - Deutsch: Clara Zetkin

MIA > Deutsch > Marxisten

Marxists’ Internet Archive Deutschsprachiger Teil

Clara Zetkin

1857 - 1933

http://www.marxists.org/deutsch/archiv/zetkin/index.htm (1 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:59:35] MIA - Deutsch: Clara Zetkin

Zur Zeit sind folgende Texte in Deutsch verfügbar – entweder hier im Archiv oder über Links zu anderen Webseiten:

19. Jul 1889 Für die Befreiung der Frau!

1. Nov 1893 Frauenarbeit und gewerkschaftliche Organisation

21. Aug 1895 Friedrich Engels

3./4. Okt 1898 Wider die Kompensationspolitik

12. Apr 1899 Wider die sozialdemokratische Theorie und Taktik

1899 Der Student und das Weib

19. Sept 1907 Bürgerlicher und proletarischer Patriotismus

5. Aug 1914 Proletarische Frauen, seid bereit!

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29. Jun 1917 Abschied von der Gleichheit

2. März 1922 Der Kampf der kommunistischen Parteien gegen Kriegsgefahr und Krieg

12. Nov 1922 Über die internationale Bedeutung der russischen Revolution

20. Jun 1923 Der Kampf gegen den Faschismus

24. Jan 1924 Der genialste revolutionäre Realpolitiker

26. Jan 1924 Rede zu Ehren Lenins auf dem Sowjetkongreß der UdSSR in Moskau

7. Feb 1924 Lenin – Schwert und Flamme des Weltproletariats

Jan 1925 Erinnerungen an Lenin

30. März 1925 Über die Bolschewisierung der kommunistischen Parteien

http://www.marxists.org/deutsch/archiv/zetkin/index.htm (3 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:59:35] MIA - Deutsch: Clara Zetkin

23. Juli 1926 Zum Tode Felix Dzierzynskis

26. Nov 1926 Die geistige Krise der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft und der ideologische Kampf der Kommunistischen Partei

11. Sept 1927 Brief an Nikolai Bucharin

26. Okt 1927 Brief an das ZK der KPD

10./11. Nov 1927 Schützt den einzigen Friedensstaat

19. Jan 1928 Lenins Werk

19. Juni 1929 Brief an Jossif Pjatnitzki

8. März 1932 Für den Sozialismus, gegen Krieg und Intervention!

12. Juli 1932 Brief an den antifaschistischen Einheitskongreß in Berlin

30. Aug 1932 Rede als Alterspräsidentin bei der Eröffnung des Reichstags

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Anfang der Seite

Zuletzt aktualisiert am 4.8.2008

http://www.marxists.org/deutsch/archiv/zetkin/index.htm (5 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:59:35] Women and Marxism: Marxists Internet Archive

MIA: Subject: Women

This subject section has been created to provide broad documentation both on women's issues and Marxism, and also a space for women's writings that are significant, but transcriptions not currently volumous or organized enough to warrant their own section.

Some of these writers are not Marxists, but are included for context or reference. The intention is to also include the cultural as well as political milieu in which revolutionary women have worked during their struggles.

As with the rest of MIA, most heavily represented are classic texts. The few references to contemporary Marxism-Feminism are meant to be a gateway to

http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/index.htm (1 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:59:56] Women and Marxism: Marxists Internet Archive further exploration for interested readers.

Questions, texts or suggestions welcome to Sally Ryan.

Non-Fiction Authors

Adrianzen, Catalina Lewis, Lena Morrow Balabanoff, Angelica (1900-1996) (1878-1965) Limpus, Laurel Beauvoir, Simone de Longuet, Jenny Marx (1908-1986) (1844-1883) Beard, Mary (1876-1958) Luxemburg, Rosa (1871- Beaton, Lynn 1919) Bebel, August (1840- Mao Tse Tung (1893- 1913) 1976) Begum, Rokeya (1880- Marcy, Mary (1877-1922) 1932) Marx, Eleanor Aveling Benhabib, Seyla (1950-) (1855-1898) Besant, Annie (1847- Marx, Jenny Von 1933) Westphalen (1814-1881) Bobrovskaya, Cecilia Marx, Karl (1818-1883) (1873-19? ) Milhaud, Edgar Bryant, Louise (1885- Mill, John Stuart (1806- 1936) 1873) Carpenter, Edward (1844- Millett, Kate (1934- ) 1929) Mitchell, Juliet (1940- ) Cliff, Tony (1917-2000) Montefiore, Dora (1851- Comyn, Marian 1932) Connolly, James and Nicholson, Linda DeLeon, Daniel O'Hare, Kate Richards Darwin, Charles (1809- (1877-1948) 1882) Pablo, Michel (1911- http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/index.htm (2 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:59:56] Women and Marxism: Marxists Internet Archive Davis, Angela (1944-) 1996) Dell, Floyd (1887-1969) Pankhurst, E. Sylvia Dixon, Marlene (1882-1960) Dollinger, Genora (1913- Page, Myra (1897-1993) 1995) Parker, Dorothy (1893- Dunayevskaya, Raya 1967) (1910-1987) Parlow, Maud Ebert, Teresa Pichugina M. Ehrenreich, Barbara Pollitt, Marjorie (1941-) Reed, Evelyn (1905- Engels, Frederick (1820- 1979) 1895) Reissner, Larissa (1895- Field, Alice Withrow 1926) (1909-1960) Rolland-Holst, Henriettte Firestone, Shulamith Rowbotham, Sheila Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley Sanger, Margaret (1879- (1890-1964) 1966) Foley, Martha 1919 Schreiner, Olive (Ralph Fraser, Clara (1923- Iron, 1855-1920) 1998) Shaginyan, Marietta Friedan, Betty (1921- (1888-1982) 2006) Shaw, George Bernard Gimenez, Martha (1856-1950) Greer, Germaine Simmons, May Wood Herbst, Josephine (1892- Spadoni, Adriana 1969) Spargo, John (1876- Inber, Vera (1890-1972) 1966) Jones, Mother (1830- Stalin, Joseph (1879- 1930) 1953) Kaneko, Josephine Stokes, Rose Pastor Conger (1879-1933) Kang-Hu, Kiang Trotsky, Leon (1879- Kautsky, Luise (1864- 1940) 1944) Trotsky, Natalia Sedova Keller, Helen (1880- (1882-1962) 1968) Turner, Beth Kelley, Florence (1859- Vorse, Mary Heaton (1874- 1966) http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/index.htm (3 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:59:56] Women and Marxism: Marxists Internet Archive 1932) Walling, Anna Strunsky Kollontai, Alexandra Weisbord, Vera Buch (1872-1952) (1895-1989) Krupskaya, Nadezhada Wollstonecraft, Mary (1869-1939) (1759-1851) Lafargue, Paul (1841- Zetkin, Clara (1857-1933) 1911) Lenin, V.I. (1870-1924) Le Sueur, Meridel (1900- 1996)

Feminism

History of the Modern Women's Liberation Movement, in their own words Library of Feminist Writers Dora Montefiore and Eleanor Marx’s Fight Against Sexism in the Party, 1895-1909

Comintern Resolutions on the Woman Question, July 8 1921

Resolution on Strengthening International Contact and Tasks of the International Secretariat on Work among Women; Forms and Methods of Communist Work among Women; Methods and Forms of Work among Communist

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Party Women;

Related sites:

Marxist / Materialist Feminism Socialist Feminism lanic: Women & Gender Studies CWLU Herstory Archive Spartacus Educational: Emancipation of Women, 1750-1920 Spartacus Educational: Women's History

Fiction/Poetry | Subjects Subject Archive Index | Marxists Internet Archive

http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/index.htm (5 of 5) [14-7-2011 20:59:56] History of the Second International

MIA: History: International: Socialist International

The Second International (Social-Democracy) 1880 — 1917

Introduction

In 1880, the German Social Democratic Party supported the call of its Belgian comrades, to call an international socialist congress in 1881. The little town of Chur was chosen and the Belgian socialists, the French Parti Ouvrier, the German social democracy, and the Swiss social democracy, participated in the preparations for the congress which would lead to the founding of the Socialist International.

Unlike the First, the Socialist International was made up of political parties with properly elected leaderships, political programs and membership bases in each country. The national sections of the International built trade unions, contested elections, and were deeply involved in the life of the working class in each country.

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The outbreak of the Great War in 1914 and the national and revolutionary crises which the War engendered however, threw the International into crisis. A group of Social-Democrats, minorities within their own parties, met at Zimmerwald in 1915 to try to work out a joint platform of opposition to the slaughter taking place around them. The Zimmerwald Conference failed to unite all the Social Democrats or end the War, but did bring together a Left wing which supported the Russian Revolution and laid the basis for the Third (Communist) International.

● Summary

● Historie de la IIe Internationale (1889-1914) [off-site link]

Formation of the International

October 1881 (Chur) Founding Conference of the Second International. “The Belgian socialists, the French Parti Ouvrier, the German social democracy, and the Swiss social democracy, participated in the preparations for the congress. But whereas at Ghent the anarchists had also participated, they had nothing to do with the Chur Congress, but ... called a congress of their own in London.”

Delegates included: Wilhelm Liebknecht (Germany); McGuire, General Secretary of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (Socialist Labor Party of North

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (2 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International America); Louis Bertrand (The Belgian Socialist Party); J. Joffrin and Benoît Malon (The French Parti Ouvrier); J. P. Becker and Solari for French-speaking Switzerland, and Conzetti, Herter, Lenbert, and Schwartz for German-speaking Switzerland; Rachow (German communist, London); Varinski and Limonowski for various Polish socialist groups, and Paul Axelrod (Russia), Ferenezi Siula (Budapest).

The Conference did not succeed in bringing the parties into a new International, but called for the drafting of a joint socialist manifesto to be submitted to the next international congress, to be organised by the Parti Ouvrier in Paris in 1886.

1886 (Paris) International Labour Conference, showed progress towards a new International with socialist parties in Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries, France, the United States, etc.

July 1889 (Paris) International Socialist Congress, attended by delegates from 20 countries, founded the new Socialist International, formally adopting the principles of the International Workingmen's Association founded in London in 1864. May Day was declared as an international working-class holiday.

See Report from The Times of London.

International Socialist Congresses

2. 1891 (Brussels) http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (3 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International

3. 1893 (Zürich) Engels was elected honorary president of International Socialist Congress, but died in 1895. The Congress established the International Metalworkers Federation, uniting metalworkers across the world to this day.

4. 1896 (London) affirmed right of nations to self- determination and opposition to colonialism.

5. September 1900 (Paris) Established a standing International Socialist Bureau composed of representatives of the socialist parties of all countries, its secretariat to be in Brussels. At this Congress, there was a split within the 28-strong Russian delegation. Lenin cast his vote for Plekhanov as the Russian delegate to the International, against Krichevsky, one of the editors of Rabocheye Dyelo.

In 1903, the Russian party split between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. See the Stenographic Record of the Second Congress of the RSDLP.

6. 1904 (Amsterdam)

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in Chicago in June 1905, and over the next few years, the Social Democrats were active in a struggle against Anarcho-Syndicalism within the IWW.

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (4 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International See the Report of the Australian Socialist League to the International Socialist Congress at Amsterdam, and Colonies and dependencies: Report to the International Socialist Congress, by H. M. Hyndman.

7. August 1907 (Stuttgart), there were 884 delegates from 25 nations including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russia, the USA and one delegate from South Africa. The First International Conference of Socialist Women was held just prior to the opening of the Congress

● Resolution on Militarism at Stuttgart Conference, 1907 ● The First International Conference of Socialist Women, Alexandra Kollontai

● Ruin of India by British Rule, Henry Hyndman

The Fourth convention of the IWW in 1908 resulted in a split between “political actionists”, led by Daniel DeLeon of the SLP, and “direct actionists”, led by Vincent St. John and J.H. Walsh. DeLeon set up a rival “Detroit” IWW in opposition to the “Chicago” IWW who were opposed to participation in Parliament.

8. August 1910 (Copenhagen). Second International Conference of Socialist Women held prior to opening of Congress, set International Women's Day for March 8 every year.

November 1912 Extraordinary Congress (Basel) - http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (5 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International see Manifesto.

The final session of the International Socialist Bureau was held at Brussels on July 29, 1914 and “resolved unanimously that it shall be the duty of the workers of all nations concerned not only to continue but to further intensify their demonstrations against the war, for peace, and for the settlement of the Austro-Serbian conflict by international arbitration, ...”

Imperialism and Arbitration Courts, Report by Hugo Haase to the International Socialist Congress of Vienna, August 1914.

1915 September (Zimmerwald, near Berne, Switzerland) organised opposition to the War.

1916 April (Kienthal) follow-up to Zimmerwald Conference.

1917 July - August (Stockholm) did not convene due to delegates being prevented from attending. Final meeting of Zimmerwald group at Stockholm

The Social Democratic Party of Germany

The defeat of the Paris Commune in 1871 plunged Europe into a period of reaction, leading to the disintegration of the First International by 1873. The reconstruction of the international socialist movement began in Gotha in 1875. http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (6 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International

The German Socialists were the founding and most powerful section of Social-Democracy throughout the period of its existence. The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany was founded in May 1875 at Gotha, uniting Liebknecht and Bebel's Social-Democratic Workers' Party and the Lassallean General German Workers' Union. See Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme and Engels' 1891 Foreword to the Critique.

Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826-1900) After participating in the 1848 revolution, fled to Switzerland, then to England, returning to Germany in 1862. Liebknecht and Bebel were the first deputies of a left-wing party to be elected to the North German Reichstag. In Eisenach in 1869, Liebknecht and Bebel founded the Social-Democratic Workers' Party, and in 1891 were co-founders of the Social Democratic Party. Liebknecht was a member of the German Reichstag from 1874 until his death in 1900. See the text of the Erfurt Program, compiled by Wilhelm Liebknecht and Engels' Critique of the Draft Program.

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August Bebel (1840-1913) Bebel had trained as a cabinet maker, and was introduced to socialist theory by the Lassallean German Workers' Association founded in 1863. In 1872, Bebel and Liebknecht were imprisoned for two years for their opposition to Franco- German War. After the SDP merged with the Lassalleans in Gotha in 1875, Bebel remained the unquestioned leader. His fiery parliamentary speeches were renowned across Europe, and Bebel remained on the Left of German Social Democracy until his death shortly before the beginning of the War. His Women and Socialism is the earliest Marxist work on the emancipation of women.

Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932) Left Germany during the anti-Socialist laws to produce the Sozial Demokrat from Switzerland. Lived in London from 1888 to 1900 where he was close to Engels until Engels' death in 1895, and was named his literary executor. From 1896, Bernstein became an advocate of reformism, coining the aphorism: “The movement is everything, the final goal nothing”. See Evolutionary Socialism, 1899. Reichstag Deputy on and off from 1902; founded the Independent Social Democratic Party 1916, but returned to the Social Democractic Party after the murder of Luxemburg and Liebknecht in 1919.

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Karl Kautsky (1845-1938) In 1880, Kautsky joined Bernstein in Zurich who smuggled socialist material into Germany in defiance of the Anti-Socialist Laws. Bernstein introduced Kautsky to Marxism and Kautsky visited Marx and Engels in England. He founded Neue Zeit in Stuttgart in 1883 and was its editor until 1917. In this position he became the most influential leader of Social-Democracy and authority on Marxism until the Russian Revolution. In 1891, Kautsky's Erfurt Program was adopted by the SDP. See the text of the Program.

The Spartacists

Franz Mehring (1846-1919) Literary critic, writer and historian, a leader of the Left-wing of the German Social Democrats and later member of the Spartacist League. Mehring and Clara Zetkin were the only members of the “older generation” of Marxists who supported Lenin's “revolutionary defeatism” line against the War and survived to see the founding of the Communist Party of Germany in 1919.

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Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) Clara Zetkin was member of the Bookbinders Union in Stuttgart, and active in the Tailors and Seamstresses Union, becoming its provisional International Secretary in 1896, despite the fact that it was illegal for women to be members of trade unions in Germany at that time. From 1895, she was a leader of the left-wing of the SPD. As Secretary of the International Bureau of Socialist Women, Zetkin organised the Socialist Women's Conference in March 1915. She joined the Spartacists and was a founding member of the German Communist Party in 1918, a Reichstag delegate from 1920 and a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International from 1921, but lived in Russia from 1924 until her death in 1933. See Clara Zetkin's report to the 1896 Congress of the SDP and Eleanor Marx's report of the Congress

Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) A Polish Jew, at 18 years of age Rosa Luxemburg was forced to escape to Zurich to avoid imprisonment for her revolutionary agitation. Here she met Russian Social Democrats such as Georgy Plekhanov and Pavel Axelrod. Luxemburg split with both the Russian and Polish Socialist Party over the issue of Polish self-determination, and helped create the Polish Social Democratic Party. Leo

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (10 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International Jogiches, leader of the Polish Socialist Party became her life-long companion.

Rosa Luxemburg was a leader of both the German and Polish Social Democrats, an electrifying speaker who always stood on the left wing of social democracy. She was critical of Lenin's centralised methods of organisation (See Russian Social-democracy) and was a foremost advocate of the mass strike as opposed to parliamentary activity (See The Mass Strike). She spent the War inside prison, and was released only in time to take her place at the head of the German Revolution and to be arrested by her erstwhile Social- Democratic comrades, and murdered in January 1919.

Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919) Son of Wilhelm Liebknecht and founding leader of the Socialist Youth International in 1907.

With Rosa Luxemburg, Liebknecht was leader of the “International Group” and later founded the Spartacist League and was the only Reichstag Deputy to oppose war credits in the Reichstag in 1914. Drafted during the war, he was imprisoned in May 1916 for anti-war activity. Released in November 1918, Liebknecht was a leader of the failed Berlin uprising in January 1919 and murdered on January 15th 1919, along with his life-long comrade Rosa Luxemburg.

The German SDP and the War, 1914

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Other Social-democratic Parties in Europe

Herman Gorter (1864-1927) Dutch poet who opposed the pro-War stance of the Dutch Social-Democrats and later became a "left-wing communist", conducting a polemic against Lenin's book of that name. See his Open Letter to Lenin.

Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960) The Dutch astronomer Anton Pannekoek was active in the German Social Democratic Party while living in Germany before the War and contributed to Die Neue Zeit. The leader of the Social Democrats in the Netherlands, after the Russian Revolution, Pannekoek stayed aloof from both the Comintern and the Socialist Parties, taking a syndicalist direction. See Party and Class.

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The French Parti Ouvrier

Paul Lafargue (1841-1911) Paul Lafargue was born in Cuba but studied medicine in France and became a follower of Proudhon. He met Marx and Engels while acting as a delegate to the First International and married Laura Marx in 1868, thereafter working closely with Marx and Engels and leading the Marxist wing within the Parti Ouvrier.

After the fall of the Paris Commune Paul and Laura fled to Spain but later settled in London. Lafargue was an influential speaker and writer, including works on ethical aspects of socialism. The couple commited suicide together in 1911. See Paul Lafargue Archive.

Jules Guesde (1845-1922) Publisher of L'Égalité, leader of the Marxist wing of the French workers' movement. In 1879, together with Lafargue, he founded the French Workers' Party [Parti ouvrier]. In the 1880's and 90's Guesde led the fight against the Possibilists and opposed participation in Parliament. By 1900 he had moved to a reformist position however, and during the war a social-chauvinist and in 1914-15 a member of the government. See Jules Guesde Archive.

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In December 1920 the French Socialist Party joined the Comintern.

Garbriel Deville: one of the theoreticians of the French Workers Party (POF) of Guesde and as such introduced Marxism into France.

Swedish Social-Democracy See Swedish Social-Democracy Archive

August Palm introduced Social-Democracy into Sweden from Germany with his famous 1881 speech in Malmö and was the leader of its left-wing.

Hjalmar Branting displaced Palm from leadership and went on to become Prime Minister and a Nobel Prize winner.

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Poland

Leo Jogiches (1867-1919) Jailed for his agitation in Lithuania, in 1890 he escaped to Switzerland where he began a long political and personal relationship with Rosa Luxemburg. In 1983 together they founded the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), which later merged with the Polish Workers' Party. Jogiches was murdered while trying to investigate the assassination of Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht during the Spartacist uprising.

Italian Socialist Party

Antonio Labriola (1843-1904) Father of Italian Marxism.

Filippo Turati (1857-1932), leader of the right-wing of Italian Social Democracy.

Enrico Ferri (1856-1929), criminologist, later joined the Fascists.

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Russian Social-Democracy

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party grew out of the Emancipation of Labour Group founded in 1878 by Plekhanov, Vera Zasluich, Pavel Axelrod and others.

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

The R.S.D.L.P. was founded in 1901, but at its Second Congress into two factions known as the “Bolsheviks” and the “Mensheviks”. These two factions still operated as parts of a single party as late as 1912.

G V Plekhanov (1856-1918) Left Narodnya Volya, with its focus on the peasantry and terrorist tactics, and founded the Emancipation of Labour Group, with a focus on the urban working class. Forced into emigration in 1880, Plekhanov did not return to Russia until the formation of Provisional Government in 1917.

Plekhanov was the “father of Russian Marxism”, and up to 1903 Lenin and Plekhanov were allies in the struggle against Bernstein's “evolutionary socialism.” Even after Lenin split with Plekhanov, Plekhanov was held in high regard. However, he did not foresee the possibility of the working class seizing power without Russia first passing through a period of democratic capitalism, and opposed the October Revolution. http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (16 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International

Vera Zasulich (1851-1919) Joined the Narodniks as a youth, but after emigrating in 1880 joined with Plekhanov in the Emancipation of Labour Group. Zasulich translated a number of Marx's works into Russian and with Lenin and Plekhanov as an editor of Iskra. Zasulich was a Menshevik from 1903.

Pavel Axelrod (1850-1928) Influenced by the writings of Bakunin, in 1877 he joined Land and Liberty. When this group established the terrorist Narodnya Volya, he joined instead with Plekhanov in the Emancipation of Labour Group. Axelrod was a Menshevik from 1903.

Julius Martov (1873-1923) Began his political career in 1895 working with Lenin in the St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class and on Iskra but led the Mensheviks in oposition to Lenin's conception of Democratic Centralism in 1903. At the time of the October Revolution he held a left position in the Menshevik ranks, remaining in the Second Congress of the Soviets after the Right SRs and Mensheviks had departed. He emigrated to Berlin and published Sotsialistichesky

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V I Lenin (1870-1924) Left Russia to meet with Plekhanov, returning to Russia in order to unite all the revolutionary circles in Russia in a single Party – the R.S.D.L.P.. However, Lenin's conception at this time was for a party of “professional revolutionaries”, rather than the amateurish revolutinary circles or loose labour parties of Europe. Over this issue, Lenin split with all the older generation of Russian Marxists.

Lenin's Bolshevik faction was the centre of opposition to the War at the Zimmerwald Conference. The February Revolution, which brought a social- democratic Provisional Government to power, which continued Russia's participation in the First World War. Returning from exile in April 1917, Lenin called for the overthrow of the Kerensky government and the ending of the War, and led the successful Russian Revolution of October 1917. Lenin died just when power had been secured after the Wars of Intervention.

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See The Bolsheviks Subject Archive. The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin and Zinoviev, were the main force in the Zimmerwald-Left opposition to the First World War, laying the basis for the Communist International formed in 1918.

Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Worked with Lenin on Iskra in 1902 but broke with Lenin after the Second Congress. He broke with the Mensheviks in 1904 and tried during the next decade to reunite the factions of the RSDLP. In the 1905 revolution, he was the leader of the St. Petersburg Soviet and developed the theory of Permanent Revolution. In 1915 he wrote the Zimmerwald Manifesto.

Trotsky joined the Bolshevik Party in 1917 and was elected to its Central Committee and led the Military Revolutionary Committee which organised the October Revolution.

The Workers’ Parties in the English- speaking world

The well-established Trade Union movement in Britain and the other English-speaking countries spawned both Parliamentary wings and Anarcho- syndicalist or doctrinaire parties rejecting Parliament. Sections of the Second International were usually smaller parties inside the Labour Parties or outside in http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (19 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International opposition to them.

Britain

Henry Hyndman (1842-1922) While on holiday in the United States in 1881, Hyndman read a copy of Capital decided to form a Marxist political group when he arrived back in England. The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) became the first Marxist political group in Britain and its members included trade unionists such as Tom Mann, John Burns and Ben Tillet, as well as Eleanor Marx, Edward Aveling, William Morris, George Lansbury and H. H. Champion. By 1885 the organisation had over 700 members.

Hyndman's domineering style, adventurous tactics and questionable relations with the Tories weakened the SDF. In December 1884 William Morris and Eleanor Marx left to form the Socialist League. H. H. Champion, Tom Mann and John Burns also left. In February 1900 the SDF joined with the Independent Labour Party of Keir Hardie and Ramsay MacDonald, the Fabian Society and several trade union leaders to form the Labour Representation Committee, later to become the Labour Party.

Hyndman had very little influence and in August 1901 the SDF disaffiliated from the Labour Party and

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (20 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International Hyndman established the British Socialist Party (BSP). Hyndman supported Britain's part in the War and left to form the National Socialist Party.

In 1885, Eleanor Marx, William Morris, Ernest Belfort Bax, Edward Aveling and others left Hyndman's SDF to found the Socialist League and whole branches, such as those in East London, Hammersmith and Leeds, joined the new organisation.

William Morris (1834-1896) A member of Hyndman's Social Democraic Federation, and of the Socialist League, where he sided with the Anarchists against those oriented towards Parliament, and resigned from the SL in 1896. The renowned artist and writer continued his work as part of the Hammersmith Socialist Society.

See A Short Account of the Paris Commune of 1871, by Bax, Morris and Dave.

Eleanor Marx (“Tussy”) (1855-1898) Along with translating and acting, Tussy was involved in organizing, writing, record-keeping and speaking for militant trade union such as the Gasworkers, and the Dockers Union. In 1889 she was a delegate in Paris for the

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (21 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International founding of the Second International. Later she was involved in editing Marx's papers. During a period of depression in 1889, she committed suicide at the age of 43.

Edward Carpenter and Walter Crane were also members of the Socialist League, which reached a peak of 10,000 members in 1895, but came under anarchist influence, declined and was wound up in 1901.

E. Belfort Bax (1854-1925) Bax was the most renowned interpreter of Marx's philosophical and historical ideas in the English language. He joined Hyndman in founding the SDF and then with Eleanor Marx and William Morris in the Socialist League, but after the demise of the Socialist League returned to Hyndman.

Harry Quelch was editor of Justice and co-author with Bax of the New Catechism of Socialism, 1903/09.

See Jean Longuet Archive.

Edward Aveling (1849-1898) Londoner who married Eleanor Marx and made the first English translation of Capital; died

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (22 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International soon afer Tussy's suicide.

See also John Round’s attack on the socialists: The Coming Terror, 1881.

See Review of “Forerunners of Socialism” by Henry W Macrosty, 1895.

The Voices of Social Democracy in Britain

● Articles in Justice, 1884 - 1919

● Articles in Time, 1890 -

● Articles in The Clarion on Militarism, 1900

● Articles in To-Day, 1884 - 1889

● Articles in Commonweal, 1885 - 1890

● Articles in The Social Democrat and British Socialist, 1897 - 1913.

● Translations from Die Neue Zeit, November 1899 - December 1913.

● Articles in The Call, February 1916 - July 1920.

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The Independent Labour Party The ILP was a reformist Party founded by the leaders of “New Unionism” in 1893, capitulated to social chauvenism during WW1, but then took up a centrist position between the Labour Party and the Communist Party.

Leeds Meeting of Workers Deputies, June 1917

What Happened at Leeds, Council of Workers and Soldiers Delegates, 1917 Report on Socialist Convention On The War in the Manchester Guardian 4 June 1917

The United States

See Early American Marxism Archive.

Eugene Debs (1855- 1926) Founder of the American Railway Union and co-founder of the IWW and a leader of the left-wing of the American Socialist Party. Debs helped organize the massive Pullman strike in 1894 and was sent to prison and was jailed 1918-21 for opposition to the War. Solidarised with the Russian Revolution, but remained in the SP and did not join the Communist Party. Other members of the Socialist Party were Big http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (24 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International

Bill Haywood and Morris Hillquit.

Daniel De Leon US academic who joined the Socialist Labor Party (originally the American Socialist League) and transformed it from a small propaganda group, based in the European immigrants, to a lively, if doctrinaire party, active in the powerful US workers movement. De Leon participated in the founding of the IWW in the USA in 1905.

Australia

Both Hyndman's S.D.F. and later DeLeon's Socialist Labor Party found their reflections in Australia, but it was the visit of Tom Mann to the colony which led to the development of a Marxist Party, the Victorian Socialist Party.

Marxists of the early years of the 20th century included Frank Hyett, John Curtin, Maurice Blackburn, Frank Anstey, Jock Garden and Guido Baracchi.

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm (25 of 26) [14-7-2011 21:00:11] History of the Second International

The International Workers' Movement | History Archive | M.I.A.

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Marxists Internet Archive —— Library ——

International Working-men's Association (First International)

The founders of Marxism, Marx and Engels, participated in the “International Workingmen's Association” from 1864 to 1872, where they found their first base of support and a connection with the workers' movement. Based in London, the International found supporteres across Europe and in the U.S.A.

Karl Marx & Fredrick Engels (1818-1883)/(1820-1895) 1,000+ Founders of Marxist practice and philosophy. Established the ground work of Marxism through an examination of the rise of capitalism, the history of society, and critique of many prevailent philosophies. Established the First International Workers' organisation. [Marx Biography] [Engels Biography]

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“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They (1818-1889) <5 Johann Georg Eccarius openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the German communist, supported Marx in the International and in forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. British trade unions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. [Biography] The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826-1900) 10+ Paul Lafargue (1841-1911) 30+ German Revolutionary, comrade of Marx in the Communist League in the 1840s. A member of the Paris Commune. Staunch advocate of Women's [Biography] rights, wrote also on the history of religion, morals, literature, language, and comedy. Married to Marx's second daughter, Friedrich Adolphe Sorge (1826-1906) < 5 Laura. [Biography] After fighting in the 1848 Revolution in Germany, he fled to America; later Secretary of the First International; Marx's closest (1844-1883) < 5 supporter in the US. Jenny Marx Longuet [Biography] Fought for Irish independence from England. Detailed the attrocities against Irish political prisoners in England. Braved a Lucien Sanial (1836-1927) 5+ narrow escape from France after the massacres of the Paris Commune. Marx's eldest daugthter. French Marxist who moved to the US and joined a forerunner of [Biography] DeLeon's Socialist Labor Party [Biography] Jules Guesde (1845-1922) < 5 Joseph Dietzgen (1828-1888) < 5 French socialist. Leader of the Marxist wing of the French workers' movement. Created dialectical materialism independently of Marx & Engels, [Biography] but on seeing their writings became their most ardent supporter. His main contributions were using dialectics to elaborate ———— epistemology. [Biography] Ferdinand Lassalle (1825-1864) < 5 German socialist, contemporary and critic of Marx. August Bebel (1840-1913) 10+ [Biography] Co-founder of the German Social Democracy with Wilhelm Liebknecht in 1869. Part of the Reichstag from 1867. Outstandingly argued for the emancipation of women's rights before capitalism could be overthrown. http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (2 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:27] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers [Biography]

The Socialist International (Second International)

In the 1880s, militant workers' movements grew up in all the capitalist countries. Marxists built powerful social-democratic parties which gave political leadership to these movements and transformed Marxism into a worldwide, mass movement.

Karl Kautsky (1854-1938) 60+ Antonio Labriola (1843-1904) < 5 Helped create the German Social-Democracy, one of the best- Among the first Italian Marxists, he was a writer and philosopher. known theoreticians of the Second International, and a leading Criticized the theories of Hegel, Nietzsche, Croce, and neo- proponent of Marx & Engels after their death. During and after Kantiansim. World War I he became a pacifist. [Biography] [Biography] August Palm (1849-1922) < 5 Founder of Swedish Social-Democracy. British Social Democracy [Biography]

William Morris (1834-1896) 300+ Mensheviks Helped create the Socialist League (with E. Marx). An artist who became a revolutionary communist through his search to address the lack of creative and artistic freedom allowed in the capitalist Vera Zasulich (1851-1919) < 5 work process. Wrote fiction on far in the future Communist A founder with Plekhanov of the Emancipation of Labour Group, societies. and a translator of Marx's works into Russian; later joined the [Biography] Mensheviks. [Biography] Henry Hyndman (1842-1921) 5+ http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (3 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:27] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Founder of Britain’s first socialist party, the Social Democratic Georgi Plekhanov (1856-1918) 20+ Federation, but did not follow the SDF into the Independent Helped create the Russian Social-Democratic party, becomming Labour Party and supported the War. a Menshevik after the split in the party, but he tried to keep the party united. Believed that capitalism need to grow up before Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) < 5 socialism was possible; thus he opposed the Soviet government. English socialist poet, anthologist, early gay activist and socialist [Biography] philosopher. [Biography] Julius Martov (1873-1923) < 5 Originally close collaborator of Lenin, split with him in 1903 and Annie Besant (1847-1933) < 5 became leading Left Menshevik and critic of Bolshevism. British socialist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and [Biography] supporter of Irish and Indian self rule. [Biography] ——————

E. Belfort Bax (1854-1925) 300+ Gabriel Deville (1854-1940) < 5 Among the first sources for many Marxist and materialist ideas in One of the founders of the Second International in France. English. Founding member of Social Democratic Federation. [Biography] Popularised Marxist approach to French Revolution in English. [Biography] Enrico Ferri (1856-1929) < 5 Italian Marxist of the Second International, criminologist. Eleanor Marx (1855-1898) 15+ [Biography] Helped formed the Socialist League (with W. Morris), and wrote extensively in its paper. Wrote extensively on women's issues. Sen Katayama (1859-1933) 5+ Organizing, writer, record-keeper, and speaker for militant trade Born Yabuki Sugataro, jailed for striking in 1912, left Japan for unions such as the Gasworkers, and the Dockers Union. the US, where he became a Communist, and as an officer for [Biography] Comintern he became in 1922, co-founder of the Japan Communist Party, left Japan and remained in the Soviet Union Harry Quelch (1858-1913) 5+ until his death. Founding member of British Social Democracy. [Biography] The Spartacist League Dora Montefiore (1851-1933) 100+ British feminist and founding member of the British Communist Franz Mehring (1846-1919) < 5 Party. Writer, historian, member of German Social Democrats and the [Biography] Spartacist League. http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (4 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:27] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers [Biography] Tom Mann (1856-1941) < 5 British trade union organiser and founding member of the British Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) 10+ Communist Party, founder of IWW and Marxist movement in Leader of the international women's movement. National Australia. Executive member of the German Social Democratic party. Long [Biography] time comrade of Rosa Luxemburg, helped create the Spartacists and German Communist Party. Supported the Soviet Max Beer (1864-1943) 5+ government. German-born Jewish socialist journalist and historian, British [Biography] Social-Democrat; worked with Riazanov at the Institut für Sozialforschung. Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) 60+ [Biography] Championed the idea of the mass strike. Tireless opponent of WWI, she renounced the German Social Democracy, helped to Theo. Rothstein (1864-1943) 20+ create the Spartacus League, and later the German Communist Russian emigré British Social Democrat; returned to Russian Party. Critical of the Soviet government. Executed by the German after the Revolution and worked as a diplomat. government. [Biography] [Biography]

Helmut Wagner (1904-1989) < 5 Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919) < 5 Left Social-Democratic journalist and teacher, member of the "Karl Liebknecht called upon the workers and soldiers of German Rote Kämpfer network (influenced by council Germany to turn their guns against their own government. Karl communism) in the 30's. Wrote under the pseudonym Rudolf Liebknecht did that openly from the rostrum of parliament (the Sprenger. Reichstag) [of which he was a deputy – he was the only member of government to do so]." Executed by the German government. Early American Marxism. [Biography]

August Thalheimer (1884-1948) 10+ Daniel DeLeon (1852-1914) 1,000+ German socialist, founder member and theorist of the German Helped create the IWW. Developed one of the most detailed Communist Party. outlines of how Socialist society should function. Believed that [Biography] democratic control of all industries and services must be held by workers organised into industrial unions. See also: Wilhelm Liebknecht, August Bebel, Wilhelm [Biography] Pieck

Eugene Debs (1855-1926) 40+ http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (5 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:27] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Helped build the American Railway Union, and later the American —————— Socialist Party. Arrested for his political criticism of WW1, won Rudolph Hilferding (1877-1941) < 5 almost a million votes for U.S. President while in prison. German socialist and political economist. [Biography] [Biography]

—————— Otto Bauer (1881-1938) < 5 James Connolly (1868-1916) 300+ Major theorist of “Austro-Marxism” in the “2½ International.” Helped create the Irish Socialist Republican Party in 1896; [Biography] served as Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union. Executed for his leading role in the Easter Rising. Ber Borochov (1881-1917) < 5 [Biography] Marxist-Zionist and one of the founders of the Labour Zionist movement. E.H. Lane (1868-1954) <5 [Biography] Australian Communist journalist, brother of Utopian William Lane.

See also: Paul Lafargue, Jules Guesde, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Leon Kamenev, Sylvia Pankhurst, Vida Goldstein.

Reformism Fabian Society

“In all advanced countries we see the Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) privileges of the capitalist bourgeoisie Irish poet and playwrite who was also a yielding step by step to democratic socialist. organisations.” [Biography]

Eduard Bernstein George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) (1850-1932) 10+ Irish writer and playwrite, comrade of Eleanor Marx, Edward A close associate of Engels and an early Marxist, Bernstein came Aveling, and William Morris, later joined the Fabian society, a to believe that capitalism could be made more and more circle of intellectuals who advocated reform to avoid revolution. democratic so that a socialist revolution would be unnecessary [Biography] and irrelevant. [Biography] Keir Hardie (1856-1915) <5 http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (6 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:27] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers British labour leader, founded ILP in 1893, MP for Merthyr Tydfil Jean Jaurès (1859-1914) 10+ from 1900. Popular French socialist. Founder of l'Humanité. [Biography] [Biography] J. Bruce Glasier (1859-1920) Hjalmar Branting (1860-1925) <5 British socialist. A founder of Swedish social democracy. [Biography] H.G. Wells (1866-1946) Radical science fiction author who used his novels to warn of the Jean Longuet (1876-1938) <5 dangers of capitalism. French socialist, son-in-law of Marx; later pacifist and centrist. [Biography] [Biography] —————— Leon Blum (1872-1950) <5 Michael Davitt (1846-1906) Leader of Popular Front government in France 1936-1939 [Biography] Radical Irish social reformer, founder and leader of the Irish Land League, which fought for radical land reform. Alexander Kerensky (1882-1970) <5 [Biography] Member of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party; was leader Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) of the Provisional Government when overthrown by the Bolsheviks in October 1917. Radical American writer who exposed the conditions of the poor [Biography] in the industrial cities of the U.S.. [Biography] Bruno Rizzi (1901-1977) Italian socialist, critic of bureaucracy. [Biography]

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The Bolsheviks

Social-democracy was unable to prevent the First World War, and only one section – the Bolshevik Party in Russia, was able to overthrow their government, pull out of the war and institute a socialist policy. The Bolsheviks called on the workers of all countries to come to their aid.

Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) 1,000+ Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) 100+ Helped create the Bolshevik party. Led the Soviets to power in First Menshevik, later Bolshevik Revolutionary. As commissar of the Russian Revolution. Elected to the head of the Soviet war led the Red Army to defeat the Entente in their invasion of government until 1922, when he retired due to ill health. Created Soviet Russia. Helped create the Left Opposition to overthrow the Communist International. Created the theory of Imperialism, Stalin and stop the monstorous attrocities he'd soon commit. emphasised the importance of the political party as vanguard in Created the theory of the Permanent Revolution, and the Fourth the revolution. International. Assasinated by the Soviet government. [Biography] [Biography]

Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) 5+ “The dictatorship of the proletariat which has risen to power as the leader of the World-renowned writer of fiction, Gorky first focused on the plight democratic revolution is inevitably and, very of societal outcasts in Russia, then turned his attention to the quickly confronted with tasks, the fulfillment struggles of the working class. of which is bound up with deep inroads into [Biography] the rights of bourgeois property.”

Nadezhada Krupskaya (1869-1939) < 5 Natalia Sedova Trotsky (1882-1962) < 5 Bolshevik Revolutionary. Writer, educator and Secretary of the Party. Wife and advisor to V.I. Lenin. Secretary to the Board of Russian Revolutionary. Worked with Lenin and Trotsky on pre- Iskra beginning in 1901. Brought recognition of International revolutionary Bolshevik newspaper Iskra. Publicly split with Women's day to Russia. Fourth International in 1951. Wife of Leon Trotsky. [Biography] [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (8 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:27] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Leon Kamenev (1883-1936) < 5 David Riazanov (1870-1938) < 5 Old Bolshevik and founding member of Russian Social Historian and Archivist of Marxism, helped create the Marx- Democratic Labour Party. First chariman of Central Committee Engels Institute. Political prisoner of Stalinism, died in prison. and a founding member of the politburo. First supported Stalin, [Biography] then joined Trotsky to try to remove him. Imprisoned and placed on trial for alleged assassination plot against Stalin. Executed by Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952) 30+ the Soviet government. Bolshevik Revolutionary. Led the Workers' Opposition, which [Biography] opposed party control of trade unions and believed in industrial unionism. First woman ambassador in history. Proponent of free Gregory Zinoviev (1883-1936) < 5 love, she wrote extensively on women's and other social issues. Bolshevik. With Kamenev, opposed the plans for a revolution. [Biography] Allied with Stalin and Kamenev against Trotskyism. Later, allied with Trotsky against Stalin. Wrote about the history of the party. Georgi Chicherin (1872-1936) 20+ Executed during the Moscow Trials. One-time Diplomat and Social-Revolutionary, appointed Minister [Biography] for Foreign Affairs for the Bolsheviks in 1918. [Biography] Alexander Voronsky (1884-1937) < 5 Bolshevik and prominent humanist Marxist critic and editor of the Christian Rakovsky (1873-1941) 5+ 1920s, purged in the 1930s. President of Soviet Ukraine, worked to make the Soviet Ukrainian identity independent of Russia. Helped create the Left Alexander Shliapnikov (1885-1937) < 5 Opposition, seen as its ideological leader. Explained Socialist Old Bolsheik, a member of the Central Committee during the economics. Political prisoner of Stalinism, died in prison. October Revolution and member of the “Workers Opposition” [Biography] after the Revolution. Executed by the Soviet government. [Biography] Alexander Bogdanov (1873-1928) < 5 Russian Doctor, an old Bolshevik expelled in 1909 as an ultra- Karl Radek (1885-1939) < 5 left. Also a writer, after the Revolution dedicated himself to Old Bolshevik, active in the Communist International in Europe. science. Died in prison. [Biography] [Biography]

Anatoly Lunacharsky (1875-1933) 5+ Grigory Sokolnikov (1880-1936) < 5 Bolshevik Revolutionary, outstanding orator. Commissar for Old Bolshevik, Brest-Litovsk negotiator, Ambassador to England, Education in the Soviet government. Historian and archivist of and People's Commissar for Finance. Russia, he wrote extensive, personal biographical portraits on the [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (9 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:27] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers leaders of the revolution. [Biography] Nikolai Bukharin (1888-1938) 10+ Bolshevik Revolutionary. Editor of Pravda (1928-29). Joined Cecilia Bobrovskaya (1876-1960) < 5 Stalin against Trotsky, then led the Right Opposition against Bolshevik who wrote a celebrated history of her experiences. Stalin. A theoretical leader of the party, focused heavily on economics, and wrote on market socialism. Executed after the Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926) < 5 Moscow Trials. Polish communist. Headed the Cheka after 1917. [Biography]

Mikhail Tomsky (1880-1936) < 5 Evgenii Preobrazhensky (1898-1937) <5 Old Bolshevik, trade unionist. Young Bolshevik, Member of the Left Opposition. Executed after [Biography] the Moscow Trials. [Biography] Osip Piatnitsky (1882-1938) < 5 Old Bolshevik and early opponent of Stalin's Terror.

F.F. Raskolnikov (1892-1939) < 5 Bolshevik sailor who chronicled the October Revolution.

See Also: Josef Stalin, Alexander Lozovsky, Vyacheslav Molotov.

The Comintern

In 1919, the Bolsheviks held a conference attended by revolutionaries fom every corner of the world, and established the Communist International (Comintern); soon there were Communist Parties in every country, drawing the most militant workers to the Bolsheviks.

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Charles Rappoport (1865-1941) < 5 John Reed (1887-1920) 20+ Russian revolutionary, joined French CP as an exile. American Revolutionary, supporter of the Soviet government. [Biography] Historian of the revolution. Tireless advocate to stop U.S. invasion of Soviet Russia. Husband of Louise Bryant. Henri Barbusse (1873-1935) < 5 [Biography] Pacifist novelist who joined the French Communist Party. Louis Fraina (Corey) (1892-1953) < 5 Wilhelm Pieck (1876-1960) <5 American socialist, supporter of Russian Revolution, later Carpenter, Spartacist and founder of the German CP; later a expelled from the Comintern and wrote on economics. supporter of Stalin, in 1949 appointed President of the GDR. August Thalheimer (1890-1960) 5+ Heinrich Laufenberg (1872-1932) <5 Prominent German theorist. Expelled from the Communist Party German Communist and one of the first to develop the idea of for "right-wing deviation" in 1928 as main theorist for the National Bolshevism. Also known by the pseudonym Karl Erler. Brandlerites. Particularly occupied with analyzing the actual class struggle of his time on independent Marxist grounds. Fritz Wolffheim (1888-1942) <5 [Biography] German Communist and leading figure in the National Bolshevism tendency. Victor Serge (1890-1947) 10+ Originally an anarchist, later joined the Russian Communist Alexander Lozovsky (1878-1952) 5+ Party. As a Comintern representative in Germany he helped Old Bolshevik, Ukrainian Jewish worker, leader of the Red prepare the aborted insurrection in 1923. Also joined the Left International of Trade Unions. Opposition in 1923, expelled from the party in 1928 and briefly [Biography] imprisoned. Exiled in 1933. [Biography] John MacLean (1879-1923) 40+ Scottish schoolteacher and Marxist educator. His evening- Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) 50+ classes produced many of the activists who became instrumental Helped create the Italian Communist Party. Arrested in 1926 for in the Clyde revolts during and after WWI. Soviet Consul to his revolutionary activities and sentenced by a fascist court to 20 Scotland. years imprisonment. Theorized key concepts such as hegemony, [Biography] base and superstructure, organic intellectuals, and war of position. Henri Wallon (1879-1962) < 5 [Biography] French Psychologist who elaborated a systematic Marxist psychology. Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980) 5+ http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (11 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers [Biography] Yugoslav communist, participated in the October Revolution and built a partisan army during World War Two which won national Pierre Monatte (1881-1960) < 5 liberation for Yugoslavia and united the country. Broke with Stalin French communist. Founding member of PCF, expelled in 1924, over the Post-War settlement and took an independent line. revolutionary syndicalist. [Biography] [Biography] Andreu Nin (1892-1937) <5 Alfred Rosmer (1883-1969) 5+ Founder of Communist Party and in 1935 of the POUM in Spain. Founding member of PCF but expelled for his opposition to [Biography] Stalinism. [Biography] José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930) 5+ Peruvian Professor. Self-educated. Historian of European Max Eastman (1883-1969) < 5 Marxism and movements in South America. American socialist who became a prominent support of Trotsky [Biography] but later an anti-communist. [Biography] “1919: Horses dying from hunger in the roadway, pedestrians wan and inflated, scurvy, typhus, cold, hunger Louise Bryant (1885-1936) < 5 – treason – expectation. Soviets in American Revolutionary, supporter of the Soviet government. Bavaria, Soviets in Hungary, the Internationale sung by two-thirds of Historian of the revolution. Tireless advocate to stop U.S. Europe.” invasion of Soviet Russia. Wife of John Reed. [Victor Serge] [Biography]

David Ivon Jones (1883-1924) < 5 Henk Sneevliet (1883-1942) < 5 Founding member of the South African Communist Party. Dutch communist, early organiser for the Comintern, founding member of Communist Party in Indonesia. Bela Kun (1886-1937) 10+ [Biography] Hungarian Communist, activist in the Comintern. [Biography] Tan Malaka (1897-1949) 15+ Indonesian Communist, briefly became the Chairman of Lajos Magyar (1891-1938) < 5 Indonesian Communist Party in 1921 before being exiled by the Hungarian Communist, official in the early Comintern. Dutch for the next 21 years. A prominent figure in the Indonesian national liberation movement and workers movement. Paul Levi (1886-1930) lt;5 [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (12 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers German Communist, activist in the Comintern. [Biography] Guido Baracchi (1887-1975) <5 A founder of the Australian CP, member of ECCI, joined M N Roy (1887-1954) 20+ Trotskyists 1939. Indian Communist and key leader of the Comintern, later a [Biography] radical humanist. [Biography] ———

Eugen Samuilovich Varga (1879-1964) < 5 Wm. F. Dunne (1887-1953) 5+ Hungarian communist, Marxist Economist of the early Comintern. Miner, founding member of CPUSA, expelled after returning from the War. Isaak Illich Rubin (1886-1937) < 5 Max Bedacht (1883-1972) 5+ Russian Marxist Economist. German born American socialist, impossiblist, founding member of the CPUSA.

Evelyn Roy (1892-1970) 5+ American Communist who helped her husband, M.N. Roy, found Communist Parties in Mexico and India. [Biography]

See Also: James Cannon, Karl Korsch, Georg Lukács, Sylvia Pankhurst.

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Josef Stalin (1879-1953) 800+ “The final victory of socialism in the first General Secretary of Soviet Communist Party from 1917 till his country to emancipate itself is impossible death in 1953. Responsible for the murder of the entire Bolshevik without the combined efforts of the leadership and the consolidation of bureaucratic rule in the proletarians of several countries, and the USSR. unfolding of the world revolution will be the more rapid and thorough, the more [Biography] effective the assistance rendered by the first socialist country to the workers and laboring masses of all Otto Ville Kuusinen (1881-1964) < 5 other countries.” Finnish Communist and Comintern leader under Stalin. British Communist Party Georgi Dimitrov (1882-1949) 20+ Long-standing leader of Bulgarian C.P. The CPGB History Archive includes a number of writers who [Biography] were members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, including R. Page Arnot, Thomas Bell, B. F. Bradley, Emile Burns, J. R. Vyacheslav Molotov (1890-1986) Campbell, Helen Crawfurd, Clemens Dutt, Benjamin Fineberg, Soviet leader who succeeded Stalin. Ralph Fox, Will Gallacher, John Gollan, Wal Hannington, Arthur [Biography] Horner, J. F. Horrabin, Albert Inkpin, T. A. Jackson, Monty Johnstone, James Klugmann, J. T. Walton Newbold, Arthur Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) 5+ MacManus, Eden & Cedar Paul, William Paul, Marjorie Pollitt, R. Leader of Soviet Union who denounced Stalin in 1956 and tried W. Postgate, Stewart Purkis, Tom Quelch, Andrew Rothstein, to reform Soviet society. Theodor Rothstein, William Rust, Shapurji Saklatvala, Beth [Biography] Turner, Ellen Wilkinson, Tom Wintringham, and others as well as fellow-travellers such as Hewlett Johnson. Dmitry Manuilsky (1883–1959) < 5 Functionary in the Comintern and foreign service. J. T. Murphy (1888-1965) 120+ Founding member of the CPGB and noted figure in Comintern (1899-1953) < 5 Lavrenti Beria and RILU matters who moved the resolution expelling Trotsky Close associate of Stalin, leader of Secret police 1938 till Stalin’s from the Comintern in 1927. death. [Biography] [Biography] Harry Pollitt (1890-1960) (1902-1988) < 5 Georgy Malenkov General Secretary of CPGB from 1929 till 1956, apart from 1940 Soviet politician, succeeded Stalin as Chairman of the Council of when he opposed Stalin-Hitler Pact. http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (14 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers People’s Commissars of the USSR from 1953–1955. [Biography]

Nikolai Bulganin (1895-1975) < 5 R. Palme Dutt (1896-1974) Soviet politician and minister in the Red Army. Succeeded Member of the Independent Labour Party before joining the Malenkov as Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of Communist Party in 1920, Dutt was a member of the Executive the USSR from 1955–1958. Committee of the CPGB from 1923 until 1965. [Biography] Mikhail Suslov (1902-1982) < 5 Soviet politician and member of the Central Committee of the J. D. Bernal (1901-1971) 15+ Soviet Communist Party. Popularised Marxism. Wrote a 4 volume history of science from a Marxist perspective. —— [Biography] Maurice Thorez (1900-1964) 5+ Christopher Caudwell (1907-1937) 5+ Post World War Two leader of the French Communist Party. English philosopher and writer, won to Marxism in the 1930s and [Biography] died fighting for the Republican cause in Spain in 1937. Wrote classic Marxist analyses of literature and art. Louis Aragon (1897-1982) < 5 [Biography] French Communist Poet. [Biography] Christopher Hill (1912-2003) < 5 English Marxist historian. Georges Politzer (1903-1942) < 5 [Biography] French Marxist philosopher. [Biography] Wilfred Burchett (1891-1973) Australian journalist documented US imperialist crimes, Moissaye J. Olgin (1878-1939) 5+ expecially in S.E.Asia; Australian government removed his A leader of the Jewish Bund, and later leading member of the Australian citizenship. CPUSA. [Biography] Pietro Secchia (1901-1977) Popular Italian communist, on the left of the PCI and a historian. William Z. Foster (1881-1961) 10+ [Biography] Trade unionist and leader of the Communist Party of the USA. [Biography] Tim Buck (1891-1973) A leader of the Canadian Communist Party, trade unionist, and Jay Lovestone (1897-1990) <5 agitator, especially among the unemployed during the http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (15 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Leader of the Communist Party of the USA before World War Depression; loyal supporter of the Soviet line. Two. [Biography] [Biography] Fred Rose (1907-1983) Dolores Ibárruri (1895-1989) <5 Canadian trade unionist, Communist and Member of Parliament. Leader of the Spanish COmmunist Party during the Civil War. [Biography] [Biography] ————— Enver Hoxha (1908-1985) 5+ Leader of Albanian CP, followed separate foreign policy, anti- Bill Bland (1916-2001) Khrushchev, anti-Mao and pro-Stalin. New Zealand-born communist, supporter of Enver Hoxha in [Biography] Britain. [Biography]

Soviet Philosophers and Scientists

Writers – scientists, philosophers, teachers – in the Soviet Union were obliged to develop their ideas in terms of the official orthodox Marxist dogma. Most of these writers cannot properly be described as Marxists, but nevertheless their work has contributed in some way or another to our understanding of Marxism.

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I. V. Michurin (1855-1935) Soviet scientist who carried out Anton Makarenko (1888-1939) groundbreaking research in genetics. Soviet educationalist who promoted development of virtues of [Biography] discipline and collectivism. [Biography] N. A. Semashko (1874-1949) Architect of Soviet Health System. Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov (1891-1951) [Biography] Soviet Scientist.

Vitaly Vygodsky (1928-1998) T. D. Lysenko (1898-1976) Soviet political economist. Promoted theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics as the [Biography] official Communist Party line in biology. [Biography] Alexander Spirkin

Soviet Marxism

Despite the suppression of Trotskyism and the impossibility of open political discussion in Stalin's Soviet Union, a few Russians continued the development of Marxism in Psychology, Medicine, Law and the Sciences. This “non-political Marxism” only dared to show its political colours after Stalin's death.

Evgeny Pashukanis (1891-1937) 10+ Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) 10+ Foremost exponent of the Marxist approach to Law. Soviet Psychologist who founded the Cultural Historical Activity [Biography] Theory (CHAT) school of human development. [Biography] Valentin Voloshinov (1895-1936) 5+ Soviet linguist, associate of Mickhail Bakhtin. Alexander Luria (1902-1977) < 5 [Biography] The creator of neuropsychology. Soviet Psychologist who made advances in cognitive psychology, the processes of learning and Evald Ilyenkov (1924-1979) 5+ forgetting, and mental retardation. Charted the way in which Soviet philosopher. Charted the materialist development of damage to specific areas of the brain affect behavior. http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (17 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Hegel's dialectics. Wrote extensively on dialectics, the [Biography] Metaphysics of Positivism, and The Dialectics of the Abstract and Concrete in Marx's Capital. Alexei Leont'ev (1904-1979) < 5 [Biography] Soviet Psychologist who developed his own theory of activity which linked social context to development. V A Lektorsky (192?- ) < 5 [Biography] Soviet psychologist who wrote on foundations of subjectivity. Daniil El'konin (1904-) < 5 A I Meshcheryakov (1923-1974) < 5 Soviet Psychologist who developed cultural-historical activity Soviet psychologist who developed education of deaf-blind theory in the field of childhood development. children.

Feliks Mikhailov (1930-2006) < 5 Soviet philosopher who challenged simplistic ideas of subjectivity.

Western Marxism

As it became clear that the world revolution had not spread beyond Soviet Russia, the Communist Parties still exercised great influence, particularly in the workers movement, but some Marxists turned to the unique problems of fighting capitalism in advanced capitalit countries where revolution was no longer on the immediate agenda.

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Georg Lukács (1885-1971) 10+ Karl Korsch (1886-1961) 5+ Hungarian philosopher, writer, and literary critic. Commissar for German Left Communist who wrote one of the founding Culture and Education in Hungary's short-lived Socialist documents of “Western Marxism”, expelled from the Comintern. government (1919). Helped lead the Hungarian uprising of 1956 Became pessimistic about the prospects for socialism by the end against Stalinist repression. Created Marxist theory of aesthetics of World War Two, but was later to become a supporter of Mao. that opposed political control of artists, defended humanism, [Biography] elaborated alienation. [Biography] Friedrich Adler (1879-1960) <5 Secretary of the Austrian Social Democratic Party from 1911 to Roman Rosdolsky (1898-1967) <5 1916, and a founder of the 2½ International. Polish Marxist political economist. [Biography] [Biography]

JBS Haldane (1892-1964) 10+ The Frankfurt School British geneticist, biometrician, physiologist, and popular advocate of science; “Fellow traveller” of the British CP. Henryk Grossman (1881-1950) < 5 Samez• Kuruma (1893-1982) 5+ Polish-Jewish Communist, Marxist Political economist. Japanese Marxist economist who wrote on the history of political economy and Marx’s theory of crisis and money edited the 15- Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) < 5 volume Marx-Lexikon zur Politischen Ökonomie. Critic of degeneration of art under capitalism [Biography] [Biography]

Marxism in Japan. Max Horkheimer (1895-1973) 5+ Long-term leader of the Frankfurt Institute from 1930, theorised Fordist, mass-production society. The French Left [Biography]

Leo Lowenthal (1900-1993) < 5 Jules de Gaultier (1858-1942) <5 Philosopher who wrote on literary theory. French philosopher. [Biography] [Biography] Erich Fromm (1900-1980) 5+ Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) 10+ http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (19 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Existentialist philosopher who played an important role in the non- German-born U.S. psychoanalyst and social philosopher who Communist Party Left in post-World War Two France, explored the interaction between psychology and society. By existentialist, later attracted to Marxism. applying Freudian principles to social problems, Fromm helped [Biography] show the way to a psychologically balanced, “sane society.” [Biography] André Gorz (1923-2007) < 5 Austrian and French social philosopher. A supporter of Jean-Paul Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) < 5 Sartre's existentialist version of Marxism. After the May '68 Philosopher who studied the effects of mass culture and fascism student riots, he became more concerned with political ecology. on European society. [Biography] Paul Nizan (1905-1940) < 5 French writer and Communist Party militant, friend of Jean-Paul Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) 5+ Sartre; resigned CP afer Stalin’s pact with Hitler, killed near Last member of the original Frankfurt School, reached a broader Dunkirk in 1940. audience in the 1960s with his critique of “consumer society” and [Biography] the containment of opposition. [Biography] Louis Althusser (1918-1990) 10+ Criticised Marxism from the standpoint of Structuralism. Jürgen Habermas (1929- ) < 5 [Biography] Leader of second generation of the Frankfurt School, theorised the idea of “networks” as opposed to Party and class, and Lucien Sève (1926-) < 5 initiated study of procedural ethics. French philosopher, who has written on personality and ethics, [Biography] member of CC of French Communist Party. [Biography] Socialist Party of Great Britain Guy Debord (1931-1994) < 5 Marxist of the 1960s generation who developed ideas about “the Jack Fitzgerald (1872-1929) 20+ society of the spectacle.” Valued by the “Autonomists.” Founding member of the SPGB. [Biography] [Biography]

Benny Lévy (1945-2003) < 5 Edgar Hardcastle (1900-1995) 50+ French Marxist, variously Maoist and follower of Althusser, The son of a founding member of the SPGB, joined the party in Trotskyist (Gauche Prolétarienne), Islamist and assistant to Jean- 1922. Paul Sartre before returning to the study of the Talmud. [Biography] [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (20 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers

Pieter Lawrence (1932-2007) 10+ Australian-born.Journalist for the Socialist Standard. [Biography]

Trotskyism

After the victory of Hitler in Germany, Leon Trotsky concluded that the Third International was dead for the purposes of revolution, and launched the Fourth International with his supporters in countries around the world. Trotskyism became an opposition force in the workers' movement everywhere.

James Cannon (1890-1974) 100+ Ted Grant (1913-2006) 100+ American, IWW organiser, later helped create the US Communist South African-born British Trotskyist, a founder and long-term Party. In the 1920s became a Trotskyst, and helped create the leader in the “Militant Tendency” within the Labour Party until US Socialist Workers Party. expelled from the Labour Party in 1983, and after. [Biography] [Biography]

Pandelis Pouliopoulos (1900-1943) 10+ Peter Hadden (1950-2010) 10+ Greek Trotskyist. Lead mass movements of veterans and The leading theoretician of the Irish Militant group, later the defended workers in court. Wrote extensively about Trotsky. Shot Socialist Party, and the CWI. dead by fascists while in prison. [Biography] [Biography] Hugo Dewar (1908-1980) <5 Chen Bilan (1901-1971) < 5 English Trotskyist, a member of the Balham Group. Early member of Chinese CP, a founder of Trotskyism in China. [Biography]

http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (21 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Frank Glass (1901-1988) < 5 Daniel Norman (1913-?) <5 South African communist who travelled to China and wrote Rumanian-born English Journalist and Trotskyist. extensively on China as a Trotskyist. [Biography]

Ante Ciliga (1898-1992) < 5 Grandizo Munis (1912-1989) 10+ Croatian Communist and one of the founders of the Communist Spanish Trotskyist. Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ), lived in the Soviet Union from 1926 to [Biography] 1935, sympathizer of the Left Opposition. Pierre Broué (1926-2005) 5+ Max Shachtman (1904-1972) 20+ French Trotskyist leader and historian. American Communist Party, then helped create the American [Biography] Trotskyist movement. Left the SWP and joined the Socialist Party. Abram Leon (1918-1944) < 5 [Biography] Jewish socialist and Historian, became a leading Belgian Trotskyist during World War II. James Burnham (1905-1987) 20+ [Biography] American Trotskyist who broke with Trotsky with a concept of bureaucratic collectivism, later writing about the “managerial Ernest Mandel (1923-1995) 100+ revolution.” Belgian Trotskyist founder and leader of United Secretariat of the Fourth Intenrational, renowned as Marxist Economist. George Novack (1905-1992) 10+ [Biography] American Trotskyist and writer on Marxist philosophy. [Biography] Nahuel Moreno (1924-1987) < 5 Argentinian Trotskyist. Leader of the Liga Internacional de Felix Morrow (1906-1988) 5+ Trabajadores (LIT), and of Movement for Socialism (MAS) in American Trotskyist, wrote a classic eye-witness history of the Argentina, among the largest revolutionary currents in Latin Spanish Revolution. After the WWII, understood that Capitalism America which remained oriented to the urban working class after would recover and dominate the world, and that Socialism had a the Cuban Revolution, and opposed guerillaism. long struggle ahead. [Biography]

Joseph Hansen (1910-1979) 10+ International Socialist Tendency A leader of the US SWP 40s-60s, advocate for Cuban revolution.

George Rawick (1929-1990) 5+ http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (22 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers American Trotskyist. “Just as it became necessary to discard the slogan of the ‘democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry’ after the Bolshevik Harry Braverman (1920-1976) 10+ Party had existed for 14 years, so has it now US Trotskyist in 1930s, editor of Monthly Review Press from become necessary to renounce the theory of 1967. Russia as a degenerated workers’ state.” [Biography] Tony Cliff (1917-2000) 50+ Walter Held (1910-1941) 5+ Palestinian Jewish Trotskyist, developed critique of Stalinist German Jew expelled from the Communist Party for supporting Russia as a form of "bureaucratic state capitalism", laid the basis Leon Trotsky, fled to France and later Norway he was eventually of the theory of 'deflected' permanent revolution and the assassinated by a Stalinist agent. 'permanent' arms economy, founder of International Socialist [Biography] Tendency. [Biography] Pierre Frank (1906-1984) 10+ French Trotskyist, a founder of the International Left Opposition Duncan Hallas (1925-2002) 40+ in 1928, later a leader of the LCR. British Trotskyist, founder member of the International Socialist [Biography] Tendency and leader of the British Socialist Workers Party. [Biography] Michel Pablo (1911-1996) 5+ International Secretary of Fourth International after WWII. Raymond Challinor (1929-2011) 60+ Minister in Ben Bella's Socialist government of Algeria. British Trotskyist, Marxist historian and a founder member of the Developed theory of "centuries of deformed workers states". International Socialist Tendency. [Biography] Michael Kidron (1930-2003) 10+ David Korner (Barta) (1914-1976) 5+ A leading theoretician of the British Socialist Review Group and Romanian trotskyist, active in France from 1936. In 1939, he its successor, the International Socialists; also an editor of broke with the IVth International groupings in France and founded several publications including Pluto Press. the "Groupe Communiste (IVéme Internationale), latter renamed "Union Communiste (Trotskyste)". Today's "Lutte Ouvriére" group Jim Higgins (1930-2002) 10+ claims to stand in the continuity of Barta's UC(T). British postal worker and trade unionist, a founder of the ISO. [Biography] [Biography]

Ross Dowson (1915-2008) 50+ Peter Sedgwick (1934-1983) 50+ Leading figure in Canadian Trotskyism for 57 years. Theorist of the British ISO in the 1950s, translator and editor of http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (23 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Brian Pearce (1917-1989) 20+ Victor Serge. British Trotskyist, historian and translator. [Biography]

Geoff Pilling (1940-1997) < 5 Paul Foot (1937-2004) 100+ British Trotskyist, economist. Trotskyist and prominent investigative journalist in Britain, member of International Socialists. Daniel Bensaid (1946-2010) 5+ (1942-2009) 10+ Student leader in France, May ’68, later a leader of the LCR, Chris Harman more recently the NPA, one of the most prominent theoreticians British activist, journalist and historian. of 4th International after death of Ernest Mandel. [Biography] [Biography] David Widgery (1947-1992) 10+ ——— British cultural critic, anti-fascist agitator and Marxist writer. [Biography] Celia Hart Santamaria (1963-2008) 20+ Cuban Trotskyist. ———

Albert & Vera Weisbord (1900-1977) 50+ American Socialists, leaders of the Communist League of Struggle. [Biography]

Hal Draper (1914-1990) 20+ American Marxist, journalist and labor activist. Founder of the Socialist Workers Party & Fourth International in 1938, later founded the International Socialist party. Stopped associating with Trotskyism after the 1960s. [Biography]

See also: Leon Trotsky, Evelyn Reed and others.

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Left Communism

A number of Marxists, especially in Europe and the US, not only rejected Stalinism, but rejected the whole project of building socialism through state power. These were Marxists, not Anarchists, and they remain a force to this day.

Herman Gorter (1864-1927) < 5 Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) < 5 Dutch socialist and poet, opposed WWI, became an advocate of British Left-Communist and Suffragette. ultra-left within Comintern. Leading supporter of the KAI. [Biography] [Biography] Amadeo Bordiga (1889-1970) 5+ Julian Borchardt (1868-1932) < 5 Italian Communist, was expelled from Comintern as an ultra-left, German left Social Democrat associated with the Bremen Radical later leading an independent Marxist Party in Italy. Left, but never joined the KPD. [Biography] [Biography] Jacques Camatte ( ) 5+ Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960) 30+ French political economist, follower of Bordiga. Dutch astonomer. Helped form a Marxist party in the Netherlands. Member of the German Social Democratic party. Marceau Pivert (1895-1958) < 5 [Biography] French communist, trade unionist and anti-militarist. [Biography] Cajo Brendel (1915-2007) < 5 Dutch Left Communist. A central figure in the Council (1903-1942) 60+ Communists movement (second-generation) and a Pannekoek Paul Mattick sympathiser. German Left Communist, later lived in the U.S.. Main exponent of “Council Communism” and opponent of idea of Revolution being Otto Rühle (1874-1943) 5+ led by a political party. German Left Communist who voted with Karl Liebknecht against [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (25 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers the war credits and was a founding member of the German Communist Party. Arrigo Cervetto (1927-1995) < 5 [Biography] Italian Marxist, active in trade unions after WW2, built Lotta Comunista, an independent communist current in Italy. Eugene Lanti (1879-1947) < 5 [Biography] French supporter of Esperanto and anti-nationalism. [Biography] Bernard Reichenbach (1888-1975) < 5 German Left Communist, member of the Executive Committee of John Keracher (1880-1958) < 5 the Comintern and of the KAPD; acted as their delegate to the Scottish American socialist educator, founding member of the Third Congress of the Third International. CPUSA, and later the Proletarian Party. Keracher was also a (1879-1954) < 5 journalist and agitator. Franz Pfemfert [Biography] German Left Communist journalist, editor of Die Aktion.

Marxist Humanism

Although Marxist Humanism first appeared as a break-away form orthodox Trotskyism, in the 1960s many intellectuals in Eastern Europe and in the Communist Parties in Britain and the US, embraced a Humanist Marxism, emphasising human agency, rather than structural determinism and “iron laws of history” and so on.

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CLR James (1901-1989) 30+ Maximilien Rubel (1905-1996) < 5 West Indian, Afro Caribbean. Lucid dialectician, historian, French sociologist, Marxist humanist and with T.B. Bottomore, a novelist, & playwright. Stressed the importance of non-white prolific publisher and translator. workers to the revolutionary movement, foresaw the civil rights [Biography] movement decades before it got underway. [Biography] Sebastiano Timpanaro (1923-2000) < 5 Italian philologist, philosopher and Marxist. Raya Dunayevskaya (1910-1987) 30+ [Biography] American Russian Trotskyst, Humanist. Secretary to Trotsky, translated many Marx, Engels and Lenin. Critiqued Lenin's theory John Saville (1916-2009) < 5 of the Party being the vanguard. Marxist, historian, dissident Communist in 1956, set up The [Biography] Reasoner with E.P. Thompson. [Biography] Martin Glaberman (1918-2001) 20+ American autoworker and life-long supporter of Raya E P Thompson (1924-1993) < 5 Dunayevskaya and C L R James. English Marxist historian and humanist. [Biography] [Biography]

Maurice Brinton (1923-2005) 15+ Ralph Miliband (1924-1994) 10+ British libertarian socialist, prominent neurologist and the English Marxist political critic and humanist. intellectual leader of Solidarity (U.K.). [Biography]

Marcel Liebman (1929-1986) 5+ Belgian Marxist, contributor to and later co-editor of The Socialist “It is with this problem of agency in mind Register. that I have been studying, for several years now, the cultural apparatus, the intellectuals — as a possible, immediate, Joe McCarney (1941-2007) < 5 radical agency of change.” [C. Wright English Hegelian-Marxist. Mills, 1962] [Biography]

C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) < 5 Eugene Kamenka (1928-1995) < 5 American Communist, initiated the “New Left” in the U.S. Australian Marxist, elaborated ethical foundations of Marxism. [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (27 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers The Praxis Group

Franz Jakubowski (1912-1970) < 5 Polish Marxist Philosopher. Rudi Supek (1913-1993) < 5 Croatian Marxist sociologist, Marxist Humanist, in Praxis group. Z. A. Jordan (d. 1978) < 5 [Biography] Polish Marxist Philosopher. Gajo Petrovi• (1927-1993) < 5 Cornelius Castoriadis (1922-1997) < 5 Marxist Humanist, one of the main theorists in the Praxis Group Greek philosopher, economist and psychoanalyst. Co-founder of and long-time editor of the journal Praxis. the Socialisme ou Barbarie group. Perhaps better known by his [Biography] pseudonyms Pierre Chaulieu and Paul Cardan. Mihailo Markovi• (1927-2010) < 5 Claude Lefort (1924-2010) < 5 Serbian Marxist philosopher, one of the first and fiercest critics of French philosopher and activist. One of the founding members of the Stalinist philosophical theses in Yugoslavia, led return to Socialisme ou Barbarie; later formed Informations et Liaison study of Marx’s critical method in the mid-1960s. Ouvrières. [Biography]

—— Market Socialists / Workers’ Self-Management ——

Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) Ota Šik (1919-2004) Former longstanding leader of the Chinese Communist Party; Czech dissident who became Deputy Prime Minister during the purged as a “capitalist roader” during the Cultural Revolution, but “Prague Spring” advocating a “Third Way” between capitalism returned to power after Mao's death and led the gradual return of and communism; in exile, became more of a social democrat of China to capitalism. the Western variety. [Biography] [Biography]

Branko Pribicevic (1928-2003) < 5 See also Eurocommunism by Manuel Azcárate. Political scientist, member of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia. http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (28 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers [Biography]

—— New Worker / Communist Currents ——

Mansoor Hekmat (1951-2002) < 5 Filemon Lagman (1953-2001) < 5 Iranian Marxist. Conducted party building for the workers' Phillipino Communist. Led the split in the Communist Party of the movements in Iran and Iraq, specifically the Worker-Communist Philippines in 1991 over strategy of guerilla warfare. Advocated Party of Iran. the orientation to the workers movement, combining parliamentary and extra-parliamentary means of struggle.

—— The Latin American Left ——

Salvadore Allende (1908-1973) Leader of the Chilean Socialist Party and President of Chile in 1973, when he was overthrown by a US-organised coup. [Biography]

Guerilla Marxism

Some Marxists, in countries where open political debate was impossible, turned instead to military struggle as a form of political organisation, retiring to the countryside and basing themselves on the peasantry, rather than the urban working class.

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Che Guevara (1928-1967) 10+ Carlos Marighella (1911-1969) < 5 International Revolutionary. Helped create and maintain the A Brazillian revolutionary who led the National Liberation Action Cuban Revolution. Creatively tried to establish socialism in Cuba, (ALN). His tactics inspired the Italian Red Brigades, the German worked tirelessly to create revolutions throughout Africa and Red Army Faction. Expelled from the Brazilian Communist Party South America. Created the guerilla foco theory – building a for “pro-Cuban” sympathy. Executed by police. revolutionary movement through militant resistance instead of party building. Schafik Jorge Handal (1930-2006) < 5 [Biography] General Secretary of the Communist Party of El Salvador, and guerrilla commander in the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in the 1980s. “The road is long and, in part, unknown. We recognize our [Biography] limitations. We will make the human being of the 21st century – we, ourselves.” [Che Guevara]

Maoism

In the early 1960s, divisions opened up within the Comintern, with a current sympathetic to the Mao Zedong, as opposed to the Soviet leader Khrushchev, developing a distinct philosophical and political line, emphasising the role of the peasantry.

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Mao Zedong (1893-1976) 100+ Zhu De (1886-1976) Became leader of the Chinese Communist Party during the Long Longstanding leader of the CCP, denounced during the Cultural March in 1937, and led China to its Revolution in 1949 and Revolution but later rehabilitated. remained its supreme leader until his death in 1976. [Biography] [Biography] Li Lisan (1899-1967) < 5 Lin Biao (1907-1971) Early leader of Chinese CP, regarded as ultra-leftist, denounced Firm supporter of Mao during the Cultural Revolution, leader of during Cultural Revolution, and committed suicide. the Red Army. [Biography] [Biography] Liu Shaoqi (1902-1969) 10+ Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) 10+ Longstanding leader of the Chinese Communist Party who was Most respected of the old generation of leaders of the Chinese denounced during the Cultural Revolution as a “capitaist roader” Communist Party. and died in prison. [Biography] [Biography]

Peng Zhen (1902-1997) Zhang Chunqiao (1917-2005) Longstanding leader of the Chinese Communist Party; Part of the core leadership of China's Cultural Revolution. denounced during the Cultural Revolution, but survived and Worked closely with Mao's wife, Jiang Qing. returned to leadership, as one who opposed restoration of the market. Hua Guofeng (1920- ) [Biography] Led China after the Cultural Revolution after out-manoeuvering “Gang of Four” in a power struggle later in 1976. Deng Xiaoping's policies of reform began to take shape during Hua's tenure, and “The revolutionary war is a war of the masses; only mobilizing the by 1980, leadership had shifted to Deng. Hua remains a member masses and relying on them can of the CC. wage it.” [Biography]

Naxalbari

Charu Mazumdar (1918-1972) 20+ Shibdas Ghosh (1923-1976) 5+ A founder of the pro-Chinese Communist Party of India (Marxist- A founder of the Marxist-Leninist Socialist Unity Centre of India. http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (31 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Leninist), died in police custody. [Biography]

Vinod Mishra (1947-1998) 10+ Longstanding leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist- Leninist) Liberation. [Biography]

National Liberation

Particularly in the decades after the end of World War Two, communists were in the leadership of national liberation struggles, the leaders of these struggles developed a distinct approach to socialist theory.

Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) 30+ Lu Xun (1881-1936) 20+ Longstanding leader of the Vietnamese national liberation One of modern China’s most prominent and influential writers. movement; set-up a guerilla base in the countryside in 1944, His work frequently promoted radical change through criticism of going on to defeat the French in 1954, but dying before final antiquated cultural values and repressive social customs. victory over the US invasion in 1975. [Biography] [Biography] Messali Hadj (1898-1974) 5+ Pham Van Dong (1906-2000) < 5 Algerian communist and founder of the modern Algerian Leader of the Vietnamee Army in the wars against both the nationalist movement; supporter of the Russian Revolution. French colonial forces and the US invaders. Foremost theorist of [Biography] protracted warfare. [Biography]

Le Duan (1908-1986) 5+ Led Communist forces in South Vietnam after French withdrawal in 1954 and was First Secretary of North Vietnam Communist http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (32 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers Party from 1959. After Ho Chi Minh’s death in 1969, became “A national culture under colonial Party leader. domination is a contested culture whose [Biography] destruction is sought in systematic fashion. It very quickly becomes a culture condemned to secrecy.” Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) 5+ Founding head of state of Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) < 5 West Indian-born, French/Algerian doctor and intellectual whose Bhagat Singh (1907-1931) 10+ works addressed the problems of developing national Leader of the militant and socialist wing of the Independence consciousness in the oppressed people, an inspiration for the US Movement in India; hanged by the British in 1931. Civil Rights movement as much as in Black Africa. [Biography] [Biography]

Paulo Friere (1921-1997) < 5 Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in India. Brazilian educator, member of the Workers' Party.

George Padmore (1902-1959) 30+ West Indian, CPUSA and Comintern 1927-1935, became leading Fidel Castro (1927- ) 10+ advocate of Pan-Africanism. Leader of the Cuban Revolution and President of Cuban [Biography] Republic. [Biography] Harry Haywood (1898-1985) <5 Leader of CPUSA and Comintern. Supported Mao and was Cuban History Archive. expelled from the CPUSA. [Biography] Cheddi Jagan (1918-1997) < 5 Maoist and union leader who was elected President of Guyana. [Biography]

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African Liberation Movement

The struggle against colonialism in Africa, to create independent socialist states, brought forward several generations of heoric fighters, who contributed to the development of Marxist ideas.

Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) < 5 Baruch Hirson (1921-1999) < 5 Nkrumah was the force behind the movement for independence South African Trotskyist. Organiser for Workers International of Ghana, then British West Africa, first president of independent League, participated in the armed struggle, imprisoned, but went Ghana in 1957. His 1965 “Neocolonialism, the last stage of into exile in 1973. imperialism,” introduced the concept of “neocolonialism.” [Biography] [Biography]

Govan Mbeki (1910-2001) < 5 Julius Nyerere (1922-1999) < 5 Life-long activist for the African National Congress and the South Pan-Africanist, socialist and leader of Tanzanian independence African Communist Party. struggle and its first President. [Biography] [Biography]

Brian Bunting (1920- ) < 5 Amilcar Cabral (1924-1973) 10+ Journalist, Cental Committee member of the South African CP, Lead of independence struggle in Guinea-Bissau, assassinated ‘natives representative’ in Parliament before being banned, and by Portuguese agents. fleeing to Britain. [Biography] [Biography] Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) < 5 Joe Slovo (1926-1995) < 5 Leader of independence movement in the Congo, executed by Leader of the South African Communist Party in 1991 till his Belgian colonial police, despite U.N. calls for his release. death in 1995, leading SACP after the collapse of the USSR, to [Biography] the final overthrow of apartheid. [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (34 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers

Black Liberation

From the 18th century up to the present people of colour have resisted oppression by white capitalist powers and have developed a distinct current of revolutionary socialist thinking.

Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803) 10+ John Brown (1800-1859) 5+ The “Black Jacobin” who led a slave rebellion in Haiti in 1800 and American slave-abolitionist who aimed to build an emancipation created the first Black Republic, inspired by the French army, hanged after a shoot-out with Robert E. Lee. Revolution. [Biography] Malcolm X (1925-1965) 5+ (audio) US Black Muslim leader, assassinated in 1965. [Biography] “I don't believe in fighting today in any one front, but on all fronts. In fact I'm a Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter. Islam is my Black Panther Party religion, but I believe my religion is my personal buisness.... The economic (1966-1998) philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community.” See Also: George Padmore, C.L.R. James, Frantz Fanon and Angela Davis.

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The French Revolution

The leaders of the French Revolution were the first to develop modern social theory and laid the basis for the modern socialism. Rousseau traced the origins of inequality to private property, and Babeuf is credited with being the first Communist. The socialist ideas from the French Revolution are one of the sources of Marxism.

Julien La Mettrie (1709-1751) 5+ Jacques Roux (17??-1794) 5+ Militant atheist. Priest who became a leader of the popular democratic Enragés [Biography] during the French Revolution. He was renowned for the foul and abusive language of his journalism. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) [Biography] It has been said that the French Revolution, put Rousseau's philosophy into practice, in particular his idea of the Social Jacques Hébert (1757-1794) 5+ Contract. Although he died 20 years before the Revolution, he Leader of the extreme left-wing during the Revolution and was its principle theorist. spokesperson of the sans coulottes. Hébert initiated a planned [Biography] economy before his overthrow, after which the Revolution lost the support of the poor. Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) 10+ Leader of the left wing of the Revolution, inspired the execution of Holbach (1723-1789) 5+ royalist prisoners which launched the second, radical phase of French materialist and atheistic philosopher. the Revolution; his murder set off the Great Terror. [Biography] [Biography] Gracchus Babeuf (1760-1797) 5+ Robespierre (1758-1794) 10+ Rose to prominence in the twilight of the Revolution, convening a Leader of the Jacobins and instigator of the Great Terror, running public forum organising for more radical measures. He Robespierre was the ultimate “moralist.” His overthrow marked can be regarded as the first communist and an advocate of the end of the radical phase of the Revolution. popular sovereignty and participatory democracy. [Biography] [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (36 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers

Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881) 20+ The Paris Commune Founder of the communist movement in the 1830s, he believed communism could be achieved by the dictatorship of a radical (1832-1885) 5+ minority. He was immensely popular in France and elsewhere but Jules Vallès spent most of his days in prison. Agitator, editor of Le Cri du Peuple. [Biography] [Biography]

“It is my duty as a proletarian, Henri Rochefort (1831-1913) deprived of all the rights of the city, Journalist, deputy to Government of National Defence for Paris. to reject the competence of a court [Biography] where only the privileged classes who are not my peers sit in judgment over me.” Louise Michel (1830-1905) Nurse, soldier, hero of the Commune and labour organiser. Félix Pyat (1810-1889) [Biography] Veteran of the Revolution of 1848 and a leader of the left-wing of the Paris Commune. [Biography]

General Boulanger (1837-1891) <5 Populist French military leader.

Utopian Socialism

Visions of a better society have been a concern of thinkers since ancient times, and a part of the critique of existing conditions. The speculations of the early 19th century Utopians are an important contribution to Marxism. Fourier and Owen in particular were much admired by Marx and Engels.

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Thomas More (1478-1535) Charles Fourier (1772-1837) Thomas More wrote Utopia in 1515, looking forward to a world of French Utopian socialist who criticised the bourgeois society individual freedom and equality governed by Reason, at a time established by the French Revolution. He promoted the role of when such a vision was almost inconceivable. environment and education in moulding personality. [Biography] [Biography]

James Harrington (1611-1677) Robert Owen (1771-1851) Common-Wealth of Oceana was based on universal land- Welsh industrialist and social reformer; formed a model industrial ownership and was a militant republic dedicated to spreading its community at New Lanark, Scotland, and pioneered cooperative democratic system to the rest of the world. Cromwell banned it. societies. [Biography] [Biography]

Morelly (17??-17??) Étienne Cabet (1788-1856) Little is known of Morelly; Code of Nature was an attempt to His followers, known as the Icarians, established ill-fated utopian provide a systematic philosophical justification of his communist communities in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and California. ideas. [Biography] [Biography]

———— Saint-Simon (1760-1825) Edward Bellamy (1850-1898) French Utopian socialist who took part in War of Independence of the United States; opposed Deism and promoted the study of American author, famous for his utopian novel set in the year Nature. 2000, Looking Backward, published in 1888. [Biography] [Biography]

Anarchism

Anarchism is a political current that has existed in the working class movement from its beginning and was an important component of the First International, but parted company with Marxism in the late 19th century.

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Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) 5+ Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) 50+ Founding theorist of anarchism, advocated cooperative society. Russian nobleman who advocated revolutionary anarchism; [Biography] participant in the First International winning leadership of a significant section of the International in the 1870s. Petr Kropotkin (1842-1921) 10+ [Biography] Leader of Russian Anarchism. [Biography] James Guillaume (1844-1916) Biographer of Bakunin and theorist for anarcho-syndicalism. ———— [Biography] French Anarchists Errico Malatesta (1853-1932) 20+ Ravachol (1859-1892) 5+ Leader of Italian anarchism, anarcho-syndicalist. ‘Bomb-throwing’ French anarchist. [Biography] [Biography] Nestor Makhno (1884-1934) 20+ Zo d’Axa (1864-1930) 5+ Leader of anarchist forces during the Wars of Intervention after Radical French anarchist, opponent of electoralism. the Russian Revolution. [Biography] [Biography]

Bernard Lazare (1865-1903) 5+ Emma Goldman (1869-1940) 20+ French anarchist and militant opponent of anti-Semitism. [Biography] American anarchist and writer, deported to the Soviet Union, fought in Spanish Civil War. And others including: Emile Armand (1872-1963), Armand [Biography] Barbès (1809-1870), Georges Darien (1862-1921), Manuel Devaldes (1875-1956), Georges Etiévant (1865-), Emile Henry Rudolf Rocker (1873-1958) 5+ (1872-1894), Libertad (1875-1908), Jean-Patrick Manchette German anarcho-syndicalist, worked in Jewish anarchist movement in London before going to New York. (1942-1995), Georges Palante (1862-1895), Emile Pouget (1860- [Biography] 1931), Han Ryner (1861-1938), Gustave Hervé (1871-1944), Sebastien Faure (1858-1942) and Andre Lorulot (1885-1963). Ida Mett (1901-1973) < 5 Russian-born anarchist and author.

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“The rank and file have let their Prolific and legendary American labor organiser. servants become their masters and [Biography] dictators. The workers have now to fight not alone their exploiters but Benjamin R Tucker (1854-1939) 5+ likewise their own leaders, who often betray them, who sell them out.” American anarchist. [Mother Jones] [Biography]

Fredy Perlman (1934-1985) 5+ Czech anarchist writer and musician, emigrated to the U.S. Fernando Tarrida del Marmol (1862-1915) <5 [Biography] Spanish anarchist. [Biography] Murray Bookchin (1921-2006) < 5 American libertarian socialist, philosopher and environmentalist. Anarchist for much of his life, however in 1995 he founded his own political theory called "Communalism".

Feminists

From the 18th century up to the present, women fighting against their oppression by patriarchal structures have developed political science, ethics and critical philosophy and contributed to the development of revolutionary theory. Many were Marxists.

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Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) Harriet Taylor (1856-1915) English radical who was the first woman to systematically enquire Friend of John Stuart Mill, and her work was published under his into the causes of women's oppression. name, one of the earliest arguments for the emancipation of [Full Biography] women, in the tradition of classical liberalism. [Full Biography]

Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) South African-born, British socialist and novellist. “There is a women’s question for the women of the [Full Biography] proletariat, the bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia and the Upper Ten Thousand. It assumes a different form according to the class situation of each one of Lena Morrow Lewis (1862-1950) these strata.” [Clara Zetkin] American socialist and union organiser. [Full Biography] Mary Beard (1876-1958) American socialist and historian. Vida Goldstein (1869-1949) [Full Biography] Australian suffragette, feminist and anti-militarist. [Full Biography] Begum Roquia (c. 1880-1932) Pioneer of women's liberation movement in South Asia. [Full Biography]

See Also: Sylvia Pankhurst, Clara Zetkin, Eleanor Marx, Dora Montefiore, Alexandra Kollontai.

Evelyn Reed (1905-1979) 10+ Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) Member of the American Trotskyist movement, Author of The Second Sex, the most significant review of socialist feminist, was one of the first to approaches to the critique of women's role in history and modern challenge anthropological and other spurious society. De Beauvoir was an Existentialist. justifications for patriarchy. [Full Biography] [Full Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (41 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers

Betty Friedan (1921-2006) Shulamith Firestone (1945-) Psychologist, a student of Kurt Koffka, who criticised Freudian Radical feminist who argued that the concept of class should be psychoanalysis for its rationalisation of sexist attitudes; exposed expanded to encompass the notion of women as a sex-class, and the deep crisis affecting American housewives, excluded from the thus utilise the ideas of Marxism and class struggle to understand workforce and confined to housework. the nature of women's oppression. [Full Biography] [Full Biography]

Clara Fraser (1923-1998) Marlene Dixon ( ) Socialist-feminist, founder of Freedom Socialist Party in Seattle. Socialist Feminist who argued both against the overreaction of feminists against socialism and the antipathy of socialists to Kate Millett (1934-) feminism. Radical Feminist, who argued for the expansion of the conceptions of historical materialism to include the processes of domestic labour and reproduction. Dale Spender (1943- ) May have coined the word “sexism.” Historian who has contributed to uncovering the role of women in [Full Biography] history, and analysed the historical development of the women's movement itself. Germaine Greer (1939-) [Full Biography] Australian Radical Feminist [Full Biography] Lynn Beaton (1947-) Australian Marxist and feminist, worked at the Working Women's Juliet Mitchell (1940-) Centre at the ACTU and researched the socialisation of women's New Zealand-born, British feminist who endeavoured to reconcile labour. feminism with psychoanalysis. [Full Biography] Teresa Ebert ( ) Argues for a feminism based on historical materialism, against Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-) the postmodern feminism of people like Judith Butler, which she American Socialist feminist and journalist. calls “ludic feminism.” [Full Biography] [Terea Ebert home page]

Sheila Rowbotham (1943-) British socialist feminist; wrote for the Trotskyist ‘Black Dwarf’ before publishing ‘Women’s Liberation and the New Politics’ http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (42 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers arguing that women were oppressed in cultural as well as Linda Nicholson ( ) economic terms. A pioneer of women’s history. Historian who has contributed to uncovering the [Full Biography] role of women in history, and analysed the historical development of the women's (1944-) Angela Davis movement itself. A member of the CPUSA for some time, Davis is a supporter of [Full Biography] Cuba and an active campaigner for radical alternatives to prison. Her criticisms of the exclusive focus of the modern women's Drucilla Cornell ( ) movement on the concerns of middle-class white women was American “Ethical feminist,” professor of political science, influential. women's studies, and comparative literature at Rutgers [Full Biography] University. [Feminist Theory Website]

Laura Limpus ( )

Socialist Populists and Journalists

Some writers have advocated the overthrow of capitalism or were outspoken supporters of the Soviet Union, but did not see themselves as Marxists, or may have combined reactionary “populist” rhetoric with calls for socialism. Some writers have contributed to the development of socialism simply by reporting on its struggles in their professional capacity as journalists, often eye-witnesses to revolutionary struggles, although not themselves participants.

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Nicholas Chernyshevsky (1828-1889) Anna Louise Strong (1885-1970) 5+ Influential Russian novelist. American Progressive journalist who reported on revolutions from Russia to Spain to China, a unique source of sympathetic views Henry Noel Brailsford (1873-1958) for American workers. Left-wing British journalist who visited and publicsed the [Biography] achievements of the Soviets. Mark Starr (1894-1985)

“Something new was being created. British labour educator, historian and proponent of Esperanto. Something that had never been before in Joined the Labour Party after a time in the CPGB. human history. I wanted to have a share in [Biography] it, I wanted at least to understand it. Was it only the comradeship and joy of battle that always come to compensate for bitter times Paul Robeson (1898-1976) of struggle? Or was it really something new African-American Marxist and world-renowned singer and civil in the world!” rights and anticolonialist fighter. [Biography]

Mary Heaton Vorse (1874-1966) James T. Farrell (1902-1979) American radical journalist of the 1920s and 1930s. Irish-American novelist, at one time a Trotskyist. [Biography] [Biography]

Jack London (1876-1916) George Orwell (1903-1950) American novelist, and populist socialist. British dystopian novelist, fought with Republicans in Spain, [Biography] became anti-Stalinist, worked with the I.L.P.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) 5+ Alice Field (1905-1960) Keller was deaf and blind but became renowned for her abilities. Sociologist who studied the benefits to families and children of She was a firm supporter of the Russian Revolution and the the policies of the Soviet Union towards women. IWW. [Biography] [Biography] Isaac Deutscher (1907-1967) 5+ Athur Ransome (1884-1967) Polish writer and communist expelled for his opposition to Stalin, British journalist and writer who visited the Soviet Union after the later biographer of Trotsky. Bolshevik revolution. [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (44 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers William Chamberlin (1897-1969) Harold Isaacs (1910-1986) Journalist for the Christian Science Monitor, who visited the Soviet Union after the Revolution; provided information to US American journalist who witnessed and chronicled the “Tragedy intelligence. of the Chinese Revolution.” [Biography] Peter Fryer (1927-2006) Correspondent of the British CP who witnessed the “Hungarian Tragedy” in 1956.

Foundations of Political Science

The history of political science is inseparable from the art of war and the problems of philosophy, and there is a long history to discussion of the problems of modern political theory. These writers are the pioneers of political science and revolutionary theory.

Sun-Tzu (c 420 BCE) Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Ancient Chinese philosopher, author of The Art of War, which English democratic and Deist journalist who formulated the sums up the wisdom of centuries of Chinese political experience. concepts of civil liberty behind the American War of [Biography] Independence and the French Revolution. Author of The Rights of Man. Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) [Biography] 15th century Italian civil servant who put in writing the political methods of Renaissance Europe. General Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) [Biography] Prussian military theorist admired by Marx, Engels and Lenin. [Biography] Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) English philosopher and political theorist of the state. Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) [Biography] French diplomat who studied the development of democratic forms of society in America. http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (45 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers [Biography] Gerrard Winstanley (1609-1660) A leader of the True Levellers in the English Revolution of 1648. Moses Hess (1812-1875) [Biography] Leader of True Socialism, early associate of Marx. [Biography] John Locke (1632-1704) English Empiricist who was the main theorist of the development of bourgeois political institutions in Britain. [Biography] George Washington Plunkett (1842-1924) A leader of Tammany Hall, the corrupt local government group in “In tracing the causes that have degraded woman, I have confined my 19th century New York. observations to such as universally [Biography] act upon the morals and manners of the whole sex, ... I only contend that Childe (1892-1957) the men who have been placed in similar situations have acquired a Early 20th century Australian Labor Party official. similar character.”

Philosophy

The Value_of_Knowledge archive includes classic works by over 140 writers from the Copernican Revolution up to the present time, centred on problems in the epistemology, the theory of knowledge.

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Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Auguste Comte (1798-1857) Founder of British Empiricism. Founder of Positivism, an early advocate of the emancipation of [Biography] women. [Biography] Rene Descartes (1596-1650) Founder of French Rationalism. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) [Biography] English poet and revolutionary-atheist. [Biography] Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French materialist philosopher. Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) [Biography] German philosopher, materialist and atheist critic of Hegel, and an influence on the young Marx in the 1840s. Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) [Biography] German philosopher, Romantic critic of Kant, rehabilitated Spinoza. JB Baillie (18??-19??) Scottish Hegelian, translator. Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) German philosopher, introduced Recognition and Activity to John McTaggart (1856-1925) philosophy. British Hegelian, principal translator and advocate for Hegel in [Biography] the English langauge. Later abandoned Hegelianism. [Biography] Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854) German philosopher, objective idealist, early associate who later GW Cunningham (1881-1968) denounced Hegel. American Hegelian, Cornell University. [Biography] Rebecca Cooper G W F Hegel (1770-1831) 50+ American Hegelian, University of Washington. The greatest philosopher of “German Idealism,” theorist of modern dialectics and the most important influence on Marx and Benedetto Croce (1866-1952) Engels and essential to Marxism. Important Italian Hegelian and socialist philosopher, one of the [Biography] early advocates of Marxism in Italy, but became a reformist. [Biography]

http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (47 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers “The history of philosophy deals not (1864-1920) with a past, but with an eternal and Max Weber veritable present: and resembles not a German sociologist and political economist best known for his museum of the aberrations of the thesis of the “Protestant Ethic”; an early proponent of positivist human intellect, but a Pantheon of sociology and historiography, theorised “status order” rather than godlike figures, one after another in dialectical development.” class. Regarded by many as the main alternative to Marx; developed the concept of “ideal types.” [Biography]

Heinrich Heine (1800-1856) Cyril Smith Exiled German poet and revolutionary democrat, much admired British Trotskyist, philosopher. by Marx. [Biography]

Moses Hess (1812-1875) Left communist, follower of Babeuf and Fichte. [Biography]

Marxism and Philosophy Marxism and Ethics

Liberation Epistemology Classics of Ethics (1934-2001) (1673-1998) Recent Marxism Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) 10+ Founder of German Idealism whose works remain the (1960-2003) foundations of secular Ethics. Ancient Dialectics [Biography]

Lao Tzu (c. 500 BCE) ———— The Tao Te Ching is one of the first and finest examples in Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) human history of the dialectical method of reasoning, here used American liberal and romantic writer. towards a moral end. [Biography] [Biography] http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm (48 of 51) [14-7-2011 21:00:28] Marxists Internet Archive Library, Complete Index of Writers

(1844-1900) “Humanity is male and man defines Friedrich Nietzsche woman not in herself but as relative German ethicist and existentialist philosopher. to him; she is not regarded as an [Biography] autonomous being.” Jean-Marie Guyau (1854-1888) German ethicist and existentialist philosopher. [Biography]

See Also: Robespierre, Simone de Beauvoir, Eugene Kamenka.

Political Economy

Political Economy grew out of moral philosophy in the late 18th century as a new and distinct branch of science, dedicated to understanding how people can live. The critical study of the political economists absorbed much of Karl Marx's life.

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Adam Smith (1723-1790) Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) Originally a moral philosopher, became the greatest of the British American management theorist who invented “scientific political economists; first to develop a labour theory of value. management.” [Biography] [Biography]

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) John Hobson (1858-1940) 15+ British political economists who theorised economic basis for English, socialist economist who was a major theorist of development of society, and infamous for his reactionary theory imperialism, was somewhat of a centrist in politics. of population. [Biography] [Biography] J. M. Keynes (1883-1946) John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) British political economist who developed the theory of the Contemporary and opponent of Karl Marx, English liberal theorist, welfare state & macroeconomic control of unemployment by early positivist and a Utilitarian in ethics. public spending. [Biography] [Biography]

Marxist Political Economy 1887-1995 Classics of Political Economy 1673-1936

Bernice Shoul (1920-1977) “The effect of combination on the U.S. Marxist Political Economist. part of a group of workers is to [Biography] protect their relative real wage. The general level of real wages depends on the other forces of the economic David Yaffe system.” English Marxist Political Economist.

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Natural Science

Marxists have always taken a keen interest in the development of the natural and social sciences and the philosophical problems arising out of science. Even scientists who have had conservative political views have contributed to revolutionary ideas.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Albert Einstein (1879-1955) English biologist who formulated the idea of evolution of species Discoverer of Theory of Relativity and the Quantum nature of by natural selection. energy; devoted his life to fight for peace and world government. [Biography] [Biography]

Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) Foundations of Mathematics Anthropologist who formulated the idea of development of human society through definite stages corresponding to evolution of the (1911-1950) forces of production. [Biography] Epistemology & Modern Physics (1925-1958) Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis. Classics in Psychology (1874-1989) [Biography]

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