Manifesto of the Communist International
t ~ [ ~ --,..,. ~.,..,." "" - •• -- "" ...... J A Chromcleand Interpretation of International Events
Vol. I, No. 30 Saturday, May 10, 1919 Price 3 Cents Manifesto of the Communist International Tu the pruletariat of all cOlmtries! Manilesto 01 the First Congress 01 the Com so vigorously opposed by capitalist Liberalism, has now EVENTY-TWO years have gone by since the munist International, held at Moscow, March become a fact. There can be 110 return either to free Communist Party of the World proclaimed its 2-6, 1919. Issued March 10th, and signed 'Competition nor to the rule of the t.rusts, syndicates S program in the form of the Manifesto written by Charles Rakovsky, N. Lenin, G. Zinoviev, Leon and other economic monsters. The only question is the greatest teachers of the proletarian revolution, what shall be the future rpainstay of state production. Trotzky, Fritz Platten. Text received direct the Imperialistic State or the State of the victorious Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Even at that early from Moscow. time, when. c:ommunism had scarcely come into the proletariat? In other w~rds, shall the whole of work arena of conflict, it was hounded by the' lies, hatred Translated by 10.\ FERGUSON ing humanity become the feudal bond-servants of the and calumny of the possessing -classes, who rightly victorious Entente bourgeoisie. which under the name suspected in it their mortal enemy. During these. reflects the general deadly crisis of capitalist commod of a League of Nations aided by an "international" seven decades Communism has travelled a hard r.oad:· ity exchange. army and an "international" navy, here. plunders and of ascent followed by periods of' sharp decline: suc As free competition was replaced as regulator of' murders. there throws a crumb. but everywhere en cesses, hut also severe defeats. In spite of all, tile production and distribution in the chief domains of chains the proletariat, with the single aim of main development at bottom went the way forecast by the economy, during the decades which preceded the war, taining its own rule? o.r will the working class take Manife,'>to of the Coml11t1nistParty. The epoch of by the system of trusts and monopolies, so the exigen into its own hands the disorganized and shattered eco the last decisive battle came later than the anostles of cies of the war took the reg)llating role out of the nomic life and make certain its recdnstructiun on a the social revolution 'exptited and wished. But it has hands of the monopolies and 'gave it directly to the Socialist basis? come. miHtary power. Distribution of raw materials, util- Only the Proletarian Dictatorshio. which recognizes 'Ve Communists, representatives of tile revolution . neither inherited privileges nor rig-hts of property but ary proletariat of the different countries of Europe. whkh arises from the needs of the hungering masses. America and Asia, assembled in Soviet Moscow. feel can shorten the period of the present crisis; and for 'and consider ourselves followers and fulfillers of the The White Terror this purpose it mobilizes all materials and forces, int program prodaimed seventy-two years a!!o. It is our Consciously and systematically. under the direction roduces the universal duty to labor, establishes the of agent's of Capitalism, ,polke and row-dy mobs, in regime -of industrial discipline, this way to heal in the task now to sum up the practical revolutionary ex-. cluding soldiers and sailors, are being mobilized againsot perience of the working class, to cleanse the move SodaliS>l11. course of' a few years the open wounds caused by the ment of its admixtures of opportunism and social pat The May Day murderous assaul·ts upon Socialist war and also -to raise humanity to new undreamt-of riotism, and to gather together the f~ro~s of all the meetings are a revelation of capitalist -brutaLity and a beie:hts. . cha,))enge .to Socialffim. It is equally a revelation of The natiol!al State which was given a tremendous tr.ue revolutionary proletarian parties i·, order to the fear of Capitalism at the oncoming proletarian rev further and hasten the complete victory of th~ com olution. Capitalism is shaking. and i
, t• I l 2 THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE Saturday, May 10, 111.· . ------~ ------ing the enemy with the chance to advance slightly; The Revolutionary Age Iwhile it is indisputable· that the ·FrencnW:ere forced Our Red May· Day to get .out of Odessa and the Ukraine is Soviet. A Chronicle and Interpretation of International Events. The persistence of Bolshevism does not come out HE First of May has come and gone. But this of ~ts military power: that is one phase. and not the May Day lingers in the memory; its events have T. imparted new inspiration and energy to the mili loUIS C. FRAINA •••••••••••••••••••••••• Editor most important, except at certain junctures. The pow er of Bolshevism comes out of the social-economic .tant Socialists in our party. COfImb.ding Editor4 collapse of Capitalism, out of the economic needs of In the streets of city after city was reVealed the the workers, out of the struggle of class against class. brutality of Capitalism and its official agents, and the JOHN REED SEN KATAYAMA It is this social-economic phase that is decisive. While savagery of mobs whose emotions have been savaged N. I. HOVRWICII I. E. FERGUSON you cannot 'build a new society by means of military hy the infamous campaign of slander and riot indulg-ed force, neith'er can you permanently save an old societ}' in by the hireling enemies of the miHtant proletariat. LUDWIG LORE EADMONN MACALPINE from collaps~ by that means. Bolshevism is the pro But, on the other hand, the events of our first Red letarian answer to the economic collapse of Capitalism. May Day revealed equally the 31wakening determin lS!3JED EVERY SATURDAY That is why Bolshevism will determine the future. ation in our party to struggle for the streets, to comhine By Local Boston, Socialist Party the usual old meetings in halls with demonstrations Turn to the Left! of the mass in the streets. H. G. Steiner, Business Manager Let us say it: the Red character of our May Day was QI(S Washington SL. Boston, Mass. OMRADE Ludwil!" Lore has ioined the Left imposed upon us by the masters. Their hirelings had C Wing Section of the Socialist Party of New York HII"rll1' (JY{Jf'r.~ 2f a f'OPy, Subsc,.i~tion $1.00 tOf' prepared to crush the m1litant workers on this day. City. In a letter to Executive Secretarv Cohen. Com- In the press and in the pUlpit, in the courts and in the Str fflmlths (26 issues) rade Lore savs: . gutters, in newspapers and magazines, there was a "I was o( the opinion that of Europe. [Renaudel: Which? No half words!] Which International? This morning: Kurt Eisner and Kautsky showed us Bolshevikjabs I !With great force that, there are important proletarian masses that have remained true to the old Social De UDAPEST, May I.-Bela Kun today sent SPeech cfelivered by Jean Longuet at the Berne mocratic Party in Germany. We have no intention, I out a!Wire1ess stating that the report of the. fall Conference on "Socialist Resposibilit), and the War." think, of excluding these proletarian masses from the B of the Hungarian Soviet administration is grossly OMRADES : We are in agreement with our com Intel'national. [Tres bien!] Only, we say that the exaggerated. rades, Kurt Eisner and Karl Kautsky, in all German Social-Democratic Party must come back to * * * C their criticism of the majority Social Democratic its old unity and ideas, tested and glorious, that have (Mayor Hylan of New York is very much concern- Party of Germany. been adopted by all our international Congresses, for ed, of late, at the growing popUlarity of the c010r Red, The Socialists of the world, in the tempest of the the past 25 years, on the basis of the Amlterdam and is inciting the Aldermen to pass ordinances for war, have all more or less yielded to chauvinism; but Congress. hidding its display.) the majority Socialists of Germany have yielded much One word more: After 'froelstra, and with him, I I pity Mayor Hylan, I pity him at dawu, I pity more than the others. [The delegates: Very good, want to- protest against the. summary condemnation of him at sun-set when I reflect upon the fact that when very good!] Consequently. haVling condemned the the Bolshevik movement, and others, that we 11ave the sun' comes up and coaxes Johnny out of bed' it chal1vimstic elements in our midst, in' a measure, we 'heard here. The tactics of our Bolshevik comrades disregards Hizzoner's law, and comes up 106king red. are condemning the majority Socialists of Germany 'may be applicable to Eastern Europe. I do not know And even then it's not content but sometimes plays a much more strongly because of their stronger mani that we could transforttl the Russian tactics here. I second trick for when it settles down to rest its redder festations of chauvinism. know nothing and 1 want more information. But I than a Bolshevik. There was evident everywhere an anquished preoc want to say that to condemn and exclude them a *. * * cupat>ion with the problem of national defence; every priori is an impossible thing; the more so when it The New York Evening Mail, speaking of Edward where there was the. tendency to maintain national comes from the extreme right of our movement. [Tres N. Hurley, chairman of the Shipping Board, says: unity against the foreigner. This preoccupation with bien!] ·'Mr. Hurley pleads for big business. in a hig way .. '.' national defense has, in a number of countries, and We are here to re-cQIlstitute the International solid His voice is the voice of the aroused determination of more particularly in Germany, degenerated into na arity of the workers, to make an end of the hatreds American enterprise to capture its full share of the tionalism: precisely as the preoccupation with the that the capitalists and the governments have created trade of the reconstructed world." Presumably an "union sacree" [party unity for national defense, sus among the exploited masses, among the workers ot other war will settle what exactly is American big pension of the class struggle J in France has degener the world. At the IB99 Congress of .:he French business' full share of the reconstructed world's ated into governmentalism and ministerialism. [Bra- party in Marseilles, Wilhelm Liebknecht said: trade. \'o! 1 . '"Between you, French workers, and us, German * *. * In our country (France) we were in a more difficult Socialists, there is a river of blood. It is not we who Eugene V. Debs tells an interesting story: "I was position, because it was vanquished yesterday and in caused that river of blood to flow; it is our enemy, awakened about two o'clock one morning by two vaded today; and consequently we had to participate the bourgeoisie, it is Capitalism! Across that river raiU:"oad engineers and told that I must go with them in the national defense,-for more pressing reasons, of blood the workers of all countries must unite in the to Chicago immediately to take charge of the Burl higher reasons, than the world will easily understand, common struggle for their emancipation." -ington stI'lil«' One of the engine«:,rs was Edward N. stronger reasons than those of the Socialists on the Hurley. . .. " other side of the Rhine. II Debs took charge of the strike-he has always re memb~red that there were other people in the world It is not less true that these preocupations have to An Answer-Longuet, the Centre in France, and a certain extent animated all the others. When they the Ne'lt' International. besides Debs. Hurley, apparently, has always re have ,those who were true to the International rajse~l membered that Hurley was in the world. It must be themselves in protest. [Bravo!] THE Socialist Party of France. at its Congress the a source of satisfaction to him these days when he Comrades, we for our part have deeply regretted other day repudiated the Bolshevik-Spartacan "pleads for BIG busines'l in a big·-way" to know that that the majority of the German Social-Democracy International, and recogn1zed the Scond International. the world has put its seal of approvel on his course coutd not understand that, no matter what the Russian which collapsed miserably during the war and the of action while it puts an .iron padlock on the cell of danger, it did not excuse the violation of Belgian proletarian revolution, as still the International, the man who remembered too much. neutrality. - Until about a year ago, the official majority: in the * * * There was a bitter sentiment, which made our French Socialist Party consisted of uncompromising But these are strange days and· we wonder which struggle particularly difficult, when the German major social-patriots, pro-~ar "Socialists." Then a new man's appeal will be most successful. ity Socialists did not make their protest heard against majority came into power, captained by Jean Lonquet. the submarine warfare, against the deportation of civ The French party, under this new majority, pursued * * * Perhaps men, in the overalls of workers, will aga~n ilians by the German General Staff. In that moment fundamentally the old policy, with compromises and twaken Debs in the middle of the night and tell him you, Socialists of Germany, neglected your duty; and pretty words characteristic of the centre. This new we, the minority of the party in France, who lIave majocity corresponds, rd'ughly. with the Haase-Kaut he must go with them immediately to Washjngton to take charge of the ... Well, when you find out what nothing to reproach ourselves with from the interna sky Indepndents of Germany, ;who are playing such tionalpoint of view, are' anxious to tell it to you. a miserable and disastrous role· in the Revolution. he's to take charge of maybe you'll go and do it. [Tres bien!] This new majority was characterized by the resolution * * * We have also regretted that, at the moment of the Which brought it into power at the Congress: the res "Rome rushes 14 army divisions to Fiume," says. Brest-Litovsk and Bu~harest treaties, the German olutionfavored national defense, it. dodged on the a headline. One for each point! 11}ajority Socialists did not protest more than they did. Bolshevik issue, and was a tapeworm resolution cap * * * no more than you did when the Socialists of Finland able of infinite '"interpretation;" while the Loriot res Judging from the press reports Italy appears· to were crushed with the aid of the German Government. olution, short and to the point, urging the struggle think that if she got Fiume she would be able to build [Tres bien!] for immediate pace a9d the Social Revolution, and a much bigger foreign trade. Judging from the act~ Our Comrades Eisner and Kautsky have, with force uncompromisingly accepting the Bolsheviki, was de ions of the rest of Peace Conference it appears that and courage, told you with all the authority coming feated. Loriot represents the Left Wing. Italy is right in so thinking. from their past sincere service to the cause of the This new majority in the French Socialist Party, proletarian International, told you all that I am telling moreover, is equally characterized by its spokesman, * * * you.. Jean Lonquet; and Lonquet is characterized in his "Italian Social~sts quit Second Internationa1." In All this, comrades, does not obviate the other faults speech on "Socialist Responsibility and the War," other words they endoT!;ed the Manifesto and Program that wert~ committed. If we have had ·in France a delivered at the Berne Congress of the Great Betrayal, of the Left Wing. situation particularly difficult in view of the national of the social-patriots, which we reprint above. defence and the integrity of our country and the sacred Lonquet is a centrist. The centrist deals in com (Contilllit'd frolll T'rl'Cl'dill,Q Colllmll.) treasure that was deposited with us, - it is the promises ~nd the "trimming of ideas" to be agreeable idea and the policy of the International. And it is to all. He hesitates, and is never direct and revolu Very true; and this, to the revolutionary Socialist, is with regret that 'we must admit that in our midst also tionary. The interjection of Renaude1, a consistent a challenge to get the masses away hy exposing and there were comrades who forgot the International. social-patriot, "No half words," fittingly describes smashing this traitorous "'Socialist" party wihieh is \Ve cannot, at this moment, fail to consider those Lonquet's attitude on fundamental issues. betraying "important proletarian masses." But Lon who made the Stockholm Conference a failure, be This .speech accepts the doctrine of "national de quet proposes that we include this party in ,the Inter sides the German majority. There was a smaller but fense" which smashed the International and betrayed national, thereby bolstering up its prestige and pro not less serious mistake of our French comrades of the Socialism. longing its betrayal of the proletariat. Imagine an old 'majority in opposing the Stockholm Conference. This speech deprecates that "national defense" which International that harbors the "SociRlist" murderers We considered the supreme interest of the pro degenerated into chauvinism~ut chauvinism is an of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg! letariat of the world, and of France, to end the war inevitable excrescence of national defense'; and this But Lonquet says, of course, that the (;erman major as soon as possible. We thought at that moment that "defense" would be suicidal to militant Socialism even ity party should return "to. its 01<1 unity and ideas, the renegade enterprise of German militarism, of i fit did not "degenerate into chauvinism." tested and glorious." In the.first pb~e. this is impos which Kautsky spoke this morning, had failed, and This speech admits that "other" Socialists com sible; in the second place, even if possihle, it is un consequently we· could give peace a Socialist character, mitted errors, but they were worse in Germany, and desirable. a thing we cannot accomplish to-day beciuse national that therefore the German Social-Dmocracy was most The centrist speaks of' the old unity and the old ism and Imperialism. defeated in Berlin and Vienna. to blame for the collapse of the International. ideas. But they broke down, miserably and completely. have, alas, raised their heads in Paris, London and This speech ;bewails the fizzle of the Stockholm Out of this collapse has come a new proletarian im Rome. Conference, where the traitorous Socialists were to pulse and a new revolutionary Socialist movement. We Well! \Ve regret it. comrades. We say that the have got,ten together to reconstitute the old Interna cannot compromise with the old: we must repudiate it fai1ure of the Stockholm Conference was. a great mis tional which had broken down, at a time when the completely. We must not compromise. There is a fortune. a grievous fault. \;Ve say that then we could Bolsheviki had issued a new order of the day to mil challenge to Socialism, and we must accept this chal ha"e united the whole International. itant Socialism-the order to organize the new, the lenge: reorganize the Socialist movement on the basis In ending. Comrades. I want simply to examine our Third International of revolutionary Socialism. of Bolshevik-Spartacan policy and practice. conclusions. To establish responsibility may have its This speech indicates that the majority Socialists The French Socialist Party. dominated by the centre, m;e. but it is not sufficient. Must we draw a con of Germany are not to be excluded from the Inter apologizes and accepts the old, repudiates the Bolshe clusion thatinc1udes the motives of Thomas? Or one national~in other words, the speech is a plea for the vik-Spartacan Communist International; the Italian in which it is asked that the· German majority Social yellow International. Socialist'Party, dominated ,by the left wing, repudiates ists' .be excluded from the International? I do not The argument made in. favor of this is that "there the old and accepts the new Communist International. think that Thomas seriously proposes that. There will are important proletarian ·masse.s that have remained Which Socialism and which International, Comrades be many more exclusions to make in many other parts true to the old Social Democratic Party in Germany." of the American Socialist Party.? 4 . THE REVO~UTlONABY·.AGE SaturdaY'; May 10, 1919- ~-.. -"- --~.--.-.------. .~. The Cleveland May-, Day Demonstration HE workers of Oeveland who are striving to By C. E. Ruthenberg long, heavy clubs, with nails projecting two or three throw off .the yok~ of oPl?ress.ion and e~ploitation Sercretary, Local Cle-z'eland; Arrested inches from the end, beat everyone within reach. T have reCeIved theIr baptIsm m blood. The sudden attack of the police, the quick appear They have learned that the ruling class will not driven hack to the sidewalk, the head of the line re ance of the trucks loaded with the- Black Hundred and even permit workingmen to peaceably demonstrate. formed arid wi,th the' red flag still flying, marehed on their helpers, the tanks, all prov,,',at the whole affair They have been shot, brutally dubbed and crushed by to the p'ublic Square. was carefully planned ~n advance in order to tea<:h army tanks and heavy military trucks, all because they Uu to this point the police had been conspicuous by the workers who dared take up the fight against their dared march through the streets of Cleveland carrying their absence -from the line of march. With the excep masters, a lesson. their banners demanding freedom for Debs, freedom tion of two or three trafic officers,at important corners, "'6f"course the workers fought back and fought . for .41(}·o;~e-". freedom for all political mId ind·ustrial not a policeman was ,to 'be seen. This fact was partic bravely. But they were caught at a disadvantage, with -prisoners and' worl{ for the 1lt1elllployed throllgh tlte ularly noteworthy as it is the custom in Cleveland, their lines extended through the heart of the city four HI" hOllr day and dollar per hOllr minimum wage. when there are panides" to station officers a f-ew hund abreast, as it no doubt had been planned that they The May Day Demonstration in Cleveland was the red feet apart, along the whole "ine of march, and the should be caught. The fighting c.ontinued from about greatest outpouring of militant workers that this city police had asked for and had received a detailed state 2 o'clock until late 'In-m~eiii"g: has ever.· seen. Arranged under the a)1spices of the ment of the plans for the procession. '~"Twci oF~the--Wc5tKers-~~ot by police officers. Socialist Party, the 1. W. W., W. 1. 1. U. and nearly When the head of the line entered the Public Square one bei!1g kiled on the spot and the other has· since a score·of A. F. of' L. unions pal'ticipated. The plans there were two noteworthy events: first there was a died in the hospital. Hundreds were brutally beaten, for the dcmonstration <:alled for four sections of the great wave of cheers and applause from the twenty men and women alike, and abouf a hundred and fifty procession to assemble in different parts of the city, or more thousand workers who were assembled there 'were arrested. all of whkh were. to meet at a given point and then to participate in the meeting, and the police made theit The brutalities did not cease with the attack made to march to the Publk Square, where speeches were appearance. They came down Superior Ave., which upon the streets. The wr'iter was arrested with others, to be made. divides the "Square" into northern and southern sec and worker after worker placed in the same cell block Up to a certain point the program was carried out tion, headed by the mounted squad,followed by auto told of how the police took advantage of a dark cor successfully. The different sections assembled and load after load. The· newspapers later reported that ridor leading into the station to administer some eytra marched ,through miles of the city streets carrying seven hundred men had been concentrated at theCen blows with' their clubs. One man, unable to stand up, their red .banners and thousands of red pennants and tral Station, who now des.cended upon the marchers. Was dragged into ,the corridor, set on his feet anq told signs bearing the May D03' slogans. When the four The head of the line was not molested. The first to stagd up before the registry clerk, 'and when he sections arrived at Central and E. 9th Street the streets thousand or so of workers marched onto the square collapsed was brutally shoved into a corner. The floor were lined for blocks and blocks in every direction by and took possession of the "Victory" Loan speakers' befote the clerk's window was soon covered with the various columns. No more glorious sight could be stand, which had been built over the stone blocks plac blood from the workers' wounds and medical aid was imagined by the mind of those inspired by the "ideal ed on the Public Square for the use of speakers at not furnished for hours after. of the Social Revolution than to look down these lines public meetings. These marchers with the workers from the point of intersection and to see the scores of already assembled covered the entire section of the While the fighting was going on a crowd of hood red banners waving high in the air, and then, with a square. lums, with pOlice looking on, entered the party head mighty cheer, to see a veritable cloud of red as thous The chairman of the meeting was ahout to introduce quarters and tore and smashed everything they could ands of pennan·ts 'Yere' thrust high over the heads of the writer as the first speaker when an officer and a lay their hands on. th(' marchers. few soldiers tried to climb to the platform, demanding -Rumor says after the slaughter was over the Cham Not less than twenty thousands workers participated that the soldier holding the red flag give it up. Com ber, of Commerce gave a dinner to those who did such 'in the procession and when the head of' the line rea<:h rade .Lawrence Ai. Zitt, the chairman, entered into an effective work in their interest and that many thugs cd the Public Square another twenty or thirty thous argument with him and showed him the foolishness :and hoodlums received wads oJ money from the same and workers were there ,to greet the marchers. of his condu<:t and had him calmed down, when, with source. The joined sections started down E. 9th Street and out warning, a squad of mounted police dashed into The arrested workers are being charged wi,th "dist the head of the line had covered three~fourth of the the audience, driving their horses' over the assembled urbance" and are being railroaded to the workhouse distance to the Public Square without the slighte,s-t workers and clubbing them as· they went. to serve sentences of thirty days and a fine and costs. trouble. Rather were the marchers applauded and Meanwhile the police haJ cut the line a block away The writer is charged with "causing a disturbance," cheered, as they had been applauded and cheered while from the Public Square and had begun their attack but the authorities are working hard to frame-up some the sections were passing through the ,working class all along the line, stretched out over a half mile and eviden<:e for a more serious charge in order to fasten sections of the city to the meeting place. upon, the thousands Who had not yet left the meeting responsibility f()r ,their own bloody work on other When the head of the line was within a block of place of the sections. shoulders. the Public Square tne' first trouble occurred. AIn What followed is indescribable in its brutality. The Meanwhile, the Socialist organization remains int officer in the uniform of the Red Cross jumped from police drove their horses into the lines crushing and act in spite of the destruction of the party headquart a "Victory" Loan truck and endeavored to take a red beating men and woytlen alike. The police autos were ers. Committees are at work arranging for protection flag which a soldier in uniform was carrying at the similarly driven into the ranks of .the workers. The . of those in prison and ,to raise the thousands of dollars head of the procession.. A scuffie followed in which police ,were soon joined by truck loads of soldiers and needed to pay fines. The workers have had their les other soldiers from the truck and some business men members of Cleveland's Black Hundred, the Loyal son. They have learned how "democra<:y" meets a joined. During, the scuffie one of these business men American League, and by army' tanks which every peaceable protest. They know from the thousands drew a revolver and wildly threatened the workers in where drove into the line of marchers. One heavy who marched that their power. is greater than ever. the procession. In five minutes, however, the struggle truck loaded with soldiers and the Black Hundred Another day is coming. They will go on until victory was over. The lieutenant and his supporters were drove along the line while those 011 board, armed with is achieved. • The Red First of May In Boston N THE morning of May Day, the Comrades of Still there was no disturbance. Then, suddenly, Then 'the crowd dispersed. Two policemen had OBoston assembled at Dudley Street Opera House; two police wagons appeared, and about fifteen police been shot, four of our comrades, one a woman; and at T T o'clock a meeting was in :;ession. ... Outside men jumped out· They did not ask the crowd to dis many heads of comrades and police had heen smashed. were police and a patrol wagon; they had (~ome !>re perse. They did not parley. They immediately, !W;th About forty had been arrested. • .. parer! for trouble, and were disapointed at being nn drawn clubs, 3"satllted the front of the crowd, where But this was just the start of things. Police and able to "start something." The night befo('e four the flags were, and where there were at least ten thtig~ surrounded New International Hall, arrested, comrades (one of them a former CanaciIan soldier who women and. children. The police used clubs freely, everyone there, ate up the sandwiches and cake pre had fought four years in the war and had more decor and smashed the Red Flag. This brutal, unprovoked pared for the formal openmg, and wrecked the whole ations than one could count) were arrested for distrib assault was resisted. For fifteen minutes there was place. At Dudley Street Opera House, more com uting a leaflet, "May Day-and the Revolution." Bail a struggle; broken heads and smashed faces, includ rades were arrested, the police beating them upmercl had been granted the night before, but withdraJWn in ing those of women and children. lessly. Up until midncight the fighting went on, police the morning. . .. T.hen th~ police, hav~ng de5troyed, the Red Flag' and thugs assaulting everyone they suspected of being At the meeting, there were addresses and the sing and made a number of arrests, drew their revolvers. "foreigner" or a Socialist. ing of Socialist songs in English, Lettish, Russian and The crowd was at bay. One comrade, an old man of All together, 112 <:omrades were arrested (one a boy Italian. At two-thirty, it was decided to hold another fifty, barred his breast, and said: "Kill!" Deliberat of IS, who the police lyingl)' accuse of carrying a meeting at the New Tnternational Hall, the new head ely, Sergeant Casey took aim and shot this comrade, revolver) among them abont 20 !women. quarters of the Roxhury Socialists, hecause many stl.light at the hreast. The bullet hit the comrade's There was no disturbance until the police' ('ame. comrades hart been unable to get in the Opera Honse, watch, amI this saved his life, but he is now under a They started it. The comrades flowed out in the street, and began physician's I:are. \Ve have the dented watch and the The police deliberately assaulted the crowd. The walking to New International Hall, which was a,bout bullet .... police loaned their clubs and "billies" to young thugs tW(llty minutes walk away. They formed in line, in This first shot was the signal for indiscriminate to beat the women and children. . order to facilitate matters and not obstruct anything; shooting by the police. In the meanwhile, more police The pol,ice beat up prisoners, in one case, at least, at the head of the crblwd was a Red Flag and a flag of arrived, thugs with sticks and stones attacked our lining up a comrade against a wall while four of them Soviet Russia. At least one third of the crowd of comrades, and t~le fight became general. Scores of brutally beat him about the face. TOOO were women and children. The mood was one of comrades were in the police .vagons under, arrest; and And now our comrades are being tried before a gaiety. There was no disturbance, no obstruction of thugs with sticks went into the wagons, protected by prejudiced judge, while the police indulge ~n more traffic~just a crowd marching on. the police, and ,beat up our comrades. .., lying in one day than Ananias could in a year. Sent Tnen a group of young thugs, including soldiers and 'While the fighting was still going on, a large group ences of IR months, one year amI 0 months are being sailors, were seen to hold a consultation. The plail of the comrades marched down a side street, formed imposed on men and wcmen. was explained by one-"we'll head them off amI grab in line, and proceeded on their way, to New Inter The Socialists of Boston are now aware, more the flag." But they didn't. A policeman appeared; national Hall. Then two more police wagons appeared, clearly than ever, of the class justice of bourgeois the gangsters held a consultation with him, and he scores of police; they again attacked our comrades, society. And they,are more determined than ever that sent a call for the reserves. again shot at the crowd with deliberate intent to kill. Capitalism shall go. b I',, ' r Saturday, May 18, 1919 THE REVOL'UTIONARY· AGE fa ~. The Congr.ess of the Communist International HE first Congress of the Communist International, By A. Nyemanov ond International are doonled to inevitable disaster. T called into being by the Commun~st Party of Rus; T'his first Congress of the Communist International sia (Bolsheviki) met in session on March'"2, in Mos decided to liquidate the Zirnmerwald '"International al~(\' Corea. The Chinese "Labor Group" was also re Commission," hitherto headea by Comrade Balaban .. ·cow. Our news of the Congress is meagre and in~ presented. l.irect, only the reports ,in some German newspapers ova. Participation in the Zimmerwald CongresS', C, now being available. The Congress would have been considera.bly larger Rakovsky, N. Lenin, G. Zinoviev, L. TTotzky and F. had ,it not been for the fact that the representatives of Platten, made a jrnnt declaration that, while at the Thirty-two delegates with full power to ad particip nearly all capitalist countries did their hest to prevent ated in this first Congress of the Communist ] nter time the Zimmerwald movement played an important representatives of the revolutionary Socialist organ part, it gradually out-lived its usefulness. 'fohe mis national, representing the Communist or "left" Social izations from getting to-Moscow. ist parties and groups of Gennan)" Russia, Hungary, fortune of the Zimmerwald movement was that Sweden, N"orway, Bulgaria (the grOtlp "Tesniki"). TI1(' Russian Communist Party ;was ret)resented by there clustered around it representatives of the Rumania, F·inland, LTkraine, -Esthonia, Armenia and <. 'ol1lrades T.cnin, Trotzky, Zinoviev, Bucharin ·and Socialist "centre" who in the end joined the America (S. L. P.). [The S. L. P., however, has, Stalin. A h:tter was read to the Congress from Com social-patriots and betrayed Socialism. The Rol through its official organ, the Weekly People, pract· rade l.oriqt, leader of the Left W·ing Tn the Frenc11 sl~eviki, as early as 1916, realized that a severance of ically repudiated the Communist In.ternational by re So<:ialist Party, attacking and r<:pucliating the Berne relat~ons was necessary with the "centre" and Zimmer pudiating the original call for this Congress. The S. Cong-ress of the social-patriots. The letter aroused wald, a severan,ceprompted by the interests of the L. P. was "represented" by Boris Reinstein. who has great enthusiasm. revolutionary movement. This explains why, pro not been in touch with his party.] The following questions were on the agenda: I, ceeds the joint declaration, even at the time a split. oc In addit·ion, thoce sat as full members at the Con progTam of the Communist International; 2, dictator cured among the partioipants in the Zimmerwald. Con gress delegates of the "Union of Socialists of Eastern sh:p of the proletariat and bourgeois democracy; 3, ference, the "left" elements of the Socialist movement Countries," a union functioning in Russia, represent attitude toward other Socialist tendencies and the rallying around the "International Commission:' atives of labor. organizations of Cer 111:ans in Russia, Berne Conference: 4. the present internation.al situ-· The "Central -Bureau" of the Communist Interna and the "LTnion of Revolutionary Socialists" in the ation and the policy of the Allies: 5, electing an Inter: tional will comprise represe~tatives from the follow Balkans. national Bureau of the new International. ing countries: Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, There were also present, with consultative po,vers. The Moscow lahor organizations mach! a gala day Switzerland, one representative from the Scandinavian representatives of the Socialist Propaganda League of the first!'ession of the Congress. to greet the found countries and one representative of the Balkan SOC-· (represented by S. J. Rutgers-the Lea!{ue is now ers of the Third Interntional. Comrade Kamienev in ialists. Any Socialist Party that severs its relations merged with the Left Wing Section of the Socialist his speecb compared the Moscow Congress with the witl) the second International and accepts the Com Party in New York City), and the Commimist parties London. Congress of 1864 which organized the first munist International (as has. already been done by or groups of Switzerland, Holland, Bohemia, Jugo Tnternational. The Moscow J:;vl'stia, organ of the the Socialist Party of Italy) is entitled to a represent slavia, France, Britain, Turkey, Turkestan, Persia local Soviet, declared that attempts to restol-e the sec- ative on the Central Bureau. 'Socialism and Mass Action OSA LUXEMBURG has called the muss strike By S. Rutgers rors the actual variety of the working class, in its unity the dynamic method of the .proletarian struggle J. of action it throws aside all middle class elements, R in the Revolution. She considers mass action, aIHI as to O\'ercome the capitalist employers amI their cent that are not willing to break with their capitalist affili its most important feature the mass strike, as the SUlll ralizell power-the capitalist state? Surh an ob ations. Mass action is the very horror of the small total of a period in the class struggle that may last for iZ'ct ion overlooks 1he complexity of real conditions. bourgeois mnds; is mere craziness to the intellectual years or tellS of years until victory comes to the pro \\1 e are not free in choosing our metho(ls in accord radical. How in the world should the poor uneducated letariat. In permanent change, it comprises all the ant:e with certain general theoretical. constructions, worker get along without the well meaning costly phases of the political and economic struggle, all phase~ hut have to huild on the solid ground of ;lctnal facts advice and repres·enta~ion of intellectuals? of the Revolution. Mass action in its highest form in the light of historical developments". No matter But is it possible to increase our power by street of political strike means the unity of political and eco Iwhat our preachings mass movements in one form or demonstrations, strikes of protest, general campaigns nomic actioh, means the proletarian 1'"evolution as an ~1ll0ther will develop and we will h;l'.-e to make the for political issues, such as freedom of speech, jud historic process. best of it. And en th.e other hand, industrial organiz ical murders, militarism. high cost -of living, unemploy The word "mass action" like the words "class ation has its historical limits be'/ond ",h;('h we car! ment, etc.? Are not the masses who come together struggle," '~industrial action," "Imperialism," etc, '1!a3' not rise at the given moment of our action. Larl!e for those pnrposes too heterogeneous, too much liable mean nothing; in fact they are used to cover the most groups of workers will continne for a certain length to ,be dispersed or annihilated by military force, too l"Onflicting thoughts and deeds. Representing a general of time to organize in craft unions, and although we unorganized to develop power? To answer this ques conception living in the minds and the deeds of millions will tell them they are wrong and fight them where ,tion, we should first realize what the purpose is of our of workers, a word may become a powerful symbol inj urious· to their class, still they will.be a factor in power. We want power for the Social Revolution to and active force in the struggle for emancipation. our revolutionary struggle either for or against. More overcome capitalist society. You may overcome power Since Capitalism is outgrown and has to maintain its O\'l'r large groups of unsk-illec1 worken will continue n)y strengthening your own; as well as by weakening graf>p on the world by mental and moral fraud, a to live in such a state of slavery and terrorism. that your opponent's power. A wrestler may subdue his clear conception of proletarian methods is most es only occasional shocks iwill" lie able to overcome· the colleague by a supreme effort, but he will more likely sential. Science being the monopoly of non-proletarian pressure of the iron heel. We also have to bear in succeed because his opponent tires out quicker. Mass classes under Capitalism, all the workers can hope for, minel that the very process of capitalism consists in demonstrations may not be able ·to force a government unless they will leave their fate in the. hands amI swallowing middle class groups and farmers hetween to give in, but there is no doubt that mass demonstra heads of middle class representatives. is to· grasp some 1he grilHling- wheels of industry and that each gen tions, strikes of protest, etc., have a strong tendency to of the fundamental proletarian truths. These truths eration needs again ·its education towards in(lnstrial weaken the position of the capitalist state. Demon inevitably have to be coined into short slogans, this actiol1, ancl at any given 1110ment millions ancl millions strations can-and will he suppressed hy military force, being the only form of theoretical abstraction, suit of proletarians will continue to work nncler conditions hut this at the same time endangers the morale of mil able hath for the purpose of proletarian theory and verv remote f·rom large industry, anel thot1(Yh it itarism itself. In a period of demonstrations and pro fighfing practice. What a "thesis" means to the 1Il:\\, bt' tn'~ that these g-roups never will he the hack tests all over the country combined with a variety of scientist is expressed by the workers in general slogans hop., n f revolutionarv 1110V('I11ClIt5, lOt ill they will have strikes, the bureaucratic apparatus will have great ann cxpre~sions; such as mass action, Imperialism, in to pIa v Ilwir nart. To overcome tlle capilalist orp-aniz·· difficulty in maintaining its regular efficiency. At the dustrial unionism, class struggle, etc. Such and sim· al ie', :;lI1d the capitalist state is a .ioh ill which we same time the government will, through concessions in i1ar words may be said to express the proletarian philo cannot afford to neglect whatever forces Illav con some places and brutality in others, open the eyes of sophy, the strength of which depends upon the com trilWte to success. We are not satisfIed to wait until large groups of workers previously caught in bourgeois pleteness and the unity of conception reflected by these i" ~()111f> problematic future all capitalist produ.ction ideologies of a state for the .benefit of' "the People," words in the minds of the ,workers. The meaning of 'Will be in the form of big- industry and all proletarians etc. And we should not forget that education throtigh the words changes with the position of the workers in ,,·ill ha\"e passed the school of industrial educ<1tion. mass action is one of the most important factors to the class struggle and together. with the consolidation '\'" ;l.re convince(l that the technical development of the increase our power. No education without action of tactics. the corresponding conceptions get a more c -..: 6 THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE Saturday, May 10, 1919 , The Left Wing and the Revolution ,i IlE distinguishing feature of the controversy in By Louis C. Fraina and practice (even refused to accept industrial union Ihe Socialist Party between the Right Wing and ism as necessary in the immediate economic struggle). T the Left Wing, between the moderates and the Frolll "1'111' Ne7(' Yor!.' Comlllllnist" . Xo! It is 111iserable sophistry to affirm that the Left revolutionists, io!; that the Right Wing refuses to dev Wing policy accords only with al\ actual revolution. elop and defend its real program. This is partly fear, It didn't 'require a revolutionarv crisis to make I.ee's That is precisely wha·t the moderates in Europe said. partly camouflage, and partly sheer stupidity. voting for a "Liherty Arch," ()~l ,,,hich is inscrihed When the war broke, the 1I10derates (led hy Scheide The moderates have a program, and a consistent "Murmansk" as a glory of the A~llerican troops, a mann, Cunow, Plekhanov and Kautsky), declared that program. It consist~ of parlial11entarism, of reforming hetrayal of' the international revolution in general. the Basel Manifesto had proven wrong in eXl~el'ting: Capitalism Gut of e~istence, of municipalization amI :md the Soviet Repuhlic in particular. an immediate revolution, that the masses had aband nationalization of industrv on the hasis of the hour It ooesn't require a revolutionary crisis to condemn oned Socialism, therefore-they had ·to support an im geois parliamentary state, ~)f the theory that the coming the policy of petty-bourgeois reformisll1 and compro perialistic war! Rllt the Basel Mani festo dirl not as of Sol"ialistll is the concern of' all the dasses,-in short, mise pursued hy Algernon I.ee and hi~ l"onfreres in the sume an immediate revolution; it asserte(1 that war the poli('Y 0 i the moderates (which is in itself con Board of Aldermen. 7('oltld bring a1/ economic alld social crisis, and that sistent, while inconsistent with fundamental Socialism) .\nd it doesn't require an actual or immediate re\' ,..,'ocialislll should ItSC thi.~ crisis 10 hasfrll the ("omi1l!/ is a policy of petit bourgeois, "liberal" State Capital olutionary crisis to accept the Manifesto and Program of re'i'olfttiollary action. ism. But this policy hroke down miserably under the of the Left Wing; bllt this acceptance is l1rcrssar.\' for The moderates in Germany said it was absurd to test of the great crisis of Imperialism; it broke down tite, immediate struggle of ,the 11IOlllellt, atld as a pre expect a revolution; and then they used all their power under the test of the proletarian revolution, and re paratiotl of our forces for the rl'7'01Iltiol1ary struygle to prevent a revolution. And when the proletarian vealed itself as fundamentally counter-revolutionary. that is coming . ... revolu·tion loosed itself in action, the moderates acted But the moderates, essentially, still cling to this re Let us discuss this problem more fully. It is neces consistently and ferociously against the revolutionary actionary policy, although they are compelled by cir sary to completely 'expose the miserahle arguments of proletariat. cumstances to disguise it, jo camou'flage it with cheap the Right. In Russia, the moderates said a proletarian revolu talk about "being left wing" and "a shift to the left" The Central concepts of Left Wing theory and tion was impossible; but when it came, they acted in the international movement, compelled to wait until practice are mass action and proletarian dictatorship. against the revolution. "normal" times in order openly to defend their re From these concepts flow three sets of tactics: before, Tha·t is the attitude of the moderate Socialists actionary policy. So the moderates refuse to discuss during and after the Revolution. The immediate "mo everywhere, who are riveted with chains of iron to the fundamentals of the Left Wing Manifesto and ment" in the social struggle may compel a different the hourgeois parliamentary state, who ar' absorbed Program; they refuse to oppose their real policy to emphasis; but ·the tactics are a unity, adaptable to the in futile petty bourgeois refonllis1ll and the "gradual our's; they dare not. ... particular requirements of the social struggle. ' penetration of Socialism into Capitalism." Their arguments may appear plausible, until the test of the .\ccordingly, the Right Wing indulges either in vit ::\Jass action implies the end of' the exclusive concen uperation of' our revolutionary comrades, in threats of proletarian revolution reveals them as sophistry. Lee's tration on parliamentary tactics. It implies awaken arguments and policy are characteristic of' the Scheirle expulsion (guardians of the unity of the Party!), or ing the industrial proletariat to action, the bringing of manns, the H endersons and the Vanderveldes. . . . in sophistry. _ mass proletarian pressure upon the capitalist state to Characteristic of this sophistry was Algernon Lee's Imperialism, roughly, appeared in 1900: and with accomplish our purposes. It means shifting the centre its appearance developed the revolt against parliament letter in the Call of April 2nd. Lee implies that the of our activity from the parliaments to the shops and ary Socialism,-Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism, ,;tcceptance of the Left Wing policy depends upon an the streets, making our parliamentary activity simply actual revolutionary crisis, and says: Mass Action, Bolshevism, the Left Wing. Imperial a phase of Illass action, until the actual revolution ism, as the final stage of Capitalism, objectively intro Have we reason to expect a re\'olutionary crisis in this compels us completely to abandon parliamentarism. duced the Social-Revolutionary epoch. But the d01ll country.in the proximate future. aside from the possibil Mass action has its phases. It isn't necessary to have ity of stich a crisis heing voluntarily precipitated by one inant moderate Socialism did not adapt its practice to dement or another? Tn such a crisis, if it should be pre an actual revolution in order to use mass action, the new requirements; and it broke down miserably cipitated (no mat'teT'll),: whom) would the majorityl of the hefore the final form of mass action we may use its people probably be actively with tiS or against us? Or would under the test of the war and of the proletarian rev preliminary forms, in which however, the final form olution. the majori,ty remain neutral and inert, ready to accept ,is potential. Take, for example,' our class war pris Ihe outcome of the cnnb"t hllween a revolutionary min The war was the expression of the economic con pritv and a reactionary minorit\'? Tn this latter case, oners. It is necessary to compel their liberation. The taki;,g into account on'ly the sUPPos"d active minorih', Right Wing depends upon appeals to the Government tradictions of Capitalism, of the insoluble problems w.hicli of them would prohahly win in a decisive struggie which has imprisoned our comrades, upon liberal pub of Imperialism. It is clear that Capitalism is breaking at thi_ t;me:' On the hasis of our answers to these lic opinion, upon co-operation with btturgeois and es down; that the proletarian revolution is conquering, ••1 question" ha \'e we reason to seek or welcome a hasten Capitalism cannot adjust itself to the new conditions, ing of thl' crisis? sentially reactionary organizations in "Amnesty" con ventions,-upon everything except the aggressive mass cannot solve its enormous economic problems. The \.~ Tlwsr are fundamental Questions. Upon the answers world of Capitalism is in a revolutionary crisis,-more we gh'e to them must rest our decision on detailed effort of the proletariat. The Left Wing proposes a prohlems of methods and tactics. They are unescapahle mass political strike to compel the liberation of our acute in Europe, less acute in the United States, but questions, imprisoned comrades, to bring proletarian pressure still a crisis. This crisis, which is a consequence of It is important to understand the immediate "mo upon the Government. Get the workers to down tools the economic collapse of Capitalism, ~rovides the ment" in the great social struggle as a basis for actiol1 , in ·the shops, march to other shops to pull out the opportunity for Socialism to marshall the iron batta hnt Lee uses it to make ar~ments against action. workers there, get out in the streets in mass demon lions of the proletariat for action and the conquest of power. The policy of the Left Wing, in general, which is stration,-that is mass action we can use 110<", whether the policy of revolutionary Socialism, is not a policy or not we are in an actual revolutionary crisis. The final struggle against Capitalism is on: it may only for an actnal revolutionary.crisis. The tactics of In proletarian dictatorship is implied the necessity last months, or years, or tens, of years, but this is a the class srruggle, of the unrelenting antagonism 01/ of overthrowing the political parliamentary state, and revolutionary epoch imposing revolutionary tactics. all issllrs hetween the proletariat and the bottrgeoisie, after the conquest of power organizing a new prole And re7'oilltiollary agitatioll is itsrlf all acf of rr~'olll fltl1l'tion in "normal" as wel\ as in "reyolutionary" tarian state of the organized producers, of the feder tioll . times. ated Soviets. These concepts were implied (if' not It is not our job to "hasten" a revolutionary crisis. It dieln't require an actual revolutionary crisis to fully expressed) in revolutionary industrial unionism, Capitalism itself takes care of, that. Oltr"'job is to oppose the imperialistir war. which equally contained in itself the implication of prepare. Our joh is to act on the immediate problems It didn't require a revolutionary crisis to make Lee's mass action. Revolutionary industrial unionism placed -unemployment, the soldiers, strikes, class war pris acceptance of the war "in order to save the Russian parliamentarism in its proper perspective. The ac oners-in the spirit of revolutionary Socialism, in this Revolution" a hetrayal o'f Socialism. ceptallee of and the propagancla for revolutionary in way prl'paring the final action. 1 It elieln't require a revolutionary crisis to make I.ee's dustrial unionism did not require an actual revolu The Left \Ving Program is a progralil of actioll, not 1": j voting for Liherty nonels, a hetrayal of Srn:ialist tionary crisis: yet the 1l10derates refuse(l to accept this a program of wishing for the moon. Sophist ry can't practice. vital ,'\merican contrihution to re\'olutiona ry theory annihilate it. Life itself is with Its. They Destroy the Left Wing! HE olel guard within the Socialist Party is ~tand By A. L. Sugarman olution is to be brought about," wails Ralph. He T ing- on its heael, in e1esperation. :\11 of its literary, wants hlue prints, T suppose. and a detailed program talent has hcen elra fted into sen'i('e in an attempt to as deplorable as the fact that many alleged of each dav's events. save the Party for the old leaders and the old policies, Soc,ialists make democratie campaigns 011 the Socialist The logi'c of the gentlemen of the right is indeed anrl to stamp ont the rapidly growing movement of the ticket. .'\l1d poor Ralph gives ,he impression that Thr pecnliar. Workers have rejected milder programs, I.i/Jrrator is a left wing organ! they m:ge, and therefore 'tis folly to present more 1.eft. Those of the Ie ft, says t he est imahle h:orngold radical ones. The first is true. They haye rejectal :\ow comcs Ralph Korngold with a l'omnllmication further, use Billy ~nllday mt"lhods. This is laugh mild programs, ilecallse the.\' arr mild /,r0r/r(/Ills. \Ve addressecl tel the Soi:ialist press anrl officialclom, an ahle. Recall. for a monH'nt, the typical campaign have lost fights in the past: what reason to suppose effusion entit led .. Revolutiona rv Romanticism," speech ... , we can win now?-is one of their questions. As if Halph's effort is indetd a gem. . "\'ote for ::\1E! If I am 110t elect eel, the city will conditions are the !'ame now as in past decades! The , \\'e quote: 'The great Russian novelist Turgenieff f!0 to the clogs.' There is ol1ly one roacl to sah:ation, main difficulty with these Socialist standpatters is that warned the revolutionistg against what he called the fhaf is Illy rlrdiml. The Repuhlicalls are liars. The they l'annot keep pace with the times. Events are worship of the clirty shirt." Korngolcl's reflection i~ Dem(wrats are thie\'(:s, Fo11l7l' IIII'.' ••• mO\'ing too rapidly for them. They cannot keep up. of course upon the wage worker who doesn't dress as ,\nd so on, ad lIallsrlllll. Yet Korngolcl QVS 7('1' \lSI." They are still living in the last century! immaculatel\' as; himself, hut as hetween a c1irtv shirt tIlt' Hillv SUllc1a\' lllethoeJ:.;! . "It is characteristic of these literary faddists and ancl a n)ucld)' hrain, such as Korngol Manifesto of the Communist International ent-what for?-for their right to remain slaves of (Cantil/lied from payc (me) most democratic, goes on simultaneously with the col EnJ!'land or France. Never did capitali~t rule show lapse of the imperialistic military system. TIle armies itself more shameless, never was the truth of colonial frllding' his life against rohbers to fiollow the artificial 'Of millions, mobilized ,iby Imperialism, could remain slavery, brol1~ht into such sharp relief. As a conse ,rules of a French duel that have been. set by his enemy steadfast only so long as the proletariat remained obe quence We witnessed a series of open rebellions and ,but not followed by him. dient under the yoke of the bourgeoisie. The complete revolutionary fenllent in all colonies. In Europe itself In an empire of destruction, where not only the breakdown of national unity si• .;nifies also an inevitable it was Ireland which reminded us in bloody street .m~ans of production and transportation, but also the ciisintegration of the army. Thus it happened, first battles that it is still an enslaved country and feels institutions of political democracy represent bloody in Russia. then in Atlstria-Hungary, then in Germany. itself as such. Jn Madaga~car. in Annam, and in ruins, the proletariat must create its own fotms. to The same also is to be expected in other imperialistic other countries, the troops of the bourgeois Republic serve above all as a bond of unity for the working states. Insurrection of the peasants against the land have had more than .one insurrectio'1 of the colonial class a1Jd to enable it to' accomplish a revolutionary owner. of laborer against capitalist, of both against slaves to suppress during the war. In India the rev intervention in the further development of ·111ankind. thc monarchic or "democratic" bureaucracy. must lead olutionary l110velnetlt has not been at a standstill for Sueh anparatus is represented in the TVorkmcll's COII11- inevitably to the insurrection of soldier a~ainst com one dav. alH) htely 'we have witnessed the J!reatest cils. The 'old parties, the old unions, have proved in mander and. furthermGre, to a sharp division between labor strike in Asia. to whkh the government of Great eapab1c. ill person of their leaders. to understand. lIlUeh the proletarian and bourgeois dements within 'the Britain a!lswe'red with armored cars. less 1<) carry nut. the task which the new epoch Jire army. The imperialistic war which pitt eel nadon Tn this manner th·! colonial question in its entirety sents tn the111. The proletariat cr~ated a new institu a~ail1st nation, has passed and is passing into the civil became the order of the day not alone on the green tion whkh c11l'hraecs the entire working class. without war which lines up class against class. table of the diplomatic conferences at Paris hut also distinction of voca,tion or political mattlrity. an elastic The outcry of. the bourgeois world against the civil in the colonies themselves. Tbe Wilson pro~ram, at form of organization capable of continually renewing war and the red terror is ,the most colossal hypocrisy thp. ver" hest. calls only for a change in the firm-·name itself. expanding, and of drawing into itself ever new of which the history of political struggles can boast. of colonial enslavement. Liberation of the colonies can elements, ready to open its doors to the working groups There would be no civil war iii the exploiters who come onlv throuf!h liberation of the working class of of city and villag-e which are near to the proletariat. have carried mankind to the very brink of min had the OO1)r~~~inl! nations. The workers and peasants This indispensable autonomous organization of the 11dt prevented every forward step ohhe laboring mass not ol1lv of Annam. A1!r eria. Bengal. hut also of Persia working class in the present struggle and in the future es. if they had not instigated plots and murders and and A rmenia. can (!"ain independent existence' only conquests of different lands. tests the proletariat and called to their aid armed help froill outside to maintain after ,the laborers of Eng-land and France have over represents the greatest jnspiration and the mightiest or restore their predatory privileges. Civil war is thrown Uovrl Georg-eand Oemenceau and taken the weapon of the proletariat of our time. forced UPO~I the laboring classes :by their arch-enemies. power into their own hands., Even now in the more W'herever the masses are awakened to conscious TIle working class must answer blow for blow. if it ~dv~nced colonies the battle J!'oes on not only under ness. "Vorkers'. Soldiers', and Peasants' Councils will will n(l~ renounce its own objec.t and its own future the fial! of national liheration but it assumes also an he formed. To fortify these Councils. to increase whK:h i!l at the same time the future of all humanity. nl)f!n and outspO'ken social character. Capitalistic their allthority. to oppose ·them to the State apparatus The Communist parties. far from conjuring up civil Eurone has drawn -the backward countries by force of the bOtIT/!eoisie. is now the chief task of the class \Val' artificially. rather strive to shorten its duration il1tn the canitalistic whirpool. and Socialistic 'Europe consciol1s and honest workers of all cOUlltries. By as l1111ch as' 1l0ssible-in case it has become an iron will r0111p. tn dJe aid of' the liberated colonies with its means of these Councils the working class can C0l11lter l1ecessitv-t~ -minimize' the number of its victims, and techniQue. it!l org"anization, its spiritual influence. in act that disorganization which has been brou~ht into ahove all to secure victory for the proletariat. This Qrder to facili'lte their transition into the orderly sys it I)y the infernal ang-uish of the war, by hung-er. by 1l1~kes necessary the disarming of the bourgeoisie at ten, o~ ~ocialistic economy. the violent deeds of the possessing classes. and by the the' proper time. the ahning of the laborer. and th~ Colonial slaves of Africa and Asia! The 'hour of hetrayal of their former lea1lcrs. By _means of these formation of a communist army as the protector of the trinmph of the Proletarian Dictatorship of Europe' CouncilI' the working- dasw'Will gain power in al\ coun rule of the proletariat and the inviolability of the so will also be the hour of your liberation! tries 1110st reallily and most certainly when these Coun cial structure. Such is the Red Army of Soviet Russia cils gain the !'upport of the majority of the laboring which arose to proteot the achievements of the work II population. By means of these Councils the workin!! ing class against every assault fr.om within or without, The whole bourgeois world accuses the Communists dass. once attaining- power. will control all the field The Soviet :'\rmy is inseparable from the Soviet State. of destroying liberties and political democracy. That of economk and mlturaJ life. as in Soviet Russia. Conscious of the world histori$:: character of their is not trt1e. . Ha vin~ come into power the proletariat The collapse Df the imperialistic State, czaristic to mi~sion, the enlightened workers S'frove from the :very 'Onlv asserts the absolute impossibility of ap- heginning of the organized Socialist move plying the methods of bourgeois democracy ment for an international union. The found and creates the cOl).ditions and fonTIs of a T~e Most Important Book of the Year-Just Out! ation stone of this union was laid in the year higher workinq-class democracy. The whole J 864 in London, in the first International. course of canitalistic development under- The Franco-Prussian War. from which arose mined political democracy, not only by divid- The Proletarian Revolution the Germany of the Hohen~ollerns. under ing- the nation into two irreconcilable classes. mined the First International, giving rise at but also by condemning the numerous petty the same time to the national labor parties. bourgeois and semi-proletarian elements. as in Russia .'\s early as I8&:> these parties united at the well as the slum proletariat. to permanent By N. Lenin and Leon Trotzky Congress of Paris and organized the Second economic stagna.tion' and political impotence. International. But during this period the an In those countries in which the historiC'll Edited, with Introduction, Notes center of gr~vity of the labor movement rest development has furnished the oppottunitv. and Supplementary Chapters ed entirely on national ground. confining it- the working- class has lmtilized the regime of By Louis C. Frain;} self within the realm of national parliament political democracy for its org-anization This ~l11il'111eh(]ok traces the.course of the great Russian 1{e\' arism, to the narrow compass of national ag-ainst Capitalism. J n all countries where dution from March ,l~17 to October I~I8. in the words of the t\\'Q states and national industries. Decades of ,the conditions for a worker's revolution are masters of the 1{e\'olution. organizing and labor reformism created a not yet ripe. thp. same process will go on. But It consists of a m;lss of articles and pamphlets written dllrillll g-eneration of leaders most of Wh0111 gave the (!'re;lt middle layers on the farms. as well 111(' R(,1'oilttioll. covering' e\"cry important jJhase of the Revohiti01;. verbal recognition to the program of social ;IS in the cities. are hindered by Capitalism arranged to makc a cunsecntive story. revolution but denied it in substance. They in their historic development and remain were lost in the swamp of reformism and COl'iTI':NT~ : Part One-The First Stage (If the Re\-oluti"ll. hy stae-nant for whole epochs. The peasant of N, Lcnin (Marrh H to May IIlL Part Two--Tlhe Gener~1 Pro· adaptation to the bourgeois state. The op Ravaria ;ln11 naden who does not 1001( beyond !{ram of tlw Ilnlsheviki. hy ~. Lenin (tactics. I,rngram and !{cl1- portunistic character of the leading parties his church snire. the s111all French wine eral voli("\' L Part Thrct'--The Struggle for Statl' Power. \ly N. of ·the Second International was finally re v..... wer who h;!s hel.'ll ruined hy tl,.· adulter Lenin ;111<1 1..,'''n Trot7.ky (.\Iay IX to the "uprising" of July I(;-li). vealed-and led to the greatest collapse of Part l'O\lr--Th,' l{l'\'olntifl11 in Crisis. \Iv Leo11 Trotzky (writtl'l! ations practiced hv the hi~ ca.nit" lists. the at tht- ('11'1 of August. analyzing the Bolshevik