only through civil war and the iron dictatorship of the workers that Socialism can be attained and with it, Communism and fraternal production. The protection of the bourgeois government and no approach towards Communism - such is the programme of the social democrats. The demolition of the bourgeois government, organisation or production by the working class, a wide road to Communism!such is the programme of the Communist Party. When we call ourselves Communists we not only draw a line to distinguish ourselves from the social traitors, such as mensheviks, socialist revolutionaries and followers of Scheidemann and other bourgeois agents. We revert to the old name of the revolutionary party, at the head of which stood Karl Marx. His was the Communist Party. The Testament of modern revolution up to the present moment is still the " Manifesto of the Communists" written by Marx and Engels. Some eighteen months before his death, old Engels protested against the name of "social-democrats." He said, "This name is not a suitable one for a party which is striving towards communism and which finally aims at destroying every form of government including a democratic one." What would these great old men, glowing with hatred towards the bourgeois state apparatus, say, if they were shown such social democrats as Dan, Tzeretelli, Scheidemann, they would have branded them with contempt, as they did these democrats who, in tragic and difficult moments of the revolution, directed the muzzles of their revolvers against the working class." There are many obstacles on our way; and there is at present much that is evil within our midst. For many outsiders have joined us who are selling themselves for money to the highest bidder, intending to fish in troubled waters. And the working class is young and inexperienced. And the fiercest enemies are surrounding the young Soviet Republic on all sides. But we, Communists, know that the working class is learning wisdom by its own mistakes. We know that it will clear its ranks of all the impurity that has crept in; we know that it will be joined by its loyal and desired ally -the world proletariat. No oldwomanish wails, no hysterical shrieks will confuse our party, for it has put upon its banner the golden words written by Marx in the "Communist Manifesto:" "Let the governing classes tremble before the Communist Revolution. The proletariat has nothing to lose but its chains; it has a world to win. Proletarians of all countries, unite!" May, 1918. Document XVIII ZIMMERWALD PROGRAM TO THE PROLETARIAT OF EUROPE The war has now continued for more than a year. Millions of corpses cover the battlefields, millions of men have been turned into lifelong cripples. Europe has become a gigantic human slaughter house. The whole civilization created by generations of labor has been devastated. The wildest barbarism celebrates its triumph over all that has hitherto been the pride of mankind. Whatever may be the truth as to the responsibility for the outbreak of this war one thing is sure: The war that has brought forth this chaos is the result of imperialism, of the ambitions of the capitalist classes of each nation to nourish their profit lust from the exploitation of human labor and the natural resources of the globe. Economically backward or politically weak nations have accordingly fallen under the yoke of the great powers, who seek in this war to transform the map of the world with blood and iron to make it correspond with their exploiting interests. So it is that the fate of whole peoples and nations, like Belgium, Poland, the Balkan States and the Armenians, is to be divided as prey in the game of compensations, and to be torn entirely or partially into fragments, and then annexed. The motive forces of the war in all their baseness come into view as the struggle goes on. Shred by shred every veil is torn away by which it has been sought to hide the truth about the world catastrophe from the knowledge of the peoples. The capitalists of all countries that would coin the blood of their peoples into the red gold of war profits assert that the war is for the defense of fatherlands, of democracy, or the liberation of oppressed peoples. They lie. In fact and in truth they would bury within each nation the devastated liberties of their own peoples together with the independence of other nations. New fetters, new chains, new burdens are arising and the proletariat of every country, conquerors as well as conquered, must bear them. Betterment of conditions was proclaimed at the outbreak of the war misery and deprivation, unemployment and high prices, under nourishment and pestilence were the actual results. For decades to come the costs of war will devour the best energies of the peoples, endanger achievements of social reform and prevent every progressive step. Cultural desolation, economic destruction, political reaction these are the blessings of this monstrous contest of nations. So it is that war reveals the naked form of modern capitalism. as irreconcilable, not alone with the interests of the working class, nor with the interests of historical evolution, but with the very elementary conditions of human association. The ruling powers of capitalist society, in whose hands the history of the peoples rests, monarchial as well as republican governments, the secret diplomacy, the powerful associated monopolies, the bourgeoisie parliaments, the capitalist press and the church—all these share the responsibility for this war that has arisen out of the society they have nourished and protected, and for whose interests it is conducted. Workers! Exploited, outlawed, despised when war broke out and you were wanted on the field of slaughter, you were addressed as brothers and comrades. Now, when militarism has crippled, mangled, crushed and destroyed you, the rulers demand that your goal, your ideal and, in a word, submit to a slavish subjection in the name of civic harmony. They would rob you of the possibility of expressing your ideas, your feelings, even your sufferings, and would deprive you of the power of pressing your demands or even of defending them. The press is muzzled, political rights and liberties are trodden under foot — military dictation rules today with an iron fist. This condition, which threatens the entire future of Europe and of humanity, we can not and dare not longer face without action. For decades the Socialist proletariat has led the fight against militarism. With increasing apprehension its representatives occupied themselves at their national and international gatherings with the ever more threatening danger of war arising out of imperialism. At Stuttgart, Copenhagen and Basle international Socialist congresses have pointed the way that the proletariat must go. Socialist parties and labor organizations of various countries that had agreed on this way have since the beginning of the war disregarded the duties that followed from this agreement. Their representatives have called on labor to cease the class struggle, the only possible and effective means of proletarian emancipation. They have given their assent to the ruling class for the war credits, they have placed themselves at the disposal of governments for various services, they have through their press and their emissaries sought to win neutrals to the governmental policy of their countries, they have sent Socialist ministers into the governments as whips to guard civil peace, and thereby they have, before the working class, for the present and the future, accepted responsibility for this war, its objects and its methods. And like the various individual parties, the official representative of the Socialists of all countries, the international Socialist bureau, has also failed. These facts have brought about a condition where the international working class that was not directly carried away by the national panic of the first days of war, or that has freed itself from that panic, have not yet been able, in the second year of the war, to find ways and means to bring their effective power into action for peace simultaneously in all countries. In this unendurable condition we, the representatives of Socialist parties, unions and minorities of these, we Germans, French, Italians, Russians, Poles, Letts, Rumanians, Swedes, Norwegians, Dutch and Swiss, we do not stand on the ground of national solidarity with the exploiting class, but on the ground of the international solidarity of the proletariat and the class struggle, have come together in order to knit up the broken threads of international relations, and to call the working class to selfconsciousness and to the struggle for peace. This struggle is the struggle for liberty, for fraternity and for Socialism. It is time to take up this battle for peace, and for a peace without annexations or war indemnities. Such a peace is only possible on condition of the condemnation of all violence against the rights and liberties of the peoples. Neither the possession of whole nations nor of separate sections of nations must be permitted to lead to forcible incorporation. No annexation, either open or masked, and no forcible economic union secured through any violation of political rights must be made. The right of self-determination of peoples must be the indestructible foundation of the creation of national relations. Proletarians! Since the outbreak of the war you have devoted your strength, your courage, your endurance to the service of the ruling class. The time has now come to stand forth for your own cause, for the sacred purpose of Socialism, for the liberation of oppressed peoples, for all subject classes, and for the irreconcilable, proletarian class struggle. It is the task and the duty of the Socialists of the warring countries to take up the full burden of this struggle. It is the task and the duty of the Socialists of all neutral countries to support with all their strength their brothers in this struggle against bloody barbarism. Never in the history of the world was there a more imperative, a higher or more sublime task than this, whose fulfillment must be our common work. No sacrifice is too great, no load too heavy to bear in order to attain the goal of peace among the nations. Workingmen and working women! Mothers and fathers! Widows and orphans! Wounded and cripples! All who have suffered from war or through war, we call to you over the frontiers, over the smoking slaughter fields, over devastated cities and villages: Proletarians of all nations, unite! In the name of the International Socialist Conference. Signed: For the German delegation, G. Ledebour, A. Hoffman. For the Italian, G. F. Modigliani, C. Lazzari. For the Russian, N. Lenin, Paul Axelrod, M. Babroff. For the Inter-Balkan Socialist Federation: Roumania, C. Racowski; Bulgaria, W. Kolarow. For the Swedes and Norwegians, Z. Hoglund, Ture Nerman. For the Dutch, H. Roland Holst. For the Swiss, Robert Grimm, Charles Naine. The Independent Labor Party of England has declared itself in sympathy with the conference and has elected delegates, but the British Government refused to issue passports, and, therefore, their names cannot be officially signed. NOTE.- Angelica Balabanov, Secretary of the Zimmerwald Conferences, writes in the Communist International for October 1919, "The fundamental basis of the Zimmerwald movement was a deep conviction that only a mass revolutionary action of the working-class can put an end to the war." The First Zimmerwald Conference was held on the 5th-8th of September, 1915; the Second at Kienthal, Switzerland on the 14th-30th of April, 1916, and the Third Zimmerwald Conference was held at Stockholm, September 5th8th, 1917. The key-note of the Third manifesto was in its advocacy of the "simultaneous international general strike." |