110 THE CLASS STRUGGLE THE CLASS STRUGGLE 111 THE FIRST APPEAL OF THE INDEPENDENT SOCIALDEMOCRACY OF GERMANY The German Social Democratic Party opposition, which united at a Conference held at Easter in the city of Gotha as the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, has published the following proclamation: Comrades: The opposition movement within the Socialdemocratic Party of Germany at a conference held at Easter, 1917, in Gotha, has united into an organization under the name: Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany.
These conspiracies and recommendations emanate from that portion of the working class parties which are corrupted by ministerial ambitions, and if communications of a far different tenor from the other portion do not reach you, it is solely because the censorship in conjunction with nationalist spokesmen stifles all free speech. You may be sure that the international section of the French and English Socialists are deeply and honestly interested in the battle which the committee of workmen deputies is waging for peace and democracy and that they believe as you do, that the Russian revolution can attain victory only if it is not paralyzed by the poison gas of world war.
We are firmly convinced that the French Suedekums will be given the same sort of a reception by the Russian revolutionary proletariat as was accorded their prototypes by the Italian comrades. And we hope that the open and frank expression of what the Socialist advance guard of the Russian revolutionary army thinks of these attempts to exert pressure, will have a beneficial influence on that atmosphere of lying, of deceit, of intrigue, and of insane hatred in and by which the international proletariat is being stifled. Let these envoys of imperialist diplomacy learn, when they come to Petrograd and Moskow, that a nation that has freed itself by its consciousness of its revolutionary power, cannot be chloroformed by such words as the sacredness of civil peace; that those who want to give advice how we should best defend our freedom against the German armies had better regain the freedom for which their ancestors stormed the Bastile, and bled in the Commune, and which they have placed in the hands of militarist plunderers at home. Let them know that we regard as an enemy each and everyone who, irrespective for what reasons, stands in the way of the cause of revolutionary freedom in our country.
The most worthy answer to all such plots and schemes will be the redoubled energy of the representatives of ths Russian proltariat in their chosen course.
The confusion created by this policy against the Russian revolution, in the ranks of the proletariat of western Europe, can best be brought to a complete stop if the committee of workingmen deputies will, over the heads of the patriotic agents of imperialism, address directly to the working class organizations throughout the world, an appeal for international united effort in the direction of universal peace.
Long live the International Union of the proletariat in the battle for freedom.
Down with the agents of militarism, and the advocates of murder!
Long live the Democratic Republic! Long live Revolutionary Socialism!
Secretary Delegation for External Affairs: AXELROD CISTROW MARKOW MARTYNOW SEMKOWSKY Independent of imperial government, independent of capitalist parties, independent of government socialists, the newly created organization will conduct its work along independent lines in accordance with our political principles.
In a period of deepest industrial and social upheavals, it will unite the masses of the German proletariat, in the spirit of the International, to hasten the coming of peace.
The masses must be led back to the paths that Marx, Engels and Lassalle have laid out for us, back to the paths along which August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht and Paul Singer, in the past decades, led us to fame and victory. To faithfully carry out their work, to develop what they have begun, for the realization of democracy and Socialism, to liberate humanity from the fear and horror of war that is our task.
Hundreds of thousands will rally around the new independent organizations, that are already in existence, and the others that will grow up in every district, with joyous enthusiasm proud that in Gotha the old Social Democracy is risen.
Those who have lost faith in the Social Democracy as they looked on while the party sacrificed its old principles and turned into a national social government party, will come to us hopefully and confidently, ready to take up and to carry on the struggle for which they, in the past, gave their best strength, for which they lived for the lofty ideals of socialism.
Comrades: We, the undersigned were intrusted by the Gotha conference with the leadership of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. In these critical times we can successfully bear the burden of this responsibility only if we can count upon the enthusiastic, determined and tenacious co operation of our men and women comrades.