126 THE CLASS STRUGGLE CURRENT AFFAIRS 127 and bulldoze the Russian Revolution, the ruling powers of the Entente have decided to bow to the inevitable. This is the meaning of that truly remarkable passage in the speech of that most astute of Ally statesmen, Mr. Lloyd George, at Glasgow on june 29, in which he declared that. Although these distractions (i. e. the Russian Revolution)
had the effect of postponing complete victory, they made victory more sure than ever, more complete than ever and, what is inore important, they made surer than ever the quality of victory.
We doubt very much whether Mr. Lloyd George really likes the quality of victory which the Russian Revolution insures, but he and his friends have evidently made up their mind to accept it, and so he is ready to make a virtue of necessity. The Russian Revolution has made sure that this war will terminate in the right kind of peace.
land defense; the minority wert social patriots. Both sides published their reports, accompanied by detailed arguments, in the party papers, and in so doing gave the foundation for a party discussion that was as thorough as it was objective. Canton and district party conventions were held everywhere for the instruction of delegates to the national convention in which the question was thoroughly ventilated.
The decision of the party convention at Berne is, therefore, not accidental, but truly expresses the intelligent conviction of the party.
On the Road to the New International The Swiss Social Democracy held an extraordinary convention in Berne on June and 10 for the sole purpose of defining the attitude of the party on the military question. This was accomplished in a resolution, which for brevity and clearness of principle compares favorably with our own St. Louis declaration.
But not only the form and content of this resolution make it superior to that adopted by the Socialist Party; its origin and conception were equally admirable. For the Swiss convention was not the result of a sudden inspiration of the National Executive Committee, nor did the Swiss comrades decide upon this important question without the necessary preparation and discussion. Our comrades in the little republic proceeded more systematically. The last regular party convention appointed a committee of fifteen for the investigation of the military question in all its phases and instructed this commission to publish its findings in the party press at least six months before the calling of an extraordinary party convention. These instructions were duly carried out. The majority of the committee consisted of strict anti militarists who denied the principle of fatherThe majority resolution, adopted by 222 against 77 votes, contains the following program. To conduct the fundamental struggle against militarism, chauvinism and nationalism, as well as against the influence of the bourgeois classes upon the children and young people of the working class, with increased intensity by means of. a) Systematic education of the working class concerning the significance and purpose of militarism. b) Fundamental opposition by the party and its elected representatives to all demands, budgets and laws which serve the purpose of upholding and strengthening militarism or threaten to create international complications. c)
Organization of the emphatic and united resistance of the working class against intervention of the country in any war. The party shall determine the means that shall be employed to increase in intensity the class struggle and opposition to war (demonstrations, strikes and refusal to render military service) in accordance with the strength of the labor movement and with the international situation. d) Organized financial support of those comrades who refuse obedience when required as soldiers to act in opposition to the interests of the working class. This decision shall supercede all previous decisions of the party that may be in opposition to it.
The following extract from the report of the minority, aiming to pledge the party to the principle of national defense, will illustrate the spirit of the defeated resolution. The Social Democratic Party recognizes the necessity of military protection of the border of our neutral country by our