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354 THE CLASS STRUGGLE CURRENT AFFAIRS 355 small group of radicals was so completely outvoted as to be practically annihilated.
One of the curious manifestations of the present mood in Germany, is the organization of a new political party the party of workingmen and salaried employees. The principal aim of the new organization is to secure a full utilization of Germany military victories. Its concrete program includes: a demand for indemnities, securities, and lands for colonization; the annexation of all the German Baltic provinces. as well as the low German Flemish districts of Belgium; the unification of all Germanic peoples; opposition to English American brutal super capitalism (Grosskapitalismus. opposition to the present super annuated Reichstag, and support of a strong monarchy and strong armaments; opposition to the democratic prolongers of the war, who endeavor to prevent every separate peace; and many equally beautiful things besides, Such is the newest Labor Party of Germany. Verily, a sign of the times.
Toward the Revolution For the International Socialist movement the war has been a crucible. The white heat of its passions has melted old conceptions and prejudices, has separated the pure metal from the alloy, has brought clearness out of confusion. From this crucible it will emerge, a new movement, ready to meet the problems and struggles of a new world.
Nowhere has this change been more marked, and nowhere more remarkable, than in the Scandinavian countries. The Socialist movement in these nations, from the fact that their population is devoted overwhelmingly to agricultural pursuits, was always characterized by a strong opportunistic tendency.
Up to the outbreak of the war the radical wing, in every one of these nations, was in the hopeless minority. In Sweden the party had split on this issue into two groups, of which the Socialdemocratic Party, the representatives of the right wing, was by far superior in strength and influence. The Young Socialist Party, the political party of the radicals, were hard put to it, to maintain their existence. In Norway, at a congress held in 1913, the Recent reports from Scandinavia, therefore, are as amazing as they are gratifying. At a Convention of the Norwegian Socialist Party, held in Christiania at the end of March, the balance of power had so completely reverted to the other side, as to leave the movement practically under the control of the left wing group of the Norwegian Social Democracy.
The Executive Committee, which had consisted of six radicals and twelve conservatives, brought in the following majority and minority resolutions. The socialist state of society is founded upon the will of the majority of the people. The Social Democracy, therefore, can recognize no dictatorship that draws its authority from the use of force, whether it be a dictatorship of the upper or of the working class. The convention must, therefore, refuse to support general strikes or revolutionary mass action against the high cost of living or military strikes for the abolition of military service. At the present time such action could only harm the cause of the working class. The convention appeals to the proletariat to support their labor union and political organization for the protection of their own economic interests, to prepare for powerful drive, that the Social Democracy may win the majority in the Storthing in the coming elections.
The minority brought in the following counter resolution. The Social Democracy cannot recognize the right of the ruling class to exploit the working class even when this exploitation is supported by the consent of the majority in the national parliament. The Norwegian labor party must, therefore, insist upon its right to use mass action or revolutionary measures in its struggle for the industrial liberation of the working class. As a party whose most vital issue is the class struggle, it cannot be indifferent to this struggle when it is being conducted by other working class organizations. The convention, therefore, greets with joy the creation of Workmen and Soldiers Councils in