590 THE CLASS STRUGGLE NEW GERMANY 591 war may have disturbed but has not broken, is a formidable enemy, an enemy that will fight without mercy and without quarter, once it feels that it has again gained a foothold in the country.
feels itself at the mercy of the proletariat, just as the class conscious Socialist will submit to the rule of a capitalist government only so long as he is powerless to overthrow it.
The demands of this capitalist class cannot be met with compromises and concessions on the part of a socialist government.
No capitalist class can or will consent to exist under the rule of a working class party, no matter how moderate. The class war that has produced the Social Democracy will go on until classes have ceased to exist, until the proletariat has assumed control over the economic as well as the political forces of the nation.
The international class war has reached its critical stage. And whether we live in Germany or Great Britain, in Russia or in America, we will have to take sides. Their war is our war, their problems are ours. And we will have to pay just as dearly as they themselves for the mistakes they make. We have profited by the glorious achiements of the Soviets; our comrades everywhere will gain from our revolutionary understanding.
The revolutionary uprising of the proletariat of Germany and Russia has not put an end to class war. But the class struggle in Europe has entered upon the last and the most bitter stage of its existence. It has grown beyond the national boundaries within which it has hitherto fought its battles. To the struggle between the classes within the nation has come the struggle between nations, between the nations controlled by the capitalist, and those controlled by the working class. Instead of wars for national aims there will come the great class wars, waged on an international basis. Whenever the working class of one country has succeeded in overthrowing its bourgeoisie, this counter revolutionary class will appeal to its brother capitalists in other nations, and in selfdefense these will have to come to their assistance. There can be no harmony between the opposing classes of one country. There can be no peace and understanding between capitalist and socialist nations. The war now being waged against Russia, directly or indirectly, by the Allied as well as by the Neutral nations, is an outstanding confirmation of this new phase of the world wide class struggle.
Upon this rock the ship of opportunism will founder. The theory that the Russian and the German Revolutions can be saved only by supporting the moderates against their radical opponents is based upon a misunderstanding of the fundamental class character of society. The capitalist class, nationally as well as internationally, will compromise with the workers only so long as it