154 THE CLASS STRUGGLE 155 Berne Post mortem Conference By LUDWIG LORE European Imperial butchers? The Soviet Government of Russia asked peace and the governments of England and France are trying to give it a sword: it asked for help in its work of social reconstruction and it has been given the serpent of anarchy. It is just because the workers and peasants of Russia are trying to establish a new order in their country that the governments of Europe are trembling and are trying by their treacherous attacks on Russia to destroy this new order and in its place to establish the old. For, if the Soviet Government succeeds, it will for ever put an end to exploitation by social parasites and will sweep away the profiteers that fatten out of war.
The financial capital of London and Paris is trying to save the real Russia but it is really forging for it new chains. By a Judas kiss it is trying to hide the shekels of silver, for which it has sold the Russian people. But let the workers of England know the truth about this great crime; let them say to the British government: Hands off; let none dare to touch the Russian Revolution, the noblest product of these four years of blood and tears. know how firm in the memory of British workingmen is the tradition of freedom with which they have for generations been associated. When the ruling classes of England acted as suppressors of movements for freedom in America, when they interfered to bolster up privilege and reaction on the continent of Europe, the British workers raised their voices in protest. At the end of the eighteenth century the landlords of England declined to treat with the ambassadors of the free French republic and declared war upon a people who had cast off a feudal tyranny. Today the banking oligarchies in London try to strangle by isolation and spread of famine the great movement of freedom that has sprung up in Eastern Europe.
They will not succeed now, just as they did not succeed then, and the conquests of the Russian Revolution will endure, as did the conquests of the French Revolution last century. But to bring this about, the workers of England must know the truth, and, knowing it, must dare to act.
Moscow, August 1918.
If the world at large and the Socialist movement in particular still needed proof of the fact that the second International is dead, it was given at Berne, Switzerland, in the two weeks of February, when an International Conference of what remains of the proud Socialist International of former days, was first able to convene since the beginning of the war. How much better would it not have been to let the dead body rest, to bury decently an epoch of the Socialist movement that has done its work and should long ago have given place to one more fit to cope with the problems of a new age!
As it is, the desperate efforts of the social patriots and superopportunists who arranged that sorrowful post mortem, who tried to galvanize its corpse, served but to turn a tragedy into grim comedy, at the expense, albeit, of the international working class movement.
The program that was presented to the Congress when it convened showed how statesmanly the erstwhile leaders of the worldproletariat have become, how well they have learned to avoid those subjects that most urgently demand discussions, how completely they have subordinated working class problems and working class interests to their newly acquired sense of bourgeoisnationalistic responsibility. More than five years have passed since the representatives of the Socialist movement met to discuss their common aims and problems. And in these five years a new world was born. Thrones that seemed built upon rocks have been overturned. Armies that seemed invincible have been vanquished. Institutions that seemed built for eternity have been thrown on the scrap heap. Day after day the human race has accomplished the impossible. Nations have gone under new nations have arisen. The human race has gone through a period of unspeakable suffering, has shown itself capable of incredible sacrifices. New values have taken the place of old. The whole world is looking at life with new eyes, from a hitherto unknown point of view. These Socialist gentlemen alone have learned nothing, have forgotten nothing. They are prepared to go calmly on where they left off five years ago, thinking the same stereotyped sets of thoughts, using the same worn out methods, with the same narrowminded ideals and aspirations. In Russia, in Germany, in Austria, and in Hungary the Socialist movement has overthrown.