The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 12, 1924, Page 5

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. Editor’s Note:—By decision of the Fifth Congress of the Communist In- ternational, the working class of the world, is called upon to set aside the week from July 27th to August 4th for protests and demonstrations against war, militarism and social-pa- triotism. These demonstrations are not intended to be in any way similar to the pacifist social-patriotic affairs instigated by the liberal petty-bour- geoisie and Social-Democratic parties of the Second International. In the opinion of the Communist Internation- al, an spinion which has been sub- stantiated by every important event since 1914, to prepare against capital- ist war means to prepare for war against capitalism. In connection with the above, the opinions of Comrade Lenin on War and Social-patriotism are of great value to every class-con- scious worker. The article given be- low deals with Lenin’s opinions and SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. JULY 12, 1924. made on me by the conversation with Lenin. I came from Germany for the purpose of establishing connec- tions with the revolutionary groups of other countries. In Germany we unconditionally rejected the attitude of the social democratic majority from the very first day onwards. We re- jected the idea of the defense of na- tive country in an imperialist war. We were in conflict with Haase and Kaut- sky, who went no further than diffi- dent opposition to the social patriotic leadership of the party, and only dif- fered from this in sighing for peace. In our propaganda, carried oh in the eensored press and in hectographed papers, we agitated for revolutionary war against war. But for me—and thru my intermediation also for many German comrades—my conversation with Lenin signified a sharp turn to the left. The first quqstion which Lenin put to me was the question of the prospect of a split in the German |LENIN ON WAR - period of peaceful development of so- cialism and the period of storm and stress, that it was not merely a ques- tion of treachery on the part of lead- ers, but of the attitude taken by mass- es not possessing the power to offer resistence to the war, but subservient to the bourgeoisie; but that the bur- dens imposed by this policy would force the masses to break with the bourgeoisie and tread the path of re- volutionary struggle. Lenin interrupt- ed me by the words: “It is an his- toricism that everything finds its ex- planation in the changing epoch. But is it possible for the leaders of reform- ism, who led the proletariat system- atically into the camp of the bour- geoisie even before the war, and who openly went over to this camp at the moment of the outbreak of the war, to be the champions of a revolutionary policy?” I replied that I did not be- lieve this to be possible. “Then,” de- clared Lenin, “the survivals of an out- SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. By KARL RADEK ably adhered to the standpoint of this political definition, and held it to be a measure of revolutionary sincerity and logic, an evidence of the will to break with Social Democracy. Lenin insisted with equal emphasis upon the slogan of civil war being opposed to the slogan of Burgfrieden (civil peace). Since our polemical discussions with Kautsky, we left ra- dicals~in Germany had become ac- customed to formulate the slogan less clearly; our slogan was the slogan of “mass action”. The lack of clearness of this slogan corresponded with the embryonic condition of the revolu- tionary movement in Germany in the years 1921 and 1912, when we regar- ded the demonstration made by the workers of Berlin in the Tiergarten, at the time of the struggle for universal suffrage for the Prussian Diet, as the beginning of the revolutionary strug- gle of the German worker. Lenin showed us that though this slogan —Are you preparing for a new war? I have not forgotten yet the old one. reaction during the black days of August, 1914. Let’s study the experi- ences of those days and thereby pre- pare ourselves for effective struggle against new capitalist wars. Bhp war breaks out. The dark day comes, the 4th August, Lenin, so- journing in the Carpathian district, re- ceives the news of the complete be- first mo- ment he doubts the tidings, and hopes that it is merely a war manoeuvre of the international bourgeoisie; but he is speedily convinced of its tragic truth, goes to Switzerland, and takes up his fighting position at once. As early as the end of 1914, I had the opportunity of speaking with him, af- ter his attitude had been firmly es- tablished in the historic manifesto is- sued by the Central Committee of the party, and in various issues of the “Social Democrat.” I still remember very well the profound impression Social Democracy. This question was like a dagger stab to the heart to me, and to the com- rades standing at the left wing of the party. We had spoken thousands of times of reformism as of a policy pur- sued by the workers’ aristocracy. But we hoped that the whole German party, after the first patriotic throw- back, would develop towards the left. The fact that Karl Liebknecht did not vote openly against the war on August 4, Is to be explained precisely by the fact that he still hoped that the per- secution carried on by the government would induce the whole party to break with the government, and with the defense of the imperialist father- land. Lenin put the direct question: what is the actual policy being pur- sued by the Second International? Is it an error, or is it treason to the working class? I began to explain to him that we were on the borderland between the ~ lived epoch, in the form of reformist leaders, must also be cast aside. If we want to facilitate for the working class its transition to the policy of war against war, of war against re- formism, then we must break with the reformist leaders, and witli all who are not fighting honorably on the side of the working class. It is only a question of when this rupture is to be accomplished. , The question of the organizatcry preparation of this rupture is purely one of tactics, but to strive towards rupture is the fundamental duty of every proletarian revolutionist.” Len- in insisted on the sharpest form of the ideological struggle against the social patriots, insisted on the necessity of openly emphasizing: the treachery committed, especially the treachery of these leaders. He frequently ro- peated these words on later occasions, when we were working together; when drawing up resolutions he invarl- might be suitable for the purpose of opposing the action of the masses to the parliamentary game played by the social democratic leaders before the war, it is entirely unsuitable in a pe- riod of blood and iron, in a period of war. “When discontent with the war has increased” — he said — “then the C-ntrists can also organize a mass movement for the purpose of exerting pressure on the government, and for forcing it to end the war with a peace- ful understanding. If our goal, the goal of ending the imperialist war by the revolution, is not to be a mere pious, wish, but a goal for which we really work, then we must issue the slogan of civil war, clearly and de- terminedly.” He was extraordinarily pieased when Licbknecht, in his letter to the Zimmerwald conference, made use of the words: “Against the civil peace for the civil war’. For Lenin, this was the best proof that Liebk- (Continued on page 8.) en nH