The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 26, 1927, Page 7

rITeet if : FEN CYEARS 2EO (Proclamations of the Bolsheviki During the Last Days of Czarist Rule) “Down with the War! Up with the Civil War!” Verbatim text of a priated proclamation distributed in Siberia at the beginning of February, 1917. Comrades! ge be 7 most infamous of all wars known to history has, for the last two and a. half years, been de- vastating a large part of ‘the earth. This war is destroying the’ most valuable inheritance of man- kind; it is threatening to bury under its ruins every- thing of which Europe boasted at the beginning of the twentieth century. Why are those people suddenly beginning to speak of peace, who had dreamed of trampling the whole of Europe under the iron heel of their armies? Ger- many and her allies are not speaking of peace be- cause a conscience has awakened in the mind of the German Ministers, nor even because their forces are exhausted, No! Nothing has changed in the mind of the Ministers who have condemned the flower of their nation to death only that they may. conquer new territory, only that they may rake in new profits for the capitalists of their country. Not a love of peace and not weakness have forced the governments of Germany and Austro-Hungary to make offers of peace. It is the threat of revolu- tion, which is growing beyond their control, that has decided them to take this step. Our comrades, the proletariat of Germany and Austro-Hungary, have long ago taken up the fight against the deVastations of war. They were the first to inscribe on their banner the slogan dear to us: “Down with the war!” x For two years they have fought bravely and ten- aciously under this*banner. The German govern- ment has thrown them into prison and has fired on the crowds in the street. The blood shed for the cause of freedom, for the cause of mankind, will not be absorbed in vain, not without fertilizing the bar- ren soil, as is the blood of those who die on the battlefield. In Germany, the army of the proletariat, which has risen to fight for the restoration of peace, is growing from day to day, despite all violence. The voice demanding that the war be stopped, is heard more and more distinctly, sounds more and more threatening. The waves of the people’s wrath are dashing, with greater and greater violence against the walls of the palaces. This angry sea is causing thrones to totter. The governments of the countries fighting against us are beginning to speak of peace. It is not diffi- cult,to see.on what they are reckoning. They are making proposals of peace to their opponents. If their enemies reject the peace negotiations, they will say to their nations: “We have done everything in our power to put an end to the shedding of blood. You see fer yourselves that the possibility of put- ting an end to the war is out of our hands. We are being attacked, we must defend ourselves,” The success of this manoeuvre would be a death- blow to the movement of the German workers against the war. The flames of war are flaring up with fresh vigor. New streams of blood, new piles of corpses, more victims called te the colors! How will it all end? When will this madness cease? The whole manoeuvre of the German government is based on the presumption that the German prole- tariat is alone in its struggle for peace. The Ger- man government has staked everything on the hope that the workers of Russia, England and France will not support the workers of Germany in their de- mand: “Down with the war!” Tt is the popular movement alone which has com- pelled the governments of the countries fighting “against us to make offers of peace. Only the peo- ple can compel the governments of Russia, England and France to accept these offers of peace. Will the call of our brothers, the German workers, find an echo among the Russian“workers? Wili the Rus- sian workers support them in their great and dif- ficult struggle for peace? The moment has come when the fate of Europe is to be decided. The question is to be decided as to whether the offer of peace made by the govern- . ments of the countries which are fighting against us, is to be a step towards peace or towards a fur- ther intensification of the fury of war. This ques- tion is on the point of being decided, and no one can keep aloof from this decision in whose breast a heart still beats, whose brain has not eeased to form ,~clear thoughts, whose conscience is not dead, Comrades! Which of you has not in his mind, cursed this present, futile, inhuman war? Any ery ‘emitted between four walls is useless, when what is needed is action, Every day of the war costs 25,000 human lives. Every hour the war continues demands the lives of thousands of human beings and destroys the hap- piness of thousands of families. Every hour by which we hasten an armistice, will save hundreds of “comrades and brothers from perishing. It is a crime to keep silent at such a time. He who holds his tongue today, shares the responsilulity for the continuation of the war . . . What are we to do? What must we get accomplished? We will tenr the mask from the faces of the hypo- crites who speak of peace whilst at the same time they feed the flames of the world war. What we desire is that the solution of the ques- tion of peace or war be taken out of the hands of the secret cabinets of diplomacy, where all ques- tions are solved by intrigue, corruption and treachery, and entrusted to the peoples, Peace negotiations must be commenced at once. All proposals made by the governments of the countries fighting against us must be made public and discussed by the whole nation. When the. proposals of both parties have been made known, we and our comrades in Germany and Austro-Hungary will be faced by the same tasks. We shall resist the lust for conquest of our ruling classes. Our comrades,on the other side of the front will continue their courageous fight against the plans of conquest of the capitalists of their coun- tries. Together we shall fight for peace on. the basis of the recognition of the rights of the peoples. We cannot, however, entrust the peace negotiations either to our government or to our National Duma. We declare that the voice of Russia, is not the voice of the people. In the hour when the fate of the people is being decided, it must not be left to a handful of sycophant courtiers of Nicholas II ‘and Grigori Rasputin. In no case can the Duma, which was elected by the landed proprietors on the basis of thee law of June ard, speak in the name of the people when that hour comes; the Duma which consented to the con- demnation of the labor deputies and which drove from its meetings the deputies of the social demo- eratic fraction, the only fraction whose hands are not stained with the blood of those murdered in the war, the only fraction in which the people has faith. The government and the National Duma are equally responsible for the present war. The goy- ernment and the Duma have led the country to the edge of an abyss, and the people cannot entrust its fate to them. The decision as to the question, war or peace, must be placed in the hands of the people itself. Forces will arise from the midst of the peo- rie 1T | WUIh Vd Uy (im —— — ple, which will heal the wounds it has suffered through the war. Once more our ery echoes through- out the country demanding a constituent assembly, Our country is at the parting of the ways. The whole of Europe is ‘at the parting of the ways, Only the wmnited forces of the proletariat of all countries can quench the fire of the world war. Our comrades in Germany have raised the banner of the fight against war. Across the trenches they are rézching out their hands to ws; they are pre- pared to cast away their blood-stained weapons, It is now our turn. What shall we say? What answer shail we give to their appeal? We greet them heartily! We will say to them: “Your banner is our banner, your cry is our cry.” Down with the war! * Peace negotiations must be started at once. All civil liberties for the free discussion of the terms of.peace by the people must be established without delay. A Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of general, equal and secret franchise should be sum- moned at once to conduct the peace negotiations, to conclude peace and to regulate the life of the coun- try. These are our demands. In the struggle to have these demands fulfilled, the proletariat of Germany, Austro-Hungary, England and France are our allies. Let our old ery: Proletarians of all countries, unite! echo thrédughout the whole world which is looking to the working class to save it and to set it frée! Down with the war for the subjugation of other nations! Hurrah for civil war and ihe liberation of the whole of mankind! Down with arbitrary rule! stituent Assembly! Down with all the enemies of freedom! Long live the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party! January, 1917, The Committee of the Labor Union. Continued Next Week. Long tive the Con- UTR Young China in a New Interpretation of the “Open Door’ Policy. —R — ‘