THE SECOND AND THIRD INTERNATIONAL

When Plekhanov or Scheidemann considered it necessary to “defend” the tsarist or kaiserist fatherland, they had, of course, to insist that the workers must do absolutely nothing to interfere with the defence of the robber State. Consequently, there must be no strikes, and still less must there be any talk of rising against the bourgeoisie. The socialist traitors reasoned as follows. First of all, they said, we must settle accounts with the “foreign” enemy, and then we shall see. For example, Plekhanov declared in his manifesto that there must be no strikes now that Russia was in danger. The workers of all the belligerent lands were enslaved by the bourgeoisie in like manner. But from the first days of the war there were groups of trusty socialists who realised that the “defence of the fatherland” and the “truce of parties” tied the proletariat hand and foot, and that to utter these slogans was treason to the workers. The bolsheviks saw this from the outset. As early as 1914 they declared that there must be no truce with the bourgeoisie, but unceasing struggle against the capitalists — revolution. The first duty of the proletariat in any country is to overthrow its own bourgeoisie — such was the opinion voiced by our party in the early days of the war. In Germany, too, there was formed a group of comrades led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. This group took the name of International, declaring that the international solidarity of the proletariat was the first of all duties. Soon Karl Liebknecht openly proclaimed the need for civil war, and incited the workers to armed insurrection against the bourgeoisie. Such was the origin of the party of the German bolsheviks — the Spartacist group. In the other countries, too, there was a split in the old parties. In Sweden there were bolsheviks, who formed what was known as the Left Socialist Party; while in Norway the “lefts” gained entire control of the party. The Italian socialists took a firm stand throughout. In a word, there gradually came into existence the parties which stood for the revolution. An attempt to secure unified action was now made in Switzerland. In two conferences, at Zimmerwald and Kienthal respectively, were laid the foundations of the Third International. Soon,