Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

121SPEECH AT THE CONGRESSOF THE SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC PARTYOF SWITZERLAND,NOVEMBER 4, 1916 60The Social-Democratic Party of Switzerland recentlyhad the honour of rousing the ire of the leader of theofficial Danish Social-Democratic Party, Herr MinisterStauning. In a letter to another quasi-socialist Minister,Vandervelde, dated September 15 of this year, Stauningproudly declared that “we [the Danish party] have sharplyand definitely disassociated ourselves from the organisationallypernicious splitting activities conducted on theinitiative of the Italian and Swiss parties under thename of the Zimmerwald movement”.In greeting the Congress of the Social-Democratic Partyof Switzerland on behalf of the Central Committee of theRussian Social-Democratic Labour Party, I do so in thehope that this party will continue to support the effort tounite the revolutionary Social-Democrats internationally,which began at Zimmerwald and which must end in a completerupture between socialism and its ministerial andsocial-patriotic betrayers.This split is maturing in all countries of developedcapitalism. In Germany, Karl Liebknecht’s colleague,Comrade Otto Rühle, was attacked by the opportunists andby the so-called Centre when he declared in the CentralOrgan of the German party that the split had become inevitable(Vorwärts, January 12, 1916). The facts, however,make it increasingly clear that Comrade Rühle was right,