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

TASKS OF LEFT ZIMMERWALDISTS145ists, who, in principle, reject “defence of the fatherland”in the imperialist war. They favour a break with the socialpatriotsas agents of the bourgeoisie and mass revolutionarystruggle, combined with complete reorganisation of Social-Democratic tactics to conform with the propaganda andpreparation for such struggle; (3) the so-called “Centre”(Kautsky-Haase, Arbeitsgemeinschaft in Germany;Longuet-Pressemane in France),* which stands for unitybetween the first and the second trends. Such “unity” onlyties the hands of revolutionary Social-Democracy, preventsthe development of its activity and corrupts the masses byfailure inseparably and completely to link up Partyprinciples and Party practice.At the 1916 Zurich Congress of the Swiss Social-DemocraticParty, in three speeches on the question of the Nationalratsfraktion**delivered by Platten, Naine and Greulich,there was the very clearly expressed admission that thestruggle between the different policy trends within theSocial-Democratic Party of Switzerland has long since become afact. The sympathies of the majority of the delegates wereobviously with Platten when he spoke of the need consistentlyto work in the spirit of revolutionary Social-Democracy.Naine openly, precisely and definitely declared that twotrends were continuously fighting each other within theNationalratsfraktion, and that the workers’ organisationsmust themselves see to it that adherents of the revolutionarytrend who were in complete agreement with each other beelected to the Nationalrat. When Greulich said that the Partyhad cast off its old “favourites” (Lieblinge) and had foundnew “favourites”, he too thereby admitted the existence andstruggle of different trends. But no class-conscious andthinking worker will agree with this “favourites” theory. Itis precisely in order to prevent the inevitable and necessarystruggle between trends from degenerating into a contest between“favourites”, into personal conflicts, petty suspicionsand petty scandals that all members of the Social-DemocraticParty must see to it that the struggle between the differentpolicy trends is fought openly and on principles.* In the German Social-Democratic press the “Centre” is sometimesidentified, and rightly so, with the Right wing of the “Zimmerwaldists”.** The Socialist Group in the National Council.—Ed.