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

188V. I. LENINimperialists, the Chemnitz Volksstimme, published a leadingarticle entitled “The Disintegration of the Bourgeois Partiesand the Restoration of Social-Democratic Unity”. Needless tosay, it praises peace-loving Südekum, Legien, Scheidemannand Co., the whole German Social-Democratic Party majorityand, also, the peace-loving German Government. Itproclaims: “The first party congress convened after the warmust restore party unity, with the exception of the few fanaticswho refuse to pay party dues [i.e., the adherents ofKarl Liebknecht!]; ... Party unity based on the policy of theParty Executive, the Social-Democratic Reichstag group andthe trade unions.”This is a supremely clear expression of the idea, and a supremelyclear proclamation of the policy of “unity” betweenthe avowed German social-chauvinists on the one hand andKautsky and Co. and the Social-Democratic Labour Groupon the other—unity on the basis of pacifist phrases—”unity”as achieved in France on December 26, 1916, betweenJouhaux and Merrheim!The Central Organ of the Socialist Party of Italy, Avanti!,writes in a leading article in its issue of December 28, 1916:“Although Bissolati and Südekum, Bonomi and Scheidemann,Sembat and David, Jouhaux and Legien have desertedto the camp of bourgeois nationalism and have betrayed[hanno tradito] internationalist ideological unity,which they promised to serve faithfully and loyally, we shallstay together with our German comrades, men like Liebknecht,Ledebour, Hoffmann, Meyer, and with our Frenchcomrades, men like Merrheim, Blanc, Brizon, Raffin-Dugens, who have not changed and have not vacillated.”Note the confusion expressed in that statement:Bissolati and Bonomi were expelled from the SocialistParty of Italy as reformists and chauvinists before the war.Avanti! puts them on the same level as Südekum, andLegien, and quite rightly, of course. But Südekum, David andLegien are at the head of the alleged Social-DemocraticParty of Germany, which, in fact, is a social-chauvinistparty, and yet this very Avanti! is opposed to their expulsion,opposed to a rupture with them, and opposed to theformation of a Third International. Avanti! quite correctlydescribes Legien and Jouhaux as deserters to the camp or