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

OPEN LETTER TO CHARLES NAINE221ties, joined Zimmerwald, supported it, appointed two membersof the International Socialist Committee and appearedbefore the whole world as the principal representative ofthe Zimmerwald movement, if we do not count the Italianparty, which is in an immeasurably more difficult positionowing to the oppressive war conditions. At its Zurich Congressof November 4-5, 1916, after delays caused, amongother things, by the struggle against the avowed socialpatriotswho only in the autumn of 1916 broke away fromthe party to form a separate Grütli-Verein, the SocialistParty finally decided to convene a special party congressin Berne, in February 1917, to decide the questions of warand of fatherland defence. But now some individuals inthe party are determined to prevent the congress, to disruptit, to prevent the workers themselves from discussing anddeciding, during the war, their attitude towards militarismand defence of the fatherland.At the head of those individuals, whose policy is an outrageto the whole Zimmerwald movement, we find thechairman of the International Socialist Committee!Is this not the utter betrayal of Zimmerwald? Is it notthe spurning of all the Zimmerwald decisions?We have only to glance at some of the official argumentsto justify postponing the congress to understand the pointand purpose of this move.“The workers,” we are told, “are not yet ready” to decidethis question!All the Zimmerwald and Kienthal manifestos and resolutionsdeclare over and over again that fatherland defence inan imperialist war, a war between two imperialist coalitions,a war for robbing colonies and throttling weak nations, isa betrayal of socialism, irrespective of whether this relatesto the “Great Powers” or to small nations, which for the timebeing have retained their neutrality. In dozens of waysthis idea is repeated in all the official Zimmerwald and Kienthaldocuments. It has been presented and argued over andover again in hundreds of articles and reports in all Swisssocialist papers, notably in the Berner Tagwacht, of whichMr. National Councillor Grimm is editor. The declarationsof sympathy for Karl Liebknecht, Höglund, MacLean, etc.,emphasised hundreds of times the conviction common to