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

222V. I. LENINall the Zimmerwaldists, namely, that these men have rightlyunderstood the position and interests of the masses,that the sympathy of the masses, i.e., of the majority ofthe oppressed and exploited, is on their side, that by itsclass instinct the proletariat everywhere, in “Great” belligerentGermany, as well as in small neutral Sweden, iscoming to see that defence of the fatherland in an imperialistwar is the betrayal of socialism.And now the chairman of the International Socialist Committee,with the enthusiastic approval and warm supportof all the pronounced representatives of social-patriotismin the Socialist Party of Switzerland—H. Greulich,P. Pflüger, Huber, Manz-Schäppi, etc., etc.—comes forthwith the hypocritical and false argument that the partycongress is being postponed because “the workers are notyet ready”.This is a lie; it is disgusting, intolerable hypocrisy.Everyone knows—and the Grütlianer openly publishesthis bitter truth—that the congress is being postponedbecause these social-patriots are afraid of the workers, afraidthat the workers will decide against defence of the fatherland;that they threaten to resign their seats in the Nationalrat,if a decision against defence of the fatherland is carried.The social-patriot “leaders” of the Socialist Party ofSwitzerland, who even now, two and a half years after thebeginning of the war, favour “defence of the fatherland”,i.e., defence of the imperialist bourgeoisie of one or the othercoalition, have decided to disrupt the congress, to sabotagethe will of the Swiss socialist workers, to prevent them fromdiscussing and determining, during the war, their attitudetowards the war, towards the “defenders of the fatherland”,i.e., towards the lackeys of the imperialist bourgeoisie.This is the real reason, which everyone knows perfectlywell, why the congress has been postponed; this is a betrayalof Zimmerwald by the chairman of the InternationalSocialist Committee, who has deserted to the side of thesocial-patriots in the Socialist Party of Switzerland, againstthe class-conscious workers of Switzerland!Such is the bitter truth. It has already been told by theavowedly social-patriot Grütlianer, which, incidentally,is always best informed about what the Grütlian leaders,