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

226V. I. LENINEbert, a member of the German Social-Democratic PartyExecutive, “einen Rausschmeisser in einem Bordell”*(Berner Tagwacht No. ...).Brave fellow, this Grimm, a knightly warrior! Sittingin Berne, he bravely attacks the social-patriots ... in Berlin!But this knight maintains a noble reticence about thesocial-patriots ... in Berne and Zurich!But is there any difference between Ebert in Berlin andGreulich, Manz-Schäppi and Pflüger in Zurich, and GustavMüller, Schneeberger and Dürr in Berne? None whatever.They are all social-patriots. They all share exactly the sameviews. The ideas they bring the masses are “Grütlian”, i.e.,reformist, nationalist, bourgeois, ideas, not socialist ideas.When Grimm drew up his theses on the war issue in thesummer of 1916, he deliberately made them long and vaguein the hope that this would deceive both the Left and theRight and enable him to “cash in” on their differences. Heconcluded the theses with the following sentence:“The party and trade union organs should reach agreement”(in the event of a war danger and the need for revolutionarymass action).But who is at the head of the trade unions in Switzerland?Among others, the very Schneeberger and Dürr who inthe summer of 1916 were the editors of the SchweizerischeMetallarbeiterzeitung.** They conducted this payer in areactionary, reformist, social-patriot spirit, openly declaringthat they stood for “defence of the fatherland”, and openlyprotesting against the whole policy of Zimmerwald.And at the head of the Socialist Party of Switzerland,as the events of January 7, 1917 reaffirmed, are the socialpatriotsGreulich, Pflüger, Manz-Schäppi, Huber, etc., etc.And so, what is the net result?It amounts to this: in his theses Grimm proposed thatthe party place the leadership of revolutionary mass actionsagainst the war in the hands of none other than the socialpatriotsSchneeberger, Dürr, Greulich, Pflüger and Co.!In the hands of the very people who are opposed to suchactions, in the hands of reformists!!* A “bouncer” in a brothel—Ed.** Swiss Metalworkers Gazette.—Ed.