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

232V. I. LENINthe imperialist bourgeoisie that even Jouhaux and Renaudel,denounced as betrayers of socialism in all the Zimmerwaldand Kienthal declarations, voted for them!That Merrheim voted with Jouhaux and Bourderon andRaffin-Dugens with Renaudel is no accident, no isolatedepisode. It is a striking symbol of the imminent mergereverywhere of the social-patriots and social-pacifists againstthe international socialists.The pacifist phrases in the notes of a long list of imperialistgovernments, the same pacifist phrases uttered byKautsky, Turati, Bourderon and Merrheim—Renaudelextending a friendly hand to the one and the other—all thisexposes pacifism in actual politics as a means of placatingthe people, as a means of helping the governments to conditionthe masses to continuation of the imperialist slaughter!This complete bankruptcy of the Zimmerwald Right hasbeen still more strikingly revealed in Switzerland, the onlyEuropean country where the Zimmerwaldists could meetfreely, and which served as their base. The Socialist Party ofSwitzerland, which has held its congresses during the warwithout interference from the government and is in a betterposition than any other party to promote internationalsolidarity between the German, French and Italian workersagainst the war, has officially affiliated to Zimmerwald.And yet, on a decisive question affecting a proletarianparty, one of this party’s leaders, the chairman of the Zimmerwaldand Kienthal conferences, a prominent member andrepresentative of the Berne International Socialist Committee,National Councillor R. Grimm, deserted to the socialpatriotsof his country. At the meeting of the Parteivorstand*of the Socialist Party of Switzerland on January 7,1917, he secured the adoption of a decision to postponeindefinitely the party congress, which was to be convenedfor the express purpose of deciding the fatherland defenceissue and the party’s attitude towards the Kienthal Conferencedecisions condemning social-pacifism.In a manifesto signed by the International Socialist Committeeand dated December 1916, Grimm describes as hypo-* Executive.—Ed.