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

283THE STORY OF ONE SHORT PERIODIN THE LIFE OF ONE SOCIALIST PARTYJan. 7, 1917. Meeting of the Swiss Socialist Party Executive.Centrist leader R. Grimm unites with social-patriotleaders to postpone indefinitely the party congress (originallyappointed for Feb. 11, 1917 to discuss the war issue).Nobs, Platten, Naine and others protest and vote against.Postponement rouses the greatest indignation among classconsciousworkers.Jan. 9, 1917. Publication of majority and minority resolutions.114 Clear statement against fatherland defencetotally lacking in majority draft (Affolter and Schmidwere against this), but §3 does contain this demand: “Partyparliamentary deputies shall be under obligation to reject,stating their principled grounds, all war demands andcredits.” That should be especially noted!Jan. 23, 1917. The Zurich Volksrecht puts the case for areferendum 115 . Sharply, but quite correctly, it characterisesthe postponement as a victory of Grütlianism over socialism.Leaders infuriated by referendum proposal. Grimm in theBerner Tagwacht, Jacques Schmid (Olten) in the Neue FreieZeitung, 116 F. Schneider in the Basler Vorwärts, 117 and, besidesthese “Centrists”, social-patriot Huber in the St. GallenVolksstimme—all heap abuse and threats on the referenduminitiators.R. Grimm stands at the head of this unholy crusade, makinga special effort to intimidate the “youth organisation”and promising to come out against it at the next party congress.Hundreds and hundreds of workers in German and FrenchSwitzerland eagerly sign referendum papers. Naine wires