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

NOTES3873536Neues Leben (New Life)—a monthly journal of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party published in Berne from January 1915 to December1917. Spoke for the Zimmerwald Right and early in 1917 tookup a social-chauvinist position. p. 77Reference is to the international socialist conferences at Zimmerwaldand Kienthal.The first, Zimmerwald Conference, met on September 5-8, 1915and was attended by 38 delegates from 11 European countries—Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria,Sweden, Norway, Holland and Switzerland. Lenin led theR.S.D.L.P. Central Committee delegation.The Conference discussed: (1) reports from the various countries;(2) a joint declaration by the German and French representatives;(3) the Zimmerwald Left proposal for a policy resolution; (4) theZimmerwald Manifesto; (5) elections to the International SocialistCommittee; (6) a message of sympathy with war victims.It adopted the Manifesto “To the European Proletariat” in which,at the insistence of Lenin and the Left Social-Democrats, severalbasic propositions of revolutionary Marxism were included. TheConference also adopted a joint declaration by the German andFrench delegations, a message of sympathy with war victims andfighters persecuted for their political activities, and elected theInternational Socialist Committee (I.S.C.).The Zimmerwald Left group was formed at this Conference.Lenin’s appraisal of the Conference and the Bolshevik tacticswill be found in his articles “The First Step” and “RevolutionaryMarxists at the International Socialist Conference, September 5-8,1915”.The second International Conference was held between April24 and 30, 1916 in Kienthal, a village near Berne, and was attendedby 43 delegates from 10 countries—Russia, Germany, France,Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Norway, Austria, Serbia, Portugal.In addition there was a fraternal delegate from Britain and a representativeof the Youth International Secretariat. Representativesof the British Independent Labour Party, the U.S. socialists, anddelegates from Bulgaria, Rumania, Greece and Sweden weredenied passports and could not therefore attend. Some Left groupswere represented by delegates of other parties: the Latvian Social-Democrats transferred their mandate to the R.S.D.L.P. CentralCommittee: Henriette Roland-Holst, delegated by the Dutch Lefts,gave her mandate to the Polish and Lithuanian Social-Democraticrepresentative. The R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee was representedby Lenin and two other delegates.The Conference discussed: (1) the struggle to end the war, (2)attitude of the proletariat on the peace issue, (3) agitation and propaganda,(4) parliamentary activity, (5) mass struggle, (6) convocationof the International Socialist Bureau.Led by Lenin, the Zimmerwald Left was much stronger, both ininfluence and representation, than at the earlier, ZimmerwaldConference. At Kienthal it united 12 delegates and some of its