Polemic on General Line of International ... - From Marx to Mao

and fought them face to face at the Stuttgart and CopenhagenCongresses.When World War I broke out, the leaders of the SecondInternational openly betrayed the proletariat. Serving theimperialists’ interests, they urged the proletarians of differentcountries to slaughter each other and thus brought about amost serious split in the international proletariat. As RosaLuxemburg said, the revisionists turned the previous proudslogan of “Workers of All Countries, Unite!” into the commandon the battlefield, “Workers of All Countries, Slay OneAnother!” 1The Social-Democratic Party of Germany, Marx’s nativeland, was then the most powerful and influential party in theSecond International. It was the first to side with the imperialistsof its own country, and thus became the arch-criminalsplitting the international working-class movement.At this critical juncture, Lenin stepped forward to fight resolutelyin defence of the unity of the international proletariat.In his article “The Tasks of Revolutionary Social-Democracyin the European War” circulated in August 1914, Lenin proclaimedthe collapse of the Second International and sternlycondemned most of its leaders, and in particular those of theGerman Social-Democratic Party, for their overt betrayal ofsocialism.In view of the fact that the revisionists of the Second Internationalhad turned their secret alliance with the bourgeoisieinto an open alliance and that they had made the splitin the international working-class movement irrevocable,Lenin stated:It is impossible to carry out the tasks of Socialism at thepresent time, it is impossible to achieve real internationalunity of the workers, without a determined rupture with1“Either — Or”, Selected Speeches and Writings of Rosa Luxemburg,Ger. ed., Dietz Verlag, Berlin, 1951, Vol. II, p. 534.312