The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1919-05-30
IGNORANCE AND CR|MINAUTY?
YES, THAT IS WHAT A|LS RUSSIA

mouthpiece of Nine. Breshkovsky,
The Little Mother of the Russian
Revolution" the following article
| is taken:
The New York Call has published
May First Manifesto" signed by
Adolph Germer, Executive Secre-
tary, and Morris Hillquit, Interna-
tional Secretary of the Socialist
Party of the United States. In this
document we read:
I'VE sent fraternal greetings and
vows of whole-hearted sympathy to
the Socialist Soviet republic of
Russia, which is so valiently up
holding the lofty international pro-
letarian ideals in the face of the
combined military, economic and
political attacks of reactionary
powers, and in spite of the system
attic campaign of libelous misrepre-
sentation on the part Of the lying
capitalist press of the world"
We will not quote 1.-The capital
list PRESS which is, by the way,
very much more honorable in it's
treatment Of the Russian problem
than such Socialist" publication
as the New York Call. We will
quote an appeal issued on July 81,
1918, by the Party Socialists-Revo-
lutionists and the Russian Social
Democratic Labor Party The ap-
peal, addressed to the Socialists of
Europe, proposed that an interna-
tional Socialist Commission should
GO to Russia and make the investi-
cations necessary to answer the fol-
lowing questions:
u. Are we right, yes or no,
when we declare that the Bolshev-
| ist government has degenerated
into an instrument of reaction and,
although it hides behind the words
the will of the workmen and peas
ants does not shrink from the
most extreme and violent measures
of oppression directed against these
same workmen and peasants?
20. Are we right when we de-
clare that the Bolshevist govern
ment has now no other aim than to
preserve at all costs its own power,
and that with this object it is ready
t. sacrifice all the conquests of the
Revolution and take refuge in a
state of terrorism directed not
against the bourgeoisie, but against
the other Socialist parties and the
mass of the proletariat and peas
ants whom they represent, and that,
finally, eager to justify itself in the
eyes of the foreign conqueror, it
has not hesitated in connection
with the Mirbach incident to lay
at his feet the dead bodies of 200
of it's own ial-Revolutionary
countrymen?
80. Are we right when we de-
clare that Bolshevism has done
nothing to apply Socialist princi-
pies and has only succeeded in de-
stroying industry and bringing
about universal unemployment and
starvation?
a. Are we right when we de-
clare that the Bolshevist govern
ment denies us every possibility to
open discussion or to struggle for
what we consider to be Russia S
only hope of salvation, namely, the
s.mmoning of the Constituent AS
sembly and the re-establishing of
popular means Of local administra-
tion-in a word, the placing of all
power in the hands of the people?
"5. Are the Bolsheviki right
when they assert that all other Rus
sian Socialist parties are seeking
not to free the working classes from
the despotic oppression of small
minority, but, in concert with the
bourgeois and monarchist elements
to bring about a counter-revolu-
tion?"
The appeal was signed, in behalf
of the Party of Socialists-Revolu-
tionists, by Nicholas Rusanov, and,
in behalf of the Social-Democratic
Party, by Paul AXelrod, both vet
eran leaders of the Revolutionary
Movement in Russia.
This document, which paints in
the true light 1.-The Socialist Soviet
republic of Russia which is so val
iantly upholding the lofty interna-
tional proletarian ideals" Ito use
Messrs. Corners and IIillquitt's eX-
pression), may be supplemented by
the eloquent telegram sent by the
British High commissioner, R. H.