The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-06
Assails Bolshevik Revolution for Occurring
Without Benefit of Second international

Thus the differing war atti-
tudes of the socialists OF the Varl
Gus countries is to be accounted
for not on theological GROUNDS,
not on the theory that one part
of the socialist international has
remained true to its principles,
while another large portion mas
betrayed them over night, but by
the much simpler explanation
that the socialists of each country
have Welded to the inexorable
necessities of the situation, and
to the extent exacted by these
necessities.
physically the socialist inter
national lies bleeding at the feet
of the N--loch of capitalist mil
itarism, but morally and spiritu-
ally 1t remains unscathed.
Thus we see that Hillquit has not
recently become a traitor to the
working class, defender of imperi-
alism who tries to conceal his infamy
under the cloak of Marxism. He
never was a Marxist. Never, in all
his voluminous writings, has he pro-
duced a MARKHAM document. Indeed
he is eminently fit, by nature and
training, to associate with Thomas
Nixon Carver and Harold j. Laski
is defaming Marxism. So far as l
know, in all the apologize literature
of the second international which
tries to explain away the treachery
of the socialists who supported their
own capitalist governments, Hillquit
is the only one who claimed that the
international of pre-war days had
not suffered Spiritually and moral
ly."
Opportunism and Jingoism.
1t was Lenin, the orthodox Marx
list, who, more than any other social
list, exposed the real underlying
causes of the monstrous perfidy of
the socialist jingoes. He proved con-
clusively that the comrades of Hill
quit followed a political line that led
directly to the camp of the imperial
lists. In Chapter VIII of his work
1.-THE Collapse of the Second Inter-
national" Lenin dealt with this ques-
ton as follows:
"Opportunism means the sur
render of the basic interests of
the masses to the temporary in
terests of a small minority of the
workers, or in other words, it
means the union of portion of
the workers with the bourgeoisie
in opposition to the mass OF the
proletariat. The war renders such
union, from the opportunist
standpoint, Imperative and plain
" visible Opportunism, which
took decades to develop, owes it's
birth to the peculiarities of that
period in the development of cap
italism, during comparatively
peaceful and cultural existence,
when, one section of privileged
workers were rendered 'bourge-
dis, because a few crumbs of the
profits derived from the national
capital saved them from the acute
misery, the sufferings and "ovn-
lutionary moods of the destitute
masses whose ruin was being
wrought To defend and to con-
solidate the privileged position of
the higher middle-class' and of
the aristocracy (and bureaucracy
of the working class-this is the
natural continuation of the petty
bourge oisie- opportunist aspira-
lions of this privileged section.
and of its tactics during the war;
this is the economic basis of
socialist Imperialism of our day"
This identical condition explains
also why Hillquit became the apo
logist for those whom Lenin desig-
mated "the contemplate scoundrels
of apostacy."
Against Hillquit's position on a
defensive war in which socialists are
impelled "by history" to participate,
the Marxist, the feminist, declares
that it is the imperative duty of the
revolutionary party to strive with
every means at hand to bring about
the defeat of the government of the
country in which one flights against
capitalism, thus bringing about a
situation wherein the governmental
power and the ruling class will be-
come so weakened that the path to
the seizure Of power can be traversed
by the batallions of the proletariat.