The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-05

Shortly before the outbreak of
the world war in 1914 it had been
declared to the world by the recog-
nized leaders of the II International
that the proletariat would reply to
imperialist war by proletarian revo-
luton. In famous speech by Au-
gust Bebel during the conflict in
Morocco it was said: Behind the
great world war stands the great
world revolution. The twilight of
the gods of the bourgeois system
is approaching. .one already per
ceives the knell of doom over the po-
litical and social order of the bour-
geoisie."
And Otto Bauer wrote literally as
follows in his National Question
in 1908: mo doubt, the future i'm
perialist war will entail the revo-
lutionary cataclysm. The world ca
tastrophe of imperialism has GER
tainly introduced the beginning of
the world Socialist revolution" Otto
Bauer was not mistaken. The i'm
perialist world war did introduce
the beginning of the world Socialist
revolution. Yet Otto Bauer himself,
and nearly all the other leaders of
the II International, when this his
toric hour was struck, were not found
in the camp of the revolution, but
in the camp of the counter-revolu-
ton.
These leaders had promised-and
solemnly pledged themselves once
again in the famous Basic Manifesto
that the II International would
place itself at the head of the revo-
luton caused by the war. But since
this did not happen, since the II In
ternational turned out miserable
bankrupt, history was bound to raise
another world organization which
would take upon itself to carry out
the inevitable. This organization
was the Comintern.
T. U. HegemOny in USSR.
The hegemony of the international
labor movement which had origin
ally belonged to England, and had
subsequently gone over to France,
was unquestionably in the hands of
Germany, i.e., of the German social
democracy during the epoch of the
II International. With the triumph
of the Russian revolution and the
formation of the Comintern the hege-
mony of the international labor
movement went over to Russia-"of
course, only for a short period
(Lenin). When the proletarian revo-
luton will win in the leading coun-
tries of the world, Russia will be-
come a backward Soviet country
among number of other, more de-
veloped Soviet cuontries.
In March 1919 the Comintern was
formed. A few months after that
historic event, in one Of his most
remarkable and inspired speeches
lat the Congress of Communist or
CARNATIONS of the peoples of the
East), Lenin said: Needless to say,
the final victory can be won only
by the proletariat Of all the adj
vanced countries together, and we,
the Russians, are starting the work
which will be consolidated later on
by the German, French, or English
proletariat; nevertheless we see that
they will not be victorious without
the help of the toiling masses Of
the oppressed colonial peoples, and
in the first place, of the peoples Of
the East. We should be aware Of
the fact that Single vanguard can
not accomplish the transition to
Communism" (Lenin's Works, Vol
XVI, p. 1907
East in World Revolution.
ut becomes quite clear" said
Lenin in the same speech that the
Socialist revolution, which is ap-
preaching throughout the world, will
under no circumstances be limited to
the victory of the proletariat in each
country over its respective bour-
geoisie. 4. The Socialist revolution
will not be only and chiefly the