The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-01-08

uary, the DAILY WORKER is running spe
cial Lenin Corner in connection with the Lenin
Campaign of the Communist Party.
The first part of Lenin's lecture on "The
Proletariat and the War was printed in yes
terday's DAILY WORKER. The present in
stallment printed below concludes this lecture
which is taken from Lenns Imperialist War
the Struggle Against Social Chauvinism and
Social Pacifsm, constituting Vol XVIII of his
collected works. English edition by Interna.
tional Publshers.)
The Proletariat and the War. lecture Deliv-
cred Oct. Ia, 1914. Newspaper report.
(Concusion)
THE end of the nineteenth and the beginning
of the twentieth century are characterized
by imperialist politics.
Imperialism is a state of capitalism, when,
having fulfilled all that is possible for it. cap
italism makes turn towards decay. This
is different epoch not in the consciousness
of the Socialists but in social relations as they
exist. The struggle is going on for the dis
tribution of the remaining pieces of territory
This is the last historic task of capitalism. How
long this epoch will last, we cannot say. There
may be several such wars. We must, how
ever, understand clearly that those wars are
not the same wars conducted earlier, and
that accordingly, the tasks confronting the So
cialists are also different.
An entirely new type of organisation may be
required for the proletarian party to solve those
new problems. In his pamphlet Der Veg EUR
Macht (The Road to Power), Kautsky, care
fully analyzing economic phenomena and draw
ing conclusions from them with extreme eau
tion, has pointed out that we are entering a
Ito 4bo 81
development.
1t is very difficult to say at present what
should be the new form of organization to fit
that new phase. It is clear, however, that in
view of the new tasks, the proetarians will
have to create new organizations or change
the old The more foolish is the fear of dis
rupting the old organization, so strkngly man.
Hested among the German Social Democrats
the more absurd is this legalism at any price
We know that the Petrograd Committee has
issued an illegal leaflet against the war. The
same was done by the Caucasian and a few
other Russian organizations. There is no doubt
that this can be done also abroad without sever
ing connections.
Legality is, of course, very precious thing,
and it is not in vain that Engels said, "Messrs.
Bourgeois, be the first to violate your legalty!"
The things happening now may teach the Ger
man Social-Democrats lesson, for it is fact
that the government, which has always prded
itself on lawfulness, has violated it without COM
junction all along the line. In this respect, the
brutal order of the Prussian commandment which
he forced the Vorwarts (Forward) to print on
its front page may prove useful. The Vorwarts
itself, however, having under threat of suspen-
sion renowned the class struggle, and having
promised not to mention it until the end of the
war, has committed suicide. 1t has died, to use
the correct expression of the Paris Goos,
which at present is the best Socialist paper in
Europe. The more often and the more violently
l used to disagree with Martov, the more reso-
lutely must say that this writer is doing now
what Social-Democrat ought to do. He crit-
cises his government, he unmasks his bour-
geoisie, he abuses his ministers. Socialists, how
ever who, having disarmed in relation to their
own government, occupy themselves in unmask-
ing and putting to stame the ministers and rul-
ing classes of another country, play the part of
bourgeois writers. effectively, Sudekum him
self plays the part of an agent of the German
government in the same way others play
that part in relation to the Franco Russian al
lies.
Socialists who have not realized that this war
is an imperialist war, who do not look upon it
historically, will not understand anything in it.
Such Socialists apt to think of it in a child
lshly naive manner assuming, for instance,
that in the dark of night one fellow has seized
the other by the throat and the neighbors have
either to save the victim of the assault or like
towards, hide from the fray behind locked
doors" (Plekhanovs expression).
Let US not allow ourselves to be fooled let
us not allow the bourgeois counsellors to ex-
plain the war so simply as to say that people
lived in peace, but one attacked another and
the other had to defend himself.
Comrade Lenin then reads an excerpt from
Luzzatti's article which was published in an
Italian paper. In that article the Italian states
man rejoices over the fact that the victor in
the present war proved to be the fatherland
the idea of the fatherland. Luzzatti says: 1--WE
must remember Cicero's saying that civil war
is the greatest Disaster" -
This Lenin continues is what the bourgeois
have already gained; this is what excites, what
gladdens them most; this is what they have
spent heap of money and effort for. They
try to assure US that this is the same old time
honored national war.
But this is not true. The historic era of ma
tional wars is past. We are now confronted
with an imperialst war, and it is the task of
Socialists to turn the national" war into civil
war.
We have all anticipated, we have all been
preparing for this imperiaist war. This being
the case, it is unimportant who has made the
attack. Everybody was preparing for the war;
the attack was made by the one who considered
it most suspicious for himself at given mo-
ment.