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CHAPTER III.
The Revolutionary Situation.
Did sincere Socialists stand up for the Raise resolution because they foresaw that the war would create a revolutionary situation? Has the trend of events proved that these Socialists have been wrong?
Cunow, in his pamphlet, Has the Party Collapsed? and in a series of articles, tries to justify his passing over to the bourgeois camp by means of arguing from the above proposition. Most of the Socialist jingoes, led by Kautsky, attempt to reinforce their case by a similar line of reasoning. Cunow contends that the expectation that a revolution would break out proved to be an illusion, and it is not the duty of Marxians to defend illusions. Nevertheless, this adherent of Struve[1] does not say a word about the “illusions” of the men who signed the Basle manifesto; like an “honourable” man he seeks to put the blame on men of the extreme left like Pannehoek and Radek.
Let us examine the argument that the authors of the Basle manifesto sincerely believed in the coming of a revolution, which the actual trend of events did not justify. The Basle manifesto says: (1) That the war will create an “economic and political crisis,” (2) that the workers will regard as a crime the participation in the war and “shooting at one another” to swell the profits of the capitalists and to satisfy the ambitions of dynasties, or to carry out the secret diplomatic treaties. The manifesto further says that the war would provoke “indignation and revolt” amongst the working class, (3) that the Socialists must make use of the crisis and of the mental conditions of the workers indicated to “incite the people” and to hasten the downfall of capitalism, (4) that no Government, without exception, could begin the war without imperilling its position, (5) that all Governments fear the oncoming approach of the proletarian revolution, (6) that the Paris Commune and the Russian revolution of 1905 must be borne in mind by the governments. All these thoughts are perfectly clear, though they contain no guarantee
- ↑ Prof. Strave, a professor of economics at Petrograd and a political opportunist.
