"The Bund was also offered the opportunity to send its representative to the Organizational Committee, but for reasons unknown to us, the Bund did not respond to our proposal. We hope that these reasons were purely accidental, and the Bund will not delay in sending its representative."

The Bund itself can plainly see, of course, that its statement flies in the face of all the rules of comradely conduct of common work, and it attempts to resort to the following, altogether feeble, justification: "Not having had the opportunity to express our views on the tasks of the forthcoming congress either through personal participation in the conference or through participation in editing the 'Notice,' we were forced to at least to some degree fill this gap in the present statement." One may ask: does the Bund seriously expect to convince anyone that it "did not have the opportunity" to send a letter to the OC? or to send a letter to the St. Petersburg Committee? to the organization "Iskra"{52}, to the "Southern Worker"{53}? And was it also impossible to send one of its delegates to one of these organizations? Did the Bund attempt even one of these "impossibly" difficult steps, especially, probably, difficult for such a feeble, inexperienced organization lacking all connections, as the Bund?

Stop playing hide-and-seek, gentlemen! This is both foolish and unworthy. You made a separate statement because you wanted to make a separate statement. And you wanted to make a separate statement in order immediately to demonstrate and carry through your decision to place relations with your Russian comrades on new ground: not to enter the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party on the basis of the 1898 statute, but to be in a federative union with it{54}. Instead of discussing this question thoroughly and comprehensively before the entire congress, as we desired to do—we who had refrained for a very long time from continuing the polemic we had begun on the question of federalism and nationality{55}—as, undoubtedly, all or the overwhelming majority of Russian comrades desired to do—instead of this, you disrupted joint discussion. You did not come forward as a comrade of Petersburg, the South, "Iskra," wishing to discuss together with them (both before the congress and at the congress) the best form of relations—you came forward directly as a faction, standing apart from all members of the RSDWP and laying down your conditions to the entire party.

You cannot force affection, says the Russian proverb. If the Bund does not wish to remain in that closest connection with the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, which the 1898 congress correctly outlined, then, of course, it will not remain in the old relations. We do not deny its "right" to advance its opinion and its will (we generally do not resort, without extreme necessity, to talk of "rights" in revolutionary work). But we deeply regret that the Bund lost all sense of tact in advancing its opinion through a separate public statement at precisely the time when it was invited to join a general organization (the OC), one that had expressed no categorical opinion beforehand on this question and was convening the congress precisely to discuss all and every opinion.

The Bund sought to provoke those who see the question differently into making an immediate statement of their opinion. Well then! We shall not refuse to do so. We shall tell the Russian proletariat and specifically repeat to the Jewish proletariat that the present leaders of the Bund are making a serious political error, which will undoubtedly be corrected by time, by experience, by the growth of the movement. Once the Bund supported "economism," contributed to a split abroad, adopted resolutions that economic struggle is the best means of political agitation. We opposed this and struggled against it. And the struggle helped correct the old errors, of which now, probably, not a trace remains. We struggled against terrorist enthusiasms, which have apparently passed even much more quickly. We are confident that nationalistic enthusiasms too will pass. The Jewish proletariat will understand, in the end, that the closest unity with the Russian in a single party is required by its most vital interests, that it is the height of unreason to predetermine in advance whether the evolution of the Jews in a free Russia will differ from their evolution in free Europe, that the Bund should not go beyond demanding (within the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party) that full autonomy in matters concerning the Jewish proletariat, which was fully recognized by the 1898 congress and has never been denied by anyone.

"We are confident," says the Bund's CC, "that had the initiators of the conference exerted somewhat more effort, these accidental reasons could not have prevented us from responding…". We would ask any impartial person: if two comrades, intending to meet at the OC, agree with one voice that the reasons which prevented the meeting were "purely accidental," is it fitting, is it proper to raise a public polemic about who is more to blame for not appearing? For our part, we note that we have long since expressed (certainly not in print, but in a letter) regret about the Bund's absence, and we were informed that the Bund was invited twice: first by letter and, second, through personal notification via the …sky committee of the Bund.

A delegate appeared almost a month after the conference, complains the Bund. Yes, this is a terrible crime, worthy, of course, of publication, since it especially vividly highlights the punctuality of the Bund, which did not manage to send a delegate even two months later!

The delegate "did not fulfill his promise" to send the "Notice" of the OC in manuscript or in print, but necessarily before distribution… We advise our Russian comrades not to speak with certain people without keeping minutes. We, too, had a promise from the organization "Iskra" to send us both manuscript and printed copies of the "Notice," but nonetheless we received no manuscript at all, and saw the printed copy much later than members of organizations having no relations with the organization "Iskra". Let the Bundists decide whether it would have been proper on our part, had we begun to publicly accuse the organization "Iskra" of breaking its promise? The OC delegate promised the Bund's CC to immediately write to the comrade in charge of printing the "Notice" about the delay in this printing: this was the actual promise (insofar as we can judge from our information). It was fulfilled, but it turned out to be already impossible to delay the printing, because there was no time left to contact the printing works.

Let us summarize: the initiators of the OC wrote letters, made communications personally through the …sky committee, sent a delegate to the Bund's CC, while the Bund for months did not send a single letter, not to mention sending a delegate! And the Bund comes forward in print with accusations! And the Bund's CC has the strange audacity to assure us that the initiators of the conference behaved "strangely," that their actions stand in sharp contradiction to their purpose, that they displayed "haste" (the Bund's CC, on the contrary, accuses them of slowness!), that they want to "create the impression" that the Bund "behaved indifferently"!!

We have a few more words to say regarding the accusation against the OC that it did not draw the "only correct conclusion," which consists in the following: "Since the party does not in fact exist, the forthcoming congress must have the character of a constituent congress, and therefore the right of participation in it should belong to all existing Social-Democratic organizations in Russia of both the Russian and all other nationalities." The Bund attempts to evade the uncomfortable fact that, lacking a single center, the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party exists in a series of committees and bodies, has a "Manifesto" and resolutions of the first congress, at which, among other things, people acting in the name of the Jewish proletariat had not yet succumbed to economic, terrorist, and nationalist vacillations. By formally advancing the "rights" of "all" nationalities to establish the long-since established Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, the Bund vividly confirms that it is precisely over the question of the notorious "federation" that it raised all this history. But it is not for the Bund to speak of this question, and it is not "rights" that should be the subject of discussion among serious revolutionaries. That what is on the agenda is the consolidation and unification of the main nucleus of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party—this is known to all. One cannot but sympathize with the representation at the congress of "all" nationalities, but one cannot forget that the expansion of the nucleus or union of it with other organizations can be thought of only after the completion of the formation (or, at the least, after the undoubted strengthening) of this nucleus. As long as we ourselves have not become organizationally united and have not taken our stand firmly on the correct path, union with us will give nothing to "all other" nationalities! And the decision of the question of the possibility (not the "right," gentlemen!) of representation at our congress of "all other" nationalities depends on a whole series of tactical and organizational steps by the OC and Russian committees, depends, in a word, on the success of the OC's activity. And that the Bund, from the very beginning, sought to throw a wrench into the works of the OC—this is a historical fact.

"Iskra" No. 33, February 1, 1903

Printed from the text of the newspaper "Iskra"