V. I.

Lenin

British and German Workers Demonstrate for Peace [1]

As is well known, in Britain and Germany a chauvinist campaign
has long been conducted by the bourgeois press, especially the gutter press, in
which these countries are in cited against each other. Competition in the world
market between British and German capitalists is becoming more and more
bitter. Britain’s former supremacy and her undivided ascendancy in the
world market, have become a thing of the past. Germany is one of the capitalist
countries that are developing particularly rapidly, and her manufactures are
seeking markets abroad on an ever-growing scale. The struggle for colonies and
the conflict of commercial interests have in capitalist society become one of
the main causes of war. It is therefore not surprising that the capitalists of
both countries consider war between Britain and Germany inevitable, and the
military men on both sides deem it quite desirable. The British jingoes want to
undermine the strength of a dangerous rival by smashing Germany’s sea
power while it is still immeasurably weaker than Britain’s. The German Junkers
and generals, headed by that Bourbon, Wilhelm II, are spoiling for a fight with
Britain, hoping to be able to use their numerical superiority in land forces,
and hoping that the clamour of military victories will stifle the growing
discontent of the working masses and prevent the aggravation of the class
struggle in Germany.

The British and German workers decided to come out publicly against the growing
war danger. For a long time the labour press in both countries had been waging
an unremitting struggle against chauvinism and militarism. But what was
required now was some more imposing expression of the will of the working class
than through the organs of the press. The British workers decided to send a
delegation to Berlin to attend a grand demonstration that would declare the joint determination of the proletariat of both countries to wage war on war.

The demonstration took place in Berlin on Sunday, September 20 (7, old
style). This time the British workers’ representatives were able to address the
proletariat of Berlin without let or hindrance. Two years before, when J. Jaurès
had wanted to speak to the German workers on behalf of the French working class
at a Social-Democratic mass meeting in Berlin to protest against the bourgeois
jingoes, the German Government banned him. This time it did not venture to
eject the delegates of the British proletariat.

A mammoth rally of working men was held in one of Berlin’s biggest
halls. About 5,000 people immediately packed the place, and an overflow of many
thousands occupied the surrounding grounds and the street. Stewards wearing red
armbands kept order. Comrade Legien, the well-known leader of the German trade
unions (called “free”, i. e., actually Social-Democratic unions),
greeted the British delegation on behalf of the entire politically and
industrially organised working class of Germany. He said that fifty years ago
French and British workers had demonstrated on behalf of peace. At that time
those pioneer socialists were not backed by the organised masses. Today Britain
and Germany together had an army of 4 1/3 million organised workers. It was on
behalf of this army that the British delegates and the Berlin rally now spoke,
declaring that the decision of war or peace lay in the hands of the working
class.

In his speech in reply, the British workers’ delegate Maddison condemned the
jingo slander campaign conducted by the bourgeoisie, and handed over an Address
from the Workers of Britain to the Workers of Germany, signed by 3,000
workmen. Among the signatories, he said, were representatives of both trends in
the British labour movement (i.e., both Social-Democrats and adherents of the
Independent Labour Party, who do not yet hold any consistent socialist point of
view). The Address pointed out that wars serve the interests of the propertied
classes. The masses of the workers bear all the burdens of war. The propertied
classes derive benefit from national calamities. Let the workers unite to fight
militarism, to ensure peace!

After other British delegates and a representative of the German
Social-Democratic Party, Richard Fischer, had spoken, the meeting closed with
the unanimous adoption of a resolution branding the “selfish and
short-sighted policy of the ruling and exploiting classes” and expressing
readiness to act in accordance with the resolution of the International Congress
in Stuttgart, i. e., to fight war by all ways and means. The meeting broke up in
an orderly manner amidst the singing of the workers’
Marseillaise . There were no street demonstrations. The Berlin police
and local military authorities were disappointed. It is characteristic of the
regime in Germany that the most peaceful demonstration of the workers had to
have a police and military demonstration to accompany it. The Berlin garrison
was mobilised. Detachments of troops were stationed in different parts of the
city in accordance with a strict plan, mostly in such a way that their
hiding-places and numbers could not be easily detected. Police units patrolled
the streets and squares in the vicinity of the meeting hail, particularly the
road leading from there to the royal palace. The latter was ringed with police
in plain clothes and troops concealed in house yards. An intricate system of
police pickets was organised; groups of policemen loitered at street corners;
police officers were detailed to all “important” spots; police
cyclists acted as scouts and kept the military authorities informed on every
step the “enemy” made; bridges and canal crossings were put under
triple guard. “They stood watch over the threatened monarchy,”
sarcastically wrote

Vorwärts , [2] commenting on all these measures taken by the government of Wilhelm II.

It was a rehearsal, we add for our part. Wilhelm II and the German bourgeoisie
were rehearsing military combat with an insurgent proletariat. Such rehearsals
are undoubtedly and in any case useful to both the masses of workers and to the
soldiers. Ca ira (it will be a success!), as the French workers’ song
says. Repeated rehearsals are leading, maybe very slowly as yet, but
very surely, to the great historical climax.

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Notes:
[1]
This article was written by Lenin in connection with a workers’ meeting
held in Berlin on September 7(20), 1908, to protest against the growing
menace of war. The article was intended for issue No. 36 of the newspaper
Proletary , but was not published.

[2]
Vorwärts —the central organ of the German
Social-Democrats. It began to appear in 1876 and was edited, among others,
by Wilhelm Liebknecht. Engels made use of its columns for fighting all
manifestations of opportunism. From the middle of the nineties, after the
death of Engels, Vorwärts began regularly to carry articles
of the opportunists, who predominated in German Social-Democracy and in the
Second International.