“The transformation of the modern imperialist war into a civil war is the only truly correct proletarian slogan—suggested by the experience of the Commune, enunciated in the Basel Resolution of 1912, and arising from all the conditions of an imperialist war between highly developed bourgeois states”[22].

The civil war to which revolutionary social democracy calls in the present epoch is the struggle of the proletariat, armed in hand, against the bourgeoisie for the expropriation of the capitalist class in the advanced capitalist countries; for a democratic revolution in Russia—democratic republic, an eight‑hour working day, the confiscation of landed estates—; for a republic in backward monarchical countries in general, and so forth.

The extreme hardships inflicted upon the masses by war cannot fail to give rise to revolutionary sentiments and movements—and the slogan of civil war must serve to unify and direct these tendencies.

At present, the organization of the working class lies severely fragmented. Yet the revolutionary crisis is nonetheless maturing. After the war, the ruling classes in every country will redouble their efforts to set back the liberation movement of the proletariat by many decades. Whether the pace of revolutionary development is rapid or the crisis drags on, the task of revolutionary social democracy will be to remain steadfast in its long-term, day‑to‑day work, never neglecting any of the traditional methods of class struggle. Its task will be to channel both parliamentarism and economic struggle against opportunism, in the spirit of the revolutionary struggle of the masses.

As initial steps toward transforming the modern imperialist war into a civil war, we must emphasize: 1) the unconditional rejection of voting for war credits and withdrawal from bourgeois ministries; 2) a complete break with the policy of “national peace” (bloc national, Burgfrieden); 3) the establishment of clandestine organizations everywhere where governments and the bourgeoisie, in imposing martial law, abolish constitutional liberties; 4) the fostering of fraternal bonds among soldiers of warring nations, both in the trenches and across the theaters of war in general; 5) the support of all forms of revolutionary mass uprisings by the proletariat as a whole.