Dear Comrades!

In your letter of February 6, you propose to us a plan for the struggle against "official social-patriotism" in connection with the projected London Conference of socialists from the "allied countries" of the Entente. As you can see, of course, from our publication "Sotsial-Demokrat," we stand on the position of this struggle in general and are conducting it. Therefore, we are very pleased with your appeal and gladly accept your proposal to discuss a plan for joint action.

The conference, which was reportedly scheduled for February 15 (we have not received any documents about it), may be postponed until February 25 or later (judging by the letter from Huysmans, who reported on the meeting of the Executive Commission on February 20 and on the plan for personal negotiations between members (secretary) of the Executive Commission with socialists from France, England, and Russia). It is also possible that the conference is planned not for official members of the ISB, but as a private meeting of certain "prominent" socialists.

Therefore, the opposition to "official social-patriotism" with a "clear, revolutionary, and internationalist" point of view, about which you write and to which we fully sympathize, must be prepared for all possible cases (both for the case of a conference of official party representatives and for the case of a private meeting in all its forms, and for February 15, and for a later time).

On our part, we propose, in response to your desire, the following draft declaration containing such an opposition (in order to read and print this declaration):

"The undersigned representatives of social-democratic organizations of Russia (England, etc.) proceed from the conviction

EDITORIAL OF "NAZHSHE SLOVO". FEBRUARY 9, 1915 that the present war is not only on the part of Germany and Austria-Hungary, but also on the part of England and France (acting in alliance with tsarism), an imperialist war, i.e., a war of the era of the last stage of capitalist development, an era when bourgeois states within national boundaries have outlived their time, a war aimed exclusively at the seizure of colonies, plundering of competing countries, and weakening of the proletarian movement by inciting the workers of one country against the workers of another.

Therefore, the unconditional duty of the socialists of all warring countries is the immediate and decisive implementation of the Basel resolution, namely:

1) breaking up the national blocs and Burgfrieden* in all countries;

2) calling upon the workers of all warring countries to engage in energetic class struggle, both economic and political, against the bourgeoisie of their own country, a bourgeoisie that is making unheard-of profits from military supplies and using the support of military authorities to silence the workers and intensify their oppression;

3) resolute condemnation of any voting for war credits;

4) withdrawal from bourgeois ministries in Belgium and France and recognizing entry into ministries and voting for credits as the same betrayal of socialism as the entire behavior of German and Austrian social democrats;

5) immediately extending a hand to internationalist elements of German social democracy, who refuse to vote for war credits, and forming an international committee with them to agitate for the cessation of war not in the spirit of pacifists, Christians, and petty-bourgeois democrats, but in an inseparable connection with the preaching and organization of mass revolutionary actions of the proletariat of each country against the governments and bourgeoisie of their own country;

6) supporting all attempts at rapprochement and fraternization among socialists in the army and trenches of the warring

* - civil peace. Ed.

countries, in spite of prohibitions by military authorities in England, Germany, etc.

7) calling upon socialist women in the warring countries to intensify agitation in the above-mentioned direction;

8) calling for support by the entire international proletariat of the struggle against tsarism and those social-democratic deputies of Russia who not only refused to vote for credits but also did not stop before the danger of persecution, carrying out their socialist work in the spirit of international revolutionary social democracy."

***

As for some social-democratic writers in Russia who have come out in defense of official social-patriotism (such as Plekhanov, Alexinsky, Maslov, etc.), the undersigned disclaim all responsibility for their statements, resolutely protest against them, and declare that, according to all available data, the social-democratic workers of Russia do not hold this view.

It goes without saying that our official representative in the ISB, Comrade Litvinov (address*. We are sending him your letter and a copy of our reply to you. Please address all urgent matters directly to him) independently decides on the issues of certain specific amendments, individual steps in negotiations, etc. - we can only state our full solidarity with this comrade on all essential matters.

Regarding the OC and the Bund, which have official representation in the ISB, we have grounds to fear that they stand for "official social-patriotism" (in its Francophile, Germanophile, or reconciling these two tendencies form).

In any case, we will be very pleased if you do not refuse to inform us of your response (your amendments, your

* The address of M. M. Litvinov is not provided in the manuscript. Ed.

To A. G. SHLIAPNIKOV. FEBRUARY 11, 1915 counter-proposal for the declaration, etc.), as well as the response of those organizations (OC, Bund, etc.) to which you have and will appeal.

With comradely greetings.

Lenin

My address:*