V. I.

Lenin

“ The inane idea of the necessity of forming an
Interna-tional of ‘internationalist Social-Democrats’ .., [of]
oppo-sition elements picked at random from all the socialist parties
.... The International can be restored only from the same elements it has
consisted of till now .... A restored International will not be the
‘third’ in succession, as is desired by a handful of sectarians
and experts in the business of arranging splits, but the selfsame Second
International, which has not died, but has been temporarily paralysed by a
world disaster....”

This is what Mr. V. Kosovsky writes in issue No. 8 of the Bund’s
Information Bulletin. We are deeply thankful for the frankness
shown by this Bundist, who is not the brightest of the lot. This is not the
first time he has de-fended opportunism with an outspokenness that must be
displeasing to the Bund’s diplomatists. This time again, he will be
helping the struggle against opportunism, by revealing to the workers how
hopelessly far the Bund stands from proletarian socialism. Mr. V. Kosovsky
does not see the link between opportunism and social-chauvinism. To discern
that link, one must be able to ask oneself the follow-ing questions: what
are the fundamental ideas in the two currents? How has opportunism developed
in Europe during the last few decades? What is the attitude towards
social-chauvinism revealed by the opportunist and the revolutionary wing
in,a number of European countries, as, for instance, in Russia, Germany,
Belgium, France, Britain, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Holland, and
Bulgaria?

Has Mr. V. Kosovsky given thought to this? If he at-tempted to reply to
at least the first question, he would soon see his mistake.

Incidentally,, in issue No. 7 of the Information Bulletin
Mr. V. Kosovsky has displayed a Germanophile chauvinism, for, while accusing
the French Social-Democrats, he defends the German Social-Democrats’
voting for war credits. A certain W. (writing in issue No. 8, pp. 11-12)
defends Mr. V. Kosovsky against the accusation of chau-vinism, asserting
that there can be no Gerrnanophile chau-vinism in an organisation that
operates in Russia. Perhaps Mr. V. Kosovsky will explain to Mr. W. why it is
that a Ukrainian or a Polish bourgeois in Russia, a Danish or an Alsatian
bourgeois in France, or an Irish bourgeois in Britain often reveals a
chauvinism hostile to the nations that oppress them.

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