V. I. Lenin

Theses on the Attitude of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party to the War {1}

Practical Section

{2} (1) Complete repudiation of defence of country both from the military
and the political standpoint, and ruthless exposure of the bourgeois lies
behind this slogan.

(2) Unconditional rejection of all war credits and demands both in time
of peace and of war, and with a motivation of principle. Impose the duty of
doing this on the party’s representatives in parliament and in all other
state institutions.

(3) Struggle in all the party’s propaganda and agitation—above all in
practical activity—against all military establishments, and repudiation
of all military duties to the bourgeois class state.

(4) Systematic transition by the party to revolutionary struggle and
revolutionary tactics all along the line, instead of being confined to
reformism in practical activity.

(5) Adoption of the work and activity of Karl Liebknecht and the whole
Spartacus group in
Germany {3} as a model of the only international activity, of real
struggle against the war and all wars, and emulation of their example.

(6) Struggle by means of propaganda, agitation and organisation against
the social-patriots (i.e., “defenders of their country”) and reformists
(i.e., opponents of the immediate application of revolutionary means of
struggle) within the Swiss Socialist Party.

(7) Explaining to the masses that all solemn declarations against
militarism and war inevitably come to empty talk without a complete change
in the party’s structure and activity and without control by the resolute
opponents of social-patriotism and reformism of all the posts in the
socialist-political and also trade union, consumer and all other
working-class organisations.

(8) Propaganda and preparation of a vigorous revolutionary mass
struggle (demonstrations, strikes and so on , depending on the
growth of the overall revolutionary struggle) for the purposes of the
proletarian revolution as the only means of doing away with wars.

(9) Explaining to the masses that in case of necessity they must
themselves set up from below special organisations for such struggle
adapted to the hard conditions of wartime.

(10) Making sure that the party’s revolutionary tasks in the struggle
against the high cost of living, war, etc., are known and clear to every
section of the exploited people outside the party.

(11) Systematic propaganda in this context among young people of
pro-conscription age, and also in the army, etc.

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Notes:
{1}
See present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 149–51.— Ed .

{2}
The Social-Democratic Party of Switzerland (in French and
Italian cantons the party is called the Swiss Socialist Party) was set up
in the 1870s and was a member of the First International. It was
re-established in 1888. Strong influence in the party was enjoyed by the
opportunists, who in the First World War took a social-chauvinist stand. In
the autumn of 1916, the Right wing split away from the party and set up its
own organisation. The party majority headed by R. Grimm took a Centrist,
social-pacifist stand. The Left wing of the party took an internationalist stand, Under the
influence of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, the Loft
wing of the p arty gained in strength. In December 1920, the Left withdrew
from the party and in 1921 united with the Communist Party of Switzerland
(now the Swiss Party of Labour), which was formed in 1919.

p. 382

{3}
The Spartacus group —a revolutionary organisation of German
Left-wing Social-Democrats, formed at the beginning of the First World War
by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Franz Mehring, Clara Zetkin,
J. Marchlewski, L. Jogiches (Tyszka) and W. Pieck. In April 1915, Rosa
Luxemburg and Franz Mehring founded the magazine Die Internationale , which rallied the main forces of German Left-wing
Social-Democrats. On January 1, 1916, an All-German Conference of Left-wing
Social-Democrats was held in Berlin there the group was formalised and
decided to call itself the Internationale group. As its platform,
the conference adopted “Leits\"atze” (Basic Propositions) worked out by
Rosa Luxemburg with the participation of Karl Liebknecht, Franz Mehring and
Clara Zetkin. In 1916, the Internationale group, apart from
political leaflets which it published from 1915, began illegal publication
and circulation of “Political Letters” signed Spartacus (published
regularly until October 1918); then it also began to call itself the
Spartacus group.

The Spartacists conducted revolutionary propaganda in the masses,
organised mass anti-war manifestations, directed strikes and exposed the
imperialist character of the world war and the betrayal of the opportunist
Social-Democratic leaders. However, they made serious mistakes in theory
and policy: they denied the possibility of national liberation wars in the
epoch of imperialism, failed to take a consistent stand on the slogan of
transforming the imperialist war into a civil war, underestimated the role
of the proletarian party as the vanguard of the working class and feared a
resolute break with the opportunists.

In April 1917, the group joined the Centrist Independent
Social-Democratic Party of Germany, retaining its organisational
independence. In November 1918, during the revolution in Germany, the
Spartacus group broke away from the “Independents” and set up the
Spartacus Union, publishing its own programme on December 14, 1918. At
their inaugural congress (December 30, 1918-January 1, 1919) they set up
the Communist Party of Germany. Lenin repeatedly criticised the mistakes of
the German Left-wing Social-Democrats and pointed to the inconsistency of
their stand. At the same time, he put a high value on their revolutionary
activity. He wrote: “The work of the German Spartacus group, which has
carried on systematic revolutionary propaganda in the most difficult
conditions, has really saved the honour of German socialism and the German
proletariat” (see present edition, Vol. 35, p. 369).

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