âTHE I.S.D AND THE INTERNATIONALE GROUPâ
Bremer BÃ¼rger-Zeitung
, 1916, No. 139, June 16, 1916. â
International Socialists of Germany and the Internationale Group
â.
[1]
Comrade Knief, now on holiday, writes to us:
âThe
Bremer BÃ¼rger-Zeitung
âs editorial comment, the day before yesterday, on the statement of the
Internationale
group might give rise to erroneous views on the relation between the
International Socialists of Germany
(I.S.D.) and the
Internationale
group.â
The relation between these groups has been repeatedly discussed on our pages, particularly in a leading article in No. 77 (of March 31), from which we quote:
âThe opposition consists of two fundamentally different groups: the
Party Centre
(Kautsky ... HaaseâLedebour ...
Neue Zeit
...
Leipziger Volkszeitung, VorwÃ¤rts
) ... and the
radical Left
, to which belong ... the I.S.D. and the
Internationale
group ... (
Lichtstrahlen, Bremer BÃ¼rger-Zeitung
, the Braunschweig
Volksfreund, Sozial-Demokrat
(Stuttgart)), and also, although not quite consistently, some Rhenish press organs.â
The Braunschweig
Volksfreund
was Left-radical under Thalheimerâs editorshipânow, however, with
Wesemeyer
as editor it ârepresents the standpoint of the Centreâ.
The
Bremer BÃ¼rger-Zeitung
No. 74 (March 28) published (in the absence of Henke) a comment from the Braunschweig
Volksfreund
to the effect that that newspaper supported (at that time) the attitude of the
Internationale
group (and regarded the âguiding theses of the âSpartacus lettersââ as its âtactical and theoretical programmeâ)...
âHence the I.S.D. and the
Internationale
group are not identical. Both represent the radical Left and on tactical issues are strongly opposed to the Party Centre and the Social-Democratic Labour Commonwealth. While, however, the I.S.D. adopted this position from the outset, the
Internationale
group has only gradually broken away from the opposition grouped around Ledebour-Haase. At the time, the
Bremer BÃ¼rger-Zeitung
greeted this process as a further step towards clarification (No. 74, March 28).... Since then, in its âSpartacus lettersâ, the Internationale group has sharply and vigorously fought the Social-Democratic Labour Commonwealthâ.
(Quoted from the last âSpartacus letterâ.)
âIn this attitude to private property [the private
property of the Social-Democratic Labour Common-
wealth??], the I.S.D. and the
Internationale
group,
as already stated, are in full agreement, although
they differ on many other issues.â
N.B.
Both
groups work â
within the framework
of the present organisationâ âas long as this is not made impossible by the tyranny of the Party bureaucracyâ....
All this is important (he writes), for people often make the mistake of âtrying to erase the line of division between the Centre and radical Leftâ....
âHow far the two groups will move towards separate organisational existence depends entirely on the development of inner-Party relations. In any case, in the interests of clarity it is to be welcomed that they should be distinguished also externally, by their names.â (End.)
Johann Knief