Date: 1915
Source: ru:LS/v2

Source: LS vol II

JE IIlfII. ---- LETTER A.
COLLOPTAI.

a) Milwaukee— a city in the United States, located in the state of Wisconsin.
a) See also p|>m\i. 1, referring to Letter 28.
4)
“People’s Gazette” was a newspaper published by the German Federation of the Socialist Party of America.
*) This refers to the German edition of the pamphlet “Socialism and War.”
®) R. S. I). — The Polish Social-Democratic Party.
7) The Pro-niora whom Vladimir Ilyich mentions was issued as the 1st § of the “International Flying Leaf” (Inlcruationales FlugblalLAs i),
bearing the content outlined by Vladimir Ilyich.
8) “Appeal to Reason” was a popular newspaper published by the Socialist Party of America (S. P.).
9) Eugene Debs was one of the “left-wing” leaders of the Socialist Party of America (Socialist Party).
lü) Hillquint—leader of the opportunist faction within the American Socialist Party, author of works on the history of the labor movement in America, a socialist–shovinist.
p) The sender’s address is appended beneath the signature: Ulianow Seiden-
v eg 4-a, Bern.

In mid-November, Vladimir Ilyich received from America a leaflet published
by the League
of Socialist Propaganda

in America— Socialist
Propaganda Leatje.
In response to this leaflet, which revealed the internationalist orientation of the aforementioned League,
Ilyich sent an extensive letter in English to the League’s secretary, W. Fitzgerald, attaching to it the “International Flying Leaf”
and the German translation of the pamphlet “Socialism and War.”
The letter was written between November 9th and 22nd, 1915. In Vladimir Ilyich’s papers, we have preserved a draft of this letter—though, unfortunately, the first four pages are missing.
On the English manuscript penned by Vladimir Ilyich, there are but a few stylistic corrections made in the hand of Comrade Inessa Armand. Here, we present an accurate translation of the surviving English text.
30.
Letter to the League of Socialist Propaganda in America.
[November 1915] “…the opportunists who must be expelled from
the party—especially now, after their treacherous conduct during
the war.
If, in every given crisis, a small group—currently our Central Committee represents but a small
group—could act to steer the masses toward revolution, that would be most beneficial.
In all crises, the masses cannot act directly; the masses require the support of small groups emanating from the central organs of our party.
From the very outset of the war, beginning in September 1914, our Central Committee urged the masses not to
accept the lies about a “defensive war,” to break with the compromisers and with the so‑called “Jingo‑socialists” (those whom we
had long referred to as “socialists” who now stood behind the defensive
war effort).
We believe that these centralist measures adopted by our Central Committee were both useful and necessary.
We agree with you that we must oppose craft unions and advocate for industrial unions—that is, for large, centralized trade unions, and for the most active participation of all party members in economic struggle and in all trade union and cooperative organizations of the working class.
But figures like Mr. Legin *) in Germany and Mr. Gom-

LE1SH11.---Letter to the League of Socialist Propaganda in America. 257
pers 2) in C. III. A., we regard as bourgeois—and their politics are not socialist politics, but rather the nationalist politics of the middle class.
Messrs. Loggin, Gomiers, and others like them do not represent the working class; they represent only the aristocracy
and the bureaucracy of the working class.
We fully sympathize with your call for a mass “uprising” of workers.
German revolutionaries and internationalist socialists likewise demand this.
In our press, we strive to clarify more precisely what exactly should be understood
by “political mass action”—for example, political strikes (quite common in Russia), street demonstrations, and civil war, which is being prepared by the ongoing
imperialist, international war.
We do not preach alliance with the contemporary (predominant within the Second International) socialist parties. On the contrary, we insist on breaking with the compromisers. War is the best, most vivid lesson.
In every country, the compromisers— their leaders, their most influential newspapers and journals—stand behind
the war; in other words, they have in fact entered into an alliance with
their own national bourgeoisie (the middle class, the capitalists) against the proletarian masses. You point out that in America, too, there are
socialists who advocate for a defensive
war.
We are convinced that an alliance with such people is a crime.
It is an alliance with the national middle class and the capitalists—and a rupture with the international revolutionary working class.
We, however, stand for breaking with nationalist compromisers and for
alliance with international revolutionary Marxists and with the working-class parties
that embody the spirit of international revolution.
We have never opposed, in our press, the merger of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party (SP and SLP) in America.
We have always referred to the letters of Marx and Engels (especially
to Zorge, an active member of the American socialist movement), where both condemned the sectarian character of the SLP.
We fully agree with your critique of the old Interna-
tional. We took part in the Zimmerwald Conference (Switzerland, 5–8 September 1915).
There, we formed the left wing and submitted our resolution and draft manifesto.
We have just published these documents in Germany, and I am sending them to you
along with the German translation of our pamphlet “Socialism