From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 3 No. 32 [14], 12 April 1923, pp. 255–256.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2021). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
The representatives of the socialist parties of the Entente countries came to Berlin to consult with their German colleagues of the International the most burning political questions of the moment. In order to render the negotiations more productive, the socialists of the Entente first held a consultation in Paris, amongst themselves, and then they prepared to negotiate with the Germans. From this we may see that the old military-diplomatic boundaries still remain: The French, Belgian, and English social democrats do not negotiate with German social democrats as if they were colleagues and comrades of the same International, but as if they were the representatives of enemy powers, and as if they considered them to blame for the world conflict.
What are the questions that interest the representatives of Entente socialism? At the Paris consultation it was resolved to negotiate with the German social democrats on the reparation question We might assume that the occupation of the Ruhr area by French troops, with its attendant enormous injury to German economic life, would have induced these champions of justice toi demand from the French and Belgian governments reparation for the damage caused by the rapacious invasion of the Ruhr valley. But we should only subject ourselves to severe disappointment if we imagined for a moment that the reparation socialists are capable of seeing things otherwise than through Entente spectacles. For them there exists solely the damage done in their own countries. Nothing [text missing] interest to these gentlemen.
Thus these gentlemen, who can [illegible] for some unknown reason, journey to Germany at the moment when Poincaré has planted his iron heel on the breast of the German people, and put to their “comrades” and “colleagues” of the Second and Amsterdam Internationals the questions; Are you prepared to pay for the war losses and war damage? How much will you pay? How long will the payments be continued and what guarantee can you give that these moneys will really be paid? We might say that these amiable questions have already been put by Poincaré to Cuno, by Loucheur to Stinnes, and that it. is scarcely the task of people having the courage to call themselves socialists to take upon themselves the task of “socializing" the imperialist plans of the French and Belgian bourgeoisie. But: we should fall into error if we attempted to judge these commercial travellers for their governments by any proletarian standard. Every man Jack of them stands on the footing of the Versailles “peace” and the work and activity of these, gentlemen consists of “ennobling” this monument of imperial robbery, trickery and insolence. The work of these socialists ennobles the Versailles treaty as much as holy communion does a vile prostitute.
When we, the revolutionary workers of all countries, gathered together in France, we issued our war-cry to the masses unanimously, without debate: “Down with the Versaille treaty!" “Out of the occupied territory?" The representatives of the Communist Party and of the C.G.T.U. of France were the first to reply to this call, for to them the question is perfectly clear: The fight against the Versailles peace and its consequences is not only a fight in the interests of the German proletariat, but at the same time of the French. But the commis voyageurs of the French and Belgian governments, the reparation socialists and other drawing-room chatterers, can still see nothing else but German imperialism, crushed to the earth, but still dangerous. They do not observe the long ears of their own imperialists, and therefore they demand that the working class of Germany spend its last bit of energy for the purpose of throwing ever more and more milliards to the insatiable industrial and financial sharks of the Entente. We too want reparations, but of a different kind! We too are of the opinion that the devastations of the war must be repaired, but by whom? By the bourgeoisie of all countries. The bourgeoisie of France and Belgium, of England and Germany—they must all contribute their share to restoring the districts devastated by them. The reparation socialists see only Stinnes and Krupp, their German, colleagues see only Loucheur and Schneider. All of them hate the bourgeoisie of other countries, and cherish a sickly fondness for the ruling classes of their own country.
We, in Frankfort, worked out measures against the war danger, and amongst us there were no second class comrades. The Entente socialists occupied themselves with the reparation problem, and did not even admit their German colleagues to their preliminary consultations in Paris; These gentlemen tolerate the German social democrats only in so far as it is necessary to keep up the appearance of an International, and because they hope to extort reparation payments for the French and Belgian bourgeoisie by the aid of their second class colleagues.
And how do the German Amsterdamers react to the behaviour of their colleagues? Oh they understand excellently the disgraceful role played by the Entente’s commis voyageurs, they feel the contemptuous condescension Of MM. Vandervelde, Renaudel, and Co. They are deeply wounded at the way they are being treated, but they preserve silence, for they consider themselves the vanquished of the great war. For would they not also treat their vanquished colleagues from the nationalist International in precisely the same manner, if they themselves were the victors!
The reparation socialists are preoccupied with the occupation of the Ruhr. They put in an appearance in Berlin just at the moment when the possibility of an understanding between the French and German bourgeoisie began to assume a tangible form. Why did they not come to the Frankfort conference to join us in our struggle against war, not with words, but with deeds? They extricated themselves by making speeches, they passed resolutions without moving from the spot, without stirring a finger to throw the least hindrance in the way of the impudent attack of the French and Belgian bourgeoisies. Now they come to Berlin, and their first questions refer to reparations, guarantees, etc. We do not know whether these gentlemen are acting on the orders of their governments or not, but there is no doubt whatever that they represent the interests of their bourgeoisies, and that their dealings are those of agents of the French and Belgian bourgeoisie.
Continue to act in this spirit, gentlemen! The day is near when the working class will throw open the doors of all its organizations, will seize all such agents by the scruff of the neck, and fling them into the street with the abrupt dismissal: “ Clear out!”
Last updated on 13 October 2021