Page:Boris Souvarine - The Third International.djvu/16

 cause with the bourgeoisie, were, before the war, united parties. In other words they had an all-pervading desire to preserve their unity at the cost of reciprocal concessions of tendencies, concessions which allowed profound disagreements, rendering all common action impossible to remain behind a facade of resolutions of unanimity, The evident results of these tactics was great electoral success … and at the decisive moment complete abdication.

On the other hand, in the various countries where the Socialist fractions kept their distinct organisations, answering to distinct conceptions, revolutionary internationalism was much strengthened.

In Russia, the Bolshevik and Menshevik Social-Revolutionaries fought against the war. Any betrayals only amounted to the secession of individuals, and in no way compromised the parties. The Social-Democrats of Poland and of Lithuania adopted the attitude of the Bolshevists, the Bund that of the Menshevists. The Polish Socialist Party of the Left, which had broken away from the Right, remained faithful, whilst the Right declared for the war.

In Great Britain, the British Socialist Party and the Independent Labour Party protested against the war. The betrayal of Hyndman and of a handful of his friends was of no real consequence.

In Italy, the Socialist Party, which had broken with the Reformists, remained Socialists and internationalists, whilst the reformist fraction claimed solidarity with Italian nationalism.

In Bulgaria, the so-called "narrow" Social-Democrats (because of their doctrinal intransigeance), in Serbia, and Roumania, the Social Democratic Parties remained firmly opposed to the war.

Finally, in the United States the Socialist Labour Party and the Socialist Party, both refractory to chauvinism, remained parties interpreting the class struggle and revolution. The few "intellectuals" who approved of warlike intervention were forced to leave the Party.

In France and in Germany, where the united parties abdicated from one day to another their independence and their role of revolutionary opposition, the overpower-