Page:Boris Souvarine - The Third International.djvu/20

 it, the duties of "an honest spy," at the same time assuring them that only German "minority Socialists" would be present. He only met with a fresh refusal, including that of Pressemane.

The conference, at which only Bourderon and Merrheim represented French Socialism and Syndicalism, issued a manifesto denouncing Imperialism as the cause of the war, disclosed the real objects of the war on the part of the two capitalist coalitions (thefts of territory, grabbing of oil and mineral wealth, the conquest of markets and of ports, pillage and spoliation, the subjection of other races to bourgeois oligarchies) all this hypocritically baptised under the name of national defence; and called upon the proletarians of all countries to take united action on the basis of the class struggle, in order to impose peace.

The "majority Socialists"" of France and of Germany attacked the Zimmerwaldians with hatred and fury, covered them with insults and sarcasms, after first having attempted a conspiracy of silence. But the international and pacifist idea had made a start, and nothing could stop it. Not all the accumulated blame heaped upon it could prevent the awakening of the proletariat.

From April 24th to 30th, 1916, a second Zimmerwaldian conference was held at Kienthal. Three French deputies Brizon, Blanc, and Raffin Dugens, represented French Socialism, passports having been refused to militant organised workers. The Kienthal Conference confirmed and solidified the Zimmerwaldian resolutions. It insisted on the fact that real peace could only come about as a consequence of Socialism, and invited the proletariat to fight resolutely against the capitalist régime. But, while attacking the International Socialist Bureau it did not go as far as to announce the necessity of breaking with it. At the same time as future action was decided on, a divergence of views made itself felt; among the Zimmerwaldians two tendencies appeared.

The Left, whose interpreter was Lenin, looked upon the break up of the Socialist"patriots as inevitable, and foresaw the necessity of founding the Third International.