Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/278

 It is by this that can be manifested in full publicity and open daylight the community of thought and action of the working classes, and the International can be reconstituted as something more than the mere reunion of Committees.

We are firmly convinced that the International must be reconstructed from its very foundation; that the action of the masses must precede any action of the congress; which can only bear fruit if it has the support of the people. It is sufficient to say that we could not agree in the present circumstances to the suggestion of a general conference to which would be admitted unconditionally all the parties and bodies affiliated to the Socialist International Bureau.

A plenary assembly, to which would be admitted those who support the present policy of the Socialist majority of the Central Empires, appears to us both useless and dangerous—useless because such an association of contrary opinions could