Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/163

 fetters. It is yon who have made an independent republic of Finland. It is also your duty to defend the existence of this republic. And it is worth defending. Never before has this barren Finland been so dear to us as now. The Labour population of Finland have cleared the land, ploughed up its soil; they want to taste the fruit of their work, too. That is the aim of the Finnish labourer's revolution. In this country no Swedish or German capitalists must be allowed to rule. The affairs of this country must be managed by the majority of the Labour population. Therefore, to arms for our country, every Finnish working-man! Forward, revolutionary soldiers! Defeat will be the same as the doom of our country, and the slavery of the Labour Class. To arms, then, working-man, rise against the plunderers! Would that every man and woman would do their duty, and our victory would be certain. Not only victory to the armed rising of the Finnish labourers, but to the revolutionary fight of the proletariat in all countries. May the victorious revolution of the Finnish Labour Class prosper! May the International Revolution prosper!"

This document must be designated as a monument to the Finnish Labour movement. A curious mixture of falsehood, calumny, and a distorted view, absurd tirades against the "enemy," and a collection of arguments that are staggering in their variety. Here are flaunted both internationalism and nationalism, patriotism, class-war, democracy and revolution. Here the never-varying character of the Labour movement is glaringly seen. It drew its nourishment from any source whatever, provided only the result was hatred of those in power. The great falsehood, on which the whole appeal is based, the fact that it was issued at the very moment when the leaders fled, is not the least characteristic feature. The