Page:Lenin - The Collapse of the Second International - tr. Sirnis (1919).pdf/11

9 The Collapse of the Second International.

CHAPTER I.

By the collapse of the International is sometimes meant the interruption of the intercourse between the Socialist parties of the warring countries, the suspension of the meetings of the International Socialist bureau, Inter­national Congresses, and so forth. This is the viewpoint of some Socialists, perhaps of the majority of the offcial parties and especially of the opportunists and their supporters.

In the Russian press (vide: The Information Leaflet of the "Bund") Kossovsky takes up the defence of this view with a frankness that deserves our heartfelt gratitude. Nevertheless, the editors fail to indicate their disagreement with the author’s viewpoint. Kos­sovsky went so far as to justify the German Social-Democrats who voted the war-credits. Let us hope that his defence of Nationalism will open the eyes of many workmen as to the capitalist-nationalist outlook of the "Bund."

Tо class-conscious workers, Socialism is a serious conviction and is not a cloak to cover up conciliatory middle-class aspirations or opposition to the Government along Nationalist lines. By the collapse of the International, these workers mean the scandalous betrayal by a majority of the official Social-Democratic parties of their convictions and solemn declarations made at the International Socialist Congresses of Stutt­gart and Basle, and embodied in resolutions passed at these congresses. Only those fail to see this treason who do not wish to see it. Only those refuse to observe this betrayal whose interests are bound up in not recognising it.