Page:Raymond Augustine McGowan - Bolshevism in Russia and America (1920).pdf/26



The victory of Bolshevism in Russia and the Austrian, the Hungarian, and the German experiences of the last few years have accentuated the differences among the various kinds of Socialists the world over. Revolutionary Socialists have grown in numbers everywhere and have come to feel themselves ready for action. Thus it happened that when the Bolsheviki a year ago called an international conference to meet in Moscow for the purpose of creating a revolutionary Bolshevik or Communist international association, they found many ready to follow their leadership and prepared to pursue Bolshevik tactics. Not all Socialists, however, were invited to the conference; an attempt was made to exclude moderate or Menshevik Socialists and to pick Bolshevik or prospectively Bolshevik organizations and groups. The American groups invited were the Socialist Labor Party, the I. W. W., and the Left Wing of the Socialist Party, represented by the Socialist Propaganda League and Eugene V. Debs.

The conference issued a Manifesto, which declared the identity of Bolshevism or Communism with the Socialism of the first International, and condemned the policy and tactics of the second International of Menshevik Socialists. It said that Capitalism was trying to save itself by international imperialism but that it must be destroyed and can only be ended by a proletarian dictatorship throughout the world. It affirmed that the development of Capitalism had so undermined political