Page:Resolutions and Decisions of the Third Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions (1924).pdf/72

 the masses, and the bourgeoisie of the various countries have found it necessary to put radical and even socialist governments in place of the openly reactionary governments. However, all these "lefts" differ from the rights in word only; in deed, the left governments continue the imperialist policies of the real boss—financial and industrial capital. Does not MacDonald build air fleets, bombard from aeroplanes insurgent natives, does not he strive to rob Turkey of the Mosul oil, fill the prisons with Hindu revolutionists, protect the interests of the capitalists expropriated by the Russian Revolution? And the French Left Bloc? We have seen these gentlemen at work. Did not the world war begin at the very time when the radicals and radical socialists were in power in France? Their quick-change vaudeville stunts cannot hide the fact that these socalled left governments follow their predecessors in the preparation for new international slaughters. True, it is not done so rudely and insolently as Poincare and Curzon did it; MacDonald and Herriot know how to invent robbers' policies with democratic phrases. The leaders of the Second and Amsterdam Internationals may take part in or support these governments, they may vouch for these gentlemen's love appeals, but they cannot deny the crude fact that MacDonald and Herriot continue the policies of Poincare and Curzon.

The special feature of the present situation is the fact that the upper circles of the social-democratic and trade union organizations developed within the apparatus of the capitalist state and that they are now the strongest support of collapsing and disintegrating capital. This role of the supporters of the capitalist system is played by the Second and Amsterdam Internationals consciously and willingly. In the attempt to save the system of exploitation, the bourgeoisie and reformist chiefs of the trade union movement decided this work. The part of the latter was to consist of hiding the inherent contradictions of capitalism by pacifist phrases, in spreading the illusion that the League of Nations really could achieve something, in restraining the working masses from revolutionary activities, and in fighting the Communists. This anti-Communist and anti-proletarian work is supported by the entire administrative and police apparatus of the state. During the last year, reformism has taken another step away in this direction. From political strike breaking it has passed to economic strike breaking, and to the support of the Fascist reaction. Thus has international reformism completed its evolution.

On this background of imperialist rivalry, of increasing imperialist tendencies of increasing armaments, the peaceful proletarian policies of the Soviet government stands out in bold belief. The Soviet power arose in the struggle against world capitalism. Only here, on the territory of the Soviet Republic, there is no national strife, no imperialist tendencies, no desire to take their neighbors unawares. The state, built by the toilers for the toilers, has no interest in the oppression of other peoples; on the contrary, it is interested in the liberation of all the oppressed and exploited. And at the very time when the capitalist world convulsively struggles over the solution of insoluble problems and continually weakens economically, Soviet Russia is building its economic life at a feverish pace, and is creating a firm foundation for the proletarian state. Seven years of revolution have shown that Soviet Russia is the Citadel of the international labor movement. Like a gigantic magnet it attracts all that are revolutionary and honest among the oppressed and exploited of all countries. Every worker, no matter from what part of the world he be, knows that Soviet Russia is