Page:Resolutions and Theses of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International (1922).djvu/11

 mittees. The frontiers are declared in a state of siege, and field court martials are being introduced. Men are being killed in Roumania under the pretext of "attempting to escape." During the examination of prisoners, torture is being used which calls forth protest even from the bourgeoisie.

In Yugo-Slavia arrest and torture proceed apace, and the workers are treated with contempt. In Hungary the bloody rule of Horthy continues its executions and tortures. In South Africa the strikers are being dealt with rigorously. Democratic America, proud of its freedom, metes out severe punishment to anyone even suspected of belonging to the Communist Party. The American bourgeoisie raid trade unions, make arrests by the hundred, beat up and club the strikers. In India, Egypt, and in all the colonies the slightest expression of dissatisfaction, the slightest attempt at resistance to unrestrained exploitation is crushed by military force.

Comrades! In all their bloody acts social democracy is the handmaid of the bourgeoisie. The lies of the Social Democrats divert the working classes from the struggle, offering liberal reforms without revolution. It is they who betray the proletariat; they who divert the attention of the masses of one country and cover up the cruel acts of the bourgeoisie in its treatment of the workers of other countries.

Comrades! Workers! The Communist International has grown accustomed to persecution. Each conquest of the revolution is dearly bought with the blood of the fighters. The stronger the struggle, the more victims there will be. People perish—the idea never perishes. Comrades confined in the capitalist prisons—on this great day of the Fifth Anniversary of the Russian Revolution, we share with you a deep assurance that the hour approaches when the revolutionary proletariat will free itself from the yoke of capitalism and the weight of capitalist exploitation, break open the prisons and with honour bring you back into its ranks as its most honourable comrades.

Away with the capitalist executioners! Hail to the struggle for the freedom of the working class!

Hail to the struggle for the freedom of our heroic fighters languishing in the capitalist prisons!