Page:The Social General Strike - Arnold Roller (1912).djvu/27

 occur, and because they did not want to lose the votes of Liberals, who demanded that the strike be ended, and who controlled quite a number of Social Democratic credentials.

The same people who gave out the revolvers, who declared that they wanted to fight to the finish if all peaceable means were of no avail, these same people called afterwards those to whom they gave revolvers "loafers and agent provocateurs," and even advised the working men to arrest them.

Vandervelde declared in a mass meeting: "We Socialists must respect the commandment, Thou shalt not kill." At least it is peculiar that these gentlemen cry to those who are fired upon, "Thou shalt not kill," and in this way stab in the back those who defend themselves.

In the same year (1902) there took place a General Strike in Geneva, which was declared in sympathy with the striking street car employees, and directed by the Anarchistic leaders. Here it also came to conflicts with the militia, which was sent against the strikers by the Socialistic Minister, Thiebaut, who at that time took the place of the Minister of War in his absence. At the end of the strike several comrades who conducted the strike were sentenced to terms in prison, amongst others Bertoni for one year.

In the month of May, 1902, the working men of Sweden came out, when they supported the request for a general right to vote with a General Strike.

Also Holland stood in the first part of the year 1903 entirely in favour of the General Strike. When in January of the same year the dock workers of the city of Amsterdam went on strike, soon after all the railroad employees of that country stopped work, in order to support the demands of their brethren. A brilliant victory, the granting of all demands, was the result of this act of solidarity. Frightened by this success, the Government proposed in Parliament a hang-dog law against the railway employees, according to which the mere act of striking should be punished with six months' imprisonment and the instigators should get four years. It can be plainly seen that the working men could not stand that, and after a short consideration all Trade Unions of the country declared the General Strike. The Social Democrats stuck to them in the beginning (at least, to keep up the pretence of being working mens' friends; their leader, Troelstra, said later on in the Social Democratic Party congress, word for word: "Our existence as a Labour Party was at stake"), but when the struggle began in earnest Het Volk warned all against "the Anarchistic adventures." On the day when the struggle had to begin along the whole line the attitude of the Social Democrats changed into one of open treachery; they posted proclamations which declared the strike off, and circulated falsified reports with unfavourable news from the inner part of the country, and in this way caused great confusion amongst the working men. Through this the strike was really prevented from spreading over the whole country and becoming general, and consequently was lost.

The intention which governed the Social Democrats in this shameful behaviour was evidently to prove to the working men, by the failure of this General Strike, that it was not the proper medium, and