Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“ The Congress entrusts, therefore, the International Socialist Bureau to watch events more and more closely, and, come what may, maintain and strengthen the link which unites the proletarian parties.
At this moment the proletariat is conscious of being the bearer of the future of all mankind. To prevent the destruction of the flower of all the nations―threatened by the horrors of mass-murders, hunger, and epidemics―the proletariat will apply the whole of its energy. ”

“ Recent events impose upon the proletariat more than ever the duty to pursue its activity―directed according to a general plan―with a maximum of force and energy. On the one hand the general craze for armaments has sent up the prices of articles of prime necessity and thereby rendered class antagonisms more acute, and imbued the working class with the indomitable spirit of revolt and with the desire to put an end to this system of unrest and useless waste. On the other hand, the menace of war, which constantly makes itself felt, is the cause of even greater unrest. ”

“ If there is no other signal for transmitting to the working masses of Germany and of France the revolutionary frame of mind and the idea of the need to prepare for revolutionary action, the arrest of a deputy for a bold speech would have played a useful part as a battle-cry addressed to the proletarians of different countries to unite for carrying on revolutionary work. It is no easy matter to effect such a union, and the more binding was it on the deputies to take the initiative, for they stood above the masses and understood the ins and outs of politics. ”

“ The inception and growth of such monopolies (this process has probably not yet been arrested either in England or America, and possibly not even Kautsky will dare to deny that the war has accelerated and intensified it) renders the former free competition impossible, cuts the ground from under its feet, where as the division of the globe compels the rivals to pass from peaceful expansion to an armed struggle for a re-division of colonies and of spheres of influence. It is ridiculous to imagine that the weakening of protectionism in two countries can change the essence of the question. ”

“ More than that, it has brought the capitalist class even still greater political gains in that the proletariat has been split and corrupted! Kautsky aids this corruption and gives his blessing to the international cleavage in the ranks of the proletarians who fight in the name of unity—a unity with the opportunists of the various nations, the Suedekums! Yet we come across persons who do not understand that the war cry of unity amongst the old parties means the "unity" of a nation's proletariat with its national bourgeoisie. ”

“ Reality is no doubt infinitely varied; this is a sacred truth! But just as certain is it that in this infinite variety there manifest themselves two principal and basic currents: (1) that the objective contents of the war are a "continuation of the policy " of imperialism, that is to say, of the plunder of other nations by the decrepit bourgeoisie of the "Great Powers" (and their governments) ; and (2) that the prevailing subjective ideology consists of "nationalist" phrases scattered broadcast to stupefy the masses. ”

“ Kautsky consoles the proletariat by quoting whole rows and columns of figures to prove the "possibility" of capitalism without colonies and pillage, without wars and armaments, to prove that the methods of a "peaceful democracy" are preferable to all others. Lacking courage to deny that the misery of the masses is becoming more acute and that a revolutionary situation has arisen before our very eyes (the censorship will not permit this to be spoken of!) ”

“ We cannot undo what has been done. The fact that the opportunists, in a moment of crisis, turned out to be the rallying point of those elements inside the workers' parties which went over to the side of the bourgeoisie—this fact cannot be effaced from the political experience of our epoch, nor can the workers and the master class be made to forget it. Prior to the war, opportunism throughout Europe was, so to say, in its youth. ”

“ It will only be by experience in the measure that the foremost class―the working class―evolves revolutionary methods and passes to revolutionary action. We internationalists have no illusions on the question of the outbreak of immediate revolution, and do not offer to guarantee the happenings of either to-day or to-morrow. But we realise that the fundamental duty of all Socialists is to point out to the workers the presence of a revolutionary situation, to explain its nature, and to awaken by insistent propaganda the revolutionary consciousness of the proletariat. ”

“ Co-operation on an imposing scale between the workers of all countries has been established by the fact that the proletarians of all countries have simultaneously taken up the fight against imperialism; each section of the International has opposed to the Government of its country the resistance of the proletariat, and mobilised the public opinion of its nation against military ventures of every sort. This co-operation has hitherto done much to safeguard international peace, which is being threatened by ever greater dangers. ”

“ Should war nevertheless break out, it is the duty of Socialists to intervene with the object of putting a speedy end to it; it is their duty to make use of the economic and political crisis in the fullest possible measure to rouse the common people and thus accelerate the downfall of the domination of capital. ”

“ And when the present struggle, caused by jealousy among the Powers, has become a fact, Kautsky begins to persuade the capitalists and the lower middle class that war is a dreadful thing and disarmament a good thing. He does this with the same manner and with the same result as that with which a Christian priest, from the pulpit, persuades capitalists that love of man is a command of God, a striving of the soul and the moral law of civilisation. What Kautsky terms economic tendencies towards "ultra-imperialism" really amounts to lower middle-class pleadings that financiers should do no wrong. ”

“ It is only jingoes like Kautsky and Cunow who can write learned volumes on the subject and plead that “the question has not yet been sufficiently discussed.” The study of capitalism in all the ramifications of its historic development, and its national peculiarities, will never be exhausted. Learned men, and particularly pedants, will never cease to discuss the present mode of produc­tion in all its little details. But it would be more than ridiculous for Socialists to renounce their struggle against capitalism because many details of the system are capable of standing further discussion. ”

“ If on the morrow they take away your voting paper and hand you a rifle, a magnificent quick-firing gun, built in accordance with the latest requirements of machine technique—take these instruments of death and destruction, don't listen to sentimental whimperers who fear war. In this world there still remain many things which must be destroyed by fire and iron before the working class may be free. ”

“ Undoubtedly, the marvellous capacity of our Russian comrades, not only to maintain their social revolution at home, but to extend it in spite of the tremendous forces of bourgeois reaction and intrigue, will go down in history as one of the world’s achievements. ”

“ A quick change in the mood of the masses is not only possible but becomes more and more probable—a change similar to that connected with "Father Gapon's movement" in Russia at the beginning of 1905, when from backward proletarian strata in a few months, and sometimes weeks, grew an army millions strong, which followed the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat. It is impossible to know or say whether a mighty revolutionary movement will develop soon after this war or in the course of it, but one thing is certain—nothing but work in this direction deserves to be called Socialist work. ”

“ Does not this amount to a vulgar appeal to the financiers to renounce imperialism? To frighten capitalists with the bugbear of bankruptcy amounts to advising members of the Stock Exchange not gamble, because "many of them lose all they possess." Capital gains and concentrates in the same measure that bankruptcy overtakes competing capitalists or a competing nation. ”

“ This is what is called organisation—when enthused by a single aim and animated by one will, millions of men change their mode of intercourse and action; change the place and the methods of their activity; change their instruments and tools in accordance with a change in circumstances and the requirements of the struggle.
The same relates to the struggle of the working class with the bourgeoisie. If no revolutionary situation is in existence to-day, or conditions which breed discontent amongst the masses and increase their activity ”

“ The fact that the most radical and revolutionary resolutions have been shamelessly forgotten, or repudiated, is the most striking; sign of the collapse of the second International. It is also a most striking proof that only men who are either hopelessly vain, or who desire to preserve the old hypocritical attitude, can now believe in merely “correcting socialism,” or in a policy of "straightening its line."
When, before the war—we can almost say yesterday—Hyndman took up the defence of imperialism, every "decent" Socialist regarded him as a crank and spoke of him with undisguised contempt. ”

“ That men and women going through the stress and strain of such a herculean task of social revolution should find time, besides attending to the actual machinery of administration, to make provision for the minutest detail in social life, will assuredly command the admiration and respect of all Socialists whether of the "Right" or "Left," and prove a source of inspiration to International Socialism generally. ”

“ The wheel of History can be neither stopped nor turned back. But we can, and must, forge fearlessly ahead, passing from the preparatory, legal organisations of the working class—at present controlled by the opportunists—to revolutionary organisations of the proletariat, which do not limit themselves to legal activity and which are capable of safeguarding themselves against being betrayed by opportunists. ”

“ Opportunism means the surrender of the basic interests of the masses for the temporary interests of a small minority of workers, or in other words, it means the union of a portion of the workers with the bourgeoisie in opposition to the mass of the proletariat. ”

“ For Tsarism is the hope of all the reactionary forces in Europe: it is the most dreaded enemy of democracy in general and of the peoples over which it dominates in particular. The whole of the International must look upon its overthrow as one of the most important tasks.
But the most important duty within the limits of the International devolves upon the working class of Germany, France, and England. ”

“ Opportunism, which took decades to develop, owes its birth to the peculiarities of that period in the development of capitalism, during a comparatively peaceful and cultural existence, when one section of privileged workers were "rendered bourgeois" because a few crumbs of the profits derived from the national capital saved them from the acute misery, the sufferings and revolutionary moods of the destitute masses whose ruin was being wrought. ”

“ It is like comparing Robespierre, Garibaldi, and Zhelabov, who were representatives of the bourgeoisie," with Millerand, Salandra, and Guchkov, who are also "representatives of the bourgeoisie." One cannot be a Marxist and fail to cherish the deepest regard for the great bourgeois revolutionaries who had a historical right to speak in the name of their bourgeois "fatherlands," which were raising new nations―comprising millions and tens of millions of men―to a civilised level of existence and sending them to battle against feudalism. ”

“ Imperialism increases the power of the jingo firebrands, threatens the right of trade union organisation, and retards the advance of a social policy. The expenditure on armaments piles upon the masses an unbearable burden, while their health is undermined in the increased cost of articles of prime necessity. ”

“ The proletarian masses—nine-tenths of whose old leaders have probably gone over to the bourgeoisie—turned out to be disunited and helpless when met face to face with the orgy of Jingoism, the pressure of military regulations, and the censorship. ”

“ The period of imperialism means the division of the world between the "great" privileged nations which oppress all the others. Undoubtedly, certain crumbs from the plunder, arising out of these privileges and this oppression, fall to the lot of certain sections of the lower middle class, aristocracy, bureaucracy, and a privileged minority of the working class. ”