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"They [the movers of the resolution] welcomed all the revolutions that had been achieved in Europe, but those revolutions must not create conditions which might accurately be described as a transition from one form of tyranny to another. Liberty, democracy, freedom must be their steady and unchangeable goal. The revolution that did not establish liberty was not a revolution towards socialism, and was not a revolution which socialists ought to make themselves responsible for, nor should it allow the outside bourgeois reaction to impose upon them responsibility."

In opposing the resolution, Jean Longuet declared:

"We repudiate any such condemnation of the events in the Russian Soviet Republic, since the evidence at our disposal is absolutely insufficient, and the only fact that we know with certainty is that the disgraceful campaign of lies in which the telegraph agencies of the Central Powers and the Entente vied with one another during the war, is being carried on without slackening against the Russian Soviet Republic. We do not desire to be the victims of official calumny in judging political movements.

"We warn against any resolution which would render difficult the future union of the working class in every land. We desire to keep the doors open for the class conscious revolutionary socialists of every land. No attention is being paid to our warnings. We do not wish to participate in the guilt of any action against the International, and we vote against the resolution since certain paragraphs are capable of being exploited by the bourgeoisie against the Russian Revolution."

The conference also went on record in favor of the speedy repatriation of prisoners of war.

Prior to adjournment, the delegates decided on a commission of two representatives for each affiliated organization, with an executive acting in all cases and composed of

Branting, the chairman of the conference, Henderson of England and Huysmans of Belgium. The commission was empowered to convoke the conference whenever the decisions of the Paris conference rendered it necessary.

Summary. While the conference undoubtedly achieved something of value by bringing the leaders of socialism in a number of the countries of the Allies and of the Central Powers face to face, and through certain of its resolutions, it caused bitter criticism from the parties of the left for its stand on the Russian situation, for its belief that any good might be expected from a league of capitalist nations, and for failing to adjust its theories and tactics to the tremendous revolutionary changes of the preceding five years.

The Lucerne Conference.-On August 2, 1919, the "Commission for the Restitution of the International," appointed at Berne, called a conference in Lucerne, Switzerland, attended by two or more delegates from England, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Russia (non-Bolshevik groups) and several other countries. Delegates from Austria and Hungary were delayed en route. Italian and Swiss socialists refused to participate. The United States was unrepresented.

The conference protested against Allied action in Hungary which led to the downfall of the soviet republic, to the strengthening of the forces of counter-revolution and the reëstablishment to power- at least temporarily — of a representative of the House of Hapsburg. The course of the Peace Conference, the delegates declared, shows clearly the reactionary forces directed against each socialist government and each proletarian power." Every socialist group should oppose this "capitalistic and imperialistic policy."

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The conference demanded immediate membership for Germany, Russia, Austria and Hungary in the League of Nations, and urged the abolition of military conscription. It denounced the blockade against Russia which was leading to the starvation of millions. It protested against the giving of military and financial aid — against the unanimous wishes of all of the socialist and labor organizations of Russia to the counter-revolutionists led by such Czarist agents as Denikin and Kolchak.

Arthur Henderson, chairman of the gathering, in his opening address, declared that the workers of Europe were turning their attention to an ever greater extent to "direct action" as a means of relief. He dwelt upon the unemployment and famine in Europe, and prophesied that, "before the winter ends, a dreadful convulsion of anger and despair may seize the people."

Discussion throughout the conference showed a sharp division of opinion regarding vital points at issue, particularly concerning the Russian situation. Bernstein, Vandervelde, Tseretelli and De Brouckere vigorously criticized Bolshevik methods, Bernstein maintaining that Bolshevism had nothing to do with Marxism, notwithstanding its "revolutionary verbiage"; Vandervelde insisting that unity between the second and the third (Moscow) Internationals was impossible, " because the third International tended to minority dictatorship contrary to the principles of democracy." The Belgian leader also declared that the reconstitution of the International was impossible until the question of war responsibility had been determined.

On the other hand, Troelstra of Holland urged that the conference follow a clear policy of revolutionary action, not one of an exclusively parliamentary nature. Ramsay MacDonald and Marcel Cachin urged energetic action

against the support of Kolchak by the Entente governments. Friederich Adler emphasized the more revolutionary position.

Prior to adjournment on August 8, the conference decided to hold a regular International Socialist and Labor Conference in Geneva on February 2, 1920.

THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL

Groups Represented. Of a much more radical nature than the Berne Conference was the first gathering of the so-called third International the first congress of International Communists-held in Moscow from March 2 to 6, 1919. The call was issued by representatives of socialist groups of the left wing in nine countries and countersigned by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia. It specified numerous left wing organizations in Europe and America whom it deemed worthy to be called to the councils of the revolutionary International. Thirtytwo delegates, with power to act, were present at the conference from parties or groups in Russia, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, Rumania, Finland, Ukrainia, Esthonia, Armenia, delegates from the labor unions of Germans in Russia, from the Balkan Union of "Revolutionary Socialists," and from the "Union of Socialists of Eastern Countries."

Others were there with consultative powers from groups in Switzerland, Holland, France, Great Britain, Bohemia, Jugo-Slavia, Turkey, Turkestan, Persia, Corea, China and the United States.

The Manifesto.- Of chief import was the manifesto written by Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Tchicherin and Fritz Platten, a Swiss Socialist, and issued by the conference.

The manifesto called attention to the bitter struggle

of the proletariat for the seventy-two years following the issuance of the Communist Manifesto, and continued:

"The period of the last decisive struggle has begun later than was desired or expected by the apostles of social revolution. But it is here: it has come. We communists representative of the revolutionary proletariat in different countries in Europe, America, and Asia, now assembled in the powerful soviet city of Moscow, both feel and consider ourselves to be followers of, and participate in, a cause for which the program was drawn up seventy-two years ago. Our duty is to gather together the revolutionary experiences of the working classes, to free the movement from the harmful interference of opportunist and social patriotic elements, to unite the forces of all genuine revolutionary parties in the world proletariat, and thereby to facilitate and hasten the victory of the communist revolution."

Who Will Control the Economic Life? The manifesto declared imperialism to be at the root of the European war and scoffed at those socialists who tried to find its cause in certain personalities. The war had caused untold agony to the workers. It had also abolished forever the old days of competition. The pronouncement continued:

"The nationalization of economic life, which was so obstinately opposed by capitalist liberalism, is now an accepted fact. Not only is there no possible return to free competition; there is none either to trusts, syndicates, or other economic marvels. The only question is, who in the future is to conduct nationalized production, the imperialist state or the victorious working-class state? In other words, is the whole of laboring mankind to become serfs and day laborers under a victorious international clique, which, in the name of the League of Nations, and assisted by an 'international' army and an international' fleet, alternately plunders or casts

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