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[A New Letter to the Workers of]

EuropeandAmerica

By NICHOLAS LENIN

Price, 5 Cents

THE SOCIALIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY

243 55th STREET BROOKLYN, N. Y.

�� A New Letter to the Workers of

Europe and America

COMRADES  :-

At the end of my letter of the 20th of August, 1918.

addressed to the American workers, I wrote that we shall find

ourselves in a beleaguered fortress as long as the rest of the

srmies of the international socialist revolution do not come to

our aid. I added that the workers will have to break with

Gompers and Renner. Slowly but surely the workers are

approaching Communistic or Bolshevistic tactics. -

Less than five months have passed since I wrote these words.

It can be said that during this time the world revolution of the

proletariat has matured with tremendous rapidity, and the work-

- .

ers in various countries have gone over to Communism and

Bolshevism.

At the time of my writing the above mentioned letter, on the

20th of August, 1918, our Bolshevik party was the only one

which determinedly fought the old Second International, which

lasted from 1889 to 1914, and which was shamefully bankrupted

during the imperialistic war of 1914-18. Our party was the only

one which unqualifiedly took .the new road, which leads away

3

� from Socialism and Social Democracy, contaminated by an

alliance with the brigand bourgeoisie, and toward Communism-

the road which leads away from petty-bourgeois reformism and

opportunism, which had completely permeated and still per-

meates the official Social Democracy and Socialist parties, and

toward real proletarian and revolutionary tactics.Now, on the 12th of January, 1919, we find a great number

of Communist proletarian parties, not only within the confines

of the former empire of the Czar, as in Lettonia, Finland,

Poland, but also in Western Europe-in Austria, Hungary,

Holland, and finally in Germany. When the German Spartacus

League-lead by its world renowned and celebrated leaders, by

such real supporters of the cause of the laboring class as Lieb-

knecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin and Franz Mehring-

finally broke off its cooperation with the Socialist traitors of

the Scheidemann and Suedekum stamp, these social chauvin-

ists (Socialists in words but chauvinists in action), who for-

ever contaminated themselves by their alliance with the im-

perialistic brigand bourgeoisie of Germany and with Wilhelm

II.; when the Spartacus League took the name of the Com-

munist Party of Germany, then the foundation was l?id for

the real proletarian, the real international, the real revolu-

tionary Third International. The Communist International

became a reality. Its formation has not yet been formally

established, yet, in fact, the Third International is already

acting.

Now, no conscious workingman, and no sincere Socialist,

can fail to see what shameful treason against Socialism was

perpetrated by those who, in line with the Mensheviks and

4

�“Social Revolutionists” of Russia, with the Scheidemanns

and Suedekumsocial Revolutionists” of Russia, with the Scheidemanns

and Suedekums of Germany, with the Renaudels of France

and Vanderveldes in Belgium, with the Hendersons and

Webbs in England and with Gompers & Co. in America,

supported “their” bourgeoisie in the war of 1914-18. This

war has completely revealed itself as an imperialistic and

reactionary war of brigandage on the part of Germany, as

well as on the part of the English, French, Italian and Amer-

ican capitalists. They now begin to quarrel between them-

selves about the division of the captured spoils, about the

division of Turkey, Russia, of the African and Polynesian

colonies, of the Balkans, etc. The hypocricy of phrases

about democracy and the “League of Nations” is being

rapidly exposed when we see that the left bank of the Rhine

is being taken by the French bourgeoisie, when we see that

Turkey and parts of Russia (Siberia, Archangel, Baku, Kras-

novodsk, Aschabad, etc.) are being captured by French,

British and American capitalists, when we see that the

division of the spoils of brigandage makes for increased hos-

tility between Italy and France, between France and Eng-

land, between England and America, between America and

Japan.

Side by side with these cowardly penny-wise mongers

who are stuffed with the prejudices of bourgeois democracy,

side by side with these “Socialists,” who yesterday defended

“their” imperialistic governments, and who today confine

themselves to platonic “protests” against “military interven-

tion in Russia”-side by side with them we see in the Allied

countries an increase in the number of those who have chosen

5

� the Communist road, or the road of MacLean, Debs, Loriot,

Lazzari, Serrati-the number of those who understand that

only the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the annihilation of

the bourgeois parliament, only Soviet rule and proletarian

dictatorship can put an end to imperialism and safeguard the ’

victory of Socialism, safeguard a permanent peace.

Then, on the 20th of August, 1918, the social revolution

was still confined within the borders of Russia, and the power

of the Soviets, i. e., the whole state power, in the hands of

the Council of the representatives of the workers, soldiers and

peasants, seemed to be (and in fact was) a purely Russian

institution. Now, on the 12th of January, 1919, we may

notice the powerful Soviet movement, not only in parts of the

former Czar’s empire, as Lettonia, Poland and Ukraine, but

also in Western European countries; in neutrals: Switzer-

land, Holland, Norway; (of those that have suffered from

war), Austria, Germany. The German revolution, which is

particularly important and characteristic, as it takes place in

one of the most developed capitalistic countries, at once took

the Soviet form. The whole trend of the evolution of the Ger-

man revolution, and, especially, the struggle of the Sparta-

tides, the sincere and only representatives of the proletariat

against the alliance of the Scheidemannist and Suedekumist

elements, with the bourgeoisie; all this clearly shows the

historic aspect of the conditions in Germany.

/ It is a question of either Soviet power or bourgeois par-

liament, under whatever name (as a national or constitutional

convention) it may appear.

6

� This is the world-historic formulation of the question.

Now it can be said, and it must be said, without any exag-

geration: the “Soviet power” is the second world-historic

step, or stage, in the development of proletarian dictatorship.

The first step was the Paris Commune. Marx’s genial analy-

sis of the meaning and importance of this Commune in his

book entitled “The Civil War in France,” shows that the

Commune gave birth to a new type of state, the proletarian

state. Exery state at this time, even the most democratic

republic, is nothing but an apparatus of one class for the .pur-

pose of suppressing the other classes. The proletarian state

is the apparatus whereby the proletariat suppresses the

bourgeoisie. Such suppression is unavoidable because of the

savage, desperate and unscrupulous opposition which is

evinced by the land owners and capitalists, the whole bour-

geoisie and all its supporters, all exploiters, when their down-

fall begins, when the exploiting of the exploiters begins.

As long as the property of the capitalists and their power

is being protected the bourgeois parliament, even the most

democratic parliament in the most democratic republic, is an

apparatus for the suppression of millions of toilers through

small groups of exploiters. Socialists who are fighting for

the deliverance of the toilers from exploitation must use the

bourgeois parliaments as a tribunal, as one of their bases of

propaganda, agitation and organization, as long as our

struggle confines itself within the boundaries of the bourgeois

social order. Now, when world history has placed on the

order of the day the question of the destruction of this whole

system, the question of the crushing and suppression of the

7

� exploiters and theexploiters and the transition from capitalism to Socialism-

to confine ourself now to bourgeois parliamentarism, to

bourgeois democracy, to. picture it as “democracy” in general,

to cloak its bourgeois character, to forget that universal

suffrage, as long as capitalist property is being protected, is

merely acting for the bourgeois state-means shamefully to

betray the proletarian, to go over to its class enemies, the s

bourgeoisie, to become a traitor and a renegade.

\

These two currents within world Socialism, of which the

Bolshevik press was already tirelessly speaking as early as

1915, appears before us with particular clarity when illus-

trated by the bloody struggle and civil war in Germany.

Karl Liebknecht-his name is known by workers in al!

countries, everywhere, but especially in the Allied countries,

for it stands as a symbol for the fidelity of a leader to the

interest of the proletariat, and for fidelity to the socialistic

revolution ; this name is a symbol for the real convinced, de-

voted, self-sacrificing, pitiless struggle against capitalism ;

this name is a symbol for the ruthless war against imperial-

ism-not in words but in action, a struggle ready for sacri-

fice, even when one’s own country is in the grip of the hys-

teria of imperialistic victories, Together with Liebknecht

and the Spartacides stands everything that has remained pure

and really revolutionary among the German Socialists, all

that is the most conscious within the proletariat, the ex-

ploited, in whose heart the spirit of rebellion is rising and

giving birth to revolution.

Against Liebknecht stand the satellites of Scheidemann

8

�and Suedekum and the whole gang of despicable servants of

the Kaiser and bourgeoisie. Theyand Suedekum and the whole gang of despicable servants of

the Kaiser and bourgeoisie. They are traitors to Socialism,

such as Samuel Gompers, Webb, Renaudel and Van-

dervelde. Here we have that upper stratum of the working

class which has been bought by the bourgeoisie, and which

we, the Bolsheviks, addressing ourselves to the Russian

Suedekums, the Mensheviks, used to call “the agents of the

bourgeoisie within the labor movement,” and which in Amer-

ica is more appropriately designated by an expression that is

magnificent in its expressiveness and striking truthfulness,

“labor lieutenants of the capitalist class.” The newest and

most modern form of Socialist treason has found expression

in this feature: In all the civilized countries the bourgeoisie,

either by colonial exploitation, or by pressing financial profits

from formally independent weaker nations, is plundering a

population many times as numerous as the population in

their own country. Here we have the economic possibility

of the “super-profit” for the imperialistic bourgeoisie. And

the fact that this bourgeoisie, to some extent, can use this

“super-profit” in order to bribe that renowned upper stratum

of the proletariat and change it into a reformistic, oppor-

tunistic, revolution-scared petty-bourgeoisie. Between the

Spartacides and the Scheidemanns are fluctuating the

Kautskians, the soulmates of Kautsky-in name independent,

in action the most dependent in everything and in all con-

nections dependent today upon the bourgeoisie and the

Scheidemanns and tomorrow on the Spartacides. Sometimes

following the first mentioned, sometimes the other ones.

People without ideas, without character, without politics,

without honor . . . . a living embodiment of Philistine con-

9

� fusion. In words they recognize the social revolution, but in

fact they cannot grasp it when it begins, instead of which, in

their renegade manner, they advocate “democracy” in gene- ’

ral, whereas, as a matter of fact, they are advocates of bour-

geois democracy.

cIn all capitalistic countries, any thinking worker can rec-

ognize in this treasonable position, which is analogous to

conditions of national and historical nature, just these three

fundamental tendencies, both among Socialists and Syndi-

calists; for the imperialistic war and the beginning of the

world revolution of the proletariat, has revealed with the

utmost clearness these ideological-political tendencies.

* * *

The above lines were written before the base and bestial

murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg was accom-

plished by the Ebert-Scheidemann government. These beadles

and lackeys of the bourgeoisie entrusted the German White

Guards, who -were defending the sacred possessions of capi-

tal, with the task of lynching Rosa Luxemburg and shooting

Karl Liebknecht in the back, under the manifestly fraudu-

lent pretext that he had sought to “escape.” (Russian Czar-

ism, which choked the revolution of 1905 in blood, frequently

found it a useful pretext, in shooting down offenders, to

accuse them of having attempted to “escape”.) Simultane-

ously these beadles vested the White Guards with author-

ity, as if they had been guilty of nothing, since their govern-

ment, of course, stood above all Parties. One cannot find

10

�words to express all the vile, contemptible devices resorted to

by these creatures who pretend to be Socialists. Evidently

history has chosen a course which is to compel the “labor .

lieutenants of the capitalist class” to “run the whole gamut”

of low-down, bestial, vile actions. The stupid Kautskyans,

in their paper “Die Freiheit,” may talk about a “judgment

seat” to consist of representatives of “all the Socialist Par-

ties” for they continue to call the Scheidemanns, those

beadles, and serf-like lackeys “Socialists.” These heroes of

Philistine obtusenessserf-like lackeys “Socialists.” These heroes of

Philistine obtuseness and party bourgeois timidity do not

even understand that “a court” is an organ of state power;

but the struggle and the civil war in Germany are precisely

concerned with the question of who is to hold this power,

either the bourgeoisie whom the Scheidemanns will “serve”

as beadles and instigators of pogroms, or the Kautskyans, the

jurists of “pure democracy,” or the proletariat, which wilt

overthrow the exploiting capitalists and break down their

opposition.

The best men of the proletarian world international, the

unforgettable leaders of the proletarian Socialistic revolution,

have fallen, but their blood admonishes new and ever new

masses of workers to desperate struggle, if not for life then

for death. This struggle will lead to victory. ‘In the summer

of 1917, we in Russia passed through the “July days,” in which

the Russian Scheidemanns, Mensheviks, and Social-Revolu..

tionists also were cloaking the victories of the White Guards

over the Bolsheviks, by calling them victories of the “state

power,” when the Cossacks in the cities of Petrograd lynched

the worker Veinoff for circulating Bolshevik proclamations.

11

� We know from experience, how quickly such “victories” of

the bourgeoisie and their slaves cured the masses of their

. illusions as to bourgeois democracy, as to “universal suf-

frage,” and other such things.

Within the bourgeois governing classes of the Entente we

can now observe a certain hesitation. One section of these

circles now observe a certain hesitation. One section of these

circles recognizes that the process of dissolution of the

Entente troops in Russia, where they are aiding the White

Guards by advancing the blackest monarchism and feudal

landlordism, has already begun, that a continued military

intervention and an attempt to influence Russia by force

would require an army of occupation a million strong for a

long period, the surest way of swiftly transplanting the prole-

tarian revolution to the Entente countries. The example of

* the German army of occupation in Ukraine is sufficiently

convincing. Another section of the bourgeoisie in the

Entente countries clings as firmly as ever to the idea of mili-

tary intervention in Russia, together with an “economic

siege” (Clemenceau) and of crushing the Soviet Republic.

The entire press that serves this bourgeoisie, that is, the

greater part of the daily papers in England and France which

have been purchased by the capitalists, predicts an immedi-

ately impending collapse of the Soviet power, depicts the

horrors of hunger .in Russia, and spreads lies about “dis-

orders” and the instability of the Soviet government. The

-White Guards, the troops of the capitalists, aided by the

Entente with officers and war s,upplies, with money and

auxiliary troops, these officers cut off Russia’s hungry center

and north from the grain districts of Siberia and the Don

12

� Region. ’ Famine among the workers in Petrograd and Mos-

cow, in Ivanoff-Voznessensk, and other labor centers, is, as

a matter of fact, great. Never have the masses of the work-

ers suffered such depths of misery, such pangs of hunger, as

those which they are now condemned to by the military inter-

vention of the Entente, an intervention which is partly

masked behind a hypocritical fassurance that they will not

send “their own” troops, while they are continuing to send

mercenaries as well as war materials, money and officers.

The masses could not bear such misery, if they did not under-

stand that they ,are defending the work of Socialism both in

Russia and the rest of the world.

The Entente and White Guard forces are holding Arch-

angel, Perm, Rostov on the Don, Baku, Ashabad, but the

“Soviet’movement” has taken control of Riga and Kharkov.

Lettonia and Ukraine are becoming Soviet republics. The

workers see that these tremendous sacrifices are not being

made in vain, that the Soviet power is great and spreading,

. growing and establishing itself all over the world. Each

month of severe struggle and tremendous sacrifice strength-

ens the cause of the Soviet power all over the world and

weakens its enemies, the exploiters.

Undeniably, the exploiters still have forces at their dis-

posal with which to murder and lynch the finest leaders of

the world revolution of the proletariat, to multiply the suffer-

ings and tribulations of the workers in the occupied or con-

quered countries and districts. Yet all the exploiters in the

world have not enough power to conquer the world revolu-

13

� .

tion of the proletariat which will bring to the human race a

liberation from the yoke of capital, from the constant threat

of new and unavoidable imperialistic wars in the interest of

capitalism.

January 21st, 1919. N. LENIN.

�Three Books You Should Read.

The State and Revolution

By NIKOLAI LENIN

There is doubt in certain circles as to the desirability of

revolution as opposed to evolution in bringing about the com-

ing Communism. Lenin shows in this book, on the basis oP

several passages from Marx and Engels, that the founders of

scientific Socialism were never in doubt on this question. Other

distortions of Marxism are also exposed in the various chapters.’

Printed on heavy paper, stiff cover, price 50 cents.

New Book by Leon Trotzky

FROM OCTOBER TO BREST-LITOWSK

Written in February, 1918, during the peace negotiations

with Germany, this book traces, in the author’s mud briWant

style, all the preparatory steps for the November Revolution,

as well as the exciting political struggle for control after the

coup d’etat had been put through. It has personal impressions

of Kerensky, Kornilov, and other counter-revolutionists, that

will remain landmarks in literature. 100 pages.

PRICE, 35 CENTS

The Crisis in the German Social-Democracy

By ROSA LUXEMBURG

This is an arraignment of German Capitalism, and its tool,

German militarism To fully understand the German situation

you should read this book.

PRICE, 25 CENTS

These books are published by the

SOCIALIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY

243 55th Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Special terms to agents and Socialist organizations

� ‘DO YOU READ

Devoted to Internatiotlal Socialism

’ Editors: EUGENE V. DEBS. LOUIS C. PRAINA and LUDWIG LORE

. If you do not, you are missing an intellectual treat. Each

number contains articles from the men and women who are

taking a leading part in the International Revolutionary Social-

ist Movement. Among those who have contributed articles

to its pages are: Lenin, Trotzky, Mehring, Luxemburg, Lieb-

knecht. Bukharin, Friedrich Adler, Katayama, and many others.

We will continue to maintain the high standard we have

held to in the past and each issue will appeal to those inter-

ested in keeping informed on this world-wide movement.

The department of “DOCUMENTS” in each number is

valuable to every student of “International Socialism,‘” as it

contains facsimiles of Proclamations, Manifestos, Circulars and

other matters of a historical nature. This feature alone makes

THE CLASS STRUGGLE unique among Socialist publica-

tions and you certainly cannot afford to be without it.

Ask the Literature Agent of your Socialist Party Branch

for a copy or go to your radical book store, if you cannot get

it in either place send 25~. in stamps and we will send you a

sample copy. If you want every issue, from now on, the best

thing you can do is to become a regular subscriber, which will

cost you $1.50 for one year. Back numbers may be had at the

same price.

“THE CLASS STRUGGLE” is published by the

SOCIALIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY

243 55th Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Special rates to agents and Socialist organizations. Liter-

ature Agents are requested to write to us for samples and price

list. 2603:7000:D03A:5895:E9AC:F217:57B6:262E 21:02, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Now that we have the text, I want to know how you want to format it. Should every page in the original pamphlet get its own URL? Do we include the ads for the other works? 2603:7000:D03A:5895:E9AC:F217:57B6:262E 21:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

You do not have to use any external sites to get OCR. If you register, you will find some OCR buttons above the edit window that will produce the OCR text. These buttons can be enabled and disabled (by registered users) in the Preferences: Gadgets. And, you will acquire your talk page, so it will be also easier for others to talk to you then. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 21:16, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

As for text formatting, you can use the buttons above the edit window. You can also learn from other works here if you look at their code. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 21:18, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

I have proofread page 3 so you can have a look at its code what it should look like. The best way of learning is looking at what others did and how they did it. If you are not familiar with wikicode, it might be good to have a close look at some already profread works before you start proofreading yourself. Wikisource:Style guide and Help:Formatting conventions may help you too. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 21:28, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Okay, I'm back. Where did we leave off? Shushimnotrealstooge (talk) 14:27, 30 November 2023 (UTC)