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ficially brilliant. "Leipsiger Volkszeitung." the extreme Right paper of the Right Independents, was generous enough to declare that they must do to their opponent, who, they say, is "the first orator of our century." The correspondent of a Finnish conservative paper telegraphed to the Finnish press that I "hypnotised" the congress. In fact there was too much praise. But at the same time a most ruthless campaign was being prepared as a retaliation for the tendency or my speech. I shall deal with this later on, however. The decisive moment of the Congress at last arrived. The voting on the principal question gave us an almost two to one majority. Thereupon, Crispien rose and made a declaration, which is a specimen of his impertinence, stupidity, and impotence. Crispien declared in the name of the Central Committee of the old body (by the way, to this meeting of the Central Committee of the old body none оf the Left members were invited, though they formed nearly half of the Central Committee) that by carrying such a motion the Congress was practically deciding to enter another party, i.e., the Spartacus League. And since, he said, by the rules of the Independent Party no member of the party can be simultaneously a member of another party, the majority of the Congress have thereby placed themselves outside of the party. On that ground the Central Committee of the old body declares the whole of the Left section outside the party. The Rights were invited to leave the hall of the Congress, and they went to another place to continue the work of the Congress.
This declaration caused a storm of indignation on the part of the Left majority of the Congress. The gallery filled with workers was in a special uproar. The workers shook their fists at Crispien and Co. Had our Left friends not done all in their power to restrain the crowd, there would certainly have been a free fight. Crispien's declaration suited us perfectly. In fact, we could not have wished for anything better. Think of it! These men had shouted to the whole of Europe of their fidelity to the principle of democracy within the party, these men had vowed right and left that their only reason for not joining the Third International was because the latter desired to violate some presumed interests of the German party, these men accused us of heresies, and bewailed the dictatorship of
