V. Proletarian Revolution and the Communist International
All over the world Civil War is on the order of the day. Its watchword is—All Power to the Soviets!
The great masses of humanity have been converted into proletarians by capitalism. Imperialism has thrown these masses out of balance and started them on the revolutionary road. The very meaning of the term, "masses", has undergone a change. Those elements which were regarded as masses in the epoch of parliamentarism and Trade Unionism have now become the aristocracy. Millions and tens of millions of those who formerly lived outside of political life have now become the revolutionary masses. The War has aroused everybody, it has awakened the political interest of the backward strata and aroused in them illusions and hopes which were not fulfilled. The social foundations of the old forms of the labor movement—the craft division of labor, the comparative stability of the standard of living of the upper proletarian strata and the dull, apathetic hopelessness among the lower ranks—all this has irretrievably passed away. New millions have joined the struggle. The women who have lost their husbands and fathers and have been compelled to take their places in the ranks of labor are streaming into the movement. The working youth which has grown up under the storm and stress of the World War meets the Revolution as its native element.
In various countries the struggle is passing through different stages. But it is the final conflict. Not infrequently the waves of the movement rush into the obsolete channels of organization, lending them temporary vitality. On the surface of the stream there are still found, drifted here and there, old time slogans and obliterated mottos. There is still much confusion of mind, vacillation, prejudices and illusions. But the movement as a whole is of a profoundly revolutionary character. It is all-embracing and irresistible. It spreads, strengthening and purifying itself, and eliminating all the old rubbish. It will not halt before it brings about the rule of the world proletariat.
The fundamental form of this movement is the strike. Its prime and potent cause lies in the increase of prices of the necessaries of life. Not infrequently it arises out of single local conflicts. It also comes as an expression of the masses' impatience with the parliamentary Socialist squabbles. It originates in the feeling of solidarity with the oppressed of all countries. Its slogans are both economic and political. It frequently combines fragments of reformism with revolutionary Socialist mottos. At
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