Speech Delivered at an International Meeting in Berne

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Speech Delivered at an International Meeting in Berne has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the edition published in the Collected Works of Lenin, First English Edition, Volume 22, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1964.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a speech delivered by Nikolaj Lenin at an international rally during the Enlarged Session of the International Socialist Committee in Berne, Switzerland on the 8th of February, 1916. It was first published in the Berner Tagwacht, No. 33, 9th of February, 1916.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#SPEECH DELIVERED AT AN INTERNATIONAL MEETING IN BERNE

#Nikolaj Lenin

#8th of February, 1916

#★

Comrades! The European war has been raging for more than 18 months. With every passing day, and month, it becomes clearer and clearer to the masses of the workers that the Zimmerwald Manifesto¹ expressed the truth when it declared that talk about «defence of the homeland» and similar phrases are nothing but a capitalist fraud. It is becoming more evident every day that this is a war between capitalists, between big robbers, who are quarreling over who is to get the largest slice, who is to plunder the greatest number of countries, and to suppress and enslave the greatest number of nations.

It may sound incredible, especially to Swiss comrades, but it is true, nevertheless, that in Russia, too, it is not only murderous tsarism, or the capitalists, but also a faction of the so-called, or former, Socialists, who are saying that Russia is fighting a «defensive war», that it is only fighting against the German invasion. But the whole world knows that for decades tsarism has been oppressing more than 100'000'000 people belonging to other nationalities in Russia, and that for decades Russia has been pursuing a predatory policy towards China, Iran, Armenia, and Galicia. Neither Russia, nor Germany, nor any other Great Power for that matter has any right to claim that it is waging a «defensive war»; all the Great Powers are waging a capitalist-imperialist war, a predatory war, a war for the oppression of small and foreign nations, a war for the profits of the capitalists, who have been converting proletarian blood and the horrible sufferings of the masses into the pure gold of their immense fortunes.

Four years ago, in November 1912, when it had become quite clear that war was in the offing, representatives of the Socialist Parties of the world met at the International Socialist Congress in Basle. Even at that time, there was no room for doubt that the impending war would be a war between the Great Powers, between these great plunderers, and that the responsibility would fall upon the governments and the capitalist class of all the Great Powers. This truth was openly stated in the Basle Manifesto, which was adopted unanimously by the Socialist Parties of the world. The Basle Manifesto says nothing at all about a «defensive war» or «defence of the homeland». It castigates the governments and the bourgeoisie of all the Great Powers, without exception. It says openly that war would be the greatest of crimes, that the workers consider it a crime to shoot at each other, and that the horrors of war and the indignation these would rouse among the workers would inevitably lead to a proletarian revolution.

When the war actually broke out, it became evident that its character had been correctly defined at Basle. But the Socialist and labour organizations were not unanimous in carrying out the Basle decisions; they split. We find that the Socialist and labour organizations are now split into two big camps in all countries of the world. The smaller faction, the leaders, functionaries, and officials, have betrayed Socialism and have sided with their governments. The other faction, to which the mass of class-conscious workers belong, continues to gather its forces and to fight against the war and for the proletarian revolution.

The views of this latter section were expressed in the Zimmerwald Manifesto, to mention one document.

In Russia, from the very beginning of the war, the workers' deputies in the Duma waged a determined revolutionary struggle against the war and the tsarist monarchy. Five workers' deputies — Petrovskij, Badaev, Muranov, Sagov, and Samoilov — distributed revolutionary leaflets against the war and carried on persistent revolutionary agitation. The tsarist government ordered the arrest of these five deputies; they were tried and sentenced to exile in Siberia for life. The leaders of the working class of Russia have languished in Siberia for months, but their cause has not been defeated; their work is being continued along the same lines by the class-conscious workers of all Russia.

Comrades! You have heard speakers from various countries who have told you about the workers' revolutionary struggle against the war. I merely want to add another example, that of the United States of America, the biggest and richest country. Its capitalists are now making enormous profits out of the European war. And they are also campaigning for war. They are saying that the United States, too, must prepare to enter the war, and that hundreds of millions of the people's dollars must be siphoned off into new armaments, into armaments without end. A faction of the Socialists in the United States have also responded to this false, criminal call. Let me read a statement by Comrade Eugene Debs, a most popular leader of the American Socialists, and the presidential candidate of the American Socialist Party.

In the 11th of September, 1915, issue of the American weekly, Appeal to Reason,² he says: «I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian revolutionist. I do not belong to the regular army of the plutocracy, but to the irregular army of the people. I refuse to obey any command to fight from the ruling class [...]. I am opposed to every war but one; I am for that war with heart and soul, and that is the worldwide war of the social revolution. In that war I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make necessary [...].»

This is what Eugene Debs, the American Bebel, the beloved leader of the American workers, is telling them.

This goes to show once again, comrades, that the rallying of the working class forces is truly under way in all countries of the world. War inflicts horrible sufferings on the people, but we must not, and we have no reason at all, to despair of the future.

The millions of victims who will fall in the war, and as a consequence of the war, will not have died in vain. The millions who are starving, the millions who are sacrificing their lives in the trenches, are not only suffering, they are also gathering strength; they are pondering over the real causes of the war; they are becoming more determined and are acquiring a clearer revolutionary understanding. In all countries of the world there is growing discontent among the masses and greater ferment; there are strikes, demonstrations, and protests against the war. This is an earnest of the proletarian revolution against capitalism that is bound to follow the European war.