On Sat, Mar 1, 2025 at 04:49 PM, <sartes...@earthlink.net> wrote: > > Whatever happened to the Zimmerwald left?
The Zimmerwald left was the subject of discussion on the list a couple of years ago. As I noted then, none of the tendencies expressed an openly “revolutionary defeatist” position, neither Radek from the Bolsheviks nor the left Menshevik Trotsky. But together with the antiwar Western European social democrats they were united in their opposition to the war and to the pro-war socialists who supported one or the other of the warring powers, much as do the pro-Ukraine and pro-Russian supporters on the divided international left today. Later, of course, both Radek and Trotsky joined with Lenin in agitating for revolutionary defeatism following the February Revolution and the mass formation of Soviets.. https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/21720 Marv Gandall ( https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/21720 ) 01/30/23 #21720 ( https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/21720 ) On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 10:20 AM, Charles Rachlis wrote: > > So the Hawkins and so called socialist solution has nothing to do with > turning inter-imperialist war into class war to defeat imperialism a lá > the Left Zimmerwald. Unfortunately, Charles, there are no forces of any significance in Russia or Ukraine even remotely comparable to the Zimmerwald Left which called on the workers in all belligerent countries to turn the war into a civil war against their bourgeois governments. The Zimmerwald Left’s manifesto, drafted by Radek and submitted to the conference, stated that “objective conditions are already ripe for this task.” It called for the "rejection of war credits, an exit from government ministries, and denunciation of the war’s capitalist and anti-socialist character – in the parliamentary arena, in the pages of legal and, when necessary, illegal publications, along with a forthright struggle against social-patriotism. ..street demonstrations against the governments, propaganda for international solidarity in the trenches, demands for economic strikes, and the effort to transform such strikes, where conditions are favourable, into political struggles. 'The slogan is civil war, not civil peace’.” Radek's draft was rejected by the delegates who sought to pressure their governments to end the war, not to overthrow them by subverting the war effort - the policy of “revolutionary defeatism” of the Zimmerwald Left. This was particularly the case for West European delegates who did not consider conditions ripe for social revolution in their countries, and who hoped to repair relations with the pro-war socialists in the Second International. Lenin and the Bolsheviks, on the other hand, considered the Second International bankrupt and were already working towards the Third. Trotsky and his faction occupied the centre ground. He would only join the Bolsheviks after the February Revolution in Russia and growing mass worker and soldier discontent elsewhere appeared to validate Lenin’s position. At Zimmerwald, he was called upon to bridge the differences between right and left by drafting the conference Manifesto. It was very militant in tone but in order to win majority approval was antiwar rather than revolutionary defeatist in essence. It’s call for intensified class struggle was aimed at forcing the belligerent powers to end the war "We have come together to retie the torn threads of international relations and to appeal to the working class to come to its senses and take up the struggle for peace”, it declared, "a peace without annexations or reparations. Such a peace is only possible if every thought of violating the rights and freedom of peoples is condemned. Occupation of entire countries or parts of countries must not lead to their forcible annexation. There must be no annexation, either open or concealed, and no forcible economic alignment, one made still more unbearable by denial of political rights. The right of nations to self-determination must be the unshakable foundation of national relations...No sacrifice is to great, no burden is to heavy to achieve the goal of peace among the peoples." Lenin and the Bolsheviks were unhappy with how the conference defined its tasks as peace rather then revolution, and also criticized the omission of the specific demands they had proposed in their minority resolution for the mobilization of the working class against both their own ruling class and the pro-war socialists. Nevetheless, in the interests of unity, Lenin became one its signatories on behalf of the Russian delegation. See: https://johnriddell.com/2015/08/21/zimmerwald-1915-the-zimmerwald-manifesto/#_edn2. and https://johnriddell.com/2015/08/21/zimmerwald-1915-resolution-of-the-zimmerwald-left/#_ednref4 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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