RUSSIAN PROPOSAL FOR SOCIALIST CONFERENCE

A BLOW FOR COALITION

FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. PETROGRAD, Monday (delayed).

The Russian Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates has decided to summon an International Socialist Congress at Stockholm on July 8. The announcement of this important decision is accompanied by a still more important statement of the principles on which the proposed congress is to be based. This statement demands most careful scrutiny. It calls for a mobilisation of the proletariat – in other words, of the Socialist parties of all countries – with the object of putting an end to the war. An attempt is to be made to give life to the dream of an international proletariat united against war, a dream so utterly shattered by the present war, and particularly by the attitude adopted by the strongest Socialist organisation in the world, that of Germany. The chief task of the Conference (says the Russian Workers’ Council) must be to bring about an agreement between representatives of the international proletariat with a view to liquidate that policy of national union with Imperialist Governments and classes which excludes the possibility of a struggle for peace, and also to discover ways and means to carry on this struggle. The significance of this is clear. The aim of the conference is to strike a blow at the Coalition policy, at the union of parties in Great Britain, at the union sacrée in France, and the Burgfrieden in Germany. The bearing of this principle on the present Russian Coalition Government is not clear, but the assumption seems to be that the Russian Coalition Government is a Government for peace, not for war, and that, at any rate, it will act in accordance with the will of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates. For the combinations of national unities that are now carrying on the war there is to be substituted an international unity of one class that is to insist on peace. Europe is divided into two great camps of States, which are at war. The daring proposal of the Russian Socialists is to create a cross-division, and, by organising Europe into two new camps, that of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, to neutralise the national dividing line, and rob war of its sting. Revolution is proposed as the alternative of war, and the presupposition of peace.

MASSES ARE EASILY SWAYED

It is as well that this should be put plainly. The British, French, and Belgian Socialists who are to be invited to the conference will be asked to decide on a radical change of attitude. They will be asked to transfer their energies from the work of active participation in the national war to that of reassertion of the class principle as a means of securing peace. There must be no blinking the consequences of this action, and without venturing to prejudice judgment, I suggest that the position of the British, French, and Belgian Labour organisations will be extremely difficult. It is greatly to be regretted that the Allied Socialists have not had an opportunity of discussing the Russian proposals before they were published. But the downright character of the proposals extends to the manner of their announcement to the world and the power of the international principle over the mind of the Workers’ Council is clearly observable in this resolute determination to ignore, in the peace appeals, a distinction between the Allies and their enemies. The attitude of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates is severely logical, but for the practical success of the Congress it would obviously have been better if there could have been a preliminary conference of the Allied Socialists. I wish I could be more hopeful for the success of the Russian Socialists’ effort, but it seems to me that in jumping too far ahead they may jeopardise the possibility of a democratic peace. There is another point that must be borne in mind. The views and policy of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates are not necessarily the views and policy of the Russian people. The revolution has thrown the Socialists the top of the wave and given them an exceptional opportunity for urging their views on the masses of the people. The reception of their appeals by the masses has been enthusiastic, but this does not mean that the watchwords of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates are the final and considered view of the great bulk of the Russian people, still less that the peace policy they propose has the intelligent support of Russian democracy. The Russian democracy is politically untrained; its political education and organisation have only just begun. The masses are easily swayed in one direction or another.