§ 35 Internationalsm of the workers' movement essential to the victory of the communist revolution

The communist revolution can be victorious only as a world revolution. If a state of affairs arose in which one country was ruled by the working class, while in other countries the working class, not from fear but from conviction, remained submissive to capital, in the end the great robber States would crush the workers' State of the first country. During the years 1917-18-19 all the Powers were trying to crush Soviet Russia; in 1919 they crushed Soviet Hungary. They were, however, unable to crush Soviet Russia, for the internal conditions in their own countries were critical, and the governments were all afraid of being overthrown by their own workers, who demanded the withdrawal of the invading armies from Russia. The significance of this is, in the first place, that the realization of proletarian dictatorship in one country is gravely imperilled unless active assistance is given by the workers of other lands. It signifies, in the second place, that, under such conditions, when the workers have gained the victory in only one country, the organization of economic life in that country is a very difficult matter. Such a country receives little or nothing from abroad; it is blockaded on all sides.

If, however, for the victory of communism, it is essential that there should be a world revolution and that the workers in various lands should render mutual aid one to another, this implies that the international solidarity of the working class is an essential preliminary to victory. The conditions for the general struggle of the workers are like the conditions for the working class struggle in each individual country. In any one country the workers cannot win strikes when these are isolated affairs; they can only win strikes when the workers in separate factories combine for mutual support, when they found a joint organization, and when they conduct a united campaign against all the factory owners. It is just the same for the workers living in the various bourgeois States. They can only gain the victory when they march shoulder to shoulder, when they do not quarrel among themselves, when the proletarians of all lands unite, feeling themselves to be a single class with interests common to them all. Complete mutual trust, a brotherly alliance, united revolutionary action against world capitalism - these alone can bring victory to the working class. THE WORKERS' COMMUNIST MOVEMENT CAN CONQUER ONLY AS AN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST MOVEMENT.

The need for an international struggle on the part of the proletariat has long been recognized. In the forties of the last century, on the eve of the revolution of 1848, there already existed an international secret organization known as the Communist Federation. Marx and Engels were its leaders. At the London conference of the organization they were instructed to write a manifesto in its name. Such was the origin of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, in which the great champions of the proletariat gave the first exposition of communist teaching.

In 1864 there was constituted under Marx's leadership the International Working Men's Association, now commonly spoken of as the First International. In the First International there were associated a number of working class leaders from various countries, but unity was lacking. Moreover, the organization was not yet based upon the broad masses of the workers, but rather took the form of an international society of revolutionary pro- pagandists. In 1871 the members of the International took part in the rising of the Parisian workers (the Commune of Paris). There ensued everywhere a persecution of the branches of the International. It collapsed in 18'74, having been greatly weakened by internal dissensions, by the struggles between the adherents of Marx and those of the anarchist, Bakunin. After the break-up of the First International, the growth of socialist parties began in various countries. The more rapid the development of industry, the more rapid was the growth of these parties. The need for mutual support was felt so strongly, that in 1889 there was held an international socialist congress attended by delegates of the socialist parties of numerous countries. Thus the Second International came into being. The Second International remained in existence till 1914, when the war gave it its death blow. The causes of its failure will be discussed in the next section.

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx already sounded the war cry: 'Proletarians of all lands, unite!' Here are the concluding lines of the manifesto: 'The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can only be attained by the forcible overthrow of the existing social order. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Proletarians of all lands, unite!'

It thus appears that the international solidarity of the proletariat is not a toy or a fine phrase, but a vital necessity, without which the working class movement would be foredoomed to failure.