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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35232-h.zip b/35232-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a457169 --- /dev/null +++ b/35232-h.zip diff --git a/35232-h/35232-h.htm b/35232-h/35232-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b4485f --- /dev/null +++ b/35232-h/35232-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1111 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" /> +<meta content="pg2html (binary v0.18)" name="generator" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of + A Letter to American Workingmen, + by N. Lenin +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; } + p { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + + .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i2 { margin-left: 1.5em; } + .poem p.i4 { margin-left: 2.5em; } + .poem p.i47 { margin-left: 24.0em; } + .quote { margin-left: 6%; margin-right: 6%; text-indent: 0em; font-size: 90%; } + .figure { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-indent: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps; } + .center { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } + .right { text-align: right; text-indent: 0em; } + .sc { font-variant: small-caps; } + span.pagenum { position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt; color: gray; background-color: inherit; } + a,img { border: none!important; text-decoration: none!important; } +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter to American Workingmen, by N. Lenin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Letter to American Workingmen + +Author: N. Lenin + +Release Date: February 10, 2011 [EBook #35232] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER TO AMERICAN WORKINGMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Odessa Paige Turner, David Garcia and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page1" name="page1"></a>[1]</span></p> + +<h1> + A LETTER TO AMERICAN WORKINGMEN +</h1> +<p class="center"> +<i>From the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia</i> +</p> +<p class="center"> +<big>By N. LENIN</big> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +Reprinted from THE CLASS STRUGGLE +<br /> +<small>December, 1918</small> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<b>Price—5 Cents</b> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +NEW YORK +<br /> +<big>THE SOCIALIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY</big> +<br /> +431 PULASKI ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y. +<br /> +<small>December, 1918</small> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page2" name="page2"></a>[2]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> +<p> +<!--[Blank Page]--> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page3" name="page3"></a>[3]</span></p> + +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<div class="figure"> +<img src="images/header.png" width="500" height="72" +alt="[Decorative Header]" /> +</div> + +<a name="h2H_4_0001" id="h2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + A Letter to American Workingmen +</h2> + +<p class="center"> +<big>By <span class="sc">N. Lenin.</span></big> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +Moscow, August 20, 1918. +</p> + +<p> +Comrades: A Russian Bolshevik who participated in the Revolution of +1905 and for many years afterwards lived in your country has offered to +transmit this letter to you. I have grasped this opportunity joyfully +for the revolutionary proletariat of America—insofar as it is the +enemy of American imperialism—is destined to perform an important task +at this time. +</p> +<p> +The history of modern civilized America opens with one of those really +revolutionary wars of liberation of which there have been so few +compared with the enormous number of wars of conquest that were +caused, like the present imperialistic war, by squabbles among kings, +landholders and capitalists over the division of ill-gotten lands and +profits. It was a war of the American people against the English who +despoiled America of its resources and held in colonial subjection, +just as their "civilized" descendants are draining the life-blood of +hundreds of millions of human beings in India, Egypt and all corners +and ends of the world to keep them in subjection. +</p> +<p> +Since that war 150 years have passed. Bourgeois civilization has born +its most luxuriant fruit. By developing the productive + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page4" name="page4"></a>[4]</span> + + forces of +organized human labor, by utilizing machines and all the wonders of +technique America has taken the first place among free and civilized +nations. But at the same time America, like a few other nations, has +become characteristic for the depth of the abyss that divide a handful +of brutal millionaires who are stagnating in a mire of luxury, and +millions of laboring starving men and women who are always staring +want in the face. +</p> +<p> +Four years of imperialistic slaughter have left their trace. +Irrefutably and clearly events have shown to the people that both +imperialistic groups, the English as well as the German, have been +playing false. The four years of war have shown in their effects the +great law of capitalism in all wars; that he who is richest and +mightiest profits the most, takes the greatest share of the spoils +while he who is weakest is exploited, martyred, oppressed and outraged +to the utmost. +</p> +<p> +In the number of its colonial possessions, English imperialism has +always been more powerful than any of the other countries. England +has lost not a span of its "acquired" land. On the other hand it +has acquired control of all German colonies in Africa, has occupied +Mesopotamia and Palestine. +</p> +<p> +German imperialism was stronger because of the wonderful organization +and ruthless discipline of "its" armies, but as far as colonies are +concerned, is much weaker than its opponent. It has now lost all of its +colonies, but has robbed half of Europe and throttled most of the small +countries and weaker peoples. What a high conception of "liberation" +on either side! How well they have defended their fatherlands, these +"gentlemen" of both groups, the Anglo-French and the German capitalists +together with their lackeys, the Social-Patriots. +</p> +<p> +American plutocrats are wealthier than those of any other country +partly because they are geographically more favorably situated. They +have made the greatest profits. They have made all, even the weakest +countries, their debtors. They have amassed gigantic fortunes during +the war. And + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page5" name="page5"></a>[5]</span> + + every dollar is stained with the blood that was shed by +millions of murdered and crippled men, shed in the high, honorable +and holy war of freedom. +</p> +<p> +Had the Anglo-French and American bourgeoisie accepted the Soviet +invitation to participate in peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, +instead of leaving Russia to the mercy of brutal Germany a just peace +without annexations and indemnities, a peace based upon complete +equality could have been forced upon Germany, and millions of lives +might have been saved. Because they hoped to reestablish the Eastern +Front by once more drawing us into the whirlpool of warfare, they +refused to attend peace negotiations and gave Germany a free hand to +cram its shameful terms down the throat of the Russian people. It +lay in the power of the Allied countries to make the Brest-Litovsk +negotiations the forerunner of a general peace. It ill becomes them +to throw the blame for the Russo-German peace upon our shoulders! +</p> +<p> +The workers of the whole world, in whatever country they may live, +rejoice with us and sympathize with us, applaud us for having burst the +iron ring of imperialistic agreements and treaties, for having dreaded +no sacrifice, however great, to free ourselves, for having established +ourselves as a socialist republic, even so rent asunder and plundered +by German imperialists, for having raised the banner of peace, the +banner of Socialism over the world. What wonder that we are hated by +the capitalist class the world over. But this hatred of imperialism and +the sympathy of the class-conscious workers of all countries give us +assurance of the righteousness of our cause. +</p> +<p> +He is no Socialist who cannot understand that one cannot and must not +hesitate to bring even that greatest of sacrifice, the sacrifice of +territory, that one must be ready to accept even military defeat at the +hands of imperialism in the interests of victory over the bourgeoisie, +in the interests of a transfer of power to the working-class. For the +sake of "their" cause, that is for the conquest of world-power, the +imperialists of + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page6" name="page6"></a>[6]</span> + + England and Germany have not hesitated to ruin a +whole of row of nations, from Belgium and Servia to Palestine and +Mesopotamia. Shall we then hesitate to act in the name of the +liberation of the workers of the world from the yoke of capitalism, in +the name of a general honorable peace; shall we wait until we can find +a way that entails no sacrifice; shall we be afraid to begin the fight +until an easy victory is assured; shall we place the integrity and +safety of this "fatherland" created by the bourgeoisie over the +interests of the international socialist revolution? +</p> +<p> +We have been attacked for coming to terms with German militarism. +Is there no difference between a pact entered upon by Socialists and +a bourgeoisie (native or foreign) against the working-class, against +labor, and an agreement that is made between a working-class that has +overthrown its own bourgeoisie and a bourgeoisie of one side against +a bourgeoisie of another nationality for the protection of the +proletariat? Shall we not exploit the antagonism that exists between +the various groups of the bourgeoisie. In reality every European +understands this difference, and the American people, as I will +presently show, have had a very similar experience in its own history. +There are agreements and agreements, fagots et fagots, as the Frenchman +says. +</p> +<p> +When the robber-barons of German imperialism threw their armies into +defenseless, demobilized Russia in February 1918 when Russia had staked +its hopes upon the international solidarity of the proletariat before +the international revolution had completely ripened, I did not hesitate +for a moment to come to certain agreements with French Monarchists. The +French captain Sadoul, who sympathized in words with the Bolsheviki +while in deeds he was the faithful servant of French imperialism, +brought the French officer de Lubersac to me. "I am a Monarchist. My +only purpose is the overthrow of Germany," de Lubersac declared to me. +"That is self understood (cela va sans dire)," I replied. But this by +no means prevented me from coming to an understanding with de Lubersac +concerning + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page7" name="page7"></a>[7]</span> + + certain services that French experts in explosives were ready +to render in order to hold up the German advance by the destruction of +railroad lines. This is an example of the kind of agreement that every +class-conscious worker must be ready to adopt, an agreement in the +interest of Socialism. We shook hands with the French Monarchists +although we knew that each one of us would rather have seen the other +hang. But temporarily our interests were identical. To throw back the +rapacious advancing German army we made use of the equally greedy +interests of their opponents, thereby serving the interests of the +Russian and the international socialist revolution. +</p> +<p> +In this way we furthered the cause of the working-class of Russia and +of other countries; in this way we strengthened the proletariat and +weakened the bourgeoisie of the world by making use of the usual and +absolutely legal practice of manoevering, shifting and waiting for the +moment the rapidly growing proletarian revolution in the more highly +developed nations had ripened. +</p> +<p> +Long ago the American people used these tactics to the advantage of its +revolution. When America waged its great war of liberation against the +English oppressors, it likewise entered into negotiations with other +oppressors, with the French and the Spaniards who at that time owned a +considerable portion of what is now the United States. In its desperate +struggle for freedom the American people made "agreements" with one +group of oppressors against the other for the purpose of weakening all +oppressors and strengthening those who were struggling against tyranny. +The American people utilized the antagonism that existed between the +English and the French, at times even fighting side by side with the +armies of one group of oppressors, the French and the Spanish against +the others, the English. Thus it vanquished first the English and then +freed itself (partly by purchase) from the dangerous proximity of the +French and Spanish possessions. +</p> +<p> +The great Russian revolutionist Tchernychewski once said: Political +activity is not as smooth as the pavement of the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page8" name="page8"></a>[8]</span> + + Nevski Prospect. +He is no revolutionist who would have the revolution of the proletariat +only under the "condition" that it proceed smoothly and in an orderly +manner, that guarantees against defeat be given beforehand, that the +revolution go forward along the broad, free, straight path to victory, +that there shall not be here and there the heaviest sacrifices, that we +shall not have to lie in wait in besieged fortresses, shall not have +to climb up along the narrowest path, the most impassible, winding, +dangerous mountain roads. He is no revolutionist, he has not yet freed +himself from the pedantry of bourgeois intellectualism, he will fall +back, again and again, into the camp of the counter-revolutionary +bourgeoisie. +</p> +<p> +They are little more than imitators of the bourgeoisie, these gentlemen +who delight in holding up to us the "chaos" of revolution, the +"destruction" of industry, the unemployment, the lack of food. Can +there be anything more hypocritical than such accusations from people +who greeted and supported the imperialistic war and made common cause +with Kerensky when he continued the war? Is not this imperialistic war +the cause of all our misfortune? The revolution that was born by the +war must necessarily go on through the terrible difficulties and +sufferings that war created, through this heritage of destruction and +reactionary mass murder. To accuse us of "destruction" of industries +and "terror" is hypocrisy or clumsy pedantry, shows an incapability of +understanding the most elemental fundamentals of the raging, climatic +force of the class struggle, called Revolution. +</p> +<p> +In words our accusers "recognize" this kind of class struggle, in +deeds they revert again and again to the middle class utopia of +"class-harmony" and the mutual "interdependence" of classes upon one +another. In reality the class struggle in revolutionary times has +always inevitably taken on the form of civil war, and civil war is +unthinkable without the worst kind of destruction, without terror and +limitations of form of democracy in the interests of the war. One must +be a sickly sentimentalist not to be able to see, to understand and + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page9" name="page9"></a>[9]</span> + + appreciate this necessity. Only the Tchechov type of the lifeless +"Man in the Box" can denounce the Revolution for this reason instead of +throwing himself into the fight with the whole vehemence and decision +of his soul at a moment when history demands that the highest problems +of humanity be solved by struggle and war. +</p> +<p> +The best representatives of the American proletariat—those +representatives who have repeatedly given expression to their full +solidarity with us, the Bolsheviki, are the expression of this +revolutionary tradition in the life of the American people. This +tradition originated in the war of liberation against the English in +the 18th and the Civil War in the 19th century. Industry and commerce +in 1870 were in a much worse position than in 1860. But where can you +find an American so pedantic, so absolutely idiotic who would deny the +revolutionary and progressive significance of the American Civil War +of 1860-1865? +</p> +<p> +The representatives of the bourgeoisie understand very well that the +overthrow of slavery was well worth the three years of Civil War, +the depth of destruction, devastation and terror that were its +accompaniment. But these same gentlemen and the reform socialists who +have allowed themselves to be cowed by the bourgeoisie and tremble at +the thought of a revolution, cannot, nay will not, see the necessity +and righteousness of a civil war in Russia, though it is facing a far +greater task, the work of abolishing capitalist wage slavery and +overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie. +</p> +<p> +The American working class will not follow the lead of its bourgeoisie. +It will go with us against the bourgeoisie. The whole history of the +American people gives me this confidence, this conviction. I recall +with pride the words of one of the best loved leaders of the American +proletariat, Eugene V. Debs, who said in the "Appeal to Reason" at +the end of 1915, when it was still a socialist paper, in an article +entitled "Why Should I Fight?" that he would rather be shot than vote +for war credits to support the present criminal and reactionary war, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page10" name="page10"></a>[10]</span> + + that he knows only one war that is sanctified and justified from the +standpoint of the proletariat: the war against the capitalist class, +the war for the liberation of mankind from wage slavery. I am not +surprised that this fearless man was thrown into prison by the American +bourgeoisie. Let them brutalize true internationalists, the real +representatives of the revolutionary proletariat. The greater the +bitterness and brutality they sow, the nearer is the day of the +victorious proletarian revolution. +</p> +<p> +We are accused of having brought devastation upon Russia. Who is it +that makes these accusations? The train-bearers of the bourgeoisie, of +that same bourgeoisie that almost completely destroyed the culture of +Europe, that has dragged the whole continent back to barbarism, that +has brought hunger and destruction to the world. This bourgeoisie now +demands that we find a different basis for our Revolution than that of +destruction, that we shall not build it up upon the ruins of war, with +human beings degraded and brutalized by years of warfare. O, how human, +how just is this bourgeoisie! +</p> +<p> +Its servants charge us with the use of terroristic methods.—Have the +English forgotten their 1649, the French their 1793? Terror was just +and justified when it was employed by the bourgeoisie for its own +purposes against feudal domination. But terror becomes criminal when +workingmen and poverty stricken peasants dare to use it against the +bourgeoisie. Terror was just and justified when it was used to put +one exploiting minority in the place of another. But terror becomes +horrible and criminal when it is used to abolish all exploiting +minorities, when it is employed in the cause of the actual majority, +in the cause of the proletariat and the semi-proletariat, of the +working-class and the poor peasantry. +</p> +<p> +The bourgeoisie of international imperialism has succeeded in +slaughtering 10 millions, in crippling 20 millions in its war. Should +our war, the war of the oppressed and the exploited, against oppressors +and exploiters cost a half or a whole million victims in all countries, +the bourgeoisie would still maintain + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page11" name="page11"></a>[11]</span> + + that the victims of the world war +died a righteous death, that those of the civil war were sacrificed +for a criminal cause. +</p> +<p> +But the proletariat, even now, in the midst of the horrors of war, is +learning the great truth that all revolutions teach, the truth that has +been handed down to us by our best teachers, the founders of modern +Socialism. From them we have learned that a successful revolution is +inconceivable unless it breaks the resistance of the exploiting class. +When the workers and the laboring peasants took hold of the powers of +state, it became our duty to quell the resistance of the exploiting +class. We are proud that we have done it, that we are doing it. We only +regret that we did not do it, at the beginning, with sufficient +firmness and decision. +</p> +<p> +We realize that the mad resistance of the bourgeoisie against the +socialist revolution in all countries is unavoidable. We know too, that +with the development of this revolution, this resistance will grow. But +the proletariat will break down this resistance and in the course of +its struggle against the bourgeoisie the proletariat will finally +become ripe for victory and power. +</p> +<p> +Let the corrupt bourgeois press trumpet every mistake that is made by +our Revolution out into the world. We are not afraid of our mistakes. +The beginning of the revolution has not sanctified humanity. It is +not to be expected that the working classes who have been exploited +and forcibly held down by the clutches of want, of ignorance and +degradation for centuries should conduct its revolution without +mistakes. The dead body of bourgeois society cannot simply be put into +a coffin and buried. It rots in our midst, poisons the air we breathe, +pollutes our lives, clings to the new, the fresh, the living with a +thousand threads and tendrils of old customs, of death and decay. +</p> +<p> +But for every hundred of our mistakes that are heralded into the world +by the bourgeoisie and its sycophants, there are ten thousand great +deeds of heroism, greater and more heroic + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page12" name="page12"></a>[12]</span> + + because they seem so simple +and unpretentious, because they take place in the everyday life of the +factory districts or in secluded villages, because they are the deeds +of people who are not in the habit of proclaiming their every success +to the world, who have no opportunity to do so. +</p> +<p> +But even if the contrary were true,—I know, of course, that this is +not so—but even if we had committed 10,000 mistakes to every 100 wise +and righteous deeds, yes, even then our revolution would be great +and invincible. And it will go down in the history of the world as +unconquerable. For the first time in the history of the world not the +minority, not alone the rich and the educated, but the real masses, the +huge majority of the working-class itself, are building up a new world, +are deciding the most difficult questions of social organization from +out of their own experience. +</p> +<p> +Every mistake that is made in this work, in this honestly conscientious +cooperation of ten million plain workingmen and peasants in the +re-creation of their entire lives—every such mistake is worth +thousands and millions of "faultless" successes of the exploiting +minority, in outwitting and taking advantage of the laboring masses. +For only through these mistakes can the workers and peasants learn +to organize their new existence, to get along without the capitalist +class. Only thus will they be able to blaze their way, through +thousands of hindrances to victorious socialism. +</p> +<p> +Mistakes are being made by our peasants who, at one stroke in the night +from October 25 to October 26, (Russian Calendar) 1917, did away with +all private ownership of land, and are now struggling, from month to +month, under the greatest difficulties, to correct their own mistakes, +trying to solve in practice the most difficult problems of organizing a +new social state, fighting against profiteers to secure the possession +of the land for the worker instead of for the speculator, to carry on +agricultural production under a system of communist farming on a large +scale. +</p> +<p> +Mistakes are being made by our workmen in their revolutionary + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page13" name="page13"></a>[13]</span> + + activity, who, in a few short months, have placed practically all of +the larger factories and workers under state ownership, and are now +learning, from day to day, under the greatest difficulties, to conduct +the management of entire industries, to reorganize industries already +organized, to overcome the deadly resistance of laziness and +middle-class reaction and egotism. Stone upon stone they are building +the foundation for a new social community, the self-discipline of +labor, the new rule of the labor organizations of the working-class +over their members. +</p> +<p> +Mistakes are being made in their revolutionary activity by the Soviets +which were first created in 1905 by the gigantic upheaval of the +masses. The Workmen's and Peasant's Soviets are a new type of state, a +new highest form of Democracy, a particular form of the dictatorship +of the proletariat, a mode of conducting the business of the state +without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie. For the first time +democracy is placed at the service of the masses, of the workers, and +ceases to be a democracy for the rich, as it is, in the last analysis, +in all capitalist, yes, in all democratic republics. For the first time +the masses of the people, in a nation of hundreds of millions, are +fulfilling the task of realizing the dictatorship of the proletariat +and the semi-proletariat, without which socialism is not to be thought +of. +</p> +<p> +Let incurable pedants, crammed full of bourgeois democratic and +parliamentary prejudices, shake their heads gravely over our Soviets, +let them deplore the fact that we have no direct elections. These +people have forgotten nothing, have learned nothing in the great +upheaval of 1914-1918. The combination of the dictatorship of the +proletariat with the new democracy of the proletariat, of civil war +with the widest application of the masses to political problems, such +a combination cannot be achieved in a day, cannot be forced into the +battered forms of formal parliamentary democratism. In the Soviet +Republic there arises before us a new world, the world of Socialism. +Such a world cannot be materialized as if by + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page14" name="page14"></a>[14]</span> + + magic, complete in every +detail, as Minerva sprang from Jupiter's head. +</p> +<p> +While the old bourgeoisie democratic constitutions, for instance, +proclaimed formal equality and the right of free assemblage, the +constitution of the Soviet Republic repudiates the hypocrisy of a +formal equality of all human beings. When the bourgeoisie republicans +overturned feudal thrones, they did not recognize the rules of formal +equality of monarchists. Since we here are concerned with the task of +overthrowing the bourgeoisie, only fools or traitors will insist on the +formal equality of the bourgeoisie. The right of free assemblage is not +worth an iota to the workman and to the peasant when all better meeting +places are in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Our Soviets have taken over +all usable buildings in the cities and towns out of the hands of the +rich and have placed them at the disposal of the workmen and peasants +for meeting and organization purposes. That is how our right of +assemblage looks—for the workers. That is the meaning and content of +our Soviet, of our socialist constitution. +</p> +<p> +And for this reason we are all firmly convinced that the Soviet +Republic, whatever misfortune may still lie in store for it, is +unconquerable. +</p> +<p> +It is unconquerable because every blow that comes from the powers +of madly raging imperialism, every new attack by the international +bourgeoisie will bring new, and hitherto unaffected strata of +workingmen and peasants into the fight, will educate them at the cost +of the greatest sacrifice, making them hard as steel, awakening a new +heroism in the masses. +</p> +<p> +We know that it may take a long time before help can come from you, +comrades, American Workingmen, for the development of the revolution +in the different countries proceeds along various paths, with varying +rapidity (how could it be otherwise!) We know full well that the +outbreak of the European proletarian revolution may take many weeks to +come, quickly as it is ripening in these days. We are counting on the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page15" name="page15"></a>[15]</span> + + inevitability of the international revolution. But that does not mean +that we count upon its coming at some definite, nearby date. We have +experienced two great revolutions in our own country, that of 1905 +and that of 1917, and we know that revolutions cannot come neither +at a word of command nor according to prearranged plans. We know that +circumstances alone have pushed us, the proletariat of Russia, forward, +that we have reached this new stage in the social life of the world not +because of our superiority but because of the peculiarly reactionary +character of Russia. But until the outbreak of the international +revolution, revolutions in individual countries may still meet with +a number of serious setbacks and overthrows. +</p> +<p> +And yet we are certain that we are invincible, for if humanity will +not emerge from this imperialistic massacre broken in spirit, it +will triumph. Ours was the first country to break the chains of +imperialistic warfare. We broke them with the greatest sacrifice, +but they are broken. We stand outside of imperialistic duties and +considerations, we have raised the banner of the fight for the complete +overthrow of imperialism for the world. +</p> +<p> +We are in a beleaguered fortress, so long as no other international +socialist revolution comes to our assistance with its armies. But these +armies exist, they are stronger than ours, they grow, they strive, they +become more invincible the longer imperialism with its brutalities +continues. Workingmen the world over are breaking with their betrayers, +with their Gompers and their Scheidemanns. Inevitably labor is +approaching communistic Bolshevistic tactics, is preparing for the +proletarian revolution that alone is capable of preserving culture and +humanity from destruction. +</p> +<p> +We are invincible, for invincible is the Proletarian Revolution. +</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page16" name="page16"></a>[16]</span></p> + +<a name="h2H_4_0002" id="h2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + The Class Struggle +<br /> + <small>Devoted to International Socialism</small> +</h2> + +<p class="center"> +EDITED BY +<br /> +<big>LOUIS C. FRAINA and LUDWIG LORE</big> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +Articles have been contributed by Lenin, Trotzky, Litvinoff,<br /> +Katayama, Franz Mehring, Friedrich Adler, Karl Liebknecht,<br /> +Rosa Luxemburg, Santeri Nuorteva, and others. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +$1.50 per year; 25 cents a copy. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +We have also on hand the following pamphlets, some of which are +reprints from The Class Struggle: +</p> + +<table align="center" width="60%" summary="Pamphlet Listing"> +<tr><td> An Open Letter to American Liberals, by S. Nuorteva </td><td align="center"> 5</td><td align="center">cents </td></tr> +<tr><td>The Crisis in the German Social-Democracy, + by K. Liebknecht, F. Mehring, and R. Luxemburg </td><td align="center">35</td><td align="center">"</td></tr> +<tr><td> J'Accuse, by Friedrich Adler </td><td align="center">15</td><td align="center">"</td></tr> +<tr><td> Revolutionary Socialism, by Louis C. Fraina </td><td align="center">60</td><td align="center">"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="center"> +Special Rates to Agents and Socialist Locals +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"> +<big>The Socialist Publication Society</big> +<br /> +431 PULASKI ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="sc">The Co Operative Press, 15 Spruce St., New York</span> +</p> + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Letter to American Workingmen, by N. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Letter to American Workingmen + +Author: N. Lenin + +Release Date: February 10, 2011 [EBook #35232] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER TO AMERICAN WORKINGMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Odessa Paige Turner, David Garcia and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + + + +A LETTER TO AMERICAN WORKINGMEN + +_From the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia_ + +By N. LENIN + +Reprinted from THE CLASS STRUGGLE + +December, 1918 + +Price--5 Cents + + NEW YORK + THE SOCIALIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY + 431 PULASKI ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y. + December, 1918 + + +[Illustration] + + + + +A Letter to American Workingmen + +By N. Lenin. + + + Moscow, August 20, 1918. + +Comrades: A Russian Bolshevik who participated in the Revolution of +1905 and for many years afterwards lived in your country has offered to +transmit this letter to you. I have grasped this opportunity joyfully +for the revolutionary proletariat of America--insofar as it is the +enemy of American imperialism--is destined to perform an important task +at this time. + +The history of modern civilized America opens with one of those really +revolutionary wars of liberation of which there have been so few +compared with the enormous number of wars of conquest that were +caused, like the present imperialistic war, by squabbles among kings, +landholders and capitalists over the division of ill-gotten lands and +profits. It was a war of the American people against the English who +despoiled America of its resources and held in colonial subjection, +just as their "civilized" descendants are draining the life-blood of +hundreds of millions of human beings in India, Egypt and all corners +and ends of the world to keep them in subjection. + +Since that war 150 years have passed. Bourgeois civilization has born +its most luxuriant fruit. By developing the productive forces of +organized human labor, by utilizing machines and all the wonders of +technique America has taken the first place among free and civilized +nations. But at the same time America, like a few other nations, has +become characteristic for the depth of the abyss that divide a handful +of brutal millionaires who are stagnating in a mire of luxury, and +millions of laboring starving men and women who are always staring +want in the face. + +Four years of imperialistic slaughter have left their trace. +Irrefutably and clearly events have shown to the people that both +imperialistic groups, the English as well as the German, have been +playing false. The four years of war have shown in their effects the +great law of capitalism in all wars; that he who is richest and +mightiest profits the most, takes the greatest share of the spoils +while he who is weakest is exploited, martyred, oppressed and outraged +to the utmost. + +In the number of its colonial possessions, English imperialism has +always been more powerful than any of the other countries. England +has lost not a span of its "acquired" land. On the other hand it +has acquired control of all German colonies in Africa, has occupied +Mesopotamia and Palestine. + +German imperialism was stronger because of the wonderful organization +and ruthless discipline of "its" armies, but as far as colonies are +concerned, is much weaker than its opponent. It has now lost all of its +colonies, but has robbed half of Europe and throttled most of the small +countries and weaker peoples. What a high conception of "liberation" +on either side! How well they have defended their fatherlands, these +"gentlemen" of both groups, the Anglo-French and the German capitalists +together with their lackeys, the Social-Patriots. + +American plutocrats are wealthier than those of any other country +partly because they are geographically more favorably situated. They +have made the greatest profits. They have made all, even the weakest +countries, their debtors. They have amassed gigantic fortunes during +the war. And every dollar is stained with the blood that was shed by +millions of murdered and crippled men, shed in the high, honorable +and holy war of freedom. + +Had the Anglo-French and American bourgeoisie accepted the Soviet +invitation to participate in peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, +instead of leaving Russia to the mercy of brutal Germany a just peace +without annexations and indemnities, a peace based upon complete +equality could have been forced upon Germany, and millions of lives +might have been saved. Because they hoped to reestablish the Eastern +Front by once more drawing us into the whirlpool of warfare, they +refused to attend peace negotiations and gave Germany a free hand to +cram its shameful terms down the throat of the Russian people. It +lay in the power of the Allied countries to make the Brest-Litovsk +negotiations the forerunner of a general peace. It ill becomes them +to throw the blame for the Russo-German peace upon our shoulders! + +The workers of the whole world, in whatever country they may live, +rejoice with us and sympathize with us, applaud us for having burst the +iron ring of imperialistic agreements and treaties, for having dreaded +no sacrifice, however great, to free ourselves, for having established +ourselves as a socialist republic, even so rent asunder and plundered +by German imperialists, for having raised the banner of peace, the +banner of Socialism over the world. What wonder that we are hated by +the capitalist class the world over. But this hatred of imperialism and +the sympathy of the class-conscious workers of all countries give us +assurance of the righteousness of our cause. + +He is no Socialist who cannot understand that one cannot and must not +hesitate to bring even that greatest of sacrifice, the sacrifice of +territory, that one must be ready to accept even military defeat at the +hands of imperialism in the interests of victory over the bourgeoisie, +in the interests of a transfer of power to the working-class. For the +sake of "their" cause, that is for the conquest of world-power, the +imperialists of England and Germany have not hesitated to ruin a +whole of row of nations, from Belgium and Servia to Palestine and +Mesopotamia. Shall we then hesitate to act in the name of the +liberation of the workers of the world from the yoke of capitalism, in +the name of a general honorable peace; shall we wait until we can find +a way that entails no sacrifice; shall we be afraid to begin the fight +until an easy victory is assured; shall we place the integrity and +safety of this "fatherland" created by the bourgeoisie over the +interests of the international socialist revolution? + +We have been attacked for coming to terms with German militarism. +Is there no difference between a pact entered upon by Socialists and +a bourgeoisie (native or foreign) against the working-class, against +labor, and an agreement that is made between a working-class that has +overthrown its own bourgeoisie and a bourgeoisie of one side against +a bourgeoisie of another nationality for the protection of the +proletariat? Shall we not exploit the antagonism that exists between +the various groups of the bourgeoisie. In reality every European +understands this difference, and the American people, as I will +presently show, have had a very similar experience in its own history. +There are agreements and agreements, fagots et fagots, as the Frenchman +says. + +When the robber-barons of German imperialism threw their armies into +defenseless, demobilized Russia in February 1918 when Russia had staked +its hopes upon the international solidarity of the proletariat before +the international revolution had completely ripened, I did not hesitate +for a moment to come to certain agreements with French Monarchists. The +French captain Sadoul, who sympathized in words with the Bolsheviki +while in deeds he was the faithful servant of French imperialism, +brought the French officer de Lubersac to me. "I am a Monarchist. My +only purpose is the overthrow of Germany," de Lubersac declared to me. +"That is self understood (cela va sans dire)," I replied. But this by +no means prevented me from coming to an understanding with de Lubersac +concerning certain services that French experts in explosives were ready +to render in order to hold up the German advance by the destruction of +railroad lines. This is an example of the kind of agreement that every +class-conscious worker must be ready to adopt, an agreement in the +interest of Socialism. We shook hands with the French Monarchists +although we knew that each one of us would rather have seen the other +hang. But temporarily our interests were identical. To throw back the +rapacious advancing German army we made use of the equally greedy +interests of their opponents, thereby serving the interests of the +Russian and the international socialist revolution. + +In this way we furthered the cause of the working-class of Russia and +of other countries; in this way we strengthened the proletariat and +weakened the bourgeoisie of the world by making use of the usual and +absolutely legal practice of manoevering, shifting and waiting for the +moment the rapidly growing proletarian revolution in the more highly +developed nations had ripened. + +Long ago the American people used these tactics to the advantage of its +revolution. When America waged its great war of liberation against the +English oppressors, it likewise entered into negotiations with other +oppressors, with the French and the Spaniards who at that time owned a +considerable portion of what is now the United States. In its desperate +struggle for freedom the American people made "agreements" with one +group of oppressors against the other for the purpose of weakening all +oppressors and strengthening those who were struggling against tyranny. +The American people utilized the antagonism that existed between the +English and the French, at times even fighting side by side with the +armies of one group of oppressors, the French and the Spanish against +the others, the English. Thus it vanquished first the English and then +freed itself (partly by purchase) from the dangerous proximity of the +French and Spanish possessions. + +The great Russian revolutionist Tchernychewski once said: Political +activity is not as smooth as the pavement of the Nevski Prospect. +He is no revolutionist who would have the revolution of the proletariat +only under the "condition" that it proceed smoothly and in an orderly +manner, that guarantees against defeat be given beforehand, that the +revolution go forward along the broad, free, straight path to victory, +that there shall not be here and there the heaviest sacrifices, that we +shall not have to lie in wait in besieged fortresses, shall not have +to climb up along the narrowest path, the most impassible, winding, +dangerous mountain roads. He is no revolutionist, he has not yet freed +himself from the pedantry of bourgeois intellectualism, he will fall +back, again and again, into the camp of the counter-revolutionary +bourgeoisie. + +They are little more than imitators of the bourgeoisie, these gentlemen +who delight in holding up to us the "chaos" of revolution, the +"destruction" of industry, the unemployment, the lack of food. Can +there be anything more hypocritical than such accusations from people +who greeted and supported the imperialistic war and made common cause +with Kerensky when he continued the war? Is not this imperialistic war +the cause of all our misfortune? The revolution that was born by the +war must necessarily go on through the terrible difficulties and +sufferings that war created, through this heritage of destruction and +reactionary mass murder. To accuse us of "destruction" of industries +and "terror" is hypocrisy or clumsy pedantry, shows an incapability of +understanding the most elemental fundamentals of the raging, climatic +force of the class struggle, called Revolution. + +In words our accusers "recognize" this kind of class struggle, in +deeds they revert again and again to the middle class utopia of +"class-harmony" and the mutual "interdependence" of classes upon one +another. In reality the class struggle in revolutionary times has +always inevitably taken on the form of civil war, and civil war is +unthinkable without the worst kind of destruction, without terror and +limitations of form of democracy in the interests of the war. One must +be a sickly sentimentalist not to be able to see, to understand and +appreciate this necessity. Only the Tchechov type of the lifeless +"Man in the Box" can denounce the Revolution for this reason instead of +throwing himself into the fight with the whole vehemence and decision +of his soul at a moment when history demands that the highest problems +of humanity be solved by struggle and war. + +The best representatives of the American proletariat--those +representatives who have repeatedly given expression to their full +solidarity with us, the Bolsheviki, are the expression of this +revolutionary tradition in the life of the American people. This +tradition originated in the war of liberation against the English in +the 18th and the Civil War in the 19th century. Industry and commerce +in 1870 were in a much worse position than in 1860. But where can you +find an American so pedantic, so absolutely idiotic who would deny the +revolutionary and progressive significance of the American Civil War +of 1860-1865? + +The representatives of the bourgeoisie understand very well that the +overthrow of slavery was well worth the three years of Civil War, +the depth of destruction, devastation and terror that were its +accompaniment. But these same gentlemen and the reform socialists who +have allowed themselves to be cowed by the bourgeoisie and tremble at +the thought of a revolution, cannot, nay will not, see the necessity +and righteousness of a civil war in Russia, though it is facing a far +greater task, the work of abolishing capitalist wage slavery and +overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie. + +The American working class will not follow the lead of its bourgeoisie. +It will go with us against the bourgeoisie. The whole history of the +American people gives me this confidence, this conviction. I recall +with pride the words of one of the best loved leaders of the American +proletariat, Eugene V. Debs, who said in the "Appeal to Reason" at +the end of 1915, when it was still a socialist paper, in an article +entitled "Why Should I Fight?" that he would rather be shot than vote +for war credits to support the present criminal and reactionary war, +that he knows only one war that is sanctified and justified from the +standpoint of the proletariat: the war against the capitalist class, +the war for the liberation of mankind from wage slavery. I am not +surprised that this fearless man was thrown into prison by the American +bourgeoisie. Let them brutalize true internationalists, the real +representatives of the revolutionary proletariat. The greater the +bitterness and brutality they sow, the nearer is the day of the +victorious proletarian revolution. + +We are accused of having brought devastation upon Russia. Who is it +that makes these accusations? The train-bearers of the bourgeoisie, of +that same bourgeoisie that almost completely destroyed the culture of +Europe, that has dragged the whole continent back to barbarism, that +has brought hunger and destruction to the world. This bourgeoisie now +demands that we find a different basis for our Revolution than that of +destruction, that we shall not build it up upon the ruins of war, with +human beings degraded and brutalized by years of warfare. O, how human, +how just is this bourgeoisie! + +Its servants charge us with the use of terroristic methods.--Have the +English forgotten their 1649, the French their 1793? Terror was just +and justified when it was employed by the bourgeoisie for its own +purposes against feudal domination. But terror becomes criminal when +workingmen and poverty stricken peasants dare to use it against the +bourgeoisie. Terror was just and justified when it was used to put +one exploiting minority in the place of another. But terror becomes +horrible and criminal when it is used to abolish all exploiting +minorities, when it is employed in the cause of the actual majority, +in the cause of the proletariat and the semi-proletariat, of the +working-class and the poor peasantry. + +The bourgeoisie of international imperialism has succeeded in +slaughtering 10 millions, in crippling 20 millions in its war. Should +our war, the war of the oppressed and the exploited, against oppressors +and exploiters cost a half or a whole million victims in all countries, +the bourgeoisie would still maintain that the victims of the world war +died a righteous death, that those of the civil war were sacrificed +for a criminal cause. + +But the proletariat, even now, in the midst of the horrors of war, is +learning the great truth that all revolutions teach, the truth that has +been handed down to us by our best teachers, the founders of modern +Socialism. From them we have learned that a successful revolution is +inconceivable unless it breaks the resistance of the exploiting class. +When the workers and the laboring peasants took hold of the powers of +state, it became our duty to quell the resistance of the exploiting +class. We are proud that we have done it, that we are doing it. We only +regret that we did not do it, at the beginning, with sufficient +firmness and decision. + +We realize that the mad resistance of the bourgeoisie against the +socialist revolution in all countries is unavoidable. We know too, that +with the development of this revolution, this resistance will grow. But +the proletariat will break down this resistance and in the course of +its struggle against the bourgeoisie the proletariat will finally +become ripe for victory and power. + +Let the corrupt bourgeois press trumpet every mistake that is made by +our Revolution out into the world. We are not afraid of our mistakes. +The beginning of the revolution has not sanctified humanity. It is +not to be expected that the working classes who have been exploited +and forcibly held down by the clutches of want, of ignorance and +degradation for centuries should conduct its revolution without +mistakes. The dead body of bourgeois society cannot simply be put into +a coffin and buried. It rots in our midst, poisons the air we breathe, +pollutes our lives, clings to the new, the fresh, the living with a +thousand threads and tendrils of old customs, of death and decay. + +But for every hundred of our mistakes that are heralded into the world +by the bourgeoisie and its sycophants, there are ten thousand great +deeds of heroism, greater and more heroic because they seem so simple +and unpretentious, because they take place in the everyday life of the +factory districts or in secluded villages, because they are the deeds +of people who are not in the habit of proclaiming their every success +to the world, who have no opportunity to do so. + +But even if the contrary were true,--I know, of course, that this is +not so--but even if we had committed 10,000 mistakes to every 100 wise +and righteous deeds, yes, even then our revolution would be great +and invincible. And it will go down in the history of the world as +unconquerable. For the first time in the history of the world not the +minority, not alone the rich and the educated, but the real masses, the +huge majority of the working-class itself, are building up a new world, +are deciding the most difficult questions of social organization from +out of their own experience. + +Every mistake that is made in this work, in this honestly conscientious +cooperation of ten million plain workingmen and peasants in the +re-creation of their entire lives--every such mistake is worth +thousands and millions of "faultless" successes of the exploiting +minority, in outwitting and taking advantage of the laboring masses. +For only through these mistakes can the workers and peasants learn +to organize their new existence, to get along without the capitalist +class. Only thus will they be able to blaze their way, through +thousands of hindrances to victorious socialism. + +Mistakes are being made by our peasants who, at one stroke in the night +from October 25 to October 26, (Russian Calendar) 1917, did away with +all private ownership of land, and are now struggling, from month to +month, under the greatest difficulties, to correct their own mistakes, +trying to solve in practice the most difficult problems of organizing a +new social state, fighting against profiteers to secure the possession +of the land for the worker instead of for the speculator, to carry on +agricultural production under a system of communist farming on a large +scale. + +Mistakes are being made by our workmen in their revolutionary +activity, who, in a few short months, have placed practically all of +the larger factories and workers under state ownership, and are now +learning, from day to day, under the greatest difficulties, to conduct +the management of entire industries, to reorganize industries already +organized, to overcome the deadly resistance of laziness and +middle-class reaction and egotism. Stone upon stone they are building +the foundation for a new social community, the self-discipline of +labor, the new rule of the labor organizations of the working-class +over their members. + +Mistakes are being made in their revolutionary activity by the Soviets +which were first created in 1905 by the gigantic upheaval of the +masses. The Workmen's and Peasant's Soviets are a new type of state, a +new highest form of Democracy, a particular form of the dictatorship +of the proletariat, a mode of conducting the business of the state +without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie. For the first time +democracy is placed at the service of the masses, of the workers, and +ceases to be a democracy for the rich, as it is, in the last analysis, +in all capitalist, yes, in all democratic republics. For the first time +the masses of the people, in a nation of hundreds of millions, are +fulfilling the task of realizing the dictatorship of the proletariat +and the semi-proletariat, without which socialism is not to be thought +of. + +Let incurable pedants, crammed full of bourgeois democratic and +parliamentary prejudices, shake their heads gravely over our Soviets, +let them deplore the fact that we have no direct elections. These +people have forgotten nothing, have learned nothing in the great +upheaval of 1914-1918. The combination of the dictatorship of the +proletariat with the new democracy of the proletariat, of civil war +with the widest application of the masses to political problems, such +a combination cannot be achieved in a day, cannot be forced into the +battered forms of formal parliamentary democratism. In the Soviet +Republic there arises before us a new world, the world of Socialism. +Such a world cannot be materialized as if by magic, complete in every +detail, as Minerva sprang from Jupiter's head. + +While the old bourgeoisie democratic constitutions, for instance, +proclaimed formal equality and the right of free assemblage, the +constitution of the Soviet Republic repudiates the hypocrisy of a +formal equality of all human beings. When the bourgeoisie republicans +overturned feudal thrones, they did not recognize the rules of formal +equality of monarchists. Since we here are concerned with the task of +overthrowing the bourgeoisie, only fools or traitors will insist on the +formal equality of the bourgeoisie. The right of free assemblage is not +worth an iota to the workman and to the peasant when all better meeting +places are in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Our Soviets have taken over +all usable buildings in the cities and towns out of the hands of the +rich and have placed them at the disposal of the workmen and peasants +for meeting and organization purposes. That is how our right of +assemblage looks--for the workers. That is the meaning and content of +our Soviet, of our socialist constitution. + +And for this reason we are all firmly convinced that the Soviet +Republic, whatever misfortune may still lie in store for it, is +unconquerable. + +It is unconquerable because every blow that comes from the powers +of madly raging imperialism, every new attack by the international +bourgeoisie will bring new, and hitherto unaffected strata of +workingmen and peasants into the fight, will educate them at the cost +of the greatest sacrifice, making them hard as steel, awakening a new +heroism in the masses. + +We know that it may take a long time before help can come from you, +comrades, American Workingmen, for the development of the revolution +in the different countries proceeds along various paths, with varying +rapidity (how could it be otherwise!) We know full well that the +outbreak of the European proletarian revolution may take many weeks to +come, quickly as it is ripening in these days. We are counting on the +inevitability of the international revolution. But that does not mean +that we count upon its coming at some definite, nearby date. We have +experienced two great revolutions in our own country, that of 1905 +and that of 1917, and we know that revolutions cannot come neither +at a word of command nor according to prearranged plans. We know that +circumstances alone have pushed us, the proletariat of Russia, forward, +that we have reached this new stage in the social life of the world not +because of our superiority but because of the peculiarly reactionary +character of Russia. But until the outbreak of the international +revolution, revolutions in individual countries may still meet with +a number of serious setbacks and overthrows. + +And yet we are certain that we are invincible, for if humanity will +not emerge from this imperialistic massacre broken in spirit, it +will triumph. Ours was the first country to break the chains of +imperialistic warfare. We broke them with the greatest sacrifice, +but they are broken. We stand outside of imperialistic duties and +considerations, we have raised the banner of the fight for the complete +overthrow of imperialism for the world. + +We are in a beleaguered fortress, so long as no other international +socialist revolution comes to our assistance with its armies. But these +armies exist, they are stronger than ours, they grow, they strive, they +become more invincible the longer imperialism with its brutalities +continues. Workingmen the world over are breaking with their betrayers, +with their Gompers and their Scheidemanns. Inevitably labor is +approaching communistic Bolshevistic tactics, is preparing for the +proletarian revolution that alone is capable of preserving culture and +humanity from destruction. + +We are invincible, for invincible is the Proletarian Revolution. + + + + +The Class Struggle + +Devoted to International Socialism + +EDITED BY LOUIS C. FRAINA and LUDWIG LORE + + + Articles have been contributed by Lenin, Trotzky, Litvinoff, + Katayama, Franz Mehring, Friedrich Adler, Karl Liebknecht, + Rosa Luxemburg, Santeri Nuorteva, and others. + + +$1.50 per year; 25 cents a copy. + +We have also on hand the following pamphlets, some of which are +reprints from The Class Struggle: + + + An Open Letter to American Liberals, by S. Nuorteva 5 cents + The Crisis in the German Social-Democracy, + by K. Liebknecht, F. Mehring, and R. Luxemburg 35 " + J'Accuse, by Friedrich Adler 15 " + Revolutionary Socialism, by Louis C. Fraina 60 " + + +Special Rates to Agents and Socialist Locals + + +The Socialist Publication Society + +431 PULASKI ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y. + +[Illustration] + +The Co Operative Press, 15 Spruce St., New York + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Letter to American Workingmen, by N. 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