The Third International.
by Alexandra Kollontai †
1
Published in The American Socialist [Chicago], v. 2, no. 15, whole no. 155 (Oct. 23, 1915), pg. 2.
Note:— Alexandra Kollontai has just arrived in
this country from war-torn Europe and is now touring
the nation under the direction of the German Federation
of the national Socialist Party. In this article she gives
some of her ideas on the reorganization of the international forces of Socialism.
When in the distant future some historian shall
picture the bloody year of horror, and describe the
shattering crisis in the labor movement and the division and dissolution of the Socialist International, he
will be compelled to declare: “In the depths, in spite
of all the wavering of faith and pessimism, in spite of
the despair and ruling distrust of one another, there
arose during this time the fresh and vital germ of a
new international of labor, that international that has
fulfilled the great work of releasing the proletariat from
the yoke of capitalism.”
The Third International is no utopia, no “baseless vision” of incorrigible optimism. The elements
from which it has to be built are already in our midst
and have been called into life by the existing crisis.
The new international of labor is made up of such
men as Karl Liebknecht, the members of the Russian
Duma languishing in Siberia, of the ever-growing “left”
of the German and Russian Social Democratic Parties
that have remained true to the principles of the class
struggle and Socialism.
The New Elements.
The Third International of labor includes the
brave Italian comrades who have protested to the last
against the murder of the people. In the new international are the few French Socialist and unions and the
numerous English party members of the International
Labour Party and the British Socialist Party, who have
fought for the fundamental principles of the working
class, who have raised their protest against the war and
who will have nothing to do with “civil peace.” The
new, coming International is composed of those workers who have met the compulsory “civil peace” with
strikes and uprisings.
But the real, the firm basis of the new International must be formed of the Socialist youth. Youth,
the bearer of the future — youth, that cares so little
for the past and expects everything from the coming
life and the future. Youth, whose heart is not contaminated with the petty bourgeois mentality and whose
mind can not be misled by the ideology of a bygone
age. The fresh, brave, revolutionary, sacrificing youth
of labor, that presses forward, ever forward.
All Children of Age.
It is no accident that in all the decisive historical
moments, it was just the “great” and the “old” men
who sacrificed the ideals of the future to the past, to
ancient, outgrown principles. A person may be ever so
great as a thinker and fighter, he still is and must remain only the child of his age. And every age has its
own ideology and its own progressive tasks. When our
“great men,” leaders, laid the cornerstones of the Second International, the principle of the “defense of the
fatherland” was a progressive and democratic principle,
closely bound up with the struggle of the third estate
to establish the modern capitalist state. “Defense of
the fatherland” belongs to the time of the defense of
†- Alexandra Kollontai was in America for about 5 months, lecturing steadily throughout the course of her stay. She returned to
Europe on Feb. 17, 1916.
2 Kollontai: The Third International [October 23, 1915]
democracy against the last attacks of feudalism, when
to stand for the national state was to create the indispensable foundation for the class movement of the
proletariat.
It is to be wondered at that it is just the “old
comrades,” the “great men” whose services to the movement remain invaluable that look upon the “defense
of the fatherland” as the highest duty of the proletariat, and that appear to overlook the fact that the
maintenance of the class solidarity of the proletariat
of the world has now supplanted this old duty? The
anarchist Kropotkin and the Marxist Plekhanov, the
orthodox Kautsky and the wavering Vandervelde, Adler, and Vaillant, all can join hands, all are agreed upon
the fatal, false, and absolute principle: first “fatherland,”
then the party…
Hope Is In Youth.
It lies in the hands of the youth of labor to put
an end to this false idea and to attack with fresh courage the new tasks of the labor movement.
It is the youth of labor that must weld together
the shattered links of the International. But while the
new International corresponds to the new conditions
of life and conducts an effective and vital battle against
the enemy, this new and third International must have
three cornerstones as its foundation. The first cornerstone must be the organic organized unity of the labor
International. No purely formal, no purely external
alliance of national parties can constitute the center of
the world proletariat. Its task must be to replace jingoism and narrow patriotism with the feeling of international solidarity and supplant allegiance to the fatherland with allegiance to class. What have laborers to
defend in a capitalistic state? Their outlawry? Their
exploitation? Their fetters? The watchword of the new
International must be: No war of defense in the conflict of capitalistic states but an aggressive war of conquest of the working class against the entire capitalist
world.
Revolutionary Tactics.
The second cornerstone must be the revolutionary tactics and methods of fighting of the organized
proletariat. We stand on the eve of tremendous, unavoidable, revolutionary struggles. The capitalist
method of production has reached its zenith; private
property and national boundaries stand in the road of
its further development. Conditions are ripe to call
into life the last decisive battle. The second great task
of the new International must be to equip this proletariat of all nations for this decisive struggle.
There remains the third cornerstone: the decisive and relentless battle to the bitter end against war between nations and peoples and against the domination of militarism. The war between nations and peoples robs the proletariat of its strongest and only irresistible weapon — class solidarity. War weakens the class feeling and brings with it “civil peace,” the highest aspiration of the capitalist world. Therefore it is the first duty of the youth of labor to use every energy to meet every threat of war between nations with the only effective reply — to call the “red terror” into life. It is the power of youth to take up all these splendid tasks. The building of the new International depends upon them. Make way for the Socialist youth, the bearers of the future! In all reverence, we bare our heads to the veterans of the movement, but it is only through the anti-reform, anti-military, revolution-minded, and internationally organized youth of labor that a new, strong, creative International of labor can be erected.
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