The Draft Resolution of the Left Wing at Zimmerwald¶
Core Argument¶
Chapter Digest: The Draft Resolution of the Left Wing at Zimmerwald
This chapter presents the revolutionary Marxist analysis of the First World War as the product of imperialism—the highest stage of capitalism, in which productive forces have outgrown the confines of national states and the Great Powers enslave other nations in the scramble for colonies, raw materials, and fields for capital investment. The core argument is that the war is a reactionary, imperialist conflict between two groups of slaveholders, each fighting for colonial repartition and national oppression. Against this reality, all talk of ‘defence of the fatherland’ is exposed as bourgeois deception. Socialists, the chapter insists, can recognise such a slogan only when it serves progressive democratic aims—a condition entirely absent from the present war.
The key claims rest on the Basel Manifesto of 1912, which correctly anticipated the outbreak of this war and proclaimed the necessity of proletarian revolution. The social-chauvinists who voted war credits and entered bourgeois governments have, in the chapter’s view, betrayed socialism outright. The war itself has created a revolutionary situation, and socialists must exploit it for revolutionary agitation, unafraid to consider the defeat of their own country as the lesser evil. The slogan of transforming the imperialist war into civil war for proletarian revolution is therefore preserved as the central strategic task. The Russian revolutionary crisis, the chapter argues, is now indivisibly linked to the socialist revolution in the West; the proletariat must pursue its own class slogans—overthrow of the monarchy, republic, confiscation of estates, eight-hour day—while breaking decisively with petty-bourgeois vacillators such as the Trudoviks, SRs, and liquidationists.
The Zimmerwald Conference (5–8 September 1915) provides the historical and theoretical context. The chapter records that the international socialist movement is slowly moving toward a break with opportunism and social-chauvinism, but the conference itself was a contradictory step forward. The adopted manifesto incorporates some fundamental ideas of revolutionary Marxism—calling the war imperialist and denouncing ‘defence of the fatherland’ as a capitalist lie—yet it contains serious inconsistencies. It omits that the greater part of the socialist press repeats this lie; it notes the collapse of socialist parties without explaining its roots in the long history of opportunism; and it calls for revolutionary struggle without specifying revolutionary methods. The Left wing’s draft resolution was refused submission to a committee by 19 votes to 12. Nevertheless, the Central Committee was right to sign the manifesto, retaining full freedom to criticise, for the conference was a step forward: the Left rallied as a group, voiced its ideas, and helped form a new International Socialist Committee. The chapter concludes with a notable polemical edge, affirming that the Russian workers will see their Party’s tactics confirmed in a wider arena, as life advances through Russia’s defeat toward revolution in Russia and, connectedly, toward civil war in Europe.