To the Jewish Workers¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter, an editorial introduction to a Yiddish-language pamphlet on the Third Congress of the RSDLP, argues that the unity of the proletariat across national lines is an objective necessity imposed by the conditions of capitalist exploitation and tsarist oppression. The text grounds this claim in the universalist slogan of the Communist Manifesto, asserting that the growing integration of international Social-Democratic tactics and organisation is the practical embodiment of “Workers of all countries, unite!”. The specific burden of Jewish workers is highlighted: they suffer not only the general economic and political oppression endured by all Russian workers, but also the additional yoke of a disfranchised nationality, deprived of elementary civic rights and subjected to the autocracy’s deliberate policy of inciting pogroms. Against this backdrop, the chapter contends that the closest possible unity among proletarians of different nationalities is a precondition for any victorious struggle.
The core of the chapter is a polemic against the Bund, the Jewish Social-Democratic organisation. It traces the breakdown of unity from the First Congress of the RSDLP in 1898, when the Bund affiliated as an autonomous section, through to its withdrawal from the party after the Second Congress in 1903. The Bund’s error is diagnosed as a product of “nationalist ideas” in sharp contradiction to the Social-Democratic worldview. Specifically, the Bund is accused of pursuing a policy of weaning Jewish workers away from non-Jewish workers, claiming a separate national existence for the Jews, and insisting on a federalist principle of organisation that demanded recognition as the sole, monopolistic representative of the Jewish proletariat with no territorial limits to its activities. The Second Congress rightly rejected these terms, the chapter argues, because in regions like South Russia the organised Jewish proletariat already formed part of the general party organisation. The Bund’s withdrawal is therefore characterised as a grave and deplorable mistake, born of untenable nationalist views and a long-standing policy of aloofness.
The chapter presents the Third Congress’s resolution to publish literature in Yiddish, and this pamphlet itself, as evidence of the party’s non-nationalist policy and its commitment to reaching Jewish workers. It points to the Central Committee’s work in setting up regional committees uniting Jewish and non-Jewish workers, and frames the report on the Third Congress as a demonstration that the party is emerging from its internal crisis. The ultimate appeal is practical and urgent: the hour of political struggle against the autocracy is near, and the outcome of the revolution depends on the class-consciousness, unity, and determination of the proletariat. The editorial closes by calling on Jewish workers to march to freedom under the leadership of a truly united RSDLP.