22.01.1998

Russia’s appeal - will British workers remain silent?

From The Call, paper of the British Socialist Party, January 17 1918

Manifesto of the British Socialist Party to the national Labour Party conference at Nottingham

Comrades

The revolutionary Russian workmen and peasants have addressed an urgent and imperative appeal to the British working class movement.

In face of unrelenting opposition from the ruling classes of the Entente countries, in spite of abuse, calumny and misrepresentation, the Russian people’s government has opened the way for an immediate general peace on the basis of no annexations, no indemnities and the rights of all peoples to self-determination.

The invitation to take part in peace negotiations on this basis, issued by Russia to all the belligerents, has been contemptuously ignored by the Entente governments. M Pichon, the French foreign minister, openly derides the Russian proposal and demands the forcible acquisition of Alsace-Lorraine without regard to the wishes of its inhabitants. Mr Lloyd George threatens that Russia will be abandoned and her frontier provinces left to the tender mercies of the kaiser’s government. President Wilson, whilst rendering lip service to the Russian Revolution, turns a deaf ear to the proposal to put the Russian formula into practical effect.

All the Entente statesmen denounce the crafty German imperialists who, whilst professing to accept the right of self-determination for the peoples of Poland, Courland and Lithuania, seek to shelter their annexationist designs behind the spurious councils of German barons and landowners, established since the military occupation. All demand that the German armies shall evacuate these territories and the peoples left free to decide their own destinies free from the menace of an alien military force. But no Entente statesman has expressed the willingness to apply the same principle to the peoples of the territories occupied by the Entente since the beginning of the war.

All the Entente statesmen profess to strive for the liberty of the people of Alsace-Lorraine and the unfree peoples of Austria. But none has declared willingness to give equal liberties to the subject nationalities of India, Egypt, Ireland or the other territories forcibly acquired in the past by the Entente powers.

By the publication of the secret treaties, made behind the backs of their peoples, the Russian democracy has torn off the mask that hid the imperialist designs of the Entente governments. Their insistence upon full publication in all their dealing with the German diplomatists has forced the German imperialists to reveal their annexationist plans. Their enunciation of the democratic principles, on which alone a durable peace can be based, has confounded the aggressionists of both groups of belligerents. The ruling classes see in the triumph of these principles a menace to their own class domination; they fear the new era of social, political and economic emancipation of the working class.

But Russia’s appeal is made over the heads of the ruling classes. It is directed to the common people of all countries, who have nothing to gain from the imperialist aims and territorial lusts of their ruling cliques.

Already the courageous stand of the Russian people has created the powerful peace movement amongst the workers of Germany and Austria. If the workers of Britain, the most powerful of all the Allies, made it clear to the German workmen as the Russian workers have done that every belligerent nation must apply the doctrine of no annexations and the principle of self-determination to their own possessions and empires, it would be impossible for the German Junkers to keep the German workmen any longer in the war.

The workers of all the warring countries can satisfy each other that they accord to all an equal right to existence and development. That is the Russian workers’ message. They have found there is no strength or virtue for the common people in national aggrandisement or imperial might. They have done more to harass and weaken the German autocracy than all the battles, with their millions of dead, than all the speeches of imperialist statesmen.

Let British Labour join them in that task. Let the forthcoming Labour Party conference at Nottingham give the answer to Russia’s urgent and imperative appeal. Say to the government: ‘Labour will not allow you to betray Russia because you hate and fear the Revolution.’

Say to the government: ‘If you will not comply with Russia’s request for an immediate armistice and negotiations for a general peace, Labour will thrust you aside and take up itself the task of restoring peace to a sorrow-stricken world.’

Comrades, let British Labour grasp the hands of the Russian workmen and peasants. Together they can convince the German workmen that they suffer no danger from the common people of any land, that all alike are victims of capitalist imperialism.

Let Labour rely upon itself. Speak clearly and unmistakably. Act swiftly. On British Labour rests the hope of peace now and its presence in the days to come.

On behalf of the Executive Committee of the British Socialist Party

Albert Inkpin

Secretary

[Editor’s note: Unsold issues of The Call containing this appeal, along with leaflets carrying the same message intended for distribution at the Labour Party conference, were seized by Scotland Yard shortly after publication.]