The Future Belongs to the PeopleLiebknecht, Karl Paul August Friedrich
History
The Future Belongs to the People
Liebknecht, Karl Paul August Friedrich
World War, 1914-1918
Only blindness can order the continuation of the slaughter until the
"enemy" is crushed. The well-being of all nations is inseparably
connected; the struggle of the organized working class can only be
carried out internationally.
Those who are seven times wise and whose weak souls are easily carried
away by the whirls of diplomatic winds and lost in the gulfs of
jingoism, say that the labor movement will no longer be international.
The world war which has smashed the International must, however, be
realized as a powerful sermon making clear the need for a new
International, an International of another kind, with a different force
from that which the capitalist powers so easily scattered on August 4,
1914.
Only in the cooeperation of the working masses of all countries, in times
of war as in times of peace, does the salvation of humanity lie. Nowhere
have the masses desired this war. Nowhere do they desire it. Why should
they, then, with a loathing for war in their hearts, murder each other
to the finish? It would be a sign of weakness, it is said, for any one
people to suggest peace; well, let all the people suggest it together.
The nation which speaks first will not show weakness but strength. It
will win the glory and gratitude of posterity. It is the duty of every
Socialist at the present time to be a prophet of international
brotherhood, realizing that every word he speaks in favor of socialism
and peace, every action he performs for these ideals enflame similar
words and actions in other countries, until the flames of the desire for
peace shall flare high over all Europe. The example which you and our
Russian and Servian comrades have given to the world will have an
emulating effect wherever Socialists have been ensnared by the designs
of the ruling classes, and I am sure the mass of the British workers
will soon rally to the International Labor Party. Already among the
German workers there is far greater opposition to the war than is
generally supposed, and the louder the echo of the cry for peace in
other countries the more vehemently and energetically will they work for
peace here. Thus shall the working classes of all the belligerent
countries become conscious of the necessity to fight for a peace
consistent with the principles of Socialism, a peace without conquest
and without humiliation, a peace based not on hatred but on fraternity,
not on force but on freedom, a peace which, because of its justice, may
be everlasting. In this way, even during the war, the International can
be revived and can atone for its previous mistakes. Thus it must revive,
a different International, increased not only in numerical strength but
in revolutionary fervor, in clearness of vision and in preparedness to
overcome the danger of absolutism, of secret diplomacy, and of
capitalist conspiracies against peace.
Workers of the World, unite!
Unite in a war against war!
With Socialist greetings,
KARL LIEBKNECHT.
BERLIN, _December, 1914_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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