97 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
97 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
Otto Ruhle's Speech in the Reichstag
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25th October 1918
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In the name of those social democratic workers and soldiers who
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attach themselves neither to the "governmental" socialists
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party nor to the Independent Social Democrats, and who are
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nevertheless numbered in thousands and thousands, in the name
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of these men who demand the right to make this tribunal listen,
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and to have their say in an important political and historical
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situation, I want, very briefly, to give our point of view on
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the problems which have been at the centre of the discussion
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for the last few days.
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We reject any peace which the bourgeois)capitalist governments
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intend to, and are on the point of concluding, on the backs of
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the people who have been bled white. In the epoch of
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imperialism a compromise peace which can be in the interests of
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the people, in the interests of the working class, is something
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purely and simply impossible. Such an agreement can only be
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reached at the expense of the people. For the political,
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historic and economic contradiction which opposes capital to
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labour, the bourgeoisie to labour, has not been overcome; it
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continues to exist and even the war has only served to deepen
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and enlarge it.
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This proposed peace, about which we are concerned, is only
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designed to save from catastrophe, which is menacing it, the
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system of exploitation and enslavement of the peoples,
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practised until now with all that this implies on the level of
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the State, law, legislation and the economy.
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For the labouring class there cannot exist a peace of
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compromise on the basis of a capitalist regime. They demand a
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peace founded on force, that is to say that their mortal enemy,
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the bourgeoisie, should be defeated, the bourgeois)capitalist
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government overthrown, militarism shattered. Thus will the
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revolutionary proletariat impose its socialist peace on the
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bourgeois regime which it will have defeated and overthrown.
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In the second place we reject this supposed democracy, this
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parliamentarism, which the bourgeois)capitalist regime is
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offering to the German people at the very moment when it is no
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longer possible to deny that militarism, which till now was the
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firmest supporter of the ruling class, is crumbling
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irresistibly, and when the high command itself is convinced
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that the war is lost. This pseudo)democracy by the grace of
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Hindenburg is nothing else but a fig)leaf, an illusion to
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mislead opinion: in agreeing to phony reforms, reforms on
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paper, you shield the essential heart of the capitalist system,
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you act as its saviour by ensuring that it is not prosecuted in
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front of the tribunal of the masses. The social)democrats are
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called upon to takeupon themselves the role of saviour at the
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last hour, to protect this bourgeois society which is visibly
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cracking up: the masses look upon the attitude as a shameful
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betrayal. They see themselves mocked by this social democracy,
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which they are asked to take for a government of the people.
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The masses, to feel themselves free, have need of something
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else: democracy and socialism, the Republic founded on the
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socialist revolution, and to this end, they demand in the first
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place the abdication of the Emperor as the instigator of the
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present war.
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Finally we reject the so)called League of Nations, with the
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help of which the bourgeois)capitalist governments, along with
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certain Social Democrats, want to recover after the war. This
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League of Nations, whatever its name, can be nothing else than
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a coalition of powers hostile to the workers and enemies of
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liberty; a Holy Alliance founded to crush the social revolution
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which is daily gaining ground. We can see how the great
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capitalist powers agree marvellously in order to accomplish
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this infamy; to strangle the peoples revolution in Russia
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towards which we hold a boundless sympathy. The working class
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does not expect its liberty from a Society of Nations of the
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Wilson)type or from any similar scheme attainable only under a
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capitalist regime. It aspires to the fraternization of all
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peoples in order to set up an association which will guarantee
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a lasting peace and civilisation, under the banner of
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triumphant socialism.
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I call upon the entire working class, and in particular the
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working class of Germany, to achieve this socialism by
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Revolution. The time for action has come.
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----- End Included Message -----
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Otto Ruhle was a founder member of the Communist Workers Party of
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Germany and attended the second congress of the Comintern as
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a delegate from that organisation. The party, part of what was
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called "left-communism", drew some of its ideas from the IWW and
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was an outspoken opponent of Bolshevism.
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In later years, Ruhle came to the conclusion all parties were
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reactionary and came close to an anarcho-syndicalist position.
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