Part 003 - PAMPHLET 036 003

1 digital image

3. V.I. LENIN ON JOHN MACLEAN. John MacLean and Karl Liebknecht1 "Notwithstanding desperate persecution by the bourgeoisie, and notwithstanding the suppression of free speech and press, there has become outlined in every country during the war a trend of revolutionary internationalism. This trend has remained faithful to socialism. It has not yielded to chauvinism; it has not allowed it to be covered up by lying phrases about defence of the fatherland; but, on the contrary, it has exposed all the falsehood of these phrases, the whole criminal nature of the present war which the bourgeoisie of both coalitions is waging with predatory aims in view? To this trend belong, for instance, MacLean in England, who was sentenced to eighteen months hard labour for his struggle against the predatory English bour- geoisie, Karl Liebknecht in Germany, who was sentenced to hard labour by the German imperialist robbers for the 'crime' of advocating a revolution in Germany and exposing the predatory character of the war on the German side. To this trend belong also the Bolsheviks in Russia, who are being persecuted by the agents of Russian republican and democratic imperialism4 for the same 'crime' for which MacLean and Karl Liebknecht are being persecuted." 8th September 1917 - 'On the Stockholm Conference', Collected Works, Vol. XXI, Book I, p. 119. Working Class 'Treason' "In every country, the capitalists are pouring oceans of lies, calumnies, vilifications and accusations of treason upon those socialists who are behaving as Karl Liebknecht is behaving in Germany, or as the Pravda-ists5 are behaving in Russia, i.e., who are destroying the 'inner unity' between the workers and the capitalists, between the work- ers and the Plekhanovs6, between the workers and the 'centr- ists'7 of each country, and who are creating unity among the workers of all countries in order to put an end to the predatory, murderous, imperialist war, in order to rid man- kind of the yoke of capitalism. "In Germany, the capitalists are persecuting Karl Lieb- knecht and his friends as traitors. In Germany, too, our comrade, Karl Liebknecht, has been repeatedly threatened