ABSTRACT
AS MEMBERS of their international organization, the socialist parties had done all they could to avert the war. But when nevertheless it broke out, they rallied to their national causes with a readiness that was truly astounding. The German Marxists hesitated even less than the English laborites. 1 Of course it must be borne in mind that every belligerent nation was fully convinced that it was waging a purely defensive war—every war is defensive or at least “preventive” in the eyes of the nations that wage it. 2 Still, if we reflect that the socialist parties had an indubitable constitutional right to vote against war budgets and that within the general moral schema of bourgeois democracy there is no obligation to identify oneself with national policy—men far removed from socialist anti-militarism in fact disapproved of the war in all the belligerent countries—we seem to face a problem that is not solved by doubtful references to Marx or to previous declarations by Bebel and von Vollmar that they would defend their country if attacked. There should have been no difficulty in recalling Marx’s true teaching on the subject. Moreover, defending one’s country means only doing one’s duty with the army; it does not imply voting with the government and entering into unions sacrées. 3 Guesde and Sembat in France and Vandervelde in Belgium who took office in war cabinets, and the German socialists who voted the war budgets, thus did more than loyalty to their nations required, as then commonly understood. 4
