THE DISSOLVED DUMA:

NZ Truth, Issue 114, 24 August 1907, Page 8

THE DISSOLVED DUMA:

WHY WAS IT DISSOLVED ?

The Indignant International.

It Arranges for European Parliamentary Action*

No Alliances with the Butchers of St. Petersburg.

Tlie cablegrams have informed us that a demonstration was held recently m Trafalgar Square, m -which the Russian despotism was condemned m the most scathing terms, and the suggestion that any sort of treaty should be entered into between Great Britain and Russia was repudiated with horror. Protests from the same persons as those who took part m the demonstration mentioned also prevented the British Fleet i being sent on the proposed "courtesy visit" -to Cronstadt. The camarilla of Grand Dukes that uses as its puppet the Tsar of Russia has indeed succeeded m arousing the enmity of the whole of the working classes of Europe , and, as the working class of every country is powerfully represented m its Parliament, the workers are able to make things warm for the Russian despotism. In fact, Russia is not entirely free from danger of such a COMBINED EUROPEAN ATTACK upon her as France had to face during the French Revolution. The probabilities of this are not very great; but there exists the possibility. The Social Democracy of the world is organised internationality. It has its International Socialist Bureau, and this representative body, sitting at Brussels, has just issued the following manifesto :— At the very moment when Nicholas 11. was preparing to convoke the First Peace Conference, his policy -m the Far East rendered inevitable the war against Japan. At the moment of receiving the homage of the 'Second' Conference at the Hague, he ordered the dissolution of the second Duma. This double coincidence admirably illustrates the comedy which has been, and is being, played at the Hague and St. Petersburg. The absurdity will be complete when the 'Third' Conference sits m the palace erected by the man who, among the foremost of the Unites States, hurled an armed force against the workin- class, and defined to the world his conception of social peace by having the workers m his factories — the creators of his immense fortune — shot down. BY A PINKERTON GANG. The .proletariat has long ago been enlightened on the traditional policy of the Government of Russia, the pivot of all reactions. Peace abroad, as conceived by that Government, is not the suppression of war : it is simply the enfeeblement of the adversaries of Czarism and the consolidation of its rule. The domestic peace it. desires is the people crushed ; the autocracy perpetuated. After the first Hague Conference, Nicholas 11. had Manchuria- devastated, and perpetrated the horrors of Blagovestchensk. He violated his oath to the people of Finland, and wallowed m the blood of tortured Russia. He re-established at Riga the tortures of the Middle ■ Ages; he let loose his soldiery to pillage and massacre with impunity the poor peasants of Georgia ; he permitted the gaolers of the 'prisons of Ekaterinoslav to bayonet the unfortunate political prisoners committed to their charge. During the Moscow

insurrection he allowed tlie ambulances to be fired upon, and, LONG AFTER THE REVOLT, the Guards of his Majesty shot down, without any form of trial, railway workers while engaged m their ordinary avoca-tioas. The Czar has conducted himself to- ' wards his own subjects as he would ! have been ashamed to conduct him- ' elf towards a hostile soldiery ! And it is this chief of the band of capitalist and colonial pirates who claims to impose himself upon the world as a symbol and personification of right overcoming force, of the Entente Cordiale supplanting sanguinary strife, of the treaty of peace supplanting fratricidal war. In admitting that, apart from all this, he may be sincere, it is impossible for him to realise his pacific intentions, because militarism is nothing but the armament organised by the State for the combined subjection of the working class under the economic and political yoke of the bourgeoisie; because m the capitalist regime, wars between States are generally only the consequence of their rivalry m the world-market, because each power is compelled, not only to maintain every existing outlet for its produce, but to conquer others, and this, too often, by .the subjugation of other peoples and the confiscation of their territory. Let the diplomatists sitting at the Hague look at themselves ! There they will see the masters of South Africa side by side with the DESPOTS OF INDIA, the conquerors of Madagascar by the side of the exploiters of the Congo, and the victors of Manchuria cheek by jowl with their unfortunate adversaries. Wars, which favor the prejudices systematically cultivated and encouraged by the dominant class with the object of setting the different peoples against each other, appear to the proletariat as the very essence of capitalism, and they will only disappear with capitalist exploitation itself. The working class, on the other hand, is the natural enemy of wars, because it is the principal victim of them — victim through the sacrifice of its children, and by the loss of its goods—because wars are m contradiction with the aim of Socialism, which is the creation of a new order of things, based on the solidarity of the producers, the fraternity of the nations, the liberty of peoples. When, m 1870, Germany annexed Alsace-Lorraine, the representatives of the Socialist proletariat, such as Bebel and Laebknecht, protested against the war and the annexation. When, m 1904. the official world of Russia and Japan sacrificed some thousands of young lives, the representatives of the Russian and Japanese proletariats fraternally _ clasped hands with each other at Amsterdam. 'In 1870, while the CANNON WERE THUNDERING on the frontiers, the German workers wrote to the workers of France :— "We shall never forget that the workers of all countries are our friends, and that the despots of all countries are our enemies." And the French workers replied to the German Yorkers : — "French workers ! German workers ! Spanish workers ! Let our voices unite m a cry, "of reprobatioa against war !" Such was the language of the first International Workingmen's Association. Such is the ianguage of the new Working-class International ! Its representatives have, m spite of calumny and persecution, pursued the idea of peace between nations by its acts, m refusing systematically all military credit, and we know that, on the day that the workers become masters of the armies war will be at an end ! That is why they pursue persistently the military disarmament of- the bourgeoisie and the armament of the working-class by the general armament of the people. Every time that . ■A- MENACING CLOUD appears on the political horizon the working-class has intervened, m the ■ Parliaments aaid m the streets, iby its representatives;, and by its demonstrations, and it is fully determined., m, the hour of danger, to use every means m its power to frustrate and prevent war. Its policy will not be contradictory, and just as the English workers were against their Government during the Transvaal war. so we shall see that two sections of the international proletariat are not drawn into two opposing camps. The Working-class International has always maintained this principle : that a Government cannot threaten the independence of another nation, without hostility to that nation, its working-class, and to the whole international working-class. That is why the idea of peace can take form and triumph only by the progress and the realti.sationl of the Socialist idea. War, on the contrary, finds its most .fruitful field within tho bulwarks of absolutism. The dissolution of the I Duma constitutes, from this point of view, a danger for the whole or Europe. It has- surprised no one.. We are accustomed to see the Czarism violate its e'n.gag-em©nts, and whenever it may have the power it will act towards other nations as it has acted towards other people. Nicholas 11. promised, lit HIS HOUR OF DANGER,liberty to the people of Russia. But when the peril seemed to him less [menacing, he dismissed the Duma, which did not appear to him to he sufficiently docile. He desired 1 a Parliament of flunkeys. The Russian Government accepted the name of Parliamentarism, but not the tiring. In response to the demands of the cam- | arilla and of his master, M. Stolypin ; promulgated restrictive legislation, oausntl the doctoral lists to be tamncrefl vril.'\ imprisoned his adversaries, and. chivalrously, this great mi- [ uister let loose ,the "black bands"

and the degraded police to massacre women and children. This event upset the Ministerial calculations. In spite of the repression and the violenoe of the authorities, the second Duma appeared still more radical than the first. It included more than a hundred deputies representing the various shades of Socialism. From tire day after the elections it was evident that the days of the second Duma were numbered 0 . But M. Stolypin wished to play the part of a good prince, and he deigned to tolerate the existence of the Parliament always on condition that it consented" to do all that the Government desired, The Cadets had the useless weakness of too often submitting to these suggestions. They rejected the proposal of amnesty, they refused to condemn ,THE OFFICIAL ASSASSINATIONS, and they 'dared not even refuse a.budget over which they were allowed no control. They begged the Extreme Left to spare M. . Stolypin all unpleasant words, and to allow him to continue his persecutions and murders with a smile on his lips. The chief of the Cabinet had from that time an easy game to play. He had the homes of deputies ransacked. He ransacked telegrams, calling, m the name of the people,' for the dissolution of the Duma. He demanded the suppression of the public sittings of the Duma, devoted' to the examination of the contingent. He presented motions of sympathy with tbe police. He indulged m the luxury of discovering plots against the Emperor and agadqist the safety of the State. He demanded, without examination and without respite, precautions en bloc. The representatives of the bourgeoisie had not even tho courage to give this impudence the answer it merited, and the dissolution was pronounced without the Cadets having once had the honor of adopting a virile attitude. * The Russian proletariat is charged with, AND WILL UNDERTAKE, the answer. The struggle against the autocracy 'goes on without truce, and it rests with the working people of adl countries to once more come to the aid of our comrades who are engaged m the struggle. The Socialistic members- of the. Austrian Reichsrath hav^r already announced their intention of questioning their Government on the consequences of a dissolution from which it is already possible to foresee serious complications, and which menaces the interests of foreign nations. The Socialists of France will not hesitate to recall to their Government the solemn engagements m the matter of loans. The Socialists of Great Britain, the land of the Parliamentary tradition, will demonstrate, on the Fourteenth of July, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, against a succession of coups d'etat which their authors have only attempted to justify by hypocrisies and lies. The proletariats of other nations will whole-heartedly support the. movement, and will re.mind their members that SOCIALISM -ALONE IN PEACE, that bur cry is ever : DOWN WITH AUTOCRACY •! SUCCESS TO THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ! The Executive Committee of the INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST BUREAU — Edouard Anseele, Emile Varadervelde,, Camille Huysmans, Secretary., THE INTERNATIONAL' SO.CIAL^IST BUREAU '.'■ (Russia excepted.) 'South Africa : W. H. SutherlandGreat Britain :. Hj, M.j Hyn'dmam, ; J. Keir Hurdle. Germany : A. Bebel, P. Singer.. Argentina : A. Cambier, M. Ugarte^ Australia '■ P. !J. O'Meara. Austria :• Dr. V. Adler, P. Skaret^ Bohemia : : A. Nemec, F. Soucup.. Bulgaria t Y. Sakasoff, G. Kirkow. Denmark : P. Knudsen, C M. Olsen., •United States :D^ De iLeon fj M.. Hillquit. Spain : P. Iglesias, F. Mora.France : F J. Jaures, E. Vaillant. Holland : P. Troelstra, H. Van KoL> Hungary : 'J. Weltner, D. BokanyLj Italy : E. Ferri, , F. Turatri.; Japan * S. Katayama., 2 Luxemberg : Dr. Welter- '"'■ ' Norway : S. <Jarder, F-. Wolf./ Roumania : Dr. C. Racovski.j Switzerland- a O^ . Rapin, s <3- d ißeimanai'. Servia 3 M. Stoyanovd'toh., Sweden v H^ Branting,, .o^. 'Cf.: JPv Wickmanj