Anarchist-Communist Study Group
May 1916
Having read the famous Statement of the Sixteen, whose authors (J. Grave, P. Kropotkin, Ch. Malato and others) still call themselves anarchists, antimilitarists and internationalists, we Russian anarchist-communists in Paris declare:
1) That we regard the current war as the natural, inevitable and long-awaited result of a policy of conquest and brigandage pursued by all capitalist states without exception; that the responsibility for this war falls equally upon the property-owning and ruling classes of all countries. That such or such gestures of this or that government in the last moments before the war were provoked (and still are) by all kinds of considerations (military, diplomatic, financial, and others) having absolutely nothing in common with those of the defence of “Right”, of “Civilisation”, of “Justice”, of “Democracy”, etc.; that, therefore, these gestures could neither increase nor diminish the responsibility of this or that government individually;
2) that all the belligerent “peoples”, that is to say all the working and exploited classes of all the states at war, without excluding the German people, were similarly drawn into this war by means of organised deception and governmental compulsion; that, having shown themselves everywhere equally powerless to respond to this deception and compulsion with a revolution, the masses of workers of all the belligerent states were incited and threw themselves against each other; that, consequently, there can be no question of a betrayal of this or that people, of the aggression of this or that people against another, of a guilt or a responsibility of one of the peoples; but it is a struggle between the owners of wealth – a struggle carried out with the aid of the duped working masses, organised into armies, and thrown against each other.
3) That no victory of either of the two coalitions of brigands (German-Austrian and Anglo-Franco-Russian) could bring about either the “fall of militarism”, or the “liberation of oppressed nationalities”, or the “triumph of Right”, of “Civilisation”, of “Democracy”; that no victory could facilitate the subsequent march of “human evolution”, or bring closer the realisation of the workers’ “hopes of emancipation”; that on the contrary, on whatever side victory leans, and whatever the relative situation of the combatants at the end of the war, this will leave the working masses of all countries with nothing but immense losses and misfortunes, threatening to delay for a long time to come the realisation of their aspirations; that the future course of “human evolution” and the future of our “hopes of emancipation” do not depend to any degree on this or that victory, on this or that military result; that to abolish militarism, to render the return of new wars impossible in the future, giving a real impetus to the struggle for emancipation, can only be obtained through direct, energetic and decisive action of the working masses themselves, in the form of a general revolutionary uprising carried through to the end, that is to say: until the abolition of Capital and the State and the establishment of a regime of non-authoritarian communism.
4) That the powerlessness, in which the peoples of all countries found themselves, to oppose war at the time of its declaration and to turn, at that very moment, arms against their oppressors, does not in any way prove the impossibility of a revolutionary uprising during subsequent events.
5) That the sole and imperative duty of revolutionaries and anarchists consists at this time in carrying out a preparatory action with a view to possible revolutionary events, and in particular in broadening and deepening propaganda against the war and for a revolutionary uprising, in accordance with an intense organisational work. That the struggle for an immediate and effective union of the workers of all countries, and for the possibility of peace that can result from it, such a struggle represents the starting point of revolutionary action against the exploiters; that therefore, the watchword for peace presupposes that of the uprising of all peoples and all armies against their oppressors, and is the only acceptable one for revolutionaries and anarchists, the only anarchist, antimilitarist and internationalist watchword of the moment.
6) That any opposition, any propaganda against this watchword and against the action related to it, as well as the reasons from which such propaganda arises – lead in a logical and inevitable way to the denial of all the principles on which the struggle of the workers of the whole world for their emancipation is based, and constitute a renunciation of internationalism and anarchism in their true sense and their consistent meaning.
For all these considerations, we declare that any propaganda for the continuation of the war between people “until the end”, that is to say “until the victory” of one of the combatant coalitions, is essentially nationalist and reactionary propaganda; that the goals by which this propaganda is purported to be justified and explained are completely naïve, profoundly erroneous and cannot withstand the slightest historical or logical criticism; that such propaganda, having nothing in common with anarchism, antimilitarism or internationalism, represents, on the contrary, in its essence and by its practical consequences, a sort of propaganda for militarism and so-called “democratic” statist nationalism; that it is the absolute duty of anarchist-communists to fight firmly against such errors and against these currents of ideas which are absolutely contrary to the vital interests of the workers; and that, consequently, not only can we henceforth not consider the signatories of the “Statement” as our comrades in the struggle, but we see ourselves obliged to resolutely take them for enemies albeit unconscious, yet real enemies of the workers’ cause.
Paris, May 1916
Signatures follow:
Anarchist-communist Study Group (20 signatures):
Anarchist Press Support Group:
40 Individual signatures (through said groups).