Ça ira!†
Revolution, among other things, differs from war because its law of existence is perpetual motion—constant forward movement, developing according to its own internal logic and consistency. The revolution knows no pauses or ceasefires, unless it is in retreat.
And those supposed “revolutionaries” who are hungrily waiting only for “effects,” expecting one volcanic eruption after another, are dissatisfied with the apparent pause after such acts as the barricade fight in Łódź. They consider such pauses to be merely “dead spots” in the forward march of the revolution. This proves only that, in their psychology, they are true children of the bourgeoisie, alien to the spirit of the workers’ revolution.
After the Łódź uprising of the proletariat, we have so far not had in our country a second explosion of the same magnitude. However, immediately after the flare-up of the bloody battles in Łódź, there was a response in the south of Russia, a huge glow of revolutionary fire began raging in Odessa, and that was in response to the raising of the red flag of revolution on the mast of a battleship of the tsar’s navy,‡ a loud reminder that the current revolution is the unbreakable common cause of the proletariat of the whole Russian state, that the struggle in our country is more than ever part of the total revolution throughout the Russian empire.
On the other hand, in our country, two symptoms have proved that the revolution is not standing still, not stuck in place, not for a moment, but that without stopping, it is striding onward—toward victory.
The first fact is the utter bankruptcy of the tsarist terror used in Łódź. Today, it is already visible, and well known to everyone that the state of siege, the policies of force and violence, and the attempt to physically crush the heroic proletariat of Łódź after the “June Days,” has failed completely. Despite the apparent failure of the barricade uprising, the terrible bloodshed, and the introduction of swarms of armed soldiers, the proletariat of Łódź has not lost its spirit, has not stopped fighting. Only for a short time were the outward expressions of struggle and resistance suppressed. Today, inside Łódź, Social Democratic activity is going strong, and the struggle is striding forward. Big strikes at the Gayer factories and at other factories are new symptom of the tireless revolutionary energy of the workers in Łódź, and these may signal the nearby explosion of a new general strike.
The second fact, which has echoed loudly in the last few weeks, is the outbreak of new battles elsewhere in Łódź Province. Despite frantic efforts by the reaction, as a sign of solidarity with Łódź all the centers of labor and exploitation are standing up one after the other all across our country. Along the lines of an idea that we have advocated for a long time, street demonstrations have been taking place everywhere.
It is true that as a result of measures taken by the tsarist authorities, as well as the efforts of all of bourgeois “society,” strikes and street demonstrations are no longer able to attain the same huge proportions as the strike in Warsaw on May 4 and the 100,000 who demonstrated in Łódź on June 21, which were capable of impressing the whole world. Nevertheless, the Polish proletariat has still been protesting loud and strong.
On June 26, all the working people of Warsaw went on strike again, and red banners appeared on its streets, and—as if just for practice in the art of revolution —barricades were erected. On June 28, 29, and 30, work stopped in the mines,* and tens of thousands of the slaves of capital remained sitting in their underground workplaces. On June 28, Lublin stood up.† On July 4 all commercial and industrial life came to a halt in Białystok; only gunshot after gunshot could be heard on its streets. On July 5 and 6, there were strikes in many parts of Radom; during July in Kielce [economic] life died out; and finally, on August 18, once again all of Warsaw went on strike, this time in response to the call by the Social Democratic organizations to protest the slaughter [by the tsar’s troops] in Białystok. The cries “Down with the tsar!” and “Long live political freedom!” resounded through all of Poland.
Thus, the past few weeks have shown that the revolution is moving ahead with iron logic in two directions—in depth and in extent. The main centers, the old volcanoes of labor struggle—Warsaw and Łódź—inexhaustible in their huge revolutionary potential energy, not crushed by the wildest efforts of reaction, are working steadfastly on. The first leading centers of the Polish proletariat have shown that they know neither fluctuations nor fatigue. At the same time, the centers of fighting spread more and more to the provinces, tirelessly expanding the area of the revolution. And these two signs are precisely the most precious guarantee that the revolutionary cause is developing according to the laws of a healthy and strong mass movement of the proletariat.
In bourgeois revolutions, fatigue and exhaustion are unavoidable phenomena and are the product of historical necessity. Such revolutions, because they are bourgeois, always unconsciously overestimate their own goals; they are illusion based; they make use of the illusions of working people, who in every case push the revolutionary wave further than corresponds to the class interests of the directing bourgeoisie. Those revolutions always have a period of regression after the point of most strenuous effort.
Fatigue and exhaustion in the fight was always a psychological symptom, indicating that the breakthrough that the revolution had made had gone too far—and then it started to weaken and fail. That happened with the Great French Revolution, and the same happened with the revolutions of 1848.
Currently, tsarism and our bourgeoisie are speculating in vain on the fatigue and exhaustion of the energy of the proletariat. The workers’ revolution, thanks to the leadership of Social Democracy, is aware of its roads and objectives, and the proletariat as a revolutionary class fighting today for the first time for itself, in the interest of trying to achieve its liberation, does not know, cannot know regression, or fatigue, in combat.
The last few weeks have shown again that the tsarist government and the present political order are standing on a volcano, where the old craters will continue to emit fiery streams of lava, and where new outlets will be found on the side of the volcanic crust, until they all connect and merge to form an unbroken sea of revolutionary flame, into which the leftover hulk of despotism’s last government will sink without a trace.