MANIFESTO OF THE ECCI TO THE WORKERS AND SOLDIERS
28 March 1919
Beschlusse des ersten Kongresses, p. 74
Comrades!
In Hungary all power has been transferred to the working class.
The imperialists of the Entente countries sent a new ultimatum to Hungary. They wanted to rob Hungary of all its food supplies. They wanted to deprive it completely of its independence. They wanted to wage war against Soviet Russia across Hungarian territory.
The Entente imperialists thought that the Hungarian bourgeoisie would yield to their new ultimatum. They thought the Hungarian proletariat would be powerless to resist their bloodthirsty demands.
But that is not what happened. Fearing the wrath of the people, the Hungarian bourgeoisie decided not to accept the Entente imperialists' ultimatum. Gritting their teeth, they had to yield power to the workers. The Entente imperialists burnt their fingers. Their rapacious pressure on Hungary only hastened the birth of the Socialist Soviet republic in Hungary. When the Hungarian bourgeoisie thus confirmed their inability to save the country from ruin, they gave particularly clear proof that the historic role of the bourgeoisie has been played out, and that their gravedigger, the proletariat, has come to take their place.
The Entente imperialists, however, are not content—in Paris the imperialist robbers are sharpening the knife to slaughter the young Hungarian Soviet republic.
There is no calumny which these bourgeois gentlemen have not invented against the Hungarian Socialist Soviet republic—just as they have done for sixteen months in regard to the Russian Soviet Republic. The French imperialist Government intends to send its soldiers into battle against the Hungarian workers, as well as Rumanian and Czechoslovak troops.
Will this infernal plan succeed? The fate of working Hungary in the immediate future depends on the answer, and to a great extent also the immediate fate of the proletarian revolution in all other European countries.
In the name of the Communist International we appeal to the workers of all countries to come to the help of our brothers, the workers and peasants of Hungary.
Workers and soldiers of France! The eyes of workers throughout the world are turned to you. At this moment the French bourgeoisie are the most reactionary in all Europe. The leader of the French imperialists, Clemenceau, is doing most to incite the 'Allies' to suppress the Russian and Hungarian revolution.
French workers and soldiers, you are to be driven to act as hangmen, to strangle the Hungarian socialist revolution. The French bourgeoisie want to use your hands to strangle the proletarian revolution in Budapest, and thus to avert the proletarian revolution which is maturing in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and London. After the four and a half years' war which you fought for the bankers' interests, they now want to force you to become international gendarmes, hangmen of the proletarian revolution.
That will not happen. The French workers will not stain themselves with treachery, they will turn their bayonets against their own oppressors, against the
French and all other imperialists.
Comrades!
The proletarian revolution has broken out in the whole world. The Hungarian revolution is only the first flash of lightning splitting the threatening clouds.
The bourgeoisie of all countries, who exterminated twenty million men in the most bloody of all wars, will now have to account to us for this crime. Mankind has not yet gone mad. It will not leave power in the hands of those who led us into the imperialist blood bath.
Everybody to the aid of the Hungarian revolution!
Soldiers!
Refuse obedience to those who send you against red Hungary. Rise, form your councils, and go over to the side of Soviet Hungary.
May the Hungarian socialist revolution be a threatening warning to the bourgeoisie of all countries!
Hands off red Hungary!
This cry shall sound throughout the world.
May the Hungarian socialist revolution be the beginning of a whole series of new proletarian revolutions.
The end of bourgeois rule has come.
Long live the working class and the revolutionary soldiers of Hungary.
Long live the Hungarian Communist Party! Long live the proletarian world revolution!
.jpg)
