Address on Poland

Summary

The unity and brotherhood of nations is a phrase much used today by all parties, as, for example, the middle class advocates of free trade. To be sure, there exists a certain form of brotherhood among the bourgeois classes of all nations. It is the brotherhood of the oppressors against the oppressed, of the exploiters against the exploited. As the bourgeois class of a given country is united and bound by ties of brotherhood against the proletarians of that country, despite competition and the struggle among the members of the bourgeoisie themselves, so also are the bourgeois of all countries bound and united against the proletarians of all countries, despite their mutual antagonism and competition in the world market. Peoples can actually unite only if they have a common interest. They can have a common interest only if present property relations are done away with, for present property relations are the determining cause of the exploitation going on among peoples: To do away with present property relations is the interest of the working class alone. Moreover, only it has the means to this goal. The victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, therefore, is at the same time the victory over the national and industrial conflicts which today place the various peoples in opposition to one another. For that reason, the victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie is simultaneously the signal of liberation for all oppressed nations.