Premier Foster's Speech to the Congress of Soviets 20 May 1940, Concerning the Declaration of War Against Nazi Germany
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The Beginning of the Second World War
Premier William Z. Foster delivered his final address to the Central Executive Council at 10:00 A.M., on 20 May 1940. In his address, broadcast by radio to the entire nation, Foster gave official confirmation of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. He accepted full responsibility for the failure of containment, and consequently announced his planned resignation in one month's time, and called for the country to uphold its treaty obligations to its Soviet allies:
Esteemed people's deputies, and fellow workers of all nations and creeds: I am speaking to you today, before the plenary session of the Central Executive Council of the Congress of Soviets, on a matter of utmost severity. I come to you not as the head of government for our socialist federation, but as a proletarian comrade and a citizen of the world.
Yesterday, in the early morning hours, soldiers and airmen of the Nazi-Fascist regime in Germany crossed the frontier between occupied Poland, and invaded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This attack upon our comrades and allies began unprovoked, and proceeded with calculated, deliberate malice. This invasion, undoubtedly the product of months of cold-blooded premeditation, is the opening act of a great Fascist plot, led by Hitler and aided by his goons in the Nazi vassal states of Central and Eastern Europe.
This invasion is not just an act of war against the people of the Soviet Union; it is a naked attack upon the workers of the world as a whole, seeking drive the proletarians who have at last found the strength and will to begin freeing themselves from bondage, with the open ambition of driving us all back into slavery. So I say, as the Party declared in the heady days of the Biennio Rosso, No War But Class War.
As a nation constituted by the vanguard, the most advanced sections, of the international proletariat, the Union of American Socialist Republics is and must be the implacable foe of all the enemies of the workers, be it imperialism, racialism, despotism or capitalism. Fascism is but the sum of all those reactionary elements, the product of the bourgeoisie as a class entering a degenerate state of terminal decline, destroying all that had once made it progressive and realigning with its old foes to combat the democratic power of the working masses. The European bourgeosie has sold its soul to oppose the dialectic of history. As the old aphorism goes, "fight the devil with fire."
I ask that the Council declare that a state of war has existed between the Union of American Socialist Republics and the Nazi Reich since hostilities began.
While the Central Committee has, at my insistence, already begun preparations for hostilities with the so-called "Anti-Comintern Axis"; that gang of degenerate thugs that has been menacing Europe at the behest of the Austrian corporal who styles himself as the Fuhrer of the Volksdeutche, I cannot in good conscience continue to serve the American people.
I had bet the resources and moral authority of the American proletariat on the proposition that Nazi belligerence could be contained; that the reactionary enemies of all humanity could be isolated and rendered impotent. I made this wager betting that the "liberal" powers of Europe could be made to see the light of reason, and would oppose barbaric threats to civilization like Nazi-Fascism. I gave this promise to the American proletariat as well as the proletarians of all nations. In seeking this moderate, compromising course, I have failed those who have trusted in me to administrate on their behalf.
I have failed the people, and I have failed the Party. Thus, it is with a heavy heart that at this grave hour I must deliver my resignation from public office to the Council, effective one month from today.
I have already spoken on this matter with both the Central Committee as well as with the Presidium, and the Politburo, and arrangements have been made to ensure an orderly transition. In the coming month, I will continue to execute the duties of my office faithfully and diligently, and will assist in any transition.
The Beginning of the Second World War
Premier William Z. Foster delivered his final address to the Central Executive Council at 10:00 A.M., on 20 May 1940. In his address, broadcast by radio to the entire nation, Foster gave official confirmation of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. He accepted full responsibility for the failure of containment, and consequently announced his planned resignation in one month's time, and called for the country to uphold its treaty obligations to its Soviet allies:
Esteemed people's deputies, and fellow workers of all nations and creeds: I am speaking to you today, before the plenary session of the Central Executive Council of the Congress of Soviets, on a matter of utmost severity. I come to you not as the head of government for our socialist federation, but as a proletarian comrade and a citizen of the world.
Yesterday, in the early morning hours, soldiers and airmen of the Nazi-Fascist regime in Germany crossed the frontier between occupied Poland, and invaded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This attack upon our comrades and allies began unprovoked, and proceeded with calculated, deliberate malice. This invasion, undoubtedly the product of months of cold-blooded premeditation, is the opening act of a great Fascist plot, led by Hitler and aided by his goons in the Nazi vassal states of Central and Eastern Europe.
This invasion is not just an act of war against the people of the Soviet Union; it is a naked attack upon the workers of the world as a whole, seeking drive the proletarians who have at last found the strength and will to begin freeing themselves from bondage, with the open ambition of driving us all back into slavery. So I say, as the Party declared in the heady days of the Biennio Rosso, No War But Class War.
As a nation constituted by the vanguard, the most advanced sections, of the international proletariat, the Union of American Socialist Republics is and must be the implacable foe of all the enemies of the workers, be it imperialism, racialism, despotism or capitalism. Fascism is but the sum of all those reactionary elements, the product of the bourgeoisie as a class entering a degenerate state of terminal decline, destroying all that had once made it progressive and realigning with its old foes to combat the democratic power of the working masses. The European bourgeosie has sold its soul to oppose the dialectic of history. As the old aphorism goes, "fight the devil with fire."
I ask that the Council declare that a state of war has existed between the Union of American Socialist Republics and the Nazi Reich since hostilities began.
While the Central Committee has, at my insistence, already begun preparations for hostilities with the so-called "Anti-Comintern Axis"; that gang of degenerate thugs that has been menacing Europe at the behest of the Austrian corporal who styles himself as the Fuhrer of the Volksdeutche, I cannot in good conscience continue to serve the American people.
I had bet the resources and moral authority of the American proletariat on the proposition that Nazi belligerence could be contained; that the reactionary enemies of all humanity could be isolated and rendered impotent. I made this wager betting that the "liberal" powers of Europe could be made to see the light of reason, and would oppose barbaric threats to civilization like Nazi-Fascism. I gave this promise to the American proletariat as well as the proletarians of all nations. In seeking this moderate, compromising course, I have failed those who have trusted in me to administrate on their behalf.
I have failed the people, and I have failed the Party. Thus, it is with a heavy heart that at this grave hour I must deliver my resignation from public office to the Council, effective one month from today.
I have already spoken on this matter with both the Central Committee as well as with the Presidium, and the Politburo, and arrangements have been made to ensure an orderly transition. In the coming month, I will continue to execute the duties of my office faithfully and diligently, and will assist in any transition.
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