V. I. Lenin

British Labour Party Policy

(To Comrade Chicherin, A Copy To Comrade Radek And All Members Of The Political Bureau)


Written: 25-27 December, 1921
First Published: Pravda No. 21, January 21, 1930; Dictated by telephone; Published according to a typewritten copy
Source: Lenin’s Collected Works, 2nd English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, Volume 31, pages 182-183
Translated: George Hanna
Transcription\HTML Markup: David Walters & R. Cymbala
Copyleft: V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marx.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License


The telegram about the British. Labour Party shows how extraordinarily naïve Krasin is. As I see it, measures of two kinds should now be taken; 1) a series of articles signed by various people and ridiculing the views of so-called European democracy on the Georgian problem should he published in the press; 2) some caustic journalist should he immediately commissioned to draft. for Chicherin a super-polite Note in reply to the British Labour Party. In this Note he should make it perfectly plain that the proposal that we withdraw our troops from Georgia and hold a referendum there would be quite reasonable and might be recognised as coming from people who have not gone out of their minds, and have not been bribed by the Entente, if it extended to all nations of the globe; specifically, in order to set the British Labour Party leaders thinking about the meaning of present-day imperialist relations in international politics, we suggest, in particular, that that party give favourable consideration to the following: first, that British troops be withdrawn from Ireland and that a referendum be held there; second, the same with regard to India; third, the same with regard to the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Korea; fourth, the same with regard to all countries in which there are troops of any of the big imperialist states. The Note should express, in superbly polite terms, the idea that people desirous of giving thought to these proposals of ours and to the system of imperialist relations in international politics may prove capable of understanding the “interesting” nature of the proposals made by us to the British Labour Party. On the whole, the draft Note, couched in super-polite and extremely popular terms (to suit the intelligence of ten-year-olds), should deride the idiotic leaders of the British Labour Party.

I propose that the Political Bureau consider whether it ought to send a copy of this letter to Krasin. I personally am in favour.

Lenin

December 27, 1921