Socialists entered the government not
only as members of their respective parties, but as representatives of
revolutionary democracy organized in the Councils, which now contained
delegates from the peasantry, hurriedly brought in by a somewhat artificial
system of representation.
The first Coalition Government drew up a program of policy. As this program
was somewhat vaguely worded, coalition in the strict and true sense of
the word was not secured. The socialists had entered the coalition under
pressure, as we saw. Some of them felt called upon to justify the step in
a statement, later discovered and made public, to socialists of other
countries. In the statement they explained that they had entered the
government, in order to "deepen and extend the class struggle." And this is
what some of them did actually start in to do, using their authority and
powers as ministers to turn the organs of revolutionary democracy in this
direction, promoting suspicion of and antagonism toward the bourgeoisie.
The socialist ministers also held themselves directly responsible to the
Councils. Finally the socialist members of the government tried to force
immediate decisions on questions of a fundamental nature, which should be
decided only by the Constituent Assembly, thus not adhering to the
program drawn up as the basis for the coalition. The position of the
non-socialist members of the government therefore became untenable, and a
whole group of them resigned.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45