Revolutionary defeatism

Revolutionary defeatism is the Leninist position on inter-imperialist wars which holds that the proletariat cannot gain anything from any side of the imperialist war and must instead seek to turn the inter-state war into a revolutionary civil war against the bourgeoisie of their own countries. An instance of this concept being applied was during the First World War (1914–1918) in which the ruling capitalists of France, Germany, Russia, and other countries mobilized their working class to war against one another. The internationalist parties of the Second International (led by the Bolsheviks) did not favor any particular side of the imperialist powers and instead launched a socialist revolution against the tsarist autocracy.

Revolutionary defeatism runs in contrast to campism and social-chauvinism, which place the interests of the "fatherland" above those of the international working class, thereby supporting the imperialist efforts of their home country.

See also

• Proletarian internationalism