14.
On the Need for
a
National Assembly
[1] [13
November
1918]
Translation from Nathan and
Norden,
Einstein
on
Peace
(New York:
Simon and
Schuster,
1960).
[p.1] [2]
Comrades!
Speaking
as an
old-time believer
in
democracy, one
who
is
not
a
recent
convert,
may I
be
permitted
a
few
words:
Our
common
goal
is
democracy,
the rule of
the
people.
It
can
be
achieved
only
if the
individual
holds two
things
sacred:
First,
willing
subordination
to
the
will
of the
people, as ex-
pressed
at
the
polls, even
when the
majority
is
at
odds with
one’s
own
personal
desires
and
judgments.
How
can we
achieve
this
goal?
What
has been
attained
so
far?
[3]
What
must still be done?
The
old
society
of
class
rule has been abolished.
It
fell
of its
own
sins
and
by
the
liberating
acts of the soldiers.
The
councils which
the soldiers
swiftly
elected,
acting
in
concert with the
Workers’
Councils,
must
be
accepted
for the
time
being
as
the
organs
of
the
[4]
popular
will.
In this critical
hour
we owe
them
our
unconditional
obedience and must
support
them with all
our power.
[p.2]
Secondly,
all true democrats must stand
guard
lest
the
old
class
tyranny
of
the
right
be
replaced by
a new
class
tyranny
of
the
left.
Do not be lured
by feelings
of
vengeance
to
the
fateful
view
that
violence must be
fought
with
violence,
that
a dictatorship
of
the
proletariat is
temporarily
needed
in
order to hammer
the
concept
[5]
of
freedom into the heads of
our
fellow
countrymen.
Force breeds
only
bitterness,
hatred
and reaction.
We
must,
therefore,
unconditionally
demand of
the
present
dictatorial
government,
whose directives
we
must
willingly
follow,
that,
irrespective
of
party
interests,
it
immediately prepare
for
the