The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 26, 1924, Page 12

r ‘é Imperialism, Pacifism and War © (Continued from page 1.) We must make it clear to the masses that the social and political complexion of war is not determined by the good will of certain individuals or certain groups, but by the class which conducts the war, by the class policy of which the war seems to be} a product, by the alliances of capital- ists, the dominant economic force in modern society, and by the imperial- istic character of international capi-| talism, It requires skill to make this clear to the masses and none of us could do that at a stroke without somewhat blundering in the attempt. * * * The end of the war will not come by merely wishing it. Nor because one of the two belligerent groups wishes it. Wecan’t put an end to the war by grounding arms. * * +. There is nothing. more dangerous than phrases like “The nation’s de- claration of peace,” “The steps taken by the proletariat of one nation after another,” etc. All of which is pure sentimentalism in the style of Louis Blanc. The war was not started by the sin- ister will of robber capitalists, altho it is fought purely in their interests and is not enriching anybody else. The war was a consequence of the development of international capital- ism in the course of the past 50 years, of its endless connections and ramifications. We cannot wiggle out of an im- perialistic war, we cannot have a democratic peace, but only a peace im- posed by violence, until we over- throw the power of capitalism, until the powers of government pass into the hands of a different class, the proletarian class. * * s Armaments and War, by Lenin. Certain revolutionary socialists, who’ are advocates of disarmament, use as their main argument the claim that this demand expresses most clearly, most. emphatically, and most thor. oughly, the struggle against all forms of militarism and against every war. And this main argument constitutes precisely the fundamental mistake of all the advocates of disarmament. So- cialists cannot be opposed to every war without ceasing te be socialists. . x . Socialists have never been opposed to revolutionary wars, and they never can accept that attitude. The bour- geoisie of the imperialistic nations is thoroughly reactionary and we know tha the war waged at present by this bourgeoisie is a reactionary, criminal war of spoilation. If this is a fact, what about a war against this bour- geoisie? For example, a war of the suppressed and subjected, or colonial peoples against the imperialistic bour- geoisie. A * om s One of the essential characteristics of imperialism is precisely that it ac- celerates the development of capital- ism in backward countries and with it the struggle against national oppres- sion. This is a fact, and from this fact it follows inevitably that imperialism must often breed national wars. + . * The negation of all possible nation- al wars under imperialism is theo- retically and historically incorrect, and in practise promotes Buropean Chauvinism. , We, belonging to nations that suppress hundreds of millions of people in Europe, Africa, and Asia, de- clare to these oppressed peoples that their war against “our” nation is im- possible! ee . Civil wars are also wars, Those who accept the class struggle must accept civil wars which, under certain circumstances, are a natural and in- evitable Gontinuance, development, and accentuation of the class strug- gle in every society based on class divisions,. All great revolutions prove this. To deny or to overlook civil wars would. mean becoming a victim of the most hopeless opportunism and * abandoning the social revolution. * * . Only after we have completely forced down and expropriated the bourgeoisie of the whole world, and not of one country alone, will wars be- come impossible. And it is scienti- fically incorrect and not at all revolu- tionary to overlook or confuse the most important, the most difficult task, the task that contributes most to the struggle during the period of transition of socialism; the crushing of the resistance of the bourgeoisie. The social ‘quacks and opportunists like to dream of the coming of so- cialism peacefully. They. are distin- guished from the revolutionary social- ists precisely in this, that they refuse to consider and prepare for the des- perate class struggle necessary to realize the beautiful future. + * a It would be absolutely wrong, the- Blessing a New Imperialist Venture oretically, to forget that every war i@] “reasonable” the continuation of politics by other means. The present imperialistic war is the continuation of the imperialistic Policy originating and developing un- der the conditions of the epoch of imperialism. But this same epoch must necessarily produce the policy of fighting against national suppres- sion and the struggle of the prole- tariat against the bourgeoisie. There develops, accordingly, the possibility and inevitability, first, of revolution- ary national uprisings and war, sec- ond, of wars and revolts of the prole- tariat against the bourgeoisie, and, third, of the unity of both kinds of revolutionary wars. . * > Democracy, Pacifism, and Imperial- Ism, by L. Trotzky. Pacifism springs from the same his- torical roots as democracy. The bour- geoisie made a gigantic effort to ra- tionalize human relations, that is, to supplant a blind and stupid tradition by a system of critical reasoning. The guild restrictions on industry, class privileges, monarchic autocracy,— these were the traditional heritage of the middle ages, Bourgeois democracy demanded legal equality, free compe- tition, and parliamentary methods in the conduct of public affairs. Natural- ly, its rationalistic critera were ap- plied also in the fleld of international relations. Here it hit upon war, which a a a appeared to it as a method of solving questions, that was a complete denial of all “reason.” So bourgeoisie dem- ocracy began to point out to the na- tions—with the tongues of poetry, moral philosophy, and certified ac- counting—that they would profit more by the establishment of a condition of eternal peace. Such were the logi- cal roots of bourgeois pacifism. « * * From the time of its birth, pacifism was affiliated, however, with a fun- damental defect, one which is char- acteristic of bourgeois democracy. Its pointed criticisms addressed them- selves to the surface of political phenomena, not daring to penetrate to their economic causes. At the hands of capitalist reality the idea of eternal peace on the basis of a agreement, has fared even more badly than the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity. For capitalism, when it rationalized indus- trial conditions, did not rationalize the social organization of ownership and thus prepared instruments of destruc- tion such as even the middle ages never dreamt of. *- ¢«s8 Theoretically and politically paci- fism stands on the same foundation as does the theory of the harmony of social interests. The antagonism be- tween capitalist nations have the same economic roots as the antagonisms between classes. And if we admit the possibility of a progressive blunting of the edge of the class struggle, it requires but a single step further to accept a gradual softening and reg- ulating of international relations. ea alah The source of the ideology of demo- cracy, with all its traditions and il- lusions, is the petty bourgeoisie. + *- * English and American pacifism, in spite of the differences in social and ideoligic forms, is carrying on, at bottom, the same task. It offers to the petty and the middle bourgeoisie an expression for their fears of world cataclysmis in which they may lose their last remnants of independence. Their pacifism chloroforms their con. science by means of impotent ideas of disarmament, international law, and world courts, only to deliver them up. body and soul, at the decisive moment, to imperialistic capital which now mobilizes everything for its own purposes: industry, the church, art, bourgeois pacifism and patriotic so- cialism, se 8 Wm. Jennings Bryan rashly and noisily expressed the natural aversion of the farmers and of the “small man” generally to all such things as world policy, military service, and higher taxes. Yet, at the same time that he was sending wagon loads of petitions, as well as deputations, to his pacifist colleagues at the head of the govern- ment, Bryan did everything in his power to break the revolutionary edge of the whole movement. “If war should come,” Bryan telegraphed on the occasion of an anti-war meeting in Chicago, “we will all support the government, of course, yet at this moment it is our sacred duty to do all in our power to preserve the nation from the horrors of war.” These few words contained the en- fire program of petty bourgeois paci- fism. To do everything in our power against the war means for them to afford the voice of popular indigna- tion and outlet of the form of harm- less demonstrations, after having previously given the government a guarantee that it will meet with no serious opposition in the case of war from the pacifist faction. a ae, Official pacifism could have desired nothing better. It could now give satisfactory assurance of imperial- istic “preparedness.” After Bryan’s own declaration, only one thing was necessary to dispose of his noisy op- position to war, and that was simply to declare war. And Bryan rolled right over into the government’s camp. Then, not only the petty bourgeoisie but also the broad masses of the workers said to themselves: “If our government with such an outspoken pacifist as Wilson at its head de- clares war, and if even Bryan sup- ports the government in the war, it must be an unavoidable and righteous war.” ..... It is now evident why the sanctimonious, Quaker-like paci- fism of the bourgeois demagogues is in such high favor in financial and war industry circles. : HAVE YOU READ | LENIN’S last great speech te the world’s workers? If not, don’t let another day go by without sending for a copy of: “Report of the IV Con- gress of the Communist International’ IT IS REPORTED THERE IN FULL Here is the offer, good to August 30th, 1924 Report of the IV Congress, with Lenin’s speech Lenin, his life and work, SB cst any 5 SS ort are | State and Revolution, hb by Nikolai Lemin..........scceuee .25 TOT AB cssiiihnccive oe SL15 All of the above for 50 CENTS, if you send your check or money order now, " to Literature Department, WORKERS PARTY OF AMERICA 1113 W. Washington Bivd., CHICAGO, ILL. t