The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 18, 1924, Page 8

| Wars and Revolutions - HE American “pacifist” program of world subjugation is “by no Means a program of peace, On the contrary it is pregnant with wars and with great revolutionary upheavals. It is not just for the fun of it that America is building up her.fleet. Am- erica is actively engaged building light and fast cruisers, submarines and other auxiliary warships. And when England whispers a feeble. protest, America points to the fact that Japan has an excess of light cruisers, which “compels” the United States to build more warships in order to maintain the ratio 5:5:3. In this manner Am- erica continues to increase the num- ber_not only of her light cruisers, but of every other type of warship as well, And it is impossible for the other governments to compete with the United States, for the latter can turn out warships as easily and speedily as she turns out pies. Preparations are thus being made for the greatest sea battles the world has ever seen to be staged (in the not very distant future) on both the Atlantic and the Pacific, provided, of course, that the bourgeoisie wtll still. rule the world for a considerable length of time. For it is impossible that the bour- geoisie of the world will complacently retreat to the rear seats assigned to it by America and become the vassals of American capital. Too great are the contradictions, too abnormal are the appetites for gain, too strong is the instinct to preserve the old dom- inating position, too deeply rooted are the traditions of a world empire in England to permit such a possibility. Military conflicts are inevitable. ‘“Pa- cifist” Americanism is preparing the ground for new wars of unusual scale and of unimaginable monstrosity. If we should now turn again to the main question of the future position of European reformism, we shall have to say that the sucess of European reformism is directly dependent upon the success of American “pacifism.” If American will succeed in her am- bition to turn Europe into a dominion of the new type, i. e. if she will not encounter in the very near future the resistance of the masses of the peo- ple in the form of war or revolution, then European social-democracy, as the shadow ofeAmerican capital, will also preserve its influence to a certain extent. And Europe will sink to a basing, than such an aspect, is hard to imagine. The point to consider then is not what the actual forces of social-democ- racy are. The, main question is whether or not American capital, thru a parsimonious finaricing of Europe, will succeed in establishing there its regime. It is impossible to foretell events with any degree of certainty. Especially is it hard to be definite as to the time it may take for events to develop. It is sufficient to understand the new forces that are affecting world affairs today, to have a clear idea of the fundamental factors which will determine the fate of Europe, and in the light of such knowledge to fol- low the course of events strictly mark- ing down the success and failures of the chief boss of our age, the United States*of North America. At the same time we must under- stand and expose the political maneu- vers of European social-democracy: ‘It is also well to remember that those contradictions which . caused the imperialist war ten years ago, still re- main in force like an open yawning wound. They have become more pro- nounced during the war, they have been strengthened by the peace of Ver- sailles, and have become more deeply- rooted with the development of ‘the class struggle in Europe. And Amer- ica will come face to face with these all as simple a task as they imagine it to be. - > We are now at the initial stage of this process of America’s attempts to colonize Europe. After years of star- vation the German proletariat has felt now some relief, pitiful and insig- nificant tho that relief may be. We know that the worker, who has been exhausted by long years of suffering will be appreciative even of the smallest improvement in his position. And such a minor improvement is now evident in Germany as a result of the stabilization of the currency and wages. It is due to this fact mainly that the German social-democracy is still retaining a certain degree of po- litical ‘prestige. Such a state of affairs, however, will not last very long. America does. not intend at ali to increase the Ger- man ration, especially that portion of it which is meant for the German worker. The same holds true of the French and English worker. For what is America aiming at? America wants to make certain of the lion's share of the spoils of world capital- ism, so as to insure a privileged po- sition to the upper layers of the Am- erican working class at the expense of the laboring masses of Europe and the rest of the world. Without the co-operation of the American labor aristocracy, American capital could BLESSING THE DAWES PLAN sharp contradictions as along. It is a difficult task to put a hungry people on a ration. We know it from our own experience. True, our situa- tion, as well as our motives were dif- ferent. ‘We were prompted to adopt the expedient of food rationing by the iron necessity of a desperate life and death struggle of a revolutionary country. But from our experience we learned that a regime of scanty rations is under all circumstances apt to cause discontent and insurrections. The sin- time goes P not hold its own. Without Gompers and his bureaucracy, without the aid of the highly paid skilled workers, the entire politieal machine of Ameri- can capital would break down. And in order to keep the American labor aristocracy in its privileged position, it is necessary to place the European “rabble,” the European proletarian “mob” on a meager, stingy American ration, The firmer this regime of an Ameri- can ration becomes established. in | Burope, the more difficult will it be By L. Trotsky ~ United States of Europe! America is powerful, Against the British islands with their dependence upon her colo- nies all over the world, America is almighty. But we say that all of America’s might and strength. will prove feeble and ineffective against a Europe of workers and peasants unit- ed with us into a single Union of Soviets. American capital is fully aware of this danger. American capital is the most avowed, the most bitter enemy of bolshevism today. The policy of Mr. Hughes with regard to Russia is not just an incidental whim or ca- price. It is the expression of the will of the most centralized part of American capital which is now enter- ing upon a career of open struggle for world domination. American capi- tal cannot very well avoid contact with us because the waterways’ of the Pacific lead into China and Siberia. The idea'to turn Siberia into an Am- erican colony is the most cherished dream of American imperialism. But here American imperialism hits against the rock of a proletarian, revolutionary government. We have monopolized our foreign trade, we have a socialist foundation for our economic policy, and such conditions are not at all favorable to the. mon- archistic, autocratic aspirations of American imperialism. ; Even in China, into which country American capital is penetrating under the slogan of “open doors,” we find that the ideas popular among masses of the people are not the re- ligion of Americanism, but the politi- cal program of bolshevism translated ™ into Chinese. Not Wilson, not Hard- ing, not Coolidge, not Morgan or Rockefeller, not these names. are fa- miliar to the Chinese coolies and peasants. It is the name of Lenin that is being hailed with joy and hope not only in China, but all over the ister Kronstadt insurrection is an il-/for the European social-democracy to | Orient. listrative example of the shortcomings of a regime based on rations. So that when we see now America making a rationing. experiment on this gigantic scale, involving many foreign nations and doing it from purely capitalist motives, with the sole purpose of im- perialist plunder,—we cannot help but think that she will meet with strong resistance from the masses of the people, Without a bitter struggle along both class and national lines America will not carry out her project. The more American capital becomes po- state of degeneracy and indifference |litically self-reliant -the broader the thriving on remnants of her old glory and leading a meager existence on a strict American ration. All this will be covered over with an ideological dressing made up of stale, warmed- over maxims of European social-de- mocracy and spiced with ingredients (pious phrases) from the American Quaker-pacifist kitchen, Anything ug- ner, anythilfg more repulsive, more de- On eee scope of its world influence, and the greater the control of American bank- ers over the governments of Europe, the more concerted, the more decis- ive will be the resistance of the masses of Europe, not only of the proletariat, but even of the petty- bourgeois peasantry. For we wish to warn our American friends that to turn Europe into a colony is not. at keep up the faith of the laboring imasses in the religion of Amricanism, America can undermine the strength of England only by _ hypocritically and the more energetic will become|championing the cause of the op- the resistance of the workers of Eu- rope against this master of masters— American capital. It is then that the slogan of a European revolution, of a Union of Soviet Republics of Europe will receive an immediate, practical, mflitant meaning for the workers of Europe. By what means does the European social-democracy poison and lull into drowsiness the consciousness of the European proletariat? “Social-democ- racy declares that Europe, dismem- bered and sliced into pieces by_ the peace of Versailles, cannot exist with- out America. But the Communist par- ties of Europe answer: It is: a lie. We can exist without America, if we only wish to. Europe does not need to be torn to pieces. She can become a United Europe. And it_is only the revolutionary proletariat wifo can unite and consolidate Europe into the pressed peoples of the colonies. We find, however, in the Orient, side by side with the American consul, Am- erican merchant, American professor and American press agent also de- voted fighters for Communism and reyolutionists who were able to trans- late into the native languages the really liberating program of bolshev- ism. All over Europe ‘as well as in Asia, American imperialism has to face the challenge of revolutionary bolshevism. ' I remember how in 1919, on the oc- casion of Wilson’s arrival in Burope, when the entire bourgeois press was full with the names of Wilson and Lenin, I once remarked jokingly to Viadimir Hytch: “Lenin and Wilson, these are the two apocolyptic figures of new history.” Vladimir Ilytch laughed. I did not suspect at the (Continued on Page x ns us “