The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 24, 1925, Page 8

How the French Proletariat Is Meeting the “Next War” By AMY SCHECHTER (Associate in Research Department) H® in the United States we real- ize the significance of the Riffian war and the Syrian campaign against the Druses as typical attempts on the part of French and Spanish imperial- ism to dominate and exploit colonial peoples, but the implications of the war in relation to the workers and Peasants of the attacking countries have not been fully brought home to us. The fact is that the international nightmare of “the next war” has al- ready become a hideous reality for the French proletariat, they are already reliving those days that we have al- lowed to become Blurred to a merci- ful dimness in our minds because it is intolerable to remember them. Looking through the columns of the French Communist press we see the spectacle of the world war being re- enacted—the colossal tragedy and stu- pidity of workers and peasants killing and being killed for the furtherance of their masters’ imperialist aims to their own deeper enslavement; savage repression at home, graft and incom- petence and brutality at the front— the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in its war-time nakedness, UT’ between the way in which the French worker faced the situation in 1914-18, and the way in which he is facing it today, lies an immense and vital difference—a difference in which is summed up the progress of the workers’ movement since the esta- blishment of the Third International. In 1914-18 the French worker went into the war a dupe to the patriotism the zeal for “La Gloire” that his mas- ters, with the able assistance of his socialist betrayers, had wsed all the forces of press and propaganda to instill inti him; or at best, in dumb, vague protest against the forces that were engulfing him. Out of the tra- vail of months and years on the field of battle were bora in him the beginnings o} a revolutionary ‘outlook and of internationalism—but instinct- ive, groping and unformulated. In Under Fire, Henry Barbusse, the Com- munist leader of the French organiza- tion of war veterans, has unforget- tably portrayed these birth-pangs of internationalism. on the battle fields of the world war. Today the French worker no longer faces war as an in- dividual, doomed to the ignomy and loneliness of inarticulate and disre- garded suffering. He faces it as a member, more or less conscious, of a class, with his own class parliament- ary representatives, his own class press, his own class party and view- point and slogans. In°the chamber of. deputies Doriot and the other members of the Com- munist parliamentary fraction have revealed the war game move by move, shown up the offensive against the Riffs as a Banque de France adven- ture, interpreted “La Gloire” in terms of cold cash. Now that Painleve re- fuses, because he is afraid, to re- convene parliament, the Communist press goes on with the fight against |- the campaign of French imperialism, carrying on, in addition, an unremit- ting struggle against the persecution of militant workers at home, and the abominable treatment of the soldiers at the front. $ The anti-war propaganda of the Communist press is strenghtened by what constitutes perhaps one of the most significant signs of the orienta- tion of the French proletariat in this “next war”: the letters from soldier correspondents, who are the worker and peasant correspondents transfer- red from field and factory to the bat- tle line. Nearly every issue of the Druses jn Syria. “We, soldiers of the 4th esquadrille of the 39th aviation regiment at Da- mas (Syria), wish to give you a brief account of the abominations that we are being subjected to at the hands of the officers, who are making life hell for us here. “In addition to having to work eighteen hours a day, we lack food, we get no rest, the sleep which is so necessary for us is refused us despite the regulations. “We are commanded by a drunkard who is continually threatening us with all sorts of things. .. At 3:30 a. m., we have reveille. From _3:30 on we have the job of breaking stones in order to level the ground, with a brute, Sergeant Meu- lin, in command, “For punishment the thing here is flogging with sand-bags; after that we are locked up in stinking cells where we are devoured by mosquitoes and bugs. “We do not know whether you are asquainted with the situation and with all the atrocities committed here. The of wounded—the return from the|thing. I won’t be able to stand. this front—and three going toward the lines. “After today I can no longer keep you informed as to what is happen- ing— or at best, very briefly, for the censorship is far-reaching, and many have atready been arrested. However, one can sum up the whole business as follows: butchery, and an incoherent muddle of orders, resulting from the lack of understanding and agreement among those who are in command, Morocco, August, 1925 “We were in action on the 25th, 26th and 27th against F...el. . .B, and. §... ., with the object of. getting in supplies, a business that goes un- der the name of ‘policing’ in the newspapers. We lost 12 men, one commissioned officer, and nine horses, mine among them... My friend Y— is dead from a wound... “Today the Riffs are making active preparations for the September offens- ive which was delayed on account of the unbearable heat. . . ‘During the daytime there is a hor- rible spectacle here. Around the The Head of the A. F. of L. Green, the “greatest” president since the days of Samuel Gompers Rm tit 6 a RS “De! A, Sel ek boys are being massacred thru the stupidity of incompetent leaders. “At the present moment we have 1,400 dead, 600 wounded, and in the course of the attack of August 2nd, 20,000 Druses captured, in a single day, 580 of our men, wounded 250, destroyed 4 aeroplanes, and took 19 guns together with their ammunition. “It made us savage to seé our total losses given as 5 wounded in the re- ports of this attack in the bourgeois’ press. “The left bloc has promised us peace. We can see what it is doing towards it with the great democrat Sarrail. “Well, rest assured that we are with you, against French imperialism and for fraternization. “Vive the evacuation of Syria! “Vive the return to France of the soldiers who are there!” ¥ soldier fighting on the Riffian front: “We are awaiting the order parture . . , tomorrow evening shall arrive at the firing ¥ 3 are sad enough, I'am homesick, and I’m not the only one. Some of the men are : “We have just passed three trains } camp, at some 200 to 500 meters dist- ance, men and horses are buried, but not deep enough. Well, from the ef- fects of the heat dnd the emanations of decomposition the corpses become partly uncovered again; millions of flies settle on these flesh heaps; and in place of air we breathe the chloride of lime with which the whole camp is copiously sprinkled. munition trains|terrible anxiety much longer, and I think there are many other mothers in the same case, After killing the children do they. want to kill the mo- thers of grief? “Favoritism has again made its ap- pearance. One has an arm that is too long, and he doesn’t go. Others fix up some sort of graft. . . a place is found for them, and they don’t go. It’s the honest. ones who are good to send out there, and to die there, “We read l'Humanité every day, and we thank you with all our hearts for struggling so bravely against this senseless war in Morocco. Let those who have interests ouf there go and defend themselves!” The Workers’ and Peasants’ Congress Individual protests of his nature, with their consciousness that French imperialism, and not the Riffs, is the enemy, are extremely significant» as signs of the process of revolutioniza- tion that is going on among the: pro- letariat of France, but it is in the great Workers’ and Peasants’ Con- gresses being held thruout France to- day that the true mass character of the resistance is revealed. These con- gresses are being organized by the central and regional committees of action, the united front committees formed to organize the united resist- ance of the proletariat to the steadily increasing taxation. of workers and peasants, the capitalist onslaught up on the living standard of the French worker, to fascism, and above all, to the imperialist wars in Morocco and Syria. The Workers’ and Peasants’ Con- gresses held, so far, in Paris, Lille, Beziers, Marseilles and Bordeaux, at which Communists, socialists, mem- bers of the the C, G. T. and the C. G. T. U., non-party workers and peasants were represented, have already rallied, in the face of the opposition of the government, police and yellow socialist leaders, some three million workers and peasants around the slo- gans of united proletarian resistance and defeatism in the war: an imme- diate peace, independence for the Riff, the evacuation of Morocco by means of fraternization at the front, by boy- cotting the transport of war material, and the preparation for the 24-hour general strike to consolidate and de- monstrate the strength of the pre test. The initial congress, held in Paris. in July, created a very deep impres- sion thruout the country, and in ad- dition to its success in rallying the non-party workers of the district around its slogans, was especially ef- fective in arousing numbers of social- ist workers to a consciously critical attitude taward their treacherous or cowardly leaders. Since the congress many letters have been sent in to the committee of action by socialist work- ers, in which the failure of the social- ist chiefs to carry out the mandates of the congress—the demand for the immediate cessation of what amounts to military dictatorship and the recon- vening of the chamber of deputies, etc,—was bitterly criticized. Alliance of Soldiers with Workers and Peasants. The Bordeaux congress, which took Place last month, and at which 718 “The water is poisoned from the | delegates represented 278,008 workers “When you read the papers, always multiply our losses by 5, and you will have the exact reckoning for us. Di- vide by two, and you will have the total loss for the other side. . .” “While the gentlemen of the govern- ment are at the seashore and the nn Stee ae and peasants, is noteworthy for the predominance of the peasant element, Side by side with the dockers and sea- men of Bourdeaux, the metal workers