The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 2, 1932, Page 6

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1932 THE AMERICAN SOCIALISTS AND WAR By JAMES LERNER The formal “declaration” of war is a minor matter in warfare of capitalist nations. As a matter of fact the present Japanese War shows that it is possible to carry on wars without the President an- nouncing it or the “notary public’s seal.” But preceding a start of war a long, steady campaign to convince the masses who are to give up their lives in the battles, why war is necessary and must take place. In the United States, the lead- ing organ of the socialists is the Jewish “Forward.” . It is enough to recall that in the last war, the paper’s editor, Cahan, publicly urged the Jewish youth to fight for American democracy. He is still editor and has learned much more. The present deeds of the socialists pre even more bold. On May 17 of last year this sheet printed an edi- torial which embodies in it the so- cialist-pacifist attitude towards war. “The overwhelming majority of the representatives of merchant and finance capital in all countries are now opponents of war and supporters of a policy of peace and disarma- ment.” And in this vein the edi- torial, basing itself on the Kellog Pact, Locrano, and so forth, con- tinues to wipe away the danger of armed conflict. But not stopping at this pacifism, the socialist ends by stating that “In truth, however, the Soviet government is the only government which does not cease to inject itself into the internal business of all countries and which lays all its hopes on a new European War. “The Bolshevist militarism really represents a great danger for peace .” Twelve years of this and think what not only the many readers of the “Forward,” but the millions of socialist press readers in the world have been told. The forced labor campaign and the anti-terror campaign carried on even at this very moment by the socialist press is doing its best to convince the workers that the Soviet Union Is a& plague; that it would be an aid to peace and liberty to destroy the country. Leave it to the capitalists to announce war when the ripe moment has arrived. The socialists are preparing the masses to respond. Would any workers who believed that “Russia today is a government of a small minority which has taken advantage of special conditions to gain and hold power. It enjoys power through force and terrorism. Tis reign of blood is almost as ab- horrent as war among nations,” (Morris Hillquit) or that “Bolshev- ism lives on the idea of a perma- net state of war’ and so does fas- cism” (James O’Neal! New Leader Aug. 2, 1931) be ready to defend the Soviet Union or to oppose war? But let us put the past aside. What is happening today? What are the socialists saying today not of @- war which exists only in the minds. of the Bolsheviks, but of a war which has already taken tens of thousands of lives and which as other articles in this paper show, s about to be launched against the Soviet Union, to become a World War? The atiack of the Japanese ban- dit capitalists upon Manchuria was answered by Norman Thomas with an attack upon the Soviet Union. When the anger of the workers of the United States against the Jap- anese imperialists started to rise, Thomas attempted to link the Sov- iet Union with the war. He wrote: , tov, Chairman of thhe Council of | People’s Cémmissars said last No- vember: “Nevertheless, the Soviet | Union has not concealed and will |not conceal in the future, its at- titude towards the Chinese people, towards its struggle for emancipa- tion from the imperialist yoke, to- wards its ‘struggle for national in- dependence and unity. In these intang expelled Borodin, agrees with respects the workers of our country are wholeheatedly with the Chinese people. THE SOCIALISTS LIGHT THE WAR PATH... “The incidents in Manchuria seem to indicate that the Soviet govern- }ment and Japanese imperialism | have a secret understanding on the | Manchurian war.” Again on Feb. |20 of this year the New Leader wrote under the heading “Have Russia and Japan a Secret Pact?” “That question is being debated today and nobody has a definite an- swer. It is significant, however, that no bristling manifestoes have been sent out by Moscow against the Japanese seizure of Manchuria and the undeclared war on China.” Then it tries to act impartial but “shows” that the Soviet Union is in favor of Japanese dismember- ment of China because the Kuom- Japan and “has no love for the League of Nations” which Japan is supposed to be fighting. But listen to what Comrade Molo- Plenty of Money for War Expenditures of the six great mi- | lions of Dollars: litary powers for land, naval and air armaments were 65 per cent higher in 1930 than in 1913, ac- cording to a Foreign Policy Asso- ciation study made public in De- cember, 1931. This comparison showed that the United States had increased its ex- penditures 197 per cent; Japan, 142 per cent; Great Britain, 42 per cent; France, 30 per cent; Italy 44 per cent: ~ The national defense expenditure of the seven great powers in 1913 and 1930, and the percentage of increase was shown in the following tables: Armaments Expenditure in Mil- per cent 1913 1930 increase G. Britian. .375.1 535.0 42 France .....348.7 455.3 30 Italy .......179.1 258.9 44 Japan ..... 95.5 232.1 142 Oi Bi sects 727.72 (197 ° ° ° U. S. Federal Budget, fiscal year, 1930-31, $2,831,825,962 |will go for preparations for and results of war, according to Senator Wesley Jones, chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, This amount equals about 70 per cent of the total ex- penditures by the United States government. All war funds for the unemployed! By GROPPER. “The events in China show that the imperialist powers are now | dividing up China, each relying on one or the other militarist cliques in China. The policy of dividing up China is shamelessly disguised by them-—” Rather plain talk by a high Soviet official. But listen to this. Comrade Bluecher, commander of the Soviet Far Eastern Army re- cently declared after Japanese sol- diers led by the white guardists had started their march to the Siberian border. “We won’t permit any white guard imperialist rascals to tread upon our socialist soil. with their dirty feet. If any one is thinking of. stretching forth his dirty paws toward our coal, forests, or other riches, then let it be un- derstood that for every ton of coal, every cord of wood, every tractor, we will fight much -harder and with much more obstinacy than in 1929” (Reported in the N: Y. Times Feb. 27). Where is the secret pact? In the lying imaginations. of the so- cialists, of the preparers of war In Japan now, like in Germany, France and England in 1914, the So- cialist party is supporting the war at present. The secretary of this party has stated: “The intervention in Manchuria is not of an imperial- istic nature, because even socialist Japan will have to fight for the necessary raw material for its in- dustry—,” Already in the U. S. we can see where the line of our socialists is bound to end up. Last year at a Congressional investigation on war policies, Norman Thomas said: “If we were on the verge of war, I should probably be for it, but I have no great enthusiasm for it.” “As a socialist, I rejoice at the There Is Work for All in the Soviet Union By D. ZASLAVSKY Forty million strong, healthy hu- man beings, skilled workers, capable of wielding a hammer, an axe, or a pickaxe, are doing nothing but drag out a half-starved existence. Forty million in the advanced capitalist countries, not counting those who do nothing and starve in China, India and other colonial countries. The population of an en- tire country of the size of France is doomed to a life of enforced idle- ness, dependent on charity, to an existence where there is no ray of hope; and some of them not even to this life, but to plain death. The awful pangs of hunger, and the no less awful moral anguish—the tor- ture of idleness, the absence of any chance of turning their hands to reasonable, productive work! The crime of unemployment is commited by capitalism, and the Social-Democrats call upon the workers to reconcile themselves to this foul crime, as the priests call upon them to reconcile themselves to the disasters of the earthly world, that they may receive their reward in the world to come. And nobody dares to encourage the workers to believe that the position can change under capitalism. They merely hold out a hope that unemployment will become less severe: not forty mil- lion will face hunger, but only thirty. And yet these hope are deceiving. The crisis becomes more intense, unemployment grows. ‘There is no way out. And the weight of enfore- ed idleness is felt not only by those who are thrown out upon the streets and knock in vain at the gates of the factories. Even those who are still employed feel themselves doom- ed. ‘The terror-of losing their work hangs over all the employed. The bony spectre of hunger grins behind the shoulder of every worker, chill- ing him in its icy breath. Unemployment is the normal thing in the lands where capitalism holds sway. But there is no unem- ployment in the land where the workers govern. The Social-Demo- crats gnash their teeth in impotent fury, but they cannot deny this fact. There was unemployment even in the Soviet Union during the period when national economy was being restored, after the ravages of war and the infamous resistance of the | bourgeoisie. But unemployment be- gan to decline on a new and in- comparably narrower basis. Unem- ployment dwindled down and van- ished altogether at the moment when the capitalist crisis threw mil- lions of workers on the streets in all bourgeois countries. There is no longer any unemploy- ment in the Soviet Union, and the Social-Democrats who at first tried to deny this astounding fact are now compelled to hold their peace. In the land where the workers rule there is not, and cannot be, this disgraceful, criminal state of affairs in which a healthy man, worker or peasant, who is desirous and capable of working, cannot get work. There ———————————== when the capitalists have to make war, the capitalist government has to run the railways—and that is|. socialism in ‘the ‘socialist bible as read by Reverend’ Thonias. Workers, take these two sentences of ‘Thomas and you know where these fakers stand. But in case this isn’t ehough, just hold on, We have more. Joseph W. Sharts is a member of the Na- tional Executive Commmittee of the S.P. He spoke in Detroit,.on March 13, 1932. The Detroit Free Press quotes him as saying that he “would much prefer to engage in a nation- alist war (the kind of war Japan says it is carrying on in Mcznchuria and Shanghai) than in one against his fellow countrymen.” A “na- tional” war is imperialist war. A war against “his own fellow coun- trymen” is revolutionary war egainst the capitalists, Ford, Rock- efeller—the war makers. That is why to- demonstration given by the late | morrow thhe Socialist party will be war that planned production is ab- solutely essential.” What a won- derful experiment it was. You see, shouting: “THE WAR ON RUSSIA IS A WAR FOR DEMOCRACY, FOR PEACE, FOR LIBERTY!” —- is work for all. There will always be work for all. And if this— the abolition of unempolyment—had been the sole and single achieve- ment of the ruling workers, . this achievement, which is one of world- wide historical importance, would yet have been sufficient to prove the superiority of the Socialist over the capitalist form of society; it would have been sufficient to shame the Social-Democratic scoundrels, agents of capital. Socialism does not have to prove its superiority in practice. It has already proved it. The facts are here. In the Soviet Union the number of workers long ago ceased to be comparable with the pre-war figure, That miserable figure was long ago left-behind. The Russian capitalists never dreamed of such masses of workers as are now employed in the workshops and factories of the USSR. In 1930 the number of work- ers increased as compared with the previous year by approximately 700,- 000. And in 1931 the increase must amount to two million! In 1930 there were 14 million workers, in 1931 there must be 16 million. Millions of new workers are en- rolled in the mighty army of Soci- alist labor—and it is still insuffi- cient! We need more. This is an- other answer to the question as to whether the Five-Year Plan is be- ing accomplished. If it were not so, what should we do with all these millions of workers that are so greedily swallowed up by our indus- try and construction work? It is a fact that we have not sufficient workers, and that the influx of the workers from abroad is increasing. “The Soviet Union Stands for Peace,” the great speech made by Comrade Litvinov, representative ef the Soviet Union at Geneva, shows the peace policy of the So- viet Union and the war plans of the capitalist nations. One cent pamphlet. Poison Gas and Shell Production Sneeded in Phila. (By a Worker Correspondent) PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Pree parations for war are going on at full pace. The Midvale plant is producing shells, Budds Auto Plant making bomb carriers for airplanes. They are telling the workers that they are making re- lease hooks. The Barrett Chemical Works in Frankfort is working 24 hours shifts making chemical gasses for war. : The Young Communist League is organizing the workers to fight against imperialist war. On April 22 the ¥. C. L. will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Young workers _are urged to mobilize now for this anniversary meet and for the struggle against imperialist war and to defend the Seviet Union, : “THE SECOND 5-YEAR PLAN AND THE ESTAB- LISHMENT OF A SO- CIALIST CLASSLESS S0- CIETY. “The fundamental political task of the Second Five-Year Plan is the final liquidation of the capitalist elements and of classes in general, complete re- moval of the causes which ‘pro- duce class differences, and ex- ploitation, the overcoming of the remnants of capitalism’ in econ- omy and in the minds of the people, conversion of the all of the working population of the country into conscious and act- ive followers of the classless So- cialist_ society.” £ --From the Resolution on the Second Five-Year Plan ad- opted by the 17th Party Con- erence of the C. P. S, U. iS 5 The White and Negro Masses Must Save the Scottsboro Boys jet ot at j sac bi Sia: ore Ss da <: ‘~ ii ame Ste] Bos ae ses Wee oyi bie we Bae war ” %