We are living in a very complex world full of rapid changes. The widespread confusion about the problem of war is in large measure due to ignorance of the past. Unfortunately, people are slow to learn and slow to forget, Some people learn slogans by heart, but before they have succeeded in memorising them the slogans are out of date – they then keep on repeating these. The imminence of another global war is no longer considered even by the sceptical as a fantastic prediction of panic-mongers, and it makes it vital that class-conscious workers, study and assimilate the real lessons of previous wars.
Friends of peace believe that world peace and disarmament can be achieved within the framework of the present social order, whereas the Socialist Party base itself on the materialistic conception of history and is convinced that war and militarism can only be abolished from the world with the end of the capitalist system. Its energies have been directed towards the elimination of the causes of war. War and armed peace are a logical result of capitalism. The pacifists invent all manner of projects to challenge war yet all have failed. There can be no permanent peace between the capitalist states. A capitalist peace is only one step short of capitalist war. War and the danger of war are always present in capitalism, such conflicts cannot be eliminated from the capitalist system.
Wars arise from the constant struggle between the powers for increased spoils in the world economy. All powers today feel the consequences of the economic crisis. The vast expansion of their productive forces presses them onward inexorably and irresistibly in the struggle for new markets and new colonial fields where they can tap the sources of raw materials, invest surplus capital and extract new and greater profits. On every continent, they are openly advancing for new conquests. The financiers, the speculators and gamblers feel free to engage in a continuation of the conflict for increased economic advantage by military means.
The socialist movement may not be as yet sufficiently strong to thwart the militarism of governments but by exposing the cause as plunder for booty we shall at least have educated fellow workers to some extent in the cruelty and greed of the capitalists. Only class war can successfully oppose war between peoples. There is only one struggle against war: the revolutionary struggle against the system that breeds war, the struggle for world socialism. The struggle against war is nothing other than the class struggle for workers’ power. it is the exploiting class—those who, owning the land, machinery and tools of production - who decide when and where wars shall be made. However, it is the workers, who pay in blood, in suffering, for every war that is waged. The only way to fight militarism is to fight capitalism. When things are no longer produced for profit, but for the use of those who make them, then there will no longer be any necessity for a capitalist army. It remains as true as ever that only the working class can prevent war. Karl Liebknecht warned that the enemy is at home; and, in this respect, nothing has changed since. The capitalist class is looking for ways and means to change the whole economy of peace in such a way that it may be transformed at a moment’s notice to meet the exigencies of war. Therefore the duty of the Socialist Party is clear. It is the irreconcilable struggle to overthrow capitalism as the only way to do away with war. The understanding that the fight against war is the fight for a socialist society is the key to all the “anti-war” activities. It is the Marxists, participating actively and constantly in the class struggle, who is carrying on the only genuine and effective fight against war. All the fine phrases and noble sentiments and even the deep sincerity of pacifists are powerless against war. Capitalism demonstrated that it will fight to the death with every weapon at its disposal to settle its sectional differences.
They tell us we must defend our country but we have no country. They said it was to “save democracy” to “protect national self-determination”. They urge us to sacrifice ourselves for the motherland and the fatherland. The war was not started by the sinister will of the robber capitalists, although it is fought in their interests, and is not enriching anybody else. The war was the consequence of the development of international capitalism.
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