Our
organisation and its companion parties stands for peace. Our motto is
“Workers of the World, Unite.” We do not take sides in the
rivalries’ of countries, of nationalities, of presidents and
politicians. The Socialist Party simply issues our call for
friendship, fraternity and solidarity. The latest provocation of
conflict has been recent developments in the Persian Gulf, the
face-off between Iran and America. The Socialist Party denounces the
aggressive acts of both governments and declares that between the
peoples of the two countries there is no cause of quarrel. The
interests of the working class are bound up with the maintenance of
peace; and it is the working people who suffer most severely from the
devastation and horrors of war. When a country is attacked the rich
may suffer some financial loss; but they escape the worst horrors of
starvation and misery inflicted upon the poor. The rich can get away
to their rural retreats. The poor have to stay put in target areas.
Anybody, therefore, claiming to speak on behalf of the working class
must necessarily be in favour of peace.
The
nature and causes of modern war proves that war is an essential part
of capitalism. The inner conflicts of capitalism lead and must lead
to war. War is a symptom and result, of the irreconcilable troubles
and conflicts of the present form of society, that is to say, of
capitalism. The only way to oppose against war is to fight against
the causes of war. Since the causes of war are part of the inner
nature of capitalism, it follows that the only way to fight, against
war is to fight against: capitalism. But the only true fight against
capitalism is the revolutionary struggle for socialism. It
therefore follows that the only possible struggle AGAINST war is the
struggle FOR the socialist revolution. The Socialist Party is
absolutely
clear on this point. There is no “separate” or “special”
struggle against war. The campaign against war cannot be divorced
from the day-to-day struggles of the workers so far as, in their
historical implications, these lead toward a socialist society. No
one can uphold capitalism – whether directly, as an open adherent
of the capitalists, or indirectly, from any shade of reformist or
pacifist position – and fight against war, because capitalism means
war. Only a revolutionist can fight against war, because only a
revolutionist takes the road to the overthrow of capitalism. Any
organisation based upon not challenging capitalism is not merely
powerless to prevent war; in practice, it promotes war, because it
serves to uphold the system that breeds war, and because it diverts
the attention away from the real fight against war. The Socialist
Party seeks to prevent all kinds and forms of pacifism – all
theories and organisations, that is, based on a mere “anti-war”
platform. Pacifism
is not merely powerless against war – since it is not based on
genuine social organisation nor a clear analysis of the causes of
war. In practice, it aids war: by spreading illusions about the nature
of war and the fight against it; by shifting the energies of honest
opponents of war to a fictitious fight against it; by sugar-coating
the realities of capitalist society and thus making them –
including war – more palatable; by subordinating the working class
to middle class individuals and ideas; by preparing the betrayal of
the masses in the next war, when outstanding pacifist leaders will
decide in the crisis that, this war is different – is for
democracy, culture, God, or what not – and call for support of the
government. No, the pacifist way is not the way to fight war.
There
is only one
case against war: the socialist case for
revolution. The socialist revolution will end war because, by
overthrowing capitalist economy and supplanting capitalism with a
socialist economy, it will remove the causes of war. With socialism
there will no longer exist the basic contradictions that lead to war.
The expansion of the means of production, under the ownership and
control of society as a whole, will proceed in accordance with a
rational plan adjusted to the needs of the members of society.
Socialism will remove the limits on consumption, and hence permit the
scientific and controlled development of production. Thus, under
socialism, war will disappear because the causes of war will have
been removed. It
is for the Socialist Party to strive for that goal, greater even
than peace, — Socialism so that when peace is assured it shall be a
peace based upon universal freedom and fraternity, when every man,
woman and child is well-housed; well-clothed; well-fed; well cared
for when sick; and no longer wage-slaves all of their lives.
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