Against War

If there is one undisputed truth it is this: that the workers do not make wars, though they bear the burden of them, both in the fighting and in the miseries that flow from war. When wars are being planned or are being fought, one of the principal aims of the rulers on both sides is to convince their working class that they have an overwhelming interest in success and the defeat of the "enemy," otherwise they might not know. They have to be told! The reason the workers have to be convinced is that no modern war is possible without the active participation of the workers.

When the international working class understands the real cause of wars, the private property basis of modern society, wars will be abolished. War is the prostitution of genius, the brutalising of the human race. You invent a bomb by which a hundred thousand human lives can be snuffed out in the twinkling of an eye, and your fortune is made.

In socialism genius will be exalted for its service to humanity.

No more will the people of one country be arrayed in deadly conflict with the people of another. With socialism war will be forever ended. The interests of the working class of one country will be the same as the interests of the working class of all other countries.

Workers should absolutely refuse to shoulder a weapon at the behest of any capitalist murderer whatever. If a capitalist wants to commit murder let him commit it himself.

Capitalism is war. With the end of capitalism comes the end of war. With the beginning of socialism comes the inauguration of peace, the start of the march of an advancing civilisation.