The great aim of the World Socialist Movement is the elimination of war forever from the world. But this can be accomplished only by the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism – that is, by the victory of the working class in the class war. Socialists are actively for the victory of the working class in the class war since only through such victory can war in general be done away with. The real roots of the war are in the class system of society. It Is not the love of democracy but the defence of national capitalist interests that pushes countries into war. The only way to end the madness of war is to end the system which inevitably leads to the horrors and atrocities of it.
The inner conflicts of capitalism lead and must lead to war. War is not the cause of the troubles of society. The opposite is true. War is a symptom. The only way to fight against war is to fight against the causes of war. Since the causes of war are the nature of capitalism, it follows that the only way to fight against war is to fight against capitalism. It, therefore, follows that the only possible struggle against war is the struggle for a socialist revolution.
Ask any soldiers what they fight for? For what do they shed the blood of their brother workers of their neighbouring country? For what do they cripple people? They will not tell you, they will not answer, because they themselves do not really know. Ask any one of them and each will cite you for a different reason. The problem is that words and practice do not coincide. War has other causes, other purposes, other reasons. What homeland does the worker have, what homeland do the dispossessed have? Do they have a homeland? The generals have a homeland, and so do the landowners, the merchants, the manufacturers and all those who carry a fat wallet in their pocket. To these, the wealthy. The homeland gives them all rights and privileges and the State concern itself about their fate. But what does the fatherland or motherland give to the worker, be he Russian or Ukrainian? The struggle to put food on the table, the struggle against poverty and lack of rights, oppression at the hands of the master, landowner and landlord, insults, grief, illness and humiliation.
For the poor, the motherland is a wicked stepmother, the fatherland is a cruel stepfather.
What kind of homeland is it if tens of millions are hired slaves working day and night for a handful of capitalists? What kind of homeland is it if these tens of millions of workers have nothing to lose but their chains? What kind of homeland is it when it is not the people themselves who conduct the affairs of the homeland, enact laws, supervise the national economy and control the national budget, but a handful of masters, of wealthy exploiters?
The capitalists of the whole world are now united in alliances that plunder and oppress the workers in many countries. The capitalists set the workers of one country against the workers of another country in order to strengthen their hold on workers throughout the world. The capitalists wage war in order to share out the spoils and weaken the workers by division. Thus those who speak about wars in terms of the defence of freedom and the homeland are lying. There is only one way to defend freedom and right, to defend the cause of the working class in war - agreement among the workers of every country and their common struggle against the capitalists in the name of a socialist society.
With all the nationalistic preaching, it is easy to obscure the fact the bottom of all war, there are economic causes. Nationalism is the cloak behind which the economic causes work. Nationalism leads inevitably to chauvinism and to national aggression. It leads to patriotism for the soil, for the particular bit of the earth’s surface on which a particular person has been born. It leads to narrowness and bigotry, to national jealousy and petty pride. Nationalism is the best for the intrigues and machinations of capitalists.
No comments:
Post a Comment