Our Peace Message

 

We claim that the Socialist Party possess the only real case against war. This must not be thought about by workers as a cheap piece of party promotion but as a genuine statement. As much as people are opposed to war, history teaches us that mere opposition is not enough. Socialists are more than just opposed to war. We are opposed to a system that is the direct cause of war situations and finally of war itself. What is this system? It means private ownership, working for wages, the buying and selling of goods. This is the main reason for the division of the world into rival groups. There is no working-class interest to be served in any capitalist war. They are not worth the shedding of working-class blood. But the workers must not be pacific. There is a war to fight, a war against those who would maintain the existing system of production for profit. The class war. That calls for a very determined and fighting working class, not a sentimental pacifist one. The question of morals or the evil of war does not enter into it. Where there is a conflict of interest there must be a readiness to fight. If we object to fighting then we must remove the conflicting interests. If we remove the capitalist class we shall have solved the problem of all wars, international as well as class. But we shall not remove the capitalist class with sentiment and talk about morality.

The class struggle, in its varied aspects, exists and continues because capitalism divides mankind into warring classes, those who live by owning the means of production and distribution, and those who are propertyless and must sell their labour-power to the former. Some people accept this strife as a supposed law of nature. Others preach peace, but steadfastly defend the property basis, which means war. Capitalism gives the ruling class the incentive to protect vested interests bound up in trade routes, sources of raw materials, and areas of foreign investment. Control of the machinery of government gives them the power to wage war. The only sure road to peace is the road which leads to socialism, conquest of the powers of the government by a politically organised socialist majority. Socialists teach the abolition of the private ownership of the means of life. That is the only way of ending the war of classes. 

 

 The so-called peace movements have all failed to understand the nature of the forces against which they pit themselves. They are stuck in the rut of nationalism, just as are those to whom they appeal. None of them can see any further than capitalism, even though some of them sometimes use phrases that might give a different impression. The peace movement, like many other campaigns exists under the delusion that demonstrations, rallies, petitions and protest marches, have some effect on the problem they are concerned about. In fact, in themselves such movements are ineffectual — except that, by contributing to the maintenance of the very conditions which cause the problems, they can be said actually to worsen the situation. While peace demonstrators proliferate, the bald fact is that the wars have got more widespread. What really counts is the idea behind a demonstration. Marching or sit-downs against the effects of the social system we live under does nothing to end that system. So it leaves the root of the problems untouched, to flourish and propagate. A demonstration properly against war, or weapons, could take only one form; it would be a demonstration against the very social system which gives rise to them and it would extend a long, long way beyond the borders of any country.

An attitude of patriotism plays straight into the hands of the capitalist class, who like to hear nothing better than their property-less wage-slaves declaring loyalty to their masters’ country. While nationalist feelings prevail, it will be relatively easy for the propaganda machine to persuade workers that to support its foreign policies. Nationalism is a big help to the ruling class in getting support for armaments and ultimately for war. As long as workers think in terms of “our country,” it is logical for them to be prepared to defend it. Thus all the horror of war become “necessary” in the name of “national defence. The capitalist classes of all the major power blocs maintain their military machines for the purpose of protecting or expanding their spheres of profitable influence. This minority of people own the factories, the land and all those assets which go to make up the country. At the same time that the majority of people—the working-class—own nothing to fight about. Workers in all parts of the world have a common interest to get rid of the social system which condemns them to exploitation. They cannot do this in ignorance; they must realise what capitalism means and how to change it.

The world needs the socialist message more urgently than ever before. Let us rather determine that, to the best of our ability, old false doctrines in a new disguise shall not again be allowed to take root.  While oligarchs and plutocrats own and control the means of life they remain the enemies of the working class and a danger to humanity.  They have the supreme vested interest, a vested interest in the maintenance of capitalism. They can be expected, therefore, to sacrifice the interest of society to the interest of themselves and their class.