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From Labor Action, Vol. 5 No. 30, 28 July 1941, p. 3
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
There are no two ways about it now. WE ARE IN!
Peace-loving President Roosevelt, who got his third term on the false promise to keep America out of the war, has stealthily followed in the footsteps of that other peace-loving president who got his second term on a similar broken pledge.
The First World War was also being fought for “great ideals.” But when it was all over ans the little white crosses stood in mass in France and the hospitals were jammed with the remnants of human beings, Mr. Wilson dropped the flimsy veils of morality in which he had wrapped himself. In a famous post-war speech he matter-of-factly declared: “Is there a man or a woman – let me say is there a child – who does not know that the seeds of war in the modern world are INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL RIVALRY!”
IN EFFECT, MR. WILSON WAS CALLING THE WORKING PEOPLE BIG DOPES FOR HAVING BELIEVED THE IDEALISTIC AND MORALISTIC TRIPE THAT SURROUNDED THE LAST WAR.
Certainly today there is no reason why every man, woman and child of the working class, whose war-inflicted tortures are just beginning, should not know what’s what about this war. They do not have to wait for a post-war “revelation” from Mr. Roosevelt who when the present inferno is extinguished and the world and its peoples have been reduced to ashes and skeletons may smilingly, and as if in passing, also state that “the seeds of war in the modern world are industrial and commercial rivalry.” Didn’t you know? My! My!
BUT WHY WAIT TO BE CALLED BIG DOPES A SECOND TIME!
For a score of years tons of literature have been turned out telling the inside story of the last imperialist war. Not only socialists and liberals, but conservative economists and even generals, have contributed to the mountain of proof that economic power was at stake in the last war – not democracy against barbarism!
Not only does the unforgettable lesson of the last war stare the working class in the face. But daily comes proof that the Second World War is not one whit more justified from their point of view than the first. Out of the bag made of fine “moral issues,” the black cat of economic warfare jumps out so that everyone with eyes may see it.
A whole issue of Labor Action could be filled with proof that this is a war for economic domination of the world between the imperialists of the Axis on the one hand and the imperialists of the Allies on the other. But only a little of this proof can here be given.
For instance, when John Cudahy, ex-ambassador to Belgium, interviewed Hitler, a major part of the interview was around the question of markets, colonies, trade – the matters neatest the hearts and the pockets of American and German imperialists alike. German competition in the markets of South America and American exclusion from those of Southeastern Europe were discussed between Hitler and the emissary of American imperialism. The use of gold in international, commerce was another subject they talked about.
Thus, while the blood of German soldiers was flowing for a pure, nordic “race” and the blood of British soldiers was flowing for “a pure democracy,” the head of German imperialism and a representative of American imperialism talked in the language of international horse dealers.
When the German blitz was thundering over the Balkans, the American stock market was hanging onto the ledge about to take a downward plunge. Wall Street was wringing its hands and cracking its knuckles – but not over the calamity that totalitarianism was spreading over Europe. WALL STREET WAS FRANTIC OVER THE LOSS OF THE WHOLE EUROPEAN MARKET IF HITLER DOMINATES THE CONTINENT!
Wall Street had such a bad case of funk that Bernard M. Baruch, formerly on the idealist Wilson’s War Industries Board, and now war consultant for the moralist Roosevelt, gave a special interview to the Wall Street Journal, in which he patted the financiers on the back and told them to take it easy. “There is no reason why we can’t undersell them (the Germans) in important mass-production products provided we maintain a low price structure,” he said. He went straight to the point: MARKETS.
Not a word did he utter about saving democracy. WALL STREET KNOWS THE FACTS OF WAR!
Ernest Hemingway, well-informed, world-travelled and noted writer, reporting from far-off Rangoon, bluntly stated that we must distinguish between the pretexts for the war we are arming for out here and the basic causes. He continued: “If we fight Japan, the pretext for fighting will be that Japan has attacked the Philippines, or the Dutch East Indies, or British Malaya. But the real reason for fighting Japan will be that if she moves south in the Pacific, she will be attacking the control of the world supply of rubber.”
Mr. Wilson’s words are very obviously as true today as they were twenty years ago. The only difference is that in 1941 the industrial and commercial rivalry is immeasurably more intense and therefore the war has encompassed the whole globe.
There are many thousands of workers who did learn the costly lesson of the last war. Many worker-soldiers swore they would never go to fight an imperialist war again. They vowed that if guns were put into their hands, they would know which way to shoot – AND IT WOULD NOT BE AT FELLOW WORKERS OF OTHER LANDS!
But today – while opposed to entry into the war and resentful of Roosevelt’s dictatorial methods – many workers are a bit confused about the issues. The war propaganda is so clever!
Because the German imperialists have instituted a dictatorship more efficient and cruel than anything heretofore known, their British and American rivals have raised the false moral issue: Democracy against Hitlerism – freedom against totalitarianism.
At the same time, while wearing the false front of moral righteousness, the “democrats” themselves are – bit by bit and on cushioned feet – instituting their own war dictatorships and totalitarian regimes BECAUSE WITHOUT SUCH REGIMES THIS SUPER-COLOSSAL WAR CANNOT BE FOUGHT.
This is a matter of method – not of issues. The working people will be the victims of both the war and the totalitarian methods used to fight it.
But the issues of this war remain the same as the issues of all imperialist wars: The protection and extension of markets – the grabbing of colonies for raw materials and for the investment of the profits fleeced from labor – the re-division of the world by the competing imperialists!
TO FIGHT FOR THESE ISSUES IS AGAINST THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE OF THE WORLD.
FOR THEM, SALVATON LIES IN A WORLD OF SOCIALIST STATES, PRODUCING FOR HUMAN USE AND PEACEFULLY EXCHANGING THEIR PRODUCTS ACCORDING TO HUMAN NEEDS.
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Last updated: 26 August 2014