The daily worker., 1924-12-09
The Spectre Takes Form

ism and Communism is clearer today than ever be-
fore.
Seventy five years ago Karl Marx wrote:
"A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of
Communism"
That spectre took on form and flesh when the
Russian revolution reared its head in 1917 and in
spite of the desperate efforts of world capitalism
to lay the ghost it stands today behind every
cabinet table and the ministers of capitalist gov
crnments can see and talk of nothing else.
Great Britain, altho menaced more than ever
by France her ancient enemy, sends Austin Cham
berlain to plead with Herriot for a truce that will
allow the marshaling of the weakened capitalist
forces Of both nations against the revolutionary
working class to whom Communism is not a
dreaded spectre but messenger of hope and vic
torious struggle.
The French press notes with satisfaction that
Chamberlain's note to Herriot contains the phrase
"entente cordiae," used for the first time in years
and, according to the New York Times, says that
what Great Britain wants is ''Western European
and especially French solidarity with her against
Bolsheyism.n
Continuing, the Times says speaking of the
Chamberlain -Herriot conference:
In this short conversation there was therefore
discussed for the first time the postwar divi-
sion Of the world, from which the perpendicular
lines of the nationaIsts have in some part dis
appeared and given way to the horizontal line
which divides Rolshevism from organized civiza-
tion.
The correspondent of the Times slips little
here. 1t is just because, if we may be allowed to
emulate the Irish orator, that organized cviza-
tion" is not organized that the worlds working
class under the leadership of the Communist In
ternahona is compelled to bring order out of capi-
talist chaos The outstanding feature of European
capitalism today, the feature on which all OBJ
agreed is its demoralized character, its
utter and increasing instability its failure to re-
cover from the death blow dealt it during the in
ternecine struggles of the world war.
Even the Dawes plan-the extension of Ameri-
can imperialist control of European government,
finance and industry-has not served to Danish the
spectre of Communism and this sacrifice of the
independence of the European powers has merely
increased the disillusonment of the European
workers.
They might be seduced by nationalist phrases
and induced to work for national capitalism be-
cause of the influence of tradition and the rem
nants of patriotism, but to be enslaved to America
the richest capitalist nation in the world, is quite
different. Before they will submit to this they
must be conquered again by their own capitalists.
The working class of Europe is in revolt and this
revolt gains impetus every day because the work
prefer revolution in which they have a fighting
chance to submission to slavery for generations to
come.
The strength of the revolutionary movement in
each country is proportional to the strength of the
Communist Party, so it is against the Communist
parties and the Communist International that the
new "entente cordiale" will direct its offensive
This again intensifes the internal crisis and
arouses the revolutionary masses.
The extension of this policy can end only in
war on Soviet Russia, whose government endorses
the Communist International, is government of
workers and peasants and therefore a source of
inspiration to revolutionary workers thruout the
world1 This is what the Times correspondent
mossns by "the horizontal line which divides Boil
shevism from organized civilization"
Great Britain is the backer of this policy of ag.
gression She is the great colonial nation and in
every one OF her Asatic and African colonies there
are powerful movements for national independence
which the Communists encourage while at the same
time organizing the working class for the social
revolution. This is the historic policy of Lenin and
the new "entente cordiale' is the best tribute to
its revolutionary effectiveness France, too is
great colonial nation and likewise feels the pres
sure of the national revolutionary movements.
These two national capitalisms cannot live with
out the tribute squeezed from the colonial peoples
and the Soviet government, with its practical not
paper, policy of selfdetermination is to France and
England the personifcaton of the force that
threatens to disintegrate their empires.
Neither nation dares now challenge the United
States in battle for world supremacy They are
forced to accept the Dawes plan and forced to
comply with the demands of the efficient American
imperalists that the European opposition to the