The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-07-18

purpose-protection of native capital
from foreign competition.
THE second cause of the intensifl-
4 cation of the revolutionary crisis
in the east consists in the growth Of
national consciousness among the ma
tive intelligenzia. In all young bour-
geois countries the intelligenzia, at
the commencement of the liberation
movement, plays the first fiddle. This
was the case with us in Russia before
1905, and is the case today in the
east. Before the war the eastern in
telligenzia looked up to the European
and American democracy. The strong
est of those capitalist powers which
were in close contact with the east
was America. And America defended
the policy of the so-called open door"
it posed as the defender of the indie
pendence Of China against England,
Russia and Japan. Leading American
politicians took India under their pro-
lection. The emigration, workers,
merchants, and in fact all oriental peo-.
pie living in America, were enthusiasts
tic over American democracy, where
every foreigner settling there is grant
ed full rights of citizenship.
But in the course of time the mass
of the oriental intelligenzia perceived
the true features of this democracy,
and in what consists the nature Of
American "self-determination of the
peoples" When, after the Versailles
peace conference, the province Of
Shantung with its population of 40
millions was cut of from China and
was made a present" of to Japan,
this fact served to enlighten the east
ern intelligenzia better than any prop
uganda as to what is the real. attitude
of bourgeois democracy towards the
national movement. 1t is not surpris-
ing that we see at present in the east
an theological revulsion of the intelli-
genzia from Europe and America, a
revulsion which at times assumes the
form Of reaction against European civ
ilization in general.
THE third factor is the growth of
l. the workers and peasants move
ment. The movement of the laboring
masses in such countries as China
and India is on the same level as was
the Russian labor movement in the
year 1896. 1t is the first mass move
ment of the proletariat.
Along with the mass struggles there
is proceeding the creation of Com
munist Parties. The Russi;-n proleta-
riat, from the year 1896 had to carry
on it's fight for another ten years be-
fore it arrived at its first revolution.
We hope-and this hope is based up
ON objective facts-that the east will
traverse this road at more rapid
rate and with better results than the
Russian revolution of 1905.
The revolutionary movement of the
east is factor the Importance of
which we underestimated.
When we consider the situation in
Egypt, which was clearly illuminated
by the bomb thrown at the English
Sirdar-this also can hardly be con-
sidered as sign of the sterilization
of capitalist conditions, when we re-
member that the bomb was thrown by
a railway worker-we must again and
again emphasize that the national
movement in the east has not only
seized the intelligenzia, but also the
broad masses of the people, and that
the chief task of world Imperialism
the extension of the markets by in
tensifed exploitation of the colonies
and suppression of the eastern coun-
tries, will meet with other resistance
than was formerly the case.