The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-08
The Communist international, The War
Danger and the Role of American Imperialism

relative increase oI It's OWN d1Ald-
ments.
There had been revolts in series
of countries from Morocco and Syria
to Indonesia, and then the great Chi
nese revolution had burst upon the
world. Revolts Of colonial peoples
were added to the many "small" war
incidents between the smaller ma
tions chiefly in the Balkans.
From these little wars the capitalist
imperialist world was rapidly APP
preaching then, as it still is, the great
war which we see lying in the future.
For that reason it was necessary that
the first and the dominant point upon
the order of business of the Comm
tern in this session should be the war
and the danger of war. Capitalism
has been in the process of what we
call deterioration" since the world
war of the past. The cycles of pros
perity and depression have lost their
regular course as in the past. There
are-no longer periods, as far as
Europe is concerned, of long pros
perity with periods of short de-
preston. There are now periods of
brief, feverish booms interlarded with
long and dangerous depressions.
Competition for the narrowing field
ofworld markets and sources of raw
material is sharper today than ever
before and much sharper than even
the competition which proceeded the
war of 1914. As a result of the con-
ditions of the war period national in
dustries had been developed in the
colonial and semi-colonial countries
which take the place in the world
market of many Of the home indus
tries of the imperialist countries.
These had served to diminish the field
and to upset that equilibrium which is
established at the times of normal
capitalist existence. The equilibrium
which has existed to a certain extent,
the relative sterilization which we
have repeatedly recognized in the
Comintern, this equilibrium is APP
preaching its upset, and was even
before the Plenum approaching the
upset which will result in the world
crash.
WHAT do we say today is the dom
" inant difference, or great differ
enee between the present pre-war
period and the pre-war period of
1918? 1t is existence of the Soviet
Union and the existence of the Chi.
nese revolution. These great out
standing facts alter the entire situa-
ton. Soviet Russia and China are
they key positions in the whole world
situation. From the economic stand
point they occupy territorially the
greater part of Asia and Europe. To-
gether they mean hole, a gap in the
capitalist commercial system, they
represent gap which the capitalists
in the approaching world war in the
logic Of their system will and must
attempt to fill.
A victory of the Chinese revolution
would in the first place effect the
British Empire. The first effect on
the imperialist world would mean the
final break in the foundation of the
British imperial system, the revolu-
tionizing of the British working class,
the revolutionizing of it's colonial de-
pendents. That is an explanation of
the fact that the Cominte1n has stated
in the thesis which we adopted there
that the British Empire first of all
is the leader in the imperialist ag-
gression of the present period. On
the other hand the defeat of the Chi
nese revolution would mean fresh
temporary consolidation of the i'm
perialist system of the leading ma
lions and a general sweep of reac-
ton throughout all of the world with
out exception. For the imperialist
powers, and in the first place in the
point of time, for the British Empire,
everything is at stake in the crushing
of the Chinese revolution. In any
event the war for subiugation of
NAsia. by. the imperialist powers lies
in the future through the victory of
the Chinese revolution or through its
Hefeat.
Now, Comrades, we are not pacif-
lists, we are not opposed to all war,
we are opposed. to imperialist war.
We draw distinctions between one
kind of war and another kind. 1t is
necessary for us to understand that
if we are not to be simply pacifist
liberals, if we recall the attitude of
Marx, to take for example in the case
of the American Civil War where
Marx and Engels with the utmost
vigor came out, not as pacifists, not
as neutrals, but as definite bellig-
Grants on the side of the union
cause in the American civil war
against the slave power, if we re-
member these things, if we remember
the difference of time which makes it
now truly unthinkable that any revo-
lutionist or any decent self-respecting
worker could support the United
States government in the present era,
we understand the thread by which
we find these differences. Revolution
/ -.