The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-08-16
BY S. PEREvEzNIKOv.

During the last months there was
number of facts pointing to the &C
tual menace of new imperialist war
The raid on the Soviet embassy at
Picking, the blowing-up of the ARGOS
safes in London, the rupture of
Anglo Soviet relations, and murder
of the Soviet ambassador in Warsaw
and the semi-acquittal of the muir
derer-all this Enthusiastically points
to the possibility of a bloody solution
of the conflict between the country
of the toilers and the capitalist
world.
And by no means negligible part in
this conflict falls to the lot of Hin
denburg ridden Germany. Her con-
venient geographical location, her IA
nous knowledge of Russia" her
great experience in the conduct of
wars in the East, as we'll as the need
of protecting the rear of the future
eastern allies of England-all this
prompts the imperialists to seek not
only the neutrality, but also the open
participation of Germany on their
side
1t is quite obvious that the German
working class cannot afford to watch
the development of events in idle
equanimity. Considerable portions of
the latter are still swayed by the re-
formists. In spite of the long chain
of open betrayals and cynical back
sliding on the part of the reformist
leaders, tens of thousands of workers
are still in the ranks of the social
democratic party, whilst the leader
ship of the free trade unions is still
in the hands of the reformists.
In order to lead the masses into
the fight for the interests of the
bourgeoisie, it is essential for the lat
ter that the war should take the
workers by surprise, that they should
continue to believe in peace eternal,
awakening only when the guns begin
to roar. On the other hand, it would
be essential to present the case as
though the Soviet Union was the ag-
gressive party in the war and guilty
in its outbreak. Without such ideo-
logical preparation it would be i'm
possible just now to drag the work
ers and peasants to the battlefield
against the USSR. The task of such
theological preparations of the
masses has now fallen to the lot of
the reformists, particularly in Ger
many. 1t is this participation of the
reformists in the preparation for war
that constitutes the essential differ
ence between the present situation
and that of 1924, when the world
social-democracy was at least in
words opposed to war.
x
AT the moment of the highest ex-
element among the workers, caused
by the British provocation during the
days of the breakup of Anglo-Soviet
relations, the leading social-democra-
tic newspaper ."Vorwaerts," the
mouthpiece of the leading circles of
German reformism, raised the CUES
ton of the Spectre of war" only to
refer to the League of Nations in
which the German bourgeoisie is
represented and to calm the work
ers that there could be no talk of
any imminent menace to peace"
CVorwaerts," May %, 1920.
Having thus discarded the menace
of war, "Vorwaerts" started upon the
next task of working up public opin-
ion against the Soviet Union. After a
friendly rebuke to the British gov
eminent for its nervous and intoler-
able behavior" the organ of the Ger
man reformists went on to insinuate
against the USSR:
"On the other hand" says "Vor-
waerts," "we need not believe Russia
to be poor lamb, so tame and quiet
that she will not disturb the water.
The Russian methods of espionage