The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-09-04

Thus, the imperialists say: We
don't want war, the U. S. S. R. wants
war. Pilsudski says: l don't want
war, the U. S. S. R. wants war.
Meanwhile, all of them are fever
ishly preparing for a war of aggres-
sion against the U. S. S. R. and for
war among themselves. I do not
wish to assert that this war will
break out for certain within the next
few months. No one can say in what
month, or even in what year war
will break out. But the point is not
whether war will break out within
year or two or three. The point
is that the danger of war is grow
ing from month to month. l think
that this is perfectly clear. 1t is to
the imperialists' interests to obscure
this thesis and the social democrats
are interested in the same thing.
But there is no reason why we should
conceal this fact. Hence, I cannot
agree to the significance of this fact
being diminished in any form, even
in the form Of separating external
contradictions from internal contra
dictions.
Several comrades, as it were, keep
internal contradictions in one pocket
and external contradictions in an
other. There were several comrades
Of our delegation who adopted the
same attitude, but they received no
support. Is this attitude correct :?
No, it is not. 1t is the reflection of
an underestimation of the war dan
ger. From the objective point of
view it is the reflection of right
wing dangers in the Communist In
ternational. The principal danger
that threatens us is the under-esti-
nation of the war danger. In view
of the fact that this question is by
no means simple one, on the con-
trary, it is very complicated one,
/ think it is my duty to explain it
in the most elementary manner pos
sible, in order to avoid any possible
misunderstanding and in order to
obtain clearest possible picture of
it.
= First of all, are there any persons
in the Communist International who
underestimate the war danger?
Undoubtedly there are. Comrade
Thorez, Semard, Ercoli and many
other comrades referred to it. All
of US have said and emphasized, for
example, that the Chinese revolution
and Japan's war against China have
not been sufficiently reflected in the
work Of the Parties affiliated to the
Communist International. There
fore, the objective situation reveals
a continuous increase in the war
danger, if the position of the i'm
perialists and social democrats is
absolutely clear, then we must take
the under-estimation of the war dan
ger seriously into consideration. This
under-estimation of the war danger
follows from the fact that the war
danger is regarded as an ordinary
problem, as one of many equally i'm
portant problems. We do not link
up the war danger with other ques-
tons in such way as to subordinate
all our other tasks combating ap-
preaching war. And this is pre-
cisely what we must do if our ac-
tons are to correspond to the OBJ
jective situation and to our tasks of
the day. This is why l would like
to enlarge on this thesis.
You know, comrades, that in his
article on the Hague Conference,
Lenin wrote, that in time of war or
Immediately on the eve of war a
section of the Communist press will
undoubtedly disgrace itself. Of
course, it may be said that Lenin
was "pessimist." But the fact
is, we have these words written in
black and white by Lenin. Shall we
say that this was an "incautious"
expression to use? do not know
whether this forecast will be re-
allied, but l do know that such a
danger exists in view of the under
estimation of the war danger.
ask you what other danger is there
to compare with this one? Almost
none, for this is the fundamental
question Of the whole situation.
How the Question of External and