The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-01-18
On the Nature of the War

was Written III the Surfing VI 1910.
s T.
On the Nature of the War
The present war is of an imperia-
list character. This war is the out
come of the conditions Of an epoch
ZEN capitalism has reached the
Ii CHEST stage of it's development;
vxlen the greatest significance is
attached not only to the export of
commodities, but also to the export
of capital; when the combination of
production units in cartels, and the
decentralization of economic life
has assumed considerable dimen-
sions; when colonial politics have
brought about an almost total APP
portionment of the globe among the
colonial powers; when the produc-
tive forces of world capitalism have
outgrown the limited boundaries of
national and state divisions; when
objective conditions for the realisa-
ton of Socialism have perfectly
ripened.
The Defence of the Fatherland''
Slogan
The real substance of the present
W ,r is struggle between England,
F. ance and Germany for the divi-
sion of colonies and for the plumber
of the competing countries, and an
attempt on the part of tsarism and
the ruling classes of Russia to seize
Persia, Mongolia, Turkey in Asia,
Constantinople, Galicia, etc. The ma
tional element in the war between
Austria and Serbia occupies an en-
tirely subordinate place and does
not alter the general imperialst
character of the war.
All economic and diplomatic his
tory of the last decade proves that
both groups of belligerent nations
had Systematically prepared a war
of the kind we witness at present.
the question of which group dealt
the first military blow or first de-
clared war is of no Importance in
mapping out the tactics of the So
cialists. Phrases concerning the de-
fence of the fatherland, resistance to
enemy invasion, war Of defence. ETC.,
are, on either side, nothing but a
bans to deceive the people.
At the bottom of the real national
vhrs, such as took place between
1889 and 1881, there was a long
process of mass nationalist move
ment, of struggles against absolu-
ism and feudalism, of casting off
national oppression and creating
tates on national basis as pre-
equisites for capitalist development.
The national theology that was
.reated by that epoch left deep
races in the mass of the petty
bourgeoisie and section of the pro-
letariat. This is utilised now, in a
totally different, imperialist, epoch,
by the sophists of the bourgeoisie,
and by the traitors to Socialism who
sollow in their wake, for the purpose
of splitting the workers and divert
ng them from their class task and
ron, revolutionary struggles against
1 pcurgeoislr.
THE words Of the Communist Mani
f;sto that "the workers have no
atherland" are truer now than ever.
Only the international struggle Of
he proletariat against the bour-
reoisie can save it's conquests and
pen before the oppressed masses a
Z Dad to better FIXTURE.
Slogan Of Revolutionary Social
Democracy
ITO turn the present imperialist
var into civil war is the only COR
rect proletarian slogan following
from the experience of the Commune.
indicated by the Basic (1912) resolu-
ton and dictated by all the condi-
tions Of en- imperialist war between
highly developed bourgeois coun-
tries."
Civil wa. to which revolutionary
Social Democracy calls at the pre-
sent period Is a struggle Of the ,ro-
letariat. with arms in hand, aga INST