The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-01-07
THE PROLETARIAT AND THE WAR.
Lecture Delivered OCTOBER IA, 1914.
NeMsnaner Renort.

Lecture delivered OCTOBER Ia, 1914.
Newspaper Report.
The lecturer divides his lecture into two
parts: First, an analysis of the present war,
then the attitude of the Socialists towards
this war
An analysis of the character of the war,
Lenin says, is a necessary preliminary for
Marxist when he wants to decide upon his at
titude towards it. For such an analysis it is
necessary, first of all to make clear the OBJ
jective conditions and the concrete circum-
stances of the present war. We must place
this war in the historic background in which
it is going on. Only then shall we be able to
determine attitude towards it. Else we
would have, not materialst, but an eclectic
treatment of the question.
In conformity with the historical circum-
stances, the INTERPOLATION of classes ETC., our
attitude towards the war must be different at
different times. 1t is foolish to renounce par
ticipation in war forever and as matter of
principle. On the other hand, it is absurd to
divide the wars into defensive and aggressive
ones Marx hated Russia in 184S, because at
that time democracy in Germany could not
gain the upper hand and develop, coubl not
solidify the country into one national whole
as long as the reactonary hand of backward
Russia was suspended over Germany.
To determine our attitude towards the pres
ent war, we must understand wherein it DIFF
fers from the former wars, what it's peculiar-
ties are.
Has the bourgeoisie given an explanation in
this respect? No, it has given none, and it
can give none under any circumstances. Judg-
ing by what is going on among the Socialists,
one may think that they too, have no idea of
the Distinguishing characteristics of the pres
ent war
Yet, the Socialists once explained and fore
saw it quite clearly. Moreover, there is not
single speech of Socialist Deputy, not a
single article of Socialist publicist, in which
such explanation is not contained. The ex-
PLANTATION is so simple that, somehow, one does
not pay attention to it. Still it gives the key
to correct attitude towards this war.
The present war is an imperialist war. This
is its main characteristic
To make this clear, we must analyse the
nature of the past wars and the nature of
mperialist war.
Lenin then characterizes in some detail the
wars of the end of the eighteenth and of the
entire nineteenth century. All those, he says,
were national wars accompanying and helping
the formation of national states.
Those wars signified the destruction of
feudaism; they were the expression of the
struggle of the new bourgeois society against
feudalsm national state is necessary
phase in the development of capitalism. The
struggle for the self-determination of the ma
ton, for its independence, for the freedom of
its language, for popular representation,
served this end-the creation of national
states, which were, at a certain stage of CAPT
talism, indispensable soil for the growth of
productive forces.
Such is the character of the wars beginning
wifi no IF ba
ton and continuing down to the Italian and
Prussan wars
This task of the national wars was carried
out either by democracy itself, or with the aid
of such men as Bismarck, independently of
the will and consciousness of the participants
themselves. To secure the victory of present
day civilization, and the full growth of capt.
talism, to draw the whole people, all the ma
tions, into capitasnl-this is what national
wars, the wars Of the beginning of capitalism.
served to do.
An imperialist is a different thing.
Here, too, there were once no differences of
opinion between Socialists of all countries and
all trends. When resolutions on the attitude
towards a possible war were discussed at any
congress, all agreed that such war would be
an imperialist war; All European countries
have already reached an equal stage in the de-
velopment of capitalism, all of thc.l have
yie'I,od all that capitalism can give. Capt.
tasm has already reached it's highest form,
it is already exporting, not commodities, but
capital. 1t begins to feel cramped in its ma
tional shell, and there is struggle now for
the last free remnants of land on the globe.
While the national wars of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries sgnified the beginning
of capitalism, the imperialist wars indicate its
end
The entire end of the nineteenth and the be-
ginning of the twentieth centuries were full of
imperialist politics.
II is imperialism that lends the present war