The daily worker., 1932-06-02
The Seizure of the Communist
international" Magazine and the
Struggle Against ImperialistWar
Norman Thomas. Hoover and War;
Norman Thomas. Hoover and War;

most democratic regime In a bourgeois republic
Who are the workers In the Soviet Union i'm
Observation-Disclosures, Mr.. Thomas? You know
who the prisoners are and you know for whom
you are demanding the return Of civil liberties"
They are the Unter-revolutiOnistS Of all shades
beginning with menshevikS, your Russian coun-
terparts, and they are not workers. They are
enemies of the Soviet Power. You are demand
ing the right of cOunter-revolution as against
the Soviet Union impendS. 1t is only In this
way, you believe, you can slip in little aid for
capitalism without driving workers away from
the Socialist Party.
With the Socialist Party engaged in these
maneuvers, themselves part of war preparations,
the United States government, through its State
Department directly charged with war prepars-
ton has seized the issue OF the Communist In-
ternational Magazine which gives to American
workers clear insight into these events, their
causes and the way to combat them. 1t quotes,
for instance, what Lenin wrote in 1915 about
such peace" propaganda as the Socialist Party
is now carrying on:
peace propaganda at the present time
when war had begun as it has now, but start
ing in Europe instead OF the Far East unec-
companied by a call to the masses for revOlu-
tiOnary action, is capable only OF sowing iIlu-
sonS of corrupting the proletariat into belief
in the humanitarianiSm Of the bourgeoisie and
making it a plaything in the hands Of secret
diplomacy"
This is precisely what the social-faScists of all
lands are doing-carrying on peace propaganda
in the abstract against war in the abstract and
lining up with the imperialiStS against the COM
muniSt Parties and the working class in their
struggle for the defeat Of the imperialist war
program, for the defense of the Soviet Union
and the Chinese people.
Because the struggle against inperiahst war
is supreme test for Communist Parties and the
working class, because it meets with the fiercest
resistance of every kind from the ruling class.
because of the confusion created by the Social
ist Party, the Musteites and the whole peaceful
transition to war; policy Of American imperial
ism it is necessary that the reprinted issue OF
Number Six of the Communist International
magazine be given the widest circulation and
that the articles be given the most thorough
study and discussion in the unions, in factory
groups, amcng groups of workers everywhere.
But study and discussion alone can not put
real obstacles in the way Of war preparations.
Action is needed-and at such times as these
even small strikes and stoppages against the
shipment of munitions, demonstrations against
Japanese consulates, mass demands for their ex-
pulsion, can have big political effects.
Check up on the manufacture and shipments
OF war supplies for use against the Chinese revo-
luton and the Soviet Union. Bring the question
of the meaning of imperialist war, Of the forms
and methods of struggle against it wherever
workers are. Organize strikes and demonstra-
tions against munition shipments to Japan
"Only in this way" says the leading article in
the magazine seized by order of Wall Streets
State Department, 'by disorganixing the rear.
by building up a revolutionary rearguard-can
we really prevent the bourgeoisie from hurling
the people into open war, war In masked