The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-08-14
From the First World War to the Second

Japan directs itself ever more openly against the
Soviet Union. Any day can bring with it tenn
porary agreement between the Imperalist Powers;
any day can bring open attack the peace
fortress of the world proletariat Nothing better
characterzes the historical out-of-dateness of the
bourgeois social order than the fact that it still per-
ceives saving way out only along that narrow path
which leads it irrevocaby into the abyss.
XII. Socialists at Headquarters
TODAY are faced with the iron fact of war
We have to decide today, not for against war
but on the question of the means required for the
defense of the country" vigorous approval on the
part of the bourgeois parties) "Our warmest wishes
accompany brothers who have been called to
the coIors, without distinction of party" General
cries of bravo and applause) TN the case of
victory Of Russian despotisn, which has stained it.
self with the blood of the best of its own people,
much, if not everything is at jeopardy for our ma
ton and its free future" (Renewed approval)
Nov proclaim, what have always empha-
sized: in the hour of danger we shall not leave our
fatherland in the Iurch." vigorous applause)
1t was on August A. 1914, that Hugo Haase read
the above declaration in the Reichstag in the name
of the German Social Democratic Party. The waves
of chauvinism flooded the whole of Europe the
mass graves being filled, when Kautsky was
teaching that the International was not an in
marching to when the French Socialists
and the British Labor Party members voted the
credits of their bourgeoisies and Albert Thomas
became Minister of Munitions. The historic reso-
utions of the Basic and Stuttgart congresses of
the Second International on war against war were
torn up. At the moment of their historic ordeal
of fire. the Second International marched into the
war camp Of world imperialism. The first world war
only possible through the treachery of the
Second International.
Then came Versailles. Twelve years of Versailles
had already passed when Vandervelde at the Vienna
Congress of the Second international could still
dare to declare that not only his but also the sig
nature of Herman Mueller and Karl Renner was
attached to the Versailles Treaty, and that "if I
had to repeat it today, would do So"
United with the imperialist war, the social
patriotic leaders have also linked themselves with
the imperialist peace. The bourgeois social order
in the postwar period has rested on the reformist
shoulders of the Second International The policy
OF civil peace during the period made way for
policy Of class collaboration and coalition with
the ruling class. The Second International saved
the world bourgeoise from the onslaught of the
masses by betraying the proletarat, joining hands
with the forces of CONDENSATION opening a
bloody civil war against the proletariat and pre-
pairing the way for fascsm The pacifist decep-
ton which enabled the imperialists to undertake
arming without hindrance and which directed
towards divertng the attention of the masses from
struggle against the danger of war, must be booked
to the account of the Second International The
words Of Hilferdng, that great theoretical uminary
of the Second International, who in November 1925
delivered himself follows in the journal Gesell-
schaft Society, will not be forgotten:
THE war has made clear the position of peace.
The old thesis capitalism is war-socalism is peace
is incorrect in both parts Imperialism is leading
to lasting peace. Now it is not SO simple as
formerly to say that capitalism is war, socialism is
peace. 1t is precisely capitalism that in the recent
period has shown that it desired peace, and on the
contrary, the purely socialist policy of Boshevism
which has brought with it the increasing danger of
war"
Ito be continued)