The daily worker., 1934-08-16
From the First World War to the Second

workers of Europe and America in alliance with
the colonial slaves OF Asia, Africa and Australia
are aware of the path which leads out of fascist
barbarism, capitalist exploitation and imperialst
danger of war, and pursue this path, it will not be
so again. There can be no repetition of 1914, be-
cause world history is driving irrevocably towards
the domination of the working class throughout the
world, to Socialism, because the forces of social
revolution have grown enormously compared with
the forces of world reaction. compared with 1914
1t will not be so again, If the toiling masses of
the people in every country unitedly follow
the path of Lenin, the path of the Third Interna-
tional, which has been forged in the fire of the
World War and which has proved itself today to be
the main strength of the international workers
movement in the struggle against fascsm and i'm
peralist war;
The first steps of the Third International were
directed against and against the patriotic
treachery of the Second International With the
slogan of civil war against the imperalist war"
the founders of the Third International called for
the ending of the war by the struggle against the
enemy in ones own country. Emphasizing the in
evitabe connection between and class struggle,
they characterized the eradication of the rotten
capitalist roots the primary pre-condition for the
abolition of altogether. Already during the
World War Lenn wrote:
"We will not ignore the sad possibility that in
the worst case humanity viii experience second
imperialist war, if the revolution is not born cut
of this war in spite of the numerous outbreaks of
mass fermentation and mass indignation and in
spite of our efforts"
With the overthrow Of capitalism on one-sxth
Of the worlds territory, the founders of the Third
International showed that their words were not
empty sounds but were accompanied by the will
and ability for revolutionary deeds During the
World War only the Bolsheviks, under the leader
ship of Lenin, and the spartakus Bund. under Karl
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg, held high the
banner of proletarian internationalism.
From the first day of its foundation, the Third
International has fought for the program of the
national and social emancipation Of the toilers of
the whole world The Third International answered
the conclusion of the Versailles Treaty on May 49,
1919, with great appeal under the title: Down
with the Versailles Peace" which declares among
other things:
"The Communist Parties Of all countries con-
slider the Versailles peace conditions blow to the
whole international proletariat, blow which can
only be warded off through the united strength of
the proletarians of all countries"
This manifesto recorded that the League Of Ma
tons was exposed before the whole world as
robber league, which is crucfying many millions of
the toiling masses of Europe"
AS against the deceptive promises of the ruling
class and its Social Democratic lackeys, the Third
International at once exposed the disarmament
swinde and pointed out the impossibity OF peace
full agreements between the imperialsts and the i'm
possibility of disarmament and peace inside capt.
talist society. Convinced of the inevitablity of
new war, the Third International has for Is years
carried on systematic stubborn struggle, full of
glory and sacrifice fer the defense OF the Soviet
Union and for safeguarding world peace along the
path of the overthrow OF the ruling class in the
capitalist countries
Fifteen years of "peace," fifteen years of the
Third International, were fifteen years of united
revolutionary struggle of world Communism against
the imperialst war However, the struggle of the
Communists against war was never based on the
shallow foundation of pacifism, but always on the
granite foundation of the Marxist feminist doctrine
of the class struggle. The war of imperialism was
and is war for safeguarding the rule of finance
capital for the salvation of the outlived bourgeois
society of expoters, for the oppression of the small
and weak nations and for the overthrow of the only
workers state in the world. Hence all wars of the
mperialists are reactionary and unjust and the
mperiaiists always the aggressors from the
standpoint of historical progress and of the prole
tartan class struggle This, and only this concap-
ton determines the irreconclabe attitude of world
Communism to the imperialist war;
ITO Be Concluded