The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-07
Karl Liebknecht on
Observation-Disclosures
BY 81 GERSON

4 Prussisn censor, can by no means be
entirely satisfactory today.
/ Liebknecht al one point admits
in an extremely tentative manner,
as If he did not wish to commit
| himself TOO permanently TO the idea,
the remote possibility Of KaUtsly's
theory Of ultra imperialism. He
/ says -. 26).
"A time may come when the
division Of the world has pro-
greSssd To such an extent that q
policy Of placing all colonial
possessions in trust for the Colo
NAL empires becomes feasible,
thus eliminating competition
But that is a distant possibility
which the economic and political
rise Of China alone may defer for
an incalculable space Of time"
The very fact that Liehknecht re-
garded ultrs-imperisHan only as q
distant possibility (sll this in 1905
when the question was hardly
touched upon and nothing more
is another demonstration of Lieb-
mecht's political clarity. History
proves that he threw off this devil
alton when the world war demon
strated its falsity. On the very same
page he largely negates Kautsky's
theory Of a peaceful development Of
a benevolent super imperialism
when he states that
IAN the alleged plans for disarm-
ament are thus seen to be for the
present nothing but fooEery,
phrsse-mskjng and attempts at
deception"
TIE Liebknecl1t Of 1905 said sriy
part %. IT'D:
TO do away with militarisrn or
to weaken II as much ~ possible
Is thus question Of vital i'm
pOrtanee In vaging the struggle
for political emancipation.
This in itself-the weakening Of
the armed forces Of the capitalist
.regime-was but half. That Ideb-
knecht soon saw the corollary TO
this-the arming Of the proletariat
and the forcible overthrow of the
bourgeoisie-is amply attested 20 by
the crime Of Ebert and Scheide-
mann.
But these errors, serious though
they are, showed that Eaebknecht
had further to go along the path Of
revolutionary development. His
brilliant analysis Of capitalist MIL
itarism, that militarisn
which attempts nothing less than
sqHaring the circle, which arms
the people against the people it.
self" (p 39).
that analysis viii stand out as the
foremost dissection Of an tnsuper-
able contradiction of the capitalist
order. 1t VIII serve as 2 guide to
millions Of revolutionisbs, pointing
out that the work Of an Andre
Marty n the French Navy or q
Crouch or a Tr1unbuH IN The United
States Army Is not solely The work
of an individual but Is an expression
Of a standing conflict within
modern imperialism
Norman Thomas may croek that
the Vienna uprising shows once
more at what disadvantage work
ers are against q government
whose troops remain loyal This
Communist Parties Of the world
point that with indefatigsble effort
it is possible to WIN the workers in
the armed foroes-as the Russian
workers and peasants proved IN 1917.
Capitalism may try to send the sons
of coal miners out to shoot down
their fathers and brothers on strike,
or to murder foreign" miners sons.
But this is nothing less than squar-
ing the circle" something difficult
even for capitalist nethenaticians
And the cesseless Bolshevik work
to win the workers sons IN uniform
to the banner of international work
ing-class loyalty will make It not
only difficult for world capitalism
to square the circle, but impossible.
Liebknecht's "milftaris1n@ can be
an aid in this work II should be
re-iSsued (it is practically impossible
to obtain copy today, properly
prefaced and annotated. The In
ternationsl Publishers woald be do
ing service to the struggle against
capitalist n1ilitsrisn by re-publish-
ing this old proletarfsn work.
'1filtsrtsn" BY Karl LIebkneeht, Nez
FORK, 2. ". Huehsch. 1917