The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-01-10

4CN11N SOV 41AliouIS whether or not these
are league members) is in effect SUPPORT
O1 theSe governments themselves. This
to betrayal of the revolutionarv S{,, IesIS
against war and the REVOLUTIONARY Jafeano
OF Ethiopia, which is always etrT,o'a.Io
against the capitalist governments and &c
oourgeolsle whose governments thew arc
ut does no good to say, as the SOFIA,
democrats and the Stalinists saw. that wo
ShOuld support League and governmental
SANCTIONS, but at the same time. MONT ont
!lldC the League and British and French
!IlpeI!dnSm are acting only in their own
lmper1alist interests in APPLYING thew.
we are temporarily able to use the Brit
lsh and French governments to serve the
interests of the working class hecanSo
their interests momentarilv thouoh from
'dlametrically opposite causes coincide
IhlS is the reasoning of a Stain or a RIuno
put not OF MarXiSt. The Marxist knows
that we can never use capitalist govern
menus for the interests of the WORKING
Glass; because what these governments are
is instrument to be used for the interests
OF the bourgeOisie. On the contrary wo
must always fight inexorably against the
governments, and their acts. The Marxist
knows that advocacy of governmental
sanctions in any form necessarily binds
the working class to the state and the
class enemy, necessarily weakens the class
position OF the workers and thus the work
erS struggle for power, and necessarily
prepares for turning the workers over TO
the Sanctlon-applylng government when
the sanctions find their natural outcome
IN war. II we support sanctions, and the
sanctions lead to war, then we have al
1OTfIT1 fhn
ported the war. 1t takes more than YER
bal reservations to crawl out of the ines
capable logic of cause and effect.
The disastrous consequences of SUM-
port OF sanctions are already apparent In
Great Britain year ago, the masses were
turning rapidly away from the National
Government. Then the British Labor Par
ty and the British Communist PARTY came
OUT strongly for sanctions: that is came
out for the policy of British inance-capital
ana the National Government. This has,
naturally, fatally obscured the class issue,
No longer is there any clear line between
the working class parties and the Conser-
vatlves on the war crisis The Labor Par
ty and the Communist Party have done
Tor Baldwin what he could not do for him
sell: they have brought about national
unity on the war issue. Baldwin of course
understands this; and consequently has
called Tor the new elections to Parliament.
confident OF substantial majority for the
government. In France, the same result:
The Peoples Front, advocating sanctions.
becomes the main support of the sRepub-
1c"-that is, of French imperialism: La
val could reasonably apply for admission:
national unity on the war issue mortally
WeakenS the rlpening class struggle in
rance, which poses on the order of the
Gay the revolutionary struggle for work.
ers' power and the overthrow of everv
form at capitalist government at the same
Time that the workers leaders lend all
thelr efforts to UNFOLDING and defending
the capitalist government.
Marxists, then, reject and expose as be-
trayal any and all advocacy of League and
governmental sanctions Naturally, how
ever, this does not mean that they take a
passive, handS-Off position in the present
crisis or in any other. Marxists are not
neutral in the dispute between ETHIOPIA
and Italy. They are for the defeat of Fas-
clst Italy and the blow to imperialism
which such a defeat would surely be: and
they are therefore for the victory of Eth
lopla. But they propose to aid in such de-
reat and such victory not by appealing to
C0pICd1SC governments and the lmperlallSt
League for their assistance and sanctions;
but to the working class to apply its pro-
etarian sanctions Only sanctions which
are results of. the independent and auto
nOmous actions of the working class are
Of any value in the revolutionary STRUGGLE
against war-since only these separate the
class from the state and the class enemy,
and only these build the fighting strength
Of the workers, which is alone the road to
workers power and thus to the defeat of
war. Mass demonstrations, strikes, labor
OOycottS, defense funds for material aid to
Ethiopia, refusal to load munitions for
Italy, revolutionary agitation for Marxism
as it applies to the war crises, these are
such sanctions as the working class must
make use of. But these will be ineffec-
'ual in the immediate crisis? They are ro-
mantle and utopian? If So then the rev.
pulmonary struggle is itself Intellectual,
'omantic, and utopian. Perhaps such sane
ions will not solve the present crisis.
3ut they, and they alone, will help steel
he class, materially and ideologically, for
he struggle to come-the struggle for
workers. power, which is, in the end, the
'nly solution"