The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-03-06

an auulCIOual means whereby the
great powers can carry out their
own imperialist aims.
Every lesson of history since tba
foundation of the League SERVES
to confirm this analysis. Wheney-
er an international conflict rises
above diplomatic rnaneuverinp i
Immediately and automaticaljv
goes outside the League frame.
work-as in the case of the Chaco
War, the Manchurian invasion. ar
German rearmament. The onIv al.
iteration has been that the f.eaona
is becoming an outworn instru-
ment even to serve its original
purposes. One great task for It,
however, remains: to help provide
a legal and moral coloration for
the approaching imperialist war,
Thls task it is carrying out in the
present war crisis: as we shall
see more at length later, under
cover Of the League, of the de-
tense Of "peace" and collective
security, Great Britain is lining
up her own working class and as
much Of the rest Of the people of
the world as she can, to serve her
own imperialist purposes.
But what follows from this an
alysls OF the role and function of
the League? 1t follows that the
struggle against imperialist war
requires the most scathing expos
ure Of the League. Far from Civ
ing any support whatever to the
League, far from creating any
hopes in what it can do to pre-
serve peace, the League must be
shown before the masses as an in
strument of Imperialism, of the
war-makers. It's "moral authority"
must be, not bolstered, but smash
ed. Only thus can it be removed as
an Obstacle to the struggle against
war.
What then must we say of these
who promote these illusions about
the League in the eyes of the mas
SEES? These brave liberals and
false socialists and pious ministers
these Litvinovs and Blums and
providers? We must brand them,
for this, as to what they areas
betrayers. By binding the masses
to the League, they them thereby
to the controlling member states
they join them to the class en-
envy, and prepare, through the in
I strumentality of the League, to
hand the masses over to the war
makers when the war, after suit
able anointings by the League,
begins.
2. PACIFISM
When we speak of "pacifists"
we mean all those who belive that
the struggle against war can be
carried on Independently" of the
class struggle in general, those
who take negative and defensive
| position-against war Gin general
. and think that a union of all
, persons honestly for peace can
be built up and can stop war. Pa
cifism has a great following from
: the Women's international League
for Peace and Freedom to The
Amsterdam-Pleyel Committee to
World Peaceways, Inc. to the
} World League Against War and
Fascism.
/ We have already seen the COM
plete fallacy of the pacifist po-
sition as means of preventing
war. But it is necessary to go fur
Their. Not merely is pacifism pow
erless to prevent war. In the mod
ern world it is, in effect, a means
of preparing for war.
} Harsh as this conclusion may
seem to pacifists themselves, many
: of whom are personally sincere in
their convictions, it can be proved
: by both theory and history.
Pacifism in any form aids the
: preparation for war because:
~ It spreads illusions about
the nature of war and of The fight
against war advocating disarma
e ment, conscientious objection, ma
t val treaties, the League, ETC., al
r solutions), and thus prevents
: real struggle against war, which
d can be based only on a true under
e standing of the nature and cause
e Of war.
d (2) Pacifism turns aside tn
f working class from its struggl
e for power, the only genuine wa
/ to fight war. In this way it redl
n reefs the revolutionary struggl
n against war into "safe" channel
II %bo4 :. oborV,oIe safe for inner