Montana labor news., 1938-10-13
LAB0R'S BOOK SHELF
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Continued from Page p
talist forces that stand for isolation
ism. Here the word 'isolationist''
begins to take on the color of a
curse. They use it to denounce any
and all persons or organizations who
suggest that there might be unfortu-
nate complications in the working
out of the collective security pro-
gram.
The Socialist party l%eaflet, Smash
the War System" sounds much more
logical to me. The Socialists are
shrewd in pointing out that to divide
the world into democratic and fas-
cist powers is to indulge in shallow
thinking and to forget that these
so-called democratic nations are still
c%apitalistic nations who will never,
for all their idealistic protests, take
a firm stand against fascism. Be
cause that would mean a stand in
favor of socialism. The workers
struggle, say the Socialists, is against
capitalism and imperialism, and to-
wards socialism; not against fascism
in favor of capitalist democracy"
The answer to PROVIDERS question,
they say, lies in the fact that the
democratic capitalist governments
are fascist in their core.
Communists pass lightly over the
danger of Americas becoming in
volved in a war should her govern
ment join hands with the govern
ments Of France and Britain for the
supposed advantage of the working
class, Anyone who is at all familiar
with the National Defense Act
knows the preparations that have
been perfected for the clamping
down of a military dictatorship the
minue war comes near to being a
reality. Communists seem complete
ly blind to the irony of a proposal
which would send America into a
war supposedly against fascism, and
have as its first result the iron i'm
position of fascism at home. In their
support of Roosevelt, the Commu-
nists seem to forget that our War,
Navy, and State Departments are
committed to wars Of offense as well
as of defense.
I have found nothing in the So
cialist literature l have read that
justifies the Communist charge Of
i%solationism. Nowhere have l found
proposals for economic isolationism,
no %regressive cultural attitudes. On
the contrary l find emphatic encour-
agement of peoples boycotts, de-
mand for the revision of the neutral
ity act, and other declarations of
determination to rebuke fascist gov
ernments short of plunging America
into war. The struggle for peace,
the Socialists feel, begins at home;
and the struggle against war and fas-
cism is not to be separated from the
struggle against capitalism and i'm
p~erialism and the struggle for a CO.
operative commonwealth.
That the Socialists malign the
Communists and thereby contribute
to the split in labor's ranks, I do not
deny, although on the whole I find
their criticism less vituperative.
Their allegation that the Commu-
nists are interested more in defense
of the Soviet Union than in world
peace seems to me an accurate
thrust. Neither of these parties is
ever going to achieve major weight
in American politics. Their program
(their programs are still very close
from a standpoint of e|conomics) will
in some measure prevail in America,
but under another name. In recog-
milton of this, the Communists are
now spreading themselves out into
the broadcast and most general of
democratic fronts. l should not be
surprised if they changed their name
before long. They constantly change
the names Of their various organiza-
tons. The indigenous American
movement which we do not yet
recognize will encompass all of them.
But the next time someone calls
you an isolationist, don't you care.
Ask him what he's doing for peace.