{"id":1070,"date":"2019-03-11T16:31:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T16:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?page_id=1070"},"modified":"2019-10-21T13:54:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T12:54:51","slug":"peace","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace (!)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
August 1919, U.K.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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Peace, we are told, has now been made. On 28th June, 1919, the \nrepresentatives of the Allied  powers and Germany signed a “Peace \ntreaty”, officially terminating the “Great War”, which it had claimed \nwould “end all war” and “make the world safe for democracy”.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTo achieve the great result millions of the working class lie in war \ngraves, millions are maimed, crippled, or disfigured for life, millions \nmore, with constitutions shattered, are wondering what the future holds \nfor them.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAlongside this enormous waste of human life and limb, the destruction of\n wealth that has taken place seems trivial. Yet here the quantities are \nstaggering. Numberless houses, factories and works, numerous mines, \nroads, railways and canals, thousands of ships with their cargoes, \nmillions of tons of munitions, and extensive crops, forests, and the \nlike, have been destroyed in this welter of war. And even now we are not\n at the end of the waste and destruction, for Mr. Bonar Law, speaking at\n a “Victory Loan” meeting, stated that there were still 23 other wars in\n progress.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBut the “Great War” has ended. And almost immediately, in every country \nthroughout the capitalist world, strikes and struggles between masters \nand workers blaze up. In the countries of the conquerors and the \nconquered alike, in neutral States and border zones, over-riding all the\n artificial divisions of territory and race, the antagonism between the \nworking class and the master class gains greater prominence, with \nfiercer fights, than ever before. These fights, necessary for immediate \npurposes as many of them are, provide no solution for the fundamental \nproblem facing the working class.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTo the capitalist class a solution is impossible. They cannot abolish the antagonism except by abolishing themselves.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe “League of Nations”, claimed by its supporters to be the greatest \nsafeguard of future peace that has resulted from the war, is cynically \nexposed by the military treaties between England, France, and America, \nto be a combination of the stronger Powers to enforce methods and \nconditions suitable to their own interests upon the weaker nations.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWhat other arrangements or undertakings have been made we do not at \npresent know, but the refusal of China, one of the Allies, to sign the \n“Peace” Treaty is significant. One reason for China’s action that has \nleaked out is the practical handing over of Chinese territory–the  \nShantung Peninsular, to Japan. As this action threatens to at least \nrestrain, if not to shut out, American trade in that part of China, \nbecause of the important seaports on the Shantung coast, it is raising a\n pretty quarrel between America and Japan, whose trade rivalry is \nalready intense.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSuch portions of the “Peace” Treaty with Germany as have been published \n further support our case. Large areas are to be taken from Germany and \nhanded over to France, Belgium, Poland, and Denmark. In some cases a \nplebiscite of the inhabitants of certain areas may be taken later on, \nbut this is entirely within the discretion of the “League”, who may \nwithhold such plebiscite if they wish. It is, of course, quite an \naccident that so many of these areas contain rich coal and ore deposits.\n In addition the Allies are to enjoy the “most favoured nation” \ntreatment in commerce, to have unrestricted freedom of transit for their\n goods, and no Tariff discrimination for five years. While children are \nstarving in Germany over 100,000 milch cows are to be taken by the \nAllies.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIn the Socialist Standard for September 1914, in our Manifesto on the War, we stated:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“The Capitalists of Europe have quarrelled over the questions of the \ncontrol of trade routes and the world’s markets, and are endeavouring to\n exploit the political ignorance and blind passions of the working class\n of their respective countries in order to induce the said workers to \ntake up arms in what is solely their masters’ quarrel.”\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAlone of all parties in this country we took our stand upon the \nSocialist position. So-called Socialist parties that supported the war \nthen, are now in many cases pretending to be opposed to such wars and \nare urging the workers to demonstrate and strike against British \nsoldiers being used against Russian workers. Too ignorant or cowardly in\n those days to stand for the interests of the working class, they now \ntry to achieve a popularity and reputation by urging soldiers to refuse \nto fire on Russian workers, while they applauded or were silent when the\n same soldiers were shooting down German, Austrian, or Hungarian \nsoldiers.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIn the manifesto mentioned above we said:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“The machinery of government, including the armed forces of the nation, \nexists only to conserve the monopoly by the capitalist class of the \nwealth taken from the workers. These armed forces, therefore, will only \nbe set in motion to further the interests of the class who control \nthem–the master class.”\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAs far as Russia is concerned, there are signs that “intervention” is \nnearing its end–not because of the demonstrations (those called for \n21st July were a ghastly failure), but because of a division of \ninterests in the capitalist camp.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWhile the British and French capitalists who have invested large amounts\n of capital in developing Russian industry, desire intervention for the \npurpose of seizing control of the productive forces, either for \nthemselves or in combination with the Russian master class, the other \ncapitalists are quietly but effectively protesting against the scheme. \nThose who manufacture at home and seek markets abroad, note with anxiety\n how Japan and America are preparing to take hold of the Russian market.\n According to some reports, German merchants are already trading in \nRussia. On the other hand the Bolshevik Government has repeatedly \nannounced its readiness to make “economic” and “industrial” concessions \nto foreign capitalists in exchange for seeds, machinery, and tools. The \nacceptance of these “concessions” can have but one result–the running \nof the main industries of Russia on capitalist lines.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe backward economic conditions of Russia compel the Bolsheviks to make\n these offers that are in flat contradiction to their theories, and they\n can no more resist successfully the force of these circumstances than \nthey could avoid signing the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nHence that section of the British capitalist class who wish to open \ntrade with Russia favour the withdrawal of Allied support of all kinds \nfrom Kotchak and Dennikin, and the making of a commercial agreement with\n the Bolshevik Government.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWhile competition between capitalist groups for routes, markets, and \ncontrol of raw material exists, the cause of war remains. The \namalgamation of some of these groups into “leagues” or “associations”, \nwhile it may put off the evil day for a while, only makes the struggle \nthe greater when it does arise. But even if the whole of the greater \ncapitalists of the world were to unite for the control of the globe, \nthere would still remain the greatest of all wars to be fought out–the \nClass War for the freedom of Mankind.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nDuring the “Great War” the capitalist class on both sides broke down \nmany of the old national and racial barriers that still existed between \nvarious sections of slaves under their control. Black chattel slaves \nfought alongside yellow contract workers. Irish Home Rulers stood by \njingo Englishmen, French Syndicalists by Japanese Imperialists.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nClearer than ever before stands out the great fact that there is no hope\n for real peace in the world until these various sections of workers \nrecognise the common fundamental character of their slavery and set to \nwork to remove it, thus ending the enslavement of the human race by the \nestablishment of Socialism.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAs in September 1914, so now we say:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Having no quarrel with the working class of any country, we extend to \nour fellow workers of all lands the expression of our good will and \nSocialist fraternity, and pledge ourselves to work for the overthrow of \ncapitalism and the establishment of Socialism.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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August 1919, U.K. Peace, we are told, has now been made. On 28th June, 1919, the representatives of the Allied powers and Germany signed a “Peace treaty”, officially terminating the “Great War”, which it had claimed would “end all war” and “make the world safe for democracy”. To achieve the great result millions of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2643,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1070","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2642,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1070\/revisions\/2642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}