JUNE 29, 1940 SOCIALIST APPEAL Imperialist War and the Proletarian World Revolution to planet! Amid the vast expanses of land and the marvels of THE ROLE OF UNITED STATES IMPERIALISM The Emergency Conference of the Fourth International, the world party of the socialist revolution, convenes at the This Manifesto of the Fourth International which events undreamed of by most of the remain the only one providing a bold program turning point of the second imperialist war. The stage of was adopted at the Emergency Conference, at world have come to pass, the Manifesto suc for leading the international working class out probing for openings, of making preparations and of relawhich ten national sections were represented cessfully stands the test of these events, pre of this chaos into a world of peace and socialtive military inactivity has been left far behind. Germany has unloosed all the furies of hell in a major offensive to (see story, page and which was held on May dicting their broad outlines. For it is an esti ism.
which the Allies are replying in kind with all their forces of 19 26 somewhere in the Western Hemisphere. mate, not merely of immediate events, but of This Manifesto includes an all sided analysis destruction. From now on the life of Europe and all of News and documents of the Conference were this whole epoch of war and revolution. of the world situation. But it is far more than mankind will be determined for a long time by the course of withheld from publication until participating Symbol of the future is the fact that our that. It is a call to action to save the human the imperialist war and by its economic and political con delegates could make their way back to the Manifesto is the first to be issued by any of the race from extinction.
sequences.
countries from which they came.
international organizations of the labor move Every advanced worker in the labor moveThe Fourth International considers that now is the time Although more than a month has passed ment, estimating the character of the events ment must be given the opportunity to read say openly and clearly how it views this war and its parsince the Manifesto was adopted, a month in we are witnessing and most decisive it will this great document!
ticipants, how it evaluates the war policies of various labor organizations, and, most important, what is the way out to peace, freedom and plenty.
The Fourth International turns not to the governments turns to the working men and women, the soldiers and The initiative for the new re division of the world this Munich agreement through which Chamberlain hoped to who have dragooned the peoples into the slaughter, nor. sailors, the ruined peasants and the enslaved colonial peo time as in 1914 belonged naturally to German imperialism. seal a long time friendship with Germany led, on the conples. The Fourth International has no ties whatsoever with Caught off guard the British government first attempted to trary, to a hastening of the break. Hitler could expect noththe bourgeois politicians who bear the responsibility for the oppressors, the exploiters, the imperialists. It is the buy its way out of war by concessions at the expense of ing more from London further expansion of Germany these governments, nor to the labor bureaucracy which sup world party of the toilers, the oppressed, and the exploited. others (Austria, Czecho Slovakia. But this policy was would strike at the life lines of Great Britain herself. Thus ports the warring bourgeoisie. The Fourth International This Manifesto is addressed to them.
short lived. Friendship with Great Britain was only a the new era of peace proclaimed by Chamberlain in Octobrief tactical phase for Hitler. London had already conced ber, 1938 led within a few months to the most terrible of THE GENERAL CAUSES OF THE PRESENT WAR ed Hitler more than he had calculated on getting. The all wars.
Technology is infinitely more powerful now than at the end of the war of 1914 1918, whereas mankind is much technology, which has also conquered the skies for man as more poverty stricken. The standard of living has declined well as the earth, the bourgeoisie has managed to convert While Great Britain has exerted every effort since the is itself only another variety of the very same imperialism.
in one country after another. On the threshold of the pres our planet into a foul prison.
first months of the war to seize blockaded Germany va The section of the capitalists whose interests are bound up ent war, agriculture was in worse condition than at the On November 1, 1914, at the beginning of the last imcáted positions in the world market, the United States has primarily with the American continent, Australia, and the outbreak of the last war. The agricultural countries are perialist war, Lenin wrote: Imperialism has placed the almost automatically been driving Great Britain out. Tworuined. In the industrial countries the middle classes are Far East calculate that in the event of the defeat of the fate of European culture at stake. After this war, if a thirds of the world gold is concentrated in the American being ravaged economically and a permanent sub class of Allies, the United States would automatically gain a monopseries of successful revolutions do not occur, more wars will vaults. The remaining third is flowing to the same place. oly for its own benefit not only of Latin America but also unemployed. modern pariahs. has been formed. The follow the fairy tale of a war to end all wars is a hollow England role as banker for the world is a thing of the of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. As for China, the domestic market has narrowed. The export of capital has and pernicious fairy tale. Workers, call this prediction past. Nor are matters in other spheres much better. While been reduced. Imperialism has actually shattered the world Dutch Indies and the Orient in general, it is the conviction to mind! The present war the second imperialist war Great Britain navy and merchant marine are suffering market, breaking it up into spheres dominated by powerful of the entire ruling class of the United States, that war with is not an accident; it does not result from the will of this or great losses, the American shipyards are building ships on a Japan is in any case inevitable in the near future. Under individual countries. With the considerable increase in the that dictator. It was predicted long ago. It derived its origin colossal scale which will secure the predominance of the the guise of isolationism and pacifisin, an influential section population of the earth, the world trade of 109 states on inexorably from the contradictions of international capitalAmerican fleet over the British and the Japanese. The of the bourgeoisie is working out a program for American our planet dropped almost one fourth in the single decade ist interests. Contrary to the official fables designed to drug United States is obviously preparing to adopt the two power continental expansion and preparing for the struggle with prior to the present war. The turnover in foreign trade of the people, the chief cause of war as of all other social standard (a navy stronger than the combined fleets of the Japan. War against Germany for the domination of the some countries has been cut to one half, one third, and evils unemployment, the high cost of living, fascism, conext two strongest powers. The new program for the air one fourth.
world, according to this plan, is only deferred. As for petty lonial oppression is the private ownership of the means of fleet envisages securing the superiority of the United States The colonial countries are suffering from their own inbourgeois pacifists such as Norman Thomas and his fraproduction together with the bourgeois state which rests on over all the rest of the world.
ternity, they are only choir boys in one of the imperialist ternal crises, and from the crises of the metropolitan centhis foundation.
However, the industrial, financial and military strength clans.
ters. Backward nations which yesterday were still semiof the United States, the foremost capitalist power in the Our struggle against United States intervention into the free are today plunged into slavery (Abyssinia, Albania, With the present level of technology and skill of the world, does not at all insure the blossoming of American war has nothing in common with isolationism and pacifism.
China. Every imperialist country must have its own workers it is quite possible to create adequate conditions for economic life, but on the contrary, invests the crisis of her We tell the workers openly that the imperialist government sources of raw materials, above all for war, that is, for a the material and spiritual development of all mankind. It social system with an especially malignant and convulsive cannot fail to drag this country into war. The dispute withnew struggle for raw materials. In order to enrich them would be necessary only to organize the economic life withcharacter. Gold in the billions cannot be made use of nor in the ruling class involves only the question, when to enter selves further, the capitalists are destroying and laying in each country and over entire planet correctly, sciencan the millions of unemployed! In the theses of the the war and against whom to level the fire first. To count waste everything created by the labor of centuries. wowtifically, and rationally according to a general plan: So. Pourth International, War and the Fourth International, upoke holding the United States to neutrality by means of The world of decaying capitalism is over crowded. The long, however, as the main productive forces of society are published six years ago, it was predicted: Capitalism in newspaper articles and pacifist resolutions is like trying to question of admitting a hundred extra refugees becomes a held by trusts, e. isolated capitalist cliques, and so long as the United States is running head on into those problems hold back the tide with a broom. The real struggle against major problem for such a world power as the United States. the national state remains a pliant tool in the hands of which impelled Germany in 1914 upon the road of war.
war means the class struggle against imperialism and a In an era of aviation, telegraph, telephone, radio and tele these cliques, the struggle for markets, for sources of raw vision, travel from country to country is paralyzed by passmerciless exposure of petty bourgeois pacifism. Only revomaterials, for domination of the world must inevitably asFor Germany it was a question of organizing Europe. For the United States it is a question of organizing the world.
lutiou could prevent the American bourgeoisie from interports and visas. The period of the wasting away of foreign sume a more and more destructive character. State power History is taking mankind directly into the volcanic erupvening in the second imperialist war or beginning the third trade and the decline of domestic trade is at the same time and domination of economy can be torn from the hands of tion of American imperialism.
imperialist war. All other methods are either charlatanism the period of the monstrous intensification of chauvinism these rapacious imperialist cliques only by the revolutionary The New Deal and the Good Neighbor policy were or stupidity or a combination of both.
and especially of anti semitism. In the epoch of its rise, working class. That is the meaning of Lenin warning that capitalism took the Jewish people out of the ghetto and without a series of successful revolutions a new imperialthe final attempts to postpone the climax boy ameliorating The Defense of the Fatherland utilized them as an instrument in its commercial expansion. ist war would inevitably follow. The different predictions the social crisis through concessions and agreements. After Almost a hundred years ago when the national state still Today decaying capitalist society is striving to squeeze the and promises which were made have been submitted to the the bankruptcy of this policy, which swallowed up tens of Jewish people from all its pores; seventeen million indirepresented a relatively progressive factor, tive Communist billions, nothing else remained for American imperialism test of events. The fairy tale of the war to end all wars Manifesto proclaimed that the proletarians have no fatherviduals out of the two billion populating the globe, that is, has been proved a lie. Lenin prediction lias become tragic but to resort to the method of the mailed fist. Under one or land. Their only goal is the creation of the toilers fatherless than one percent, can no longer find a place on our truth.
another pretext and slogan the United States will intervene land embracing the whole world. Toward the end of the in the tremendous clash in order to maintain its world nineteenth century, the bourgeois state with its armies and dominion. The order and the time of the struggle between tariff walls became the worst brake on the development of American capitalism and its enemies is not yet known productive forces which demand a much more extensive perhaps even by Washington. War with Japan would be a arena. socialist who comes out today for the defense of The immediate cause of the present war is the rivalry equality signified formal renunciation of naval hegemony, struggle for living room in the Pacific Ocean. War in the the fatherland is playing the same reactionary role which between the old wealthy colonial empires, Great Britain and already lost in actuality. Her replacement of free trade by Atlantic, even if directed immediately against Germany, was played by the peasants of the Vendee who fushed to France, and the belated imperialist plunderers, Germany tariff walls signified open admission of the defeat of British would be a struggle for the heritage of Great Britain. the defense of the feudal regime, that is, of their own and Italy.
industry on the world market. Her renunciation of the pol The potential victory Germany over the Allies hangs chains.
The nineteenth century was the era of the incontestable icy of splendid isolation drew in its wake the introduction like a nightmare over Washington. With the European con In recent years and even months, the world has observed hegemony of the oldest capitalist power, Great Britain. of compulsory military service. Thus all the sacred traditinent and the resources of its colonies as her base, with all with astonishment how easily states vanish from the map From 1815 to 1914 true enough, not without isolated mil tions were dusted away.
the European munition factories and shipyards at her dis of Europe: Austria, Czecho Slovakia, Albania, Poland, itary explosios British peace reigned. The British similar lack of correspondence between her economic posal, Germany especially in combination with Japan in the Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium. The political fleet, mightiest in the world, played the role of policeman of weight and her world position is characteristic of France Orient would constitute a mortal danger for American in map has been reshaped with equal speed in no other epoch the seas. This era, however, has receded into the past. As too, but on a smaller scale. Her hegemony in Europe rested perialism. The present titanic battles on the fields of Europe save that of the Napoleonic wars. At that time it was a early as the end of the last century, Germany, armed with on a temporary conjuncture of circumstances created by the are in this sense preparatory episodes in the struggle be question of outlived feudal states which had to give way modern technology, began to move toward first place in annihilation of Germany and the artificial combinations of tween Germany and America. France and England are before the bourgeois national state. Today it is a question Europe. On the other side of the ocean an even more pow the Versailles Treaty. The size of her population and the only fortified positions of American capitalism, extended of outlived bourgeois states which must give way before the erful country arose, a former British colony. The most im economic foundation supporting this hegemony were far beyond the Atlantic. If the frontiers of England are located socialist federation of the peoples. The chain breaks as portant economic contradiction which led to the war of too inadequate. When the hypnosis of victory wore off, the on the Rhine, as one of the British premiers put it, then always at its weakest link. The struggle of the imperialist 1914 1918 was the rivalry between Great Britain and Ger real relationship of forces surged to the surface. France the American imperialists might well say that the frontiers bandits leaves as little room for independent small states many. As for the United States, its participation in the war proved to be much weaker than she had appeared not only of the United States are on the Thames. In its feverish as does the vicious competition of trusts and cartels for was of a preventive character Germany could not be per to her friends but to her enemies. Seeking cover, she be preparation of public opinion for the coming war, Wash small independent manufacturers and merchants.
mitted to subjugate the European continent.
came in essence Great Britain latest dominion.
ington does not spare noble indignation over the fate of Because its strategic position Germany considers it The defeat hurled Germany back into complete impo Germany regeneration on the basis of her first rate Finland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium. With more profitable to attack its main enemies through the small tence. Dismembered, encircled by enemies, bankrupted by technology and organizational abilities was inevitable. It the occupation of Denmark the question of Greenland arose and neutral countries. Great Britain and France on the conindeninities, weakened by the convulsions of civil war, she came sooner than was thought possible, in large measure unexpectedly as being geologically a part of the Western trary deem it more profitable to cover themselves with the appeared to be out the running for a long time to come, thanks to England support of Germany against the US hemisphere and containing by happy chance deposits of neutrality of the small states and let Germany drive them if not forever. On the European continent, first violin SR, against the excessive pretensions of France and, more cryolite, indispensable in the production of aluminum. Nor through her blows into the camp of the democratic Alturned up temporarily in the hands of France. For victo remotely, against the United States. Such international does Washington overlook enslaved China, the helpless lies. The gist of the matter is not altered by this difference rious England, the balance sheet of the war left in the last combinations proved successful for capitalist England more Philippines, the orphaned Dutch Indies, and open sea in strategic methods. Between the cog wheels of the great analysis liabilities: increasing independence of the domin than once in the past so long as she remained the strongest routes. Thus philanthropic sympathies for oppressed na imperialist countries the small satellites are being ground ions; colonial movements for independence; loss of naval power. In her senility she proved incapable of dealing with tions and even considerations of geology are driving the to dust. The defense of the huge fatherlands requires hegemony; lessening of the importance of her navy through those spirits she had herself evoked.
United States into war.
the overthrow of a dozen small and middle sized ones.
the development of aviation.
Arned with a technology, more modern, of greater flex The American armed forces, however, could intervene But even with regard to the large states what is involved Through inertia England still attempted to play the lead ibility, and of higher productive capacity, Germany once successfully only so long as France and the British Isles re for the bourgeoisie is not at all a question of defending the ing role on the world arena in the first few years after again began to squeeze England out of very important main solid bases of support. Should France be occupied and therland but rather markets, foreign concessions, sources victory. Her conflicts with the United States began to as markets, particularly southeastern Europe and Latin German troops appear on the Thames, the relationship of of raw materials and spheres of influence. The bourgeoisie sume an obviously threatening character. It seemed as America. In contrast to the nineteenth century, when the forces would shift drastically to the disadvantage of the never defends the fatherland for the sake of the fatherland.
though the next war would flare up between the two Anglo competition between capitalist countries developed on an United States. Washington is forced by these considera They defend private property, privileges, profits. WhenSaxon aspirants to world domination, England, however, expanding world market, the economic arena of struggle tions to speed up all the tempos but likewise to ponder the ever these sacred values are threatened, the bourgeoisie imsoon had to convince herseli that her specific economic today is narrowing down so that nothing remains open to question. Has the opportune moment not been missed? mediately takes to the road of defeatism. That was the way weight was inadequate for combat with the colossus across the imperialists except tearing pieces of the world market Against official position of the White House are of the Russian bourgeoisie, whose sons after the October the ocean. Her agreement with the United States on naval away from each other.
launched the noisy protests of American isolationism which revolution fought and are once again ready to fight in every THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF THIS WAR