32 THE CLASS STRUGGLE THE CLASS STRUGGLE 33 But woe to the Socialist movement in this country, and throughout the world, if it collapses as the movement collapsed in Europe, if it allies itself with Imperialism, or if it adopts a policy of empty protest!
Majority Limitations and Minority Rights By FRIEDRICH ADLER.
Translated by ERIC NIEL.
PART SOLIDARITY.
Japan are becoming more and more venomous. large part of this propaganda is directed against Great Britain as the real menace, and the great competitor after the war! And all this, of course, goes hand in hand with social, political and governmental reaction.
American Imperialism is awake. It knows that after the war it will not be easy going. The nations of Europe, even in the midst of mutual slaughter, are organizing their industrial, social and political resources for the economic war after the war.
Their latent energy is tremendous; and the war is compelling them to forge an organization that, in its marvellous increase of productivity, will largely make up for the ravages of war. And Japan, the America of the Far East, has been making money out of the war hand over fist and preparing industrial and financial reserves for the coming clash.
America, accordingly, is building for the future. It will use the war as a pretext and an opportunity. The real menace of this war is not what it may do here and now, but the instruments of oppression and terrorism that it forges for use in the days of peace.
The future of American Imperialism is now being decided, and of Imperialism throughout the world. The vistas ahead are dripping with blood. Imperialism will again turn the world into a shambles, unless the forces of democracy and revolution latent in the Working Class are aroused and organized for action.
And, in a very real sense, the future of Socialism in this country and throughout the world is being decided. Fidelity to our revolutionary principles is necessary not merely because of what we may accomplish now, but in the moral and physical reserves that we develop for the future.
In carrying through its program of war, American Imperialism is fulfilling its destiny economically and financially.
In carrying through the program of revolutionary Socialism, we shall act as an inspiration to the International and determine its reconstruction along revolutionary lines.
In the early months of the war a veritable fit of exaltation seized the Bourgeoisie. Its members became conscious of a sentiment heretofore unknown to them, the ecstacy that is founded on the subordination of the individual to community interest; they experienced in its full intensity SOLIDARITY of thought and sentiment.
Under ordinary conditions the sphere of solidarity in the upper classes is very limited. It does not as a rule extend beyond the family, and as often as not is absent altogether so that the ego is then the centre of gravity. This type views the world in the following order of importance myself first, then the family, after that, friends, finally the community, and on the occasion of very exceptional celebrations the whole of humanity comes in for temporary consideration. This unsocial viewpoint is based on the theory that everything immediately attainable or within reach is reserved for the smallest sphere, it is taken for granted that the outside world is to content itself with the total of remoter blessings that are left over.
We can readily understand the nature of the exaltation which follows the change from a self centred to a social process of thought. The ego or family cease to be basic considerations; the primary problem now consists entirely of the needs and interests