Socialism and the War Danger
ABRAMOVITCH, RAPHAEL
Socialism and the War Danger Soviet Russia a Key Problem in Situation All MM JBtwl*. t» Mtti^ Russia Threatened Attack by Germany and Japan—Statin Regime Faces Grave Responsibility in Weakening...
...And precisely on such a pisal legend and rationalization isajgH the theory developed lately bynS tain left-wing Socialists — aamto -them, it is to be regretted, o2 Bauer...
...tremendously proud...
...Whether tiiis collaboration will be achieved or not is still quite uncertain...
...We cannot predict the futon, but we have knowledge of the past and the experience of the J»« shows that the idea of international solidarity of world capftotism has until now been a legeal and not a fact...
...ass their capitalist solidarity has until now never shown 'itself tap|s stronger than their nationalist/*!*, alries...
...Of course, it is possibk If there really existed an orgaai ized international capitalism,- a kind of conspiracy of a capitalat "inner council" who believed that Russia was an instrument of worU revolution, events might perham ccme to pass in the manner pitdieted by left-wing Socialists...
...Some believe that the destiny of the Russian revolution is already clear, that it is entirely lost and is going downhill to a kind of fascism...
...So great is the danger that the question now being discussed in Socialist circles in Europe is: what will .be the attitude of the Socialist parties of Europe, and particularly the Russian Socialists, toward such a war...
...And the capitalist industrial magnates of the entire world (such as Ford, etc) one after another gave their material and moral support to the Russian "proletarian revolution...
...Russia will find . it difficult to carry on a war...
...I do not speak here of Trotskyists and those few Socialists of the right who deny the necessity to defend Soviet Russia in time of war...
...yet they never arrested any of us and we were permitted to move about freely and openly laughed at tlftse fairy tales and lies...
...And there is •» sound basis for believing that '* the near nature the situation wp materially change...
...That enthusiasm and sympathy will not be aroused and strengthened by reprisals and terror, by blood-baths and suppression...
...To be attacked direct and by name by the murderer of Matteotti, to be designated...
...A Sentimental Theory The viewpoint of the official Communists and some number of left-wing Socialists in Europe is that Soviet Russia is a land where a Socialist society is being built, where the working class is in power and is building a new sys:em of liberty, equality, fraternity, uid inasmuch as the capitalists Of he entire world do not, naturally, • vant to permit this, they are sharpening their teeth against Russia ind are awaiting an opportunity to 'all upon the land of revolution ind destroy the seeds of Socialism >eing planted there...
...imbue the broad masses of the people with a new spirit and an increased enthusiasm for attack, and dissipate the poisonous atmosphere of fascism.'* / Commenting on the situation, the information bulletin of the I^S.I...
...We nave never before seen a revolution that lasted so long, affected so huge a population and altered so profoundly the economic foundations of a nation...
...We hope .not, if they are indeed in earnest with regard to the defense of democracy...
...One such faked "plot" occurred at the time of the Polish-Soviet war, when the Soviet government officially placarded Moscow with posters stating that the great ammunition explosion in 1920 was organized by Russian Mensheviks...
...Their cooperation, with other democratic elements and the Socialists is essential to an overthrow of the plans of the reactionaries...
...makes himself a spokesman for the anti-fascist feeling of the masses, anyone who demands the rights of the workers and free organizations in Austria, is threatened with the death penalty...
...Austria has,the choice between one man and three armies,' says the Rumania...
...If they do it notwithstanding, they will truly not be placing us in a hew situation...
...True, the Soviet government did not cease during all these years to raise outcries against this alleged danger...
...The economic achievements and the industrialization of the country are...
...ladividual groups of capitalists a every capitalist country are motivated by egoistical, narrow, nationalist profit-interests and toj laugh at theories and principle not including capitalist prmdfln...
...Let us not be deluded by looking at the situation through rose-colored lenses...
...But will not the Communists stab us in the back in this...
...There are, however, very important differences of principle as to the motives arid grounds on which the necessity for defending Soviet Russia against a fascist attack is based...
...World capitalism" 1 only a theoretical concept...
...t» Mtti^ Russia Threatened Attack by Germany and Japan—Statin Regime Faces Grave Responsibility in Weakening Country's Defense By Continuing Terrorist Dictatorship—Restoration of Democracy and Release of Political Prisoners Essential to Natwn s Security and Progress...
...Even in the intervention period of , 1918-1910, the allies and the German Kaiser were less interested in suppressing the Russian proletariat than in their purely military interests...
...At the time of the Kronstadt rebellion which, as everybody knows, was brought about by Communist and Anarchist sailors, the Soviet government officially declared that the rebellion was organized by czarist generals arid foreign agents...
...He writes: * ' - "What we want is not only the defense of democracy against faffirm, but, above all, its maintenance and its further development...
...This time, not by the German Kaiser, but by the German Republic...
...But shall we at least be able to carry on our propaganda with full intensity ? I at least cannot see what there could be to prevent US from doing so...
...As between two .evils, the Social-Democratic strategy has always been to ehoose the lesser one...
...We, democratic Socialists, are not in agreement with the Bolsheviks nor with certain left-wing Socialists (of the Otto Bauer school) who believe that a Socialist system is really being built in Russia...
...I speak, of course, of foreign countries and not of the Russian capitalist or White Guard groups who fought against the Bolshevik revolution, against the workers, peasants, etc...
...They believe that in tj...
...by him as tht symbolic representative of everything that he hates, insults, threatens and—fears: that is without a doubt the greatest honor which I can boast...
...In other words, when one reviews the entire history of Bolshevism np to the present moment, one will not find a single period when the "capitalist wolves" even attempted to get together for a united attack on the "proletarian revolution...
...I Foreign Minister, M. TitulescuA "Europe does not want Berlin to establish its hegemony in Vienna .But'Europe is just as much opposed-to the hegemony of fascist Ital...
...The only thing that is certain is that the Social Democratic Party sees in such a policy the best, one might almost say the only, means of effectively warding off the fascist danger by the setting in motion of a huge mass movement...
...It sounds paradoxical,-but it is nevertheless true, that not only did [ worldt capitalism not make any serious attempt to suppress "Socialism" in Russia, but on the contrary, the present system in Russia exists and develops only because of the support which the Russian government received at different times from various capitalist governments and capitalist classes...
...What follows from this...
...Russia will have to come to the wealthy industrial countries allied with her and ask for aid...
...Inasmuch as we have never before had a similar revolution, we do not have the historical experience by which we might be able to foresee how the Russian revolution will end...
...The Austrian Nazis are the party oi i the...
...Moreover, thanks to the "well intenioned" neutrality of Great Britain, Soviet Russia at the beginning of 1921 was able to seize Georgia and Azerbaijan, thus acquiring tremendously important oil resources without which the Soviet government would find it difficult o exist...
...Only through the support of world capitalism has Soviet Russia become great and powerful...
...The duty of the Russian Socialists and of the world proletariat to defend Soviet Russia in the event of a war with Japan or HitlerGermany is recognized by all, both left and right Socialists...
...and on the other side, will be Russia—and the revolutionary workers of all countries...
...But as the war will me* gress and, as in certain countr% a revolutionary sentiment will jjt gin to develop, fear will develop 1|* capitalist countries allied within sia and they will increasingly"cmo to feel that German fascism, IhH capitalistic, is, after all, closer 5 them than Russian BolehevJpS And in that way the moment wS come when instead of two SflsB groups there will develop twoogS camps: Russia's allies will anhs with German fascism and join hi one common capitalist front to suppress the "proletarian revels, tion" and tear Soviet Russia to pieces...
...The Workers Abroad Socialists in Rumania Collaborate With Other Democratic Parties Against Fascists — Trial of Austrian Social Democrats for High Treason Begins—More About Blum Attack., By John Powers A People's Front in Rumania PtOM Romania, where fascist elements have begun to make themselves felt in increasing measure in the last few months, comes the news of a movement for a People's Front on the basis of coalition of all democratic parties with the Socialists...
...It is a question here', not of a vast number of organizations, big and little, not of a new political formation, of a sort of 'super-party,' but of" a temporary collaboration, based upon a purely momentary community of interests, between those parties which represent the broad masses of- the workers, peasants and petty bourgeoisie in a democratic spirit...
...But as soon as the World War ended and the material interests changed, there came about also a change in the tactics of the different countries...
...While defending the country, Russian Socialists will not cease to demand reforms from the Soviet regime...
...We very much doubt whether the government will dare even to impose a death penalty...
...But even in the event of the Communist attacks harming us, in .the event of our being unable to continue our own ideological campaign, in its full intensity—even then we must not hesitate and must continue along the path on which we have set out...
...A strange connection indeed between the words of Mussolini and the acta of the Paris apaches of the reaction...
...But the so-called Rumanian Front, headed by Vajda, by dissociating itself from anti-Semitism and seeking to curry favor with France, is trying to make itself "acceptable f«r government...
...Today, however, it is a question as to whether there is to be any Social Democratic Party at all to be attacked by the Commujtjsts, or to have its social radicalism hampered by an alliance with a.'left-bourgeois party...
...The new society in Russia is politically and morally the direct opposite of what we have always understood by Socialism...
...The foregoing prediction: is if fantasy...
...It is clear, however, that the interests of the Russian people and of the world proletariat demand that out of it shall not come Fascism or a reactionary monarchy...
...Whether Socialsin or another kind of society is >eing built in Russia is a question vhich we will lay aside for the >resent...
...Of course, there Were individual capitalists who demanded such a course...
...Only a mass democratic movement can...
...Especially friendly to Soviet Russia was Italy, the land of fascism and capitalism...
...But just as he enire capitalist world wishes to lestroy "the land of new-born So:ialism," so must the workers of .he entire world defend that land...
...And finally there are those who believe that the destiny of the Russian revolution is not yet determined and that out of it may issue either a Bonapartist despotism or a progressive society which will not be Socialist, but which will have many elements of Socialism and democracy...
...But Europe likewise fears the restoration of the Habsburgs ir Austria...
...Austrian clerico-f ascism is "the party of the restoration of the Habsburgs and the party of the hegemony of Italy in Vienna...
...I will only note that whether or not Russia is building Socialism, one thing is clear: tremendous social changes are taking place in Russia, changes that have been accompanied by unprecedented suffering of the masses and the sacrifice of millions of lives and involving tremendous possibilities, changes never experienced by any other country...
...Is fao* of the growing fascist offensive we, therefore, desire to bring the democratic parties into a common fighting front for this purpose...
...Since we fight both against the Anschluss and against the reatora•ation, both of which threaten the >eace of Europe, we are the party >f peace in Austria...
...BUt none of the Russian Socialists want Russia to suffer a defeat in a war or to be swallowed up by Hitler-Germany...
...S™f* we fi*1* hoth asrainst Hitler and against the Habsburgs wharetheparty of Europe ui Austria...
...We will have to find new words and new concepts to fit the specific form of the new social order created in Soviet Russia...
...Did they net then in the capitalist newspapSB storm against the Third International and did they not in Europe frighten small children with storks about Zinoviev.'Trotzky and Lenin...
...Whea they can do busin«ea,,Iaw care little whether it be with to Bolsheviks or Mussolini or EtsiAnd so, the capitalist powers SI business with Soviet Russia, by helping to support sal strengthen instead of overthmwiag the Soviet -regime, as BotoberK propaganda would have us believe...
...The party's extreme anti-Semitism, its anti-French attitude and its policy of striving for an alliance with Hitler Germany are obstacles which the party v- ' I find it very difficult to overcome...
...The "Arbeiter-Zeitung," also circulated in the country illegally .gives us in the following lines the background against which the tria' is to be held...
...And, in fact, the best indication of that is the entire histoqr of their relations with Soviet Ru»» sia...
...The Little Entente allows no doubt to remain that in it •views the restoration of the Habsburgs would be a case of war...
...More than once, it made public fantastic stories of alleged conspiracies of' foreign spies who were operating in Russia, secret plots and organizations linked with the Polish, French, English or Roumanian general staffs and plans for military intervention in Russia, which the Cheka had allegedly discovered...
...The "Information Service of the Revolutionary Socialists," which is published illegally in Austria, comments as follows: "Clearer than any other political act, this indictment shows what the regime is really like^Anyone who is fighting for liberty, anyone who...
...If we lived in a . period when democracy was secure we should have the right to elevate 0\{r selfish consideration of party to decisive points of view and to w»it until We sett take ever the heritage of the collapsing bourgeois front...
...However, it was not the will of the Russian reactionaries or nobility that determined the tactics of America, England, France, Japan and other countries, but their own national and military interests...
...The restoration of the Habsburgs is the only means by which the aristocratic clerical dictatorship, which is hated by the overwhelming majority of the Austrian people, can be stabilized...
...But the fairy tales about plots, organizations, interventions always proved to be lies and propaganda stories of the Soviet government, fabricated in order, first, to frighten the Russian masses and arouse their revolutionary patriotism and, secondly, to be able to justify the Bolshevist terror by playing upon the senti* mental feelings of the friends of Bolshevist Russia in other countries...
...They are preparing such an attack but it will be motivated not by a desire to suppress the "proletarian revolution," but rather by the same nationalist, imperialist designs (dismemberment of territories) which led Japan to attack Tsarist Russia 32 years ago...
...the various," capitalist governments, departing from their imperialist and militarist interests, frequently supported the Soviet government...
...No matter how many new factories Stalin has built during the past few years, they are nothing compared to the united industrial power of Germany and Japan...
...I have mentioned these facts in order to confirm the historical truth and to contradict the pious legends which have been manufactured with respect to the relationship of the capitalist world to Russia...
...On this point the attitude of Jugoslavia in the Paris nego tiatinns has destroyed all doubt...
...ttey will not cease to struggle for democracy and freedom, because both are necessary not only for the Socialists themselves and the masses as a whole but because it will be the best way to strengthen the military defense of the country...
...lealing in particular to the stulents of Paris, in which it is stated: "We must make a clean sweep if the blood-thirsty politicians...
...By Raphael Abramovitch THE danger of, war hangs over tile world, more especially of an attack on Soviet Russia by Hitler Germany and Japan...
...Thereafter, the British government extended recognition and support to the Bolshevist regime and in this way rendered great assistance particularly at a time when Russia was in danger due to the Polish attack...
...With a discontented, suppressed people, intimidated into silence, a : country cannot carry on a war...
...In other words, for many Socialists Russia is still a hope and a possibility...
...How completely Austrian clerico-f ascism is under the influence of ti>e Legitimists has been shown by the attitude of Starhemberg Let no one deceive himself by the tranquilizing declarations...
...Germany, through the Brest-Litovsk treaty, Japan in the Far East, England in the Caucasus...
...Continued on Page Five) If, however, it is true that there is no world capitalism in the sense of an organized power, nor a capitalist world sharpening its teeth against the Russian revolution, nevertheless under no circumstances must the inference be drawn that the country is in no danger of an attack from Germany or Japan...
...A fighting alliance does not mean the abandonment of the party, which, indeed, will be able to continue and which must continue, and that within a larger framework and with a stronger . echo, its special Socialist work...
...In the event of war, Russian ] Socialists will defend the Russian i revolution and fight against the i danger of Hitlerism in two ways: t they will participate loyally, faith- < fully and wfth all their energy in 1 the military defense of the country, I and st the same time will strive < for the political democratization of < the country and the freedom of the masses...
...Then why did nof, world capitalise unite and suppress the Russian Soviet government at that time, when it was email and weak and was barely able to stand on its Vwi feet...
...During the many years of the split we have had opportunity enough and to spare of so accustoming ourselves to their perpetual attacks as no longer to have to be afraid of them today...
...Thus, Germany, until the German revolution of November, 1918, supported, and was the first to officially recognize the Soviet government and virtually saved it in the terrible crisis of the spring of 1918...
...They struggle against the regime by political means to the extent to which it is possible under the circumstances...
...And in order that this hope may not be destroyed and the possibility wiped out through a victory by German-Japanese fascism, it is the duty of Russian and International Socialism to defend the land in which tremendous social changes have by no means ended and where the fiery lava of a revolutionary volcano has not yet become solidified...
...To this unparalleled incitation against a politician (actually mentioned by name} of another country, Leon Blum replied in the "Populaire" on February 6: "I need hardly say that this letter has made me...
...I was supposed to have been sent to Russia on a special mission to organize the "intervention...
...We all hope that the revolution, which cost so much, will ultimately bring the country closer to Socialism and democracy...
...This new type of revolntion that has taken place in Russia has created a new kind of society which cannot adequately be described by terms like "Socialist" or "capitalist...
...Bnt it should be understood that readiness to defend the country and the revolution in time of war should by no means be interpreted as meaning that the Socialists want to defend and to protect the existing dictatorial regime...
...Anschluss—the party of the hegemony of Berlin in Vienna...
...they will have to suffer hunger and want...
...TJa truth is that there are nations' capitalist > states which compp against each other ruthlessly...
...event of a new world war, the gg2 men interests of the capitalist go*, era men t* will compel them tojH get their nationalist differences jdfl conflicting interests and unite in g common front against Soviet' Mh sia...
...Its success would be a victory for reaction...
...The fact is that there is a* "world capitalism" in the sense ef an organized conscious power...
...But the fabricated picture >f the innocent white lamb, Soviet Russia, encircled on ill sides by black capitalist wolves who desire to tear the, lamb to pieces is a complete falsehood...
...But Fascism is definitely capitalist in character while in Russia we have a system unlike that which we have always characterised as capitalism...
...Very Strange Coincidence On January 31st the "Popolo Iltalia," Mussolini's organ, punished a manifesto, obviously by dussolini himself, addressed to "The Students of Europe" and ap...
...According to this theorem would appear that war will begat between two blocks of natioa^fuE one side will be Germany, JuJmS perhaps PKand, Hungary, etc^ajm on the other side will he Raajh together with France, England aaiL others...
...Austrian Fascism Threatens New Death Penalties - Tomorrow 27 Austrian Socialists will appear before a court ir Vienna, accused of high treason, their crime being participation ir %e reorganization of the Socialist movement in Austria, The publi< prosecutor has let it be known that he would ask the death penaltfor two of the defendants, Karl Hans Sailer, a former member of the staff of the "Arbeiter-Zeitung," and Marie Emhart, a former textile worker...
...In 1921, Russia was for the second time diplomatically and politically supported by Germany...
...These parties are: for the workers the Social Democratic -Party, for the peasants and the petty bourgeoisie the National Zaranist <Peasant) Party and the Radical Zaranisf(Peasant) Party...
...Notwithstanding their opposition and hostility to the dictatorship, they believe that they must defend their country as loyal citizens and democrats, because Hitlerism would be an even greater misfortune and catastrophe for Russia and for humanity as a whole than the dictatorship of Stalin with all its errors and crimes...
...In order to win the war under such difficult circumstances, Russia will need the whole-hearted enthusiasm of the peasants, intellectuals and workers of Russia, and she will need the moral and political support of the workers and the peoples of other lands...
...s ¦'¦> I have always combatted this mtirely false and sentimental the>ry which is from beginning to end iased on thin air...
...It would take too much space and time to show hfere why we do not regard the system in Russia as a Socialist system...
...That the various general staffs have their spies in Russia is certainly true—and it is just as certain that the Russian military espionage system has its agents in other countries...
...On February 13, Leon Blum was the victim of a violent attack by the hooligans of the "Action Fran^aise," whose supporters are recruited chiefly from student and intellectual circles...
...It is more than anything else similar to the political and moral system of Fascism...
...Others, like Otto Bauer, hold that out of present-day Russia there will ultimately develop a genuine Socialism...
...Bgi we know that, as a matter of iaM, there is no organized worM cap...
...Reactionary elements are seeking the overthrow of the present semi-parliamentary regime, but it is not expected that the Christian-!?ational Party, representing extreme fascism, can achieve its objective of absolute power...
...And today fascism is—and herein lies the great gravity of it—very much nearer being the heir to the bourgeois front than is Socialism...
...There were individual writers and generals who harbored such plans and wrote books about them—but there was never at any time even one important statesman or one important government in Europe or America who advocated such a policy...
...These are the reasons which compel Russian Socialists to accept the policy of military defense of Soviet Russia in the event of war...
...Referring to the recent visits of leaders of the Austriar fascist government to Paris, the Socialist organ writes:' "The Paris negotiations have clearly shown what Europe fears What threatens the peace of Europe...
...Is this possible...
...With the exception of several months in the years 1918-1919, when the World War was still in progress, not a single serious attempt by a single important capitalist government was made to suppress the "Socialist revolution" in Russia...
...Wherever they could slice off a piece of Russian territory, they, quite naturally, did or attempted to do...
...Buf what will the so trustful and benevolent foreign countries say to this new proof of 'efforts to reach ar understanding with the workers...
...From these examples we can readily see how much truth there is in the propaganda outcries of the Communists about plots supposed to be hatched all over the world against "the land of proletarian revolution...
...We who have been exposed for two years to the dirty actions and the hundredfold little acts of meanness of the regime, do not feel particularly surprised at this...
...All Russian Socialism are opposed to existing...
...This would teai aside the artificial veil which fascist bars, clerical hypocrites and pair pacifiers have spread over Austria in order to keep the outrages of this regime concealed from the world...
...On the contrary...
...ie J? Nazis are in favor of the Anschluss, and if the cleric© , fascists are in favor of the restoration, we Socialists are the only . force in Austria fighting both against Hitler and against Habsbnrg ,,hotii against the Anschluss with HitleraSermany and against the restoration of the Habsburgs, both against the hegemony of Berlir and against the hegemony of fascist Italy 'in Vienna...
...but child's play compared to the needs which will face the nation in a modern war, especially when Russia will most probably be opposed by the largest and strongest industrial nation in Europe — Germany — and the largest and strongest industrial nation in Asia, Japan...
...Even leas is it possible to say today whether the possible conclusion of an anti-fascist fighting pact would lead, as for instance in 1928, to a cartel, of further political collaboration...
...The last of the intervention bogeys was staged at the Menshevist "trials" in 1931, when the Soviet government assured everybody, without stooping so low as to offei proof, that it was a conspiracy for military intervention in Soviet Russia in which such outstanding European Socialists as Otto Bauer, Otto Wels, Leon Blum and Fritz Adler secretary of the Labor and Sociaist International, and particularly myself, participated...
...writes: "It is to "be hoped that the determination of Rumania's orientation in foreign policy along the lines of Great Britain-France-Russia-Little Entente which appears to have taken place as a result of the most recene diplomatic negotiations will not remain without favorable effec - on the shaping of the internal conditions of the country also...
...World capitalism against Soviet Jtussia, world Socialism—for Sonet Russia...
...italism, a kind of capitalist "sai hedrin...
...Did not "world capitalism" a the years 1919, 1920 and 1921 understand that Russia Was the laaf of world revolution...
...Lotar Radaceanu, a leader of the Social Democratic Party, gives the Socialist view in an article reaching.us through the information bulletin of the L.S.I...
...The Peasant Parties hold the key to the situation...
...It will be :he students of Paris, of Brussele ind the other great Euro pear towns who, together with the peasants, will march into the fiery furnace on the day the Blums will prefer- to go on preaching the sec -arian crusade—still on the same oenches of the same extreme- Left in the same Parliaments, protected once again by machine-guns...
...in Vienna...
...With disillusioned and ashamed friends outside Russia who must i not disclose the truth it will not be : possible to arouse the moral soli- '. darity of the world...
...Not anti-proletarian, but national military interests in those months actually determined the intervention of the different countries...
...When a war breaks out, the Russian masses will be called upon to make tremendous sacrifices...
...Austriar . cierjeo^fascism is legitimist, it cannot be anything but legitimist, anc it cannot turn its back on the restoration...
...For these reasons, political changes, i.e., a < return to the principles of democracy and freedom, are just as much a military necessity for Russia as cannon or railroads...
...There are divergent opinions among Socialists on this point...
...But all this had nothing to do with any desire to suppress the "proletarian revolution" in the name of capitalism...
...it is not the politicians who will march to war...
...a The Rumanian Social Democratic Party has taken the lead in efforts now under way to bring about realization of this objective...
...Europe fears the Anschluss of Austria with Hitler Germany Under the present conditions in Europe the Anschluss would un doubtedly mean war...
...A treaty was concluded at Rapallo as a result of which Soviet Russia came to occupy a respected place in Europe, obtained considerable credits from German capitalists From that time on, one capitalist government after another concluded treaties of friendship and commercial intercourse with Soviet Russia...
...dictatorship...
...Nobody can foresee what will ultimately come of this diabolical combination of a capitalist economy with a fascist-terrorist political state...
...Russian Socialism and world Socialism are, therefore, interested in defending an attacked Russia and the Russian revolution even as it is now functioning...
...It is the young., ind in particular the young people it the universities, who will be :alled upon to march...
Vol. 19 • March 1936 • No. 11
