What, Are Armies For ?

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 10, 12 May 1911, Page 4

What, Are Armies For ?

To have anything to do with Armies or Navies is a betrayal of the Working Class/

" MAORILAND WORKER " SPECIAL.

By WALTER THOMAS M

The London correspondent of the "Western Mail' , scare-lines the following under the caption of "Socialism in the Mid-Atlantic" : —"While there is-, a pretty general disposition to take legitimate trade disputes as they arise, and as cheerfully as may he, it is hardly, possible, to view philosophically,, or, indeed, without indignation, the activities of emissaries who are fomenting discontent and discord for their own sake. Two instances of this came to the knowledge of the writer during an after-dinner smoke last night. A colonial visitor, who- has iust. reached this country via New York, and who came over in one of the big liners, said that a second-class passenger, of the typical agitator class, gathered round him an audience of the ship's firemen and others, and talked the rankest Socialism, and even Anarchism to them, l'his statement was received with astonishment and even incredulity, but my Queenslander friend assured us that he was only describing what he saAV and heard. He added that what particularly struck him was this, that the bearded orator told his eager listeners that big armies were being maintained, not because Governments had any idea of-fighting with each other, but simply in order to drive workers to their work, if necessary. r lhis drew from another oi : the party—a heucenant in a Surrey Territorial regiment — a statement that certain people who are actively engaged in .preventing him from obtaining recruits, use precisely the same argument, namely, that standing armies arc kept im chiefly, for the purpose of overawing the industrial classes." I am in a position to confirm the report of the vJueensland-er as to what took place in the JVILd-Atiantib, and 1 am delighted to know that in spite ol his ignorant confusion of the terms Anarchism and Socialism, never thoj<?s.< he seems to have carried the ivi>oi t <-■-> the right place. The Cac3 of the Soldier. That the standing armies are kept up chiefly for the overawing; of the industrial classes was nut said by mc for the first time- in the mid-Atlantic. The correspondent does not mention tiiat my arguments in support of this proposition seemed conclusive to the "eager listeners/ that no one qtieationed the fa eta on which they were based, and that even the Queenslandev seems to have waited tor an after-dvn--11 er • smoking company of congenial spirits before giving utterance to his dissent. Let mc state the whole case of the soldier. It is this:—Within the various cormtries the home service of the soldier is absolutely none other than to overawe the workers at all times and to actively use the weapons of war m trade disputes in time of strikes. As between different countries the cole function of the soldier, as related to any particular country, is to figure as tui" "ovci-a-wnig" iact-or, in time- yt peace, and actively to take a hand, in time of war, in winning trade advantages by force away from other countries. "But these trade advantages when lost or won, in no way benefit or injure the working classes. All such wars are for the purpose of enabling the ruling class of one country to cto to the working class, in their own belief, in the other countries what others are already doing to tho workers there, and what they themselves are already doing to the working class in their own country. This is the whole case of the modern soldier, the army, and tho navy. They exist only for the purpose of maintaining order whilo tho mastcis rifle the pockets of the workers everywhere ! Soldiery and Unionism. What are the facts? First, as to the relations of soldiers to workers in trade disputes. \LiVO are the facts :— 1. Every great industrial centre in the world has a supply of soldiers, with machine guns, and every possible equipment for street fighting always close at hand. "Why? 2. Whenever trades disputes of great importance are on the point of victory for the workers and without, disorder, hired ruffians and tho soldiers are together called out, the one by private

JLLS (PublisJied: by Arrangement)

interests, the other by public authorities, to create disorder, and, then, under pretence of restoring peace, to compel, by force of arms, the renewal of industry on terms always to the disadvantage of labour. Soldiers have never interfered with any other result. 3. The military maps, at least of America, locate all the factories, showall the possible lines of approach, and the best plans for their defence, their relations to each other,, to the public parks, to the churches and other important buildings. Which of these points are; held to be the points of danger by the military authorities, the parks, the churches, or the factories ? 4. "What other group of people exists in any modern community numerous enough to make trouble, who are so badly treated, than insurrection could bo feared from any/ other such group or from any other cause'? The whole organisation, equipment, and distribution of the troops, and all military maps and plans are made on the assumption, or on the concession that the workers are so badly treated by the private employers with the consent of the public powers, that there is forever the danger at hand of industrial revolt. Slavery Upheld by SoJdiery. It thus becomes the function of the army in home service to torever flaunt in the faces of the workers a show ox power intended to overawe the worker, and prevent too. serious a breach between th-eni and their exploiters. Remember, there never was- a slave except a, soldier made him one. -No slave ever remained a, slave longer than some soldier kept him one. Jixploitation under the form of slavery was never possible without the service of the soldier. The exploitation of labor in any. r-orni cannot Jong, survive -except b-s- the service of the soldier. liouco is it true that to increase the army, to enlarge its equipments, to join its ranks is only to maKe more effective an instrument of lorcibi-e industrial extortion, always for the benefit of those who themselves render no service, and at the expense of those who render all service. War and Foreign IVSarksts. Second: —As to the place of the soldier in foreign relations. The only remaining cause any longer sufficient to bring on international war is the strife for foreign trade. Why are the ruling classes in all countries attempting to secure their own coinmerciaf predominance in ali other countries? There can be but on-a answer. It is to extend to other countries the same treatment of the workers of the other countries which they are already extending to the workers of their own countries. When open competition between the master classes of Germany and Great, Britain shall give the victory in ioroign trade to either country, then the; ruling classes of the other country will resort to the "Dreadnought" to forcibly secure markets otherwise lost to them. The same situation threaten:-; war between the United States and JapanOnly commerce can lead to international war. But the final victory, however secured, is not the victory of the working classes, not even within the- victorious country. In other countries the masters from foreign territory could not more bitterly exploit them than they are already exploited. Worker Always the Victim. This is the whole case of modern war", and the- worker nowhere appears as a beneficiary. He is always the victim. So long as the worker is robbed under all the flags, he can have but a small interest as to which flag he is robbed under. Starving to death -under the strongest and greatest of all the flags would "be just as painful while it lasts, and one would be just as dead when it was over as though it had occurred under the worst of flags. The workers of no country can win any tiling for themselves by the ruling classes of their own country in war against, the ruling classes of anyother country. The real enemies of the working clasa are not primarily the ruling classes of other countries, but,

first of all, the ruling classes of their own countries. And these ruling classes are the enemies of the workers in that they resort to every method of craft and fraud and force to extort from us the wealth which we create. Both at home and away from home, both before the war and after th-e wars, they work us to death while there is work; they starve us to death when the jobs give out, and shoot us to deatn when we don't starve quietly. The One Way of Escape. There is btit one. way of escape from the armed camp of modern industry— but one way of escape from the impending mutual self-destruction of the greatest nations. That is to provide for a purchasing power for the workers everywhere as great as is th-eir powex to produce. As there would then be not great social injustice to enforce at home., the soldier would not be needed. Because all the workers could always buy all that all the workers could produce, there would be markets for all and international Avar would become impossible. Th© disbanding of armies, the abandonment of armaments will speedily follow the coming of industrial justice. This is not ''stirring up discontent for its own sake." This is putting the workers next to a- situation which will forever kill their interest in war. Pass th-e word along, to join the army, to support the army, to have anything to do with armies or navies is a betrayal of the working class.

Within the capitalist system all methods for raising the social productiveness of labour are brought about at the cost of the individual labourerj ali means for the development of production transform themselves into means of domination over, and exploitation of the producers] they mutilate the labourer into a fragment of a man, degrade him to the level cf an appendage of a machine, destroy every remnant of charm in his work and turn it into a hated toil. * * * They distort the conditions under which he works, subject him during the iabourprocess to a despotism the more hateful for its meanness; they transform his life-time into working-time, and drag his wife and child beneath the wheels of the Juggernaut o* capitals—Karl Marx, in Vol. 1. of Capital-