Italian Manifesto on the War.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 44, 12 January 1912, Page 15

Italian Manifesto on the War.

(oiiirjides,--At a iin.c v- hi n there arcmany dangers, much loolislmoss. and a glial de.i.l. ot insidious Weakness, we w 111' not lail !e boldly proclaim what W<: ill c .viii c is' oiir duly . The Fiviich and (.'ermau middle classes li;n,- a|iparent ly agteed as to liieii- iiiivdnds in Morocco, and. therefore. . they have allowed the middle classes nl Italy to jih-k up ihe crumbs Irion the banquets of thieves and to proceed to the conquest of Tripoli. The middle classes ol Italy, who are • I*l iti' convince! ol llie docile lidelity of the parliamentarians oi our modern Government, bieamc bold and deierniiiieil to engage in a bravo military expedition. Tile New Italian Nationalism, which only yesteiday uas prepared to welcome ;lie arrival ot the Czar in Italy, has now turned its eyes towards Jripoli. and thinks it bus found a very great l uiure. .Militarism, alter having made careful calculations, has thought that iit last- the day of glory has dawned, and that it must be prepared to light at sea with it nation which has no licet. The Now Nationalism, petulant and childish, wishing to attack Austria or 'li'ipnli according to which way the wind blows, and militarism, still smarting after the disaster of Adua,*" now that it thinks it has an easy task to IH'rforni. are both ready to accomplish deeds of heroism, But why should not the proletariat, - convince.! of its. work, of its needs, of its struggles, and of its ideals—lift ii)) its loice and protest against this expedition to Tripoli, which is the Jinal effort of a series of capitalist intrigues united by a wonderful international agreement, but which will only bring about a iargo expenditure of energy, of valor and of blood V

We know and feel that there are many who are interested in the success of the affair. They make the air vocal with their loud cries. Hut the howls of the Nationalisis. the militarists, and the warriors arc not so strange as the voices of those so-called Socialists who are really largely responsible, if unconsciously, for this military expedition.* They are certainly to blame for having so often supported the Ministers of the middle-class parties, taking as their excuse the needs of parliamentary tactics, and they have thus brought about ;bis expedition. And among these- we would include those who are frying bard to become shortly Ministers of tin- Crown.

We- prof est against the occupation of Tripoli. We say that the consequences of this evil deed are not known to its advocates, with the exception of

The African Adventure.

-peculators of all kinds, especially those whose instincts are rapacious and predatory, who quite understand what will happen. Socialists who are not. dcgoiieraie. not- vicious, not corrupted by beints connected with the Governments, alone have th« right ot sayT.

to the proletariat of Italy: •Each colonial expedition, and particularly that of Tripoli, is only the realisation of ideas and of conceptions which are diametrically opposed to the ideas the conceptions, the energies, and the interests of the proletariat.

"Each colonial expedition, and particularly that of Tripoli, means more money taken away from that available for the development of the mother country: it means the fostering of a Nationalism made, up of provocative braggadocio, and is full of a perpetual danger of wasting public money and squandering (he blood and lives-of the proletariat. ft fosters the increase of militarism, which, oppressing the weak, finds its best and faithful allies and its surest friends among reactionaries and clericals.

''It is true that Socialism cannot stop this in a moment; cannot overthrow it in a day; nor can it oppose it by opportunism.

"It can only fight it efficaciously and lie victorious by incessant struggles and by taking its own course, unfettered by compromising alliances : and it must never forget that the army to be employed by the middle classes in these colonial expeditions is the same army whose ranks are filled by the sons of tho proletariat, which is used by the middle classes to suppress any strugblc by Labor against Capital, as we Siiw the other day at Pionibino."

Comrades, —Wo see in this n-ew African adventure of Italy a renewal of warlike enterprises, and a menace, in favor of reaction, to all the interests of the proletariat. It is a practical demonstration of the fatal antagonism between us and the middle classes. Let us be united, not by the opportunism of the hour, but by the firm conviction of being banded together in order to promote out highest and dearest ideals. To tin; seamen and the soldiers who are engaged in this affair we cry: Down with war! Long live Socialism j! Long live the International of the Workers! The Central Committee of the Intransigent Revolutionary Section of the Italian Socialist Party.

*hi Abyssinia, where the Italians some years ago ivere badly beaten. — (Trans.. +An allusion to those strange Socialists of Sicily who approve of this affair as a, means of helping emigration from Sicily.—(Trans.)