War on War

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 92, 20 December 1912, Page 8

War on War

• FRENCH CONFEDERATION OF LABOR. Under tlie above title, the French Confederation of Labor has issued a manifesto in favor of a vigorous campaign for tho preservation of European peace The manifesto says : — "Tn the Balkan, war has been declared. Montenegrins, Bulgarians, Servians and Turks have begun to murder one another. Europe, only just emerged from the crisis caused by capitalist

and financial France by its aggression in Morocco, is laced by tbe terrible responsibilities of a war contlagration by the present conflict, which may involve all the other European powers. The desire for territorial expansion of Austria and Russia, the seaaxh for now markets for some other countries, added to the greed of financial and industrial groups, imperil the peace of the world. Tlie clerical incitings, the race hatred

will make this war not only a vast capitalist conspiracy, but ah'-o a fanatical crusade. Tho complexity of theinvolved interests, in tho implacable character of this war, gives little hope that it will be localised—a hope which the bourgeois press holds up to pacify the uneasiness of the people. Unless all the sincere partisans of peace are viinln»<+, and active in a vigorous protest, they risk seeing events getting quickly worse and being unable to stop the brutality of accomplished facts."

The manifesto ends with an appeal to the international working-class:

"If it is true that at present the Governments of France and Germany are united in an effort to preserve peace in Europe it is all the more necessary that the German and French peoples be in the front ranks for intervention and protect made necessary by this terrible war situation."

Tho confederal committee of the C.G.T. has also decided to start a campaign in the country with. t«he help of the labor exchanges to nrennre the workers for energetic action in case of Avar. The C.G.T. has undertaken to organise nn international demonstration against the war, in Paris, like that held lust year in Berlin and in Spain, and such as was held in 1900 in London during the French-English conflict. The confederal committee is likewise instructed to como to an understanding with the foreign organisations for the holding of similar demonstrations on the same day as that in Paris, in Vienna, Berlin, London, etc., with the presence of French delegates.—"lnternational Bulletin of the Syndicalist Movement."