Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

OPEN LETTER TO B. SOUVARINE197capitalists of all countries for profits and possession of the world market,and it is fought at the price of our blood. Now, just imagine thatin each of the capitalist countries of Europe, this mutual slaughter forthe sake of plunder is directed by a socialist! Just imagine an EnglishMillerand, an Italian Millerand a German Millerand, in addition to aFrench Millerand, working to embroil the proletarians in this capitalistbrigandage and make them fight each other! What would remain,I ask you, comrades, of international solidarity? On the day the Millerandsbecame a common phenomenon, we would have to say ‘farewell’ toall internationalism and become nationalists, and this neither you norI will ever agree to (Jules Guesde, En Garde!, Paris, 1911, pp. 175-76).It is not true that France is waging this 1914-17 war forfreedom, national independence, democracy, and so on....She is fighting to retain her colonies, and for England toretain hers, colonies to which Germany would have had amuch greater right—from the standpoint of bourgeois law,of course. She is fighting to give Russia Constantinople,etc.... Consequently, this war is being waged not by democraticand revolutionary France, not by the France of 1792,nor the France of 1848, nor the France of the Commune. Itis being waged by bourgeois France, reactionary France,that ally and friend of tsarism, the “world usurer” (theexpression is not mine, it belongs to Lysis, a contributor tol’Humanité 93 ), who is defending his booty, his “sacredright” to possess colonies, his “freedom” to exploit theentire world with the help of the millions loaned to weakeror poorer nations.Do not tell me it is hard to distinguish between revolutionaryand reactionary wars. You want me to indicate apurely practical criterion that would be understood by all,in addition to the scientific criterion indicated above?Here it is: Every fair-sized war is prepared beforehand.When a revolutionary war is being prepared, democratsand socialists are not afraid to state in advance that theyfavour “defence of the fatherland” in this war. Whenhowever, in contrast, a reactionary war is being prepared,no socialist will venture to state in advance, that is, beforewar is declared, meaning that he will favour “defenceof the fatherland”.Marx and Engels were not afraid to urge the Germanpeople to fight Russia in 1848 and 1859.In contrast, at their Basle Congress in 1912 the socialists