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

80V. I. LENINof political slogans. To accept “defence of the fatherland”in the present war is no more nor less than to accept itas a “just” war, a war in the interests of the proletariat—nomore nor less, we repeat, because invasions may occur inany war. It would be sheer folly to repudiate “defence of thefatherland” on the part of oppressed nations in their warsagainst the imperialist Great Powers, or on the part of avictorious proletariat in its war against some Galliffet ofa bourgeois state.Theoretically, it would be absolutely wrong to forgetthat every war is but the continuation of policy by othermeans. The present imperialist war is the continuation ofthe imperialist policies of two groups of Great Powers, andthose policies were engendered and fostered by the sum totalof the relationships of the imperialist era. But this veryera must also necessarily engender and foster policies ofstruggle against national oppression and of proletarianstruggle against the bourgeoisie and, consequently, also thepossibility and inevitability, first, of revolutionary nationalrebellions and wars; second, of proletarian wars and rebellionsagainst the bourgeoisie; and, third, of a combination ofboth kinds of revolutionary war, etc.IITo this must be added the following general consideration.An oppressed class which does not strive to learn to usearms, to acquire arms, only deserves to be treated likeslaves. We cannot, unless we have become bourgeois pacifistsor opportunists, forget that we are living in a class societyfrom which there is no way out, nor can there be, savethrough the class struggle. In every class society, whetherbased on slavery, serfdom, or, as at present, on wage-labour,the oppressor class is always armed. Not only the modernstanding army, but even the modern militia—and even inthe most democratic bourgeois republics, Switzerland, forinstance—represent the bourgeoisie armed against the proletariat.That is such an elementary truth that it is hardlynecessary to dwell upon it. Suffice it to point to the use oftroops against strikers in all capitalist countries.A bourgeoisie armed against the proletariat is one of the