For Anarchism, by War Commentary (1941)
Article from ‘War Commentary’, May 1941, London, UK
The Second Imperialist World War brings the world order nearer to collapse. In every corner of the world the effects of the gigantic catastrophe become evident. For the obsolete and worn-out creeds of State worship and patriotism the workers are dragged to a senseless massacre.
MAY THE FIRST
This was the day set apart by the worker’s movement in years gone by to demonstrate the strength of the masses against the masters.
It sees this year, as it has seen in many years before, a fratricidal struggle between the masses for interests that are not theirs. It is time for the revolutionary movement to reaffirm its principles, to declare itself against the imperialist camps, and for the Third Camp of the world revolution. We look with scorn on the mummeries of the Stalins and Hitlers and Churchills who at this moment are declaring themselves to be the saviours of mankind, and appeal to the workers to return to the course of class struggle, turning their backs on the patriotic struggle of Big Business versus State Capitalism.
We reaffirm the revolutionary principles we held in peace and hold in war, that we held in revolution and in reaction, that we will hold in whatever changed circumstances may come about as the result of the war: that we advocate by open methods in democracy and by underground methods in a dictatorship — the principles of anarchism.
AIMS
The setting-up of a Libertarian society which will render impossible the growth of a privileged class and the exploitation and oppression of man by man.
EXPROPRIATION OF LAND AND INDUSTRY
We therefore aim at the common ownership of the land, industry and all the places of work and means of production, directly under workers’ control.
CLASS STRUGGLE
We recognize the fundamental nature of the class struggle and assert that the exploiting class and the working class can have no interests in common. For the workers solidarity with their own class both at home and abroad is the fundamental consideration, which must take precedence over all others.
THE STATE
We are therefore opposed to all monopolies of power whereby the division of society into a ruled and ruling class are maintained. Similarly we oppose all the auxiliary means of maintaining the class-divided society — parliament, the legal system, the police, the armed forces, the Church etc. All such means find their final expression in the State, which always exists to protect the interests of a privileged minority. We are therefore unalterably opposed to the State.
MILITARISM
We oppose militarism as one of the instruments of class rule. The armed forces are used by the ruling class to maintain their class rule.
NATIONALISM AND IMPERIALISM
We assert that national frontiers have no significance for the workers, being merely the lines of division between the spheres of exploitation of the national sections of the bourgeoisie. The interests of the workers, being everywhere the same (the struggle against their rulers), are international. We therefore declare our solidarity with the workers’ struggle in every country. We join with the colonial workers enslaved to imperialism in their struggle against it.
WAR
We oppose the war as the outcome of the clashing interests of rival imperialisms. Since empires exist only to serve the interests of the ruling classes, wars undertaken for their extension or defence have nothing in common with the interests of the workers. The rivalries between the national sections of the ruling class weakens them in the class struggle, and the workers should utilize the advantage thereby offered them to prosecute the class struggle more vigorously. Nationalist sentiment aroused by war is the most effective means employed by the ruling class to deceive the workers and conceal the underlying fundamental class struggle.
We expose and reject the facile slogan “Democracy versus Fascism.” Under capitalist “democracy” the ruling class has everywhere shown itself ready to compromise with Fascism rather than make concessions to the workers. In Spain the forces of bourgeois “democracy,” aided by the Stalinists, strangled the social revolution under cover of this treacherous slogan, and thereby drained the life blood from the only effective resistance to Fascism — the spontaneous direct action of the armed workers. Rather than face social revolution “democracy” will join hands with fascism: but at home and abroad, social revolution alone can defeat Fascism.
DIRECT ACTION
Victory in the fight against class domination can only be achieved by the direct action of the workers themselves. We reject all parliamentary and similar activity as deflecting the workers from the class struggle into paths of class collaboration.
ORGANISATION OF THE WORKERS
Since direct action on the part of individuals produces only partial and inadequate results, it is necessary for the working class to organise collectively. Anarchists seek to organise the workers into Syndicalist unions free from the craft divisions and bureaucracy of trade unions. While trade unions seek to be permanent wage-bargaining institutions, Syndicalism fights for the abolition of the wage system, and the destruction of the property-relations of existing society. To do this the workers must organise at the places of work.
SYNDICATES AND RECONSTRUCTION
The workshop committees will be federated into industrial syndicates. These industrial syndicates will be able to control each industry when the workers have locked out the employing class. All industries will then co-operate in a Federation of Labour, controlling and co-ordinating the whole economy of society. Production will be freed from wage slavery and profit-seeking, and the whole energies of labour will be directed towards the satisfaction of human needs. There will be no capitalism and no State.
SOCIAL REVOLUTION
As the imperialist war drags on it is time for the scattered forces of the world revolution to redouble their efforts for the task of preparing to meet social collapse with the revolutionary message to the workers: No compromise with forces of reformism or reaction. Organisation for the social revolution.
ANARCHISM.