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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. 5 No. 4, 25 January 1941, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
No amount of canned propaganda can polish up the tarnished slogans for which the masses, of the world cheered and died in World War I. The present war is being fought without illusions. On the Allied, as well as on the Axis side the war is merely the final sufferance which the masses sullenly endure because they are not prepared as yet to write finis to this bloody end-product of capitalism in its death agony.
A startlingly frank admission of this fact is contained in one of a series of articles published in the New York Post and Chicago Daily News. Wallace R. Deuel, correspondent recently returned from Europe, wrote in the January 9th issue of the Post:
“Most of the peoples of Europe are like the victims of a nightmare today – dazed, numb, worn out, despairing and confused.
“The war itself is the monster of the nightmare, of course. But so many other terrors preceded it – so many other unbearable shocks and strains and disillusionments – that the peoples were worn out before the war ever came.
“There is a hopelessness, too, about the nightmare, as well as an almost unendurable fatigue.
“On the Allied side, there is the hopelessness of seeing Germany rise again only half a generation after it had been beaten ‘for good.’ How can the ‘German problem’ be solved, if it was not solved in 1918? There are ways of solving it, of course, but the man on the street may be forgiven if he does not see them clearly. (Our emphasis).
“On the Allied side there is the further hopelessness of the appalling costs of the war in blood and treasure and freedom. Even if the Allies ‘win,’ what can be the fruits of their victory? Here, again, there are answers, but here, again the man on the street may be forgiven it he does not see them clearly.
“There is also on the Allied side the hopelessness of the failure to solve peoples’ own problems, with the result that the peoples have lost much of their faith in their ideals ...
“But there is a hopelessness on the German side, too. It is true that Germany has risen again. But the price in wear and tear on the people’s nerves lias been appalling, and millions of Germans have ceased to believe, if they ever did, that it is possible to hope for rewards which would be worth the price.
“... The longer the war lasts, the more the Germans wonder if it is worth fighting.”
Why do the masses of Britain, Germany, Italy continue to fight this war in which none believes, a war for which the rulers can give no justification? asks Deuel, and attempts an answer.
“They fight it, though, most of them, not with the normal reactions of peoples who have fought wars in the past, but against their own wills and judgments which tell them that the war is not worth fighting and that, therefore, they do not want to fight it. Because? they cannot see anything else to do, because they are the victims of a nightmare.” (Our emphasis)
No such admission of universal bankruptcy on the part of the ruling classes of every nation has ever before been uttered in the capitalist press. And it appears in a series of articles devoted primarily to convincing the American masses of the necessity for our participation in the war on the side of Britain!
Deuel, and the whole ruling class for which he speaks, say “Fight! Fight without reason, without cause, without hope. But fight!”
Unable to offer the masses even the shred of an answer to their problems, the capitalists and bankers of every nation demand a messianic faith in a bloody mission whose sordid purpose they cannot – and dare not – admit.
What has, wrung this damaging admission from Deuel? Not devotion to the truth – but fear! It is a hysterical warning to the masters of the world,
You have not long to travel, Deuel is saying. The historical road down which you have ridden over the tortured and broken bodies of the peoples is nearing its end. Save yourselves! Give the masses an answer, any answer, but give them an answer before it is too late.
But the ruling classes have no answer except more violence, more wars, more oppression. Only the masses themselves have an answer; born of their agony, despair and hopelessness, nurtured on desperation and disillusionment.
It is the answer which turns the bones of the master class into jelly. It is the answer which the prime ministers, presidents and fuehrers know today; and which the workers and peasants of every land will give tomorrow. It is the answer of proletarian revolution.
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