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From Labor Action, Vol. 5 No. 28, 14 July 1941, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
According to the Gallup poll, 79 PER CENT OF THE PEOPLE WOULD VOTE “TO STAY OUT OF THE WAR” – if a referendum on war takes place.
This is what George Gallup, director of the American Institute of Public Opinion, reports as the latest measurement of anti-war sentiment in this country.
With all the pressure propaganda, with all the false invasion scares, with all the warmongers on the radio, in the movies, in the press, the imperialist war-makers could muster the voting support of only 21 per cent of the people.
Mr. Roosevelt was elected for a third term on the promise to keep the nation out of war. THE OVERWHELMING VOTE HE GOT WAS AN OVERWHELMING VOTE AGAINST WAR.
The platform of the Democratic Party contained an anti-war plank. The vast majority of the American people voted for the candidate of the Democratic Party, who was parading under false colors. IT WAS AN ANTI-WAR VOTE.
THE PLAIN PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY ARE STILL AGAINST GOING TO WAR.
The Kiplinger Letter to Business Men dated June 21 states: “THE INTERIOR IS CERTAINLY NOT STEAMED UP FOR WAR.” The “interior” is the label Washington gives to the common people of the country.
Hansen W. Baldwin, military expert, states in the New York Times: “THERE IS NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. MOST OF THE GUYS IN THIS MAN’S ARMY DON’T WANT TO FIGHT.”
The workers, the sharecroppers, the tenant farmers, the neighborhood storekeepers and their boys in the conscript camps – ARE AGAINST THE WAR!
BUT MR. ROOSEVELT PUSHES CLOSER AND CLOSER TO THE WAR!
Unknown to the American people, fighting bombers are already operating on the ocean.
Unknown: to the American people, United States troops are already on foreign soil.
WHOSE MANDATE IS ROOSEVELT FOLLOWING IN THESE WAR COMMITMENTS? Not that of the majority of the American people!
HE IS FOLLOWING THE ORDERS OF THE BOSSES, THE BANKERS, THE WAR PROFITEERS, THE IMPERIALISTS! He is President for the sixty exploiting families – not for the masses!
On June 19 Mr. Gallup wrote: “If a national referendum were taken today on the question whether the United States should go to war now, there can be little question that it would show a large vote against entering the war.”
THAT IS WHY THE LUDLOW AMENDMENT HAS BEEN BOUND UP IN RED TAPE AND THROWN INTO THE CONGRESSIONAL DARK CLOSET.
The question put by the Gallup poll was very definite, very specific: “If you were asked to vote on the question of the United States entering the war against Germany and Italy, how would you vote – to go into the war or to stay out of the war?”
TO THIS UNEQUIVOCAL QUESTION 79 PER CENT OF THE PEOPLE WOULD VOTE TO STAY OUT!
That is why troop movements and overseas operations are kept from the American people! THE PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO GO TO WAR!
But in Washington the talk is for open entry in July or August.
The fact that Hitler’s campaign against his erstwhile ally, Russia, to get grain, oil and war materials, means A LONG WAR, does not stop the swivel-chair generalissimos. In Washington. THEY ARE PREPARING FOR A LONG WAR!
The people whom the war-makers force to sweat, to suffer, to bleed, to die, don’t want to get into the war in July or August – or any other time.
The people upon whom the unbearable burdens of war fall don’t want to be involved in this worldwide imperialist blood-letting.
The people are entitled to a referendum on this vital question!
THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO SAY “NO” TO THE IMPERIALISTS!
THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO SAVE THEMSELVES AND THE NATION THEY BUILT WITH LABOR FROM THOSE WHO LUST FOR WORLD POWER!
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Last updated: 26 August 2014