Communism or World Chaos¶
Core Argument¶
The chapter argues that the conclusion of the Second World War, far from heralding peace, has merely intensified the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, now armed with the capacity for total human extermination. Its core narrative thrust is that the war was never a struggle for democracy against fascism, but a naked imperialist conflict for profit, markets, and spheres of influence. The Trotskyist position is reiterated as the only correct one: opposition to the war as an imperialist conflict, with the sole exception of the Soviet Union’s progressive defence. The chapter insists that the basic contradictions of world capitalism have not been resolved but aggravated, and that the defeat of the Axis powers will not prevent future wars.
The key claim is that the atomic bomb represents a qualitative leap in the technique of destruction, rendering previous horrors obsolete. The obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is presented not as a regrettable necessity but as a cold-blooded imperialist atrocity, surpassing the massacres of Genghis Khan. The hypocrisy of Allied imperialists and their labour and Stalinist lackeys is denounced: those who condemned Nazi crimes now gloat over the incineration of entire cities. The chapter uses the reported effects on Hiroshima—human beings seared to death, burned beyond recognition—to drive home the obscenity. It contrasts the £500 million spent on the bomb with the paltry £100,000 spent on peacetime scientific research, illustrating capitalism’s madness.
Historically, the chapter draws on the legacy of Lenin’s warning of communism or barbarism, now updated to “communism or nothing.” It situates the bomb within the broader context of the second imperialist war, which has left 60 million casualties, pestilence, and world food shortage. The industrial revolution based on steam is compared to the coming revolution in atomic energy, which will shatter capitalism’s social foundations and speed up changes in mass consciousness. The chapter argues that Russia, freed from private ownership, will eagerly develop atomic energy for peace, and that a world monopoly by Anglo-American imperialism is impossible for long.
The polemic is sharp and directed at multiple targets: the Stalinists and Labour leaders who gloat over Hiroshima, the reformists who believe in gradual solutions, and the imperialist spokesmen who peddle illusions of perpetual peace through international control. The Evening News boast that Britain and America are now masters of the world is quoted to expose the victors’ real aims. The chapter concludes with a stark ultimatum: the working class must fight for a communist world economy, or capitalism will destroy humanity. The bomb is the last warning.