Resolution on the military policy (submitted by WIL) [43]¶
Core Argument¶
This resolution, submitted by the Workers’ International League (WIL), sets out a revolutionary Marxist military policy for the Second World War, rejecting both support for British imperialism and the passive, pacifist opposition that characterised the previous war. The core argument is that the war is not an ideological struggle for democracy against fascism, but an inevitable product of the crisis of capitalism. The British ruling class, it is claimed, has demonstrated its true nature by supporting Hitler against the German working class, acquiescing to the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, pursuing non-intervention in Spain to enable Franco’s victory, and backing reactionaries like Darlan, Badoglio, and Victor Emmanuel. The war is being waged to maintain colonial plunder, raw materials, cheap labour, and markets. The duty of revolutionary socialists is to expose the false slogans of “War against Fascism” and “War for Democracy.”
The resolution argues that a victory for German fascism would be a disaster, but a victory for Anglo-American imperialism would be no less disastrous, as it would perpetuate the imperialist contradictions that gave rise to fascism and inevitably lead to a third world war. The British working class cannot support the war without opposing its own class interests. The party calls for opposition to the war and for the overthrow of the capitalist state, to be replaced by working-class power under the Fourth International, which alone can wage a truly revolutionary war to destroy fascism. The trade unions, Labour Party, and Communist Party are denounced as betrayers of working-class interests and agents of the ruling class.
A key distinction is drawn between the defencist feelings of the mass of workers—stemming from progressive motives to preserve class organisations and democratic rights from fascism—and the chauvinism of the Labour and Stalinist leadership. The mass chauvinistic enthusiasm of the First World War is absent; deep suspicion of ruling-class aims prevails. The task is to separate workers from capitalists and their lackeys.
The resolution argues that socialist pacifism and conscientious objection, progressive in the last war, now act as a brake on revolution by separating revolutionaries from the mass of workers in the military machine. A positive policy is required: revolutionary socialists must participate in military organisations but counterpose proletarian militarism for proletarian ends to capitalist militarism. Specific demands include the arming of the working class under workers’ organisations, state-financed schools controlled by trade unions for training worker officers, and the election of officers by the ranks. These measures supplement the transitional programme and prepare the working class for the defence of the proletarian fatherland against reactionary war. The polemic is directed against reformist policies—those of the Labour Party, Communist Party, and ILP—which seek minor reforms within the bourgeois state rather than its overthrow.