The Principles Involved¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter advances a rigorous Marxist analysis of the colonial question, situating it at the very heart of the revolutionary project. The First World War, the author contends, was fundamentally a war for colonies, prosecuted with colonial troops, which laid bare the infamy of capitalist rule and dramatically sharpened the colonial question. Open insurrections and revolutionary ferment have now arisen across the colonised world, and the chapter insists that the emancipation of the colonies is conceivable only in tandem with the emancipation of the working class in the metropolitan centres. A socialist Europe, it is argued, would then aid liberated colonies with technology and organisation.
The toilers of colonial countries have awakened; their movements blend social and national elements in opposition to imperialism, transforming colonial insurrection into a vital reserve for the world proletariat. Any socialist who perpetuates colonial slavery or fails to support armed colonial uprisings deserves infamy. The Allied powers, the chapter notes, repudiate national self-determination whenever it threatens their interests, revealing the fundamental clash between bourgeois democracy’s professed principles and imperialist realities. The most powerful democracies have, in practice, become imperialist autocracies.
A sharp polemic is directed at the Second International, particularly its hypocritical demand that Soviet Russia evacuate Georgia. Its leaders, such as Henderson, never demanded the evacuation of India, Egypt, or Ireland, nor supported armed revolt against British domination. They treat colonial domination as a natural fact, not a political question. Their demand, the chapter argues, unconsciously expresses a grudging respect for the proletarian dictatorship, expecting it to uphold principles they themselves have abandoned.
The chapter also engages critically with Kautsky’s theory of ‘super-imperialism’. Kautsky argued that imperialism was not a product of advanced capitalism but of pre-industrial, aristocratic elements, and envisioned a possible end to capitalist wars through a system whereby international finance capital would exploit the world collectively. This theory, however, is rejected for ignoring the dynamic of imperialism and the conflicts it must inevitably provoke. The law of uneven development, the author counters, has not increased the gap between national levels but has facilitated a certain levelling, though differing tempos preclude any stable super-imperialist arrangement.
Finally, the chapter turns to South Africa, described as a slave colony for its black majority. The overthrow of British imperialism there is deemed indispensable for socialism. The revolutionary party must present white workers with a clear choice: side with British imperialism and the white bourgeoisie, or with black workers and peasants. A Soviet South Africa, it is concluded, would exercise a powerful influence over the entire black continent.