As The 100th Anniversary Of World War I Continues -1916-The Anti-War Resistance Builds-Leon Trotsky

As The 100^th Anniversary Of World War I Continues -1916-The Anti-War Resistance Builds   

The events leading up to World War I (known as the Great War before the world got clogged up with expansive wars in need of other numbers and names and reflecting too in that period before World War II a certain sense of “pride” in having participated in such an epic adventure even if it did mow down the flower of European and in some cases colonial youth from all classes) from the massive military armament of almost all the capitalist and imperialist parties in Europe and elsewhere in order to stake their claims to their unimpeded share of the world’s resources had all the earmarks of a bloodbath early on once the industrial-sized carnage set in with the stalemated fronts (as foretold by the blood-letting in the American Civil War and the various “small” wars in Asia, Africa, and, uh, Europe in the mid to late 19^th century once war production on a mass scale followed in the train of other less lethal forms of  industrial production).

Also trampled underfoot in the opposing trenches, or rather thrown in the nearest trash bin of the their respective parliamentary buildings were the supposedly eternal pledges against war in defense of one’s own capitalist-imperialist  nation-state against the working masses and their allies of other countries by most of the Social-Democrats and other militant leftist formations (Anarchists, Syndicalists and their various off-shoots)representing the historic interest of the international working-class to stop those imperialist capitalist powers and their hangers-on in their tracks at the approach of war were decisive for 20^th century history. All those beautifully written statements and resolutions that clogged up the international conferences with feelings of solidarity were some much ill-fated wind once bullet one came out of gun one.

Other than isolated groups and individuals, mostly like Lenin and Trotsky in exile or jail, and mostly in the weaker lesser capitalistically developed countries of Europe the blood lust got the better of most of the working class and its allies as young men rushed to the recruiting stations to “do their duty” and prove their manhood. (When the first international conference of anti-war socialists occurred in Switzerland in 1915, the famous Zimmerwald conference, one wag pointed out that they could all fit in one tram [bus].) Almost all parties assuming that the damn thing would be over by Christmas and everyone could go back to the eternal expressions of international working-class solidarity after the smoke had settled (and the simple white-crossed graves dug in the vast bone-crushed cemeteries that marked the nearby battle fields too numerous to mention). You see, and the logic is beautiful on this one, that big mail-drop of a Socialist International, was built for peace-time but once the cannons roared then the “big tent” needed to be folded for the duration. Jesus.  

Decisive as well as we head down the slope to the first months of the second year of the war although shrouded in obscurity early in the war in exile was the soon to be towering figure of one Vladimir Lenin (a necessary nom de guerre in the hell broth days of the Czar’s Okhrana ready to send one and all to the Siberian frosts and that moniker business, that nom de guerre not a bad idea in today’s NSA-driven frenzy to know all, to peep at all), leader of the small Russian Bolshevik Party ( a Social-Democratic Party in name anyway adhering to the Second International under the sway of the powerful German party although not for long because “Long Live The Communist International,”  a new revolutionary international, would become the slogan and later order of the day in the not distant future), architect of the theory of the “vanguard party” building off of many revolutionary experiences in Russia and Europe in the 19^th century (including forbears Marx and Engels), and author of an important, important to the future communist world perspective, study on the monopolizing tendencies of world imperialism, the ending of the age of “progressive” capitalism (in the Marxist sense of the term progressive in a historical materialist sense that capitalism was progressive against feudalism and other older economic models which turned into its opposite at this dividing point in history), and the hard fact that it was a drag on the possibilities of human progress and needed to be replaced by the establishment of the socialist order. But that is the wave of the future as 1914 turned to 1915 in the sinkhole trenches of Europe that are already a death trap for the flower of the European youth.  

Lenin also has a "peace" plan, a peace plan of sorts, a way out of the stinking trench warfare stalemate eating up the youth of the Eurasian landmass. Do what should have been done from the beginning, do what all the proclamations from all the beautifully-worded socialist manifestos called on the international working-class to do. Not a simple task by any means especially in that first year when almost everybody on all sides thought a little blood-letting would be good for the soul, the individual national soul, and in any case the damn thing would be over by Christmas and everybody could start producing those beautifully worded-manifestos against war again. (That by Christmas peace “scare” turned out to be a minute “truce” from below by English and German soldiers hungry for the old certainties banning the barbed wire and stinking trenches for a short reprieve in the trench fronts in France and played soccer before returning to drawn guns-a story made into song and which is today used as an example of what the lower ranks could do-if they would only turn the guns around. Damn those English and German soldiers never did turn the damn things around until too late and with not enough resolve and the whole world has suffered from that lack of resolve ever since.)

Lenin’s hard-headed proposition: turn the bloody world war among nations into a class war to drive out the war-mongers and bring some peace to the blood-soaked lands. But that advanced thinking is merely the wave of the future as the rat and rain-infested sinkhole trenches of Europe were already churning away in the first year as a death trap for the flower of the European youth.   

The ability to inflict industrial-sized slaughter and mayhem on a massive scale first portended toward the end of the American Civil War once the Northern industrial might tipped the scales their way as did the various German-induced wars attempting to create one nation-state out of various satraps almost could not be avoided in the early 20^th century once the armaments race got serious, and the technology seemed to grow exponentially with each new turn in the war machine. The land war, the war carried out by the “grunts,” by the “cannon fodder” of many nations was only the tip of the iceberg and probably except for the increased cannon-power and range and the increased rapidity of the machine-guns would be carried out by the norms of the last wars. However the race for naval supremacy, or the race to take a big kink out of British supremacy, went on unimpeded as Germany tried to break-out into the Atlantic world and even Japan, Jesus, Japan tried to gain a big hold in the Asia seas.

The deeply disturbing submarine warfare wreaking havoc on commerce on the seas, the use of armed aircraft and other such technological innovations of war only added to the frenzy. We can hundred years ahead, look back and see where talk of “stabs in the back” by the losers and ultimately an armistice rather than decisive victory on the blood-drenched fields of Europe would lead to more blood-letting but it was not clear, or nobody was talking about it much, or, better, doing much about calling a halt before they began the damn thing among all those “civilized” nations who went into the abyss in July of 1914. Sadly the list of those who would not do anything, anything concrete, besides paper manifestos issued at international conferences, included the great bulk of the official European labor movement which in theory was committed to stopping the madness.

A few voices, voices like Karl Liebknecht (who against the party majority bloc voting scheme finally voted against the Kaiser’s war budget, went to the streets to get rousing anti-war speeches listened to in the workers’ districts, lost his parliamentary immunity and wound up honorably in the Kaiser’s  prisons) and Rosa Luxemburg ( the rose of the revolution also honorably prison bound) in Germany, Lenin and Trotsky in Russia (both exiled at the outbreak of war and just in time as being on “the planet without a passport” was then as now, dangerous to the lives of left-wing revolutionaries and not just them), some anti-war anarchists like Monette in France and here in America “Big Bill” Haywood (who eventually would controversially flee to Russia to avoid jail for his opposition to American entry into war), many of his IWW (Industrial Workers Of the World) comrades and the stalwart Eugene V. Debs (who also went to jail, “Club Fed” for speaking the truth about American war aims in a famous Cleveland speech and, fittingly, ran for president in 1920 out of his Atlanta Penitentiary jail cell),  were raised and one hundred years later those voices have a place of honor in this space.

Those voices, many of them in exile, or in the deportations centers, were being clamped down as well when the various imperialist governments began closing their doors to political refugees when they were committed to clapping down on their own anti-war citizens. As we have seen in our own times, most recently in America in the period before the “shock and awe” of the decimation of Iraq in 2002 and early 2003 the government, most governments, are able to build a war frenzy out of whole cloth. Even my old anti-war amigo from my hometown who after I got out of the American Army during the Vietnam War marched with me in countless rallies and parades trying to stop the madness got caught in the bogus information madness and supported Bush’s “paper war” although not paper for the benighted Iraqi masses ever since (and plenty of other “wise” heads from our generation of ’68 made that sea-change turn with him).

At those times, and in my lifetime the period after 9/11 when we tried in vain to stop the Afghan war in its tracks is illustrative, to be a vocal anti-warrior is a dicey business. A time to keep your head down a little, to speak softly and wait for the fever to subside and to be ready to begin the anti-war fight another day. “Be ready to fight” the operative words.

So imagine in the hot summer of 1914 when every nationality in Europe felt its prerogatives threatened how the fevered masses, including the beguiled working-classes bred on peace talk without substance, would not listen to the calls against the slaughter. Yes, one hundred years later is not too long or too late to honor those ardent anti-war voices as the mass mobilizations began in the countdown to war, began four years of bloody trenches and death.                  

Over the next period as we continue the long night of the 100^th anniversary of World War I and beyond I will under this headline post various documents, manifestos and cultural expressions from that time in order to give a sense of what the lead up to that war looked like, the struggle against its outbreak before the first frenzied shots were fired, the forlorn struggle during and the massive struggles after it in places like Russia, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the hodge-podge colonies all over the world map, in order to create a newer world out of the shambles of the battlefields. 

Leon Trotsky

The National Principle

---

Written: 1916.
Publisher: First: Nashe Slovo 13 July 1916.
Translated: Pete Dickenson for Socialism Today.
Online Version: Socialism Today, Issue 184 Dec/Jan 2014/15.
HTML Markup: Original: Socialism Today; for the LTIA David Walters, 2015.

---

Continuing our series to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the first world war we are printing an article written by LEON TROTSKY, exposing the hypocrisy of world powers towards national minorities and oppressed peoples. It was first published in Nashe Slovo (Our Word), a Paris-based newspaper for Russian revolutionaries, on 13 July 1916. This is the first time it has been translated into English – by Pete Dickenson.

Almost no news has penetrated the French press about the recent Lausanne Congress of Small and Oppressed Nationalities. If you consider that the Allies are fighting for ‘the national principle’ – in case they had forgotten, Mr Sazonov (1) again reminded the Americans about it – at first sight such inattention to the Lausanne congress could get confusing. But actually... it is very clear.

Those, however, who still persist in their misunderstanding, should poke their noses in the new issue of L’Éclair [The Spark]. This strange newspaper, combining attention to the celestial dogma of Catholicism with the progressive aspirations of French industry – neither are platonic – gives space from time to time to reports and articles where, to a significant extent, an element of genuine truth sticks out.
First of all it turned out – what a surprise for Plekhanov (2) who lives near Lausanne! – that, at the congress of oppressed people, “among the 23 nationalities were representatives of almost all the national minorities of Russia: Finns, Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Ukrainians, Georgians, etc, etc", (the author, obviously from Allied tact, breaks off the list here). There were also representatives of the Irish people, Albanians, Egyptians and Tunisians. There was even Mr Aberson, representing the Jews as a nationality.
Concerning the congress resolutions recognising each nation’s right to self-determination, L’Éclair candidly observes: “The difficulty in the practical implementation of this programme is that everyone readily acknowledges the freedom of their enemies’ national minorities, but not their own or those of their allies. In the Allied camp, for example, they demand the freedom of non-German nationalities, subjugated by Germany and Austria, and non-Turkish ethnic groups, subjugated by Turkey, but would like to give Russia the opportunity to exercise discretion regarding her minorities”.
Even in the atmosphere of the obligatory lie we have been breathing for two years, these are not, God knows, new or daring thoughts, revealed in a ‘big’ French newspaper, in some way refreshing to the soul. And to think that there are Russian socialists, Russian revolutionaries, Russian migrants who, before the congress in Lausanne, where the Kyrgyz came to complain about the tsarist yoke, continue to join in the chorus of Mr Sazonov about the liberation objectives pursued in this war by Russia. No one demands of these people internationalism, but if they were just honest patriotic democrats, they would burn with shame!
To avoid embarrassment, however, they always have in reserve a reference to the Allies. Russia, of course, is an oppressive country, but with the help of the ‘western democracies’ it will, through victory, deliver all the internal and external miracles that Germany must come to through defeat.
How are things really with the Allies on this issue? Leave alone for now the Far East where Russia, in alliance with Japan, is going to implement in the coming decades ‘the national principle’ on the back of China. It will be time to think about the half-billion Chinese, when Plekhanov and Kuropatkin call for the freedom of Schleswig-Holstein! (3) Let us confine ourselves to the ‘western democracies’. But we will not raise the Irish question, because it is well known how magnanimously Britain is implementing home rule in Dublin. However, Connolly and the other rebels who have been hanged or shot will not be able to enjoy an Irish parliament, since they themselves are now being enjoyed by a parliament of worms underground. But let’s leave Ireland. Let’s leave Britain entirely. What is the situation in France?
For the colonial powers like France or England, says L’É clair, the question of the ‘natives’, which was looked into at Lausanne, is of particular interest. The Lausanne congress resolution does not want to recognise the separation of the races into ‘lower’ and ‘higher’, since this is the philosophy of colonial domination that, in general, they rely on most. L’É clair, on this account, calls for colonial ‘democracy’, justice and... caution, at the same time noting with satisfaction the moving of a bill during the Lausanne congress by deputy Doazi, by which Algerians would be given ‘serious’ representation in the institutions that discuss their interests. This is very comforting.
But the fact is that, at the same time – ie almost during the sessions of the Lausanne congress – in the Far East, in French Indochina, an event took place significantly less favourable from the point of view of ‘the national principle’. In Annam (4), which was set up in 1884 as a French protectorate, ie actually a French colony, an uprising took place under the banner of national independence. The French press was allowed to write about it for a few weeks after the event, but the patriotic and right-thinking papers did not avail themselves of the opportunity. Of course, L’HumanitÉ (5) – this organ of bigotry, hypocrisy and lies – did not even hint at an event vitally linked to the destiny of five-and-a-half million Annamites. And if we have now a ‘censorship beating opportunity’ to give readers information, albeit scant, about the Annamite rebellion, then it is again thanks to the same reactionary organ L’É clair.
The young emperor of Annam, Duy Tan, who was essentially only a native-royalist ornament fronting the colonial domination of the [French] republic, entered into communication with a national revolutionary organisation of his subjects. By agreement with them, he escaped from his palace to the country and addressed the nation with a revolutionary appeal, declaring the independence of Annam. But the government of the Third Republic turned out to be master of the situation. The rebel was caught, brought back to ‘their’ capital of HuÉ , deposed and locked up in a fortress, where he now has enough leisure time, not only to learn by heart the Declaration of Rights, but also to read the full set of L’HumanitÉ for the duration of the war (if, of course, the deposed emperor is allowed to read newspapers in prison).
In these far-off countries – we take a sample quote from Revue Hebdomadaire (6) to show the distance between reality and official ideology – “in these distant countries, the soul of the people trembles as one with the soul of the French people; in the Far East, which seemed (!) almost hostile to us, we see a moving picture of how thousands of priests offer prayers to Buddha for the victory of our arms", etc, etc. This was written in the autumn of last year... But in approximately a month, when the Far Eastern ‘emperor’ – who was recently organising preparations for the day of the ‘75’ gun (7), which was written about with emotion as well – will be eating his prison rations for the 30th day; in France they will have forgotten about the rebellion and the few who know about it – the patriotic and social-patriotic scribblers – will again begin to write emotionally about the ‘trembling’ Annamite soul. Not only that. Every time the Indochinese soldiers who have been brought here catch the eye of Renaudel [editor of L’HumanitÉ ], he will remind the workers of France that the republic incorporates their lesser Annamite brothers in the great struggle for ‘the national principle’.

---

Notes

1. SD Sazonov (1860-1927), Russian foreign minister until July 1916.

2. G Plekhanov, founder of Russian Marxism. In the first world war he took a nationalist, pro-war position.

3. AN Kuropatkin (1848-1925), commander-in-chief of the Russian northern armies in February 1916. Schleswig-Holstein is a disputed region on the borders of Denmark and Germany.

4. Annam is now the central region of Vietnam.

5. L’HumanitÉ was a pro-war daily socialist newspaper, edited by Pierre Renaudel. It became the paper of the French Communist Party.

6. Revue Hebdomadaire (Weekly Review) was a French right-wing newspaper.

7. The day of the ‘75’ gun refers to the battle of the Somme, July to November 1916. The 75mm gun was the mainstay of the Allied artillery.