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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 24, 15 June 1940, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The American workers have a sacred obligation to intervene in the imperialist war now raging in Europe.
Does that sound like Roosevelt and all of his fellow war-mongers in and out of the labor movement? There is a difference of course in the use of the word ‘imperialist,’ a term which Roosevelt and his supporters do not use.
The question is : HOW to intervene.
The idea that the American workers are not at all interested in the imperialist war is absurd. It is true that they should not be interested in it the same way as those who are responsible for the war. But to say that the American workers or the workers of any other country should not be interested in a war that is destroying millions of human beings and untold wealth created by the working masses is complete nonsense.
To make a serious attempt to stop the war is the duty of the American workers, if for no other reason than that, if they do not stop the war, they will inevitably be dragged into it.
But again the question must be asked: HOW to intervene?
Certainly not the kind of intervention that Roosevelt proposes. He wants to intervene because a victory of Germany threatens the imperialist interests of the American ruling class. He is afraid that a victorious fascist Germany will be a successful competitor of American capitalism on the world market and especially in Latin America.
The American workers must do their utmost to prevent that kind of intervention. For such an intervention can mean nothing except a lower standard of living, destruction of all liberties, untold sacrifice and slaughter – all to preserve and protect the interests of the American capitalist class.
The intervention of the American workers must be of an altogether different form and for an altogether different purpose. They must intervene by destroying in this country the social system which brought on the war in Europe and which will sooner or later involve us in the same kind of a war.
How will the destruction of the capitalist system in this country constitute intervention in the war in Europe? The answer is: should the American workers take over power and establish a socialist United States it would be impossible for the imperialists of the European countries to keep their workers in subjection and to keep them slaughtering one another.
The European workers would be electrified by a victory of the American workers; they would in short order turn their guns against those who sent them to the slaughter. The capitalist rulers of the European countries, including Hitler and Mussolini could not last very long after the capitalists of the United States would fall from power.
There are many who are crying: keep America out of the war. They consist of demagogues and sincere but blind pacifists who do not see that it is impossible to keep this country out of war so long as it is ruled by the capitalist class.
The advanced workers will also fight to keep America out of the war, that is, to keep imperialist America from intervening in an imperialist war. The longer this country stays out of the war, the more time will the advanced workers have to educate and organize the American masses for the kind of intervention that will really benefit the workers of this country as well as the workers throughout the world.
To fight for and establish a Socialist United States is the only effective and worthwhile intervention on the part of the American people.
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