The Daily Worker

War! 1917-1932

APRIL 6, 1917, the government of American imperialism, headed by Woodrow Wilson, entered the world front of the allied governments against German imperialism.

April 6, 1932!

We now put the question to the entire working class of the United States, Negro and white, native born and foreign born:

What have been the results for the workers of this country? What have the workers of the United States and the other capitalist countries received in return for the oceans of workers' blood spilled, for the millions killed in battle and by disease, for the multiplied millions of the wounded and maimed in the service of their imperialist masters?

The answer is given in unmistakable terms by the hungry millions of unemployed—twelve million or more in the United States alone—in the ferocious attack on the living standards of the entire working class and colonial peoples at every point, the answer is given by the increasing mass misery in every capitalist country—the answer is given by the ever sharpening crisis of the capitalist system and its ever growing burdens on the toiling population.

In one country in the world—the Soviet Union—where the working class, led by the Communist Party, with Lenin at its head, overthrew capitalism, destroyed the capitalist state machinery and set up in its place the state power of the working class, is there light and hope and undisputed and decisive advances by the toiling masses in every sector of the working class front—economic, social and cultural.

This is the lesson we American workers have to learn in this period when imperialist war against the Chinese people, and directed likewise against the Soviet Union, rages in the Far East: The lesson is that the working class organized and led by its Communist Party finds its way out of mass unemployment, mass misery and imperialist war by the overthrow of capitalism and its government and by setting up in place of the capitalist dictatorship the mighty power of the proletariat organized as the ruling class, to abolish capitalism and engage in the most determined way to carry through its historic mission of creating the basis for the classless society which is Communism.

Today 15 years after the entrance of America into the last war, the working population is again faced with war in the Far East and the menace of a world war against the Soviet Union. The workers must draw the lesson from the last slaughter and the reactionary war now going on. This lesson is clear: to organize the workers into a powerful united front of struggle against the capitalist hunger offensive, against the suppression of workers' rights, to fight uncompromisingly to stop the war preparations and thus build up the power to overthrow capitalism.

This task includes an unceasing fight against pacifist deception, against the capitalists' agents in the ranks of the workers—the A. F. of L. bureaucrats and the socialist party, these main social supporters of the capitalist system.

The stronger the fight against the daily oppression, the stronger grow the ranks of the toilers for the historic blows which will destroy the war making capitalist system.

Defend the Soviet Fatherland!
Hands off the Chinese people!
Withdraw the Japanese and American ships and troops from China!