Peaceful Manifestations

For many months, leading statesmen of various nations have made moving pleas for peace. If we were to take their statements seriously, we would be compelled to believe that England, France, Germany, Italy and America had but one object in their foreign policies—to secure a lasting peace.

But capitalism is a curious system and has strange ways of securing its ends.

While, on the one hand, the newspapers have a great deal of space devoted to reports of these peaceful speeches, on the other hand they have pictures of the new gigantic battleships that are being launched for the strange purpose of securing this peace. The peace aimed at is peace among the European nations. Peace among the nations, each of which is building huge armaments, competing against each other in building faster and more destructive aeroplanes, tanks and other killing machines and methods.

The real facts, of course, are that capitalist spokesmen are following the honoured methods of using hypocritical phrases to cover their murderous designs. The basis of these designs is simply the securing of a more favourable position by which to obtain a larger share of the wealth wrung from wage workers.

(Editorial,Socialist Standard, March 1939)