SOCIALISM AND THE ARMY
Most Socialists, British and foreign, are opposed to the existing
armies, for two reasons:
(1) Because they wish to overturn practically all existing
institutions from the Monarchy downwards, and they fear that the
military may defend the _status quo_;
(2) Because they aim at the abolition of States and of nationality and
at the disappearance of frontiers, as the ideal Socialist State of the
future would, for economic and political reasons, have to embrace the
world.
The Socialist State of the future, embracing the whole universe, can
be created only after the existing States have been overturned.
Therefore the more immediate aim of Socialists is to seize upon the
political power in accordance with the advice given by Karl Marx in
his celebrated "Manifesto."[529]
Most Socialists apparently believe that not by Parliamentary means but
only by violence will they succeed in making themselves supreme, for
we are told: "The ballot-box is no doubt a safer weapon than the
rifle; but even when there will be a sufficient number of people in
these islands convinced of the necessity and possibility of the
co-operative commonwealth, the end will not yet be certain. There are
the classes in possession to be considered. Are they going to allow
themselves to be voted out? Will they respect a franchise and
ballot-box which will vote that they shall get off the backs of the
workers? Franchise 'Reform' Bills--and it is astonishing to what use
'reform' can now be put--can be rushed through Parliament, like Crimes
Acts, in twenty-four hours; and there is the 'voluntary' professional
army, under military law, to overawe the recalcitrants who may resent
the suffrage and the ballot-box being jerrymandered against the
popular interest. But none are so likely to be overawed by threatened
displays of armed force--whether voluntary or conscript--as those who
have a difficulty in distinguishing the butt end of a rifle from its
muzzle."[530]
Under the heading "Will it come to barricades?" we read: "The
barricade is to-day, all will agree, in this country at any rate, an
impossible weapon. Armed insurrection on the part of the workers in
this country would to-day be the height of folly, and will continue to
be so, so long as our standing army of hired mercenaries exists.
Standing armies are the instruments of capitalist oppression at home
and aggression abroad. But so long as even one great Power maintains
the present form of military organisation, so long as war is possible,
so long will it be necessary that some form of military organisation
exist in all countries. We dare not preach peace when we know there
can be no peace. This is why the Socialists of all countries are
to-day in favour of an educational policy which will make every
citizen fit for military service within the ranks of a citizen army,
organised and maintained for purposes of defence only. The advantages
of such a force, from the Socialist standpoint, are so obvious that
they need hardly be stated. And it would at least put the working
class in a position to understand what a barricade means, and how, if
need be, to act in their own defence. There are, I am well aware, a
handful of individual Socialists with us who are against universal
military training, but they are a diminishing quantity, and will in
due season find their natural vocation within the ranks of the
Liberty and Property Defence League."[531]
Mr. Quelch, the editor of "Justice," shares the foregoing opinion, for
he tells us: "Revolutions, it is said, can no longer be accomplished
by force, but only by peaceful means--the vote, Parliamentary action,
and legislation. It may be so, but it will be unprecedented if the
present ruling class surrender without a struggle. And if they had the
armed force of the nation at their command, they would struggle
successfully no matter what the Legislature may have done. The ruling
class will not be made to submit to law and order which is not their
law and order, except by overwhelmingly superior force. Nobody
supposes that in such a contest the people could win against the
ruling class unless they had been able first to win over the army.
With a professional 'voluntary' army, well paid and well affected to
its paymasters, such winning over would be practically impossible. But
with the armed nation there would be no winning over required. An
armed nation--whatever it may do or submit to--is essentially a free
nation, and whatever such a nation determines upon, that it can do and
have, in spite of any ruling class."[532]
Similar opinions have frequently been expressed by leading Continental
Socialists. Herr Kautsky, for instance, wrote under the heading
"Expropriation of the Expropriators," as follows: "The arming of the
people is a political measure. It can, under certain circumstances,
cost just as much as a standing army, but it is needed for the safety
of the democracy in order to deprive the Government of its most
important weapon against the people."[533]
Those who are of opinion that only the extreme section of British
Socialists, the revolutionary wing, is hostile to the army, are
mistaken. This may be seen from the following resolution of the Fabian
Society, which is the most moderate exponent of British Socialism:
"Armies act as a standing menace not to neighbouring States, but to
the working populations of their own countries. A study of the
strategical disposition of many of the great railway stations and
barracks of the Continent will prove that the most important function
of the modern army is to suppress the resistance of labour to capital
in the war of classes."[534]
Among the "immediate reforms" demanded in the programme of the
Social-Democratic Federation[535] we find a demand for "the abolition
of standing armies and the establishment of national citizen forces."
Army and police are to most Socialists very objectionable because it
is their function to protect the national order and national property
against predatory, anarchistic, and revolutionary attempts. Therefore
it is only natural that "No Social Democrat regards the present police
system as a satisfactory one, or a professional police as other than a
dubious expedient."[536] According to the opinion held by many
Socialists, "The soldier's primary function is to come to the rescue
of the policeman when the latter is overpowered."[537]
Voluntary armies of the British type are quite as objectionable to
Socialists as are the national armies of the compulsory type raised on
the Continent of Europe. "We are told that the advantage of our
present military system is that it is not compulsory, that people are
free to join the service or not as they please. The freedom of the
average recruit to join the army is about on a par with the freedom
of an unemployed workman to work for lower wages than the recognised
rate of wages, or the freedom of the prostitute."[538] "Your soldier,
ostensibly a heroic and patriotic defender of his country, is really
an unfortunate man driven by destitution to offer himself as food for
powder for the sake of regular rations, shelter, and clothing."[539]
"A standing army of professional soldiers is the most effective
instrument in the hands of the dominant class, the greatest menace to
democracy and popular liberty, and the most effective barrier to
revolutionary change that could possibly be devised. And surely, too,
the antithesis to that is the Armed Nation--every citizen a soldier
and every soldier a citizen."[540]
The ideal army from the Socialist point of view is the armed nation.
It is, as we shall see in the following, an army composed of Socialist
workmen and commanded by Socialist leaders. It is not an army for
national defence, but one for attack on the existing order; it is a
revolutionary army, an army of plunder. The very natural desire of
Socialists to create such a force is, as a rule, disguised under the
demand for a democratic army and universal military training. "We
Socialists advocate the military training of all citizens and the
abolition of professional armies, as ensuring the maximum of military
efficiency and the minimum of menace to democratic principles and
popular rights. We propose that every man should undergo a thorough
military training so as to be equal to any other man. A professional
army is maintained in the main for the defence and maintenance of the
master class. A professional army is a specialised class or caste,
divorced from civil life, hostile to the general body of the
community, and maintained as an instrument to serve the purpose of the
master class. That purpose is as often the suppression of popular
movements at home as aggression abroad. If it were possible to abolish
all military organisations, the remedy would be simple. But we have
seen that that is, under present conditions, impossible. Therefore we
urge that all citizens should be armed and trained to the use of arms,
so that all reasonable military requirements may be met and
professional soldiering be entirely dispensed with."[541] The fact
that the abolition of the professional army would involve the loss of
India and of other possessions to Great Britain is a matter of no
importance to the Socialists. In fact the Socialists wish Great
Britain to lose not only India but all her colonies, as will be seen
by reference to Chapter XI., "Socialism and the Empire."[542]
Every attempt at improving the voluntary army of Great Britain is
considered a blow at Socialism, and is therefore vigorously resisted
by the Socialists. Hence the scheme of army reform of Mr. Haldane,
Secretary of State for War, has been loudly condemned by them as
reactionary and likely to strengthen the capitalists, and they entreat
the workers not to oppose universal military training. "The capitalist
class would be perfectly delighted that all the rest of the people
outside themselves and their mercenaries should be peaceful unarmed
non-resisters. Nothing could suit them better. We have Mr. Haldane's
territorial army--on paper; and a more reactionary, militarist (in the
worst sense), and anti-democratic system than that to which the
present War Minister has had the effrontery to apply our term of the
'Armed Nation' could scarcely be devised."[543]
Whether Mr. Haldane's proposals give Great Britain a better army for
national and Imperial defence, is apparently immaterial to the
Socialists, for they criticise it merely from the point of view of
intending rioters and revolutionaries. They complain: "The position
of the Volunteers now is this, that they are not under military law,
and cannot be called out as soldiers to shoot down workmen at the
bidding of the capitalists. Mr. Haldane's scheme, however, destroys
the civilian character of the Volunteers, and converts them into
professional soldiers."[544]
Although most Socialists are in favour of a national militia, a
considerable number oppose even a national militia of the Swiss type,
fearing that it would refuse to aid the Socialists in overturning
society as at present constituted. "We have been told of the readiness
with which the Swiss militia have donned their uniforms and seized
their rifles when called upon to act against strikers."[545] The
Socialist delegates who accompanied the committee of inquiry which the
National Service League sent to Switzerland in the autumn of 1907 were
apparently less interested in the efficiency of the Swiss army for
national defence than in its attitude during conflicts between labour
and capital.[546]
Fearing that a national militia might not be willing to lend itself to
revolutionary purposes, that it might become a patriotic force as is
the Swiss militia, many Socialists condemn every kind of military
service, and are quite ready to disarm the nation in the name of
humanity and civil freedom. For instance, at the annual conference of
the Socialist Independent Labour Party of 1907 the following was moved
by a well-known revolutionary Socialist, Mr. Bruce Glasier:
"That this Conference believes that the time has come when militarism
in every form should be denounced and resisted as alien to civil
freedom and social progress, and expresses itself emphatically against
compulsory military service, and the attempts which are being made to
introduce military training in public schools or other public
institutions, and views with alarm the purposes of Mr. Haldane's Army
Territorial Bill, which, if passed, will make military service
practically compulsory under officers drawn wholly from, the upper
classes, will make industrial employment dependent upon military
service, and, instead of promoting international unity, will foster
and increase the spirit of militarism and aggression."[547]
In moving this resolution Mr. Glasier said that "he denounced
militarism root and branch," and Mr. Keir Hardie, a Communist
Socialist, in seconding, said: "The resolution was not only a
declaration against militarism, but a special and specific
condemnation of the Territorial Army Scheme now before the House of
Commons. The Socialist party was bound to protest against a system of
that kind. The particular feature which emphasised the danger was that
there were to be county associations formed to have charge of the new
territorial forces, and to have a majority of military men upon them
with landlords and possibly employers of labour. A citizen army was as
great a menace to an industrial population as a professional army. The
new army would be recruited from the people, and officered by the
enemies of the people, just as the professional army was. Children
were to be taught that the flag was the great thing to value in life.
They would find that a citizen army, officered by the rich and
recruited from their own ranks, would be taught to regard the flag as
something holy, while they shot down strikers and Socialists just as
freely as the most exclusive professional army in the world could do.
Patriotism was one of the weapons used by the enemies of the people to
blind them to facts."[548]
The Trade Union Congress of 1907, disregarding the security of the
country and the Empire from foreign aggression, also condemned
military training of every kind. Commenting hereon, the
"Social-Democrat," the organ of the Social-Democratic Federation,
which favours a national democratic army, wrote: "The Trades Union
Congress declares against conscription and also condemns military
training, which is a totally different matter. To condemn conscription
is purely negative. It would be very much more to the point if the
representatives of the organised working class would formulate an
expression of opinion on the actual military problem. Conscription, at
the worst, is in the air; but the present-day military problem is not
in the air; it is on the earth, practical and urgent. What have the
trade unionists to say to it? Do they approve of the present system of
a nominally voluntary professional soldiery, maintained as an
instrument at the service of the capitalist class for suppression at
home and aggression abroad?"[549] The trade unionists were urged to
abolish the voluntary army and to create a national citizen army,
which will assist the Socialist in overturning society.
A national citizen army, composed of Socialists and commanded by
Socialists, is the ideal, and until such an army be created it is in
the interest of Socialists to weaken the existing army and to
undermine its discipline to such an extent that, in the event of a
rising or a revolution, it will side with the revolutionaries. With
this object in view, Socialists are trying to create dissatisfaction
in the army by means of emissaries and literature. For instance, in a
leaflet entitled "An Appeal to Soldiers," the Social-Democratic
Federation says: "If you are to fight for patriotism and country, then
let it be a national duty for all, wealthy as well as poor, to bear
arms. Let not those who are called upon to fight remain a pariah class
apart, bereft of the rights of citizenship--regarded by the upper
classes as something to be avoided."[550]
In its official programme the Social-Democratic Federation demands,
under the heading "Immediate Reforms," "the abolition of
courts-martial: all offences against discipline to be transferred to
the jurisdiction of civil courts."[551] Why do the Socialists demand
the abolition of military law? Because, in their own words, "With the
abolition of military law, upon which we have always laid the greatest
possible stress, militarism falls to the ground."[552] Therefore the
"Appeal to Soldiers" admonishes the military: "You are and will remain
a class apart from the rest of the nation so long as you are compelled
to serve under a barbarous military code called 'military law.' The
system of trial by court-martial is a mere farce and a mockery. We of
the Social-Democratic Federation intend to do our utmost to abolish it
root and branch. Give us your support. Remember that the late War
Minister, Mr. St. John Brodrick, compared the soldier to the Chinese
coolie in South Africa. This is how you are looked upon by the very
people who use you as food for powder in the interest of their class.
Now is the time for all who wish you well to demand the abolition of
military law, the civilising of military service, and the
establishment of a national citizen force."[553]
In the autumn of 1907 a letter to the editor was published by the
"Daily Telegraph" which contained the following statement:
"I do not think that many people, least of all the authorities,
realise what a vigorous campaign is now being waged amongst the rank
and file by the Social-Democratic Federation. Herewith I forward a
leaflet which, I believe, is being distributed in thousands to the
military stations in all the corners of our Empire. The one I enclose
I found attached to a tree by the roadside during the recent
manoeuvres near Aylesbury. Copies of the same leaflet have reached me
from India and Belfast, where they were distributed during the recent
strike trouble. It is no exaggeration to say that this leaflet is
dangerous; the men of our army are peculiarly susceptible to the
tenets of the Social-Democratic Federation. Officers and N.C.O.s will
tell you what a serious effect such propaganda must have upon
discipline.
"Yours faithfully,
"H.C. SMART,
Editor, 'Army Graphic'"
"_October 7, 1907._"
Socialism is carrying on a vigorous propaganda for destroying
discipline in the army and also in the navy. Herveism has been
imported into Great Britain, and is making rapid progress. "The
Socialist," the organ of the Socialist Labour party, a party which at
present is small in number, but which is most violent in attitude, in
an article entitled "The Socialist Labour Party and the Citizen Army,"
quotes with approval Herve's saying: "The present countries are cruel
step-mothers to the proletariat. There is at present no country so
superior to any other that its working class should get themselves
killed in its defence. In case of mobilisation the proletariat should
respond to the call to arms by an insurrection against their rulers to
establish the Socialist or Communist _regime_. Rebellion sooner than
war! In case of an order to mobilise, we would seize the moment to
attempt the revolution, to place our hands on the social wealth to-day
usurped by a minority." The foregoing is printed in very large type.
The article then continues, commenting upon Herve's advice as follows:
"The soldier has been fed and clothed by the working class. His
continued efficiency as a military automaton depends upon regular
supply of food, clothing, and the necessaries of life from the same
source. He has been transported to the field of conflict by the labour
of a whole army of railwaymen. Let us suppose that the day of the
final struggle has been reached. Suppose the capitalist attempts to
stifle the revolution in blood; suppose he calls upon the army to
crush the revolutionary working class by brute force. Let us suppose,
too, that the revolutionary agitation has not penetrated the Chinese
walls of military discipline (a most improbable hypothesis) and that
the soldiers, instead of turning their guns against the capitalist
murderers, cheerfully and willingly serve their masters in the attempt
to crush the people--what then? We shall put the army in quarantine.
We shall isolate it from the rest of the community. We shall cut off
supplies of food, clothing, and fuel. The railway and telegraph
service will no longer be at its disposal--and in this respect we are
in a more advantageous position than our French and German
fellow-workers, inasmuch as the Government ownership of the railways
in these countries is used to deny the workers connected with them the
right of organisation. The army would be in a state of siege,
surrounded on all sides by implacable foes. That, coupled with
whatever may be possible and necessary in the way of armed
insurrection within and outside of the army, is the policy proposed by
the Socialist Labour party and Industrial Unionism. Circumstances may,
and probably will, modify it in many important details, but there is
the main outline. Is it not more logical, more coherent, more likely
to succeed than any 'citizen army scheme'?"[554]
Love of country has apparently no room in the Socialist's ethics. Its
defence does not trouble him, since he is taught that his worst
enemies are those Englishmen who happen to be better off.
Waste not your ready blows,
Strike not at foreign foes,
Your bitterest enemies tread your own soil;
The preachers who blind ye,
The landlords who grind ye,
The gluttons who revel whilst ye are at toil.
Rise in your might, brothers, bear it no longer,
Assemble in masses throughout the whole land;
Teach the vile bloodsuckers who are the stronger
When workers and robbers confronted shall stand.
Through Castle, Court, and Hall,
Over their acres all,
Onward we'll press like the waves of the sea.
Seizing the wealth we've made.
Ending the spoilers' trade;
Till Labour has triumphed, and England is free.[555]
In their desire to abolish the army, some Socialists argue that "The
whole of your military system is entirely unnecessary."[556] Others
falsify history and boldly assert that British wars, "in nearly every
case have been waged for the suppression of liberty abroad, or from
the irritating desire on the part of British statesmen to interfere
with the internal affairs of other nations."[557] On the other hand,
Mr. Quelch very sensibly argues: "Militarism is an evil against which
we have to fight with all the means in our power, but to talk of
universal disarmament at the present stage is mere Utopianism, a
crying of peace where there is no peace, and where existing
antagonisms make peace impossible. We have at first to eradicate the
causes of conflict. To-day the unarmed nation offers itself as a
temptation and a prey to some mighty brigand Power. War is the last
argument of kings, and all Governments rest on force. So long as that
is the case, it is only the people which is armed that can maintain
its freedom, or can indeed lay claim to be a free people. An unarmed
nation cannot be free. An armed nation, on the contrary, is a
guarantee of individual liberty, of social freedom, and of national
independence."[558] Mr. Quelch would have the same ideals as the
National Service League, did not later utterances of his contradict
sensible statements such as the above.
It is a curious and most interesting phenomenon that in France and
Great Britain, two eminently non-aggressive countries, the Socialists
do all in their power to disarm the nation, whilst in Germany, which
can hardly be described as non-aggressive, the Socialists are
patriotic and are ready to go to war, not only for the defence but
also for the aggrandisement of their country. Numerous declarations to
that effect made by the leading German Socialists are on record, and
the following extract is characteristic of their attitude:
"That Germany be armed to the teeth, possessing a strong fleet, is of
the utmost importance to the working men. What damages our exports
damages them also, and working men have the most pressing interest in
securing prosperity for our export trade, be it even by force of arms.
Owing to her development, Germany may perhaps be obliged to maintain
her position sword in hand. Only he who is under the protection of his
guns can dominate the markets, and in the fight for markets German
working men may come before the alternative either of perishing or of
forcing their entrance into markets sword in hand."[559]
In the spring of 1907 the leading German Socialist paper wrote in a
weighty article on the Peace Conference at The Hague: "The conception
that war is only a product of human unreason is on the same level as
the idea that revolutions are only mental aberrations of the masses.
War is rooted in the opposing interests of the nations, as are
revolutions in the opposing interests of the classes."[560]
A comparison of German Socialism with English Socialism shows that
English Socialism is more violent and far less patriotic than German
Socialism. German Socialists love their country. Most British
Socialists apparently love only themselves.
FOOTNOTES:
[529] See p. 107.
[530] H.W. Lee in the _Social-Democrat_, June 1, 1907.
[531] Thomas Kennedy in _Forward_ of May 25, 1907, reprinted in the
_Social-Democrat_, June 1907.
[532] Quelch in the _Social-Democrat_ for October 1907.
[533] Kautsky, _Social Revolution_, p. 4.
[534] _Report on Fabian Policy and Resolutions_, p. 11.
[535] See Appendix.
[536] _Social-Democrat_, October 1907, p. 588.
[537] Shaw, _The Impossibilities of Anarchism_, p. 25.
[538] _Social-Democrat_, June 1907.
[539] Shaw, _The Impossibilities of Anarchism_, p. 25.
[540] _Social-Democrat_, October 1907, p. 586.
[541] _Social-Democrat_, April 1907, p. 204.
[542] See p. 170.
[543] _Social-Democrat_, October 1907, p. 586.
[544] _Social-Democrat_, October 1907, p. 589.
[545] _Ibid._
[546] See _The Nation in Arms_, October 1907, and _Journal de
Neuchatel_, September 22, 1907.
[547] _Independent Labour Party Report_, 1907, p. 64.
[548] _Ibid._ pp. 64, 65.
[549] _Social-Democrat_, November 1907, p. 516.
[550] _An Appeal to Soldiers._
[551] See Appendix.
[552] H.W. Lee in _Social-Democrat_, June 1907.
[553] _An Appeal to Soldiers._
[554] _Socialist_, October 1907.
[555] _Social-Democratic Federation Song Book_, No. 30.
[556] Kirtlan, _Socialism for Christians_, p. 6.
[557] Smart, _Socialism and the Budget_, p. 6.
[558] Quelch, _Social Democracy and the Armed Nation_, p. 3 f.
[559] _Sozialistische Monatshefte_, December 1899.
[560] _Vorwaerts_, March 10, 1907.