Our
watchword must be: to arm the proletariat so that it may defeat,
expropriate, and disarm the bourgeoisie. This is the only possible
policy of the revolutionary class, a policy arising directly from
the _actual evolution_ of capitalistic militarism, in fact,
dictated by the evolution. Only after having disarmed the
bourgeoisie can the proletariat, without betraying its historic
mission, cast all weapons to the scrap-heap; and there is no doubt
that the proletariat will do this, but only then, and not by any
possibility before then.
How is it possible for our extreme pacifists, with their relentless
opposition to military force in all its forms to conscription, to universal
military service, to armaments of all kinds, even for defensive purposes,
and to voluntarily enlisted armies even, to embrace Bolshevism with
enthusiasm, resting as it does upon the basis of the philosophy so frankly
stated by Lenine, is a question for which no answer seems wholly adequate.
Of course, what Lenine advocates is class armament within the nation, for
civil war--the war of the classes. But he is not opposed to national
armaments, as such, nor willing to support disarmament as a national policy
_until the time comes when an entirely socialized humanity finds itself
freed from the necessity of arming against anybody_.
Pages:
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473