That sober journal, the Economist is alarmed about the future of the British Empire. Germany will seize Czechoslovakia, make herself mistress of Eastern Europe, then seize the British Colonies, and bust up the Empire. It can only be stopped by taking a firm stand immediately.
. . . the fate of the British Empire depends on the European balance of power. It is in Czechoslovakia that the destinies of the Empire are going to be decided. The Government should promptly declare that the new British armaments, as well as all our other resources, will be used to resist aggression in any part of Europe.—(Economist, March 6th, 1937.)
So the survivors of the last war, together with their sons, having once saved the slums of Britain and the Imperial connection on the fields of Flanders, are to do it again in the mountains of Bohemia. But why? Will the Balance of Power fill an empty belly or stop a hole in the roof of a working-class house? By no means! Even the Economist will agree there. But that, they will say, is only a means to an end. The Empire itself is at stake! But before we decide to meet again in Prague, let us examine this Empire business a little more closely.
What is the Use of the Empire?
When the patriots are pressed for a plain statement about the use of the Empire to the mass of its population they become very vague and unsatisfactory. Some say that it provides work and wages. The standing army of unemployed is a sufficient answer to that. As the Empire has grown larger, decade by decade, there has never been a time—except during the Empire’s wars—when there were no unemployed. The last expansion of the Empire, in 1914-1918, left the permanent unemployed more numerous than ever before.
“The Empire provides food for Britain’s workers.” The undernourished millions know this not to be true. And the Scandinavian countries, without any Empire, can show rather less unemployment and a better fed, clothed and housed population than can Imperial Britain.
“The Empire provides security and keeps the peace of the world.” The last Great War and the pervading fear of the next great war answer that stupidity.
“The Empire provides a lucrative field for investment." Now we are getting somewhere, for this is true. But who owns those invested thousands of millions ? The workers ? Not at all; their masters own them. And under that smooth-sounding word “investment” are the harsh facts of a century-old pouring-out of the capitalist-owned products of British industry for use in Empire and foreign countries. Only in the muddled heads of the professional economists does that process benefit the British workers. Nor, indeed, does it help the workers in the countries to which this wealth goes, for it remains the property of the capitalist class, wherever it may be.
What, then, is the use of the Empire? As far as the workers are concerned it isn’t worth a war. Nor is the threatened absorption of Czecho-Slovakia into Germany. Life for the workers there will not be materially different.
Perhaps the best answer to the imperialists was recently found in the patter of two knockabout comedians of capitalism, the City Editor of the Daily Express and the High Commissioner for Australia, Mr. S. M. Bruce.
The former said (quite truly as far as it goes) that British trade policy had made enemies abroad, and we needed bigger armaments to deal with the situation thus created; while the latter said that if we had not got our great imperial and foreign export trade we would not have been able to afford the £1,500-million for the bigger armaments! (Times, February 25th, 1937.) So the armaments are good because they safeguard the trade, which is good because it pays for the armaments, which are good . . . and so on.
Another Proposition
The Economist can only see two choices before us: Readiness for war to “save” Czecho-Slovakia —how the population must hope to be saved from their saviours—or the end of the Empire. Let us offer a third. The British ruling class do not care two hoots about the Empire any more than they care about Britain. What they are concerned about is their property and their profits, something as sweet as life itself—anyway, as sweet as the lives of the millions of workers they will sacrifice to safeguard their property. But should the ruling class feel that patriotic notions have become a hindrance to their interests, then we shall see them in their true colours. Then, like the Spanish grandees, they will flood their country with foreign mercenaries, pack their armies with criminals released from jail, fling black against white, Mohammedans against Christians, Protestant against Catholic. They will order the slaughter of their own fellow-countrymen without limit, like the French ruling class in 1871.
The same ruling class which will lavish lives and money like water in order to protect its trade and investments, the source of its privilege, will, if faced by a powerful demand by the working class for restitution, rush into the arms of its erstwhile enemies, the foreign ruling class groups, seeking their help to hold down the insurgent workers. The international war will be called off. The international brigands will fix up a new and “permanent” division of the loot—permanent, that is to say, for a few years, like all capitalist peace treaties. The capitalists of all nations will have won another battle in the greater war, the war of the idlers against the wealth-producers.
How can the world be made safe against war? Only by making it safe against capitalism. And until the coming of that event shall open up a new era for the human race it is the duty and the interest of the working class in all countries to have nothing to do with Imperialisms and Jingoisms. The task before us is to add to the size and strength of the forces of Socialism, and use them to exert ever-greater pressure on the capitalist class at home.
Edgar Hardcastle
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