During the last war, representatives of the Liberal, Labour and Tory parties held office in a coalition and assumed the responsibility for making the machinery of warfare as efficient as possible. They now have quite sufficient contempt for the memories and intelligence of their supporters to ask them to trust them to see that there is no more war. The emptiness of their claims and promises is enhanced by recent developments in the art of warfare.
Modern states exist because of the conflict of interests in modern society. This conflict is due to the capitalist ownership of the economic resources of society. The international capitalist class is divided into competing groups endeavouring to secure control of the raw materials, trade routes and markets of the world. The most powerful of these groups use the machinery of the various states as weapons in the struggle.
The solution of the conflict lies not with an ‘amorphous’ people but with a working class organised to emancipate itself, internationally. In the place of capitalism, with its economic chaos and political strife, it will establish a social order based upon the common ownership of the means of life and their democratic control in the interests of a classless community.
(From an article, ‘The meaning of disarmament’ by E. Boden, Socialist Standard, July 1929.)
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