Letter: Pacifism (1976)

Letter to the Editors from the June 1976 issue of the Socialist Standard

By chance I have come across some of your leaflets and being a pacifist and member of the Peace Pledge Union, I am most impressed by your condemnation of violent revolutionary tactics. Among the left-wing parties very few would refrain from using violence to achieve their ends but these tactics lead to further misery, as in Angola.

It was aptly shown in the case of the Russian Revolution that if a revolution is to succeed it must not use the tactics of the very system they deplore in order to achieve their cause. War cannot be defeated by war. The “war to end war” of 60 years ago and the Russian Revolution show that violence does not change the system, it only replaces the administrators of it.

May we show that all people can co-operate to meet each other’s needs rather than withholding them to all who are not strong enough to forcefully take them?

Stephen Holland,

Newcastle-on-Tyne

Reply:

Our condemnation of violence, as a proposed means to change society, is that it implies an attempt to gain political power by a minority. A majority understanding and wanting Socialism has at its disposal the only method which can end class ownership and establish common ownership—the non-violent, democratic conquest of the powers of government. If a minority takes power forcibly, it cannot establish Socialism because there is no majority desire for it to do so; the minority will not only rule, but must retain the use of force to support its rule.

We are glad you perceive this. However, we must state our disagreements with pacifism. Socialists are not pacifists, i.e. we do not hold that violence must be rejected on ethical grounds which precede all other considerations. Our standpoint that it cannot be used for the establishment of Socialism is an ends-and-means one deriving from our analysis of capitalism, the state, and the position of the working class. The common position of pacifists is opposing war and violence, yet supporting pro-capitalist parties (in particular the Labour Party) that stand for the system which produces war and violence. You appear to be thinking on the right lines; if you go on doing so, your next step is out of the pacifist movement and into the Socialist one.

Editorial Committee.