Once again the workers of this unhappy planet are hearing the call to arms. From the pages of the national press the sensational headlines are once more screaming war news straight from the battle fronts. The heavy, serious tone of the B.B.C. announcers adds to the urgency of the situation. A crisis is upon us, we are told, of far greater gravity than the 1938 Munich turn-out and every able-bodied man and woman is required to defend the home of freedom, democracy, the British way of life, our homes, children and the host of other valuable treasures that we of the working class hold dear to our hearts. Let us kill, maim and destroy the heinous swine who threaten our very existence. Into battle, let right (which is always our virtue) prevail, and with God’s help (His help is always available to us) we shall smash home to another glorious and bloody victory. So the hysterical clap trap is ceaselessly poured out, gradually preparing workers to kill and be killed.
Up to present our masters are a little ashamed of us. There appears to be a certain reluctance on the part of the masses to throw themselves wholeheartedly into the general struggle for survival. The necessity to expend more blood, tears and sweat in the cause of freedom, etc., does not seem to have registered fully. There is too much interest being shown in the results on the back page of the newspapers and too little being shown in the struggle against aggression as reported on the front page. Truly here is good reason for concern and at least one of our national newspapers has set out to remedy this little defect. “Are you prepared to spend just one hour a day wrestling with the great problems that confront us?” asks the Daily Express. Are you, the man in the street, prepared to grapple with and try to understand the significance of events occurring thousands of miles away. Anyway for the price of one penny a team of “ experts ” are at your disposal to guide and instruct you in the sometimes unintelligible ways of this funny old world. Maps of the battle front with the familiar little arrows representing the attacks and counter-attacks of the opposing armies, are once again printed for our attention and perusal. As these little black arrows move to and fro, people all over the world learn with horror and grief that some loved one will never again return. But economic interests are paramount to human life and suffering and it is the earnest hope of our masters that the mass destruction of their enemies will in the near future take precedence over the fortunes of “ One Eyed Jack ” in the 2.30.
Nevertheless the supporters of British capitalism sometimes lament woefully on the apathy of people towards a nice juicy war. Civil defence was the theme discussed recently in the House of Commons. Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd opened the debate and in the course of his speech, urging greater support from the “Smith’s and Jones’s ” for civil defence, he was reported to have made the following observations (Daily Graphic 25.7.50).
“The Government must have the responsibility for making plans, but it needs the co-operation of the population.“The greatest difficulties were general revulsion against the whole idea of war and the psychological impact of atomic warfare on public opinion.”
He went on to add that the Home Secretary could assure us that an atomic bomb would not, as the “egregious Dean of Canterbury” had claimed, melt stones and rocks 60 miles from the explosion.
Certainly this terrible idea that war and all it implies is revolting and undesirable, is something that no sane individual will understand. Why, now that we have the personal assurance of our eminent Home Secretary that stones and rocks will not melt at 60 miles distance from an atomic explosion, the whole idea becomes almost attractive. To those people who might enquire as to what might happen to a human being residing 60 miles from an explosion, we can only say that such questions are far out of the scope of this humble organ and that no doubt the team of “experts” employed by such organs as the Daily Express will be able to put your mind at rest.
All over the Capitalist world, in Britain, America, Russia, etc., the working class is being cajoled, urged and panicked into taking up arms on behalf of their respective masters. The economic trade war that is a constant aspect of capitalist society is once more, as in the past, threatening to develop into another bout of blood-letting. All the “peace pledges” and petitions that pacifists and such like are touting about can be of no avail and will go the same way as their predecessors. Knowledge is the only weapon that can destroy for ever the economic conditions that give rise to war. One day the working class of this world will possess this knowledge and then only will capitalism disappear forever, taking with it all the evils of Poverty, unemployment and war that fester on the back of humanity at present. The atom bomb and all modern means of destruction will then take their rightful place alongside the spears and bows and arrows in our museums.
G.L.
No comments:
Post a Comment