[Peace-discuss] News from Neptune #424 notes

Sat Jun 15 15:04:04 UTC 2019

Below is the relevant passage in full from Ernest Mandel's book as
discussed on the program (1500 words):

But if the meaning of the Second World War, like that of its predecessor,
can be grasped only in the context of the imperialist drive for world
domination, its significance lies in the fact that it was the ultimate test
of the relative strength of the competing imperialist states. Its outcome
determined the particular pattern of the world accumulation of capital for
a whole period. In the world organised by capital based on nation-states,
war is the mechanism for the final resolution of differences. For although
military power is not the only kind of pressure which a capitalist state
can bring to bear upon its rivals, nevertheless it is the highest form of
power: the potential or actual use of armed might to impose its will is the
decisive proof of an imperialist state’s superiority. Therefore, what we
are dealing with here is the capacity of each of the belligerents to use
military force in a sustained way and more successfully than its opponents,
which in turn depends on the ability of each state to mobilize all
necessary resources, human as well as material, for victory. Consequently,
wars on this scale are the supreme test of the solidity of the social order
and its economic health, as they are of the political stamina of the ruling
classes and their leaderships.

So far as the latter are concerned, the central issue is the ability of the
bourgeoisie to reign in its own back yard, above all over its native
working class. In the final analysis, imperialist expansion expresses an
insatiable thirst for surplus value, its production and realization - the
snowball dynamic of capital accumulation. But qualitatively increased
surplus-value production is possible only through a specific relationship
with wage labour, a subordination of the working class to capital. Hence a
strategic integration of the working class in the metropolitan centres is a
necessary component of the imperialist countries’ ability to pursue the
struggle for world dominance. The world that emerged from the 1914-1918 war
was at least partially shaped by the unprecedented rise in working class
self-organization and self-confidence, especially in Europe but also in the
USA, during the quarter century that preceded it. The attitude of the
working class to imperialist wars was therefore of importance not only to
the ruling classes, but also to the future of the working class itself. The
historic debate which took place among the parties of the Second
International between 1907 and 1917 - a debate which started before the war
(though at a time when the warring alliances were already in place) and
continued right through it - linked the question of the forthcoming war to
a wider discussion on whether the workers’ organizations should be
instruments of reform of the bourgeois order or its grave-diggers. When the
war started, and after initial nationalist euphoria had evaporated amidst
hunger, death and destruction, the social truce broke under its impact
right across the continent.

Mutinies in the French, German, Austrian and Russian armies; hunger marches
and strikes in factories; the overthrow of Tsarism in Russia; the
dissolution of Austria-Hungary; the overthrow of the Ottoman sultanate; the
abdication of the German Kaiser; the advent of revolution in the cities of
Central, East and Southeastern Europe; and finally the success of the
Bolshevik-led revolution in Russia - these represent the many varied
attempts by the exploited populations of this part of Europe and Asia to
find alternative solutions to captalism’s intensifying structural crisis
and to the war-prone anarchy of the international order established by the
bourgeoisie. The abdication of the Second International majority before the
raison d’etat of the national ruling classes in 1914 found its response in
the organization of the minority into a Third International and in the
formation of Communist parties throughout the world to challenge the
discredited social-democratic formations.

Labour’s resistance to the hegemonic drive of the bourgeoisie, and the
young Soviet republic, which survived despite the concentrated efforts of
the imperialist powers to destroy it, constituted formidable obstacles to
the pursuit of imperialist designs, especially for European capital. Both
had to be, if not eliminated, then at least neutralized before any
imperialist power could seriously contemplate starting another
international war. The history of the preparation and unleashing of WWII
is, therefore, not just the history of an increasingly explosive
differentiation of sectional (national) interests of the world bourgeoisie,
but also of its sustained and more or less successful efforts to remove
these obstacles. In other words, it is also a history of
counter-revolution. By 1939 the record of this counter-revolutionary
consolidation was promising but uneven. The fate and evolution of the
Soviet Union was particularly crucial. The revolutionary upheavals
following WWI had been strong enough to prevent the restoration of
capitalism in erstwhile Imperial Russia. But the fact that they produced no
new victories gravely weakened the Soviet working class: the Soviet
republic had survived, but in a greatly distorted form. This in turn
contributed to the impotence of the European working class in the inter-war
period. A downturn of revolution gave the green light for a new onslaught
against the labour movement as soon as the crisis demanded this. The
stepping-stones towards World War Two were Chiang Kai-Shek’s massacre of
Communist and other labour militants in Shanghai in 1927; the rise of
fascism in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s; the defeat of the
Spanish republic; the collapse of the Popular Front in France. The failure
of the British General Strike and the stranglehold imposed by the CIO
bureaucracy upon the rising militancy of the American working class
likewise played far from marginal roles in preparing the new conflict.

The assertion here that the real stake of WWII was the establishment of the
world hegemony of one imperialist power, and that the war was also the
culmination of a process of counter-revolution, should not, of course, be
taken to refer solely to the particularly abhorrent role played by Hitler
and German Nazism in bringing about a new world war. On the contrary, it
represents a general judgement upon imperialism, as a specific form of
capitalism generated by the fundamental contradiction between the
internationalization and socialization of the productive process, on the
one hand, and its continued organization by private and national interests,
on the other. Those revolutionary Marxists, beginning with Trotsky, who
clearly understood this and said so repeatedly from the early 1930s on,
showed more foresight than those who waited for the Cold War and the Korean
conflict to rediscover the structurally barbaric nature of imperialism as a
system, not limited to any particular political form of the bourgeois state
or any particular national ruling class.

In addition, because ever since the mid-nineteenth century wars between
great powers have led to revolution or at least drastic reform on the
losing side, the ruling class of the imperialist states, individually and
collectively, of necessity also learned to manage counterrevolution. Here
the historic turning-point was 1914. The abdication of large parts of the
labour movement’s leading strata, and of key sectors of the liberal
intelligentsia, in the face of colonialism , imperialism and war signified
an acceptance of violence, mass slaughter, nationalism and racism, as well
as the restriction of civil and working-class rights (i.e. an acceptance of
the impermanence of the civilizational gains of many generations) for
reasons of Realpolitik dictated by national bourgeoisies.

Those who refused to pay any possible price for overthrowing the bourgeois
order in 1918-23 and then again in 1932-37, and accepted the very real and
horrible price of imperialism and war, bear the historic responsibility for
allowing a second attempt at an imperialist solution to the world crisis of
capitalism - this time, at a price far greater in human life and suffering
than that paid in 1914-18. Nobody who soberly examines the history of
1918-45 can seriously question the conclusion that Nazism and World War Two
were the price which humanity paid for what even Leon Blum called the
refusal, or failure, of German Social Democracy to overthrow the bourgeois
order in November-December 1918. Stalin and his followers share this
responsibility, because of the contribution of their policy to the
establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany, the defeat of the Spanish
revolution and the strengthening of bourgeois rule in France.

T h e 1914 war opened with a shot fired by a Bosnian youth at a future
Emperor of Austria, seen as personifying national oppression and social
injustice. It closed with an unsuccessful intervention by Western liberal
states on the side of counterrevolution The Meaning of the Second World War
in the civil war in Russia. This was no mere accident: the two events
symbolized the close relationship between imperialist wars and wars of
national liberation and revolution. The issue of national
self-determination was forced onto the agenda at Versailles by
revolutionary Russia; unlike Wilson and Clemenceau, who limited this right
to the peoples of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the Soviet Union under
Lenin extended its support to the emergent national liberation movements in
colonial and semicolonial countries (it should be recalled that the
Amritsar massacre and the emergence of the May 4 Movement in China occurred
during the peace deliberations at Versailles). As the centre of world
politics shifted away from Europe, the anti-colonial struggles in turn
became crucial allies of the proletariat in the advanced capitalist
countries.

On Fri, Jun 14, 2019 at 6:46 PM J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> News from Neptune #424
> A "Deep Fake" edition
> Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knELJ8LSl94
>
> A list of links to items referenced on the show.
>
> Craig Murray on "The Gulf of Credibility"
> https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/06/the-gulf-of-credibility/
>
> "Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization" by
> Nicholson Baker
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Smoke
> ISBN: 9781416572466
>
> "The Meaning of the Second World War" by Ernest Mandel
> ISBN-13: 978-1844674794
> ISBN-10: 1844674797
> Complete book:
>
> https://kok.memoryoftheworld.org/Ernest%20Mandel/The%20Meaning%20of%20the%20Second%20World%20War%20(25)/The%20Meaning%20of%20the%20Second%20World%20War%20-%20Ernest%20Mandel.pdf
>
> David Brooks on "Voters, Your Foreign Policy Views Stink!: Rogue nations
> thrive when the good lose all conviction."
> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/opinion/foreign-policy-populism.html
>
> "The Jungle Grows Back" by Robert Kagan
> ISBN-10: 0525521658
> ISBN-13: 978-0525521655
>
> “Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power,
> while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
> ― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Peloponnesian_War
> Complete work: http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html
>
> Jeffrey St. Clair on "Roaming Charges: In the Land of 10,000 Talkers, All
> With Broken Tongues"
>
> https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/14/roaming-charges-in-the-land-of-10000-talkers-all-with-broken-tongues/
>
> Julian Assange extradition hearing now scheduled to occur in February 2020
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jun/14/julian-assange-to-face-us-extradition-hearing-in-uk-next-year
>
> https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/14/18678222/julian-assange-extradition-us-uk-extradition-hearing-2020
>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/julian-assange-to-face-a-full-extradition-hearing-in-2020/2019/06/14/a91e7ed0-8e97-11e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/world/europe/assange-extradition-court-appearance.html
> https://www.cnet.com/news/julian-assange-extradition-hearing-set-for-2020/
>
> https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/14/uk-court-sets-assanges-us-extradition-hearing-for-february-2020.html
>
> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/uk-court-sets-assange-extradition-hearing-february-2020-190614103926196.html
>
> https://www.foxnews.com/world/british-court-2020-date-julian-assange-extradition
>
> News-Gazette opinions (including Letters to the Editor)
> http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion
>
>
>
> Aaron Maté on Russiagate
> https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1124136736563638272
>
> Caitlin Johnstone's articles on Medium.com
> https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone
>
> Craig Murray on "The Real Muellergate Scandal"
>
> https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/05/the-real-muellergate-scandal/
>
> Related:
> "Empire Files" Abby Martin interview with Bill Binney --
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjHs-E2e2V4
>
>
>
> Lula's interview with The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald
> Transcript:
>
> https://theintercept.com/2019/05/22/lula-brazil-ex-president-prison-interview/
> Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93MgeyNqc_k
>
> Brazil’s Top Prosecutors Who Indicted Lula Schemed in Secret Messages to
> Prevent His Party From Winning 2018 Election
>
> https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-car-wash-prosecutors-workers-party-lula/
>
> Leaked Chats Between Brazilian Judge and Prosecutor Who Imprisoned Lula
> Reveal Prohibited Collaboration and Doubts Over Evidence
>
> https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-lula-operation-car-wash-sergio-moro/
>
> Related:
> How and Why The Intercept is Reporting on a Vast Trove of Materials About
> Brazil's "Operation Car Wash" and Justice Minister Sergio Moro
> https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-archive-operation-car-wash/
>
> -J
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>
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