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Another such war, and the hope of Socialism will be buried under the ruins of imperialistic barbarism. That is more than the ruthless destruction of Liége and of the Rheims Cathedral. That is a blow, not against capitalist civilization of the past, but against Socialist civilization of the future, a deadly blow against the force that carries the future of mankind in its womb, that alone can rescue the Precious treasures of the past over into a better state of society. Here capitalism reveals its death’s head. …
But here is proof also that the war is not only a grandiose murder, but the suicide of the European working class. The soldiers of socialism, the workers of England, of France, of Germany, of Italy, of Belgium are murdering each other at the bidding of capitalism, are thrusting cold, murderous irons into each others’ breasts, are tottering over their graves, grappling in each others’ death-bringing arms.
“Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,” “long live democracy,” “long live the czar and slavery,” “ten thousand tent cloths, guaranteed according to specifications,” “hundred thousand pounds of bacon,“ “coffee substitute, immediately delivery” … dividends are rising— proletarians falling; and with each one there sinks a fighter of the future, a soldier of the revolution, a savior of humanity from the yoke of capitalism, into the grave.
This madness will not stop, and this bloody nightmare of hell will not cease until the workers of Germany, of France, of Russia and of England will wake up out of their drunken sleep; will clasp each other’s hands in brotherhood and will drown the bestial chorus of war agitators and the hoarse cry of capitalist hyenas with the mighty cry of labor, “Proletarians of all countries, unite!”— The conclusion of the famous “Junius” pamphlet, written in 1915 by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and Franz Mehring against the “Socialist” supporters of the first imperialist war.
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Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
Last updated on 21 August, 2008