Source: The Militant, Vol. V No. 34, 23 August 1941, pp. 1 & 6.
(William F. Warde was a pseudonym of George Novack.)
Transcription/Editing/HTML Markup: 2016 by Einde O’Callaghan.
Public Domain: George Novack Internet Archive 2016. This work is completely free. In any reproduction, we ask that you cite this Internet address and the publishing information above.
Roosevelt and Churchill’s conference was the first Supreme War Council of Anglo-American imperialism. Who is deceived by the ridiculous attempt to pass off their meeting as a “Peace Conference”? The presence of the Commanders-in-Chief and military staff heads, Generals and Admirals of both powers, as well as the secrecy enveloping the conference, its deliberations and decisions, unmistakably establish its war-like character.
The declaration of so-called “Peace Terms” emanating from the Two-Power conferees was designed, like the smoke screen around a battlefleet, to hide the plans and maneuvers of’ their fighting forces from the enemy. Not even friendly observers take these hollow and pretentious phrases seriously. What hypocrisy and impudence for the rulers of the British Empire to proclaim “the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they shall live,” while refusing 350,000,000 inhabitants of India the least democratic rights! Nor will Roosevelt, who failed to abolish “fear and want” in the U.S. during nine years of peace, eliminate “fear and want” from the world by as many years of war.
The Roosevelt-Churchill declaration lays down the basis for a second edition of the infamous Treaty of Versailles. After the last war the Allied victors “disarmed the aggressors” by stripping defeated Germany and pointing their arms against the Soviet Union, the colonial peoples and their own workers. They “furthered access to raw materials” by parcelling out Germany’s colonies amongst themselves, and, setting up a League of Nations to police their possessions, and safeguard their robbers’ spoils. Everyone knows how little peace, prosperity, and security this kind of imperialist settlement gave to the world. Roosevelt and Churchill’s contemplated repetition of this course contains far more dreadful consequences for humanity.
The drum-majors of the war party want us to believe that such a declaration will undermine Hitler. This is a great illusion. The declaration helps strengthen Hitler for it confirms the fear of the German people that Anglo-American imperialism is bent upon restoring the bondage of Versailles. The imperialist postwar policy of revenge and robbery against the German nation which helped produce fascism, now serves to keep that reactionary regime intact. The German masses must see another alternative to Versailles before they will organize their revolt against Hitlerism.
The main business of the conference, however, was devoted not to “peace aims,” but to an extensive discussion of “war aims.” The heads of Anglo-American imperialism mapped put their plans and grand strategy for meeting the military, menace of the Nazi war-machine and its-allies, Japan; France, Italy. Precisely what policies were decided upon, what far-reaching agreements and commitments were concluded, only the warlords present know. The Administration’s actions and the unfolding events of the coming months will disclose them to the world.
If the ways and means remain still obscure, the end in view is clear. The Anglo-American imperialists have joined forces to crush their chief capitalist competitors in Europe and Asia, and set forth to employ the armed might, resources and energies of their dominions to conquer the world for their enrichment.
Commentators’ ironically remarked that Roosevelt had published his peace-terms before the U.S. had, officially entered the war. The “democratic” Roosevelt and the “totalitarian” Hitler alike make war without consulting the people. Although Roosevelt’s 8-point program imitated Wilson’s, he began by violating the first of Wilson’s 14 points – against secret diplomacy. No “open covenants, openly arrived at” for Roosevelt.
At every stage in his drive toward war, he is obliged to conceal his real aims, to camouflage his belligerent actions as steps toward peace, to lie and to deceive.
Roosevelt orders the arrest of the leaders of our party on the charge of “seditious conspiracy! His own unauthorized War Council constitutes a gigantic conspiracy to drag the people of the U.S. into the imperialist dog-fight against their expressed will and interests. The war-mongering conspirators headed by Roosevelt are afraid to let Congress and the people know what they are doing; they will never let the people vote on the question of entering the war. These “democrats” have no use or respect for open, honest, democratic methods. They treat the American people as an alien and hostile force which must be duped and dragooned into support of their war.
Out of the conference came a promise of “maximum aid” to the Soviet Union. A forthcoming conference in Moscow will supplement the Roosevelt-Churchill parley and presumably implement this promise. This pledge of material support has been given, not because of any concern for the defense of the Soviet Union, but because the immediate interests of Anglo-American militarism demand that a certain measure of support be given to the Red Army’s battle against Hitler’s onslaught.
But this conditional support has strict limits. It cannot be permitted to overstep the bounds of the interests of the Anglo-American imperialists or run counter to their need for preserving capitalist rule. These considerations permit them to offer aid to delay and tie up Hitler’s army but forbid sending enough assistance to enable the Red Army to annihilate Hitler’s legions, with all the revolutionary implications that must follow. Roosevelt and Churchill’s friendship for the USSR is a temporary tie forced upon them by uncontrollable circumstances; it does not remove, but merely overlays, their deep-seated hostility to its existence.
Other, more sinister, questions concerning the Soviet Union than the immediate matter of material aid were very likely discussed by Roosevelt and Churchill. How to exact concessions from Stalin; how to keep the workers’ state isolated and weak enough to maintain its dependence upon the imperialists; what to do about enslaving the Soviet people; in general how to eliminate the independence of the first workers’ state and the list conquests of the October revolution, without injuring their own interests.
Roosevelt and Churchill’s discussions of these problems was one reason why no Soviet representative was present at their conference. The people of the U.S. and USSR know only so much as these imperialist chieftains feel it expedient to disclose at the moment. Their real intentions, their long-range plans and perspectives are veiled in secrecy and silence, but, we may be sure, if Roosevelt and Churchill discussed ways and means of aiding Stalin today, they also exchanged views on how to harm the Soviet Union tomorrow.
The opposing imperialist camps employ different tactics toward the Soviet government at different times but both work persistently toward the same end. The capitalists want to cripple and destroy the first workers’ state in order to invigorate their common system of exploitation. Hitler is striving to annihilate the Soviet Union by direct armed assault. Roosevelt and Churchill, while utilizing the Red Army’s resistance for their own purposes, also look forward to the end of the USSR. For the moment they must proceed cautiously along this line, under cover of an alliance with Stalin, by exacting concessions as a price for their collaboration.
The reversal in their respective attitudes toward the Soviet Union since the outbreak of the war demonstrates how purely tactical and temporary are the differences between the policies of the contending imperialist blocs. A year ago Roosevelt and Churchill occupied the same directly menacing position toward the Soviet Union as Hitler does today. Roosevelt was condemning the Soviet Union as “an enemy of civilization” and endorsing all-out aid to Finland; Churchill was preparing to dispatch expeditionary forces to help Baron Mannerheim repel the Red Army. Hitler was then exchanging mutual aid and assurances with his ally Stalin; Ribbentrop was going to Moscow, as Harry Hopkins recently did.
Now everybody in this dance of death has changed places and partners. But although the alignment of forces shifts, the aim of the imperialists on both sides remains the same. Allied or opposed to the Soviet Union, the imperialists care nothing whatsoever about defending it. They defend only their profits, privilege and power.
That is why the workers must be warned against these false friends and perfidious allies, and taught to place no confidence whatsoever in their promises or pledges as a means of defending the Soviet Union.
Last updated on: 25 March 2019