Below is an excerpt from a speech by a former presidential candidate
whom a current presidential candidate has claimed to admire. You sure
wouldn't know it by comparing them, would you?
https://themilitant.com/2019/07/20/debs-our-hearts-are-with-the-bolsheviki-in-russia/
Debs: ???Our hearts are with the Bolsheviki in Russia???
Vol. 83/No. 27
July 29, 2019
Eugene V. Debs speaks in Canton, Ohio, against imperialist war, June
1918, for which he was sentenced to prison. Inset, campaign button for
Debs 1920 Socialist Party campaign for president from prison. He got
almost a million votes, highest socialist vote in U.S. history.
Courtesy of Tamiment Institute Library, New York University
Eugene V. Debs speaks in Canton, Ohio, against imperialist war, June
1918, for which he was sentenced to prison. Inset, campaign button for
Debs 1920 Socialist Party campaign for president from prison. He got
almost a million votes, highest socialist vote in U.S. history.
The selection below is from Eugene V. Debs Speaks, one of Pathfinder???s
Books of the Month for July. Debs was a pioneer socialist agitator,
railroad union fighter and supporter of the Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia. He was jailed by the U.S. rulers for opposing their intervention
into the first imperialist world war. The excerpt is from his speech to
a rally in Canton, Ohio, in June 1918. He was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for this attack on imperialist war. Following a public outcry,
Debs was pardoned by President Warren G. Harding in 1921. Harding
insisted Debs visit him in the White House, where Harding told him, ???I
have heard so damned much about you.??? Copyright ?? 1970 by Pathfinder
Press. Reprinted by permission.
BY EUGENE V. DEBS
Yes, my comrades, my heart is attuned to yours. Aye, all our hearts now
throb as one great heart responsive to the battle cry of the social
revolution. Here, in this alert and inspiring assemblage [applause] our
hearts are with the Bolsheviki of Russia. [Deafening and prolonged
applause.]
Those heroic men and women, those unconquerable comrades have by their
incomparable valor and sacrifice added fresh luster to the fame of the
international movement. Those Russian comrades of ours have made greater
sacrifices, have suffered more, and have shed more heroic blood than any
like number of men and women anywhere on earth; they have laid the
foundation of the first real democracy that ever drew the breath of life
in this world. [Applause.] And the very first act of the triumphant
Russian revolution was to proclaim a state of peace with all mankind,
coupled with a fervent moral appeal, not to kings, not to emperors,
rulers or diplomats but to the people of all nations. [Applause.] Here
we have the very breath of democracy, the quintessence of the dawning
freedom. The Russian revolution proclaimed its glorious triumph in its
ringing and inspiring appeal to the peoples of all the earth. In a
humane and fraternal spirit new Russia, emancipated at last from the
curse of the centuries, called upon all nations engaged in the frightful
war, the Central Powers as well as the Allies, to send representatives
to a conference to lay down terms of peace that should be just and
lasting. Here was the supreme opportunity to strike the blow to make the
world safe for democracy. Was there any response to that noble appeal
that in some day to come will be written in letters of gold in the
history of the world? [Applause.] Was there any response whatever to
that appeal for universal peace? [From the crowd, ???No!???] No, not the
slightest attention was paid to it by the Christian nations engaged in
the terrible slaughter.
It has been charged that Lenin and Trotsky and the leaders of the
revolution were treacherous, that they made a traitorous peace with
Germany. Let us consider that proposition briefly. At the time of the
revolution Russia had been three years in the war. Under the Czar she
had lost more than four million of her ill-clad, poorly-equipped,
half-starved soldiers, slain outright or disabled on the field of
battle. She was absolutely bankrupt. Her soldiers were mainly without
arms. This was what was bequeathed to the revolution by the Czar and his
regime; and for this condition Lenin and Trotsky were not responsible,
nor the Bolsheviki. For this appalling state of affairs the Czar and his
rotten bureaucracy were solely responsible. When the Bolsheviki came
into power and went through the archives they found and exposed the
secret treaties ??? the treaties that were made between the Czar and the
French government, the British government and the Italian government,
proposing, after the victory was achieved, to dismember the German
Empire and destroy the Central Powers. These treaties have never been
denied nor repudiated. Very little has been said about them in the
American press. I have a copy of these treaties, showing that the
purpose of the Allies is exactly the purpose of the Central Powers, and
that is the conquest and spoliation of the weaker nations that has
always been the purpose of war.
Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. In the
Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers
may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to
increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war
upon one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than
the modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street go to war.
[Applause.] The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic
predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared all wars. And their
miserable serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant serfs had
been taught to revere their masters; to believe that when their masters
declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon
one another and to cut one another???s throats for the profit and glory of
the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war in a
nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject
class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to
gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to
gain and all to lose ??? especially their lives.
They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your
patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their
command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never
had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no
war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.
And here let me emphasize the fact ??? and it cannot be repeated too often
??? that the working class who fight all the battles, the working class
who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their
blood and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either
declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably
does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace.
???Yours not to reason why; Yours but to do and die.??? That is their motto
and we object on the part of the awakening workers of this nation.
If war is right let it be declared by the people. You who have your
lives to lose, you certainly above all others have the right to decide
the momentous issue of war or peace. [Applause.]
In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???SWP campaigns among coal miners, workers in Kentucky
??????Fight for amnesty for immigrants in the US!???
???New stage in bakery???s fight against Oberlin ???racism??? smear
???Amazon warehouse workers protest against speedup and harassment
???Victory over ban in Kansas prisons boosts ???Militant??? fight in Florida
???US, British rulers step up threats against Tehran - US hands off!
Feature Articles ???Divisions wrack Democrats as race-baiting charges fly
Also In This Issue ???SWP calls for workers control of production, safety
at PG&E
???Telecom bosses on trial for driving workers to suicide
???Socialist Workers Party champions desegregation fight
Editorials ???Ruling is gain for working class
On the Picket Line ???17,000 workers strike Walmart in Chile over wages,
job security
???London train cleaners join 48-hour work stoppage
???California grocery workers rally for wage raise, more work hours
Books of the Month ???Debs: ???Our hearts are with the Bolsheviki in Russia???
As I See It ???Walmart???s attendance policy shows need for a union
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
?? Copyright 2019 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxx
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Voltaire
??? Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
???
??? Voltaire,