Among the most important and influential works on imperialism in the Marxist canon was written by Dutch revolutionary Herman Gorter at the beginning of the First World War. International Socialist Review had a long relationship with the Dutch left-wing and published these pertinent extracts at the behest of Anton Pannekoek. Gorter’s work should be known by all students of imperialism and of revolution.

‘Imperialism, The World War, and Social Democracy’ by Herman Gorter from International Socialist Review. Vol. 15 No. 11. May, 1915.

(The following pages are part of a book which is now being translated and edited, and which we hope to publish early in June. Of it Dr. Anton Pannekoek lately wrote us that a group of the revolutionary comrades in the various countries were preparing a book to point out the failure of the old International, and to show, by examining the causes of the war, that new revolutionary tactics are necessary. “Our ablest theorist, Herman Gorter,” he continues, “author of ‘Der Historische Socializmus, is writing it with our assistance.”)

I. Imperialism

THE International Workingmen’s Association, which Marx founded in 1864, and which disappeared in 1871 and came to life in 1889, now lies shattered. The first time that it might have been truly international, it fell to pieces. In the war between Germany and Austria on the one side, and the Triple Entente, England, France and Russia, with Servia and Belgium, on the other, the Labor parties of Germany, Austria, England, France and Belgium have sided with the bourgeoisie of their countries. Already the different Labor parties have addressed to each other the most violent reproaches, as if they were enemies. The International seems to have cast aside Socialist ideas.

This overthrow, this defeat of the social-democratic idea and organization, will be explained in the following’ pages. We shall try to show the real nature of the International up to the present time. From this will appear the cause of its defeat, the change it is undergoing, and the forms and methods of action it will have to adopt in order to succeed.

The enormous increase of capital, caused by the growth of productive forces in the nineteenth century, produced Imperialism,—the tendency of all powerful states to acquire new territory, especially in Asia and Africa.

Just as, economically, free competition has to give way to the monopoly of great corporations and trusts, so every powerful capitalist state tries to obtain the monopoly of land, property and the power to exploit in foreign dominions.

The first awakening of the New Imperialism, its first act, was the annexation of Egypt by England; then followed the war of Japan against China, in which Japan conquered Korea; that of the United States against Spain, in which the States took Porto Rico and the Philippines; that of England against the Boers; the expeditions of Europe against China; the war of Japan against Russia.

Meanwhile the world had been divided up; no free territory remained, not even in Africa. Then, one after another, crises broke out. The Powers tried ta get each other’s possessions. Three times the Moroccan crisis threatened to bring about a European war; the Balkan crisis twice. Then came the Italian-Turkish war about Tripoli, and the wars of Servia, Bulgaria and Greece against Turkey, over territory held by the Turks.

Through all this, the strain becomes more and more intense. The partition of Turkey excites the passions, greed and ambition of all. Germany wants Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, the Belgian and French Congo, the Dutch Indies, the Portuguese colonies, an unbroken territory in Africa from east to west, Morocco, and if possible, parts of the English colonies. France wants to keep the enormous territory it acquired during the last century, and if possible it wants to get more,—Syria, part of Asia Minor and the German provinces in Africa. Italy seeks expansion in Africa, if possible in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. England wants to keep what she has, and to make of Africa an English continent. She wants an unbroken territory from the Cape to Egypt, and across the Suez canal through Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia and Afghanistan to India.¹

Germany, France, England, Russia, Japan, the United States,—all have an eye on China. Holland wants to keep the Dutch Indies, Belgium the Congo, Portugal its African colonies. All these minor powers want to exploit and dominate their colonies more and more. Austria-Hungary wants the east coast of the Adriatic, Servia and part of Macedonia— as an entrance to the Aegean Sea. Russia wants the Balkans, Turkey, Asia Minor, Persia, Mongolia, and, perhaps, ports on the Atlantic.

All the powers seek increase of territory to promote the export of their goods and to insure the investment of their capital at great profit. Imperialism wants not only colonies, it also wants spheres of influence for commerce and industries, and financial monopoly. We must not infer from this, however, that Imperialism only seeks expansion in colonies far away, across the seas. Russia and Austria, seeking expansion in Europe, testify to the contrary.

If the acquisition of new colonies or dominion over the sea demand it, extension is sought in foreign countries of Europe, through new conquests. This is what Germany is now doing in the case of Belgium, and may do later in Holland and Denmark. It needs these countries, because of their location and their ports, for its expansion over the world, and its struggle against England.

All the larger states seek world power, dominion over the seas, and definite trade monopolies for their own citizens. In order to obtain all, or at least part, of these results, and to prevent others from doing the same, the great Powers have concluded mutual treaties, Germany with Austria, England with France and Russia. And in order to settle this contest, at least provisionally, in its first stage, this war has been begun. So the real cause, the originator of the war, is not one state alone, but every one that maintain an imperialistic policy,—Germany, England, France, Austria, Russia, Belgium, Japan,—every one and all together, they are the originators of the war.²

All the talk of either capitalistic or Social-Democratic officials and newspapers, about the war being a defensive one, in which they were forced to engage because attacked, is nothing but lies, intended to supply some noble motive for their joining in the war.

To blame Germany or Russia or England for the war, is as nonsensical and as mistaken as blaming the crack in the volcano for the eruption. All the states of Europe have been preparing for this contest for years. They all want to satisfy their greed; they are all equally guilty.

II. The World-War

Capitalism, therefore, is guilty of this first world-war,—the Capitalism of the world, seeking expansion. The growth of Capitalism is one continuous story of bloodshed and murder, murder of competitors, of laborers, of home and foreign populations. Countless are the pages of the history of modern Capitalism that are soaked with blood, ever since it began its course in the struggle of the Portuguese and Spaniards for the conquest and possession of India and America, and then found its continuation in the wars of Spain with Holland, of the Dutch against the English, of the English against the French. On an ever greater scale it went on, until England, through its victory over Napoleon, obtained dominion over the seas. Countless are the blood-soaked pages of the struggle on the various continents for capitalistic power.

But no page is more bloody than that which is being written now. The states that take part in this war extend over more than half the surface of the earth, and have a population of 900,000,000 inhabitants. The armies they can and will bring forward count tens of millions, and the dead, wounded and permanently disabled will become millions upon millions. The earth is being covered with corpses as never before. This is caused by Capitalism and the capitalistic classes alone,—each of them and all together, since all this is only perpetrated for the gain of capital. In this war all the capitalistic classes aim at the extension of Capitalism over the earth, in order to obtain, through all the peoples of the earth, whom they hope to transform into wage-laborers, new and greater capital. Emperors and Kings, boasting of the call of the Fatherland, and of God’s being witness to the justice of their cause and promising them victory,—these are but pitiful puppets in the hands of the all-powerful capitalist class, developing the resources of the whole world for its own profit. It is the profit of this class which marshals bankers, manufacturers, merchants, owners of transportation lines, and landlords in the national parliaments to vote for and promote war.

It is profit, the small, mean profit they make through submitting to big capital, which induces the middle classes, the peasant and farmer to side with capital, however fearfully and anxiously, in this war. It is profit, golden profit, which forces Science, Art and Religion to side with Capitalism and stain their hands with the blood of millions of human beings. It is profit, low material profit, which subdues all these classes to the most glaring hypocrisy imaginable, that of saying that their nation fights this war for just causes, that their motives are most elevated and true, such as the Freedom of the Nations, the promotion of Culture, Light, Civilization.

All this is lies and hypocrisy. The war may bring progress, but that is not the aim of those who wish for war; their will, their way, is blood, human blood, the blood of their enemies, human beings like themselves. And their only aim is profit.

Capital, profit, surplus value, squeezed out of weak nations and laborers. A mean and sordid profit, not culture.

And finally it is that Profit for which and through which they drag the proletariat into this war.

Let the laborer’s wife whose husband or son is killed in France, in Flanders or in Poland, say to herself: “My son, my husband lies there because he had to fight for the profits from the Congo, from China, from Asia Minor.”

In that light, in that light alone, the emperors and kings, the ministers and members of parliament, the bankers and manufacturers must be judged; so, too, the professors, clergymen and artists who defend this war.

Many Social-Democrats, especially in Germany, speak of the madness of war expenditure, of Imperialism. And yet it is far from madness on the part of the capitalists, for every capitalist country to want colonies, and monopolies, and for each country to prepare itself to win and defend these by spending millions and millions on arming. For enormous wealth comes into the mother country out of such dominions, if the colonies are rich. If Germany succeeded in getting part of China, or the Dutch Indies, to exploit, hundreds of millions of profits would yearly come into German hands, as now from India into England. The big German banks, and the few great industrial and commercial magnates who rule Germany, would make the whole German nation pay the sums needed for the army and navy, and they would keep the millions of profits for themselves. With good reason, therefore, they force the German nation to arm, and with good reason, when judged-from their own viewpoint, do they drive Germany to a war for imperialistic expansion and colonial property. And with good reason the middle class joins in, since it, too, profits directly in the end. The madness is not in the capitalists, nor in the middle class.

Behind all these classes, behind the kings and emperors and parliaments, behind the armies, hidden, and only visible to the scientific eye, stand the great bankers, the mighty steel and iron and coal magnates, the world-trusts, the great concession-holders and monopolists. They control the great mass of capital, and thus they control society.

They are few in number. Everything obeys them. Unseen, pitiless, they control the great movement of capital. Driven by growing production, they have willed this war, in order to extend their capitalism, to increase it, to fortify it, to make it the almighty world-power.

All the capitalist classes are guilty of this war, for they all follow Big Capital. This has united them into one mass, and as one mass they are guilty of this manmurder.

The nature of Capitalism is the formation of surplus-value, ever more, through ever better machines. Its nature, its existence, its practice is therefore extension, extension,–in the end, over the whole world. Originating as it does from private property in the means of production, and therefore always in the hands of the few, the method of capitalistic extension is through war. This world-war, therefore, is an outcome of the nature and life of capitalism. It is therefore inevitable. It is Fate, as they used to call it long ago, and God’s will, as it was called later on. It is the necessary development of Capitalism, as we think now.

The capitalist class has a great task in the world still, the extension of capitalism over the earth. It still wields enormous power, with which to fulfil this mission. The proletariat is as yet too weak; it has too slight a realization of its aim and its ideal. It is still unequal to its task, the liberation of the world from Capital.

Imperialism, with its foreign and colonial policies, that is to say, the extension of Capitalism over the earth, the last necessary phase in the development of the profit system, finally brings about World-Socialism. But the way in which Capitalism develops threatens the proletariat with destruction. And it is through the very struggle against these methods that the proletariat becomes stronger, and ripe for liberty.

III. The Proletariat World-Labor Against World-Capital

Through Imperialism the relation of capital towards the proletariat changes. Through Imperialism the relation of the proletariat towards the bourgeoisie changes also. In general, Imperialism makes conditions worse for the proletariat.

Here we shall have to go somewhat more into detail. In order to understand that the working class must oppose Imperialism with all its might, one must realize that Imperialism is disadvantageous to the proletariat.

Colonies bring to capitalistic society in general immense advantages. It was colonies that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries brought a stream of precious metals into Europe, and so produced modern capitalism in Holland, England and France. Through colonies, capitalistic commerce and industry were born; through them also the world market. The colonial policy has conquered India, North and South America, Australia and Africa, and converted these worlds into producers of agricultural products for Europe.

Through colonies, England first, and then other countries, were able to become industrial nations. Through them the streams of gold came from California, Australia and the Transvaal to Europe, which again enormously enriched and extended capitalism. Colonies therefore bring gold, are the generators of new markets, the producers of ever more food and raw materials. They have continued that creative force from the sixteenth century now into the twentieth, without interruption and with ever more intensity. They, therefore, with Capital, have produced Industry, and thus the modern proletariat.

The colonial policy of Imperialism may also bring a direct gain to the proletariat. Whether it does or not depends upon the colonies alone. There are colonies which bring profit only to a small group of capitalists; there are some which bring profit to many capitalists, public officials and military men, but little or none to the proletariat; and again there are some by which a great part of the capitalistic as well as part of the working classes benefit.

The British and Dutch Indies, immensely rich countries by nature, with an industrious, dense, civilized population, bring great gains to the working classes of England and Holland, that is to say, work and wages. And there are more of such countries which capitalism now covets, e.g., China.

When, for instance, capital is exported to British India, this means the export of iron and steel goods, machines, etc., made in England. English industry, English capital are in the colonies, consequently, if quality and prices are equal, the mother country is favored. Thus there is direct gain for the laborer in England. Then again the production of goods to be exported to the colonies, and to “spheres of influence” in weak countries like China, employs many workers, as, for example, in the English textile industry. Here also the colonies, the “spheres of influence,” bring profit to the mother country, other conditions being equal.³

Again, much ship-building is done in the mother country for the purpose of traffic with the colonies. This also means work for many men, and in turn influences the other industries, such as iron and steel, coal-mining, etc. Besides this, trade with tropical countries creates special industries, rice and coffee husking, cocoa factories, etc. Finally, the vast profits made in India trickle through to the higher and lower middle classes, and even down to the workingmen. Regions and cities of the mother country live in part from that profit. It is shared to some extent with the workingmen of the building trades, and those who make articles of luxury, also the servants, footmen, etc. All these workmen together form a considerable number in Holland and an immense number in England.⁴

And yet revolutionary social-democracy is, or at any rate ought to be, against capitalist colonial policies. Why? Because colonies are almost always acquired and held by means of plunder, murder and the worst exploitation.⁵

A revolutionary social-democracy can never agree to this, not only because of the principles and ideals of humanity for which it stands, but also from self-interest. The laborers of the oppressed colonies are used as their competitors, they lower the standard of wages. Moreover the small farmers and laborers of India, and of all regions which the great Powers over-run, are the socialists of the future. More and more the time approaches, it is very near or even here already, when not only the Japanese workmen, but those of India and Egypt, and part of the black working population of Africa will adopt socialism. The proletariat must not estrange these laborers and tenant farmers from itself. It must help them in all things, for later it will need their support. They should begin to feel that they are one with the proletariat of Europe, America and Australia. When wage workers of different nationalities support the colonial policies of the ruling class, these bring dissensions among them. Colony-grabbing engenders a spirit of imperialism, nationalism and chauvinism in the workers who join in it, and thus brings discord into their ranks.

In small things and for the immediate future, therefore, the proletariat may benefit by a colonial policy, but viewed broadly, and in the long run, such a policy corrupts the life of the working class that embraces it. An imperialistic colonial policy may bring certain advantages to parts of the working class (miners, iron and steel workers, ship-builders, etc.), but in the long run it corrupts the fighting action of that class.

Therefore the proletariat can not, as a general rule, join in capitalistic colonial policies, and therefore the contrast between it and organized capital becomes more marked.⁶

If this was true in the case of former colonial policies, it is all the more so when we have to deal with modern imperialism.

In the first place, modern imperialism, in times of peace, puts intolerable burdens on the working class. Militarism increases infinitely through imperialism, social legislation comes to a standstill, import duties become higher, living dearer, the value of wages decreases, reaction becomes stronger.

Secondly, in time of war, imperialism crushes the working class. Its organizations are destroyed; endless burdens are laid upon it,—hunger, want, unemployment, battle-wounds and the extinction of entire generations. For years progress is stopped; nations are incited one against the other, and war carries new wars in its wake.

Thirdly, after the war, progress for the proletariat will be most uncertain, if not impossible, for years. If the war lasts long, the states may become so poor, so deeply indebted, that if more arming and new wars were to follow, it might mean the economic ruin of the proletariat, and its extinction as a fighting class.

Through all this the proletariat can less than ever afford to join in capitalistic colonial schemes, that is to say, in the policy of imperialism.

For all these disadvantages are infinitely greater than the aforesaid advantages.

And through all this, Imperialism renders the relations between the proletariat and the capitalist classes far more strained and hostile.

But fourthly, and here is the most important change, Imperialism has now immensely deepened and sharpened the antagonism between capital and labor. For the first time in the world’s history, as a result of Imperialism, the entire working class of the world is involved in a single struggle, that can only be fought out by one united proletariat against the international bourgeoisie.

This is the new state of affairs brought about by Imperialism. This is the new phase that must be clearly seen. This is what neither the International, nor the national parties of which it consists, have understood. Only he who sees this can understand the new phase which through Imperialism has come over the contest between capital and labor. On the basis of this understanding the new tactics to be adopted against Imperialism should be decided upon.

All modern states, without one exception,⁷ constantly menace the working class in time of peace and crush it in time of war. In times of peace the bourgeoisie, the government, the capital of Germany menace, through their Imperialism, not only the German, but also the French, the English, the Austrian, the Russian proletariat, and force upon it unbearable burdens. The French, the English, the Russian capitalist class does the same with the proletariat of all countries. In time of war, the German capitalist government destroys not only the power of the German, but at the same time that of the French, English, Russian, Austrian working class. The same is done by Russian, French, Austrian and English Imperialism, each separately and all together, to the proletariat of all countries.

And Imperialism is covering the whole world. Arming is going on everywhere. In this war already the greater half of the civilized world has joined. The greater part of Europe, nearly the whole of Asia, the whole of Australia, South Africa, Egypt, Algiers, Morocco, Canada, Tunis, all the French, English and German possessions, and there may be more to follow.

Now for the first time, through Imperialism, World-Capital, in all its parts, stands actually, as one whole, through one deed, against the World-Proletariat. For the first time the World-proletariat has, in practice, to deal with World-Capitalism.

NOTES

1. The nature of imperialism is different in the different countries, that of Russia, for example, differs from that of England. It would lead us too far to explain this here.

2. It goes without saying that in such an immense war other nations, too, are drawn in here and there. These, however, are insignificant compared to the great imperialistic nations, and may, therefore, be omitted here. We will only mention that Servia is fighting for its national existence.

3. Even sometimes when they are une ual, for the same group of capitalists is often interested at once in production, commerce and transport.

4. When the capitalists boast to the workers of the advantages that result to them also from the colonies, the workingman may well reply. Perhaps so, if the capital now being exported were to be kept at home, in Holland, for example. And he may add that a capitalist country without colonies or spheres of influence can attain immense prosperity merely through commerce and industry, as Germany and Belgium prove. Therefore, this imperialistic war is not needed by the laborer, but only caused by the unquenchable thirst for gain of the capitalist.

5. See, for example, the system of taxation in the Dutch and British Indies.

6. And the proletariat, though recognizing that a colonial policy develops capitalism, should oppose it. For not only is the earth already divided up, but it makes no difference to the working class as a whole whether England or another country possesses a greater part of the world; therefore, the workers should oppose all colony grabbing. They should oppose capitalistic colonial agencies, because they aim at a better society than this capitalistic one, a society that needs no colonies to exploit. Besides, the western European states at least, and Germany and England especially, are economically ripe for that socialist society. For these and other reasons it is the duty of the proletariat to fight imperialism. The colonial program of the revolutionary social-democracy is as follows: (1) Protesting against colonial usurpation and extortion. (2) Attempting to protect and liberate the natives, so long as they themselves are too weak for revolutionary action. (3) Supporting every revolutionary act of the natives and demanding their political and national independence, as soon as they begin revolutionary activity for themselves.

7. Not even the smaller ones can be excepted: Spain, Holland, Belgium, Portugal take a direct part in the struggle for colonies

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by Charles H. Kerr and critically loyal to the Socialist Party of America. It is one of the essential publications in U.S. left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It articles, reports and essays are an invaluable record of the U.S. class struggle and the development of Marxism in the decades before the Soviet experience. It was closed down in government repression in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v15n11-may-1915-ISR-riaz-ocr.pdf