Scott Nearing

“ Among the workers peace sentiment is always strong. They know from bitter experience that they must not only do the fighting at the front, but that at home, when the blood-letting is over, they and their descendants must pay for the war. To the intelligent worker in modern Europe war cannot be justified without a lot of explaining. ”

“ After four years of carnage, the reasons for anti-war activity were plainer than ever, and while it was true that many of the militants had died and many more had lost faith, among those who remained the hatred of war was stronger than ever. As for the masses, they were learning that if the workers were to prevent a repetition of the horror of 1914 they must be prepared to act in their own behalf. ”

“ The working men and women of Vrigne-aux-bois protest vigorously against the Moroccan War, and have decided to struggle by every means against the abominable butchery now in progress, to boycott the manufacture and the transport of arms and of munitions to Morocco, and to demand the immediate cessation of hostilities, the recognition of the Riff Republic, and the return of all our soldiers to France. ”

“ France was one of the chief sufferers during the World War. With her million and three-quarters of soldiers killed on the field of battle, with her long lines of mutilated men, with her ruined cities, her desolated countryside and the intolerable burden of debt heaped upon the people as a result of the struggle, Frenchmen had good reason to know the costs of war. ”

“ Fraternal delegates from surrounding countries spoke to the Congress in the name of peace and unity. Liebaers, Secretary of the Belgian Garment Workers' Union, concluded a carefully reasoned speech by saying:
"Workers of France! You are faced with this alternative, from which there is no escape. You will either pay dearly for the error of your divided forces, and will allow still heavier chains of slavery to be riveted upon you. ”

“ You should rather speak of a revolt of the tribes in the French Zone, backed up by the Riffs, whom you have tried to starve. The war is much less due to the action of the famished Riffs than to the action of those who have starved them. ”

“ Doriot.—There are, I repeat, three fundamental causes that take you into the Riff: one, a military cause; ... one, a political cause, and finally an economic cause, much more important than the other two. ”

“ Political boycotts and strikes are effective only when the workers are thoroughly united. A general mutiny on the part of the army and navy presupposes a revolutionary situation of a very intense character. The leaders of the French movement steered a course which involved neither a general strike nor a general mutiny but which was aimed to undermine both industrial and military capitalist morale and to lead to fraternization with their fellow workers in the Riff. ”

“ Had there been no working class press in France and no understanding of the sweep of modern historic forces these facts might never have reached the French masses, But the French workers had learned their lesson in the bitter days following 1914, and in 1917 the Russian Revolution had broken across the world. ”

“ Why not fraternize in life?" At the beginning of the struggle l'Humanité published a front page appeal to the relatives and friends of soldiers, advising them that the Government was hiding the truth concerning the Riff War and that it was necessary for those interested in the soldiers to publish the truth, since the government would not even tell how many soldiers have been sent "to fight the war of the bankers." ”

“ The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas is one of the most powerful commercial banking institutions in France. With its Standard Oil backing, it is able to exercise an immense influence over the industrial and political life of France. This bank controls over half of the 483 million francs of French capital invested in Morocco. ”

“ French radical journalism is always vigorous. The writers and cartooonists on l'Humanité and the other French papers engaged in the anti-war offensive have been at their best during their campaign against the Riff War. ”

“ Behind the Committees of Action and affiliated with them, a movement is under way to organize a Committee of Proletarian Unity in each factory, shop, station, and mine. All workers who desire to establish proletarian unity are included in these Unity groups. No distinction is made regarding political beliefs. They are the product of a widespread desire to get the working class together.
The Central Committee of Action, to use the words of its Secretary, "is not an organization. ”

“ Morocco has proved a lucrative field for French capital. At the moment, attention is centred on certain iron deposits which are presumably very rich, While these deposits have not yet been fully tested out, similar deposits in Algeria and Tunis produce ore containing 50 per cent of metal, and the iron mining companies in these two countries have been paying as high as 150 per cent in dividends. ”

“ The French workers who organized the campaign against the Moroccan War of 1925 decided to fight the economic system primarily and the war only incidentally. Their campaign was not so much a campaign against war as it was a campaign against bankers, profiteers and concessionaires whose activities make war inevitable. ”

“ The Republic of bankers, bourgeois, liberals and Socialist leaders, accomplices in Moroccan propaganda, has nothing to learn from the monarchist regime of the middle ages. It allows the big legal thieves to run the roads and throws into its dungeons the sincere workers who are struggling against oppression. ”

“ The workers of this country realize more and more that the Moroccan War was started by the military clique at the direction of European capitalists, in particular of French capitalists, in the person of the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. ”

“ Doriot.—I say that the soldiers in the Ruhr fraternized with the German workers; that the Spanish soldiers on the same Riff front were not afraid to talk with the Riffians and I add: they will hold out a hand of friendship to those that you now call enemies. They will impose peace on you. ”

“ Class conscious working class action against war may take several forms. First, there is anti-war and anti-militarist propaganda which points out the causes of war and shows how owners profit while workers pay. ”

“ During the years that preceded 1914, millions of workers all over Europe had striven to prevent another war. One of the greatest leaders in this movement, the Frenchman, Jean Jaurès, gave his energy and finally his life in the struggle against war and militarism. ”

“ Altogether the Banque de Paris controls at least twenty-five companies in Morocco. Thus this financial organization is not only a power in French economic and political life. It is, to an even greater extent, a power in the economic and political life of Morocco. ”

“ During twenty years Morocco has cost 12,000 lives, according to the official statement. The present war will devour thousands more. ... While soldiers die and the expropriated natives suffer, the bankers are making scandalous profits, and some dividends are up to 80 per cent! ”

“ They pretend beside that the soldiers are happy to take part in this war for the profit of colonial freebooters, of parliamentary speculators and of the Bangue de Paris et des Pays-Bas, of which the sole object is to wipe out a free people in order to use their rich mines. ”

“ Once in a long time the secrets which imperialists whisper in one another's ears are shouted from the house-tops. This happened in 1917 when the Russian revolutionists published the secret treaties found in the files of the Tsarist Government. ”

“ The system of blockhouses, the letter explains, was intended to hold back the enemy until the arrival of reinforcements. "These reinforcements were arranged for and ready either in Algeria, or in France. That is a secret of general mobilisation which has not been and must not be revealed." The letter concludes with some comments on the difficulties which confront the French in view of the fact that the enemy territory, the Riff, lies within the Spanish zone. ”

“ The first is to destroy the independence of the Riff State.
"The example of this Moslem people which, after Turkey, and with little means, has actually succeeded in revising the treaties of the imperialists is too dangerous for the imperialists to tolerate. ...
"That is one of the fundamental causes of your war.
"The second cause of the war is this: the Riff is rich. The mines furnish a tempting bait for our bankers. The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas is already involved all through Morocco. ”

“ Doriot.—They are dissatisfied with your country, governed by your class, and they are thinking of giving themselves a somewhat greater freedom than you are willing to allow them. ... This little people, which has long struggled to liberate itself from foreign domination, needs a breathing space. They are trying to organize their country. ”

“ On the contrary, "the Marshal was so well informed and had so thoroughly foreseen what was to happen, that, from January, 1924, on (see his reports to the government) he was preparing for war." Marshal Lyautey had built a line of blockhouses north of the Ouergha. These blockhouses served the double purpose of excluding the Riffs from the rich Ouergha valley and of forcing the French prohibition against trade between the valley and the Riff. These blockhouses were constructed "in May, 1924, while Abd-el-Krim, his attention taken up by the Spaniards, could not react. ... ”

“ Even as far as India a great movement to help the Riffians financially has been organized. In trying to increase your prestige in a little corner of Morocco you have shown your true face as the oppressors of 20 millions of Moslems, and raised the other Moslems against you. (Applause from the extreme left. Lively manifestations on many sides) .
"The President.—These words are not admissible. France has never oppressed any people. ”

“ An idea of the vigor with which the French Communist Deputies attacked the war makers may be gathered from the Journal Officiel. At the sitting of May 27, 1925, for instance, Doriot pointed out that Abd-el-Krim had been in Paris in 1923 buying arms. ”