Memories and history from World War I
- By Heiko Khoo
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 9, 2014
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Personnel from 16th Field Regiment of the Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery reload one of the ten 105mm Howitzers in a 100-gun salute during a ceremony to commemorate the centenary of the start of World War One in Wellington on August 4, 2014. [Xinhua photo] |
In 1914, Vladimir Lenin dissected the causes of World War 1 rather differently. His simple questions went to the very core of the conflict. Which nations own and control various parts of the world? Who owns the wealth of these leading nations? Who controls the society and politics in these countries? Which nations and classes are exploited? What are the global interests of the rulers of these countries? How can the exploited nations, peoples and classes fight for their interests? Thus Lenin and a tiny band of revolutionaries were able to grasp what was happening when it happened. They planned to educate and organise in the dark years that lay ahead. Work began to explain to the masses that the war was not "theirs", but a war of the ruling classes. The workers and soldiers were cannon fodder, used to maintain the global position of the capitalists of their own nations. These imperialist powers enslaved the people in China, India, Africa and beyond.
These voices of science and logic were drowned out, in the ecstasy and excitement of the first days of war. Revolutionary ideas were pushed aside as leaders of the working class declared allegiance to their respective countries. The industry of capitalist warfare unified the workers of different nations in the most obscene fashion. The imperialist control of the world dragged people from distant continents together to participate in mutual slaughter. Eventually, people everywhere posed Lenin's questions. For whom do we fight? For what do we fight? Are the people we fight our enemies? Or, are our enemies the people who command us to fight?
The leaders of the socialist parties of Europe betrayed the workers in 1914 by sending them to kill their fellow workers for "their" nation. Revolutionaries raised the slogan of a United States of Europe and the international unity of the working class as the alternative beacon of hope.
Article 24 of the constitution of the People's Republic of China affirms that the state educates the people in historical materialism. Historical materialism offers something radically different to theories of universal chance and accidental slaughter. It locates social, political and cultural change within the broad context of economic systems of production and exchange, and their corresponding class interests and conflict. It remains the primary historical method to unmask the falsification and mystification being presented by Western leaders and the mass media. The reason that they need to falsify the history of past wars is to justify recent and future wars.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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