But there is. At a time when wars are made, not for self-protection, but for the subjugation of other nationalities, be it by way of annexations, or the establishment of protectorates, or "zones of influence," is 'it not clear that our old conception of national defence has become obsolete? Modern nations are no longer what they were two or three generations ago. They have become internally differentiated into classes, with antagonistic interests and ideals. Wars, too, therefore, have come to have a different meaning for capitalists and proletarians. To the former, wars have become a means of realisation not of national, but of Imperialist ideals, and to that extent they have lost for the working class all meaning. Accordingly, while the capitalist classes were inciting one country against the other and arming nations to the teeth, the working class was protesting louder and louder its opposition to war in any shape or form. Thus, while French and German capitalists were nearly coming to blows over the privilege of exploiting Morocco, the French and German working class were proclaiming at Berne that even the fate of Alsace-Lorraine was not a sufficient reason for war; while to all the incitements of the financial and military cliques of Austria and Germany against Russia the invariable answer came from the proletarian ranks that even the common hatred of "Tsarism" would not justify a war.
It was in this common international opposition to war on the part of the working class that lay the germ of a new conception of national defence, for it simply meant that the best method of national defence was to prevent war altogether by common international effort. Modern wars being what they are, the working class had every interest in preventing them, and thus avoiding the bitter necessity of fighting for their countries against their own class. It was this conception which lay at the bottom of the Stuttgart resolution pledging every Socialist party to resist war by all means in its power. This was a new conception of national defence by the international action of the working class: a conception which could only arise in our era of Imperialism.
We know it was not acted upon. It certainly was not clearly understood or digested, and when the war broke out there was everywhere a relapse into the old idea of each nation for itself. In each country there was the fear that the other countries would not support its action, and that its sacrifices would thus be in vain. This was a mistaken notion.
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