STAND WE FIRM – Local anti-militarism during WW1

The following piece, from (at the time of writing…) local anarchist Will Lawther (before he became ‘somewhat of a right wing union bureaucrat’ ) was penned late 1914 to early 1915 for the anarchist paper Freedom (Vol XXIX No 310, Feb 1915), also see Anarchism in North East England 1882-1992, page 86.

STAND WE FIRM ?

“Some people who claim to have seen through all the schemes that are adopted by the common enemy of mankind – the capitalists – whenever they want to extend their profiteering to-day, believe that the present conflict is not for commercial supremacy, but that, on the contrary, it is a war to end war; in short, a war for humanity to move onward in its progress towards a better system of society. Whilst it is essential to understand the position of our enemy, in order to combat his advances, it is more essential to understand our own position. And to that end must we work, because we now see how easy the workers have been persuaded to forego the fight that they have been waging the last few years.

Many of those who a few months ago were talking of the coming industrial Armageddon are to-day urging the workers to fight, and lay down their lives if need be, in defence of the class whom they are organised to fight against in the industrial arena. And yet these recruiting sergeants of the Labour movement used to say that the industrial worker who voted for other than the official Labour candidate was, politically speaking, a blackleg. So if their line of reasoning be developed, there is now no use for them as Labour leaders, because they have found an enemy more bitter than the capitalist who lives upon them. And stripped of all the veneer that the capitalist press (our enemy) has added to the countries that we are at war against, what remains but the fact that in the interests of a class that is not the working class we are to forsake all the principles and ideals, hopes, and aspirations that we hold dearer than life itself, to fight for our oppressors. Shall we flinch? No, we must not. We repeat the truism that has been uttered for many years: the workers in these isles, but not of these isles, have no enemy except the capitalists who live upon them. Our enemy is here, and how he chuckles to-day to see his “bands” go out, and leave their kith and kin to his tender mercy. A year ago the workers of Dublin were fighting for the right to say what their conditions of work should be. What has taken place since then that we should go through hardships and suffering to defend the property of the Murphy’s and the other exploiters, so that they can have a clear field to exploit in other lands?

To us, there can be no other question except our own of how are we workers going to free ourselves from capitalism. It may be that there are other questions; but they do not concern us, and should not transcend the great question that is ever present in the workers war. No one will deny that some are suffering in France and Belgium through the advance of the German troops; but surely what are standing armies kept for? Have not our brothers sold themselves to fight anything and everything that comes in the way, as being what they term “their duty to their king and country”? But then has not there been much unnecessary suffering in England this last few years because they who are asking you to fight and bear arms would not forego their right to rob?

Shall we fight? Yes, we answer, when we have something to fight for; but not to-day. We know of one war only, the battle for freedom, for the conquest of Capitalism. As this war is not for that purpose, it does not concern us.

Must we flinch from the ideals we have always held? No, we stand firm to-day for a land where poverty will be unknown, where women and children shall not want for bread, where men are not treated as if they were things without human feelings. That land is not known yet, but it is our duty to work for it. Never mind the threats of conscription, never heed the shrieks of the paper patriots; we shall conquer, because we have truth on our side. And that truth is that the workers are exploited by a common enemy who knows neither race nor creed, sex not colour. So we of the working class fight that common enemy, and extend the hand of fellowship to the workers of all lands.  Will Lawther.”