The Wilsonian Program

The German bourgeoisie now more than ever - following the constantly evolving revolutionary stir - sees the victorious Entente power as its savior and protector from the proletariat. Now, they still seek to scare the workers with the threat, that the Entente will come and restore order; when this however does not hold the masses back from class struggle, we can be certain of the triple-alliance bourgeoisie calling the troops of the Entente themselves. 

The Independent Social Democrats, too, have pinned their hopes on the Entente, but in a different way. Not on its arms, but on its morals. They await the advent of a proper, bourgeois-democratic government, one that will secure an equal seat at the negotiating table and establish the League of Nations. There, not the wicked militarists—Foch, Beatty, and Haig—will command, but the men of peace, intent on reordering Europe on the basis of justice and the freedom of peoples. Especially Wilson. With tails wagging, they adorn Wilson with praise, the man of the League of Nations, the new hero destined to usher in an era of equality among nations. Kautsky has already proclaimed that the United States entered the war not for imperialist aims but purely out of noble ethics, to crush German militarism. Now, with this task completed, Wilson will take the German Republic under his wing, bringing prosperity to the German people.

With these fantastical dreams, they seek to divert the masses from revolutionary struggle and self-empowerment. Their policy has always been to trust in foreign salvation rather than the strength of the masses. Now, Wilson the noble must become the savior of the German Republic against the victory-drunk generals of the Entente, who are eager to plunder and economically crush Germany.

Let us, then, look at this program Wilson has presented. It can be summarized in these simple theses: 

Not violence, but right should rule the world.

Not violence, but right, should define the relations between the nations. Those who violate this right should be punished. 

The League of Nations should secure world peace. 

When Wilson postulated this program, it was mainly directed against German imperialism. This newly rising power could only reach its goals by overthrowing existing ownership and colonial conditions. Because of this, it needed truth and its representatives openly declared this truth: power and violence rule over the world. The victorious power decides right, becomes right. In contrast, the old powers positioned themselves on the foundation of traditional law and denounced the German standpoint as a cruel mockery of justice. And all too many so-called socialists, in their criticism of German imperialism, took the same narrow-minded standpoint, instead of emphasizing that all imperialism is necessarily linked to capitalism and displays the same cruelties in all countries. The crime of German imperialism was that it openly and brutally did - and because of this, in a more severe matter, as a system - what everyone else had been doing under the cover of hypocritical phraseology; because of this, it needed to be punished. Now that violence has won, the stronger power of England and the USA, which calls itself right and orders the world according to this right. 

The right that reigns over the world is the omnipotence of Anglo-American imperialism. Germany was the only power that could seriously threaten the world domination of England-America, because of this, it had to be cast down. And the first sentence of Wilson states this very clearly: No newly emerging state shall be permitted to elevate itself through its own power and disturb the inherited right of the current power relations, namely the world domination of England-America. 

In order to ensure this, Europe is split into many small nations, all of them sovereign and powerless, through constant quarreling over border regions - because every bourgeois government wants to have areas as large as possible - even more powerless. But they are not allowed to wage war and sign special contracts, so that under no circumstances a mightier empire could arise; because of this, they need to form the League of Nations, with the chairmanship of England-America, taking the lead and solving the problems in such a way that evermore strives arise out of them. Forbidden to keep a standing army through conscription, they will have to resort to small gendarmerie corps in order to keep the inner peace, i.e. the holding down of the proletariat.  

It becomes evident that the Wilsonian program, along with the League of Nations and the proclaimed reign of justice and righteousness, serves merely as an ideological façade for the global dominance of Anglo-American capital. This dominance allows for the unimpeded exploitation of the entire world—encompassing Asia, Africa, and Europe—without any repercussions. 

But the program has another purpose. It was not merely directed against German imperialism but, from the very beginning, also directed against the socialist proletariat. The slogan: right against violence, has long been popular among American class struggle. When the workers were close to reaching victory - because of their clear unity - with their strikes, a bourgeois committee was formed in order to investigate the "claim of right" of both parties. If the workers didn’t want to submit to this, they were either thrown into prison or shot outright, in the name of right. Judges forbade picketing and agitation because the methods of the strike were an attempt to reduce the rule of right, that is, the right to exploitation, by means of violence and the manifestation of workers‘ power. This formula was then always used to violently cast down the rising power of the American proletariat, in order to let the bourgeois right continue its rulership. 

The socialist workers know and openly speak of the fact that freedom can only be conquered by the means of struggle, the development of one’s own power and finally, through the violent abolition of the exploitative power-apparatus – and our theory, Marxism, irrefutably expresses this truth. Wilson’s program stands against this teaching and these goals: Just as no nation should be allowed to elevate itself through its own power to conquer the world, neither should any class be permitted to do so. And if it still attempts to do so, it will be crushed by the entire might of the victorious Anglo-American power – in the name of right. That is the meaning of the Wilsonian program. 

And it is already used practically. The Entente troops are already marching on socialist Russia from all sides in order to destroy the Soviet republic. Whether or not it will work out, is another question; only if it becomes evident that strong anti-communist sentiments have developed within the peasantry, causing the break of the unity of the masses, will they be able to achieve success. The USA and England will then play the role which Tsarism had played in 1849. But they are weaker, because they are vulnerable from within: in all Entente countries, unrest is brewing among the workers; and this brewing will grow with their rise against the European revolution. This rise will therefore only fuel the spread of world revolution. 

How foolish and shortsighted is therefore the strategy of those who seek to win the proletariat’s trust in Wilson and his program! Versailles will show that the Entente imperialists are the real masters, and that they will not have their goals ruined by Wilson’s beautiful speeches. Conversely, they will put these speeches into the service of their own goals; they will cheer on his people-deceiving phrases and adopt them as the external form of their oppressive measures. Because they know that his program, in effect, is in accord with what they want: the world domination of England-America, world domination by capital and ruthless struggle against the proletarian revolution.