Mankind and the State – Marcus Graham (1946)

From ‘Freedom: through Anarchism’, April 20 to June 1, 1946, London, UK

I

Believers in the State, including the liberals, claim that this institution has as its chief aim the protection of human life and welfare.

How true is such a claim?

Historically speaking, as far as its record shows, the State has faithfully lived up to the fundamental basis upon which it was founded: to protect the aggrandizement of the few at the expense of the many. Such protection has always rested solely upon threats, violence, suppression, imprisonment and wars. That this kind of forceful protection could only be carried out by a total disregard for the sacredness of human life goes without saying.

The role of the State institution as regards to human life has never, however, in modern history, revealed itself with such frightful forcefulness as in the course of World War II.

In the period between World War I and World War II, mass persecutions and outright murder of rebels who opposed Fascism and Nazism became a common everyday occurrence.

The two leading “democratic” States, Great Britain and the United States, which concocted the “Four Freedoms” propaganda formula, didn’t make the “discovery” of this ugly fact until they had brought their respective countries into war with Nazism and later also with Fascism, whose chieftain they had failed to bribe in becoming their ally, as they did in World War I.

Likewise, the mass persecution and extermination of Jews in Germany was only too well known to the thinking world. In fact, it began with the very inception of the reign of Nazism in January, 1933. One need only read the diary of the late U.S. Ambassador Dodd to Germany, during that period, in order to fully realize how well informed the “democratic” U.S. Government was kept as to the abominable acts that were being perpetrated by the inhuman Nazi régime. The British ambassador no doubt likewise kept his government equally informed upon this phase.

Yet, as the record shows, neither the United States, nor the British Government made any effort to expose the criminal acts of the Nazi régime.

On the contrary, diplomatic as well as commercial relationships were kept up intact.

Not only that alone.

Nazi Germany was encouraged and aided in re-arming for war. Furthermore, with the full knowledge of their governments, the financial world of France, Great Britain and the United States aided Nazi Germany not only in establishing itself, but equally so in making possible its prolonged existence, as well as the subjugation of the German people.

(The very same thing has taken place in the establishment and entrenching of an oppressive totalitarian State of Fascism in Italy, long before Nazism came upon the German scene, in the years 1923-24.)

The late Chamberlain’s sell-out of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany was enacted as late as September, 1938.

And last, but not least, when Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany openly and brazenly formed battalions to aid the butcher Franco in drowning in blood the social revolution gloriously initiated by the people of Spain, and inspired by the ideal of anarchism — it was during that period that the Governments of France, Great Britain and Russia formed an infamous “Non-intervention Committee” whose chief function served to shield the assassin-co-operation rendered to Franco by the Nazis and Fascists.

Furthermore that Committee at the same time deliberately hindered the people of Spain from being enabled to buy arms for their defence from abroad. (The now deceased F. D. Roosevelt, although the U.S. Government was not a participant in the “Non-intervention Committee,” as President of the U.S., nevertheless contributed his share of knifing in the back the people’s struggle in Spain, by placing an embargo upon arms to Spain, and lifting the embargo the instant Franco was, thanks chiefly to the duplicity of the “democratic” States, victorious.)

When Nazi Germany was becoming an increasingly formidable competitor by invading the world markets, it was only then, and not before, that Great Britain declared war against Germany. (See “Issues in the Present War”.)

The ease with which the “democratic” States are ready to join hands with any State that serves their mercenary interests was again demonstrated in their attitude toward Bolshevik-ruled Russia. When Stalin joined in the bloody partnership with Hitler, the “democratic” States were only too willing to expose the fact as to how little regard the Bolshevik régime had for human life.

But no sooner had Stalin become a partner of the “Four Freedoms” Alliance than the tune was immediately changed to suit the new marriage of convenience.

To the everlasting shame of the Socialist movements of the world, and to the idea of marxism in particular, it should never be forgotten that it was the first avowed marxian State that in our times initiated the practice of mass persecutions of political opponents, wholesale executions and re-establishment of Czarist concentration exile camps. (The late demagogue, Mussolini, sardonically credited Lenin with being his teacher in these practices. Hitler might very well have done likewise.)

Total disregard for human life is by no means limited to the Bolshevist, Nazi and Fascist States.

It is equally true within the realms of every State, including the “democratic” ones as well!

In the wake of the so-called “official” end of World War II one finds nearly every imperially subjected country throughout the world rising in rebellion, in an attempt to hold to account the vague promises embodied in the “Four Freedoms” made by by the “democratic” States.

But why, may not one inquire, should any of these uprisings be made necessary, if the Allied Powers’ spokesmen were really sincere when they promulgated the “Four Freedoms’’?

The venality of these glib-tongued statesmen is being fully attested to right in front of our very eyes.

Dutch, French and British troops and even erstwhile “enemy” Japanese troops, are engaged in a ruthless campaign of crushing every uprising within their colonial domains, and the fullest use is made of “lend-lease” war materials from the U.S. Government by the three Imperialist powers against the very same people who were mobilized to help them win the war.

In China, where the greater part of the peasantry, led by the Communists, refused to submit to the reactionary reigning régime, war was waged with the direct intervention of the U.S. Army. Only with this difference: U.S. troops did not directly participate in killing Chinese rebels. But, U.S. planes carried Chinese Governmental troops, acted as instructors and “advisers” for military operations, and allowed “lend lease” war materials intended for fighting the Japanese to be used against the Chinese people.

And the lot of the Chinese rebel peasantry was not made any the easier by the secret pact that the Bolshevik Government had made with the Chinese régime.

The Bolshevik Government is a past master at such acts of duplicity, as was demonstrated by its attitude towards the anarchist-inspired uprisings in Italy before Fascism’s rise to power, with Lenin’s order to the Italian communists to “keep their hands off the revolution” — thereby aiding in its failure. Likewise, they let the Spanish revolution down in 1938 at the very critical moment when aid was needed most.

The role of the present Socialist Government of Great Britain in crushing the uprisings of the colonials just as would have any Tory or liberal State but completes the picture as to the nature and purposes of any State, no matter what label may happen to be attached to it.

One cannot help but reach the conclusion that there is not a single State in existence that one could point at as being — in actual practice — an exemplary institution functioning, as its defenders claim, for the protection of human life, well-being, or human dignity.

By its very nature, as anarchists have pointed out again and again, every State, sooner or later, must reveal itself as an enemy of that greater part of mankind that dreams and hopes, strives and struggles for genuine political and social emancipation of all races, colours and creeds.

II

So far, it has been outlined, briefly, how the principal States demonstrate, by their activities, that not only do they fail to serve, as is being claimed for them, in being protectors of human life and welfare, but on the contrary, display a most brutal and total disregard for both.

This evil role of the State becomes even more dramatically apparent whenever its real, but invisible, masters who control economic life, find it expedient as well as most profitable, to have their errand lackeys declare wars of people against people.

Thus one finds the so-called “democratic” States hiding behind the cowardly and dishonest shield that World War I was “to end all wars and make the world safe for democracy,” and World War II was once more intended to “end all wars and destroy fascism and nazism’’.

World War II proved how lying were the claims made for the aims of World War I.

And the “Victorious” allied powers in World War II didn’t keep anyone waiting long in order to realize how equally false were the claims for waging this second World war.

In Italy, the British Empire did its best, as it is still doing, to retain the monarchy that prevailed under fascism. In Greece, supposedly its “ally” of but yesterday, the same British Empire has engineered bloody pogroms against the people of Greece in order to force them to continue the old pre-war totalitarian régime. In Germany, the allied victors picked out the nazis for the leading governmental posts.

The counter-revolutionary bloody activities of the Dutch, French, British and U.S. Government’s military forces against all colonial subjects that has already been pointed out herein — but completes the picture of the duplicity revealed by the “democratic” States in their claim to hold any regard for human life and well-being — as far as these constituted part of the claims in waging World War II.

This though, is but only a small part of the criminal record of the State, in particular — the “democratic” ones.

World War II furnishes a most amazing series of crimes that every State alike, involved in it, had perpetrated against the interests and welfare of the very peoples over whom they reign, supposedly as the latter’s “servants”.

The State propaganda, grinding out poisonous hate and distrust by means of “atrocities” of the “enemy” is only too well known. For, without such a lying propaganda machine, no wars could be carried on for long, if at all.

But, it is not with this criminal phase of the State’s evil role in war time that mankind is being confronted with now.

At the very same time that the “Four Freedoms” Alliance was engaged in the campaign of attributing every conceivable crime to the enemy, and the chief emphasis was always laid against the indiscriminate bombing of non-combatant civilians, two of its leaders, Mr. Churchill and the late President Roosevelt, were secretly engaged in directing the construction of the most monstrous war weapon ever conceived by man — the atomic bomb.

A war weapon which, by the single application of two bombs has all but completely wiped off the face of the earth two largely populated cities in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, whose death-roll included tens of thousands of non-combatant men, women and children. Even those who have survived, escaping immediate death, have either been subjected to subsequent terrifying painful deaths, and those still left alive are suffering from all sorts of emasculating diseases, with the only prospect of eventual death.

The most amazing revelation about the “democratic” States’ employment of the atomic bomb is to be found in a book written by one of its constructing scientists, Henry DeWolf Smyth “Atomic Energy for Military Purposes,” and published by the Princeton University Press. According to the Book Reviewer of The Christian Century for November 21, 1945, this volume gives full data as to the atomic bomb’s development. And the “first transfer of U.S. government funds to the atomic project was recommended on November 1, 1939.”

That is: two months following the inception of World War II, and two years prior to the U.S. government’s official entrance into the war!

Could rank hypocrisy sink then any lower than the pretentious fulminations of the “democratic” States against “indiscriminate bombings” than this revelation openly stamps them to be?

The protest by the Japanese Government that the use of the atomic bomb was contrary to every concept of established international law, coming, as it did, from another State, cannot be taken seriously for the obvious reason that no State involved in past wars has ever been known to have lived up to the rules of killing off people as laid down by international law. And even if any State were ever to live up to such an international law code, we, as anarchists, would still hold that the very prescribing as to how one may or may not engage in the killing of human beings — is in itself an indefensible crime!

What we are though concerned with is to point out the fact that this greatest of all war atrocities in the history of warfare was enacted by the very State powers that lay claim to being the nearest perfected expression of the “will of the people,” the so-called “democratic” States.

First, we have the crime of perfecting such a monstrous weapon of destruction without any knowledge, let alone consent, of the people whose funds were used in making the atomic bomb realizable.

Second, we have the indefensible crime of all those guilty of ordering, constructing and applying the two atomic bombs knowing very well that its employment cannot help but leave with the survivors among the vanquished — a spirit of hatred and revenge that will be returned in kind at the first opportune time.

The consternation and fear that the very same creatures who are responsible for the construction and employment of the atomic bomb — now gives such vociferous expression to — furnishes the best evidence of their guilty conscience in having enacted one of the most atrocious and indefensible crimes of all ages against innocent men, women and children.

And the opportunity for such a vengeance is most certainly bound to occur so long as man continues to allow his destiny to be ruled by capitalism and its death-dealing protector, the State.

Third, and most important of all phases in the criminal use of the atomic bomb lies in another, not as yet fully realized direction, and it is this:

Was it at all needed to apply the atomic bomb in order to force Japan to surrender?

From what has so far been revealed it is already established, without any denial by the U.S. Government, that Japan had sued for peace eight months before her surrender offer was accepted! Furthermore, that the terms were identically the same as originally offered to Japan, and that General MacArthur had advised their acceptance, but his advice was turned down by Roosevelt and Churchill.

The people whose “servants” these two “illustrious gentlemen” pretended to be, never, of course, revealed to their subjects that there was such an offer made, and therefore, never needed to ask the people for approval in rejecting it. As a matter of record though, the newspapers printed categorical denials by the two chiefs that any kind of such an offer has been made! Since lying and deceit are a part of the game of every political State, such duplicity by the Churchills and Roosevelts cannot cause much surprise. (See the denials regarding secret treaties concluded at Yalta.)

Still this does by no means lessen the criminal act involved, for some of the severest battles in the Pacific war had been waged during the period of those closing last eight months of the War! A period in which tens of thousands of American and allied forces, and as was claimed, twice that many of the “enemy” — the Japanese were killed and crippled for life.

Who else but the institution of the State, (in this instance again the “democratic” ones), can and should in full justice, be held solely responsible for this deliberate and wanton needless sacrifice of human life?

Yet this crime, too, still does not at all fully complete the crimes that must be charged up against the “democratic” States in their record of World War II, involving the use of the atomic bomb.

General MacArthur and his associates admitted two months after having concluded peace with Japan, that: Japan was beaten long before the atomic bomb was employed!!!

Accepting such an admission as true, one is led to ask the most natural question: Why then were these two ill-fated sites Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with their populaces deliberately and cold-bloodedly wiped off the face of the earth?

In seeking an answer to this question one finds the reason to be of such a nature that all the crimes already cited against the institution of the State, pale into insignificance by comparison.

The first atomic bomb used in destroying Hiroshima was far different from the second one employed against Nagasaki. The latter was far more powerful in its effects.

Both atomic bombs were employed chiefly as an experiment, for future uses in war, and not at all in order to bring about the defeat of Japan which was already vanquished and ready to sign any kind of terms months and months before the atomic bombs were hurled against her!

That experimentation was one of the chief reasons for using the atomic bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki is fully evidenced by the U.S. Government’s immediate dispatching (after the acceptance of the surrender of Japan) numerous atomic bomb scientists to survey the exact extent of the devastation caused by their (?) “crowning achievement.” In addition to this, the army of the U.S. Government has already conducted atomic bomb experiments with seized Japanese ships, and with schedulled similar experiments yet to be made on submarines.

Another criminal reason for employing the atomic bomb against an already beaten enemy came to light on November 16, 1945, via the radio. The well-known Commentator, Mr. Raymond Gram Swing, made on that day a most startling revelation: When the atomic bomb was completed, the scientists presented an appeal to President Truman not to order its employment before the Japanese Government could be asked to witness a demonstration of its destructive powers. Mr. Truman turned down the request.

Mr. Swing, who has been the acknowledged unofficial spokesman of the U.S. Government during the war (and whose broadcasts were the only one of any news commentator to be used also by the British Government-controlled Broadcasting Corporation), suggested that perhaps the sole reason as to why President Truman had refused to accede to the appeal of the scientists was due to his knowing the secret agreed date given to him at Potsdam by Stalin for Russia’s entrance into the War against Japan. And since Japan was known to him to have already been beaten, Russia’s entrance would have effected Japan’s complete collapse even without the use of any atomic bomb. But, to have allowed this to happen would have only strengthened Russia’s already established powerful military, and in turn, its political power in the chess-game of world politics.

If one is to accept this very plausible reason for employing the atomic bomb, alongside of the one of it having been employed as an experimented weapon for use in future wars — the moral and physical crime enacted by the “democratic” States, stands out as one that even surpasses the criminal designs and acts perpetuated by the fascists and nazis.

The use of the word surpasses is made advisedly. For the pretentious “democratic” State has always been wrapping around itself the hypocritical and sanctimonious cloak of decency, morality, “god fearing”, and of consideration for the sacredness of human life and welfare.

The nazis and fascists never attempted to fool anyone by such methods. They called their ugly deeds by their real names. The common man didn’t have to figure twice before realising what a deadly enemy he was facing. The manner in which that charlatan Mussolini was killed and spat upon by the people of Italy gave ample proof as to what they really thought of fascism. No doubt the German people would have meted out the same treatment to Hitler had they had a chance to do so.

But the common man is, thanks to the evil use made of the press and radio, easily mislead in supporting their equally and far more insidious State, chiefly as a result of the sinister, but meaningless, lip-service that demagogues like Roosevelt and Churchill render to this adroitly fostered belief.

The revelations about the “democratic” States’ construction and ultimate employment of the two atomic bombs that alone caused the deliberate murdering of several hundred thousands of innocent men, women and children — ought to dispel once and for all time any illusion that the common man ever held of the “democratic” State having any more regard for human life and welfare than the fascist, nazi or bolshevist State.

From whatever angle one examines the State, democratic or monarchic, fascist or bolshevist, the record declares in no uncertain terms that it is the deadly enemy of the true interests of human life and welfare.

The State is the powerful established enemy of mankind.

III

Mankind is witnessing just now one of the most tragic as well as most comical performances in man’s history.

The very same “democratic” States that had cast aside all the so-called “international laws” of warfare by constructing and using the monstrous atomic bomb, pretends not to know how and by whom this frankenstein, which it has itself given birth to, should be controlled.

Since the chief culprits responsible for the actual creation of this diabolical weapon of warfare, the scientists, have come forward to participate in this verbal battle and chess-game of secret manoeuvrings for world power domination by the newly-risen imperialistic world power, the United States, it is quite proper first to digress upon the role of the scientists as such, so that we may have a clearer perspective as to the huge challenging task that now confronts the very life and well-being of mankind.

Addressing the scientific staff that had constructed the atomic bomb, one of those present at this gathering, wrote a report in the New York Times of October 7, 1945, which states, in part:

“Never in the history of science were so many scientists recruited to perform one task . . . All the scientists realize what the bombs would mean in another war. They have wings of conscience . . . Dr. J. R. Oppenheimer specifically stated that he would not say one word to alleviate the fears of those of us who might feel that we had actually done a terrible thing and indicated that this should remain a problem to be solved by our conscience . . . He felt that we owed a great deal to the people of this country, and that, at least as a short term view of things, we had to some extent paid our debt.”

Dr. Oppenheimer’s (the chief of the staff) statement is destined to become a “classic” in the infamous construction of the atomic bomb.

Standing out first in importance is the brutal frank admission that they, the scientists, were fully aware of the murderous weapon that they constructed for the use by the State against the human race!

The most preposterous part of Dr. Oppenheimer’s statement lies in his attempt to offer an alibi for their criminal act — that by doing what they did, they had paid “a debt” to the people of the United States!

No more dastardly falsehood, deliberate or otherwise, could have been advanced.

Dr. Oppenheimer, and his staff of foreign and native associates, know only too well that the people of the U.S. were not consulted in any manner whatsoever about the Government’s embarkation of financing this monstrous project, just as their assent to employ this weapon was never asked. Furthermore, Dr. Oppenheimer knew only too well that every person associated with this diabolical project was sworn to the utmost secrecy from the people, as well as constantly surrounded by agents of the Government to assure its enforcement.

And finally, when the day of vengeance will come about, as it is most likely bound to, it is none other but the people of the U.S. that will be made to pay the same horrible price, as did the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Had Dr. Oppenheimer cared to be at least straightforward in attempting to offer an alibi, he could simply have stated that the U.S. Government had forced the scientists to perfect their own self-conceived frankenstein that they, themselves, had brought on a platter to it. Of course, it would still remain a dubious alibi, since, if they really had held any consideration for the welfare of mankind, they could simply have proven this by not submitting the plan to the government in the first place!

From any angle that one may wish to view it — the role of the scientists in the construction and employment of the atomic bomb will forever remain one of the most abominable acts ever perpetrated against the human race.

The fact that as far as it is known to date, not a single scientist is known to have refused participating in the construction of the atomic bomb is, in itself, one of the most dishonourable aspects of the whole project.

No one has a moral right to cast aspersions, or upbraid radicals, artists, writers or scientists who escaped from their respective countries when their lives were in jeopardy. Such action did not harm directly one’s fellow men. Indirectly, it may be argued that it did affect the struggle against the prevailing tyrannies from which they have fled. At its worst though such action need only be accounted to one’s own conscience.

(In a most remarkably frank article by Prof Karl Brandt, “Germans Are Human Too”, in The Progressive of October 22, 1945, he wrote, in part:

“A day after Hitler came to power, terror was in effect . . . I saw very clearly that I could land and end very quickly in a camp. However, being a coward and no hero, and clinging to this little bit of life for myself and my wife, I chose to leave everything behind . . . But millions of the best Germans neither had the opportunity to emigrate, nor did they want to give up what they loved . . .”)

The inhuman scientists, as well as their apologists are today busily engaged in suggesting that this monstrous creation could also be used for the benefit of mankind.

The same defence was made for the scientists’ introduction of gunpowder, the submarine, and the airplane.

Yet it is more than questionable, if one should examine the toll that man has been paying for the introduction of gunpowder, the submarine, and the airplane, as to whether mankind would not have been far better off without them.

(Deaths in the American Revolution were 4,044. In the war of 1812 — 1,877. In the Mexican war — 1,721. In the Union side of the Civil War — 110,070, and in the Confederate side — 74,524. In the Spanish American War — 345. In the First World War — 50,000. Incomplete estimate of death in the Second World War — 300,000. A total of 543,00 in 170 years of existence of the United States. In contrast to this, the automobile alone in less than half a century has caused approximately 1,000,000 deaths!)

The concern and uneasiness that the unloosening of the atomic bomb has brought upon the world speaks for itself.

Realizing their guilt in making possible the creation of the atomic bomb, the scientists are now making an attempt to cover up their criminal deed by coming forward to advise mankind as to who should be entrusted with this terrible diabolical weapon that they have created.

In the Saturday Review of Literature for October 13, 1945 there is a statement by “The Association of Oak Ridge (Tennessee) Scientists, at Clinton Laboratories,” wherein it is said, in part:

“. . . We, as scientists who knowingly contributed to the development of atomic power, feel keenly the responsibility we accepted in helping to create this force . . . We submit that anything less than a single world policy with regards to atomic power and weapons can result only in catastrophe . . . We feel that participation by every nation in some plan for a single world control of atomic energy is an inescapable conclusion.”

The suggested plan of the scientists is only matched by their crimeful creation: the atomic bomb. And it therefore behoves everyone to become most deeply concerned in examining their suggested plan for a world power of all nations — a super-State.

What is the foundation upon which such a super-State is to be constructed?

And who are those powers that will constitute such a super-State, and into whose hands may this menacing weapon which threatens the whole of mankind safely be entrusted?

Whilst the “Four Freedoms” Alliance was engaged in staging a United Nations Conference of all “peace loving nations” at San Francisco, two of its chief members, the United States and Great Britain, were long before (years in fact) secretly aware of their own sinister and criminal design and engagement in the creation of such a powerful monstrous war weapon that would make, as they now openly and shamelessly admit, the creation of a United Nations organization — obsolete.

Russia, one of the leading three powers, has already accused the other two of using the atomic bomb as a blackmail weapon against all other nations.

Before the atomic bomb was employed every one knew that these three powers have secretly carved up their eventual spoils of victory by dividing the world into spheres of influence, or balances of power.

Whatever these three world powers have decided upon during the entire war as well as since their “victory”, has been done not only without any knowledge or consent of the peoples over whom they reign, but in complete secrecy from them.

Since in any conceived super-State these three leading powers would play the deciding role — how could then the atomic bomb scientists sincerely come forward and lend their support to build a new world power upon such a self-evidently rotten foundation?

These scientists may not be fully aware of it, but to support the creation of such a super-State will not only fail to assure the future safety and existence of mankind, but will actually accomplish the very opposite purpose.

Assuming that the three leading “victorious” powers will eventually patch-up (for the time being) their secretly arranged divisions of the spoils of war, and the “peace” which follows it, can any sane and well intentioned person conscientiously pretend that such a triumvirate ought to be entrusted with the future fate of mankind?

If for no other reason but that of the total secrecy that has accompanied every one of the ‘Four Freedoms” Alliance conferences, including the formation of the so-called United Nations organization, this unholy new triumvirate has forfeited its right to be trusted by the people, not only of their respective countries, but equally so, of the whole world.

But by far the most important reason why mankind can no longer entrust its very existence to such hands, lies in the manner in which the two leading “democratic” States have, in total disregard of their own people, and mankind as a whole, been directly responsible for the creation, construction and employment of the most diabolical war weapon ever devised by man — the atomic-bomb. And last but not least, that: the two atomic bombs were employed without any semblance of justification — since the “enemy” against whom they were employed was long before known to have been defeated and pleading for peace!

The inhumane scientists’ suggestion of entrusting the employment of the atomic bomb in any sort of a super-State would spell suicide for the human race.

And to entrust this lethal weapon to a world power that has already forfeited any moral right to be trusted by mankind is doubly suicidal.

There can be but one answer to this dangerous as well as insidious suggestion put forward by the inhumane scientists: from the voices and hearts of the peoples in every nook and corner throughout the world must resound a thunderous emphatic NO!!

Mankind is today confronted with a challenge never equalled in importance in the history of man: It is the challenge of Life and Death for itself, the human race!

And it lies within the manner in which the peoples everywhere meet, in common unison, this challenge hurled at it by the State — the world over — that the answer will be given as to whether mankind is to survive at all.

IV

The inhumane scientists’ bringing into the world this new diabolical war weapon — the atomic bomb — has, rightly, alarmed thinking people the world over to an extent never equalled before.

The very same scientists who have thrown the whole of mankind into this epoch-making crisis admit that any future wars will actually spell the end of mankind, thanks to their “successful achievement” in perfecting the atomic bomb.

Many religious mendicants are cashing in on this crisis, by furthering their beliefs about the “prophecies foretold in the Bible” of man’s ultimate doom, and appealing to man to turn to “god” ere it’s too late.

Completing the black picture is the open boast by the President of the U.S. that its “democratic” State, despite the fact of having just come out of World War II as a victorious partner of the “Four Freedoms” Alliance, is nevertheless feverishly engaged in continuing its secretive manufacturing of atomic bombs.

And it is likewise known that the Governments of nearly every other country are, thanks to the willing co-operation of the scientists of all such countries, equally engaged in perfecting the same monstrous frankenstein war-weapon that now menaces the very existence of the whole of mankind.

Under such circumstances is it at all safe to follow the suggestion advanced by nearly all political schools of thought, as well as by the scientists, that this newly devised world-menacing war weapon should be entrusted into the hands of a super-State power?

As was pointed out, the State as an institution, has by the very construction and employment of the atomic bomb, forfeited any further right to be trusted by mankind.

The feverish continued activity by every State on the field of perfecting and manufacturing of the atomic bomb only emphasizes the fact no kind of State should be trusted any longer.

And any contemplated super-State or Federation of States into a World Power — be the name what it may — in whose hands this new weapon will be placed — will, in actuality, be placing it in the hands of the most powerful States.

In turn, if mankind should ever allow this to happen, such a super-State would become a deadly blackjack against any oppressed people, and an insurance policy for the continued domination and exploitation by the imperialist cliques of the world.

In short, such a super-State would become the greatest counter-revolutionary force against everything that the inherent spirit of mankind has always hoped and dreamed, laboured and sacrificed for: social and political emancipation.

For mankind, at this time, to accept the super-State idea as a possible method of safeguarding its very future existence, would, in the end, prove to be suicidal.

Is there then no hope at all left for mankind to find a way out in meeting this challenge of Life or Death that the State has everywhere confronted it with?

We are firmly convinced that mankind can meet this challenge, but in a far different manner than has as yet been suggested by any other social school of thought.

Mankind cannot save itself through the formation of any kind of a political organization composed of States.

Mankind can assure its future safety and well-being only by and through its own determination to immediately set to work in acting in a far flung direction that will make this possibility become a reality.

First and foremost: in every nook and corner throughout the world where human beings dwell, a full realization should come into being that war in itself is both a moral as well as a physical crime against each and all humans alike.

Second in importance follows as a logical consequence of the first realization just spoken of, and that is, to wit: only mankind alone has the sole and real means whereby it can make any kind of future wars impossible.

How is such a task to be accomplished?

Once mankind has begun to look upon war as a moral and physical crime, it follows then that it cannot do anything else but henceforth refuse to participate in any kind of labour that contributes towards the production of any kind of war weapons.

But, in the meantime, there remains the already stored up war weapons in the secretive warehouses of every State — that remain a deadly menace to the safety of mankind.

What is to be done about that?

There can be but one logical answer to this: mankind must see to it that the complete destruction of every war weapon in existence is immediately carried out.

And the next direct step to make impossible the very inception of any future wars is: that every call for military service by any Government should be met by a complete refusal to obey it.

For, if war comes to be looked upon — for what it really is — a moral and physical crime, then what reason remains for any sane and honest human being to allow himself willingly to be taught the art of criminal inhuman murder of his fellowmen?

Since centred around the newly diabolical frankenstein creation of the scientists’ atomic bomb, and its being used in any future war, and it is admitted that by its very use it threatens the existence of the whole of mankind, then what can be more direct, logical and effective than the plan we have just sketched in making any kind of future wars impossible?

Yes, indeed! Mankind can and is in a position to meet the challenge of Life and Death that the institution of the State, the world over, has hurled at it.

Has mankind the necessary fortitude and courage to meet this challenge as we have pointed out that it may and can?

In the manner in which mankind accepts or ignores our suggested plan for meeting this challenge lies the answer that is now uppermost in the minds of every thinking person: shall it be the ushering in of a safe and sane life for each and all of us in the near future or the grim and unavoidable doom of total extinction?

You and I, all of us can and ought to spell out the answer in such a clear-cut and determined manner that all the existing rulers and exploiters throughout the world shall understand that at last mankind has risen and accepted their challenge and is ready to meet it in such a way that will spell life for everything that is humane and just, good and beautiful — just as it shall, as a concomitant, bring an end to everything that is inhumane and unjust, evil and ugly.

When mankind has at last risen to understand the power that it has, but never made use of as yet until now, wars shall no longer menace its very existence.

And with wars eliminated what logical reason remains there for mankind’s continued sufferance of the ruler and exploiter of man over his fellowmen?

None whatsoever.

The road of statism is the road that has led, as everyone can now plainly see, to the very brink of the destruction of the human race.

The road we suggest, voluntary co-operation and federation between man and fellowman, spells ultimate and complete social and political emancipation for every human being, race and colour.

Our road, is the sole road that leads to freedom and happiness for the whole of mankind.

Marcus Graham