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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Roger Martin du Gard: Selections on war
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Roger Martin du Gard
From Summer 1914 (1936)
Translated by Stuart Gilbert
“Are we going to stand idly by, waiting like sheep till they dispatch us to the slaughter-house? Are we to trust the various governments with their fine talk about their desire for peace? Who are the people who’ve plunged Europe into the hopeless muddle it’s in today? Can we be mad enough to hope that these same men – statesmen, premiers, monarchs, and the rest of them – who by their plotting and scheming have brought us to the brink of disaster, will now succeed, by their precious conferences, in preserving peace – this peace that they’ve cold-bloodedly imperilled? No! It’s too late in the day to expect governments to preserve the cause of peace. The issue, peace or war, is in the hands of the masses. In our hands and no others!”
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“A strike,” he cried, “that’s the one form of action which can save us all. Just think what it means! Our leaders issue their appeal, and on the same day, at the same hour, everywhere simultaneously, all the activities of the country come to a standstill. Automatically the strike order empties factories, shops, and government offices. Along the main roads pickets hold up supplies on their way to the city markets. Bread, meat, and milk are rationed by the strike committee. Water, gas, and electricity are cut off. There are no more trains, or buses, or taxis. No more letters or newspapers. No more telegrams or telephone calls. Every cogwheel of the machine has stopped with a jerk. The streets are full of panic-stricken crowds drifting to and fro. But there are no riots, no street-fights. Only silence and consternation. What could the government do against that? What chance would they have of stemming such an onslaught with the police and a few thousand volunteers? How could they collect supplies at such short notice or have them distributed to the population? Why, they couldn’t even feed their own policemen and troops! Even the supporters of their nationalist pretensions would turn against them – and there’d be nothing left them but to capitulate. How many days – no, not days – how many hours could they hold out against such a deadlock, a total stoppage of every public utility? And, faced with such a demonstration of the power of the masses, what statesman would ever dare again even to contemplate a war? What government would dare to issue guns and ammunition to a nation in revolt against it?”
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“The hour is critical, but we still have the last word. The weapon in our hands is so tremendous that I really don’t think we’d need to use it. The mere threat of a strike – once the government was convinced that the whole working-class without exception was determined to resort to it – would be enough to give a new turn to the policy which has brought us to the brink of the abyss. My friends, you ask: ‘What is our duty?’ Well, it’s simple, and it’s clear. We must have one aim only: peace. We must drop party differences and unite. Unite in saying ‘No!’ and fighting against war. We must rally round the leaders of the International, and bid them spare no pains to organize the general strike, the mass attack of the forces of the proletariat, on which hangs the fate of France, the destiny of Europe.”
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