British Socialism: An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical ProposalsBarker, J. Ellis
History
British Socialism: An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals
Barker, J. Ellis
Socialism; Socialism -- Great Britain
"That this Conference believes that the time has come when militarism
in every form should be denounced and resisted as alien to civil
freedom and social progress, and expresses itself emphatically against
compulsory military service, and the attempts which are being made to
introduce military training in public schools or other public
institutions, and views with alarm the purposes of Mr. Haldane's Army
Territorial Bill, which, if passed, will make military service
practically compulsory under officers drawn wholly from, the upper
classes, will make industrial employment dependent upon military
service, and, instead of promoting international unity, will foster
and increase the spirit of militarism and aggression."[547]
In moving this resolution Mr. Glasier said that "he denounced
militarism root and branch," and Mr. Keir Hardie, a Communist
Socialist, in seconding, said: "The resolution was not only a
declaration against militarism, but a special and specific
condemnation of the Territorial Army Scheme now before the House of
Commons. The Socialist party was bound to protest against a system of
that kind. The particular feature which emphasised the danger was that
there were to be county associations formed to have charge of the new
territorial forces, and to have a majority of military men upon them
with landlords and possibly employers of labour. A citizen army was as
great a menace to an industrial population as a professional army. The
new army would be recruited from the people, and officered by the
enemies of the people, just as the professional army was. Children
were to be taught that the flag was the great thing to value in life.
They would find that a citizen army, officered by the rich and
recruited from their own ranks, would be taught to regard the flag as
something holy, while they shot down strikers and Socialists just as
freely as the most exclusive professional army in the world could do.
Patriotism was one of the weapons used by the enemies of the people to
blind them to facts."[548]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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