THIS QUART.ER
9
ties may look odd. But odder still is the fact that a majority of the sign–
ers are now supporting Roosevelt and the Democratic Party quite as
ardently as they are preaching a holy
im~erialist
war against fascism.
Six years have sufficed to reconcile these irreconcilable revolution–
aries to the existing order. And so complete is their change of heart
that they now make it their duty to identify the "values" of Western
culture with the continued domination of the world by the Anglo-/
French bloc of imperialists.
And let us not be thrown off guard by the anti-fascist mask of
these liberal and "Communist" defenders of culture. The more cow–
ardly they,
if
they think the victories of fascism can be arrested by an
abject surrender to bourgeois democracy. Look to your Daladier, lad–
ies and gentlemen of the democratic opposition to fascism, remember
Chamberlain, and beware of Roosevelt!
The left-wing "realists" who rejected the warnings of the Marx–
ist minority have been rewarded by the "Peace of Munich." Now they
seek refuge in moral indignation. Overnight these self-styled
Realpoiit–
iker,
proven to be dupes, have turned into moralists. The press of the
People's Front is at present covering up the historical refutation of its
policies by appeals to abstract morality. Periodicals like the
Nation
and the
New Republic
cry 'Treachery!' And who is the traitor? None
other than Chamberlain, the political head of the British governing
class. And what did he betray? The Soviet Union, liberalism, democ–
racy. But Chamberlain has neither given any hostages to democracy
nor has he any reason to defend the Soviet Union. He acted in the in–
terests of
his
class, as any other bourgeois politician would do-and is
it necessary to repeat the commonplace that to bourgeois politicians
"national" interests are at all timeS secondary to class interests? Cham–
berlain is an obvious
enemy,
not a traitor. It is much more to the point
to characterize as traitors those who instead of fighting the British im–
perialists, specialized in giving them gratuitous advice how best to pro–
tect their Empire against the depredations of their rivals; who silenced
the masses while the Munich agreement was being prepared behind
the scenes; who told us that if we wish to preserve democracy we must
preserve the existing property relations; and who instructed the
French workers and intellectuals that to place their confidence in Dal–
adier is to act in the best interests of the Soviet Union.
Hitler is now the master of continental Europe. The "democra–
cies" stand exposed as
his
collaborators. On the wreck of the Versailles
system arises the specter of a new Holy Alliance. People on the Left,
