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PARTISAN REVIEW
the ruling as well as the ruled classes. That "Free State" which
Engels defined as "a state which is free in relation to its citizens"
is coming into existence.
AND THE
"FREE WAR"
This process seems to throw some light on the
long delay in the outbreak of serious hostilities
between the major belligerents. The old pat–
tern of imperialism was that first the bankers and Inerchants and
industrialists of the various nations would struggle among them–
selves for foreign markets, for new fields for capital investment,
for cheap colonial sources of labor and raw materials. When this
economic struggle reached an impasse, the State power would step
in to carry it to its final settlement by force of arms. The last war
conformed to this pattern. For decades the bourgeoisie of each
nation competed with their rivals in other countries for overseas
markets and investment outlets, the tensions being steadily, auto–
matically built up by the pressure of rising levels of productivity,
until the spark of Sarajevo finally exploded the powder pile.
It is significant that the specific excuse for this war was not
the fortuitous act of a single terrorist, but rather the deliberate,
official actions taken by Germany and England over the question
of Danzig. The last war was, so to speak, an "unconscious," auto–
matic affair, an irruption of forces blindly accumulating beneath
the surface. The way in which this war broke out and has been
conducted reBects the greater degree of State control over the eco–
nomic processes of capitalism. Especially in Germany but also in
England and France, the State has conducted the economic strug–
gles of the last few years which have finally resulted in war. The
actual declaration of war has meant not a shift of control from
private capitalism to the State, not the sudden dropping of eco–
nomic in favor of military weapons, as in 1914, but merely an
intensification of the pre-war struggles. Both sides have been able
to postpone the military showdown while racing desperately to
establish sources of supply and to bring into their economic orbits
the neutral nations.
It is a "free war" in that the governments on both sides have
a freedom of action they did not have in 1914, being able to exploit
either simultaneously or alternatively both military and economic
weapons. The two stages of imperialist struggle have been
tel~-
