Stopping a War/Chapter 14
14. Fraternize!
Long live France, in God's name!Let the French proletariat perish!
At the beginning of the struggle l'Humanité published a front page appeal to the relatives and friends of soldiers, advising them that the Government was hiding the truth concerning the Riff War and that it was necessary for those interested in the soldiers to publish the truth, since the government would not even tell how many soldiers have been sent "to fight the war of the bankers." "They pretend beside that the soldiers are happy to take part in this war for the profit of colonial freebooters, of parliamentary speculators and of the Bangue de Paris et des Pays-Bas, of which the sole object is to wipe out a free people in order to use their rich mines. But we know that the soldiers leave, shouting 'Down with war! Peace with the Riffians!'"
The appeal concludes with the request that all letters and other information from soldiers be sent to l'Humanité. Large quantities of this material have since been published.
Soldiers, I am proud of you!
On July 1 l'Humanité printed the story of a soldier who turned to some women as he was taking his place in the train and said: "Have some children in order that the bourgeoisie may send them to the shambles at the age of twenty." On July 24 l'Humanité printed a letter in which a soldier writes: "Again we are the victims, as were our parents, we who demand nothing but peace and who have no interest in making war." In the course of this letter the writer refers to "our great national butchers, heartless and without guts."
The Central Committee of Action, in its appeal to soldiers and sailors, wrote:
"Despite the promises which were made to us in 1918, war has begun again in Morocco, and it is as horrible as that which ravaged the earth during more than four years,
"The object of this war is not to save national honor. They are sending you to die in Morocco in order that the bankers may get their hands on the rich resources of the Riff Republic, to enrich a handful of capitalists. …
"Fraternize with the Riffians,
"Stop the war in Morocco."[1]
Two days later, on July 22, l'Humanité printed the following comment on the war:
"The workers of this country realize more and more that the Moroccan War was started by the military clique at the direction of European capitalists, in particular of French capitalists, in the person of the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas.
"Why?
"Because capitalism hopes, after the defeat of the Riff people, to secure the deposits of iron and copper and the reserves of petroleum that lie in the Riff subsoil.
"That is why and that is for whom the sons of workers and of peasants are being killed in Morocco.
"It is against them, and against that, that the Riffians are defending themselves. …
"The imperative duty of the workers who would hasten the end of this criminal slaughter and who would spare the lives of our sons and of our brothers is very plain:
"Workers of France and of the Riff, fraternize!"
- ↑ L'Humanité, July 20, 1925.