Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/158

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MILITARISM

eral civilization of her ruling classes and is the natural inclination of her militarism, which has literally bathed itself, ever since the first timid stirrings of the proletariat, in the blood of peaceful workmen who in monstrous misery were crying for deliverance. One must not cite any particular event, as that would mean tearing in a petty and arbitrary spirit a link out of an endless chain. For every drop of proletarian blood that has been shed in the economic struggle in all the other countries taken together, Czarism has crushed a proletarian body, in order to suppress the most modest beginnings of a labor movement.

An employment of military power similar in its nature we observe in the activities of the colonial armies and constabularies against those natives of the colonies who will not willingly allow themselves to be brought under the yoke of the meanest exploitation and greed. However, we can not deal more fully with this particular subject.

It must still be mentioned that often no sharp distinction can be made in this connection between the army proper and the constabulary and the