Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/189

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SOME CARDINAL SINS
157

as a matter of course that the veterans' associations also interfere in strikes. To be sure, they are not able to take an active part in the violent suppression of the economic struggles of labor, but they may yet be called predestined strike-breaking organizations. In certain places at least one would very much like to employ them for that purpose. But the full exploitation of the veterans' associations for that purpose is impeded by the following facts and considerations: that these clubs contain, in spite of all the precautions taken, a considerable percentage of oppositional and even Social Democratic elements; that it is in conflicts between capital and labor sooner than in other cases that even the most lamb-like workmen, men who are least intelligent in regard to social questions find themselves getting angry and have an appreciation of the class-struggle and the position of their own class drummed into them; and that too reckless an anti-labor policy fails in its purpose and rouses even the Catholic and Liberal labor organizations. At any rate, the discussion about this subject which took place in July, 1906,