brought about by the peace treaties and the bankruptcy of the Peace of Versailles by an endless series of conferences.
The attempts to overthrow the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in Russia have failed. The proletariat of all capitalist countries appears more and more in favour of Soviet Russia. Even the leaders of the Amsterdam International must acknowledge that the fall of the proletarian rule in Russia would mean the victory of the world reaction over the whole proletariat.
Turkey, as outpost of the uprising Orient, has successfully opposed the carrying out of the peace treaty by force of arms. An important part of the peace treaty is being solemnly buried at the Lausanne Conference.
The continuous economic crisis in the whole world proves that the economic conceptions underlying the Versailles Treaty are without foundation.
Without the restoration of Germany and Russia, England, the leading European imperialist power which is greatly dependent upon world trade, cannot consolidate its industries. The strongest imperialist power, the U.S.A., turned its back upon the peace treaty, and is attempting to erect its world imperialism independent of Europe. In this it is supported by important sections of the British Empire—Canada and Australia.
The oppressed colonies of England, the basis of its world power, are rebelling; the whole Mahomedan world is in a state of open or latent revolt.
All the provisions of the Peace Treaty have become void, except the one that the bourgeoisie of all countries have been able to shift the burden of the war and the Peace Treaty upon the proletariat.
France.
Apparently France, above all other victorious States, has increased her power. In addition to the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine, and her claim to many unpaid billions of German indemnities, France has actually become the strongest military power of the European Continent. With its vassal states, whose armies are trained and led by French generals (Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania) with its own large army, with its fleet of submarines and its squadrons of aeroplanes, it rules the Continent; it is the guardian of the Versailles Peace Treaty. But the economic basis of France, its diminishing population, its ever-growing home and foreign debts, and the resultant dependence upon England and America, gives sufficient foundation for her boundless imperialist desires of expansion. Politically, she finds herself hemmed in by England's control of the most important seaports and the Anglo-American monopoly of petroleum. Economically her increased possession of iron ore is rendered worthless because the coal
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