At the conferences of the Second Interntional
(IAA) in 1891 and 1893, anarchists,
including Nieuwenhuis, presented
resolutions that envisioned a call for general
conscientious objection and for a general
strike in the event of a declaration of
war. The majority of the IAA, however,
believed that all wars would disappear if
capitalism could be removed.
Nieuwenhuis spoke out against the
socialist democracy, declaring that they
did not want to abolish the military institution,
but rather wanted to reform it. In
a speech aimed at Karl Liebknecht, he
firmly declared, "... that we anarchists
know, that with the removal of capitalism
... militarism is still not removed. ... The
social democrats do not want to target
militarism at its roots; they merely want
a peoples' army. They only want to
change the form, not the essence. What
the social democrats call antimilitarism,
in truth, is to reform the army,... it is also
what the radical Bourgeoisie want." 2 Nieuwenhuis saw that a socialist
democracy could not take a more radical
position on antimilitarism, because it
strives for power to be located within the
state and therefore remains dependent on
the use of the military as a means of state
power in securing domination.
Nieuwenhuis's ideas foresaw that the
social democrats approval of a "war of
defence" would end in chauvinism. This
was borne out during the First World
War (1914-1918) when social democrats
and socialists served as soldiers of their
respective countries and as defenders of
their "homeland" in the war, and mutually
murdered themselves.
Power from obedience
For Nieuwenhuis, individual personal
responsibility provided orientation for
political action. Nieuwenhuis stands in
the philosophical tradition of the Frenchman
Etienne de la Boetie (1530-63). In
his essay entitled Of Voluntary Servitude,
Etienne de la Boetie threw light on the
whole social edifice and exposed the fact
that leaders only have power when people
allow them to have it.
Official authority - the legal power
over others - is more moral than physical
in character. It depends less on violence
than on respect, that is, on the belief that
those in power have the right to govern.
Several centuries later Domela Nieuwenhuis
had this to say on the subject: "A people in uniform is its own tyrant!"
3 In 1915, Nieuwenhuis was a signatory
to a call to conscientious objection. It
stated: "We declare publicly that we take
a stand with our entire soul against everything
that belongs to militarism, and also
against a so-called peoples' army. As far
as anyone should oblige us to take part in
armed national defence, we hope to possess
the power to refuse our direct personal
participation, [to possess] the power to
subject ourselves to imprisonment, to
even being shot, rather than to practise
treason against our conscience, our conviction,
or against what we consider to be
the highest law of general humanity. Personal
conscientious objection has a huge
moral value and contributes to achieving
conscientious objection of the masses."4
Resolving "good power"
Karl Liebknecht also performed civil disobedience
and refused participation in
war preparations in the parliament. On 2
December 1914, he was the only parliamentarian
in the German Reichstag to
reject a move to further finance the war.
Though in August he had subjected himself
to party discipline and had voted in
support of financing the war.
Liebknecht was murdered by soldiers
in 1919 along with Rosa Luxemburg.
Both wanted a socialism connected with a
"peaceful state" and "good power". However,
this model of the real socialism has
failed historically.
The War Resisters International
(WRI) was established 1921, and we continue
in a political and critical way to - as
Nieuwenhuis highlighted - try to resolve
the axioms of "state" and "power" and to
strive for a nonviolent society.
Notes:1 Karl Liebknecht, Gesammelte Reden und Schriften(Berlin, 1983).
2 Domela Nieuwenhuis, Sozialdemokratischer und anarchistischer Antimilitarismus (In Die freie Generation, Heft 16, Bd2 2 Jg, 1908, p230).
3 Bart de Ligt, The Conquest of Violence (1937), Pluto Press London, 1989).
4 Bart de Ligt, Kriegsbekämpfung in den Niederlanden(In Franz Kobler: Gewalt und Gewaltlosigkeit(Zurich/Leipzig 1928, p208)). In 1907 Liebknecht was sentenced to 18 months in prison for "high treason" for his anti-militarist propaganda). Wolfram Beyer is the WRI Section Representative of Internationale der Kriegsdienstgegner/innen (IDK) Berlin, Germany. You can find out more about Nieuwenhuis at http://www.iisg.nl/collections/domelauk.html You can find out more about Karl Liebknecht at http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/LiebknechtKarl
