Engels' analysis, also echoed by Lenin and Trotsky, in relation to WWI and II, that such an increasing militarisation would lead to a class conscious proletariat, so mobilised, overthrowing the ruling-class, has been superseded by the continued development of imperialism. The principle outlined that “The Main Enemy Is At Home”, remains, but imperialism, now, using relatively small numbers of soldiers, but large masses of technology and equipment, no longer requires the large, mass mobilisation of the proletariat as infantry. It requires only a small number, who, much as with the police, are recruited from amongst those with the kinds of ideological beliefs that make them willing instruments of the ruling-class. Even in the case of WWIII, that is likely to be true, because the ultimate expression of that labour-saving, military technology is the thermonuclear arsenals, which will rapidly be resorted to, as a result of the dialectics of war, resulting in the destruction of humanity.
As Engels notes,
“... the armies of the princes become transformed into armies of the people; the machine refuses to work and militarism collapses by the dialectics of its own development.” (p 218)
To implement the principle that “The Main Enemy Is At Home”, today, it is only by the industrial proletariat opposing war credits, i.e. opposing any increase in military spending, by securing control of production, and blacking war supplies to imperialism and its professional armies that such a drive to war can be stopped. But, the ruling-class, in each state, will not allow such action to continue, as it would use those same professional armies, alongside the fascist gangs, against them. Only by, now, taking on the task of independently organising workers in democratically controlled defence squads and militia can we prepare for and counter such reaction.
“Nowadays any go ahead NCO could explain to Herr Dühring how greatly, the conduct of a war depends on the productivity and means of communication of the army's own hinterland as well as of the theatre of war. In short, always and everywhere it is the economic conditions and instruments of power which help “force” to victory, and without which force ceases to be force, and anyone who tried to reform methods of warfare from the opposite standpoint, according to Dühringian principles, would certainly earn nothing but a beating.” (p 219)
Engels continues this analysis, moving from the land army to the navy, making the point that wooden sailing ships had been replaced by iron-clads, and, then, steel ships, continually increasing in size, replacing sail by steam, which powered the turrets upon which stood ever larger guns.
“The battleship of the present day is a gigantic armoured screw-driven steamer of 8,000 to 9,000 tons displacement and 6,000 to 8,000 horse power, with revolving turrets and four or at most six heavy guns, the bow being extended under water line into a ram for running down enemy vessels. It is a single colossal machine, in which steam not only drives the ship at a high speed, but also works the steering-gear, raises the anchor, swings the turrets, changes the elevation of the guns and loads them, pumps out water, hoists and lowers the boats—some of which are themselves also steam-driven—and so forth.” (p 220-1)
In other words, the point made earlier that, as in industry, there are economies of scale, and labour-saving technologies.
“The modern battleship is not only a product, but at the same time a specimen of modern large-scale industry, a floating factory mainly producing - a lavish waste of money. The country in which large-scale industry is most highly developed has almost a monopoly of the construction of these ships. All Turkish, almost all Russian and most German armoured vessels have been built in England; armour-plates that are at all serviceable are made almost solely in Sheffield; of the three steelworks in Europe which alone are able to make the heaviest guns, two (Woolwich and Elswick) are in England, and the third (Krupp) in Germany.” (p 221)
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