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From The Militant, Vol. X No. 24, 15 June 1946, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The most frightful development of warfare under capitalism – the ruthless employment of the atomic bomb on civilian populations – has planted a deep fear among the masses of the entire world.
This fear is based on the fact that capitalist rulers, having inflicted two world wars on humanity, will plunge the world into a third holocaust.
The Bikini atomic bomb maneuvers scheduled for July show how well-founded is this fear of the masses. For these maneuvers are clearly part of Wall Street’s preparation for a Third World War that will surpass anything yet seen in destruction and slaughter.
Wall Street attempts to allay the uneasiness of the people with demagogy about “controlling” the use of atomic energy. One faction advocates putting control in the hands of the military caste. Another proposes civilian control. A third, control by the United Nations Organization.
But the bitter truth is that under all these proposals the capitalist class will retain its monopoly over atomic energy as a war weapon. It is absolutely certain that if the capitalist system is not abolished in time, civilization and a good part of the human race will be destroyed in a global atomic war. No city or town anywhere can count on exemption. The capitalist powers are already engaged in a mad atomic armaments race.
There is only one way to avert the catastrophe. And that is to establish the planned and rational order of socialism.
But the workers can take an immediate step forward in the struggle against the capitalist diversion of atomic energy into military channels. The workers must take control of atomic energy away from the Wall Street warmongers. Let the workers demand and set up their own control.
Let the workers through their trade unions and other organizations put responsible committees in control over the mining of the fissionable materials from which atomic energy is derived. Let them set up control over the plants now producing atomic explosives. And let the workers’ organizations take control of the dangerous dumps where the Truman Administration is secretly storing atomic bombs.
The working class and its allies, the poor of city and countryside, the vast majority of the population, constitute the only power capable of effectively opposing the warmongering designs of the capitalist class.
Taking control over the entire production of atomic energy away from Wall Street and putting it in hands of responsible workers’ organizations is not only the right of the American working class but its inescapable duty to the people of the entire earth.
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