1939: Coming to grips with war

World War I (1939-1945)antimilitarism, draft-resistanceSwitzerland.- History of anarchism

Coming to Grips With the War: the ratification of the Russo- German Pact was followed immediately by war; the silence imposed by the ideologists (Communist and Nazi) has allowed the cannons to speak by Federation Anarchiste Romande, Geneva, 1939

TO THE WORKERS: NO STATE, NO WAR
Perhaps the tragic hour could have been postponed, but there was no hope that it could have been avoided. In these days of feverish and agonizing anticipation, in the face of the frightful menace, the peoples of all nations remain irresolute. Their passivity has its roots in the consolidation of human societies into powerful and ever-more militarized states. The pretext for this consolidation has been the necessity of repressing violent individuals and groups. But what it has actually achieved is the most monstrous organization of violence and the compulsory education of everyone in destruction and murder. And that is one of the basic reasons why anarchists want to deprive the state of the armed force it perpetually uses to threaten all those subject to its power. Because citizens have renounced their most sacred rights, and are used by states as instruments of life and death, the world’s fate is in the hands of a few governments. The state machinery has been perfected to such a point that it is nearly impossible for an individual to escape.