Opposition to World War II
Encyclopedia
Opposition to World War II was most vocal during the early part of World War II
, and stronger still before the war
started. Some communist-led organizations with links to Comintern
opposed the war during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact but then backed it after Germany
invaded the Soviet Union
.
and many members of the British Union of Fascists
were opposed to a war with Nazi Germany
,
arguing the Soviet Union
was a greater threat to British freedom.
Mosley led a "Peace Campaign" to call for a negotiated peace with Germany. This campaign ended after Mosley and most active UK
fascists were interned under Defence Regulation 18B
in May 1940.
continued their opposition to all wars.
Mahatma Gandhi
's pacifist movement opposed the war even to the point of advocating that the British surrender, and that Jews
offer only non-violent resistance to the Nazis.. However, Gandhi still backed the use of Indian troops and territory in a pragmatic exchange for guaranteed Indian independence after the war.
The Catholic Worker Movement
was also opposed to the war.
. The commitment to pacifism, however, was balanced by militant anti-fascism
. During its Popular Front
period, the Comintern
allied with other anti-fascist parties, including right-wing parties. This policy was terminated by the Comintern when the Soviet Union
signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in August 1939.
The Communist front
organizations opposed the war during the period of the Nazi-Soviet pact. Most dutifully followed orders from Moscow. In 1940, Britain's Daily Worker
referred to the Allied war effort as "the Anglo-French imperialist war machine." At the same time, Stalin, now in alliance with Hitler, ordered a series of military adventures in Poland
, Finland
, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. He used Communist parties and front groups to oppose the war and military preparations to prepare for the war in other countries so the Allies
(Britain and France) were less able to resist aggression and to keep the US out of the war.
In the US, organizations like the American Peace Mobilization
and veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade
protested in opposition to the war, conscription
, and the Lend-Lease Act. They said of Lend-Lease, "Roosevelt needs its dictatorial powers to further his aim of carving out of a warring world, the American Empire so long desired by the Wall Street money lords."
Communist parties around the world reversed course when Germany invaded the Soviet Union
on June 22, 1941, and then advocated that material support be extended to the Soviets.
A small number of socialists (but very few Comintern members, who obeyed Moscow) continued to oppose the war, most holding that it was necessary to oppose all capitalist governments, not just those on the opposing side. Trotsky had drawn up the Proletarian Military Policy
, calling for opposition to the war and support for industrial action during it. Left communists took a similar position, as did many anarchists. Within Axis
countries, a few small groups, such as the Dutch Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front
, mirrored this position.
countries would take no part in the conflict, which they saw as one of the colonialists' making. This was perhaps strongest in India, where some nationalists went beyond opposition to the war to form the Indian National Army
and fight alongside Japanese forces. Opposition was also seen among the Ceylonese garrison on the Cocos Islands which mutinied, in part due to the influence of the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party
.
was strongest in the United States
, where oceans separated it on both sides from the war fronts. Having seen their Wilsonian
idealism for forgiveness for the Central Powers in WWI rejected, some Americans hoped to sit out this "Old World" war. The German-American Bund
even marched down the avenues of New York demanding isolationism. The isolationists, led by the America First Committee
, were a large, vocal, and powerful challenge to President Roosevelt's efforts to enter the war. Charles Lindbergh
was perhaps the most famous isolationist. The core of the movement was the Senate Republicans, but many Democrats were also isolationists. Isolationism was strongest in the Midwest with its strong German-American population.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and stronger still before the war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
started. Some communist-led organizations with links to Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
opposed the war during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact but then backed it after Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invaded the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
.
Fascism
In Britain, Oswald MosleyOswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
and many members of the British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
were opposed to a war with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
,
arguing the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
was a greater threat to British freedom.
Mosley led a "Peace Campaign" to call for a negotiated peace with Germany. This campaign ended after Mosley and most active UK
fascists were interned under Defence Regulation 18B
Defence Regulation 18B
Defence Regulation 18B, often referred to as simply 18B, was the most famous of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during World War II. The complete technical reference name for this rule was: Regulation 18B of the Defence Regulations 1939. It allowed for the internment of...
in May 1940.
Pacifism
Pacifist opposition to World War II was limited. During the conflict, a few organisations such as the Peace Pledge UnionPeace Pledge Union
The Peace Pledge Union is a British pacifist non-governmental organization. It is open to everyone who can sign the PPU pledge: "I renounce war, and am therefore determined not to support any kind of war...
continued their opposition to all wars.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
's pacifist movement opposed the war even to the point of advocating that the British surrender, and that Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
offer only non-violent resistance to the Nazis.. However, Gandhi still backed the use of Indian troops and territory in a pragmatic exchange for guaranteed Indian independence after the war.
The Catholic Worker Movement
Catholic Worker Movement
The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ." One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on...
was also opposed to the war.
Socialism
Socialists were divided in the 1930s. There was a strong element of pacifism in the socialist movement, for example in Britain's Independent Labour PartyIndependent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
. The commitment to pacifism, however, was balanced by militant anti-fascism
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
. During its Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
period, the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
allied with other anti-fascist parties, including right-wing parties. This policy was terminated by the Comintern when the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in August 1939.
The Communist front
Communist front
A Communist front organization is an organization identified to be a front organization under the effective control of a Communist party, the Communist International or other Communist organizations. Lenin originated the idea in his manifesto of 1902, "What Is to Be Done?"...
organizations opposed the war during the period of the Nazi-Soviet pact. Most dutifully followed orders from Moscow. In 1940, Britain's Daily Worker
The Morning Star
The Morning Star is a left wing British daily tabloid newspaper with a focus on social and trade union issues. Articles and comment columns are contributed by writers from socialist, social democratic, green and religious perspectives....
referred to the Allied war effort as "the Anglo-French imperialist war machine." At the same time, Stalin, now in alliance with Hitler, ordered a series of military adventures in Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...
, Finland
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. He used Communist parties and front groups to oppose the war and military preparations to prepare for the war in other countries so the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
(Britain and France) were less able to resist aggression and to keep the US out of the war.
In the US, organizations like the American Peace Mobilization
American Peace Mobilization
The American Peace Mobilization was a peace group, officially cited in 1947 by United States Attorney General Tom C. Clark on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations for 1948, as directed by President Harry S...
and veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade
Abraham Lincoln Brigade
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade refers to volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades. They fought for Spanish Republican forces against Franco and the Spanish Nationalists....
protested in opposition to the war, conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, and the Lend-Lease Act. They said of Lend-Lease, "Roosevelt needs its dictatorial powers to further his aim of carving out of a warring world, the American Empire so long desired by the Wall Street money lords."
Communist parties around the world reversed course when Germany invaded the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
on June 22, 1941, and then advocated that material support be extended to the Soviets.
A small number of socialists (but very few Comintern members, who obeyed Moscow) continued to oppose the war, most holding that it was necessary to oppose all capitalist governments, not just those on the opposing side. Trotsky had drawn up the Proletarian Military Policy
Proletarian Military Policy
The Proletarian Military Policy was a policy adopted by the Fourth International in response to World War II. It was an attempt to apply transitional demands such as trade union control of military training and the election of officers to transform what it characterised as an imperialist war into...
, calling for opposition to the war and support for industrial action during it. Left communists took a similar position, as did many anarchists. Within Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
countries, a few small groups, such as the Dutch Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front
Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front
The Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg-Front was a resistance movement founded by Henk Sneevliet, Willem Dolleman and Ab Menist, some months after the German invasion of the Netherlands on 10 May 1940...
, mirrored this position.
Nationalism
A few nationalist movements in colonialColonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
countries would take no part in the conflict, which they saw as one of the colonialists' making. This was perhaps strongest in India, where some nationalists went beyond opposition to the war to form the Indian National Army
Indian National Army
The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...
and fight alongside Japanese forces. Opposition was also seen among the Ceylonese garrison on the Cocos Islands which mutinied, in part due to the influence of the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party
Lanka Sama Samaja Party
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is a Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka....
.
Isolationism
IsolationismIsolationism
Isolationism is the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by...
was strongest in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where oceans separated it on both sides from the war fronts. Having seen their Wilsonian
Wilsonian
Wilsonianism or Wilsonian are words used to describe a certain type of ideological perspectives on foreign policy. The term comes from the ideology of United States President Woodrow Wilson and his famous Fourteen Points that he believed would help create world peace if implemented.Common...
idealism for forgiveness for the Central Powers in WWI rejected, some Americans hoped to sit out this "Old World" war. The German-American Bund
German-American Bund
The German American Bund or German American Federation was an American Nazi organization established in the 1930s...
even marched down the avenues of New York demanding isolationism. The isolationists, led by the America First Committee
America First Committee
The America First Committee was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. Peaking at 800,000 members, it was likely the largest anti-war organization in American history. Started in 1940, it became defunct after the attack on Pearl Harbor in...
, were a large, vocal, and powerful challenge to President Roosevelt's efforts to enter the war. Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
was perhaps the most famous isolationist. The core of the movement was the Senate Republicans, but many Democrats were also isolationists. Isolationism was strongest in the Midwest with its strong German-American population.
See also
- Death to the BrutesDeath to the BrutesDeath To The Brutes is the title of a historical anarchist poster that was originally printed in France in August 1943, during World War II . The poster was signed "International Revolutionary Syndicalist Federation ". 150 copies of the poster were produced...
, an anti-war anarchist poster printed in France during the Second World War