only the names of the guilty have been changed to protect the guilty. Wars and Capitalism1 By PETER KROPOTKIN

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/kropotkin/warsandcap.htmlWars and Capitalism1 By PETER KROPOTKIN 

Could have been written yesterday only the names of the guilty have been changed to protect the guilty.

In reality, modern States are specially constituted in order to establish privileges in favour of the rich, at the expense of the poor. The great financial houses of each nation always lay down the law in all political matters of importance. “What will Baron Rothschild say to it?” “What attitude will the syndicate of great bankers in Paris, Vienna, and London take?” Such questions have become the dominant element in political affairs and in the relations between nations. It is the approval or disapproval of financiers that makes and unmakes Ministries everywhere in Europe. True, that in England there is also the approval of the State Church and of the brewers to be faced; but the Church and the brewers are always in agreement with the great financiers, who take care never to interfere with their partisans’ income. After all, as a Minister is but a man who holds fast to his office, to his power, and to the possibilities of enrichment which his post offers to him and to his supporters, it necessarily follows that the question of international relations is nowadays finally reduced to knowing whether the favoured monopolists of a particular State will take such or such an attitude towards the favourites of the same calibre in another State.

Wars and Capitalism 1 dwardmac.pitzer.edu