Thus the struggle against the creation of the class army of the proletariat (a struggle conducted in the name of universal military service and in the name of “democracy”) showed itself in practice to be a struggle to found the class army of the bourgeoisie.
Passing now to consider the question of a national militia, we find that the example of Switzerland, the example of the most democratic of all the bourgeois republics, has shown the part which such a militia plays in the hour when the class struggle is accentuated. The national militia, the “people’s militia,” of Switzerland under a bourgeois regime proves to be precisely the same weapon for keeping the proletariat down as any standing army in less democratic lands. The arming of the whole nation will inevitably lead to this result whenever and wherever it is effected under the political and economic regime of capitalism.
THE COMMUNIST PARTY DOES NOT ADVOCATE THE UNIVERSAL ARMING OF THE PEOPLE, BUT THE UNIVERSAL ARMING OF THE WORKERS. ONLY IN A SOCIETY CONSISTING OF NONE BUT WORKERS, ONLY IN A CLASSLESS SOCIETY, WILL IT BE POSSIBLE TO ARM THE WHOLE PEOPLE.
Notes
Literature
There is very little literature. Trotsky has published articles in “Pravda” and “Isvestia.” A symposium, Revolutionary War has been edited by Podvoisky and Pavlovich. TROTSKY, The international Situation and the Red Army. TROTSKY, The Soviet Power and international Imperialism. ZINOVIEV, Our Situation and the Creation of the Red Army ZINOVIEV, Speech concerning the Red Army. YAROSLAVSKY, The New Army