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'I have been asked if I was opposed to all war & if I would refuse to be a soldier & to fight under any circumstances, & to make my answer through the Appeal to Reason. No, I am not opposed to all war, nor am I opposed to fighting under all circumstances, & any declaration to the contrary would disqualify me as a revolutionist. When I say I am opposed to war i mean ruling class war, for the ruling class is the only class that makes war. It matters not to me whether this war be offensive or defensive or what other lying excuse may be invented for it, I am opposed to it, and would be shot for treason before I enter such a war. If I were in congress i would be shot before I would vote a dollar for such a war. Capitalists' wars for capitalist conquest & capitalist plunder must be fought by the capitalist themselves so far as i am concerned, & upon that question there can be no compromise & no misunderstanding as to my postion. I have no country to fight for; my country is earth; I am a citizen of the world. I would not violate my principles for God, much less for a crazy kaiser, savage czar, a degenerate king, or a gang of pot-bellied parasites. But while I have not a drop of blood to shed for the oppressors of the working class & the robbers of the poor, the thieves and looters, the brigands and murderers whose debauched misrule is the crime of the ages, I have a heart-full to shed for their victims when it shall be needed in the war for their liberation. I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian revolutionist. I do not belong to the regular army of the plutocracy, but to the irregular army of the people. I refuse to obey any command 2 fight from the ruling class, but I will not wait to be commanded to fight for the working class. I am opposed to every war but one; I am for that war with heart and soul & that is the world-wide war of social revolution. In that war I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make necessary even to the barricades.' -Eugene Debs