In June of 1918, with American troops now fighting in Europe, Deb spoke to a socialist

gathering in Canton, Ohio.

In this, his most famous speech, he outlined the socialist opposition to the war and gave

his unqualified support to the Russian Revolution, which had just taken place under the leadership

of Lenin and Trotsky.

This was also the speech for which he was sentenced to jail.

In the Middle Ages, the feudal lords and barons, the economic predecessors of the capitalist

of our day, declared all wars, and their miserable serfs fought all the battles.

The poor ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters, to believe that when

their masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon

each other and to cut one another's throats with a profiting glory of the lords and barons

who held them in contempt.

And that is war in a nutshell.

It hasn't changed.

The master class has always declared the wars, the subject class has always fought the battles.

The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had

nothing to gain and all to lose, especially their lives.

The ruling class has always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty

to go to war and to have yourself slaughtered at that command.

But in all the history of the world, you the people have never had a voice in declaring

war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been

declared by the people.

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