"I believe that both men desire peace every bit as fervently as I do myself, but I believe also that owing to their outlook on life, an outlook based in the main on British imperial interests and all that those interests imply, their policy is incapable of its very nature of making effective contribution to the cause of world peace. Peace and imperialism cannot go hand in hand- and when I say that, it is the same as saying that peace and capitalism; cannot go hand in hand. The capitalist system, the system under which you and I are living, is a system based on exploitation. Exploitation of man by man, the enslavement of the many by the few, is as I have already said, evil and unchristian; but for the moment I do not want to discuss the ethical side of the question. I want rather to concentrate on the economic foundations of the system under which we live, to examine them, and after I have examined them, to ask you the question: 'Do you honestly think that such a system can make for peace?'"
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Socialists from EnglandPacifistsLabour Party (UK) politiciansFeminists from EnglandSocial justice activists
Original Language: English
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As quoted from a pamphlet Lansbury wrote entitled Why socialists must be pacifists (1937), p. 20-21
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Lansbury
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George Lansbury
George Lansbury (22 February 1859 – 7 May 1940) was a British politician and social reformer who was leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935. He served as Leader of the Opposition against Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's National Government during the Great Depression, but later had to resign in favor of Clement Attlee because of his opposition to British re-armament.
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