23. The concept of national defence, especially when it coincides with the idea of the defence of democracy, can most easily delude the workers of small and neutral countries (Switzerland, partly Belgium, Scandinavian countries …), which, being incapable of engaging in an independent policy of conquest, impart to the defence of their national borders the character of an irrefutable and absolute dogma. But precisely by the example of Belgium, we see how naturally formal neutrality is replaced by a system of imperialist pacts and how inevitably war for “national defence” leads to an annexationist peace. The character of war is determined not by the initial episode taken by itself (“violation of neutrality,” “enemy invasion,” etc.) but by the main moving forces of war, by its whole development and by the consequences to which it finally leads.
24. It can be readily accepted that the Swiss bourgeoisie will not take upon itself the initiative of war. In this sense, it has far more formal right than any other bourgeoisie to speak of its defensive position. But from the moment that Switzerland may find itself drawn into the war by the course of events, it would enter the struggle of the world powers in the pursuit of equally imperialist aims. Should neutrality be violated, the Swiss bourgeoisie will unite with the stronger of the two attacking sides, regardless of which one bears the greater responsibility for the violation of neutrality and in which camp there is more “democracy.” Thus, during the last war, Belgium, the ally of tsarism, by no means left the camp of the Allies when in the course of the war they in turn found it advantageous to violate the neutrality of Greece.
Only a hopelessly dull bourgeois from a godforsaken Swiss village (like Robert Grimm) can seriously think that the world war into which he is drawn is waged for the defence of Swiss independence. Just as the preceding war swept away the neutrality of Belgium, so the new war will leave no trace of Swiss independence. Whether after the war Switzerland will retain its entity as a state, even though without its independence, or whether it will be divided among Germany, France and Italy depends on a number of European and world factors among which the “national defence” of Switzerland will occupy an insignificant place.
We see, therefore, that for neutral, democratic Switzerland also, a state possessing no colonies and where the idea of national defence appears before us in its purest form, the laws of imperialism make no exception. To the demand of the bourgeoisie: “Join the policy of national defence,” the Swiss proletariat must retort by a policy of class defence so as to go over next to a revolutionary advance.