Addressing Parliament recently, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the Iranian regime as ‘despotic’, following their launch of over 300 drones and missiles at Israel.
These are sanctimonious words from a leader with no democratic mandate; from a man who is complicit in the murder of tens of thousands of innocent Gazans.
Out of control
The British establishment have become faithful servants to those with real power on the world stage; to the most reactionary force on the planet: US imperialism.
President Joe Biden has funded and facilitated the ongoing onslaught against the Palestinians.
At the same time, as Netanyahu’s war drags on, public support for Israel in the US is waning. The Israeli massacre is wrecking Biden’s electoral hopes.
The US President is locked into a conflict that is unravelling beyond his control. Israel’s provocative attacks on Iran and its proxies reflect this.
For his own narrow interests, in an effort to distract from the genocidal slaughter in Gaza and remain in power, Netanyahu is actively looking to spread the conflict across the Middle East. This will produce immense instability throughout the region, and across the world.
Netanyahu’s reckless, self-interested, myopic antics are designed to force Biden’s hand; to pressure US imperialism to do more for its allies in the Middle East.
This includes getting the US Congress and Senate to agree to around $26 billion in military support for Israel. This was pushed through Washington over the last week, as part of a wider funding package, following a long logjam.
Imperialist hypocrisy
The representatives of ‘our own’ ruling class, meanwhile, including Rishi Sunak and loyal establishment lapdog ‘Sir’ Keir Starmer, have been falling over themselves to prove their fealty to British and US imperialism.
Both party leaders gave their backing to US-led efforts to intercept Iranian missiles, with RAF fighter jets helping to shoot down drones destined for Israel.
Following this, when grilled on Sky News in the wake of Iran’s retaliation, UK foreign secretary David Cameron revealed the nauseating double-standards of the western imperialists.
“What would Britain do if a hostile nation flattened one of our consulates?”, the reporter pointedly asks. “Well, we would take very strong action,” mumbled the venerable Conservative peer in response. Enough said.
Yesterday, meanwhile, speaking on a visit to Poland, the Tory leader committed to increasing British military expenditure to 2.5 percent of GDP.
Sunak says he will put defence spending “on a war footing”, building mountains of bombs. And no doubt Starmer will chime in with “me too”. At the same time, education, healthcare, social care, welfare, and more are being cut to the bone.
There is always money available to reduce schools and hospitals abroad to rubble, it seems, but never any to repair crumbling schools and hospitals back home. This shows the class interests that these ladies and gentlemen represent.
Occasionally these hypocrites shed crocodile tears for those caught up in the carnage – like the aid workers killed by a recent Israeli attack. But in reality, they have aided and abetted this death and destruction. And they are intent on handing the working class the bill.
Capitalist criminals
Biden and Netanyahu; Sunak and Starmer: every one of these imperialists have played their part in creating a wasteland.
Moralistic appeals to their conscience are fruitless, as are invocations of international law. We cannot stop the war with words. UN resolutions and ICJ rulings ‘challenging’ and ‘pressuring’ Israel are toothless. These institutions – along with the ‘rules-based order’ they defend – are entirely beholden to the interests of the major powers.
The only force that we can rely on; the only force capable of halting the imperialists’ war machine, is the mobilisation of the international working class.
The leaders of the labour movement should be straining every fibre to bring this potential power to bear: deploying methods of mass class struggle, and organising workers around a clear anti-imperialist programme, aimed at bringing down the enemy at home – the criminals in Downing Street and the White House.
All this conflict and barbarism is a product of capitalism, in its insatiable search for profits, markets, and spheres of influence.
To end war for good, in Gaza, across the Middle East, and worldwide, we must mobilise to kick out all the imperialist warmongers, and overthrow the capitalist system they uphold.
Not our war – we don’t want to die to defend their system
With imperialist tensions rising across the planet, earlier this year, YouGov polled Britons on whether they would be willing to fight for their King and Country. The answer is a resounding ‘NO!’
38% of those aged 18-40 would refuse to serve in the UK armed forces in the event of a Third World War. Even more incredibly, 30% would refuse to fight even if the British mainland was being invaded.
By 38% to 28%, Britons aged 18-40 say they would refuse to serve if called up in the event of a world war
In the event of a world war
Refuse to serve: 38%
Volunteer/accept conscription: 28%If UK faced imminent invasion
Refuse to serve: 30%
Volunteer/accept conscription: 34%… pic.twitter.com/SEdQiTmkPi— YouGov (@YouGov) January 26, 2024
Astounded by these results, the same pollsters carried out a follow up survey, asking people why they would not serve. The top answer was: “I am not prepared to fight for the rich and powerful.”
They also allowed respondents to provide personalised feedback. Here are a selected sample of the comments they received in reply:
“Because this government and country don’t care about me at any other point in time. They are the most corrupt government in generations and I won’t serve them.”
“My life is more valuable than being wasted in a war caused by rich people’s greed.”
“The UK has seen people like myself as a danger to society. I have no nationalistic pride to protect my country. If my country treated me as an equal, not a minority I would be willing to serve.”
YouGov concludes: “[Ordinary Britons] are unwilling to fight for the rich and powerful – who they see as profiteers or otherwise unfairly able to avoid the consequences of conflict themselves.”
This starkly reveals the burning rage and immense disgust that exists in Britain today towards this rotten ruling class.
This radical consciousness amongst workers and youth is now an objective factor in the situation, limiting British imperialism’s ability to exert its (waning) influence and military strength.
The establishment is desperately deploying various measures and ‘clever’ schemes in an effort to strengthen Britain’s feeble armed forces – with everything from better pay for (highly exploited) new recruits, to removing the requirement to swim for those wishing to join the Navy.
But this is all in vain. At the end of the day, it is they who are drowning in a sea of rising class anger.
Thomas Soud
‘Young people should be grateful’
“Young people must realise Britain needs to spend more on defence to protect their freedoms.” So claims David Lockwood – one of the Ministry of Defence’s top contractors.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the boss of the Babcock arms company alleges that our right to protest over issues like the climate crisis is under threat from the likes of Russia and China.
But the last time I checked, it was the British government that was passing laws restricting democratic rights, and beefing up the powers of the police to clamp down on peaceful demonstrations.
Perhaps, by Lockwood’s logic, the working class should begin stockpiling weapons to defend our rights from Tory ministers?
This comes after a YouGov poll revealed that only 6% of young people back higher defence spending.
It’s not hard to understand why. We can see that public money is being syphoned from hospitals and schools towards bombing innocents in Gaza and Yemen. We can see the imperialists and arms dealers enriching themselves on the back of genocide.
And yet, despite this, Lockwood – chief of a £2.5bn company that actively arms the Israeli regime – determines that it’s these naive younguns that “don’t know their freedom is at risk”.
Young people’s freedoms are under threat, Mr. Lockwood: by the likes of you and your cronies. And we do need war to defend ourselves: class war.
M Adia, Mile End
