The Tories and Blairites are intent on rushing the country to war. Corbyn must mobilise the labour movement to say no to bombing in Syria.
A bombing campaign is being planned by the Tory government that will only serve to prolong the war in Syria and intensify the hell through which innocent people are struggling. The bombs could be dropped as early as this weekend.
Crocodile tears
May and the Tories are crying crocodile tears over the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. But the Tories have frequently embraced the most monstrous regimes, when it suits their interests.
For example, only the other week, Theresa May and Boris Johnson rolled out the red carpet for Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince. This is because the Tory government wants to sell weapons to the Saudis – weapons that will be used to reduce Yemen to rubble.
Elsewhere, the British state and its NATO allies also sell weapons to the Turks. Erdogan, the Turkish president, meanwhile, is systematically waging a brutal war against the Kurdish people.
Theresa May and her gang merrily help to finance and arm the Saudi and Turkish jihadi proxies, and then expect us to believe that they are upset by the alleged actions of a different dictator who happens not to be their friend. We’re not buying it.
As the 19th century Tory prime minister Lord Palmerston famously stated: nations have no permanent allies and no permanent enemies; they only have permanent interests.
In this case, the Tories are out to promote their own interests and the interests of the capitalist class they represent.
In Britain, they are intent on attacking the working class, sacrificing the healthcare, education, housing, jobs and wages of millions of people in order to make the rich richer.
In Syria, their aim is the same. They’re planning to sacrifice countless innocent lives to promote their own cynical imperialist interests.
Say no to bombing!
Corbyn has to stand firm against this jingoism and belligerence. In many cases, the most bellicose rhetoric comes from the Blairite Fifth Column within his own party.
In contrast to the deafening banging of the war drums by the Tories and Blairites, Corbyn should say, unequivocally, that he and the Labour Party will give no backing whatsoever to imperialist war.
Labour must mobilise the working class against this march to war. Corbyn’s demand for a vote in parliament on this question is correct. Now he must also demand that all Labour MPs vote against the bombing.
Corbyn’s leadership marks a clear break with the disastrous foreign policy of his predecessors – in particular, the chaos created by Tony Blair and his imperialist friends in Afghanistan and Iraq. We must never again allow Labour to act as the lap dog for US imperialism.
Above all, Corbyn must make clear that any Labour MP who votes with this warmongering Tory government does not deserve a place in the Parliamentary Labour Party.
He must insist that any Labour MP who votes for the bombing must justify themselves before party members in their constituency. Let members democratically decide whether we want these belligerent ladies and gentlemen as our representatives in parliament.
For a socialist foreign policy
As the Prussian military theorist Clausewitz once asserted: war is just the extension of politics by other means. In the case of the Tories, their imperialist foreign policy abroad is just an extension of their attacks on the working class back home.
We need a socialist foreign policy. May is allying with Trump and Macron to bomb Syria. We need a workers’ government that will ally with the teachers currently striking in the USA and the railway workers on strike in France.
Rather than rushing to war, we need to focus our energies on kicking out the right-wing, anti-working class warmongers in our own countries.
Corbyn must mobilise the working class to oppose the bombing of Syria. That mobilisation has to bring down the Tory government. We need a socialist Labour government that can address the burning problems facing the working class in Britain and internationally.
