At 11am on Monday 11 November, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the country will fall silent for two minutes, as part of the annual Remembrance Day commemorations.
In towns and cities across Britain, poppies will be worn to honour the casualties of war; wreaths will be laid in memory of those who have died in the line of duty; and canons will be fired to mark the beginning and end of the nation’s silence.
For the people of Palestine and Lebanon, however, there will be no such tranquillity. Israeli bombs and missiles will continue to relentlessly rain down on their homes, hospitals, and schools – murdering and maiming innocent men, women, and children.
At remembrance services across Britain, leading figures from across the establishment will pay their respects to the country’s veterans. And no doubt they will offer sermons about the horrors and atrocities of war (see below).
All the while, these same representatives of the ruling class are actively fuelling death and destruction worldwide.
‘Sir’ Keir Starmer and his foreign secretary, David Lammy, have provided their unconditional backing to Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal massacre in Gaza, and to the extension of this barbarous conflict into Lebanon.
Despite mealy-mouthed talk about a so-called arms ‘embargo’, British-made weapons and components are still being shipped to the brutal Zionist regime.
The UK’s armed forces continue to aid and assist Israel’s bombing campaigns, providing surveillance information and intelligence, logistical support, and the use of RAF bases in the Mediterranean.
And alongside this military help is the political and diplomatic cover that Britain provides the Israeli state, as a loyal servant of western imperialism.
Similarly, whilst Labour ministers proclaim that the cupboard is bare when it comes to funding social services and welfare back home, they seemingly can always find the money for sending arms and stoking warfare abroad.
Already, the UK has provided almost £8 billion in military support to Ukraine, helping to drag out the conflict under the reckless orders of their masters in Washington. And Starmer has committed Britain to continue sending £3 billion in military aid every year going forwards.
Starmer and Lammy; Biden and Harris: these people are hypocrites of the highest order. They preach to us about peace and justice. But they – alongside Netanyahu and Trump – are outright war criminals, with blood on their hands.
We can accept no lectures from these imperialist warmongers. Nor can we have any trust in them to bring an end to the suffering and misery in the Middle East or anywhere else. They and their system are responsible for this chaos and carnage.
War is an inherent part of capitalism; the inevitable product of the imperialists’ insatiable appetite for profits, markets, and spheres of influence.
This Remembrance Day, therefore, the communists will honour those whose lives have been scandalously sacrificed in the interests of imperialism, by redoubling our efforts to end this capitalist nightmare once and for all.
This means fighting for revolution, in Britain and internationally. Only the class war can put a stop to imperialist war.
- Workers of the world – unite!
- For books, not bombs! For healthcare, not warfare!
- Overthrow the warmongers! Overthrow imperialism!
Remembrance Day, the Poppy Appeal, and establishment hypocrisy
Will Collins
‘Tis the season! Not to be jolly of course, but to affix a poppy to one’s breast and look down while solemnly uttering the phrase: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori – ‘it is sweet and proper to die for one’s country’.
On last year’s Remembrance Sunday, now Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer tweeted:
“[This is] a day to remind ourselves in these fraught modern times, that peace is possible. Each year that passes leaves us one step further away from the wars of last century.”
Since these lines were written, tens of thousands of ordinary Ukrainians have been sent to their certain death in an unwinnable war; over 43,000 Palestinians have been massacred in a one-sided genocidal conflict; and an escalating conflagration has spread across the Middle East.
This enormous waste of human life has all been aided and abetted by the sycophant war criminals in Westminster, following the lead of Washington.
Starmer and his warmongering pals in Parliament will no doubt put on a performance again for this year’s Armistice commemorations, reminding us of the ‘horrors of war’.
In contrast, we will remember their part in the imperialist barbarism playing out across the planet today.
Jingoism and cynicism
A significant layer of workers and youth can see straight through the hypocritical phrase-mongering of the leaders of the so-called ‘civilised’ world.
The Peace Pledge Union (PPU), for example, distributes white poppies, representing all victims of war. They have seen a rapid increase in orders from schools and universities in recent years, with a tripling since 2020. The PPU cites the war in Gaza, in particular, as having fuelled this demand.
One poll from last year showed that one-in-four Gen Zs do not think that it is important to mark Remembrance Day. Only 34 percent of millennials and Gen Zs say that they would very likely wear a poppy.
‘Patriotic’ politicians have hit back against such ‘woke’ attitudes. Former Tory MP and army veteran Bob Seely, for example, has chastised schools, reminding them that “wearing a poppy has nothing to do with current conflicts in other parts of the world, or political affiliation in the UK”.
This is the same Bob Seely, however, who opportunistically “hijacked” a D-Day memorial event earlier this summer, in advance of the general election, provoking “disgust” amongst fellow veterans. As the Isle of Wight Observer reported:
“Despite having no role in Newport’s D-Day 80 event on Saturday, Mr Seely arrived in uniform and positioned himself alongside the Lord-Lieutenant, Susie Sheldon, to take the salute.
“Organisers at Newport & Carisbrooke Community Council (N&CCC) confirmed that Mr Seely had not been invited or asked permission to be part of the official proceedings.
“He has refused to explain his actions or apologise for ‘hi-jacking’ the D-Day 80 event.
“Three veterans present told the IW Observer they were ‘disgusted’ at Mr Seely’s behaviour, adding they thought he was using the poignant anniversary and his uniform to try to boost his re-election campaign.”
In response to such cynical behaviour, even the Royal British Legion have had to embarrassingly admit that “after 100 years in circulation as a worldwide symbol of remembrance, the meaning behind the poppy can get a little lost in translation”.
It is not those protesting war who have appropriated Remembrance Day, therefore, but the entire establishment – utilising such events to whip up a deafening chorus of jingoistic, flag-waving propaganda, in an effort to mould public opinion to suit their narrow interests.
Imperialist interests
A concerted effort is made by the ruling class – through all manner of extravagant pomp and ceremony – to obscure the real origins of war in the epoch of imperialism.
Highlighting one particularly surreal case, for example, the BBC recently reported on a giant 323 sq-ft poppy in Henley-on-Thames, painted on the town’s riverside meadow.
We are told that we must pay our respects to those who have ‘fought for our great country’. But it is never asked: why do nations go to war? Why have so many working-class soldiers throughout history had to lose their lives in the first place?
War, as Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz correctly stated, is simply the continuation of politics by other means.
Conscripts in WW1 were not sent to their deaths to fight for ‘democracy’ or ‘peace’, but for the imperialist interests of ‘their’ ruling classes – in the case of ‘Great’ Britain, in defence of the Empire’s colonies, markets, profits, natural resources, and spheres of influence.
This is the ‘old lie’ that Wilfred Owen exposes in his poignant and powerful anti-war poem, Dulce et decorum est.
These same motives led to the Second World War, and are behind the chaos and instability unravelling across the world today.
War is therefore not an aberration, but an inevitable, inherent product of the capitalist system. To genuinely end war, we must end capitalism.
Healthcare not warfare
The poppy appeal this year aims to raise £53.1 million for veterans and their families; for those who suffer the mental and physical impacts of war.
In 2022-23, 2,110 households with someone who served in the armed forces were assessed as homeless. It’s predicted that 7.4 percent of ex-military personnel have PTSD.
Yet the money raised from such charitable campaigns is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions that the British ruling class spends every year on weapons and warfare, causing death and destruction across the world.
This is the insanity and madness of capitalism.
‘Our’ bellicose government pursues an aggressive foreign policy: supporting the slaughter in the Middle East, and helping to drag out the conflict in Ukraine.
And then, instead of funding health and social care, or building affordable housing, taxpayers’ money is spent on producing more bombs and missiles: fuelling more war; and creating more devastated victims and veterans.
Ordinary people are then expected to pick up the bill, through austerity and charity, to deal with a problem manufactured entirely by these imperialist warmongers!
This vicious cycle is entirely a product of a system where humanity is sacrificed upon the altar of capital.
This misery – this ‘horror without end’, as Lenin described it – cannot be stopped by tokenistic gestures and donations.
Instead, we must understand the real reasons behind war, and organise to overthrow capitalism and imperialism – the system that breeds it.
