Scott Hunter, Swindon Socialist Party
Politicians across the world commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of the World War Two in Europe in complete hypocrisy. In Britain, Keir Starmer talked about ‘threats’ to peace and called for ‘national unity’; all the while, his government bangs the war drum, continues to support the Israeli state’s ongoing genocidal actions in Gaza, and carries out brutal austerity attacks on the working class at home.
As Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces plans to fully occupy and ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip – no doubt emboldened by Donald Trump’s US presidency – we can also add the possibility of conflict between India and Pakistan to the list of horrors. The United Nations warns that the number and intensity of violent conflicts worldwide is now at its highest level in 80 years.
‘National interest’
In whose interests are these wars really being fought? Starmer and other capitalist politicians talk about the ‘national interest’. That doesn’t exist. There is us, the working class, who face either being caught directly in conflict or face further austerity to pay for the war effort; and then there are the bosses, who profit from war and will never personally suffer its violence and destruction.
Capitalism is a system based on division and exploitation, in which different nation states fight to secure the interests of their own capitalists. We can see this being played out nakedly as Trump openly exchanges ‘military aid’ for mining rights in Ukraine or talks about building Trump hotels in Gaza.
Capitalist leaders
The so-called ‘world leaders’, representing the capitalist bosses, offer no solutions. They only tell us that we have to increase military spending – of course, paid for by wage freezes and cuts to public services – grit our teeth, and fight it out.
But the huge protests against the war in Gaza – in Britain and across the world – show that millions of people are looking for an alternative to war and destruction.
The working class taking action in Britain, including taking steps towards building its own mass party – one with a socialist programme to address the needs of ordinary people, including fully funded public services, decent housing, and a well-paid, secure job – would benefit workers and oppressed people worldwide.
It would raise sights of a future government acting in the interests of the working class – and a future based on international workers’ solidarity and collaboration rather than division and war.
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