Build the socialist opposition to Starmer’s Labour
Scott Hunter, Swindon Socialist Party
It cannot escape anyone’s notice that the world is increasingly unstable and conflict-ridden. Even before the intensification of the war in Gaza over the last year, the United Nations was already warning that the number of violent conflicts worldwide was at its highest level since the Second World War.
Now, with the expansion of war in the Middle East and the threat of full-blown regional war, stability and peace can seem increasingly out of reach.
The horrors in Gaza and Lebanon – seen by many in graphic detail on social media – have exposed the brutality of the Israeli state forces. Western governments’ support for the slaughter has exposed the complete hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of establishment politicians from all the capitalist parties.
While Keir Starmer warns of ‘tough decisions’ on public spending and Rachel Reeves talks about a ‘black hole’ in the public finances, we are left wondering why there always seems to be enough money to spend on foreign military adventures.
Britain’s defence budget has already grown by £4.4 billion in real terms since 2021-22, with the government committed to raise spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030. Meanwhile, Starmer has decided that pensioners need no ‘defence’ against freezing winter temperatures.
But there is another side to the story: the massive anti-war movement in Britain and worldwide. We have already seen huge demonstrations which saw off hated Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman, as well as the election of five independent MPs on an anti-war platform. Now, many who have marched over the past year will ask themselves what more can be done, how can the nightmare in Gaza and Lebanon be ended?
There is a superpower that can bring an end to war, and the profit-driven capitalist system that fuels it – the working class. We have already had a taste of its power, in Britain during the strike wave. Recently, Greek dockers have blocked shipments of ammunition destined for Israel and Italian dockers did the same in 2021.
Socialist Party members in the trade unions have raised the need to bring together workers from across the arms manufacturing and distribution industries to discuss what workers’ action can be taken to stop shipment of arms for use by the Israeli state forces.
The trade union and workers’ movement has a crucial role to play politically too. To take steps towards developing a mass, working-class political party that fights for socialist change – bringing an end to war internationally and to meet the needs of all.
