Capitalism means war

Join the socialists!

London Gaza demo 19 July 2014, photo Paul Mattsson

London Gaza demo 19 July 2014, photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Steffan Bateman and Ross Saunders

Nato, the war-machine of Western capitalism, will descend on Newport in South Wales for its summit at the beginning of September. Dogging the heels of Obama, Merkel and other world leaders will be thousands of protesters.

Newport, like every other part of working-class Britain, has been stripped bare by austerity. The Welsh Assembly and the city council – both run by Labour – have put up no opposition to the government’s cuts.

While the rich and powerful swan around at the summit in the Celtic Manor resort on the hill, the city centre is a ghost town of boarded-up shops. Hundreds are hounded for the bedroom tax and the local University of South Wales could lose an entire campus.

Meanwhile, the resources magically appear to fund the biggest police operation in British history, involving 20,000 officers and 13 miles of high-tech fencing. It doesn’t stop there: having squandered £20 billion on war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the British government has dedicated another £20 billion to Trident nuclear weapons. A strange way to tighten your belt.

The protest in Newport is a chance to unite the anti-war movement with trade unionists and anti-austerity campaigners against what is the largest gathering of capitalist world leaders the UK will have ever seen.

Nato’s claim to be “building stability in an unpredictable world” is exposed the world over as a naked lie. Nato affiliates are directly responsible for the quagmire that has developed in Iraq in the aftermath of Bush and Blair’s invasion in 2003. They gave the brutal Israeli government as much support as they could get away with. The squabble between the Nato bloc and Putin’s capitalist Russia over markets and resources has littered eastern Ukraine with bodies.

US diplomat, George F Kennan, came closer to the truth when he said Nato’s purpose is: “to establish a scheme of relationships which can enable us to keep up the position of inequalities.” Nato is the military wing of profiteering American and European capitalism. They intervene not to safeguard peace and stability but in order to make sure the world’s rich get richer and poor get poorer.

We desperately need a new, mass workers’ party to unite our side against the warmongering profiteers. But the situation also poses more fundamental questions.

The choice must be made between the capitalist system of invasions, drone attacks, and torture, and a socialist system where all the world’s resources could be co-operatively used for the benefits of all. The billions spent on war around the world should be used to improve the lives of ordinary people, not invested in industrial-scale slaughter.

War and capitalism are inseparable. If you’re interested in fighting for the alternative, join the red bloc for socialism on the ‘No Nato’ demonstrations in Newport, and join the Socialist Party!

Demonstrate – 30 August

Meet 1pm at Newport Civic Centre for a march around the city