It is incredible to realise, but it is 86 years ago that the Socialist Party of Great Britain produced a superb pamphlet with the above title arguing the socialist answer to war. The concluding words were in bold type on page 36:
“Socialism must become The Single Aim of a politically organised working class. Then capitalism and war will be no more”.
We in The SPGB today, still hold tenaciously to The Single Aim of Socialism. Others have added further “mean-while” objectives and become part of the problem by being opportunist and pushing socialism to an ultimate aim, which of course, means no aim at all.
The one thing that damns the ideas and actions of the opportunists with their “mean-while” objectives is that they are left with capitalism which repeatedly throws up all the problems and contradictions against which they pit themselves. If they had the understanding to go straight for The Single Aim,the job would have long since been done.
Whilst we have to deal with the present world situation, if the Labour Party had not supported every war since it came into existence in 1906 and had the so-called Communist Party of Great Britain, and assorted leftists, not used their blind attachment to Soviet State-capitalism to divert workers away from their real interest, the present situation could have been quite different. Nationalism is divisive, what is needed is class unity based on a mutual recognition by workers that their interest is the same world-wide.
One thing is certain; there can be no wars without the working class. So ending war must begin with the workers; those who are forced to sell their labour power as a commodity in exchange for a wage or salary. While workers are prepared to kill each other to enable their rulers, the capitalist class, to plunder the earth’s resources for profits conflicts will continue.
It is absurd, but we are regularly told, that in more than one hundred years, we have made little progress. This is surely the case of the shoe being on the wrong foot. It is the majority of workers who are gullibly persuaded by the capitalist media, to behave against their own interest, and support capitalism.
Socialists, in opposing war, have been told over many years:
“If the country’s good enough to live in – it’s good enough to fight for”.
This ignorant piece of nonsense has been endlessly repeated, despite the fact that between the end of World War One and the start of World War Two, there was never less than one million unemployed and poverty, insecurity and housing misery have remained the lot of millions of workers to the present day.
“That the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the
working classes themselves” (See Clause 5 of our Declaration of Principles).
Also, in the Inaugural Address, it is stated:
“That the economical subjection of the man of labour –to the monopoliser of the means of labour, (that is the sources of life) lies at the bottom of servitude in all its forms, of all social misery, mental degradation and political dependence”.
And;
“that the economical emancipation of the working classes is therefore –the great end to which every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means”
The profundity of these remarks, and their relevance to today’s world, can hardly be exaggerated. These socialist sentiments are only to be found in The Declaration of Principles, of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.
Independent Capitalism
In August, India and Pakistan “celebrated” 75 years of independence from British capitalism. Right at the start in 1947, as the sub-continent divided into two nations plus Bangladesh, one million people were killed. Thirty of those years of independence in Pakistan have been spent under military rule.
Now there is the territorial conflict over the Kashmir region. Here the conflict is between India and Pakistan with Chinese capitalism playing a third-party role.
Again, the conflict is presented in nationalist terms hiding the fact that Kashmir is strategically important, it is vital trade route and has raw resources particularly water, with direct regional and global consequences.
What has been gained for the workers? Extreme poverty is still wide-spread in both countries; this co-exists with religious ignorance, as it has done for many centuries. These are stark examples that show again, nationalism is the ideology of the capitalists; workers should be concerned with emancipation and socialism.
No worker’s blood
There is no working class blood on the hands of the SPGB unlike those of the Labour Party and so-called Communist Parties. The SPGB is not just opposed to this or that war. It was dangerous to oppose war from 1914 to 1918 but the SPGB issued a front page statement saying:
“…that no interests are at stake justifying the shedding of a single drop of working class blood…”
The Party saw German capitalist encroachment on the markets of British capitalism as not being an issue of the working class. While workers in this and other countries see capitalist class interests as their own, they will be prepared to kill other workers for capitalist interests against their own and those of fellow workers elsewhere.
Some years ago, ITV screened a film by John Pilger. In dealing with the USA colonising of Latin American republics. He interviewed a leading CIA figure who frankly admitted it was oil and gas they sought to grab and he openly stated that the US would use any force necessary anywhere for such American interests. He could only make such a statement if he knew he could count on American workers willingness to produce and drop the bombs and use all other weapons for killing and war-making. Without that willingness on the part of the workers, war would be impossible.
Workers must reject their rulers’ ideology and see the world’s workers as their fellow socialists. Certainly, a minority will oppose a particular war as “unjust”, but class-consciousness is the only answer to war. This makes socialist activity and awareness the issue of greatest importance in world society today.
War, vile in every detail but the degradation of workers continues in ‘peace’ time, too. The “ordinary” everyday world of the labour-market, selling themselves for wages all their working lives, is the ultimate degradation. It is a travesty that workers consider themselves lucky to be exploited and get a monthly wage. The misery of capitalism will always fall upon the working class until they do something political about it.
painting: A Howitzer Firing. Paul Nash 1918
