Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Socialist Meeting in London: Masters and Servants

Socialist Party public meeting

“The free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves”

Speaker: Danny Lambert

Sunday, September 6th


The Socialist Party Head Office,

52 Clapham High Street,

London SW4 7UN.

(nearest tubes: Clapham North and Clapham Common.)

Website: SPGB

Email: spgb@worldsocialism.org

Socialism Or Your Money Back Blog

Capitalism and the two world wars (2009)

Editorial from the September 2009 issue of the Socialist Standard




As socialism had been historically possible since the end of the 19th century humanity could have avoided them. Neither of them justified "the shedding of a single drop of working class blood", as we declared in our anti-war manifesto in 1914, or as Harry Patch, one of the last survivors to have fought in that war, who died in July, put it, it was "not worth one death let alone all the millions".

The “War to end all wars” did no such thing. Nor did its even bloodier sequel, World War Nº 2, which resulted in the division of the world into two imperialist spheres of influence, the US sphere and the Russian sphere, with a continuous series of local wars at the boundaries between the two, which lasted until the collapse of the Russian Empire twenty years ago this autumn. This collapse was hailed "the end of history" and there was talk of a "peace dividend". Tony Blair of all people even declared shortly after becoming Prime Minister in May 1997: "Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war".. Empty rhetoric from a capitalist politician who was later to send British troops to kill and be killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect oil supplies and prevent another challenge to the powers currently dominating the world.
