Pollitt defended the 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia, characterising it as the work of "millions of lads" "led by their Shop Stewards" to overthrow capitalism. In 1952 Pollitt released a pamphlet entitled "Malaya: Stop the War!" against the British anti-insurgency operations in Malaya, where British troops were fighting communist rebels. In the pamphlet he described the operations as being a war "to defend the corrupt colonial system" and stating that "For the Tory rubber and tin profiteers there is plenty to gain, but for the British people the only dividends are death, more taxation, cuts in social services, and attacks on wages and working conditions".