Britain: Starmer’s Labour government backs war and slaughter

Starmer placard at anti-war protest. Photo: Paul Mattsson

On Saturday 5 October 2024, the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) took part in the biggest anti-war demonstration since the first months of the onslaught on Gaza, marching on 10 Downing Street, the New Labour prime minister Keir Starmer’s residence. The marchers’ need to make their voices heard against the nightmarish events taking place in the Middle East had not been in anyway lessened because Britain now has a Labour government.

After a year of unimaginable horror meted out against the Palestinians, Lebanon is now also under ferocious assault, already resulting in over 2,000 deaths and 1.2 million people being forced from their homes.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is increasingly hated by the majority of Israelis. A general strike took place against his government just last month. However, by claiming that the war on Lebanon will bring peace to northern Israel, he has been able to temporarily shore up his base and gain support for the escalation across much of Israeli society. It won’t last. This latest horrific attack will do nothing to help the Israeli population to be able to live in peace and security. On the contrary, it has brought the whole region to the edge of a full-scale war. Even if this time the tinder box of the Middle East somehow avoids being entirely engulfed in flames, the current conflict will only prepare the ground for the next cycle of violence.

What way out?

What power offers a way out of the horror for the peoples of the Middle East? Certainly not US imperialism, still the strongest capitalist power on the planet, which continues to defend and arm Israel, even while pleading with Netanyahu to show restraint. Nor the Arab regimes which, while paying lip-service to the Palestinians’ plight, have in reality stood aside over the last year. They are interested only in maintaining their own rule and defending the wealth and power of their elites. Equally, the Iranian theocratic dictatorship cares only about preserving its own rule and prestige.

In fact, the one thing that unites the opposing powers in this conflict is a deep-seated fear of awakening the currently sleeping giant that could bring them all down: the working class and poor. That is the one power capable of bringing peace to the region. Democratically elected workers’ governments would be able to harness the wealth and resources of the region to meet the needs of all, and to negotiate solutions that would meet the national aspirations of all the peoples of the Middle East.

The Arab and north African uprisings fourteen years ago felled dictators and are seared into the memories of all the ruling elites and the imperialist powers. It’s true that neither the theocratic regime in Iran nor Israel’s government were directly affected by the ‘Arab Spring’, although it had an echo in the movement over housing costs in Israel later in 2011. However, both have since been repeatedly shaken by huge movements, graphically demonstrating the shallowness of the social bases they rest on.

Right now, amidst the current carnage, the masses of the Middle East have not yet made their strength felt, but they are certain to do so again. The Arab Spring will prove to be the prelude to even more powerful movements. To successfully end war, national oppression and poverty will require the working class in the different countries creating their own parties, with a programme for the socialist transformation of society.

Capitalism offers no way forward for the peoples of the Middle East or internationally. Bloody wars and conflicts are an inevitable consequence of this increasingly barbarous system, which is driven by the lust for profit, not the needs of humanity.

What does this mean for the anti-war movement in Britain? Inevitably, many of those who have taken to the streets against the onslaught on Gaza over the last year feel powerless, as the nightmare facing the Palestinians continues, seemingly unendingly. There are no short-term easy answers. Just, as in the Middle East, to build an anti-war movement that can permanently end the horror of war means building a movement to overthrow capitalism and start to create a democratic socialist society.

Anti-war movements

Nonetheless, mass anti-war movements in any one country can force that country’s government to withdraw all support for the present Israeli regime’s aggression, if they are built to a high enough level. The last year has shown that we are not powerless, far from it. The attempts of the last Tory government to demonise the anti-war movement failed miserably, and then home secretary Suella Braverman was sacked as a result. Just four months ago, the hated Tories were finally booted out of office. Of course, marchers on 5 October were absolutely right to conclude that nothing fundamental has changed with Labour in government. Like previous Tory governments, Starmer’s Labour acts in the interests of British capitalism not the working class and poor – either in Britain or internationally.

Still, under the pressure of the anti-war movement, a few of the crimes of Rishi Sunak’s government have been reversed. Britain’s threatened objection to the International Criminal Court’s issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu was dropped, and funding for UNRWA (the UN relief agency for Palestinians) was reinstated. At the same time, 30 out of 350 arms export licences for selling goods to Israel were suspended, a measure condemned as “shameful” by Netanyahu. These are very minor measures. Nonetheless, Starmer would not have sanctioned them without the power of the anti-war movement, and in particular the punishment Labour received, primarily by voters from a Muslim background, at the general election, resulting in the election of five anti-war independents, including Jeremy Corbyn.

But, in essence, Starmer’s New Labour government is acting as a loyal sidekick to US imperialism, echoing Biden’s position on all the major issues. Last month, when the UN General Assembly voted to call on Israel to “end its unlawful presence in the occupied territory”, Britain abstained. Militarily, Britain is a bit-part player compared to the US, summed up by the RAF’s Typhoon jets scrambling to help intercept the Iranian missiles fired at Israel on 1 October, but being too slow and ill-equipped to play any role in bringing the barrage down. But while Britain is increasingly a third-rate power, it remains one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and the sixth biggest economy and military force on the planet. It is very useful for US imperialism that Britain’s government loyally toes its line.

For contrast, just imagine if Jeremy Corbyn had been the Labour prime minister. The determination of the capitalist class to remove him from the Labour leadership was because he could not be relied upon to act in their interests, at home or in foreign policy. For example, they feared he might have gone to the UN and attacked the warmongers and the elites, and that in turn would have inspired workers and young people in Britain and globally into action against them.

Unfortunately, the Corbynite wing of the Labour Party did not mobilise against the attacks of the pro-capitalists within Labour in the way they could and should have done, instead attempting to compromise with the right at each stage. The result was their defeat within Labour and the pro-capitalist Starmer as Labour prime minister.

There are many lessons of that experience that will be important for the tasks that the working class has ahead. One of the most important is to remember how frightened the capitalist class was by Corbynism. That wasn’t because they feared the man himself, but rather they were terrified of the mass movement of workers and young people that he could have inspired – and which could have threatened their rule.

Their fear showed that the capitalist class understands the potential power of the working class to transform society. A first step to turning that potential power into a reality – here as in the countries of the Middle East – is the building of a new workers’ party.

In the general election four months ago, it was mainly voters from a Muslim background – furious at Starmer’s stance on Gaza – who expressed their anger at the ballot box by voting for anti-war candidates. That is an important starting point, but for a new workers’ party to start to successfully challenge the capitalist elite it will need to reach out to other sections of the working class. However, Starmer’s pro-capitalist austerity mark II policies are already angering every section of the working class. The potential  to start building a new party, based on the organised working-class, with a socialist programme against austerity, war and national oppression, is clear. If you agree – join the Socialist Party.

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