Anti-war work in Britain
If we want to build an effective anti-war movement, we must work to smash the hold of the imperialist lie machine on workers' minds.
The following motion was passed unanimously at the party’s eighth congress in September.
This congress notes the increasing drive towards more and bigger wars that is accompanying the deepening capitalist crisis of overproduction.
Congress further notes the hysterical propaganda emanating from the bourgeois media in support of this drive, and the pernicious role such propaganda plays in neutralising the anti-war sentiments of the British proletariat.
Congress notes also the insidious role played by the so-called ‘leaders’ of the working-class movement, from trade-union to ‘anti-war’ leaders, who consistently repeat every unfounded bourgeois slander against the targets of British imperialism’s aggression, often dressing them up with a ‘left’ veneer and a pretended ‘concern’ for the ‘rights’ of the peoples being targeted. Given the rising levels of cynicism amongst workers regarding bourgeois propaganda, the lies of such leaders often carry more weight with the workers than the lies of the ruling class, since they emanate from allegedly ‘progressive’ sources.
Congress notes with pleasure, however, the signs of a new wave of anti-war sentiment and activity among the British people, despite the best efforts of the bourgeoisie to confuse them with lies and distract them with inanities. For example:
– The growing appetite for independent media sources amongst British workers.
– The increasing number of independent sources available, which include anti-imperialist news channels such as RT, Telesur, Press TV and China Daily, and also small homegrown groups like MediaLens, OffGuardian and 21C Wire.
– The growing number of honest activist reporters like Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett, who are risking their lives and sacrificing their career prospects in order to travel to Syria and bring back eye-witness accounts from the mass of ordinary Syrians, who are ignored by the imperialist media. The rabid hysteria with which this handful of small independent voices is being met shows how effective they are, and how terrified the ruling class is of the spread of their message amongst the working class.
This congress believes that the British working class has both an internationalist duty and a definite class interest in working for the defeat of its own ruling class in all aggressive imperialist wars, and that therefore our demand that workers should support the resistance remains correct, and must be explained and popularised at every possible opportunity.
This congress further believes that those independent activists and academics who are helping to expose the lies of the British media and politicians are doing vital anti-war work that will help to lay the foundations for a mass movement of non-cooperation with imperialist war. It is notable that Stop the War has so far failed to give a platform to a single one of these brave activists and eye-witness reporters.
Congress believes that the CPGB-ML has a vital role to play in helping to create a really effective, anti-imperialist anti-war movement, since it is only our party that has a clear programme of action to put forward in answer to the question of what concerned workers should actually do to stop the British ruling class’s wars.
Congress therefore resolves:
– That all branches and members shall give every possible support to independent reporters, academics, organisers and activists who are helping to expose the imperialist lie machine’s warmongering activities, from hosting and organising meetings for them ourselves to supporting and publicising those being put on by others, writing or reprinting articles in our press and creating or reproducing videos for Proletarian TV.
– That all branches and members shall be ready to speak and distribute literature at such meetings, in order to put forward our party’s platform of non-cooperation with imperialist war and support for the resistance.
– That, notwithstanding the bankrupt nature of the organisation’s leadership, all members and activists shall make every effort to attend and speak at local StW meetings, especially large public meetings, in order to bring the party’s analysis and programme to the attention of the new generation of activists who are presently being drawn towards the anti-war movement. Members should also take every possible opportunity to expose StW’s unwillingness to invite honest anti-war activists and reporters such as Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett onto their platform.
It is our firm belief that these actions will bring us closer to the day when we are able to found a real, anti-imperialist anti-war movement in Britain.
Victory to the resistance; no cooperation with imperialist war!
