Britain: the fight against war and the political tasks of the Socialist Equality Party SEP

Written on December 1st, 2014 in politics Comments Off

Published on World Socialist Web Site WSWS, Nov 28, 2014.

The Second National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (Britain) adopted this resolution unanimously on October 28:

  • 1. The Socialist Equality Party endorses the International Committee of the Fourth International resolution, “Socialism and the Fight Against Imperialist War.” The resolution of this Congress incorporates and elaborates on the ICFI’s resolution, applying it to the work of the SEP in Britain.  
  • 2. The statement’s call for the ICFI to become “the international centre of revolutionary opposition to the resurgence of imperialist violence and militarism” was made on the 100th anniversary of World War I and 75 years after the start of World War II. In 1914 and 1939, the spark for war was ignited in Europe. Today the flame could be lit anywhere in the world.
  • 3. Once again, conflicts over access to markets, raw materials, sources of cheap labour and spheres of influence are preparing an inferno. The recklessness with which the major powers are proceeding points to the deep crisis of imperialism. The basic contradictions of the world capitalist system—between globalised production and the division of the world into antagonistic nation states, and between socialized production and private ownership of the means of production—have reached a new peak of intensity. Faced with the danger of economic collapse and social upheavals, the major powers are resorting to militarism. But their actions only further imperil the world economy.
  • 4. This Congress meets as a military offensive unfolds in Iraq and Syria, involving a gang-up of major and lesser powers, that threatens to become the antechamber of a broader conflagration. Just one year after it was forced to retreat from a planned attack on Damascus due to widespread opposition, parliament has authorized an open-ended conflict in the Middle East, in what Prime Minister David Cameron has declared to be a “generational struggle”. A century after Britain conspired to divide up the former Ottoman Empire, it is participating in a new carve up of the Middle East. This time it does so as a much-reduced economic and military power, weakened against its rivals and wracked by internal social and political conflicts that threaten the very survival of the UK state. With few available options, Britain’s ruling elite is forced to try and protect its geopolitical interests through a desperate alliance with US imperialism … //

… The historical decline of British capitalism: … //
… The dissolution of the USSR: … //
… The crash of 2008: … //
… The social polarisation in Britain: … //
… The threatened break-up of the UK: … //
… The crisis of the European Union: … //
… The pseudo-left champions of militarism and nationalism: … //
… The tasks of the Socialist Equality Party: … //

  • … 59. The most powerful answer to the warmongering of the major powers is the unified political struggle waged by the Socialist Equality Party and its co-thinkers in Europe and internationally. This congress of the SEP endorses the September 2014 resolution of our German comrades at their special conference against war. The stand taken by the Partei für Soziale Gleichheit against the revival of German militarism will find a powerful resonance in Britain and throughout the continent.
  • 60. The Socialist Equality Party pledges to devote itself to the building of sections of the ICFI throughout Europe. This assumes a life and death character. The working class must not only break decisively with the rotten labour bureaucracy, but also begin the task of constructing the necessary alternative. The ICFI, by virtue of its history and programme, alone offers such an alternative. As the IC resolution concludes; “The building of the Fourth International, under the leadership of the International Committee, is the central strategic question.”

(full long text).

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