Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recent announcement, made at BAE Systems in Govan, that the UK must be on a war footing, is at least honest. The UK’s strategic defence review will see the building of 12 new attack submarines and a minimum of six new munitions factories as he promised to get Britain “war-fighting ready” with a revamped Royal Navy and an Army “10 times more lethal”! Added to this, a commitment to a “fully-trained strategic reserve”, a sort of ‘home guard’ ready to mobilise and to defend the nation from enemies, foreign and, no doubt, domestic. And in return, the promise that the programme would create 9,000 jobs, with “thousands more” further down supply chains. Starmer also repeated the intention of increasing military expenditure from 2.3% to 2.5% of the national budget by 2030 – not fast enough for other factions of the ruling class, notably the Liberal Democrats – united with Trump in pushing for increased financial commitment to NATO.
Starmer talks about a “a battle-ready, armour-clad nation” and British “warriors.” He says that “we will innovate and accelerate innovation to a wartime pace” and become “the fastest innovator in NATO.”
Although there is, in the delivery of the programme, an element of playing to the Reform crowd with his flag waving militarism, it must also be seen as a part of the global drive towards war. And although the term ‘austerity’ is now seldom heard in the media or on the lips of politicians, what else will pay for this war drive but increased attacks on the working class? The government has already threatened £5bn of cuts to benefits; literally making the poorest and most vulnerable pay and, without resistance, they will most certainly make good on that promise.
The increased military spending, and the militarisation of everyday life required to prepare the population for war is justified by the conjuring up of an imminent Russian threat to the United Kingdom. The positioning of our (not so) new enemy, who wishes to disrupt our democratic values and way of life, is not so far removed from the ‘red menace’ of the Soviet Union which drove the post-war arms race and nuclear diplomacy of the second half of the Twentieth Century. The ‘communist’ threat is now a ‘totalitarian’ threat, less ideological but still part of the state’s propaganda ‘cold war.’ It also brands Starmer as Tony Blair 2.0. Remember when Blair and Alistair Campbell lied through their teeth about the Saddam regime in Iraq having Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Who benefits from this increased defence spending?
The Labour government has cut pensioners’ winter fuel payments, foreign aid, has refused to pay the WASPI women, is cracking down on benefits for the disabled, and is ready to bring in more austerity measures to pay for increased ‘defence’ spending. So, it won’t be the poor and the working class who benefit.
Who will benefit will be the arms manufacturers and dealers who will become even more rich and powerful; Billions are to be made from defence contracts.
Wars make profits for the rich in other ways too. Capitalists make big profits from countries shattered by war, where there is a need to reconstruct and rebuild economies. We’ve seen that in the Middle East, and we’ll see it soon in Ukraine.
War makes the State and governments more powerful too. Measures like increased surveillance can be brought in, civil rights can be curtailed and public paranoia can be increased, making the State stronger. It’s already happening without the threat of war, as can be seen with vicious measures against environmental activists, including harsh prison sentences.
Starmer brandishes the notion of endless war and ongoing bloodshed. Meanwhile the bosses of Blackrock, the “global assets manager,” salivate at the thought of the millions to be made from reconstruction of the Ukrainian economy. They have already engineered a hostile takeover of the agricultural land in Ukraine, in a deal with Zelenskyy.
Brigadier Andy Watson, commander of the British Army’s 2,500 strong First Division, a high readiness force, has said that his brigade is “absolutely ready” for engagement in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, public money flows into private coffers, with £4.5 billion this year alone being spent on armaments by the Labour government. The war in Ukraine, and the increasing rhetoric against Russia, only serve the oligarchs whilst workers on both sides have their homes destroyed, with thousands dead or maimed.
When Starmer talks about defending Ukraine, he’s actually defending the profits of the rich. Once again, Labour has shown that it is a party of war. Also once again, even the fig-leaf of parliament is ignored as these big decisions on going to war are made by the inner circle of the Labour cabinet.
As to a “defence dividend” touted by Starmer and co., it is hard to see how this will increase growth and create jobs, more than, say, investment in infrastructure, housing, education and health, or green energy.
Starmer says that we are “all in” as regards backing the war in Ukraine, and wants to “mobilise the nation in a common cause” and that “nothing works unless we all work together.” So, the glaring divide between the ever increasing wealth of the rich, and the increasingly dire straits of the rest of us, are glossed over, and class differences are obscured. Sorry, but many of us are not disoriented by the din of the war drums, many of us are opposed to the idea of conscription and increased arms spending.
Meanwhile, the Starmer government has been determined to support the ongoing genocide of the Israeli State, both politically and logistically, just as it has supported the US by its refuelling of American jets on their way to bomb Yemen. Starmer, in his collusion with Biden and then Trump, and his support of the Netanyahu regime, is as much of a war criminal as they are.
So, what can we do to stop this march to war and the militarist mobilisations? Everywhere we must expose the real intentions of our ruling class – to prepare war economies capable of threatening and potentially entering into both proxy and direct wars with ‘our’ imperialist enemies in the global economy. We need to seek out all those opposed to war, who look towards internationalism, an end to the arms industries and the senseless bloodshed, and who are contemplating, even in the as yet most incoherent way for some, the idea of a new world based on universal cooperation and friendship, and, dare we say it, on love rather than hatred.