No more war – Unite to fight

By Lauren W (National Members Council)

This past Saturday the Workers Party of Britain was invited to speak at the No More War rally called by David Clews of the Unity News Network. The rally had a number of other speakers including former British Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford, UK Column contributor Niall McCrae and well known activist Piers Corbyn.

There is always some discussion among left-wing and principled people as to the ‘optics’ of working with those with whom we hold disagreements. Some well meaning people think that attending and participating outside of the usual small circle might be a compromise on our principles, that it would mean we were supporting racists etc, we are clear that we took the easy decision to speak to a crowd of people about why we want Britain to withdraw from Nato, and how we must work together to achieve this aim. It’s as simple as that. We must speak to people who don’t already agree with our ten point programme, or else what are we doing?!

Different speakers and personalities of the so called ‘right wing’ may talk about globalists or satanists (language that may be uncomfortable to some), what they are really talking about (in less than precise, though popular language) is our class enemies: Our ruling class made up of monopoly capitalists and our ‘democratically’ elected rulers and the media who spin their propaganda. The understanding that us normal people have opposing interests to those in power, and those who own the means of production, is a few steps along the way to becoming fully class conscious. It is incumbent upon us to cultivate this rising consciousness and expose these audiences repeatedly (and tactfully) to real socialist ideas, to class politics. That’s not an easy task. Some who use the language of the left are the worst liberals, whilst others are the worst sectarians, high on the language of ‘scientific socialism’ and unwilling to step down from Mount Olympus to speak in the tongue of the common man.

Speakers one and all expose imperialism

Peter Ford spoke passionately about the racism of the British State and mainstream press in so warmly welcoming Ukrainian refugees whilst turning back those from Africa and the Middle East, he described the absolute ownership of the mainstream media by the ruling class in our society. David Clews related repeatedly the dangers of Nato and the American empire, how the powers that be care nothing for human rights or human life but only for profit and power. Niall McCrae told the crowd about the Military Industrial Complex and its influence in western governments. London activist Angela clearly and succinctly analysed the lack of democracy in Britain, that having 4 Parties to vote for who all have the same policies is not choice, it is not democracy, and it is certainly not representation of the people!

As I noted during my short speech at the event, the willingness of Clews et al to invite us as socialists on to their platform shows a maturity and a real understanding of the gravity of the global situation. We have had supposedly ‘progressive’ venues cancel our bookings for hosting meetings to oppose World War 3 and we have had other ‘left wing’ groups publicly state their opposition to us over secondary questions. We must not and will not fall into the same errors of these groups and organisations who are not willing to put themselves out there and face even minimal public criticism to defend the most basic principles of free speech and freedom of assembly.

We will talk to and meet with any group who oppose war, who want a real democracy in Britain, who support free speech, and freedom of assembly and we will not apologise for that.