Apparently 31 “countries” have joined Winston Starmer’s “coalition of the willing” to send peacekeepers to Ukraine.  At the same time, in Europe, rearmament is taking place on a scale not seen since the 1930s.  At the time, weapons’ manufacture boosted the military-industrial complex, preparing for war and simultaneously relieved (somewhat) the capitalist’s crisis, with the state subsidising a new arms industry for them to get their greedy fingers on.

    Then, like now, nationalism and patriotism, along with tariff wars were the order of the day; a prelude to WW2.  It may sound like history is repeating itself, second time as farce, given Trump’s antics in the White House.  But his deal-making with Putin and apparent anti-Europe stance is merely another excuse for the, also super-indebted, European capitalist states to rearm, while pretending they aren’t dependent on the US.

    So is the scare-mongering over a third world war to be taken seriously?  Probably not.  But nevertheless, this time, Starmer, France’s Macron and incoming German Chancellor Merz all claim to be preparing to defend kith and kin from an invasion by Putin’s Russian army.  And (of course!) “defence of the realm” comes first, before any other spending priorities.

   “This is a war against Europe, not only against Ukraine; it is also a war against our country, which is taking place on a daily basis...” Merz said, implausibly blaming Russia also for every incident of cyber-hacking and even terrorist attacks!

   He is certain about the “benefits”:  he can break his borrowing rules thanks to this supposed “Russian threat” and offer Ukraine 3.2 billion euros in aid and weapons...

   So first let’s be clear: there is no “Russian threat to Europe”.  Macron and Starmer also claim that “we have got to stop Putin because we know we are next!”  Never mind the fact that Putin even hesitated before invading Ukraine which he considered a threat: a proxy for the NATO alliance which would be used to weaken Russia and encircle it.  And that his war-aims in Ukraine are limited and already defined.

A way to “boost” the economy

So what’s really behind this nationalist outpouring?  In the case of Germany, it’s the economy which is experiencing an even worse slow-down than its rivals.  After Ford and VW closures, Audi and the Siemens industrial group just announced they’re cutting 7,500 and 6,000 jobs respectively.  And lo and behold, Merz has declared that weapons’ manufacture can revive the country’s fortunes...

    The far-left German populists under Sara Wagenknecht protested, “2025 is like 1914" - recalling the war credits demanded by the German government before it launched WW1!

    So too, with the government in Westminster which still promotes support for Netanyahu’s 17-month brutal collective punishment on Gaza, and the broken ceasefire.  Yet one argument they use against Putin is that he broke cease-fires...  This is cynical hypocrisy; they have the blood of the Palestinians on their hands.  Over 50,000 dead mostly women and children and now the Nasser hospital bombed...  Like the genocide, that’s considered a war crime, but so-called international law and the UN are just legal niceties created precisely to give the illusion that something other than the law of the jungle prevails in this world!

War against NEETS

So what about the current crisis in Britain behind Starmer’s war-mongering and rearmament?  In fact his policies are so right wing that the Tory opposition is finding it hard to criticise, driving them ever-rightward and proving that it’s not competition from Farage which defines their anti-migrant and anti-welfare stance, but Starmer’s Labour.

    Indeed, here in Britain it’s warfare, not welfare, as an inappropriately exuberant Rachel Reeves will explain in her Spring Statement on Wednesday:  how she’ll raise the £9bn finance (over 5 years) for “defence of Britain” and probably she’ll add “defence of democracy”.  When the real problem is that she won’t touch the wealth of the rich and hence screwed up her November budget.

    First to lose out will be 1m NEETs (youth, Not in Employment, Education or Training) who’re mostly, (like many older counterparts), in receipt of incapacity benefit and/or Personal Independence Payments (PIP) - mainly due to the incapacity of the NHS.  However, DWP Secretary Liz Kendall thinks “they are taking the Mickey” so across-the-board-cuts are the order of the day and meant to get the NEETs into work.  And never mind that the only jobs on offer are temporary, low-paid and without education!  Tory leader Kemi Badenoch approves, but says these cuts to the £23bn welfare budget just don’t go far enough.

    For the working class this is a (another!) cut too far - to make the most vulnerable in society pay for the mess the government finds itself in.  We cannot allow this nasty, deceiving bunch in power to get away with this.  Then again, our class recognises the enemy, and it’s the capitalist class, right here at home, raking in dividends, defended by the likes of Starmer, Reeves and Kendall in Westminster.