Harpal Brar speaks at a meeting in Birmingham, on the topic of Imperialism & War. It is a topic that everyone in Britain, which remains an imperialist country, must understand. The introduction focuses on the recent troubles in Ukraine (01:40), its history, the collapse of the Soviet Union that has led to the Ukrainian people's current troubles, the imperial intrigues of the EU, NATO and USA, and the political physiognomy of the current 'Ukrainian Government' they have installed. But the scope of the talk is far wider, covering the fundamental economics of monopoly capitalism (09:00) that lead to its political and military drive for conquest and plunder (05:35), that shape our contemporary world - including the invasions and occupations of Palestine, Iraq (53:44), Afghanistan (53:00), Libya (25:55), Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Korea (46:15), Vietnam (50:36), Yugoslavia, etc. These are the very same forces that led to the great conflagrations of WW1 (10:50) and WW2 (42:40) in which the great established imperial powers battled it out with the rising capitalist powers who sought a place at the imperialist banqueting table - demanding their 'fair share' of the slaves, colonies, plunder and booty. But since the 'Berlin congress' of 1884 (09:20), the territories of the world had been completely divided, and the would be 'upstart' German colonialist could only gain territories at the expense of the old fat British and French colonialists. Our imperialist masters are getting ready to commemorate the 100th anniversary of their (WW1) bloodbath, with great pomp and ceremony, while doing their best to obfuscate the facts of their barbarous wars, in which fully 100 million workers paid with their lives for the imperialist capitalists' fabulous profits. This is the ideal of our capitalist rulers' 'division of labour.' WW1 was supposed to be the 'war to end wars' (36:55) - but there has not been a single day's peace since the end of WW2. That is the reality. Imperialism is war. Let us, the international working class, ALSO remember - that it was a massive capitalist crisis of overproduction (09:00) - as we are experiencing today - that led to the 'great' wars. And that a mighty internationalist proletarian movement arose from these wars, that showed, under the guidance of Lenin and the Bolsheviks, that it was possible to mutiny, in the trenches, in civil society, and in government. That it was possible to go beyond mutiny to revolution (48:50) - to overthrow the rotten, senile, corrupt, and moribund system that enslaves the entire planet to the greed of a tiny clique of exploiting parasites. The October Revolution (48:50) and the third international that grew from it it showed definitively that it is possible to defeat and overthrow the monarchs, princes, dukes, kings and Tsars; to defeat and overthrow the capitalist billionaires and their governments. To put in place a workers' democracy in which "he who does not work - neither shall he eat." To end exploitation of man by man and nation by nation. To end racism, sexism, and division of the working people along national and religious lines. To forge a great unity and build an economy that serves the people. An important discussion of opportunism (37:40) in the British working class movement ends the discussion. For in order to forge unity among working people in Britain, we must overcome the divisive forces that serve imperialism in the working class movement. We must break the ties that bind so much of our 'progressive' and 'socialist' / 'anti-war' movement (33:01) to the Labour Party (59:15). Tony Blair, having led three Labour Party administrations, and led Britain to commit genocide in Iraq, Yugoslavia and elsewhere, has sold himself to the house of Saud (29:35), inter alia, and continues to act as a figurehead of Imperialism, amassing himself a personal fortune to the tune of £120 million. Until we break the link with Labour, all talk of anti-war, anti-imperialist and socialist progress is doomed to failure. _____________________________________ Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! http://www.redyouth.org http://www.cpgb-ml.org http://www.youtube.com/ProletarianCPGBML http://www.lalkar.org Red Youth Education Program: Each one teach one! http://redyouthuk.wordpress.com/educational-links/ Join the struggle! http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=join Donate: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted;_button_id=RNTPLUHGTMRP6

• published: 04 Jun 2014
• views: 402