En Passant

Today, the potential for economic, environmental and humanitarian change lies with workers just as it did after World War One, I write in Independent Australia.  

The Turnbull Government’s requirement for a postal plebiscite on marriage equality but not for sending troops to North Korea only reinforces the importance of voting ‘yes’, says John Passant in Independent Australia.

I mourn not for George Michael and Carrie Fisher but for those dying on Manus Island and Nauru, for those dying in Syria and Yemen, for those hundreds of millions across the globe caught up in war or slowly starving to death.

I oppose Hillary Clinton because she is the candidate of Wall Street. Her election will not improve the lives of most women in the US. It will make them worse. Clinton is the candidate of the elite, and their agenda is to drive down the living standards of working women and men to restore profit rates.

I also oppose Hillary Clinton because she is a warmongering imperialist who, like Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama, will slaughter tens of thousands of innocent women, girls, boys and men in her wars and drone attacks. Which side will Price be on when that happens – the side of the mass murderer Hillary Clinton or the side of those women and girls Clinton murders?

War criminals like Bush, Blair and Howard will never face any court of justice. That is for Western supported dictators who go rogue. The real justice they must face is that of the millions who said no to the war in Iraq before and while it was happening. Let’s build a mass movement that doesn’t fall like a shooting star (as the anti-Iraq War movement did, partly because the ALP supported it once troops were sent.) That means building movements against war, against racism, against Islamophobia, against attacks on unions and on living standards. Most of all it means building a vibrant fighting left. Let’s join together in the fight against war, against imperialism, against austerity, against capitalism.

Socialist Worker UK has ongoing coverage of the Chilcot Report. It is time to try Tony Blair for war crimes. To read the regular updates click here. Chilcot Report destroys Blair’s case for war.

Scrap the $50 billion on submarines and the $24 billion on the F-35 joint strike fighter planes. Spend the $74 billion on public health, education and supporting and rehabilitating veterans.

The poster, and the growth of the IWW, highlight part of the hidden history of World War I. Not only was it an imperialist slaughter but working class opposition to it grew rapidly; so much so that the 1916 and 1917 referenda on conscription were both defeated. In 1917 there was a general strike in New South Wales.

As socialists we should argue for more money for the support of veterans and of course for the support of all people suffering mental illness, domestic violence , homelessness, poverty etc. Aborigines, victims of domestic violence, gays and lesbians, especially young gays and lesbians, refugees locked up in Australia’s concentration camps, for example, all have high levels of stress and anxiety, with PTSD and suicide rates well above average. Fund adequate services for them all. Make big business pay a fair share of tax to pay for these services. In relation to refugees, close down the mental illness camps. In relation to war, stop.

Ultimately however the only way to end war and its rotten consequences for all the combatants and all the peoples of the countries the West has invaded is to end the system that creates war – capitalism.