Marxism and war

Class conscious workers and the USSR

Soldiers who fought in Russian remain confused about the contradictory character of Soviet life: on the one hand great, undeniable progress in the cities, including new houses, large roads and modern and rich factories, and on the other hand miserable shacks — particularly in the countryside — peasants living in poverty, ignorance and without any comfort. But above all it is the policies of the rulers of the Soviet Union which confuse the German soldiers and workers: their chauvinist policies and their collaboration with the worst representatives of world imperialism, Churchill and Roosevelt...

Soldiers, hold on to your weapons

(A letter from a soldier) So comrade, what do you think of the new people who arrived yesterday? Yes, it’s the latest reserves: without receiving any training they have been mobilised, given uniforms, wage booklets and identity plaques and been sent to the front, albeit without any weapons. It is as if there were no weapons left in the country. But there are. But listen for a moment. When I was mobilised four years ago in B., a big industrial town, we too had to wait for our guns, and no artillery arrived until 11 days later, which our instructors bitched about. Mine, a chief-brigadier, a...

Some reflections on the left and the Falklands war

By Sean Matgamna The two month "Falklands War" between Britain and Argentina in 1982 was a freak event. It was part of no larger conflict; no issue other than possession of the islands was involved. Both Argentina and Britain were bourgeois states. Neither of them oppressed, and neither of them was trying to conquer the other, or likely to, as a result of the war. The Falklands Islands were not a base from which Britain oppressed others in the region, and never had been. The only issue between Britain and Argentina, the cause of the war, was the fate of the Falklands Islands and their...

Dossier: the South Atlantic war of 1982

Download whole dossier as pdf ; or read articles online: Introduction Class politics versus bloc politics (1982 resolution) The texts and the method (1982 article) part 1 The texts and the method, part 2 In early 1982, Argentina's military dictators faced mounting popular revolt. They wanted a diversion to regain the initiative. They sent troops to seize the Falkland Islands on 1-2 April. They hoped that Britain, which had long since abandoned any attempt to be a world military power, would lack motivation and resources to resist. The Falkland Islands, small specks in the South Atlantic, were...

The "victory to Argentina" argument

This is how the "victory to Argentina" section of the WSL argued their case, in their major initial statement (WSL Internal Bulletin 7, June 1982). "The class camp into which Argentina fits in a war against imperialism cannot change... We have to determine our position according to the basic class camps... The course of action followed by the proletariat in one country should be subordinated to international considerations. Difficult or not, we have to base our position on an assessment of the international meaning of the conflict. Whatever the implications of that for the Argentinian or...

SWP does another retrospective u-turn

In 1982, the Socialist Workers’ Party, still retaining bits of a “Third Camp” (independent working class) political tradition from its old slogan “Neither Washington nor Moscow, but international socialism”, took a roughly similar attitude on the British-Argentine war over the Falkland Islands to that of Socialist Organiser, forerunner of Workers’ Liberty. Like us, they said, in effect, “neither London nor Buenos Aires”. The 4 April 2007 Socialist Worker rewrites their position (without saying that it is doing so), the better to square it with their current politics. For the SWP 1982 position...

Marxist texts and Marxist method (part 2)

Part One ... And Argentine nationalism? Argentina suffered British and French intervention some 140 years ago. Modern Argentina, however, has essentially taken shape over the last 100 years. Argentina had no war of liberation. Its population is, to within one per cent, of European immigrant origin — most from immigration within the last 100 years. Its mass popular nationalism dates from the 1920s. This nationalism was, especially in its labour movement manifestations, shaped and consolidated by Peronism. Peronism was not and is not fascism. But corporatism and fascism are its essential...

Marxist texts and Marxist method (part 1)

By Sean Matgamna: from Workers’ Socialist Review no.2, 1982 Time and again the same quotations from Trotsky have been used to justify a pro-Argentine stance in the Falklands/Malvinas war But the main thing the quotations prove is the pro-Argentine comrades’ lack of grip on the points in dispute. Everyone in the WSL majority would agree that if the comparison with China and the other colonies and semi-colonies of the 1930s referred to by Trotsky is legitimate, then we would not invoke the character of the Argentine regime as a reason for not siding with Argentina. We could immediately arrive at...

With Hitler on the road to Samara

By Sean Matgamna Of course you know the story. A man is in the market place, and he sees Death, and Death looks at him intently, recognising him. In a panic, the man runs to his horse and gallops away desperately, taking the road to the city of Samara. As he gallops off, Death turns to his companion. “Strange,” he said, “that was so-and-so. I was surprised to see him here, because I have an appointment with him, tonight, in Samara.” Death is all-powerful. There is no escape when he reaches your name on the list. Consider now, and the association is appropriate enough, the fate of poor Adolf...

Socialist policy in the war

Some people refuse to learn. Others refuse to remember. And still others remember what they have learned only up to the moment when events call upon them to put it into practice, whereupon they start to forget. Critics of the Independent Socialist League’s position on the war are asking that we support the United States in the war, not only in Korea, but in the Third World War that is being prepared. Why? Because there is a big difference between capitalist democracy and Stalinist totalitarianism. While the former is an evil, it still permits the existence of a labour movement and some...

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