This weekend the annual Remembrance ceremonies take place. As usual, national politicians and many others have appeared wearing their poppies.
The poppy, and the Cenotaph ceremonies which go with it, symbolise pride in the 'sacrifice' which the soldiers of Britain and the Commonwealth made to ensure Britain's 'freedom'.
But socialists say that the slaughter of millions of, mainly young, men and women was futile and in the interests of the profits of capitalism.
We say that the ceremonies held each year mystify the real character of the two world wars and glorify militarism.
In the first world war millions of young men died horrible deaths in the trenches in a war curred because of the defeat of many in Italy, France and Spain.
We will remember the British world wars. We will also rememleast 10 million of them civilArmy crushed the Nazis. lions of civilians who died, inthousands of German workers And we remember the thouthem from the Communist movestruggle against Nazism. thousands of Japanese killed in roshima and Nagasaki by atomic But most of all we will remember that the many millions killed in other wars this century, were ity and barbarism of the capitalThe militarism of that system more victims to the terrible toll.
'share issue', offering sure-fire In April 1992, Renton disappeared after failing to keep an appointment with his former accountant. On the same day, he phoned his wife from a horested at Heathrow airport. The December 3, with Renton AND LASTLY, what is believed to be Britain's bigrector Ministry of Defence amdepartment until his retirefound guilty on 12 counts of Crown Court last week. All £1.5m between December Basically, Foxley fed multivoured companies, including a FIAT subsidiary in Italy and companies in Germany and His 5 per cent kick-back Foxley set up in both Britain them channelled into Swiss his tracks so successfully that til 1989, and MoD police have Foxley, who was granted leave to appeal, was released on bail of £100,000 unbe sentenced. Mind you, every cloud has a silver lintence of seven years apiece, legislation was amended in 1988. Thus he can only be Facing mass unemployunion laws, and a war on health and welfare services, the working class in an avoidable crisis created by the historic failure of its Socialist Outlook exists to class leadership, based on the revolutionary socialism, to The capitalist class, driven and politically united by its own crisis, its requirement to maxiworkers, has been given deterbrutal class-war Tory high comThe Tory strategy has been to tion, and to fragment and working class and oppressed, allowing them to pick off isolated sections one at a time, using the In response, most TUC and the defeatist politics of 'new retotal surrender on every front, they offer a socialist alternative. they have made to the employers fuelled and encouraged the ofconditions and union rights. taken by the politics of reforproved conditions within the Socialist Outlook rejects reagainst fighting for reforms, but because we know that the needs of the working class -for full peace and democracy - can Nor, as we argued long before the collapse of Stalinism, could under the bureaucratically deregimes survived only by reWe are a marxist current, tarian parodies of state marxism, nor on the tame, toothless version of 'marxism' beloved by revolutionary tradition of Marx, tions or illusions of peaceful legmobilise and unleash the power whelming majority of society -tionary rule of capital and estabWe struggle against fragmenworking to link and unite the unemployed, of women, of pensioners, of the black communities and ethnic minorities, of dents, of youth - and of those and throughout the world. Sointernationalist current, in soliInternational, which organises on the British left, we do not party can be built simply by proToo often this degenerates into tion from the actual struggle takmovement, playing into the Nor do we believe that the delesbians and gays or the national and Wales should be left to await lution. The oppressed must oraround their own demands, ever good, will not bring socialcan mobilise and politically edube taken into the unions, the Laand struggle in which workers To strengthen this fight we on key issues such as fighting various left currents can work while remaining free to debate If you agree with what you see in Socialist Outlook, the struggle for socialism, readers groups meet in Contact us now, get organised, and get active! Send to Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU
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