Friday, August 01, 2008

The War Crisis in the Middle East

The following extract from a statement published in the September 1990 Socialist Standard serves today, on the 18th anniversary of the Iraqi ruling class sending its workers to invade Kuwait, as a reminder that no war is worth the shedding one drop of our class' blood.

"..The Iraqi rulers want more oil and they also want a guaranteed bunkering and port outlets of the world. That is why they invaded Kuwait. If they gain control of enough oil and have the facilities to move and market that oil, then, they believe, they can exercise more control over prices and, thus, make greater profits. So Iraqi war aims are commercial as those of the Western powers, who want to protect the profits of their capitalists by securing for them a stable supply of low-price oil.

As with all wars, and threats of war, the conflict is about the squalid interests of the owning class in our society. The World Socialist Movement again reminds our fellow workers that we members of the working class own no productive resources except our ability to work. Britain and Ireland, like all other nations, belong to the world capitalist class and, when one nation threatens war on another, it is about the ownership and control of wealth; it is about resources, markets or areas of strategic importance - in a word, about things that concern us only in that our masters order us to kill and die for them.

We say to our fellow workers in all other lands, we have no quarrel with you. On the contrary, we appeal to workers in all lands to refuse to slaughter one another for, and at the behest of, our capitalist masters. We appeal to you to unite with us in the struggle to overthrow the system of capitalism which not only causes war but all the other social problems which our class endures throughout the world.

The Socialist Party Of Great Britain
The World Socialist Party (Ireland)

22 August 1990"

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