TUC Congress 2023 Convenes in Liverpool: The Need to Establish Anti-War Governments All Over the World Has Never Been Greater
Workers Weekly, RCPBML
Sept 9, 2023
On Sunday, September 10, this year's TUC Congress convenes in Liverpool. Once again, Congress comes at a time when workers in Britain and around the world are asserting that their voice must be heard, recognised and respected. Only the working class has an interest in providing the pressing economic and social problems of society with solutions. This is a moment in history when the working class and people are developing and continuing to fight for the perspective and vantage point that there is only one world, one humanity, and that the use of force to settle conflicts between nations and peoples must be opposed. How to bring about a situation where it is the interests and decision-making of working people which prevail, where a state with a modern democratic personality is brought into being? The need to establish an anti-war government in Britain and anti-war governments all over the world has never been greater.
One of the greatest challenges the workers face is to establish mechanisms for discussion and deliberation amongst their peers so that they can share their experiences as they organise to address the present conditions. Today, the situation in Britain and throughout the world is such that the workers cannot afford to simply adopt pre-established positions fed to them by others, but must work out their own positions and provide themselves with their own information which can reveal what must be done next.
At the TUC Congress, there are 79 motions and many debates planned around motions and composite motions, not least the fight against the new anti-union legislation, the Minimum Service Level (MSL) Act, the fight against poverty pay and for pay restoration and investment in public services such as education and health. However, at this Congress a position is being fed to the delegates by two motions posed as "Solidarity with Ukraine" suggesting that workers are supposed to support an "anti-imperialist" struggle against Russia in Ukraine with "the continuation and increasing of moral, material, and military aid from the UK to Ukraine" (1).
These motions do not address the interests of workers in Britain, Ukraine, Russia or throughout the world and in fact they represent the opposite. They serve the interests of those who are making huge profits out of continuing the war in Ukraine. What do workers have in common with a ruling elite that is using billions of pounds of public funds for schemes which further integrate Britain's economy and whole arms industry into the Anglo-US imperialist war machine and NATO's declared expansion into Eastern Europe and Ukraine up to the borders of the Russian Federation? Such motions ignore that it is the Anglo-US-led NATO warmongering alliance that has deliberately provoked and is escalating the war in Ukraine against Russia. The Ukrainian regime is now almost entirely financed and led militarily by NATO as its proxy army. These Anglo-US imperialists are using the Ukrainian working class and people as cannon fodder for their own interests to "weaken Russia", without getting directly involved themselves. Workers know through their bitter experience of matters here that the aim of the British government in the world is not to bring about peace, or democracy, or self-determination of peoples as they claim, but is to destroy whatever countries they and their oligopolies cannot control in the world.
This is why the Anglo-US-led NATO powers have continued to engage in provocations and warmongering confrontations not only to Russia but also towards the people of China and the DPRK in East Asia. At the same time, these same old colonisers of Africa are continuing to interfere and exploit the African working class and people and continue to rob the rich mineral wealth of the African nations for themselves. They are always at the centre of wars and conflicts in Africa as in the Middle East and elsewhere. None of this is in the interest of workers anywhere and the Anglo-US-led NATO alliance can never be a mechanism workers should support to settle conflicts between nations and peoples.
The working class of Britain must address that it is the only class that can lead the fight for an anti-war government in Britain. In fact, it is their internationalist duty to settle scores with the crimes that Britain's ruling elites have committed while claiming to act in the name of the British people. Britain's role in NATO must be condemned and especially its actions in escalating the war in Ukraine which is not the road to peace. Britain's membership of NATO must be opposed. Facts demonstrate that NATO is a most destructive oligopoly comprised of the military-industrial-civilian complex of the United States, Britain and other countries. Britain's involvement in wars of invasion, occupation and interference abroad have not only led to devastating loss of life and destruction abroad but have led to the militarisation of the British economy. Militarisation of the economy has diverted the resources of the economy thus contributimg to the impoverishment of working people and destruction of vital public services at home. Also, its effect here and world-wide is that it ensures that the people are deprived of the benefits of new developments in science and technology that can be harnessed to improve the life and welfare of the people and address all the pressing economic, scientific, social and cultural problems that face humanity.
These vital questions must be discussed by the workers themselves and their voice needs to be heard so as to work out their positions. Only the working class has an interest to transform the situation and harness the technological advances to serve a human-centred society that looks after the interests of working people for their prosperity and for peace at home and abroad. The working class of Britain must address that it is the only class that can save the day and lead the fight for an Anti-War Government in Britain. Workers' Weekly calls on the TUC delegates to rise to the occasion. The need to establish anti-war governments all over the world has never been greater.
Note 1. TUC Congress motions
https://congress?tuc.org.uk/motion_type/all_motions/#sthash.POp0XDrO.ZbzvTp8l.dpb
