World War II

1914, 1944, 2014: Capitalism means war

Our rulers just can’t get enough of war.

A whole year of ‘commemorations’ of World War One, with opinion divided among them about whether this was a Good War or a Bad War. The right wing tends to argue that this was a Good War. The Kaiser was Bad, and had to be stopped. And Britain’s empire was, on the whole, a Good Thing, which had to be defended. The left wing can then pose as very radical, and say, this was a Bad, Imperialist War.

A history of trade unionism in the Philippines

From the moment it entered the capitalist epoch, the history of the Philippines has been dominated by imperialism, first Spanish, then American. Its strategic position in the South China Sea has placed the country in the forefront of conflicts between rival imperialisms.

The nascent workers' movement in the 19th century, lacking in political experience and separated by vast distances from the more developed socialist movement in Europe, was never able to separate itself entirely from Filipino nationalism. As a result, and despite the remarkable courage of the Filipino workers in struggle, the trade union movement soon became a battleground for the competing imperialist powers, with the different unions acting as clients for this or that power.

Anarchism and imperialist war (part 3): From the end of the Second World War to the end of the counter-revolution

Since the collapse of the Stalinist regimes and the eastern bloc, the organisations of official anarchism have prided themselves on keeping their hands clean in the confrontation of the east and western blocs from 1945 to 1989 and fostered the legend of an unshakeable opposition to the military blocs: "The anarchists vary on the problems of the blocs. The majority decided to oppose both east and west..."

Anarchism and imperialist war (part 2): Anarchist participation in the Second World War

In the build up to the Second World War, following the defeat of the revolutionary wave of the 1920s, the Russian revolution had been strangled by isolation and was then finished off by the world bourgeoisie and Stalinism. The counter-revolution, the crushing of the world proletariat, had triumphed. In this context, anarchism underwent a fateful step in its evolution.

Greek Resistance in WW2: Patriotism or internationalism?

In mid September an article by ‘Jack Ray’ was posted on the libcom website... The author says that nowhere in Europe during the Second World War was the resistance as simple a question as “good guys in the hills with rusty rifles, and bad guys wearing swastikas and burning villages”. Yet, to be honest, that’s the impression you get...

Campaigns against “Negationism”: Anti-Fascism Justifies Barbarity

In a number of countries, and particularly in France, the bourgeoisie is using the theme of “Negationism” against the development of working class struggle and consciousness (“Negationism” being the term used to describe the calling into question by certain writers, of the existence of the gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps)...

Discussion on web forums: Anarchism and the patriotic resistance

All sorts of political animals label themselves as anarchists. They can range from leftists who are hardly distinguishable from Trotskyists, except perhaps for their antipathy for the idea of a political party, to real internationalists who are seriously trying to defend the interests of the working class. An example of the latter is the KRAS group in Russia. At several political conferences in Russia, when the subject of the ‘Great Patriotic War’ came up, the comrades of the KRAS had no hesitation about ranging themselves alongside the marxists of the ICC in denouncing the various justifications for this war from Stalinists, Trotskyists, and anarchists, all of whom used the slogan of anti-fascism to justify support for the ‘democratic’ (and Stalinist) camp.

1943: The Italian proletariat opposes the sacrifices demanded for the war

Throughout the history of the workers’ movement and the class struggle imperialist war has always been a fundamental question. This is no accident; war is the distillation of all the barbarism inherent in this society. It shows that now we have arrived at the historic decadence of capitalism this system is unable to offer humanity any possibility of development and even poses a threat to its very survival. Because it demonstrates to the full the barbarism of which the capitalist system is capable war is a powerful factor towards the development of consciousness and the mobilization of the working class.

Capitalist Barbarism and Ideological Manipulations

2005 abounds in gruesome anniversaries. The bourgeoisie has just celebrated one of them - the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps in January 1945 - with an ostentation that outdid the 50th anniversary of the same event. This comes as no surprise. For the last sixty years, parading the monstrous crimes of the side defeated in World War II has proved the surest means of absolving the Allies from the crimes that they too committed against humanity during and after the war. It has served moreover to present democratic values as the guarantee of civilisation against barbarity. Similarly, we can expect that the anniversary of the capitulation of Germany in May 1945 will also be greeted with a special fanfare.

The barbarism of the Second World War is the product of capitalism

2005 abounds in gruesome anniversaries. The bourgeoisie has just celebrated one of them - the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps in January 1945 - with an ostentation that outdid the 50th anniversary of the same event. This comes as no surprise. For the last sixty years, parading the monstrous crimes of the side defeated in World War II has proved the surest means of absolving the Allies from the crimes that they too committed against humanity during and after the war.

Churchill and the counter-revolutionary intelligence of the British bourgeoisie, Part 2

As the bourgeoisie marks the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the second world war as the "victory of freedom", the second part of this article focuses on Churchill's wartime role and what it reveals about Britain's real motives and interests in a war supposedly fought for democracy against the evils of Nazism.

Buchenwald, Maidaneck: Macabre demagoguery

The role of the SS, the Nazis, and their camp of industrialised death, was to exterminate in general all the opponents of the fascist régime, and above all the revolutionary militants who have always been in the forefront of the combat against the capitalist bourgeoisie, in whatever form: autocratic, monarchical, or ‘democratic’, whether led by Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Leopold III, George V, Victor-Emmanuel, Churchill, Roosevelt, Daladier or De Gaulle.

Auschwitz: Allies and Nazis are both to blame

The commemoration of the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp is providing the bourgeoisie with a new opportunity to obscure the responsibility of the ‘democratic camp’ in the atrocities of World War II, by bludgeoning us with horrifying images and testimonies, bearing witness to the appalling and all too real horrors of fascism. Hitherto unpublished documents have been dug out to illustrate once again the abomination suffered by the deportees, and the unimaginable barbarity of their Nazi torturers and executioners

The joint responsibility of Allies and Nazis in the Holocaust

The commemoration of the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp is providing the bourgeoisie with a new opportunity to obscure the responsibility of the "democratic camp" in the atrocities of World War II, by bludgeoning us with horrifying images and testimonies, bearing witness to the appalling and all too real horrors of fascism.

Remembering the 'Greatest Generation'

There has been a lot of hype in the mass media about the so-called 'Greatest Generation' -- the generation that fought in World War II. First there was "Saving Private Ryan," the Hollywood blockbuster starring Tom Hanks, which glorified the sacrifices of those who fought in the war. More recently, there has been a media campaign to erect a monument to the soldiers and sailors who "made the world safe for the American way of life." Tom Brokaw, one of the most prominent television news reporters/broadcasters in the United States, has published two books on this generation, both those who fought in the war. The television news has been inundated with "heart-warming" stories about "long overdue" medals and citations being awarded to aging veterans. Various tributes have been made to the factory workers who worked long and hard to produce the weapons and materials needed to prosecute the war. A strong dose of gratitude is handed to those men and women who were not sent into combat but who worked under often dangerous and difficult conditions to keep production for war going at a fierce pace. There has been homage to all the women who worked as nurses or factory workers or truck drivers to keep war production going.

1933 - Democracy opens the door to fascism

Sixty years ago, in January 1933, an event of historic importance struck capitalist civilisation: the arrival of Hitler to power and the installation of the Nazi regime in Germany. To listen to the bourgeoisie, fascism was brutally imposed on capitalist society, forced onto its reluctant body. Not for a moment does this lie stand up to the test of historic facts. In reality, Nazism in Germany, as fascism in Italy, is the organic product of capital. The victory of Nazism came about democratically. As to the repugnant racism, the nationalist hysteria or the barbarity which, again, according to the democratic bourgeoisie, characterises the fascist regimes, they are not at all specific to these regimes. They are, on the contrary, the product of capitalism, in particular in its phase of decadence, and the attributes of all factions of the bourgeoisie be they democratic, stalinist or fascist.

Fascism and democracy: both enemies of the working class

The strong electoral showing of Le Pen in France and the party of Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands has led to talk in the media of the danger of fascism returning to Europe. “Not since the 1930s has the threat of racism and fascism been so great” wrote a commentator in the Guardian (9/5/02). The Socialist Workers Party has been saying we’re living through the “1930s in slow motion” for some time. With the increased prominence of political parties that explicitly base themselves on intolerance, xenophobia, and opposition to immigration, while posing as ‘new’ alternatives to the tired old parties of the centre, we’re being asked to believe that fascism is on the agenda again in Europe.

Pearl Harbor, the Twin Towers and the Machiavellianism of the bourgeoisie (part 1)

From the very first moments, American bourgeois propaganda has likened the 11 September attack on the World Trade Center to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941. This comparison is laden with considerable psychological, historical and political impact, since it was Pearl Harbor that marked American imperialism’s direct entry into the Second World War. Like all bourgeois ideological myths, whatever the elements of truth that offer superficial credibility, this propaganda barrage is laced with half-truths, lies, and self-serving distortion. But this is no surprise. The politics of the bourgeoisie as a class are based on lies, deception, manipulation, and maneuver. This is particularly true when it comes to the difficult task of mobilizing society for all out war in modern times. There is considerable evidence that the bourgeoisie was not taken by surprise by the attacks in either case, that the bourgeoisie cynically welcomed the massive death toll in both cases for the purposes of political expediency in regard to implementation of its imperialist war aims, and other long range political objectives.

1939 - 1999: Imperialist slaughter dressed up as democracy

September marked the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War. The ruling class has used the occasion World War. The ruling class has used the occasion to hold up the war as a defining moment of the 20th century, when democracy stood up to and defeated fascism in order to allow the development of human rights and democracy. This message has been given added weight by the Kosovo war, where we were also told that NATO was struggling against the 'new' Hitler and his fascist hordes. Communists would agree that the Second World War was a defining moment of this century but not for the same reasons. What the slaughter of 60 million people in the war showed was the depths of barbarity that decadent capitalism can plumb.

1940: Assassination of Trotsky

Sixty years ago on 20th August 1940, Trotsky died, assassinated by Stalin’s underlings; the second imperialist war had just begun. In this article, we want not only to remember a great figure of the proletariat, sacrificing a little to the fashion for anniversaries, but also to use the event to examine some of his mistakes, and the political positions that he adopted at the beginning of the war. After a life of ardent militant activity, entirely devoted to the cause of the working class, Trotsky died as a revolutionary and a fighter. History is full of examples of revolutionaries who have deserted, and even betrayed the working class; few are those who remained faithful all their lives and died fighting, as did Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Trotsky was one of them.

June 1944: Capitalist massacre and manipulation

For the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944, the bourgeoisie has once again pulled out all the stops to exploit all the emotions stirred up by witness accounts of the slaughter and spread its nauseating nationalist propaganda. Yet another parade of the weapons of war, yet another mass spectacle. All the figureheads of the great powers were there, from Merkel to May and Macron, and of course Donald Trump. The aim is to glorify patriotic sacrifice and to justify the bloody carnage in the name of “freedom”. And thus capitalism hopes we will forget its daily exploitation and present itself as the highest point of civilisation. Let’s recall that no sooner had Europe been “liberated” than the “civilised world” rained atomic fire on Japan, and in the Cold War that followed the “peace”, the two newly emerging imperialist blocs engaged in numerous massacres by proxy and threatened to plunge the world into a third global conflagration. The real horror of the invasion has been covered in lies despite the official recognition, in the 1990s, of the civilian victims of the Allied bombings of the Normandy coast.  But it’s not unusual for the bourgeoisie to own up to its crimes after the event, as long as it can present them as simple mistakes or painful necessities.

Today, it’s because the bourgeoisie continues to serve up the same lies that we thought it useful to republish the article we wrote to mark the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings. As well as denouncing the lies, the article aims to look at the significance of this historic event from the point of view of the working class.

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