NO SERIOUS person regards the first world war as other than an inter-imperialist conflict for power and profits.  

But there is nothing impressive about 20-20 vision in hindsight: we should remember the tremendous success of the competing ruling classes in suborning the leaderships of the labour and trade union movements internationally, including socialists, into supporting their war aims, leading to the industrialised slaughter of tens of millions of working people.  

Socialists who condemned the US-led campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria were smeared as apologists for Saddam, the Taliban, Gadaffi or Assad, despite their consistent opposition to such regimes.

While having opposed the Russian kleptocracy from the beginning, unlike those like Tony Blair who once lauded him as “pro-Western,” we are now accused of being pro-Putin.  

Our ruling class is not interested in an honest debate about the real causes of the war in Ukraine. 

The Western media, including recently developed supposedly “democratic” social media platforms, and not least the BBC, the world’s most sophisticated and successful state propaganda outlet, stand four-square with the ruling class in times of crisis.

The current onslaught of undisguised propaganda, censorship of opposing views and demonisation of even the mildest dissent is a stark warning our movement ignores at its peril. 

Few questions have the potential to cause division in our movement as does war. It should be remembered that even the recent trail of destruction in the Middle East and beyond, including the first full-scale war in Europe in the Balkans in the late ’90s, found its supporters in the trade union movement.

On April 9 a demonstration in London called by Stand With Ukraine failed to attract more than a few hundred people, despite the support of a number of trade unions who wished to show their solidarity with the Ukrainian people.  

But the principal movers behind the demonstration were the pseudo-Trotskyist cult the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty — apologists for Western imperialism on every major international issue in recent years — and former socialist media personalities who have entirely capitulated to imperialism and warmongering.

They have chosen their side — their own ruling class — rather than developing a genuinely independent class position on the war.      

It is worth disposing of a side issue. Criticising those unions backing the demonstration, an article in a socialist newspaper stated they were “…turning their backs on the cost-of-living crisis while they busy themselves supporting a march that will boost Nato’s escalation over Ukraine.” 

These unions are in reality in the very forefront of resistance against the government and are organising their members in defence of pay, terms and conditions.

Such misdirected and divisive comments distract from the need to have a serious, patient and comradely debate within the trade unions on this question. 

It is right for unions to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people but the pro-imperialist, warmongering position of those organising the demonstration must be challenged.

Central to this is how the war is defined — whether it is an inter-imperialist conflict or, as they would have it, an unprovoked attack by an “evil” or “unstable” dictator.  

By ignoring, or worse, denying, the role played by the West, especially the US, and its military wing Nato in provoking this proxy war, they attempt to legitimise the use of sanctions, demand escalation and further militarisation, with the most serious consequences for workers in Ukraine and internationally.   

The war did not start on February 24. Socialists have warned since 2014 that the Western-backed Maidan coup would lead to conflict. 

Volodymyr Zelensky was elected on his promise to resolve tensions arising from the coup, but the US and the Ukrainian far right would not allow him to implement the Minsk Accord that would have seen Lugansk and Donetsk offered semi-autonomous status. 

He further capitulated to these reactionary forces and went on to preside over the implementation of the most repressive measures against his own people and the slaughter of 10,000-plus in the Donbass by the Ukrainian military and Nazi paramilitaries, who were trained and supplied by Nato.

His instincts were to negotiate a settlement with Russia before a shot was fired but the US demanded he did not. 

Those claiming this is not an inter-imperialist conflict are in a state of denial.  

Sanctions are a form of economic warfare, an act of imperialist aggression ranking just below open military conflict.  

With its disproportionate economic, monetary and military strength, only the US is capable of effectively applying sanctions and has done so to devastating effect against its “enemies,” like Cuba, Venezuala and Iran.

In Iraq the death of up to half a million children as a result of sanctions was dismissed as a “price worth paying” by Madeleine Albright.        

Sanctions against Russia are also a miscalculation as bad as Putin’s underestimation of Ukrainian resistance: the Russian people, however much they despise the regime, are rallying against what they see as Western aggression, tending to isolate the brave Russian anti-war movement. 

The working class throughout Europe will pay a heavy price in terms of inflation and economic instability, which they have been urged to take on the chin to defend “freedom.”

But this is nothing in comparison to the social explosions that will result through food shortages the Middle East and beyond from an extended conflict, which is why, while Israel tags along behind its US paymasters, it nervously looks over its shoulder at the prospect of another Arab Spring that could see the downfall of its pro-Western allies in the region. 

The organisers of last weekend’s demonstration demand that Nato continue to pile in weapons for Ukraine’s defence.

This is perhaps the cruellest twist: Zelensky wants a settlement but is being pressed by the US to continue the war in pursuit of its strategic aim of a drawn-out conflict that saps the strength of their Russian “enemy,” leading to regime change.   

No war is a foregone conclusion, but it is the height of chauvinist irresponsibility to advocate the self-evidently deceitful picture that a Ukrainian victory is in sight.

The anti-war movement rightly demands a Russian withdrawal, but that can only be on the basis of a ceasefire and negotiated settlement, which must be preferable to continued slaughter.   

The falsehood that the “world is united” against Russia was exposed even in the “success” of its suspension from the United Nations human rights committee; a casual glance at who voted against or abstained shows countries representing the broad mass of humanity did not fall into line.

This does not indicate support for any of these regimes but is a recognition of the concerns of the masses in those countries, which have been systematically plundered and exploited by Western imperialism.

The US’s strategic aims are to re-establish its hegemony in Europe but its ambitions go beyond that. Nato’s “defensive” alliance, which they boast is the most powerful in human history, is preparing further expansion into Asia itself.  

Throughout the ex-colonial and developing world the concern is who is next in the West’s sights. 

Already, under the cloak of the war, the US is openly provoking China over Taiwan and has played a significant role in toppling the Pakistani government.

In addressing issues like Ukraine it would be a mistake for trade union leaders to conflate the media and the views of the pro-war press with that of workers and members. Even those workers most detached from “politics” know their rulers are corrupt and will tell any lie to further their own interests.   

If we are to build an anti-war movement and real solidarity with workers at home and internationally, it can only be by adopting a genuinely independent class position that gives no concessions to imperialist interests and which holds our own rulers accountable for their role in inflicting the horror of war on the working class in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.