People’s China: taking the lead for peace

New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks took part in a seminar on the role of the Communist Party of China and the world today at the Chinese embassy in London in August. This is his contribution to the discussion.

We meet at a time of sharpening contradictions — and the primary contradiction in the world today is between United States imperialism and the rest of the world it seeks to dominate..
    Generations of Chinese communists struggled against dogmatism and sectarianism to build a people’s democracy in their own way, to serve the needs of the working people of China and throughout the wider world we live in – a world torn apart by war and stricken by poverty and disease. While the American imperialists incite conflict and sectarian division People’s China has taken the lead in helping to build the economies of the Global South while working for peace and harmony throughout the world,
    We too must struggle for peace and nuclear disarmament – as well as the abolition of other weapons of mass destruction.
    Imperialism fans the flames of war in Ukraine and the Middle East, blocks the return of Taiwan to its Chinese homeland and prolongs the unhappy partition of many countries including Cyprus, Ireland, Kashmir and Korea. China’s perspective, on the other hand, is based on the concept of ‘one country, two systems’ and the principle that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’. But the most aggressive sections of the American ruling class now at the helm in Washington clearly believe in “one world, one system” and that nuclear war is, under certain circumstances, entirely winnable.
    The Chinese revolution that established the people’s government in 1949 has transformed the country that was then the poorest in the world. Since then China has risen from being a weak semi-feudal, semi-colonial country to become a force for peace in the global arena with the second largest economy in the world.
    People’s China, the fifth permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is the only veto-power actively supporting proposals for multilateral nuclear disarmament. Pledging never to be the first to use nuclear weapons in any conflict, China stands for the complete prohibition and total destruction of all atomic weapons.
    China, backed by many other countries, has repeatedly challenged the West to implement the entire non-proliferation treaty, signed in 1968, that not only called a halt to nuclear proliferation but also committed the signatories to work towards universal nuclear disarmament.
    The struggle to abolish nuclear weapons is crucial for the survival of humanity. But central to averting a Third World War is the need to eliminate the causes of war. And that is why communists have always understood that the struggles for peace and socialism are indivisible.
    The Chinese communists are striving to achieve lasting world peace, so that all countries can enjoy a peaceful and stable external environment and their people can live a happy life with their rights fully guaranteed to build a world that is free from fear and enjoys universal security. 
    This is, of course, a quantum jump from the post-war Soviet policies of “peaceful co-existence” and “detente” that failed to end the Cold War and probably accelerated the collapse of the USSR. Peaceful co-existence mistakenly believed that the capitalists could be economically beaten at their own game while detente was, in essence, a futile Soviet attempt at achieving nuclear parity with the Americans to divide the world into Soviet and American spheres of influence.
    Sadly the United Nations has been marginalised by the imperialists who only pay lip service to UN institutions when it suits their purposes. When it doesn’t the world forum is ignored and discarded.
    So though the United Nations remains a prime focus China has taken the initiative in setting up other platforms for economic and diplomatic co-operation including BRICS, the Belt & Road Initiative and the Shanghai Co-operation Council.
    China has become a beacon of hope for all the peoples of the world struggling to build their own independent economies without imperialist interference. While Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism use their military and economic might to impose their neo-colonial rule throughout the Global South the Chinese people can, and do, provide the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America with an alternative source of high technology and economic assistance without the odious strings attached that always go with deals with the West.
    China puts people first. China has become a pivot for peace in a world torn apart by imperialist greed and aggression. China is strong but it threatens no one. China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. It stays true to the principle of equality of all countries big or small, strong or weak, and rich or poor, and it respects the development paths and social systems independently chosen by all the world’s peoples. The people’s government is dedicated to promoting a human community with a shared future.
    China stands ready to work with all countries and peoples who love peace and aspire to happiness to address all kinds of traditional and non-traditional security challenges, protect the peace and tranquility of the planet, and jointly create a better future for humanity, so that the torch of peace will be passed on from generation to generation and shine across the world.
    Earlier this year the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, launched the “global security initiative” that lays out core concepts and principles regarding global peace and security.
    The first is to eliminate conflict through the establishment of a balanced, effective, and sustainable security framework under which countries respect the legitimate security concerns of each other and promote political solutions to cope with hotspot issues.
    The second is the promotion of economic development in the Global South.
    The third is respect for diversity. It is the right of every country to choose its own political system and development path.
    Finally all international disputes should be resolved through dialogue not unilateralism and hegemonic acts. The UN can play a positive role in international affairs if the voice and representation of countries throughout the Global South is expanded in the world forum.
    This is what we should all be working for. Hopefully we will live to see it happen in the years to come.

Why did workers flock to sign up for the First World War?

A serious topic but still time for a laugh: Prof Putkowski left

By New Worker correspondent

IN THE early years of the 20th century working class awareness and socialist ideas were growing. The leaders of the labour movement recognised the imperialist nature of war and opposed it.

And yet once the First World War was declared in August 1914 thousands of working class men flocked to join the army, most of them during the first three months of the war.

Professor Julian Putkowski last Monday evening delivered a very interesting account of his researches into the reason for this flood of volunteers at a well-attended meeting in Housmans Bookshop, organised by Veterans for Peace.

“How come so many working class people dutifully marched off to war?” he asked. “The scale of change in the national outlook was perplexing.”

He pointed out that Britain, unlike most European countries, did not have a conscript army at that stage. Britain’s defence investment had for centuries favoured the Royal Navy and, in peacetime, the army was effectively a mobile back-up police force.

When war broke out a massive recruitment campaign was necessary to get men to volunteer.

Julian Putkowski told the meeting that the education provision for the working classes, through compulsory board schools, was rudimentary, heavily loaded with religion, nationalism, racism and a culture of unquestioning obedience to authority.

But there was a stronger motive than that, which drove hundreds of thousands of men to the recruiting officers: hunger.

The start of the war coincided with an economic crisis. Official unemployment figures were not so high but millions were trapped in unskilled casual employment whose income was precarious and changed from day to day – never mind week to week.

Once the war had been declared the United States stopped sending cotton to Lancashire – they were afraid of losing valuable ships and cargoes to German submarine attacks.

This brought the cotton mills to a full stop and all the other peripheral industries and trades that went with them – throwing thousands of people into poverty.

It also brought ports to a standstill – merchant ships were afraid to set sail to and from the Channel and North Sea ports. Thousands of dockers were laid off.

In London and other big cities, service industries including domestic service that provided thousands of low-paid jobs were cutting back wining and dining and travelling. The earnings were low but vital to working class households where the women and children of any age were engaged informally in producing knick-knacks and decorations, or in street trading.

A big factor in the attraction of the army was the recent extension of dependants’ allowances for serving soldiers.

These economic pressures did not last; within months the demands for munitions and army uniforms had improved employment opportunities and women were welcomed into trades previously done only be men. And the Government had offered insurance to merchant shipping lines to get trade moving again. But for the first three months of the war, it was literally sign up or starve for hundreds of thousands.

And the recruiting doctors were passing almost anyone as fit to serve, they were not fussy and there was pressure on them to accept as many as possible. Many under-age boys were accepted after being advised to lie about their age.

Throughout the war a total of 2.5 million signed up and the first million of those joined between August and November 1914. The peak was in September.

Later, as employment prospects improved and accounts of the reality of fighting at the front filtered back to Britain, volunteering declined and the Government introduced conscription, sending another 2.5 million into the war.

Few socialist leaders opposed the war but they included Kier Hardy and Sylvia Pankhurst.

Professor Putkowski will be addressing more meetings on the topic of resistance to war in the near future – to be notified. And Veterans for Peace have organised a memorial meeting for Brian Haw, the peace campaigner who camped opposite Parliament for many years, this Sunday 18th June at 2pm in Parliament Square.

No Pride in War!

 by New Worker correspondent

Last Saturday some marked “Armed Forces Day” with parades and displays glorifying the armed wing of British imperialism. Others, like Veterans for Peace, celebrated the day in their own way in London last weekend

. The veterans’ peace  movement held a counter-recruitment presence outside Charing Cross station Saturday morning before heading off to join other groups under the banner "No Pride in War" to protest the presence of the Red Arrows and BAe Systems at this year’s Pride in London parade.Veterans for Peace UK was set up in 2011 by a former member of the Special Air Service who was discharged after refusing to continuing serving in Iraq. The movement for veterans of the armed forces is committed to opposing all wars through non-violent means.