What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

So the ConDem coalition is to spend £50 million on marking the centenary of the outbreak of World War One. But the flag-waving nationalism that will surely surround the events will with certainty obscure the truth about the first global conflict.

The Coalition can find millions while it is savagely cutting public services for entirely political reasons. In 2014, we will be a year away from a general election and in the countdown to a referendum on Scottish independence scheduled for the same year.

Contrived nationalism will be used to push the myth of the “One Nation” that both the Tories and Labour are fighting for copyright over, in a beauty contest of patriotic virtues that will churn the stomach. Scotland’s right to self determination will be viewed with abhorrence in the same way as those who opposed World War One were condemned as traitors.

The 900,000 British soldiers who were killed, the 1.6 million maimed and the many millions more from other countries who perished, were victims of a war not of their making and fought not in their interest.

This shocking waste of life needs to be remembered and honoured – but not in the sickening and hypocritical way that politicians from the major parties and the establishment do. They still can’t even look after their fallen or wounded troops, who have to rely on charity and the proceeds of poppy sales.

We need a memorial that spells out the truth, which explains that those who gave their lives or were wounded were cannon fodder for the ruling classes in each country. Propaganda would have it that it was the “war to end all wars” and fought for British democracy against the “tyranny of the Hun”.

In reality, it was an imperialist war fought over the division and redivision of colonial spoils, with the challenge of Germany to Britain’s empire and industrial might the principal cause.

As the great war poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote to his commanding officer in July 1917, declining to return to duty after recovering from his wounds:

I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops and I can no longer be a party to prolonging these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.

World War One was followed in a short period by recession and the Great Depression, leading directly to a resumption of hostilities in 1939 in another capitalist conflict.

The same fundamentals that produced these two world wars are still present. The global economy is on the verge of a slump greater than the 1930s. Capitalism remains an irrational system that is driven to destroy its rivals, as well as a large portion of what has been created. The fall-out from the financial crash is building into a tsunami that has alarm bells ringing from London to Washington.

Wilfred Owen, the war poet, was killed a week before the ceasefire (right up until the last minute, until the 11a.m armistice, generals were sending troops over the top to die) and his words are more honest than those who claim to speak for the fallen. In his Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen wrote:

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Distributing his works and those of other war poets to every household would be a much more suitable way to mark the centenary of World War One.

Paul Feldman
Communications editor

The great 'deception' that killed millions

Perhaps it is fitting on the day that the slaughter of World War One finally ended, the Treasury is said to be preparing for “economic Armageddon”.

Vince Cable’s admission refers to the consequences for Britain of a disorderly (it can’t be orderly) break-up of the euro as a currency and the resultant depression that will sweep not just Europe but the global economy.

But there’s no hiding the connection with the world wars of the 20^th century that cost tens of millions their lives. They were essentially the product of inter-imperialist conflict over trade, empire and markets.

Let no-one claim otherwise, although the political establishment tries might and main to do so every November when the official line is that millions went off to fight “for their country” in 1914.

Wearing a poppy becomes almost compulsory in official circles. Everyone on TV wears one. Those called in for an interview are asked to wear one, whether they want to or not. Of course, it is not wrong to honour the dead but we have to cut through the hypocrisy.

What is never up for discussion is that within months, soldiers on both sides realised that they had been trapped, even duped into a conflict from which they could not escape. A war which was not of their making exacted an intolerable price.

With the first global conflict unresolved, another one arose out of the break-down of the capitalist economy in Europe and the United States. And less than 70 years after its conclusion, with the mass murder of Japanese civilians, the storm clouds are gathering again.

The European Union, which was designed in part to prevent a repeat of 20^th century wars by bringing nations together, is in disarray. Governments in two member states were brought down this week by the economic crisis.

In Greece, the unelected former vice-president of the European Central Bank is to become prime minister of a national government. In Italy, the financial markets are demanding a government of technocrats. In both countries, early general elections were ruled out by the financial markets because they would take too long! Democratic procedures are now considered dispensable.

Now the talk is of a core of richer countries like Germany and France ganging up to exclude the poorer economies within the EU as well as Britain. So the seeds for conflict of all kinds are being sown. A system driven by the need to access and grow markets has no other direction to travel.

So perhaps the best way to mark armistice day is with the letter that the great war poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote to his commanding officer in July 1917, declining to return to duty after recovering from his wounds:

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them and that had this been done the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops and I can no longer be a party to prolonging these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.

On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practised upon them; also I believe it may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share and which they have not enough imagination to realise.

Paul Feldman

Communications editor