The internationalists

Today, September 17, is the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland. This was the implementation of part one of the secret clauses of the Nazi-Soviet pact of August 1939. And today too more than 1,000 Russian troops are conducting an unannounced invasion of Eastern Ukraine to shore up the pro-Russian separatist forces there.

Karl Liebknecht: “The basic law of capitalism is you or I, not you and I.” · One of the ruling class’s weapons in its armoury is its ability to mask the reality of the exploiter/exploited class relation. Its web of cultural constructs is aimed at obscuring that reality - and the weave of that web is religion, race, gender and above all, nationalism. · Nationalism isn’t “natural”. It is manufactured.

Around the world millions of people are protesting against the Israeli state’s latest murderous incursion into Gaza. The humanitarian instincts of the demonstrators do them credit. The Israeli state is waging “asymmetrical” war with a vengeance. Hamas may have provoked the war by launching 2000 rockets at Israeli cities but most have not reached them.

100 years ago this month the First World War broke out. It began with the assassination of an Austrian archduke in Sarajevo on June 28 but it took a month for the Habsburg Empire to invade Serbia. Within days all the powers of Europe (except Italy) were at war. The assassination at Sarajevo may have provided the spark but it did not cause the war.

In the last week in May a conference of the great, and not so good, of the world capitalist system assembled at the opulent Mansion House in London. Their topic was “inclusive capitalism”. The final speech was made by the Governor of the Bank of England. As security staff “inclusively” prevented the uninvited from getting in, he told an audience, which included Bill Clinton, Christine Lagarde and...