We publish here the founding statement of NWBCW Tyne & Wear. You can follow their activities: @NWBCWTyne&Wear.

RESIST THE GLOBAL MARCH TO SLAUGHTER

Across the world working class people are being slaughtered, from endless battles in Ukraine, to mass murder in Israel, to ethnic cleansing in Gaza. The USA and EU are making one military bloc, and China, Russia and Iran are moving to make another. As the working class becomes increasingly impoverished and many of us can now barely afford to eat or heat our homes – and as environmental disaster approaches ever-closer on the horizon – the future looks bleak.

The answer cannot be support for cross-class alliances in the mistaken belief that national liberation equals self-determination and a progressive step forward. Capitalism has been in a continuing deep crisis for decades now, and as capitalists find it harder and harder to make profits, they are left with fewer options to kickstart a new cycle of boom and bust. The last time this happened, the Depression of the 1930s, led to the Second World War. What is happening now in Ukraine and Gaza is what capitalism has in store for all of us unless we can stop it.

The best way to halt capitalism's drive to war internationally is for workers to break the “social peace” at home. That is why we have come together to say No War But the Class War. We must use whatever means are available to us where we possess the greatest strength – at work and in our communities. From simple day-to-day acts – such as sharing information to challenge the dominant narrative – to strikes, occupations and refusals to serve in the military. The working class’s two main weapons are class consciousness and our ability to organize on a mass scale. We cannot allow ourselves to be pitted against each other to our loss and for the benefit of rulers and the rich.

Working class people are already saying no: in July, thousands of ordinary Palestinians were protesting Hamas and its corruption in Gaza, just as ordinary Israelis have been refusing the call up to serve in the IDF. Groups in Ukraine and in Russia have been documenting the refusals to fight from working class conscripts on both sides of the conflict. There are people and groups saying No War But the Class War all over the world including Liverpool, Glasgow, Paris, Turkey, South Korea, Australia, the US and Canada.

As the vast majority in society, we have it in our power to create a new world without states, without the profit system, where we can be warm, feel valued and be healthy, where we can control our own lives.

Get in touch: NWBCWTyneandWear@proton.me