attacks on syria
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Fellow workers in Syrya and other countries we oppose all attacks in our name by th UK government. We have no country. “Having no quarrel with the working class of any country, we extend to our fellow workers of all lands the expression of our good will and Socialist fraternity, and pledge ourselves to work for the overthrow of capitalism and the triumph of Socialism.
world socialist movement
And:We are fully aware of the sufferings of workers in Iraq and Syria under Islamist rule, and wholeheartedly support the efforts of workers everywhere to secure democratic rights against the powers of suppression, but the history of the past decades shows the futility of war as a means of safeguarding democracy.
On a related note… at the outbreak of war in 1939 when, asked by a branch to reprint the 1914 anti-war manifesto, the Socialist Standard editors refused. The address had said ‘Having no quarrel with the working class of any country’, and that, said the editors, was no longer an acceptable sentiment: the Party did have a quarrel, a big one, with working people.
What is the source of that claim? The 1939 Anti-War manifesto, published in the October 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard, ends:
Quote:The Socialist Party of Great Britain therefore pledges itself to continue its work for Socialism, and reiterates the call it issued on the outbreak of war in 1914:“Having no quarrel with the working class of any country, we extend to our fellow workers of all lands the expression of our goodwill and socialist fraternity, and pledge ourselves to work for the overthrow of capitalism and the triumph of Socialism.”THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, S.P.G.B.September 24th 1939I might have guessed. The Monument is a good read. The trouble is that not all the anectdotes are true. For instance, Glasgow branch have been annoyed about the story (p. 111) of the member expelled for wearing a gas mask. It was a nice story but it just wasn't true. See:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1990s/1995/no-1087-march-1995/letter-nail-coffinGlasgow anarchists tell a similar story about one of theirs; which is probably the source of the story. Go here and search for Lennox.Baltrop drafted the book when he was out of the party and hostile to it (as the title suggests). Even though it was published after he had rejoined not all of the previous hostility was edited out. The passage you quoted will be one example.It will not without significance, in the context of the Party's attitude to WW2, that Baltrop himself chose to take part in the war, joining the RAF while most (but not all) other members were conscientious objectors. See his obituary here.
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