The question of the military

The question of the military and membership of the Party is one that we have not taken lightly, considering the fact that the Party has had to face two world wars with members being forced by law into the army. None as far as i know were expelled, but resigned voluntarily but many members refused to don the uniform and applied to be conscientous objectors and ended up in jail or labour camps.Our opposition to conscription in 1938.http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/pdf/sac.pdfI think there were those who were influenced by Rosa Luxemburg’s anti-militarism with her scathing re-phrase of Marx/Engels: “Workers of all lands, unite in peace and cut one another’s throats in war!”You indeed present part of the party case for the capture of the state machine when you state “workers in uniform with their knowledge and skills would be needed to help oppose the violent reaction by the ruling class and their hirelings.” as you can see from our Declarion of Principles No. 6http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/gbodop.htmlThe contradictions tho remain with SPEW and its support of  the 1982 Falkland War [albeit under the direction of a Labour government].i won’t comment on Liverpool  WIKIPEDIA has a full analysisLiverpool’s adoption of a deficit budget for 1985/86 meant that the council quickly ran short of money. By September it was apparent that without a new source of funds, the council would be insolvent in December; as an employer it was therefore obliged to issue 90-day redundancy notices to its entire workforce. After this decision was announced on 6 September, the council’s joint shop stewards called for an indefinite strike,and also occupied council buildings and prevented the council from holding a meeting to formally vote to issue the redundancy notices.The national leaderships of the trade unions attempted to restrain their local branches from going ahead with the strike, and when NALGO members voted against the strike by 7,284 to 8,152, it was called off. The redundancy notices were issued on 27 September, together with a letter from the council’s leader and deputy leader (John Hamilton and Derek Hatton) explaining that there was no intention to make any employee redundant but that the notices were a legal requirement. With time running out, the council had to hire taxis to distribute the notices.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate-capping_rebellionExcept to ask what  did happen to Derek Hatton?