Reply To: Dorking – No War But the Class War
Actually, it was quite an interesting even enjoyable meeting. Three of us went, making up 20% of those there. We had assumed that it was just a general discussion meeting, but it was a meeting between the ACF and the CWO to revive a “No War But the Class War” group, to counter those who argue that workers should take sides in wars, as in Syria and the coming one in Venezuela, rather than proclaim that workers had no interest justifying this and that nationalism was a poison and “anti-imperialism” an invalid standard to judge by; a position we have always taken of course. It was a bit embarrassing in fact when they asked us if the SPGB would join the group. All the same, there was also time to discuss wider issues such as the changing composition of the working class and what makes individuals revolutionary and why we are so few. There was a clash between the ACF and the CWO about the latter’s advocacy of a “semi-state”.
On war, the CWO has the position that another world war is inevitable in order to devalue capital by destroying it so that capital accumulation can continue, something they predicted in the 1970s and are still expecting. The ACF and us argued that, while capitalism was the cause of wars due to its built-in competition over markets, source of raw materials, investment outlets and trade routes, a world war was neither necessary nor inevitable (in fact not really likely); but rather that war would continue to take the form of scattered proxy wars, in which the “Great Powers” (and some lesser ones) use locals in disputed areas as cannon fodder to further their interests, and probably become more frequent. Despite this divergence, everyone agreed that workers should not take side in wars.
After the formal meeting, we exchanged anecdotes and jokes about the Trotskyists, and also the Bolsheviks (the CWO didn’t join in that part).
As you know, Keefs was not present.