Fight the Warmongers Amunuekt Nar

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TERRY SMITH argues that the danger of nuclear annihilation stems from a disregard for human life and an aggressive dynamic in tha vary hacie of tha nanitalict avatam en shinh sha Mo e o ee voe dual ce ce cpalalst syslo wmien tnie

digestible and other mass destraction form. weapons. They agreed to But the build-up towards an international control this year's October 24th organ with staffe of inspectdemonstration has brought ors having unimpeded the publication of further access at all times to all material worthy of attent- objects of control. The commilitarist fashion.

Ronald Reagan can be regarded as a major galvansing force in the growth of anti-war and disarmament movements in Britain, Europe and the USA.

Their bloodcurdling anticommunist rhetoric and sabre-rattling have now turned into a weapons build-up that has brought home to millions of people that fact that the imperialist leaders are seriously considering nuclear war.

ITS atratoou has changad fundamentally from the old notion of "mutually ensured destruction" (MAD), in which both the US and the USSR were certain that a nuclear war would obliterate both sides.

New, sophisticated guidance systems and highperformance missiles now mean that it is theoretically conceivable for either side to, wage a limited' nuclear strike aimed only at military targets.

The USA has already -adopted such a plan. Under President Carter, Presidential Directive 59 gave the order to prioritise military targets in order to prepare 'for a possible 'first strike' against the Soviet Union.

NATO plans for conventional war in Europe include the use of 'tactical' nuclear weapons after only five days of confrontation.

Now Reagan has pressed ahead with the programme of basing Cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe, and commissioning a further 3,000 Cruise missiles to be carried in airborne US bombers: these, together with submarine missiles and 250 newly commissioned 10-warhead MX ground based missiles equip the USA to carry out a lethal "first strike' against the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

In response to this the Kremlin bureaucrats could scarcely sit on their hands.

We can assume that they in turn have drawn up their own list of targets for possible retailation or for 'preemptive' action should they fear an American attack.

Beneath the looming shadows of intercontinental missiles and multimegaton warheads the international workers' movement must urgently consider its response Under a certain extent by the wayside in the late 70s has been able to win a new lease of life and a new body of supporters.

The movement is politically disparate - stretching from the well-heeled uniParty through various strands of pacifism and confusion to the small number of Revolutionary Marxists who fight for a socialist perspective. And it is generating some lively and thought-provoking Literature.

E.P. Thompson's "Protest and Survive" anthology (Penguin, 1980) brougnt togetner a averse and rambling series of articles containing a welter of useful information in not particularly new edition of Overki 1977) 01 ters coherent account exactly what nuclear and nuclear wea how they effects and the delivery systems dev Isen them to OX less mealy mouthed than many 'Protest and Survive"

contributors in pinning the blame for the arms race Firmly on the USA *Whatever views are beld about the politics and intentions of the Soviet Union, and the supposed level of their conventional armed forces, it must be admitted that the United States has led the nuclear arms race. Whether you consider the first nuclear bombs, ICBMs, MIRVs, nuclear submarines, SRAMS or ASW, the United States has been the pacemaker, usually with a lead of several years."

Cox goes on to point USA and imperialist countries for the blocking of disarmament proposals in 1955:

"On 10 May 1955 the Soviet Union laid proposals before the UN Disarmament Sub-Committee which, amongst other measures, provided for armed manpower ceilings of 1,500,000, major reducti0ns in convendunal arma-l ments and an arrangement for the abolition of 75% of the stocks of nuclear pletion esC followed by further reductions in armamenus Negate immediate response that "the whole thing looks good to be true The British delegates, after COn BAIC glad that the Western. 'policy ol panence nieved this welcome dividend, and that the Western proposal have now been largely, an in some cases, entirely, adopted by the Soviet Union and made into its own proposals. After listing the points of agree ment, he said we have made an advance that I never dreamed possible' *The US delegate, after two days' discussion with the American government, said we have been gratified to find that the concepts we have put forward over a considerable length time, and which we have repeated many times during this past two months, have been accepted in large measure by the Soviet Union.?

"After months of procrastination, on 6 September the American delegate dashed all hopes of agreement with: "The United States does now place a reservation upon all of its preGeneva substantive positions taken in this SubCommittee or in the Disarmament Lommission or in the UN on these questions in relation to levels of armaments.' In other words all the proposals urged with vigour and persistence only three months before were withdrawn."

Indeed a great strength of Overkill is its focus on the arms programme in the advanced capitalist •countnes and its reluctance to get sidetracked inte diseUSSIO. OI the dangers of proliferation The thrust is : eretore sistenti Jaime primarily at disarming our OW and ch US capitalist No S0C SJU e-m ed ness is apparent anotner new Penguin Nuclear Nightmares Nige Calder Prominent among the four scenarios which Calder contemplates the possible prelude to a nuclear holocaust is the Nuclear Epidemic' in which new group of apparently less responsible nations obtain the bomb and use it in a way which escalates on a world scale.

Such a view dramatically overstates the level of control which the imperialist leaders are at present able to exercise over the pressures towards war.

And it equally exaggerates the effect of additional states possessing nuclear weapons in destabilising an already unstable situation.

But Calder does have some useful insights to offer. Like Cox he is more: objective than many pacifists in his assessment of the Soviet bureaucracy and its intentions.

He repeatedly underlines the fact that:

"The Soviet reason to be fearful of NATO, especially OI the Americans, the self-avowed foes of comm nd the Germans, thei given enemies of recent history:

vnical And without drawing any conc. ISHI e 101C of th leaders points 'The nub of the military crisis urope 18 at Soviet defensive posture indistinguishable from aggressive posture.

While not ignoring the extensive military preparations by the USSR, Calder insists that the "primary purpose of their policy" is to "deter any military adventure by NATO in Eastern Europe!

At the same time he draws out the real meaning of the US nuclear strategy. - to use Europe as an advance base for a war which they hope will leave the USA intact.

He quotes the cynical US joke about:

"A tactical nuclear weapon is one that explodes in Germany."| - He auntes NATO anldiers on exercise preparing for nuclear war complaining that in densely populated Europe German towns are only two kilotons apart."

He quotes the estimates drawn up from a 1955 NATO exercise called Carte Blanche, which envisaged over 300 nuclear explosions and civilian deaths of over Strives And he refers 'at some length to the newlyreleased plans for a possible nuclear war against the USSR in 1949:

The code name WaS Trojan and the attacks reg-. uired about 150 atomic weapons, using up most of the stocks then in existence. Within two weeks of the outbreak of war, medium bombers flying mainly from England and long-range bombers operating from American bases via Alaska were to strike at industrial targets in 30 cities in the Soviet Union. The targets were chosen with care so as to do the greatest possible damage to the Soviet capacity for waging war; they were also widely dispersed so as to confuse Soviet air defences. That initial nuclear attack was to be accomp anied by aerial reconnaissance over another 4o cities, listed for a second nuciear attack to follow within another 16 days. There were no targets outside the Soviet Union. The document remarks: The purpose is to hit hard and to attack a large number . 0l Soviet urban areas in the shortest possible time. le is. hoped thus exploit the effects of surprise and shock, to provoke the spread and compounding of disaster rumours, and by widespread damage to interdependent industries to complicate and retard processes of recuperation Still spattered with its "top secret' stamps, the typewritten Trojan document is a further reminder that plans for nuclear war are not vague conjectures.

This was the war that would have occured in 1949 had Western leaders been tempted or provoked into punishing the Russians with an atomic attack for their assimilntion of Casthoslovakia and their blockade of Berlin."

Both books very ably paint the picture of a belligerent imperialist alliance making undisguised plans In attack the Soviet Inion and the Eastern European countries.

Both point in contrast to the generally defensive attitude of the Soviet bureaucracy, responding after each new imperialist move by building up its own forces and arsenals.

But neither book explains why this is the case. The Kremlin bureaucracy rests on an economic base which -does not have the relentless, expansionist, worldplundering drive of capitalism.

Despite its lust for revenue and power, it is fundamentally concerned to defend its existing privileges and strength. It fears - and strives to contain, restrain or suppress - working class mobilisation, which could spread to challenge its own! usurping rule; it therefore also fears all political upheavals which could arouse working class struggle.

Myth

The Kremlin leaders have sought since the mid 30s to establish a stable balance of forces on which base long-term cOexistence th imperialism.

Stalin, truschev and Brezhnev have acted time and prevent the over capitalisn in Europe and TO crush workers fighting to oust alinist bur East and Czechoslovakia.

Talk of the Communist Yes ret COM up by imperialist warmonglee 09 DIRgE TOT THe of des But for the thousands of workers and youth drawn towards the anti-war movement out that they should point ley not simply fear the military build-up: they should see the threat to the USSR and to anti-imperialist struggles world-wide as a threat to themselves. —The hostility of the US to the Kremlin - leaders is qualitatively different from their hostility to rival capitalists around the world.

The revolutionary overturn of capitalist property relations in the Russian

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- FIGHT THEIR SYSTEM!

The capitalist system centres on the ability of the employing out could therefore be kept lower _ and profits higher. class to exploit the labour of the working class - paying the Attempts by different capitalist powers to improve their workforce wages which are less than the value of the goods share in this division of the world lay behind the two great inter-imperialist wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45.Capitalism's thirst for profit is never satisfied. Capitalism Since 1945, the forms of domination of imperialism have produces not for human need, but to get more wealth for the evolved. After huge struggles, most colonial countries have So capitalism always strives to conquer new areas. As But the economic exploitation of the masses in the undercapitalism in Western Europe and the USA became highly developed countries continues at the hands of multinational monopolised in the late 19th century, the big capitalist banks and corporations based in the imperialist countries, powers set about dividing up the whole world's markets, while they continue to be politically repressed by bourgeols raw material sources, and areas for investment. often dictatorial - • regimes backed by imperialist Through the military conquest and subjugation of colonies weaponry and military aid. in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the rival capitalist powers The basic drive for ceaseless secured access to vital supplies of raw materials and at the domination by a handful of huge same time a potential workforce whose standard of living capitalist states continues. And was far lower than in the advanced countries. Wages paid flowing from that drive.

further huge areas of the And for this reason imp- markets, lost sources of potential world market - erialist rulers - fearful of exploitable labour and lost Eastern Europe, China, losing control over areas territories that are now Vietnam and Cuba - have such as the Persian Gult, been transformed into Southern Africa and Cendeformed workers' states. tral America - have nevolution of October proved unsuccessful, and 1917 marked a major step even decades of bureauforward for the working cratic conservative rule by their Stalinist rulers that possible Stalinist support Stalin and his successors workers in struggle against for liberation struggles: class. imperialist oppression in Meanwhile particulary Efforts completely the benefits of the Third World look - extreme sections of the US planned, nationalised generally in vain - for capitalist class and military material and political plainly cherish dreams of Efforts by imperialism economy. support. reconquering the lost Hiroshima: a pinprick compared with the horrors of the latest weapons I Pain of splosion hemat they produce.

sake of wealth. have * failed to destroy to overthrow that revolution Since World War 2 It is to these states and embarked on an arms build-up to frighten off any -gained political independence. contained in tne staunist states.

Any advance of the working class in its struggle for socialism demands the defence of past con-/ quests democratic rights, trade unions, social services, living standards: among these gains the highest are those flowing from the only successful proletarian revolution in history - the Russian revolution.

Cripples

As socialists we are not neutral therefore on the question of imperialist threats to the USSR: we stand for the defence of the Soviet Union against imperialism. At the same time we support those who fight for the political overthrow of the Stalinist bureaucracy whose dictatorial rule stifles the power of the working class, cripples the nationalised economy and stands opposed to world revolution, and for the establishment of a revolutionary. government based on workers' councils.

We defend the Soviet Union by fighting to weaken and defeat imperialism, We fight to break up the anti-Soviet NATO alliance; we fight to disarm and overthrow the capitalist class in Britain, Europe and the USA, For this reason it is nece expansion and economic capitalist enterprises and so does the war danger essary to go much further= than the political conclusions advocated by Cox: (join • UL linin ANNI Coldan valuel (speculative thoughts about quotas limiting missile tests).

The professionally non-aligned, cross-class politics of CND also fall far short of the necessary firm direction into the unions and Labour Party.

Nightmare

Only in the labour movement does it make sense to argue for action to bring down the warmongering Thatcher government; only the organised labour movement can force a workers' government to pull out of NATO and take a stand in support of revolutionary struggles around the world.

Readers should read and absorb the disturbing facts in Overkill and Nuclear Nightmares.

But having done so, we urge them to fight with Socialist Organiser for policies that can bring about the nightmare that haunts the capitalist class; the overthrow of their system of oppression and exploitation and the establishment of peace through . SOCIalIt revolution. and internationalism

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Kremlin bureaucrats respond in their own cynical, reactionary, MARGARET Thatcher and lateralists of the Liberal the responsiblity of the

these conditions the 'peace' movement, having fallen to