NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have both warned that the war in Ukraine could last years, as Russian forces refuse to give way to the NATO powers.
The NATO chief said in an interview with Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper: ‘We must not let up in supporting Ukraine. Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, but also because of rising energy and food prices.’
A NATO summit in Madrid later this month is expected to agree an assistance package for Ukraine to acquire massive weaponry while UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kiev on Friday, also assured the Ukrainian nationalists that the UK ruling class was not just with them for the long haul, but volunteered to send the British army into the Ukraine as trainers for its armed forces, as well as supplying them with more weaponry.
In an editorial for The Sunday Times newspaper, the premier, a notorious law breaker, stressed the need to avoid ‘Ukraine fatigue’.
‘The worry that we have is that a bit of Ukraine fatigue is starting to set in around the world. It is important we show we are with them for the long haul and provide the strategic resilience that they need.
‘Time is the vital factor,’ Johnson said. ‘Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack. Our task is to enlist time on Ukraine’s side.’
Meanwhile, US defence department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US may send Ukraine four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (or HIMARS), taking the total to eight.
Even though the number of HIMARS would be doubled, top Ukrainian officials say they need many more such systems, along with longer-range munitions, to destroy Moscow’s artillery across a battlefield that stretches for hundreds of miles. The US and its UK ally is preparing for a protracted war in Ukraine even if it costs ‘a global recession and mounting mass hunger with millions of deaths.
Johnson’s position is that he is willing to see UK workers starve and lose their homes and jobs in his undeclared war with Russia, which is starving the world of Russian and Ukrainian oil and wheat, leading to galloping inflation that will overtake the massive inflation seen after the 1929 collapse, as Johnson fights Russia down to the last UK worker.
His propaganda of fighting Russia and to hell with inflation is nothing to do with safeguarding the future of UK workers and is everything to do with the US-UK desperate plan to drive back Russia and China and to try and save capitalism, no matter how many UK, US and Ukrainian lives this imperialist plan costs.
The attitude of the UK ruling class to the working class can again be seen in their disputes with the railworkers.
Mick Lynch, secretary general of the RMT union, has said that the UK government are ‘experts at being selfish and irresponsible’. He says that the ‘source of these disputes is the decision by the Tory government to cut £4bn of funding from our transport systems – £2bn from national rail and £2bn from Transport for London (TfL).
‘As a result of this transport austerity imposed by the government, the employing companies have taken decisions to: Savage the Railway Pension Scheme and the TfL scheme, cutting benefits, making staff work longer, and poorer in retirement, while paying increased contributions,’ says Lynch.
He accuses Johnson of: ‘Cutting real pay for most of our members through lengthy pay freezes and below RPI inflation pay proposals. In the face of this massive attack on our people the RMT cannot be passive …
‘We call on our members to stand firm, support the action, mount the pickets and demonstrate their willingness to fight for workplace justice. Every worker in Britain deserves a pay rise that reflects the cost-of-living crises. All working people should have the benefit of good negotiated terms, conditions, working practices and occupational pensions that will ensure their living standards in retirement.
‘We call on the entire labour movement and the working people to rally to the support of the RMT and our members in this struggle.’
The News Line urges the TUC to call a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers government and socialism.
Capitalism has had its day as the world crisis shows, from the US to the UK and France, where Macron faces defeat in the second round of their elections.
Now is the time to build new sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International worldwide to lead the workers of the world to the victory of the world socialist revolution.