IT was revealed this week that the Labour government is set to introduce changes to a new armed forces bill, due to come beZfore Parliament, that will mobilise tens of thousands of former military personnel as part of the latest drive to war by British capitalism.
The changes being introduced will increase the age at which retired soldiers can be called up to serve from 55 to 65. At the moment reservists can be called up in times of ‘national danger, great emergency or an attack on the UK’.
Under the new changes this criteria will be lowered to cover ‘warlike preparations’. The term ‘warlike preparations’ refers to the measures and actions taken by the military to prepare for war.
The government estimates that there are around 95,000 members of the strategic reserve.
In December, Labour’s UK Armed Forces Minister Al Carns warned that war was ‘already knocking on Europe’s door’ and that the UK had to prepare for a war that was ‘bigger’ than the previous imperialist wars it had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last week, Starmer announced that Labour would be sending troops to Ukraine along with France as part of a ‘multinational force’.
This is a pledge that has daunted the military chiefs who have reported that they have struggled to recruit and retain personnel with the army shrinking from over 100,000 in 2010 to around 70,000 today.
At the same time, the UK’s armed forces are facing a £28 billion funding black hole over the next four years, despite all the plans by Starmer to increase defence spending from 2.3% of GDP to 2.6% by 2027.
On Monday, the chief of the defence staff, Sir Richard Knighton, told a committee of MPs: ‘I’ll be completely honest with you – we will not be able to do everything that we would wish to do as quickly as we might want to do it.’
Faced with an army that has shrunk in size to far less than during the Napoleonic Wars of over 200 years ago, the proposed drafting of 55 to 65 year olds back on regular duty is a sign of the desperation of the Labour government.
Last year, Starmer was forced to deny that Labour had any intention of imposing military conscription on workers and youth, unlike France.
But with this increasing ramping up of a war against Russia, as well as identifying China and Iran as ‘enemies’ of UK security, the threat of conscription has never been stronger.
Resurrecting a ‘Dad’s Army’ will not provide the bodies required to fight the wars that imperialism is driving forwards across the globe.
With Starmer’s government beating the war drums, with increasingly strident warnings that workers and youth must rally round the flag of British imperialism, it is quite clear that the working class will be expected to pay the bill through massive cuts to the welfare state along with a massive surge in unemployment.
This week, it was revealed that thousands of rail workers are to be made redundant as a result of Labour’s plans to ‘overhaul’ the rail network and Network Rail facing a budget shortfall of around £1.8 billion. Thousands are to lose their jobs, while Starmer is pledging billions to the military and imperialist wars.
The working class will never tolerate sacrificing their lives, jobs and all the gains of the welfare state to fight for a bankrupt ruling class and a capitalist system that is collapsing by the day.
The time has come to put an end to capitalism by workers demanding the TUC call an immediate general strike to bring down the Starmer government, bring in a workers government and a socialist planned economy.
This requires the building up of the WRP and Young Socialists to provide the leadership necessary for the victory of the British Socialist Revolution.
Now is the time for the building of sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in the US, Europe and across the world to extend socialist revolutions internationally.
This is the only way forward.