WITH Britain in a major economic and political crisis the Johnson government is not only preparing for a war with the UK working class, to make it pay for the crisis, it is also preparing for new imperialist wars to try to rebuild British imperialism’s ‘lost empire’.
With the UK workers facing a future of massive cuts and mass unemployment, the just-released document ‘Global Britain in a Competitive Age’ lays out plans for the armed forces to adopt the latest in cutting edge technology, such as drones and artificial intelligence, with a new focus on future space and cyber battlefields, while at the same time building up the UK’s nuclear bomb capacity.
The UK is to be turned, by PM Johnson, towards its lost empire in a desperate mission to try to restore its past dominance. The document states that new alliances should be formed within the Indo-Pacific region, the ‘geopolitical centre of the world’.
Johnson has had his fill of Europe and, while accepting that NATO remains the bedrock of UK security in the Euro-Atlantic region, states that the UK cannot continue to rely on an ‘increasingly outdated international alliance’ to protect its interests.
The PM said: ‘I am profoundly optimistic about the UK’s place in the world and our ability to seize the opportunities ahead.’ Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has already said that more nuclear warheads will be required as part of the Integrated Review, as they represent ‘the ultimate insurance policy’ against global threats.
Britain is lifting the cap on the number of Trident nuclear warheads it can stockpile by more than 40%. The increased limit, from 180 to 260 warheads, paves the way to confront perceived threats from Russia and China.
The review also warns of the ‘realistic possibility’ that a terrorist group will ‘launch a successful chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack by 2030.’
As Johnson turns the UK eastwards Russia, under Vladimir Putin, is seen as an ‘active threat’ while China is described as posing a ‘systemic challenge’.
The review contains only a handful of passing references to the EU bloc, arguing instead for banking on an ‘Indo-Pacific tilt’ in which the UK deepens defence, diplomatic and trade relations with India, Japan, South Korea and Australia – in opposition to China.
Johnson boasts: ‘We will be the European partner with the broadest and most integrated presence in the Indo-Pacific,’ while arguing that investing in cyber warfare capabilities and deploying the new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier to the East later this year ‘will help send a message to Beijing’. There is no estimation of what the return message will be!
CND campaigners are warning that any such tactic by the UK risks starting a ‘new nuclear arms race’ at a time when the world is trying to emerge from the Covid pandemic.
Kate Hudson, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), said: ‘With the government strapped for cash, we don’t need grandiose, money-wasting spending on weapons of mass destruction.’
There is also a commitment to launch an additional sanctions regime giving the UK ‘powers to prevent those involved in corruption from freely entering the UK or channelling money through our financial system.’
The Tories are set to lose a lot of Russian oligarch friends if they are sent home to face the anger of Russian workers!
Britain has far fewer warheads stockpiled than Russia, estimated to have 4,300; the US on 3,800 or China, which has about 320. But each warhead the UK holds is estimated to have an explosive power of 100 kilotons. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War was about 15 kilotons.
To clear the way to the East the review also includes a personal commitment from Johnson, as a last-minute addition in the foreword, to restore foreign aid spending to 0.7% of national income ‘when the fiscal situation allows’, after fierce criticism of cuts in relief to Yemen and elsewhere. For the UK working class there is just to be massive cuts!
Johnson is in for a big shock. British workers will fight tooth and nail to prevent any revival of British imperialism in the East. They have no intention of taking massive cuts in their standard of living. They will respond by declaring that ‘The enemy is at home’ and by joining hands with the Chinese workers to overthrow British imperialism to drive forward to worldwide socialism.
