THE UK has just been given its marching orders by the USA that it must boost the size of its armed forces in response to the ‘threats from Russia’, which amount to a realisation that imperialist backed Ukraine has lost its war with Russia, starting a panic in NATO, that the anti-Russian alliance has feet of clay or no feet at all!
Already in the UK jittery pro-NATO politicians are demanding that military spending is vastly increased and that there should be a return of the ‘call-up’, that is conscription for youth.
The US ruling class is wobbling after the nasty experiences of the failure of its Ukrainian agents to march on Moscow, despite pouring billions in armaments into their coffers.
The US is now demanding that its UK servant must reassess the size of its military. The US Naval Secretary Carlos Del Toro, addressing a US embassy audience, has instructed that ‘given the threats that exist today’, the UK must ‘reassess’ the size of its military!
Del Toro did say that the US was grateful for the ongoing co-operation with the UK, including the recent airstrikes against the Houthis in the Yemen.
He also welcomed the Royal Navy’s ‘increased presence’ in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the AUKUS submarine partnership with Australia.
However, asked about the size of the UK’s armed forces, he urged that the UK should reassess ‘where they are today, given the threats that exist today.’
The UK government is facing pressure from the USA to reverse the planned cuts in troop numbers, reducing the troops total from 82,000 to 73,000.
The Royal Navy has already been forced to retire two frigates, HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll, because there are not enough sailors to man them.
However, the head of the British army, General Patrick Sanders, has beaten Del Toro to the punch with his suggestion that citizens should face a ‘call-up’, that is conscription, given the low troop numbers.
He in fact called for the army to be massively increased from 75,000 troops to 120,000 within the next three years. Sanders said in a speech to the International Armoured vehicle conference: ‘Taking preparatory steps to enable placing our societies on a war footing when needed are not now merely desirable but essential.’
There are now other matters to consider after the failure of the multi-billion pounds of aid to the Ukraine to even dent Russia.
The latest news is that the Tory government now believes that there is a one in four chance Russia will attack an ally of the UK before 2025, that is, in the period immediately ahead! The British ruling class is now faced with the problem of how to rapidly drive the working class and its youth into any war with Russia to try and preserve the outdated, outmoded, backward capitalist system with its motto of the survival of the fittest and the rest go to hell.
Youth will reject any call-up to fight for the bosses!
Officials have admitted that in such a scenario to ‘contain and deter further aggression, military, diplomatic and economic capabilities will be needed’, i.e. the UK ruling class does not have these capabilities at the moment. They want a massive rearmament!
The British ruling class is now preparing for war with Russia, and faces the problem of how to drive the working class and its youth into this war, without facing a revolutionary response that will lay the basis for their overthrow.
Millions of angry workers and youth will rip up conscription notices and instead move to get rid of the established capitalist order and its bodies of armed men and women with a socialist revolution.
Youth are revolutionary. That is why millions of youth have marched for Palestine, and support the establishment of the Palestinian state.
These same youth will lead the struggle to smash the anti-union laws and to organise a general strike to smash capitalism with a socialist revolution.
The truth is that capitalism is in its greatest crisis.
There must be a massive building up of the WRP and the Young Socialists NOW to organise the struggle for the working class to take the power and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat in the UK, throughout Europe and the Americas.
Working class youth will never be the cannon fodder for imperialism. There is not a moment to lose! Join the YS and the WRP today and build sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International worldwide!
