A Socialist Anti-War Foreign Policy

[p032] A SOCIALIST ANTI-WAR FOREIGN POLICY Mr. Bevan speaks of “Socialists afraid of their Social- ism”. These are almost as familiar a Species in the field of foreign affairs as “democrats afraid of their democracy”. The foreign policy of the Labour Party and its government ought to be guided by democratic measures and Socialist principles in dealings with the rest of the world. The first condition for a Socialist anti-war policy is a clear understanding that the American imperialists, no less than the Tories, are class enemies of the British workers. 30

[p033] « Alliances with the bosses of the United States cannot avoid Jeading to the same deadly consequences on the inter- ‘national arena as collaboration with the capitalists would ‘at home. We are already witnessing British workers in uniform called upon to act as strikebreakers against liberation movements in other countries. Our foreign policy must be reoriented away from collaboration with world imperialism which is headed by Wall Street, the _armed spearhead of capitalist counter-revolution. It should be aligned with the camp of international labour and the .anti-imperialist countries. This will be an essential part of the process for mobilis- ing British labour to take supreme power in its hands and getting on with the job of transforming Britain from an imperialist to a Socialist country. The most effective answer British Labour can make to the growing threat of _a Third World War would be its rapid progress and suc- _cess in the struggle for Socialism. A new Labour govern- ment which vigorously and consistently applied Socialist principles on the foreign field could not only weaken the grip of world capitalism and check the war plans of the Wall Street imperialists. It would be a beacon of hope for workers and colonial peoples everywhere who now feel -themselves squeezed between Washington and Moscow. It would enable them to combat the aggressions of Wall Street without having to submit to the dictates of the Kremlin and the twists and turns of its parties.