My weekly comment column in the daily Plymouth Herald (25.08.2026), trying to evade the censors whilst raising the issue of the Ukraine War. So many on the Left, as well as everyone else, supports Ukraine against Russia. I, too, feel for the Ukrainian working class experiencing such barbarism and powerlessness. But I find any identification of the Ukrainian State being a beleaguered victim against Russian totalitarianism so devoid of historic understanding as to be without any foundation. In short, Western governments provided Ukraine with economic, political, and military assistance, especially after 2014 and heavily after 2022. NATO expanded eastward after the Cold War and pressed hard, with NATO expansion including countries such as Poland and the Baltic states seeking membership. It was intended place NATO bases with nuclear weapons on the borders with Russia, now about to happen. This is a provocation not unlike the lead-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 after Turkey accepted US nuclear-capable Jupiter missiles and Russia tried similar placements. We came close to nuclear Armageddon back then. Of course, Russia was a Communist State-Capitalist regime at the time and is now an authoritarian gangster-capitalist regime, both situations representing war between rival imperialisms. Socialists do not support Russia’s full scale invasion in 2022 but can explain it. Challenging NATO does not imply support for the Russian State. This unwinable war is engaging wider forces towards terrifying scenarios. My problem is, when I try to have this discussion let alone put the facts into print I am censored. Mainstream media censors not only any criticism of Ukraine’s role as proxy for NATO in this war, but also the more simple call for Peace, ceasefire or negotiations. I’m surprised this even got into print. Whatever your analysis, the UK Prime Minister has just ramped-up the anti and pulled Britain into the conflict. Idiot!
My unedited version below, or expand the picture of the newspaper article to read the acceptable version (carefully crafted):
The years ahead are largely uncharted. There is little if any certainty. This may evoke thoughts of disruption caused by climate change or the AI technology revolution. Or the global economic debt crisis, USA’s $4TN debt, record personal debt across the UK, or inflation rising so much faster than the officially distorted CPI figures. Public services deprioritised, privatised and crumbling. And the rise of a new and heavily financed far-Right, being fast-tracked internationally.
Any talk of the future evokes a wholly different emotion from 20 years ago.
One vision dominates above all others. War.
War is in every headline every day, the Prime Minister offering blueprints for Storm Shadow SCALP missiles to Ukraine, the Russian Ambassador being recalled from Britain, and Putin threatening UK cities due to the use of British-made drones on civilian targets inside Russia.
Images of today’s war highlights, should we choose to watch them, are of civilian blood and gore, massive fireballs, collapsed homes and smoking lands. The narrative is of military expansion, widening and worsening violence, displacement and immiserisation.
The politicians and administrators who seek to create our future a first priority – rearmament. And fast. It is almost impossible to enter a war overnight. You need more guns, and as Trump has learnt, to establish the arsenals to produce more missiles than you fire. Indeed, a complete infrastructure is required as a “war economy”.
War preparations are well under way: virement of taxes from every social need to fund military hardware; state propaganda shifting from community cohesion to emergency alerts of “enemies without” and “enemies within”. We are coached to believe that the Russian hoards are set to invade, despite Russia struggling to find the soldiers required for the current front lines.
At the moment, most people in Britain don’t want anything to do with war. But this can change very quickly. Between 1911 and 1914 Britain saw the Great Unrest workers suffering not much more than the cost-of-living crisis we are experiencing today. But workers took mass strike action, and had collective confidence and consequential power back then. War did a job for the government, nationalism and patriotism defeating all calls for decent pay, conditions and services. Amongst other things, the First World War sought to crush working class resistance to raw exploitation and authoritarian governance. In fact it led to revolution.
Can we expect a similar historic period? Workers in Britain are overwhelmingly dissatisfied, disenchanted with government and fearful for the future. There is an ideological battle in full swing for hearts and minds – the rebuilding of social welfare and workers rights versus a descent into the self-sacrifice of national (and racial) supremacy through bloody warfare.
Across Europe, plans are afoot for the return of conscription. The tech propaganda encouraging the future of war imagines battles between robots from each side. It’s a nonsense! Through the four-and-a-half years of the Ukraine War, more than a million deaths prove the lie. The Nations are seeking to provide enlarged armies of human soldiers ready to die.
Volunteers applying to fight have dried-up on both sides. Snatch squads on Ukrainian streets are grabbing civilians to go to the front. The desertions and draft avoidance, and the continuing conscription of ordinary Ukrainians as cannon fodder is causing social discord. Russia is equally desperate, recruiting African mercenaries on false promises and battalions from North Korea ahead of the inevitable Autumn offensive.
Such war fatigue should offer opportunities for a negotiated peace. Instead, Europe and the UK are preparing to join in.
Germany is debating conscription and stopping young men from leaving the country for more than three months, the number of young men applying to be conscientious objectors and refuse armed military service increasing rapidly.
Britain last operated conscription of civilians into a period in the armed forces back in 1960. Ten European countries still do with others now considering its reintroduction. Various British political parties are debating the potential here, the shocking number of one million young people unemployed being an excuse for the warmonger’s arguments. General Sir Patrick Sanders is calling for a “citizen army”, reservists now on call until 65 years of age.
Russia has threatened revenge against Britain this week after Ukraine used British-made drones to target Russian oil refineries and transport networks. Britain is directly engaged in endless war over Ukraine and it makes us all a target. The war in Europe is intensifying and expanding. Lithuania and Finland are preparing to accept NATO nuclear weapons following on from Belarus’s readiness to accept Russian nukes. The stage is being set for nuclear warfare.
Germany is rearming faster than Britain, and everywhere there are signs of wider military engagement against Russia. What might the conclusion look like? Mutually Assured Destruction? Why is no-one discussing de-escalation? Why is there no planning for an end to the war, indeed no plan at all, just demands for more tax money to produce more heavy weapons, sponsored by arms manufacturers such as the MBDA multinational corporations that owns the SCALP technology? They have the government’s ear. Why is there no democratic process to ensure that the collective voices of citizens are considered, measured and accepted?
The Third World War will be even more barbaric than the First or the Second. Only the urgent quest for Peace can possibly stop it. Oppose conscription. Oppose War!
Emotional Climate 