History

From its declaration of war in 1914, Britain’s ruling class appealed to patriotism to boost its support and its military recruitment. By 1916 both were flagging. On the pages of socialist newspaper The Herald, poets used verse to question both nationalism and the war’s aims. When the government asked men to fight for King and Country, was it shielding its true motives?

Hopeless force the Dardanelles
Shells, death knells and straits to hell
Terra firma, firmer terror
History puts it down to error
Wounded yet still predatory
Terrorise for territory

Ground of flesh and rocks from bones
Lay out wire for telephones
Cable London, cross terrain
Thousands dead, a few yards gained
Must despatch a good news story
Inched a bit more territory

Notes from the introduction to a workshop on 'What do we mean by socialist feminnism?' at Workers' Liberty Women's 'All The Rage' event on 28 February 2015.

1. Key ideas:

Published in Solidarity 396, 2 March 2016.

Published in Solidarity 394, 17 February 2016.

Dulce et decorum est
As Owen wrote, the ancient lie
Inscribed upon the soldier's breast
And told to men when sent to die
But tell me, for commemoration
Below the flag that's raised to fool us
Did they really die for nation
Or rather for the nation's rulers?

Photo: Wilfred Owen

This article was published in two parts in Solidarity newspaper, beginning in issue 388 on 6 January 2016.

Picture: My grandfather, Albert Henry Booth, who was in the Navy at Gallipoli, with his sister Victoria (Queenie).

Follow the links for a shocking story of a Stalinist anti-semitic purge.

London is loyal, London's a comrade
London has toiled through many a bomb raid
London's a leader, London's a fighter
London is feeling the noose closing tighter

Those in London's seats of power
Are sending suspects to the tower
London's former champions sense
There's too much foreign influence

A century ago, with Britain at war, the Woman's Dreadnought published this poem:

CHRISTMAS EVE
- to man the comfortable