Re: Rule Britannia? was Re: upheavals in England, 1640 - 1848

[Adam Rose <adam@xxxxxxxx>]

As I said a while back, downplaying either the extent of the crimes
of the British ruling class, or of working class anti Imperialism,
or of working class support for Imperialism, gives us the wrong impression.

The British ruling class committed its crimes primarilly by using its army
to impose its will. Who pulled the trigger for this ruling class ? British
workers. Clearly, people in oppressed countries first experience of British
workers is the more or less willing, more or less duped, tool of British
Imperialism. This is still the case today in N. Ireland.

There has always been a trend of blatant, almost ridiculous racist stereotyping.
But there has always also been a trend of active solidarity with oppressed 
peoples.
Name any massacre, any large scale conflict in the British colonies and I will
show you the solidarity displayed by at least a section British workers - 
whether
it be Ireland, India, or for that matter, the Boer war. Same goes for US 
workers,
and say, Vietnam.

The reason I picked this argument, apart from just being an argumentative 
bastard,
is that the solution lies with the working class of the oppressed and oppressing
nations, and the ruling classes in both oppressed and oppressing nations are 
both
obstacles to achieving that solution. Concretely, in Northern Ireland, 
protestant
workers are part of the solution, not the problem. Conversely, John Brutton or
Haughey or whoever are part of the problem, not the solution.

Adam.



Adam Rose
SWP
Manchester
UK


---------------------------------------------------------------


     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---