End of Term Report

This, my two hundredth Socialist Sonnet,

Two thousand, eight hundred lines for the cause,

And perhaps time to stop, or at least pause.

Poems of possibilities, and yet

People largely remain loyal to their states,

While workers of the world have made some gains,

Too few seem to want to throw off their chains;

Capitalism still proliferates.

Socialism? There’s no foretelling when

Or even if. But a resort to force

Can’t hurry history along its course,

As words won’t either. So I’ll sheath my pen,

Having not changed the world one iota

And my now having written my quota.

D. A.

End of Term Report

This, my two hundredth Socialist Sonnet,

Two thousand, eight hundred lines for the cause,

And perhaps time to stop, or at least pause.

Poems of possibilities, and yet

People largely remain loyal to their states,

While workers of the world have made some gains,

Too few seem to want to throw off their chains;

Capitalism still proliferates.

Socialism? There’s no foretelling when

Or even if. But a resort to force

Can’t hurry history along its course,

As words won’t either. So I’ll sheath my pen,

Having not changed the world one iota

And my now having written my quota.

D. A.

End of Term Report

This, my two hundredth Socialist Sonnet,

Two thousand, eight hundred lines for the cause,

And perhaps time to stop, or at least pause.

Poems of possibilities, and yet

People largely remain loyal to their states,

While workers of the world have made some gains,

Too few seem to want to throw off their chains;

Capitalism still proliferates.

Socialism? There’s no foretelling when

Or even if. But a resort to force

Can’t hurry history along its course,

As words won’t either. So I’ll sheath my pen,

Having not changed the world one iota

And my now having written my quota.

D. A.

End of Term Report

This, my two hundredth Socialist Sonnet,

Two thousand, eight hundred lines for the cause,

And perhaps time to stop, or at least pause.

Poems of possibilities, and yet

People largely remain loyal to their states,

While workers of the world have made some gains,

Too few seem to want to throw off their chains;

Capitalism still proliferates.

Socialism? There’s no foretelling when

Or even if. But a resort to force

Can’t hurry history along its course,

As words won’t either. So I’ll sheath my pen,

Having not changed the world one iota

And my now having written my quota.

D. A.

This news item is taken from one of many media reports all noting the same:

‘London [UK], July 28 (ANI): British Defence Secretary John Healey has said the UK is ready to fight China alongside allies like Australia if tensions over Taiwan escalate into conflict, Russia Today reported citing a UK-based media group. {The Telegraph}

“If we have to fight, as we have done in the past, Australia and the UK are nations that will fight together,” Healey said, when asked whether Britain would help Taiwan prepare for a possible confrontation with China.

However, he later clarified that he was speaking in “general terms,” adding that Britain still prefers disputes in the Indo-Pacific to be resolved “peacefully” and “diplomatically, ” as per RT.

His comments come amid rising global concerns over Chinese military activity around Taiwan and the growing Western focus on the Indo-Pacific region.’

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/indo-pacific-region/uk-says-its-ready-to-fight-china-over-taiwan-backs-peaceful-resolution

These reports come on the date when on 28 July 1914 the Austro- Hungary Empirre declared war on Serbia leading to the conflict across the whole of Europe.

On 23 July 2014 the Empire had issued an ultimatum to Serbia. This followed the assassination of Grand Duke Ferdinand on 28 June 1914.

The Austro-Hungarian diplomatic note included the following:

‘However, the events of recent years, and particularly the tragic events of June 28, have demonstrated the existence in Serbia of a subversive movement whose aim is to detach certain parts of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. This movement, which has grown under the eyes of the Serbian government, has manifested beyond Serbian borders through acts of terrorism, a series of attacks, and murders.

The Royal Serbian Government, far from fulfilling the formal commitments contained in its declaration of March 31, 1909, has done nothing to suppress this movement. It has tolerated the criminal activities of various associations and affiliations directed against the Monarchy, the unrestrained rhetoric of the press, the glorification of attackers, the participation of officers and officials in subversive acts, unhealthy propaganda in public education, and finally, all manifestations likely to incite the Serbian population to hatred of the Monarchy and contempt for its institutions.’

The ultimatum said:

‘Furthermore, the Royal Serbian Government pledges to:

1. Suppress any publication inciting hatred or contempt of the Monarchy and any works promoting actions against its territorial integrity.

2. Dissolve the “Narodna Odbrana” society and confiscate its propaganda tools, similarly addressing other organizations in Serbia involved in anti-monarchy activities, ensuring these groups cannot reconstitute themselves under a different name or form.

3. Remove from Serbian public education any content—whether in teaching staff or instructional materials—liable to incite propaganda against Austria-Hungary.

4. Dismiss from military and civil service all officers and officials guilty of anti-monarchy propaganda, with the names and offenses to be communicated by the Imperial and Royal Governments.

5. Permit Austro-Hungarian representatives to collaborate in Serbia in the suppression of the subversive movement targeting the Monarchy’s territorial integrity.

6. Initiate judicial proceedings against those implicated in the June 28 conspiracy within Serbian territory, with Austro-Hungarian delegates participating in the investigations.

7. Immediately arrest Commandant Vojislav Tankosić and Milan Ciganović, a Serbian state employee implicated by the Sarajevo investigation.

8. Prevent Serbian authorities from aiding the illegal trafficking of arms and explosives across the border and dismiss and severely punish officials at the Šabac and Loznica border posts who assisted the assassins of Sarajevo.

9. Provide explanations regarding hostile remarks made by Serbian officials, both domestically and abroad, who, despite their official status, expressed hostility toward the Monarchy in interviews following the June 28 attack.

10. Notify the Imperial and Royal Government without delay of the execution of these measures.

The Imperial and Royal Governments expect the Serbian Government’s response by Saturday, July 25, at 5:00 p.m.’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_of_July_23,_1914

The statement issued by the SPGB Executive Committee in the September 1914 Socialist Standard is as relevant today as it was then

‘Whereas the capitalists of Europe have quarrelled over the question of the control of trade routes and the world’s markets, and are endeavouring to exploit the political ignorance and blind passions of the working class of their respective countries in order to induce the said workers to take up arms in what is solely their masters’ quarrel, and

Whereas further, the pseudo-socialists and labour ‘leaders’ of this country, in common with their fellows on the Continent, have again betrayed the working class position, either through their ignorance of it, their cowardice, or worse, and are assisting the master class in utilising this thieves’ quarrel to confuse the minds of the workers and turn their attention from the class struggle.

THE SOCIALIST PARTY of Great Britain seizes the opportunity of reaffirming the socialist position which is as follows:

  That society as at present constituted is based upon the ownership of the means of living by the capitalist or master class and the consequent enslavement of the working class, by whose labour alone wealth is produced.

  That in society therefore there is an antagonism of interests, manifesting itself as a CLASS WAR, between those who possess but do not produce and those who produce but do not possess.

  That the machinery of government, including the armed forces of the nation, exists only to conserve the monopoly by the capitalist class of the wealth taken from the workers.

These armed forces therefore will only be set in motion to further the interests of the class who control them—the master class—and as the workers’ interests are not bound up in the struggle for markets wherein their masters may dispose of the wealth they have stolen from them (the workers) but in the struggle to end the system under which they are robbed, they are not concerned with the present European struggle, which is already known as the “BUSINESS” war, for it is their masters’ interests which are involved, and not their own.

THE SOCIALIST PARTY of Great Britain pledges itself to keep the issue clear by expounding the CLASS STRUGGLE, and whilst placing on record its abhorrence of this latest manifestation of the callous, sordid, and mercenary nature of the international capitalist class, and declaring that no interests are at stake justifying the shedding of a single drop of working-class blood, enters its emphatic protest against the brutal and bloody butchery of our brothers of this and other lands who are being used as food for cannon abroad while suffering and starvation are the lot of their fellows at home.

Having no quarrel with the working class of any country, we extend to our fellow workers of all lands the expression of our goodwill and socialist fraternity, and pledge ourselves to work for the overthrow of capitalism and the triumph of Socialism.

THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS!

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

August 25th 1914

WAGE WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! You have nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to win! – Marx’

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-war-and-socialist-position-1914.html

‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’, Santayana. Austro-Hungary was intent on war with Serbia and its ultimatum was designed to be so onerous that Serbia would have no other choice but to reject it. The causes of wars as delineated in the first paragraph of the Executive Committee’s statement have not changed. The conflict initiated in 1914 led to the deaths of millions. One hundred and eleven years on capitalist deadly competition continues to rain down death and destruction upon innocent men, women and children. The exploited vast majority still have to learn the lessons of history.

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR

A British General, an American General and a German General walk into a bar. Not a joke unless you want to laugh at the hokum that they’re spouting.

Was the 1969-70 television comedy Up Pompeii! with Frankie Howerd a favourite amongst those who rose in the ranks of the British military? Was their favourite character Senna the soothsayer? Did that character make such an impression upon them that ever since they have been crying at any and every opportunity, ‘Woe, woe and thrice woe!’ The latest is ex head of the army, Sir Patrick Sanders.In a piece in the MailOnline he is quoted as saying,

‘Britain must start building bomb shelters immediately to prepare the nation for a potential war with Russia in the next five years.’

Putting various bits and pieces together 2030 seems to be the year in which NATO is preparing for in order to take down Russia.

A ‘realistic possibility’ is what he calls that war. In the meantime it’s time to start preparing the sandbags and the gas masks and to start building Anderson shelters. Got to be like the Boy Scouts and be ready for

‘ the prospect of missiles and drones raining down on its cities.’ Except apparently we’re not. How warming such concern is coming from a member of the establishment.Although didn’t he have to sell his physical/mental labour power to survive in a capitalist system? Doesn’t that make him working class?

Of course, being a General he must know what he’s talking about, mustn’t he? Joke intended.

‘If Russia stops fighting in Ukraine, you get to a position where within a matter of months they will have the capability to conduct a limited attack on a Nato member that we will be responsible for supporting, and that happens by 2030,’ he said. Which state does he mean?

An interesting insight he does provide is that the Government, he doesn’t say which Party was running it, had dismissed shelters as ‘too costly or low priority.’.

‘Finland has bomb shelters for 4.5million people. It can survive as a government and as a society under direct missile and air attacks from Russia. We don’t have that.’ Perhaps we should all emigrate to Finland then?

He’s also concerned about the size of Britain’s military which would comfortably fit in Old Trafford football stadium.

Of interest is the statement that ‘Sir Patrick had previously been barred from giving a speech warning that conscription could be required in the event of a major war, amid concern from ministers it would terrify the public.’

Wouldn’t it be terrible if they declared war and no one showed up to fight it?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14899277/Britain-start-building-bomb-shelters-prepare-war-Russia.html

Kaliningrad] known as Königsberg[ until 1946, is the largest city and administrative centre of KaliningradOblast,an exclave of

 Russia between Lithuania and Poland (663 kilometres (412 mi) west of the bulk of Russia), located on the Pregolya River, at the head of the Vistula Lagoon, and the only ice-free Russian port on the Baltic Sea. Its population in 2020 was 489,359. Kaliningrad is the second-largest city in the Northwestern Federal District, after Saint Petersburg and the seventh-largest city on the Baltic Sea.

Kaliningrad Oblast is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave on the Baltic Sea within the historical Baltic region of Prussia, surrounded by Poland to the south and Lithuania to the north and east. The largest city and administrative centre is the city of Kaliningrad. The port city of Baltiysk is Russia’s only port on the Baltic Sea that remains ice-free in winter. Kaliningrad Oblast had a population of roughly one million in the 2021 Russian census. It has an area of 15,125 square kilometres (5,840 sq mi). Wiki.

American General Christopher Donahue has said, Kaliningrad, Russia, is roughly 47 miles wide and surrounded by NATO on all sides and the Army and its allies now have the capability to “take that down from the ground in a time frame that is unheard of and faster than we’ve ever been able to do.”

“We’ve already planned that and we’ve already developed it. The mass and momentum problem that Russia poses to us … we’ve developed the capability to make sure that we can stop that mass and momentum problem.”

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2025/07/16/army-europe-chief-unveils-nato-eastern-flank-defense-plan/

‘German General Christian Freuding has advised Ukraine to ‘ strike Russia. airfields and weapons factories deep inside the country to alleviate pressure on the front.’,

“You can also indirectly affect the offensive potential of Russian strike forces before they are deployed,” Freuding said. “Use long-range air warfare assets to strike aircraft and airfields before they are used. Also, target weapons production facilities.”

Freuding also lamented that despite Western sanctions, Russia has increased its production of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic systems. “We must reconsider whether our economic measures have been sufficient and where we can apply further pressure, particularly to limit Russian production capabilities,” he said.

The general also pointed to the limitations of US-made Patriot air defence missiles against waves of Russian drones. “It [a drone] costs around €30,000-50,000 ($34,000–58,000) depending on the model. It’s wasteful to shoot it down with a Patriot missile costing over €5 million. We need countermeasures that cost €2,000–€4,000, especially as Russia aims to further increase its production capacity,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Freuding confirmed earlier this month that Ukraine would receive the first batch of long-range missiles financed by Berlin before the end of July. Germany, however, has been reluctant to send Taurus long-range missiles due to escalation concerns.’

Siegfried Sassoon’s first world war poem ‘The General’ tells of two British soldiers who meet a General as they are slogging their way ‘up to Arras with rifle and pack.’ The General wishes them both a good morning. One soldier says to the other, ‘he’s a cheery old card.’ The final line of the poem is ’But he did for them both with his plan of attack.’

The longer we allow the capitalistic system to continue the more likely that its plan of attack will do for us all.

HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS (ZOOM)

Herodians

Now is the time of new Herodians,

Those corrupted by power and vanity

Until, devoid of all humanity,

They are utterly blind to their own plans

Requiring the merciless massacring

Of children. They constantly justify

This infanticide with barely a sigh,

While parasitic sycophants sing

Their praises. Herods don’t do the killing

Of course, child murder is made easy,

Avoiding any need to feel queasy

When it’s done for you by the all too willing.

Also Herods in the shadows without qualms,

Counting profits from the market in arms.

D. A.