Condemn the Hypocrisy and Belligerence of the British Government

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Russia-Georgia conflict:
Condemn the Hypocrisy and Belligerence of the British Government

The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have both made belligerent statements and issued threats towards Russia in the recent period, following the military conflict between Russia and Georgia and leading up to this week’s extraordinary EU summit which was held to discuss that conflict.

Both Gordon Brown and David Miliband subsequently attended the EU summit where, according to news agency reports, Britain was the country most determined to condemn and take further punitive measures against Russia, supported by Poland and some of the other countries of "new Europe", while the other big European powers favoured a more conciliatory approach. The EU summit finally agreed to condemn Russia’s recognition of the independence of the disputed regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and put on hold various consultations with Russia but could not agree to any stronger measures as the British government had demanded.

According to the British government, it is acting to protect what it refers to as "shared European values", in the face of Russian "aggression" and it hypocritically presents itself as the guardian of international law and the sovereignty of nations, while smugly claiming that Russia has breached international norms and broken the rules "established for the conduct of international relations". In this regard, the Foreign Secretary hypocritically brushed aside claims that Russia’s actions could in any way be compared to NATO’s invasion of Yugoslavia. The recent conflict has provided the British government, the invader of Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere with an opportunity to attempt to take the high moral ground. David Miliband even provocatively travelled to Ukraine, another of Russia’s neighbours, where he not only condemned Russia’s "aggression" against Georgia but also brazenly encouraged Ukraine to join the EU and the warmongering NATO, the military alliance which is mainly designed to threaten Russia.

Anglo-American imperialism is attempting to present Russia as the aggressor and Georgia as the victim in the recent conflict, without revealing its own hand in creating the conditions for the conflict in the first place, including the arming and training of the Georgian army. At the same time, it tries to present the settling of political affairs by force as unreasonable "unilateralism". In fact, as is well known all the big powers operate on the principle that might is right, in regard to weaker powers, while they attempt, where possible, to negotiate their own contention or contend by proxy.

The British government wishes once again to take the opportunity to be the arbiter of what is acceptable in the world, hypocritically condemning others for following the warmongering precedent that it has taken the lead in establishing.

It is also clear that the British government has used the conflict to attempt to advance its own interests within the EU and the interests of Anglo-American imperialism in its contention with Russia in general and in particular with regard to Georgia and Ukraine. Amongst other things, Gordon Brown also took the opportunity to demand that Europe should not be so dependent on Russia’s oil and gas supplies and specifically that he would be pressing EU leaders for funds for a project to extract energy supplies from the Caspian Sea, a strategy that will increase contention with Russia and also with China. Indeed the Russian government has recently made overtures to the Caspian Basin states to develop gas supply routes through Russia. There appears to be particular contention over the gas supplies of Azerbaijan, with the Russian government pledging its support for Azerbaijan’s claim to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, while Miliband announced that this was another unresolved conflict that should be investigated.

What must be opposed and condemned is the growing contention between all the big powers operating either directly or through proxy, which makes the world such an unstable and dangerous place. What must also be condemned is the hypocrisy and belligerence of the British government, which far from being a force for peace and moderation in the world is one of the leading warmongers. The people cannot afford to side with any of the big powers, nor be fooled by the big powers’ lofty-sounding words about the self-determination of small countries. It is the independent politics of the working class which must be developed along the path of organising to elect an anti-war government, which will be a force to end big-power aggression and contention.