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.’
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
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