Opposition to NATO in Paris, October 2022 - Photo: Tehran Times

On November 11, Prime Minister Keir Starmer travelled to Paris to mark Armistice Day at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. According to the press release [1] the Prime Minister noted that he was the first Prime Minister to do so in 80 years but then revealed the real reason for the trip was a bilateral meeting to discuss with Macron prior to the ceremony on "the situation in Ukraine, including how best to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position going into the winter". Also on the agenda was the Middle East, which Starmer claimed underscored "their deep concern at the situation in Gaza and Lebanon" and "stability in the West Bank". At the same time it was said that the meeting talked about "the importance of bearing down on illegal migration at every stage of a migrant's journey".

In relation to Ukraine, it was reported that the two leaders discussed the potential shift in the US stance regarding the Storm Shadow missiles. These missiles are produced by Britain and France but can only be deployed using US systems. The BBC reported that both Britain and France had been urging President Biden to allow their use against Russian territory but President Biden had not so far given Ukraine "permission to use long-range missiles against targets inside Russia, for fear of escalation". However, only days later, Ukraine, with US authorisation and targeting, fired six ATACMS missiles into the Bryansk region in Russia opening the door to Anglo/US and French direct war against Russia. Other NATO members, notably the German chancellor Olaf Sholtz and Italy's Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, reiterated continued opposition to the use of their missiles to strike targets within Russian territory.

How Starmer and Macron chose to mark Armistice Day, whilst claiming to be mourning the dead that died in World War I but instead discussing how to desperately continue to escalate their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and how to better support Israel in the war on Gaza, the West Bank and on Lebanon, is a glaring exposure of their criminal aims in shedding crocodile tears for the dead. They carry on endangering the world and engulfing it in war. To further heap the abuse of "illegality" and persecution on migrants who are victims of their wars and their interference across the globe adds insult to injury. It not only exposes the so-called high ideals of this present generation of warmongering imperialists, but is a reflection on the criminality of those warmongering imperialists of the past who claimed World War I as the "war to end all wars", building "a land fit for heroes" and other such hypocrisy which is regurgitated today on Armistice Day under the slogan "Lest We Forget" [2].

Demonstration in Finland - Photo: Yorkshire CND

Since this meeting, and with the increasing failure of their proxy war against Russia and the crisis of their complicity in the genocidal war of Israel against the Palestinians, the British and French governmental leaders have continued to discuss joint support for these wars as the "leading" allies in Europe. On November 22, the French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy met in London. The professional head of the military and advisor to the Prime Minister, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, who also visited Ukraine to meet Zelensky last week, for this part declared that military spending must go up [3]. UK also sees privatisation 'opportunities' in Ukraine war [4].

The desperate ambitions of the British and French ruling elites have given rise to reckless justifications and speculations reported in the media about crossing new "red lines" and whether this means France and Britain are risking nuclear war or will be sending troops into Ukraine or not. At no time do they ever admit that they have no justification or mandate for waging a war against Russia, let alone escalating war in the name of the peace-loving British people. Nor do they have any justification for their criminal arming of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people, their support for Israel's invasion of Lebanon and their own bombing of Yemen.

On why Macron and Starmer met, one commentator put it that "Starmer's visit to France comes as European leaders scrambled to plan a strategy for dealing with an impending second Donald Trump US presidency". But what is so noticeable is the desperation of these old European powers at even the remote fear of being isolated by Trump's forthcoming Presidency in the US and other NATO countries' reluctance to escalate the war in Ukraine and support Israel. Also it could be said that their talks were a scrambling to deal with their isolation in the crisis-ridden European Union with the collapse of Olaf Sholtz's "centre left" coalition in Germany which they see as being threatened from the "far-left" and from the "far-right", and that the "centre ground" is becoming increasingly embattled. This has exposed the bankrupt reference point favoured by Starmer and Macron, a neo-liberalism to justify dividing the polity into "left" and "right", both of which are portrayed as extremes, while claiming to occupy the "centre ground", which is supposedly where all good moderates should position themselves, and that therefore all reasonable people must succumb to their imposition of police power over the population, the strictures of austerity and their warmongering in NATO.

Britain and France as the "old powers" of Europe are trying to continue their desperate attempts to stop the collapse of their ambitions to continue their failing Anglo/US NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, together with their failing attempts to continue their domination over Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia in the face of the escalating resistance of the peoples of the world in standing with Palestine and for peace in Ukraine. The British working class and people stand as one with the French against the warmongering of their governments, and the call is to build the movement against war and for peace, justice and democracy.

Notes
1. Press Release: PM meeting with President Macron of France
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-meeting-with-president-macron-of-france-11-november-2024
2. The 1918 Armistice which brought World War I to an end was signed, marking the end of the war. A slaughterhouse of unprecedented proportions, World War I was referred to as the "war to end all wars." The Treaty of Versailles was finally signed by Germany and the Allied Nations on June 28, 1919, formally ending World War I.
World War I was an inter-imperialist war, a war in which working men were sent to be slaughtered as empires clashed to re-divide the world. World War I left 9 million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded. In addition, at least 5 million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure. The influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people. One fifth of the world's population was attacked by this deadly virus.
For further articles on World War I, see Workers' Weekly commemorating the centenary of the end of the war, dated November 11, 2018: Workers' Weekly Internet Edition Year 2018 Volume 48 Number 22:
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-18/ww18-22/ww18-22.htm
3. "No 'red lines' in Ukraine support, French foreign minister tells BBC":
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czd5myvyrjzo
4. UK sees privatisation 'opportunities' in Ukraine war, Declassified UK
https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-sees-privatisation-opportunities-in-ukraine-war/?utm_source=drip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Your+Weekly+Roundup

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