MASSIVE Glasgow and London demonstrations in February 2003 against the invasion of Iraq are being replicated many times over by those against Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Saturday after Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people have filled the streets in towns and cities across Scotland and the rest of Britain.
But unfortunately, the demonstrations are like those of 20 years ago in that they do not have the hard power to stop war. Sure, they are extremely heartfelt and let those normally without much of a voice collectively express that voice their feelings. So, the question is: how do workers stop war?
Mutinies, strikes and direct action
One way is to take direct action. The most obvious exponent of this is the activist group Palestine Action. For the last 10 years, a dedicated band of its members have successfully disrupted the arms manufacturers in Britain that supply weapons and associated weapons systems to Israel by occupying and disabling their factories.
Brave, inspiring and effective as their action is, it is unlikely to become a mass pursuit by the many because such actions risk fines and prison, requiring complete dedication. In other words, it’s not something that can be done on a series of Saturdays.
So, what then are the options to stop war? Historically, we have the example of the First World War where conscripted workers – now as soldiers – mutinied.
Such mutinies affected particularly the German and Russia armies. In both these countries, the mutinies also led to revolutions. In Russia, the Bolshevik October 1917 revolution was successful while the late 1918 (and into 1919) German Spartacist one was not.
In Britain, strikes in the industrial heartlands of north and south of the Border during the First World War were largely against the terms and conditions workers endured and not a direct attempt to stop war production for anti-war ends.
But the key here was that these workers were revolting against their treatment by their own governments. The situation with regards to Gaza is an altogether different one, where demonstrators want their government and other governments to put pressure on a foreign government to desist from prosecuting war.
Scotland has some interesting lessons to recall here. The first is the example of action by the Rolls-Royce engineers in East Kilbride from 1974 onwards against the coup in Chile staged by General Pinochet against a democratically elected left-wing government.
They refused to conduct repair and maintenance on fighter jets so that their engines sat outside and rotted in our inclement weather.
Then in 2003, two Aslef union train drivers in Motherwell refused to move a freight train containing ammunition destined for the war against Iraq via the West Highland line to the Glen Douglas Munitions Depot between Loch Lomond and Loch Long, Europe’s largest Nato weapons store.
South of the Border, dock workers went on strike rather than load British-made arms on to ships destined for the coup in Chile. Decades before, dockers in London in 1920 refused to move guns onto the Jolly George, a ship chartered to take weapons to anti-Bolsheviks after the October 1917 Russian revolution.
Today, the dockers in Barcelona have taken the same stance about moving war materials and weapons across the Mediterranean to Israel.
Though there is an anti-war current in Israel, it is unlikely to become powerful enough soon enough to stop the war. This means that efforts outside of Israel to deprive it of its weaponry and war materials are necessary.
Demonstrating outside arms factories is one thing but turning that into a blockade is another because that takes mass action and for a longer period of time. The aforementioned action of Palestine Action is better here.
Where then does this leave the ordinary workers who want to stop the Israeli war machine? Over and above the actions of dockers, there are many other transport workers – especially air freight workers – who can hamper and hinder the physical movement of supplies and parts.
Just-in-time weakness
The same applies to the workers that work in the armaments industries. As stockpiling is not now common and just-in-time delivery systems are widespread, the opportunities are ample.
Critically, as war is now a high-tech undertaking, there are also many more opportunities for other workers in supply lines and associated logistics as well as information technology, artificial intelligence and the like to identity where the proverbial spanner can be thrown in the works.
We and they just have to be creative and imaginative enough to see where these opportunities are. In other words, to see where the weak links and choke points are and apply pressure on them.
This means knowing who the suppliers, buyers and clients of the organisation are – be it a company or a government – that you work for.
Gregor Gall is a visiting professor of industrial relations at the University of Leeds and author of the forthcoming book Mick Lynch: The Making Of A Working-Class Hero (Manchester University Press)
