Starmer’s Christmas Message: A Permanent Arms Economy is the way forward
Keir Starmer is in Estonia where he will be meeting British troops who are in the ‘frontline’ against Russia. Leave aside the point that Britain is not at war with Russia and NATO should not be gathering troops on its border.
Its just the thing that British PMs do. In 2019 Johnson (20th December) was to be found ‘serving Christmas dinner’ to British troops in Estonia.
However Starmer also had an important wider point to make. While calling for more arms for Ukraine (a peace settlement however awkward is not something that ever appears on Starmer’s agenda). He noted
“Defence spending doesn’t sort of sit in a silo over here with no effect on the rest of the economy, no effect on technology.
“It has a huge effect on technologies, the cutting edge of technology and change, which can then be used in other areas.
Keir Starmer to visit British troops on Russia’s border | Keir Starmer | The Guardian
Broadly it’s what is known as the Military-Industrial Complex but what Starmer is really on about here is a permanent arms economy where war is central to the continuation of market capitalism.
In the 1980s Starmer had a dalliance with a post-orthodox Trotskyist grouping Socialist Alternatives but clearly did not come across the work on the permanent arms economy written by the heterodox Trotskyist Michael Kidron.
Anyway Starmer’s Christmas message is clear: Happy Christmas, War is NOT over
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