Introduction, Jul-Aug, 2014

We began this collection as a response to the sickening nonsense surrounding the 100th anniversary of the start of the trenches holocaust in 1914 including, at least in the United Kingdom, a celebratory commemoration.

For the first time in history in 1914, millions were being called upon by the great powers to murder millions on the other side. One explanation was:

The present war is of an imperialist character. The war is the outcome of conditions in an epoch in which capitalism has reached the highest stage of its development; in which not only the export of commodities of the greatest significance, but so also is the export of capital; in which the trustification of industry and the internationalisation of economic life have assumed considerable dimensions; in which colonial policy has led to the partition of almost the whole of the globe; in which the productive forces of world capitalism have outgrown the limited boundaries of national and State divisions. (V.I. Lenin, The National Liberation Movement in the East, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1959, pp. 132–32)