A coalition of the willing?
UK, France lead a new drive to war, Ireland marches behind
07 March 2025
Zelensky, Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron
As Donald Trump remarked: “It made great television.” Now that the drama in the Oval Office is over, we can examine the political conflict behind it.
This was a shakedown by Trump to gain control of Ukrainian mineral rights. Zelensky was willing to agree but, supported by Macron and Starmer, he opposed the US moves towards a settlement with Russia, making it perfectly clear that he wants to continue the war. France and the UK would provide ground troops and the US give air and satellite cover. They were rejected. Trump is calling it a day. Ukraine must face reality and agree a settlement where Russia holds lands it has captured and where there is no realistic possibility of Ukrainian victory.
It’s against this background that the London war conference took place. The proposal is to ramp up the war in the deluded belief that Russia is on the point of collapse. Starmer’s bluster about a “coalition of the willing” is a giveaway. He doesn’t have the US and he does not have Europe. The overwhelming hypocrisy of the situation is that ravings about Russia stand alongside united support for genocide in Gaza. The crisis illustrates what was already self-evident – that the war was a proxy war that could not continue without the US.
The initial defiance of the London conference has been deflated by Zelensky’s capitulation, but there is now a concerted push for a European army and a forever war scenario between Europe and Russia. A period of conflict between European states lies ahead. The countries are not united and there will be internal conflict within each state as public funds are raided for war materiel at the expense of public services.
Trump is pressing ahead with normalisation of relations with Putin. However, he has not advanced a peace plan. All the western powers are talking of a “peacekeeping” force. This is utterly unrealistic. Russia’s main demand is for no NATO expansion into Ukraine. It will not accept NATO forces under another guise.
Ireland is getting sucked further in. Thousands of missiles are to be manufactured in Belfast for direct shipment to Ukraine. Will Sinn Féin, the leading party in the local administration, go beyond tutting displeasure? Will the universal ideology of the peace process lead to protest against the direct delivery of high-tech weapons to attack Russia?
Micheál Martin has contradicted Sinn Féin complaints about Northern militarisation as the Dublin government rapidly ramp up defence spending, planning jet fighters and radar systems that only make sense as part of a European military pact and integrating with European military forces, opposed only by bleatings about a non-existent neutrality.
We must worry about the chaos on the Left, the traditional organisers of opposition. The majority of Western Leftists have thrown themselves behind a view that the problem is Russian imperialism. These Leftists have no difficulty defending the Ukrainian regime and in supporting NATO. All the signs are that they are doubling down as the war drums quicken and massive austerity and repression bear down on the working class.
It’s time for socialists to build their own coalition of the willing and unify against an ever-growing drive to war.