Shut down US bases!

As US and Israeli bombs first rained on Iran, Keir Starmer pledged the UK would not get involved. Twenty-four hours later, and after a few insults from Trump, Starmer did what he does best: he U-turned. He approved the use of UK bases for “limited defensive purposes”, defined as destroying Iran’s missiles “at source”, ie, bombing Iran. Just like that, Starmer lent UK support to this murderous carpet-bombing campaign, with British military infrastructure giving crucial help to the US and Israel.

American B-2 stealth bombers, carrying “bunker buster” bombs to pierce underground sites, operate from Diego Garcia. Flights from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus—the same hub that aided the Gaza genocide with intelligence flights—now intercept drones to shield US assets. But the main assistance to the US happens in Britain itself. Following Starmer’s U-turn, B-52 and B-1B bombers swarmed RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, cutting flight times compared to launching from the US, and enabling a relentless high-intensity bombardment. RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, serves as the “petrol station”, its US KC-135 tankers fuelling the slaughter. RAF Lakenheath, also in Suffolk, is home to F-15s and F-35s in transit to the Middle East. RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire provides signals intelligence (SIGINT) to track targets in real time, while RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire processes satellite data and provides targets for Fairford’s bombers. RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire provides the secure comms link for this global kill chain.

When Starmer says Britain is merely carrying out “defensive” operations, he is lying. The UK is playing a key role for US imperialism’s war of aggression. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of the deep and secretive entanglement of Britain’s military with US imperialism. The “special relationship” with the US isn’t a matter of policy choice that some prime minister can simply reverse. Britain’s role as a junior partner of the US has been built into the state since the Second World War. Britain’s nuclear arms depend on the US; its intelligence agencies are fused with American ones; NATO membership is in the armed forces’ DNA.

For socialists to concretely oppose this war, what is needed is to build a movement here to shut down US bases. This is vital to help the Iranian people’s resistance, but also for British workers. We have no interest in getting dragged into yet another war to maintain US imperial domination. And we have no interest in paying for this through our taxes, further austerity and soaring energy prices. Britain needs radical change. And it starts with kicking out those bases.

Doing this will require serious, working-class struggle against the entire ruling class, for whom being a minion for the US is second nature. But this isn’t what the leaders of the trade unions or left Labour Party politicians have in mind. The main leaders of the unions have reacted to the war by signing the most tepid of statements, criticising the war for being “illegal” and demanding diplomacy. Outrageously, the TUC statement also denounced Iran for defending itself! And, of course, most unions bankroll the very Labour government overseeing the war. As for Corbyn, the few left-Labour MPs and the Greens, rather than organising a serious struggle against Starmer, they are imploring him with pacifist twaddle about “international law”—as if this mattered at all to anyone anymore.

From Labour’s Ernest Bevin, who helped create NATO in 1949, to today’s Unite leader Sharon Graham, a staunch supporter of the defence industry, there is a deep, rotten tradition of pro-US support embedded in the workers movement. To rid Britain of US bases, we must rid the labour movement of these pro-imperialist swine. And this won’t be done with “peace and love” declarations from the backbenches.

Defend Iran against imperialist aggression!

Shut down US bases!

UK bases out of Cyprus! US-UK out of Chagos!