General Council International Statement
General Council International Statement
The General Council recognises the deeply troubling international situation. Since the start of the year the President of the United States has started an unprovoked war with Iran, overseen the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president, imposed a crippling blockade of Cuba, bombed ships in international waters, threatened military action against Greenland, and threatened tariffs against the UK. Meanwhile Israel has continued bombing Lebanon, Gaza and accelerated annexation of the West Bank.
We condemn, unequivocally, the crimes in which our country is directly or indirectly complicit. We condemn the genocide in Gaza, war crimes in Lebanon, and the killing of school children and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Iran.
We call on our Governments at UK and Scottish level – to refuse to allow our air bases to be used by US warplanes, including airports in Scotland owned by the Scottish Government.
We reaffirm our existing policy to stop arming Israel and our commitment to the international movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions.
We must also recognise that the United States increasingly aggressive imperialism, has profound consequences for the UK’s defence policy, foreign policy and economic policy.
We can therefore no longer depend on the US – militarily or economically.
Unshackling us from our dependence will not be easy. Our so-called “independent nuclear deterrent” is leased and serviced by the United States. Our exports to the US outweigh theirs to us tenfold, making retaliatory tariffs an act of self-harm. US companies employ more people in Britain than in Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and Sweden combined. In Scotland, US-owned businesses employ more than 115,000 people. Much of the backbone of our state – from government internet servers to prisoner transport – is built and owned by US corporations – many with close links to the current administration.
But understanding the scale of our economic and security dependency on the US is the first step in weaning ourselves off it – slowly but surely.
We call on the UK Government to resist the calls from Lord George Robertson, a paid lobbyist for US defence companies, to cut welfare to fund defence spending. Security is about ensuring people enjoy freedom from fear, from want, and from the poverty and insecurity that harms too many people today. Social security is therefore the foundation of defence, not the enemy of it.
Instead, we call on our politicians at Scottish and UK level to pursue a three-pronged approach to security.
First, we must pursue greater sovereignty while respecting the sovereignty of other states. That means less reliance on US defence companies. If fighter planes are needed, we should be buying British built Eurofighter typhoons, not the US’s F-35 jets, that are built to carry nuclear bombs and support US global policing. We should build our domestic manufacturing base, move away from dependence on US gas and other energy imports, reclaim ownership of our renewable energy from US hedge funds, and reject companies like Palantir, with its ties to war crimes in Gaza, being part of our health system.
Second, we must forge new alliances. That means building closer trading and defence partnerships with Europe as well as closer links with the Global South and less friction with China. Our future lies in diversified partnerships, not subservience to one increasingly unpredictable power.
Third, we must champion peace, justice and equality. Not only is this the right thing to do, but it will benefit national security. Being able to trade with the rest of the world requires the rest of the world having enough income to buy our goods and services. Peace and prosperity – even from a perspective of national self-interest – depends on reducing the huge levels of global inequality we have today.
The task ahead is monumental. It will be politically treacherous and economically painful. But the alternative – remaining a bullied vassal state in an era of gangster imperialism – is a far greater threat to our peace, prosperity, and our very democracy.
For the sake of our future, we must build international solidarity with our sister unions in the US and find the courage to end this one-sided “special relationship. Peace, and our security depends on it.
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