John Rees: Unmasking the Anti-Americanism of a British “Revolutionary Socialist”

One would be entirely forgiven for not being familiar with British left-wing fringe politics and understandably never have heard of a certain Mr. John Rees, a self-anointed “Revolutionary Socialist”, academic and importantly a co-founder of the British anti-war movement, “Stop-the-War Coalition” (StWC). There is every noble reason to be blissfully ignorant of him but unfortunately circumstance compels us to mildly scratch the surface of his posturing as a professed anti-imperialist. The Coalition he co-founded original purpose was to oppose United States and British wars on the Arab and the Muslim world during the War on Terror. This Coalition took the lead in organising anti-war demonstrations over the last two decades and recently is central to organising the anti-genocide demonstrations in support of Palestinians in Gaza. Unfortunately, the latter demonstrations have proven to be completely ineffective in terms of influencing government policy but admittedly they have allowed hundreds of the thousands of people in Britain to vent their disapproval of the Gaza genocide. In the following I highlight three pillars of posturing by Rees and his “Revolutionary Socialist” ilk which exemplifies the utter poverty of British anti-imperialism in the hope a consequential anti-war organisation eventually emerges to effectively challenge American-British warmongering. 

Firstly, central to British alleged anti-imperialism, as exemplified by Rees, is a simple anti-Americanism rooted in historical illiteracy and eurocentrism. Whereas most of the world would rightly denounce the Americans for their imperialism, for a good proportion of Britons, whether left-wing or right-wing, it is denounced for not supporting the British establishment and its military. For example, Rees is right to argue that the so-called “special relationship” between Britain and the United States is “little understood” but totally wrong to say that “the US had been a reluctant – and late-arriving – ally in the two world wars of the 20th century.” This comment is not only ahistoricism, but also plain British propaganda. The fact is Britain and the United States were not close allies before World War One or before World War Two. Indeed, before the latter war, the relationship had been strained because Britain had defaulted on its World War One debts after the United States had financially and militarily bailed out them out in that war.

Continue reading →