World War II was the bloodiest and most tragic event in world history. Up to 70 million people lost their lives during the six-year conflict. It witnessed unimaginable barbarism, including the mass murder of 6 million European Jews by the Nazis. The war ended with the dropping of atomic bombs by US imperialism on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Countless articles and television programs have been made to commemorate these events, yet few attempt, let alone offer, an explanation of how and why the world was dragged into such a bloody catastrophe, just two decades after the so-called “war to end all wars”.
The International Students for Social Equality will expose the claim that World War II was a war of democracy versus fascism. Rather, it was an imperialist war waged by the capitalist great powers—“democratic” and fascist alike—for the division of the world and its resources in the interests of profit.
The Montreal meeting will examine how Hitler was able to come to power, due to the political betrayals of the German Social Democrats and the Stalinist Communist Parties internationally and how this paved the way to war. It will explain why Hitler won the support of big business as a bulwark against the threat of a workers’ revolution.
Crucially, the ISSE will address the lessons of the last world war for today. Amidst the eruption of the deepest economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression, the major capitalist powers are once against pursuing wars of colonial-style conquest and trade and geo-political frictions, which threaten an even greater conflagration, are rapidly mounting between them.
The independent political mobilization of the working class against capitalism and the outmoded nation-state system is the only viable means of opposing the renewed dangers of an economic and military catastrophe for the peoples of the world.
Speaker: Keith Jones, member of the WSWS International Editorial Board and national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Canada)
Montreal
Thursday, November 12, at 7pm
Université du Québec à Montréal
École des sciences de la gestion, Room R-1910
315 Sainte-Catherine Est (Métro Berri-UQAM)