Letter: The Falklands War (1982)

Letter to the Editors from the November 1982 issue of the Socialist Standard

Dear Editors.

L. Weidberg's letter on the total lack of economic motive in the British sending of a Task Force to the Falklands is not supported by available evidence. It is true that for some twenty years, Tory and Labour governments have been dubious about holding on to the Falklands. but there is also much evidence that capitalist interests in Britain were dubious about letting the islands go. The following extracts from a Sunday Times (13 June 1982) article are not without significance:

Looking to the future. economic development of the islands will be based on a complete reversal of previous neglect. Lord Shackleton, author of a largely ignored report on the islands' potential in 1976, is working on a new version at Mrs. Thatcher's request.

Whitehall has been reawakened to the importance of Antarctica's resources and the strategic possibilities of Britain's South Georgia Dependencies . . . This triangular sector . . . contains more than one million square miles. Over this area a large amount of revenue has been expended on maintaining a chain of meteorological and scientific bases. The surveyor's reports reveal some interesting facts. The mineral deposits in the East (soft coal seams) are known to extend over an area of many thousands of square miles, and it is likely that Uranium, gold, iron and manganese are also present.

Many states have claimed sovereignty over wide areas; Britain's being called the Falkland Island Dependencies. Argentinian and Chilean claims in 1949 overlapped the British area. The US and USSR had made no claims up to 1954. but the US would not recognise the claims of other powers and made abortive attempts to induce the interested powers to accept some form of international sovereignty.

. . . the difficulty of defending the Falklands has been recognised for some time, and British policy has been based on that reality . . . On the other hand the island base is conveniently close to the Antarctic scene of operations — some 9,000 miles nearer than Britain.

Is it likely that British interests would give up this strategic link with the FID without more sacrifices of working class blood? L. Weidberg says that Mrs. Thatcher "knows that the working class, who comprise the bulk of the electorate, would like to think that "we" were going to get some material benefits in addition to saving the world from a fascist dictator " This is turning reality upside down. More often than not the workers have been mugged into believing that wars are fought to uphold great moral principles, while the economic causes are played down.

C. Kincaid

Milton Keynes