On Saturday, June 20, over 3,000 people from across Europe and around the world gathered in Central Hall Westminster in London, UK for the International Conference Against War. Organized by the Stop the War Coalition, the London conference was a follow-up to the successful anti-war conference held in Paris in 2025, aimed at building a movement to oppose and reverse rapid increases in military spending, especially in NATO countries, and the growing threat of militarism.
Below are some key lessons from the conference that can help us build strong local anti-war mass movements.
EU imperialism is no alternative to US imperialism
The US is currently facing a crisis and is in decline. It is retreating from its role of managing imperialism in Europe. US Minister of Defence Pete Hegseth stated at the recent NATO summit that the US military presence in Europe should be reconsidered.
The threat of US military withdrawal means even greater pressure on European governments to massively increase their military spending to protect the interests of their capitalist class. For months now, the governments of European countries have engaged in intense propaganda to convince their working people that they must prepare for a confrontation with Russia and that the rearmament of Europe is the only way to a stable world.
The conference delegates firmly denounced that narrative. They posited that the response to the decline of US imperialism should not be the rise of EU imperialism. This is a crucial political insight, as many European social-democratic parties, including the UK Labour Party, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and the Socialist Party of France, adhere to the notion that the EU is a force for good and therefore should be rearmed.
The anti-war movement must be led by the working class
As socialists, we know that the working class has the power to bring the system to a halt and defeat the ruling class. This basic truth informed both the “why” and the “how” of what it means to build a mass, working-class anti-war movement.
The prolonged war in Ukraine sparked by the Russian invasion in 2022 and Trump’s war in Iran have had devastating effects on the standard of living for workers around the world. Moreover, the consensus among the European governments is that the money for military spending must come out of the pockets of working people. War is being paid for not through increased taxes on corporations and billionaires, but from cuts to workers’ wages and to welfare and public services.
This is why it is imperative to connect the fight against war and militarism to the fight against austerity and the cost-of-living crisis with slogans such as “welfare not warfare”, “lower your guns, raise our wages”, and “wages not weapons.” Connecting militarism to workers’ material conditions is a key way to win the working class away from military propaganda and towards the anti-war movement.
When workers are won over to anti-militarism, serious anti-war activity becomes possible. Maurizio Coppolla, an Italian delegate and one of the organizers of the two general strikes for Gaza that took place in Italy in 2025, explained at the conference that the general strikes in Italy were led by the working class, particularly the dockworkers of the port of Genoa, who took the protest from the streets into their workplaces and shut down their port. The dockworkers’ action inspired other workers from various sectors such as education, railways, and public services to shut down schools, railways and other workplaces across over 80 Italian cities in protest of their government’s involvement in the US-Israel genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
We need labour unions in the anti-war movement
Italian workers show what is possible when labour and labour unions are engaged in the anti-war movement. Continuing to bring labour unions into the anti-war movement remains key to building a powerful anti-war movement.
The organizers of the London anti-war conference had clearly put a lot of effort into bringing labour unions into the coalition. The conference itself was endorsed by almost all major trade union organizations in the UK and many from across Europe. It was not an easy task, given the divisions within the British and European labour movement on the question of militarism. There are union leaders who have bought into militarism by the idea of defence jobs; we can see this in Canada as well.
These union leaders must be pulled away from that position by rank-and-file members — not merely as a matter of principle, but as a matter of strategy. What transpired in Italy shows the possibilities that exist when we use the collective power that exists in unions as a vehicle for countering war and militarism.
The anti-war movement must be a mass movement from below
We need labour unions in the anti-war movement. But their participation cannot be limited to endorsing our demands or having their leadership attend and speak at anti-war conferences, rallies and marches. We want to engage with and win the hearts and minds of the rank-and-file workers.
Spring spoke with John Rees, a national officer of the Stop the War Coalition, the conference’s organizer, who told us that while they have already received support from ten major National Unions in the UK, they still work hard to secure the support of local union branches, independently of their leadership. This is because local branches are where they can engage with rank-and-file workers and convince them to take an active part in the anti-war movement. Only through active participation in the mass movement can the workers build the confidence to carry the demonstrations from the streets into their workplaces, just as the dock workers in Italy did last year — that is work that can only be carried out by workers in our thousands and millions, not by a handful of union leaders.
While the delegates to the conference were primarily composed of trade union and anti-war activists, it is clear to them that the movement they will help build would not be a movement of only activists but a genuine mass movement of ordinary, everyday people.
While labour must take the lead in the anti-war movement, it is equally important for labour to bring other social forces into the movement. This includes faith groups, community and student organizations, political parties and other mass organizations that are part of civil society. As long as these groups oppose war, racism, and xenophobia, they should be part of the movement.
The anti-war movement must be coordinated globally
The anti-war movement must be coordinated globally to be effective. This is because our opponents are organized internationally. They meet all the time at places like Davos, NATO summits, and G7 summits to plan and manage capitalism and imperialism. That is why international anti-war conferences are important: they offer rare occasions for the global working class to meet and coordinate our resistance.
The London conference called for three international days of action and demonstration. The first is a joint international day of demonstrations in support of a free Palestine, scheduled for October 10. The second is a day of action to support the dockworkers in Italy, France and Greece, with the date to be announced. Third, an international weekend of demonstrations against militarism, the drive to war and conscription will be taking place on November 21 and 22.
The next international anti-war conference will be held in Madrid in the first half of 2027.
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