"True enough attempts to rally the Trades Unions and the left to oppose the war failed. And the same happened in Germany."
That was the line of the left throughout Europe at the time.
The same line was adopted at the outbreak of WW2, when they claimed that workers should not be fighting workers.
I have to confess, until I read Richard M Watt's remarkable book, 'The Kings Depart' I had never realised how near to success the German workers came to overthrowing the system in the aftermath of the war.
Far from returning to "a land fit for heroes to live in" British soldiers returned from the trenches to conditions far worse than when they left.
Disaffected soldiers who couldn't find peacetime employment were sent to Ireland in the form of the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries to suppress the Irish demands for independence
They had been so dehumanised by their experiences in the war that they gained a reputation for brutality that remains today.
In 1926, following the coal-owners policy of cutting wages and increasing hours in the pits, soldiers were sent in to help break the strike - again, the brutality used became legendary - a previously volunteer army had been quickly turned into a conscripted tool of the state - worker against worker.
Coincidentally, last night we watched an extremely moving depiction of the miners strike that followed the General Strike in parts of the North of England and Scotland.
Scenes depicted soldiers brutalising striking miners (some of them war veterans - including decorated heroes) and their families, backed by the newly emerged British Fascist Party, who smashed up the soup kitchens and beat up demonstraters.
The authenticity of the events portrayed were fully confirmed by interviews with members of some of the striking miner's families at the beginning and end of the film.
The film 'There is a Happy Land' was set in Fife, in Scotland and was a BBC Scotland/Scottish Theatre Workshop production - one of the co-writers was Peter Cox, the author of the excellent book on the Radio Ballads, 'Set Into Song' - very highly recommended.
Fascinating to see how recently revealed documents show that Scum Thatcher planned to use the army yet again against striking miners - leopards - spots and all that.
"It is also a nasty lie."
I've yet to hear a B.N.P. spokesman declare in public that "all male Pakistanis.... implant"
Now that's what I call a serious accusation!!   
Jim Carroll