[1] It was an attempt to apply transitional demands such as trade union control of military training and the election of officers to transform what it characterised as an imperialist war into a revolutionary struggle against Nazism.
That is, not to fight against the necessity of the workers being good soldiers and of building up an army based on discipline, science, strong bodies and so on, including conscription, but against the capitalist state which abuses the army for the advantage of the exploiting class.
[4] In the American SWP, Max Shachtman and James Burnham characterised the Soviet Union as 'state capitalist' and disagreed with the policy.
The majority of workers supported the war because they had a genuine fear of an invasion by Nazi Germany and a desire to defeat Nazism.
In the case of WIL member Frank Ward, his revolutionary work was so successful that the military was compelled to give him an "honourable discharge" from the air force and sent him home in order to prevent him from conducting revolutionary activity.
In a similar incident, the Cairo Forces Parliament was shut down because of the growing support for the revolutionary ideas promoted by WIL members.