War in Ukrain
The crushing weight of pain and human suffering involved in each and every war created for and by capitalism is unspeakable. It is backbreaking in fact for every nation and every community that is directly faced with it. One day, Iraq is bombed to smithereens, another day Afganistan, one day it falls upon Syria, another day upon Libya. And now, the ominous clouds of that ugly reality is forced upon the people of Ukraine.
Ukraine is the latest episode of Capitalism At Work. This is the true and actual face of the profiteering system of capitalism by which the masses are being bamboozled into or injured by a war that isn’t theirs.
Under capitalism, the masses are stripped of their labour and lose their livelihood on a daily basis during peacetime, and when war falls down upon them, they have to lose their loved ones as well. The people never win in capitalist wars. They are only the cannon fodder of such wars. It isn’t their war but they are killed for it, displaced by it, and in short, suffer from it. Whereas those behind these wars have hardly ever endured hardship let alone die in any one of them. Yet it has always been them who gain something at the end of their ruthless war for profit. They are the profiteers; they profit at all times. And for as long as the fate of humanity is in the bloody hands of capitalism these wars will be inevitable and evermore frequent. The task here, therefore, is to expose the nature of these wars and oppose them, not cheer for them or be part of them. This ain’t no patriotic war!
Down with capitalist wars!
Down with the capitalist system!
Socialism or Barbarism!
5 Comments
The Brotherhood of Man
The contradictions inherent in the system reveal themsleves in the circus of US politics, where support for Russia has been seen from GOP arch-reactionaries and would-be progressives alike.
Of course, supporting the weaker imperialist power over the stronger one (where it masquarades as support for the weakest country, the porxy that is Ukraine) is folly. As mentioned in the piece above, both obviously do not care for the masses in the least. As always, it is the people who suffer, not the rulers.
Yesterday negotiations seem to have been cut short by Ukraine filing a formal submission to join the EU. Good timing. It’s worth noting, then, that economically, it is in the interest of the US to have this conflict.
With Russia being the EU’s fifth exporter and also its fifth importer, the US seems poised to suffer the least from this economic disruption, and gain the most by filling the resulting trade void (and of course, a boon for defense contractors).
The risk of a worldwide calamity and all the real and potential lives lost are a worthwhile price for the American ruling class as they gamble the planet. Ditto for Russia’s, with their heavy handed, inhumane response to these provocations. The danger posed by these psychopaths cannot be overstated!
A. Behrang
Thanks for your insightful comment. As stated at the end of my post, wars as such should not be perceived as patriotic wars. Unfortunately some, even among the so-called left, don’t make this distinction.
Rachel
We all agree in theory that this is not a patriotic war but in the here and now of Ukraine’s situation, are the people supposed to lay down their weapons and surrender to the Russian army? Or are they supposed to bear arms against both the Ukrainian establishment as well as the attacking Russians?
In other words, what choices do they have right now under this bombardment other than to help the vulnerable flee and for those who stay behind, fight back?
A. Behrang
Let’s speak in an objective manner, and not in abstraction.
People will do what they think is right to do. In other words, they follow the mindset they are in. So the point is to change that mindset whenever it is on the wrong track.
Ideally, and from a revolutionary standpoint, reactionary wars should be turned into revolutionary wars. But this doesn’t happen at will. It is a long drawn process in which the necessary conditions for it are built up. Political exposure is one major task towards those necessary conditions.
Rachel
This situation is terrifying and as you wrote, all this suffering could be prevented if we had a logical socioeconomic system.