As every week goes by, the world seems to be hurtling towards ever greater war and conflict. From the Israeli state’s genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people, to the ongoing standoff in Ukraine, millions are seeing how our rulers have blood on their hands.
How would revolutionary socialists understand what is happening right now? Danny Byrne from International Socialist Alternative takes on five of the biggest questions being asked.
1. Why are wars and militarism heating up around the world today?
In short, because of the deep crisis which the capitalist system has been plunged into in the 2020s. The era of neoliberal globalisation has come to an abrupt end and been replaced by one in which nationalism and imperialist conflict are dominant. For over thirty years after capitalism ‘won’ the Cold War, US imperialist domination remained unchallenged. However the crises of the last two decades have weakened its position, and seen the rise of a major global competitor in the form of Chinese imperialism.
Imperialist conflict encompasses every field of world relations, from economics to politics, but also inevitably leads to military confrontation. More than 100 years ago, the Russian revolutionary leader and Marxist Vladimir Lenin analysed the growth of imperialism. He explained how this arises out of capitalist development, inevitably leading to power struggles between rival imperialist powers over the division of the world, to plunder resources and markets and secure monopolies on profit-making for ‘their’ corporations. These rivalries have always led to wars.
Today, we see bloody wars unfolding to defend and/or extend imperialist spheres of influence, in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa. These wars involve the interests and sometimes the armed forces of major imperialist powers like Russia and the US, but also of smaller powers who rely on the major players for support, such as Israel.
At the same time, we are witnessing a historic wave of militarism across the globe as the imperialist powers prepare for more and bigger wars. This has become a dominant political trend, and is very much part of ordinary people’s lives, including in Britain where securing more money for the war machine is the centrepiece in the Labour government’s new austerity agenda.
Mired in crisis and bogged down in an arms race with their rivals, governments around the world are turning hard and fast to defend ‘national security,’ invariably calling on the working class to pay the bill. This also means strengthening state repression at home, to rally populations, by force if necessary, behind the flag. This is a crucial part of why authoritarian governments are on the rise around the world.
Of course, militarism and war are also climate killers, and the new arms race is one of the fundamental reasons why ‘green capitalism’ is being thrown in the bin. For socialists, opposition to war is inextricably tied to struggle against the capitalist system.
2. Aren’t all wars different? Shouldn’t we support Ukraine?
All wars are indeed different, and have their own specific details and features. The one-sided genocidal war in Gaza, dominated by brutal bombing raids on a civilian population, differs significantly from the war in Ukraine, where most fighting takes place along a WWI-style ‘meat grinder’ frontline, for example.
However, for socialists, both wars are fundamentally reactionary and should be opposed by the working-class and anti-war movement. While the bloodthirsty ethnic cleansing policy of the Netanyahu regime and successive British governments’ disgusting support for it has provoked an angry reaction from millions, the war in Ukraine has been met with a somewhat more mixed response.
Following Putin’s brutal invasion, the outpouring of solidarity with Ukrainian people was capitalised upon by Western governments to present themselves as ‘the good guys’ in a one-sided war of aggression. However, this is an illusion. NATO and British imperialism’s interests in Ukraine are just as ugly as those of Russian imperialism.
While Trump has upset the apple cart in undermining the Western alliance in support of Ukraine, his crude demands for control of Ukraine’s mineral wealth in exchange for US backing reveals much of what the war is really about for Zelensky’s international backers. For NATO imperialism, this war was never about defending Ukrainian people, but fundamentally about forcing back a major imperialist rival – Russia – which is also part of a tightly-bound bloc led by US imperialism’s main rival: China.
The hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian people being killed in this war are not being sacrificed for the country’s safety or freedom, but rather are dying in an unwinnable proxy war between rival imperialists, neither side of which offers anything good for working class Ukrainians (or Russians).
International Socialist Alternative opposes Russian imperialism and calls for the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine. But we also oppose imperialist intervention by ‘our’ ruling class, and the endless arms shipments which we are now being told to pay for with benefit cuts and austerity.
The only way forward is to build an independent working-class movement in Ukraine, Russia and internationally which stands against all imperialist interests, for the right of all nations and minorities within nations to self-determination, and for socialist policies of public ownership and democratic control of resources.
3. Why has the anti-war movement in Britain not succeeded?
Following its decline in the 20th century, British imperialism’s place in the world has been defined by its status as a lapdog for US imperialism. We also saw this played out in the context of the country’s last comparable anti-war movement, against the war on Iraq in 2003. Starmer’s neo-Blairism has followed in the footsteps of the original in a remarkable fashion.
The Israeli state plays a key role for US imperialism in the Middle East, as a heavily armed garrison which defends its interests in an unstable and resource-rich region. In backing and facilitating the Netanyahu regime’s crimes, British imperialism is therefore pursuing its fundamental strategic interests.
When fundamental imperialist interests are at stake, the small matter of public opinion will not easily force a capitalist government to change course. This was the case in 2003 when, despite being reportedly close to resigning as millions flooded the streets, Blair’s government held on and doubled down on the slaughter.
Labour have lost millions of votes and faced the wrath of hundreds of thousands on the streets as a result of their craven defence of ‘Israel’s right to defend itself.’ But Starmerite Labour is first and foremost a party of British capitalism and imperialism, not the democratic will of the people. They will stand with Trump and Netanyahu until this policy becomes completely untenable for capitalist stability.
4. So should we keep protesting?
Definitely, but just protesting on its own won’t be enough to stop this juggernaut of war and militarism. The IDF’s return to genocidal bombings and ground invasion of Gaza, now combined with unprecedented armed assaults in the West Bank and occupations in Lebanon and Syria, demands a resurgence of the anti-war movement, on an even higher level than before. But the movement needs to be not only massive, but effective.
The key missing ingredient in the anti-war movement so far has been the absence of direct action by the most powerful force in Britain – the organised working class. The weapons and components which Britain regularly provides to the Israeli state are made and shipped by industries in which trade unions have a powerful presence. If union leaders were prepared to go beyond words and organise strike and boycott action to prevent these shipments, they would quickly be paralysed.
This would hit the Israeli regime where it hurts, and send a powerful message to workers internationally that the war machine can be halted by working class action. Such a movement would also threaten the profits of the UK capitalists in a strategic sector of the modern capitalist economy, which would take the pressure to withdraw support from Netanyahu to a whole new level.
With a change in government having led to absolutely no change in Britain’s disgraceful backing of genocidal war, building an anti-war political alternative is also a crucial necessity for the movement. Already, figures including Jeremy Corbyn showed in the General Election that the parties of war and imperialism can be beaten.
Socialist Alternative calls for Corbyn and others to urgently launch a new anti-war left party in Britain. The trade unions must play a key role in supporting such a party rather than looking toward a Starmer government to deliver for working people.
Alongside the movement on the streets and in work places, such a party could quickly grow, offering a political alternative of welfare not warfare.
5. How would socialist change end wars?
Though it operates a global economy, capitalism is fundamentally a national system, made up of rival national elites whose antagonism can never be decisively papered over. The working class, on the other hand, is an objectively international force, divided only by the borders and reactionary ideas and prejudices of the capitalist system. The best traditions of the labour movement were founded not on nationalist slogans, but on the basis of Marx’s rallying cry: “workers of the world unite!”
A socialist system would be based on replacing capitalist ownership and control of wealth and resources with public ownership and democratic control of the economy, on a national and international level. A world where the key sectors of the economy are run by and for the vast majority rather than for private profit would have no need for international conflict, and on the contrary would thrive from international cooperation to address the needs of people and the planet.
A socialist world would free the untold quantities of wealth and human labour that are expended in creating the weapons of death, and put it to use in producing the things and providing the services we actually need.
