“The people of every nation are being deluded by their rulers, who say to them, "You, who are governed by us, are all in danger of being conquered by other nations; we are watching over your welfare and safety, and consequently we demand of you annually some millions of rubles—the fruit of your labor—to be used by us in the acquisition of arms, cannon, powder, and ships for your defense; we also demand that you yourselves shall enter institutions, organized by us, where you will become senseless particles of a huge machine—the army—which will be under our absolute control. On entering this army you will cease to be men with wills of your own; you will simply do what we require of you. But what we wish, above all else, is to exercise dominion; the means by which we dominate is killing, therefore we will instruct you to kill." - Tolstoy
Our ideas must be clear on the question of war. In whose interests is this war being fought? For what ends is this war being fought? Is the continuance of this war in the interests of the working people? These questions must be faced. It is not the oligarchs, the instigators of the war, who pay for war with their lives and their fortunes. It is with the casualties of the workers, with the hardships and privations of their homes and their families in the warring countries. The workers have no interest to be the tools and pawns of their billionaire rulers.
This war is not a war for democracy against fascism. Why has Yerenskyy banned all political parties that dissent from his policies? And permit the Banderites to prosper. It is not a war for the liberties of sovereign nations. It is not a war for the defence of peace against aggression. These phrases are the hypocrisy and deception imposed upon working people. This war is a fight between the rival powers over profits and world domination. This war will bring only great suffering and boundless misery to millions of working-class homes. We are told that this is a war in defence of peace against aggression and that therefore all defenders of peace and collective security should support it. There never was a bigger lie. Why did they oppose the idea of the neutral Ukraine which could have prevented aggression? This is a war to which no worker in any country can give support.
To those of us who still retain an irreconcilable hostility towards war, it has been a bitter experience to see the unanimity of public opinion have thrown their support for the Ukrainian government. The war is in the interests of democracy is the sum of their understanding. Former humanitarians now muster under the banner of the war-mongers. In order to be opposed to war, one must be opposed to capitalism, since modern wars belong among this system’s conditions of existence. The enemy is world capitalism.
We are taking sides in this conflict, but it’s the third side. It’s the side of the workers, against the owning class that exploits them now, as well as against the owning class that wants to exploit them. War takes a heavy toll on us. We condemn this war crime against humanity and mourn those who perished. We want justice for the dead and safety for the living. Our war is against the capitalists in our country, a class struggle. The armament industry shares on the stock markets wobble at every peace move and become buoyant at the prospects of continuing war. War is only in the interests of the handful of sharks and vultures who are drawing millions of profits out of the necessities of the people and out of the lavish feast of State spending on weaponry. It is only in the interests of the ruling few.
We know that the principal victims of military action will be the sons and daughters of working-class families who serve in the military forces and innocent civilians who have already suffered so much.
We have no quarrel with the ordinary working-class men, women and children of Ukraine, Russia, or any other country. The continuance of this war is not in the interests of the common people. For the people, it brings only limitless hardships—not in any ideal cause, not in their own cause, but only in the cause of a quarrel of rival exploiters. The interests of the people demand the speediest termination of this war.
Let us make our voice heard—the voice of those who do not want this war. This demand for the speedy termination of the war is not coming from friends of Putin or Zerenskyy. On the contrary, they are coming from those who through all these years have opposed autocrats and dictators in all countries.
But what about peace terms, the question is asked? The first task is for the end of the war. The Socialist Party is under no illusions as to the character of any peace under the conditions of capitalism. Any peace under the conditions of the capitalist system is unstable, full of injustices and full of sources of future conflict. We know that just permanent peace can only be finally realised when the power of the capitalist class is broken and is replaced by the power of the working people, by socialism. When we call for the immediate ending of the present war, we call for this final aim. Our aim is the cooperation of the free peoples in the building of a new world order which shall maintain peace against aggression from any quarter, make possible extending disarmament and prepare the way for the most rapid advance to world socialism.
When we fight for the immediate ending of the war, it is in order to carry forward our struggle for these aims. The struggle of the people needs to be directed against these real enemies of the people—against their war, against their gambling with the people’s lives, against their plundering of the people, against their whole system of privilege, hypocrisy and exploitation.
AID FOR THE NEEDY, NOT THE GREEDY
NOT PEOPLE AGAINST PEOPLE, BUT CLASS AGAINST CLASS.
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