WARS WITHOUT END

 

In regard to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as socialists, we place on record our abhorrence of this latest manifestation of the callous, sordid, and mercenary nature of the international capitalist system, while hoping that the fighting, the killing and the destruction stop immediately and unconditionally. The wars of capitalism solve no problem simply because they aim only to readjust the balance between clashing interests. To abolish war we must go for its roots, not tinker with the superficialities of those interests. We must strike at the basis of capitalism. But to do that means to abolish the system and to replace it with socialism. The way to end war is by tackling the root cause of war, that is by the ending of the capitalist system itself. There can be no escape from the spectacle of bloodshed and horror while capitalism lasts. There is at least one war going on every single day. Ceaselessly, throughout the world, the scientists and the factories are hard at work turning out armaments the cost of which is beyond our imagination and men and women are being made frighteningly proficient in the business of killing. Putin has learned that the rules of capitalism mean that a country can only prosper if it is aggressive in defence of its economic interests.

As with all wars, and threats of war, the conflict is about the squalid interests of the owning class in our society. The World Socialist Movement again reminds our fellow workers that we members of the working class own no productive resources except our ability to work. Ukraine and Russia, like all other nations, belong to the world capitalist class and, when one nation makes war on another, it is about the ownership and control of wealth; it is about resources, markets or areas of strategic importance – in a word, about things that concern us only in that our masters order us to kill and die for them. Until the hold of nationalist and racist poison on the minds of the world’s workers is destroyed, it will not be possible to live the full and satisfying life of socialism. Stand up for yourself as a human being and fight for the only worthwhile end — the achievement of free humanity.

Few, if any, lessons have been learned about the fundamental flaws of a society that continues to be run by a few to the detriment of the many. For as long as the abundant resources of our planet are exploited for profit rather than produced for need, wars will continue. Just as the Socialist Party has been pointing out for nearly a hundred and twenty years. We will keep on doing so until common-sense prevails.

A road of blood and tears must be followed by humankind until the working class of the world, for the opportunity to exploit whom all modern wars are fought, determine to find their emancipation in socialism. In the name of suffering humanity, we call you to our banner. We say to our fellow workers in all other lands, we have no quarrel with you. On the contrary, we appeal to workers in all lands to refuse to slaughter one another for and at the behest of, our capitalist masters. We appeal to you to unite with us in the struggle to overthrow the system of capitalism which not only causes war but all the other social problems which our class endures throughout the world.

 Let those workers who urge their fellows into uniform smell the corpses and the cordite, feel the fear of men and women, share the terror of a civilian population under bombardment. And let them see at first hand, the pompous cynicism of the generals and the statesmen.