WHY WAR?

 

The Socialist Party's attitude to capitalist wars is simple. We seek the abolition of capitalism, of the wages system. In Ukraine and Russia, the workers are wage slaves. They will be wage-slaves in victory and in defeat. Capitalist nations go to war because capitalist interests are at stake. The workers stand to gain nothing, and they risk losing life and limb. There is no interest at stake justifying the sacrifice of a single worker’s life. The Socialist Party’s attitude on the subject of wars is clear and definite. Those who do not own the country cannot have it taken from them, and even a complete victory by one capitalist power over another, resulting in the complete subjugation of the vanquished state, would not benefit the workers of the victorious country, and would only mean a change of masters for the workers in the defeated country. The Socialist Party alone points to the truth concerning the issues at stake and affirmed the unity of interests of the workers throughout the world and their antagonism of interests with the capitalists throughout the world.

Capitalism requires an armed force at its disposal for two reasons: to use against rival powers, and to use against the working class if they attempt to lay their hands on their masters’ property. All governments rely ultimately on armed might. The idea that wars are caused by particular statesmen is entirely erroneous. No matter how much disposed towards peace a government maybe, when the conditions are ripe for war the government is forced to take action in accordance with the interests of the ruling class, no matter what that government is labelled. Let us urge you not to waste your time with futile anti-war movements, but to join with us in working for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of socialism, confident that the ending of the system will end the danger of war.

The only way in which humankind can bring about social change and build a fraternal society, free of war, is to establish socialism. This will not come about as an expression of non-violence but as the conscious act of a socialist working-class. The attitude of pacifism can be and has been, adopted by people of all manner of opinions—for example, by Christians and so on—all of whom support the capitalist social system which produces violence and which therefore makes pacifism an empty dream.  Any organisation which accepts the continuance of capitalism, the cause of war in the modem world, is standing in the way of socialists who seek to end capitalism and with it war. Many pacifists have proved their sincerity and courage, but this does not alter the fact that their views are out of touch with reality. The only way in which war and social violence can be removed from our lives is to remove capitalism. This is not, as pacifists argue, a question of propagating ideas of non-violence. It requires that a socialist working-class democratically gain control of the machinery of government for the purpose of abolishing capitalism and establishing socialism.

The job of socialists is to work for the spread of socialist understanding among the working class. This is not done by suggesting that “defensive” wars should be supported by workers, nor by confusing the interests of the working class and bourgeoisie.  All wars were now purely capitalist, disputes between rival imperialist powers. The task of socialists was quite clear: to struggle uncompromisingly and consistently for the establishment of socialism throughout the world.

The Socialist Party has long pointed out that the wars of civilised countries, since the birth of the capitalist system, have been caused through the struggles between sections of the world’s capitalist class for the trade routes, raw materials, markets, and the like. As long as there is commodity production, buying and selling, with the consequent competition among buyers and sellers and the enslavement of the producing class, wars are of the very essence of things. Lasting peace can only arrive when the private ownership of the means of living has been abolished and common ownership has emerged from the ruins—in other words, wars and all the other evils that are a consequence of capitalism can only disappear when capitalism gives place to socialism.

Socialism will abolish war because it will bring a community of interests; it will be a society without frontiers, without nations, without classes, without conflict.