Capitalism is war; socialism is peace

 

Capitalism is incendiary and has ignited yet another conflagration in the Ukraine. It has let free the Horsemen of the Apocalypse galloping around the globe. All the diplomacy was in vain: they were naught but charlatanism and mirage. For capitalism, war and peace are business and nothing but business. ar always came from above—from those who did not live on the work of their hands, but lived upon the blood and the sweat of the manual workers. the real instigators of wars are the lords of the land, of the factory, of the mine, and of the stock exchange.

We do not have, today, the peace yearned for by millions all over the world.  The preaching of peace does not necessarily further the cause of peace. We all want peace, which in itself means nothing, if we cannot give a positive form to this platitude. The interests of the working class are bound up with the maintenance of peace.  The peace we want means true democracy. 

The supporters of peace campaigns ignore or pay too little attention to the profit-making nature of capitalism. Under capitalism it is for profit that goods are produced, and it is so that profits may be realised by the sale of goods in the world market that rivalries and armed conflicts arise between states. Passports and frontier inconveniences are of little concern to the working class.

During the progress of the war we can expect our masters to make the most of their opportunities to further subjugate us. We must resist every attempt in this connection. Attempts will also be made to lower real wages by financial sleight of hand.  The working class must be on their guard. The capitalist class do all the “paying,” but the working class do all the producing. Everything necessary to the carrying on of the war will be produced by the workers, the capitalist class will not produce anything.

The capitalists will do their “paying” out of the profits they make by exploiting the working class. War, unfortunately for them, is an expensive business. But if the workers can be induced to lie low, and not be too troublesome about asking for more wages to meet a higher cost of living, cut down their butter and sugar, and so on, it might not prove so expensive after all. During the war the capitalist class will loan to the government a portion of their profits: this gives them a mortgage on the future production of the working class. After the war the Government will “owe” the capitalist class countless millions. It will then be discovered that social services, wages, etc., must be cut to the bone in order to meet the interest on what is owing. This is the reward of the working class. Whilst the sectional struggle between the capitalist powers has taken on the form of armed warfare, the economic warfare between capitalists and workers, between rulers and ruled, continues from official peace time into official war time, with this difference, that when a war is on, owing to the elimination of the competition of the unemployed, the scales are weighted in favour of the workers. Hence the concern of our capitalist masters over the wages question and their attempt to drum into the heads of the workers the necessity of “doing without a lot of things they will miss very much,” and the false belief that the “wealthier classes have had to make large reductions in standards of living.”

All the world over the World Socialist Movement has always been fighting for peace between nations. Its energies have been directed towards the elimination of the causes of war. The remedy lies in arousing the active opposition of working people against predatory, capitalist-made peace, in turning the never-ending war into a class war and by carrying through the dispossession of the capitalist classes as the sole means of putting an end to all menace of war, to all exploitation, and to all brigandage. Not till the world belongs to the workers will our class be free.

THE END OF WAR IS POSSIBLE ONLY WITH THE END OF CAPITALISM

 Many commentators are overflowed with compassion for Ukraine. Yet they are silent on the Saudi Arabian bombing of civilians in Yemen. The silence of the criminal policy of the Israeli government in Palestine is even more deafening. The Kurds are forgotten. The Myanmar military repression has dropped from the media headlines.

Nobody expects a capitalist diplomat or politician to be strictly truthful, any more than that virtue is expected of the advertiser boosting the sales of his products.

 People are still disposed to believe that if the leaders of the nations were better men, “men of goodwill” the world would be a better place. Capitalism is based on private ownership of the means of production and distribution, and on cut-throat competition to sell the goods and realise the profit. The war will make the competition of the industrial nations more intense than ever, and not all the schemes and hopes of the statesmen will turn that savage scramble into a better Europe.

A brief study of the causes of modern war proves that war is an essential part of capitalism. The inner conflicts of capitalism lead and must lead to war. Nevertheless, there have been serious misconceptions in following out the consequences of this conclusion so far as they apply to the struggle against war. The most serious mistake made in the attempted struggle against war comes from the widespread belief that this struggle is somehow “independent” of the class struggle in general. Acting on this belief, attempts are made to build up all kinds of peace movements and pacifist organisations. The only way to get rid of war is to remove the cause of war. In order to build a genuine anti-war movement, it is our duty to expose these pie-in-the-sky peace proposals.

 

War is not the cause of the troubles of society. The opposite is true. War is a symptom and result, of the irreconcilable troubles and conflicts of the present form of society, that is to say, of capitalism. Since war is inseparable from capitalism it follows that the “abolition” of war is possible only through the overthrow of capitalism. The only way to be against war is to campaign against the causes of war. It therefore follows that the only possible struggle AGAINST war is the struggle FOR socialism. By overthrowing the capitalist economy and supplanting capitalism with a socialist economy, it will remove the causes of war. Under socialism, there will no longer exist the basic contradictions that lead to war.

We pointed out that the League of Nations and then the United Nations was bound to fail, since it did not put an end to the real causes of war: —the intense struggle for world trade which capitalism forces upon rival sections of the capitalist class. We urged then, as we do now, that the only way to peace is to get rid of these rivalries which are inherent in capitalism, by abolishing capitalism itself, and by establishing a new social system—socialism. Again we issue a warning to our fellow workers of being led up a blind alley in another futile quest for permanent peace. 

In a capitalist society, there are TWO CLASSES, and between these two classes a persistent struggle and clash of interests. The capitalist class owns the means of production and distribution and employs the working class which, being propertyless, must work for the advantage of the owners, i.e., to produce profits for them. Over the questions of wages and working conditions, the capitalists and workers are in constant conflict. This class struggle, evident within every capitalist state, is ignored or dismissed as unimportant by the federalists. However, so long as it continues to exist the world cannot possibly become one community.

Furthermore, in a capitalist society owing to the existence of private property and the consequent production of goods SOLELY for profit, the world is one big jumble of conflicting capitalist interests. Wars are the result of these conflicting interests.

Capitalism is by nature competitive and monopolistic. Different sections of the capitalist class—which to prosper must make profits—compete with each other to obtain monopolies of markets, monopolies of raw materials and monopolies of fields for investments. It is partly for the purpose of protecting or furthering these capitalist interests that the gigantic armed forces of the states exist; and the great powers annex territories, not so that the vanquished natives may benefit, but so that the interests of their capitalists can be developed without interference.

If, as often happens, the flow of profits going to capitalists is interfered with by competing sections of the capitalist class, quarrels break out, and, when other means fail, it is by force that differences are settled.

Developing capitalism has led to the growth of international trading blocs and cartels, but this has not diminished the rivalries between groups of capitalists. On the contrary, it has led to an intensification of those rivalries, for now capitalists of different nationalities work together in exploiting spheres of influence in order that a firmer monopoly may be obtained to the disadvantage of rival groups.

Capitalism FORCES this “cut-throat competition,” this struggle for spheres of influence upon the different sections of the capitalist class. It is, therefore, capitalism that gives rise to wars. We repeat that to end the war, its cause must be abolished. Until capitalism is swept away, all the forces making for armed conflicts will be at work. Attempts to clamp down these forces are doomed to failure.  We urge the working class, therefore, not to waste its time on so-called solutions which, leaving untouched the causes of war, cannot possibly put an end to it. Only when capitalism has been overthrown and socialism established will the causes of war—production for profit, trade and commercial rivalries—be removed.

Perish “the Patriot”.

 “I look upon the whole world as my fatherland...I look upon true patriotism as the brotherhood of man and the service of all to all...National independence? That means the masters' independence...The flag? Does it wave over a country where you are free and have a home, or does it rather symbolize a country that meets you with clenched fists when you strike for better wages and shorter hours?" - Helen Keller

The idea of national sovereignty is a notional fraud. A nation-state is not sovereign in its affairs. In practice, it means a mightier or the mightiest nation-state, regardless of law and ethics, may ‘sovereignly’ decide what is good for its own nation and by extension for the international community. What does the national identity of a nation really mean in today’s world? Are we not all citizens of the world, holding multiple identities (and in an increasing number of cases even multiple passports)? Our place of birth is accidental, but our duty to our class is worldwide. Socialism recognises no distinction between the various nations comprising the world. Socialism does not recognise national distinctions or the division of humanity into nations and races. The position of the Socialist Party in every country is one of hostility to the existing political order. The socialist movement is global in sentiment and scope and the name, the World Socialist Movement, was deliberately chosen as an aspiration to be achieved.  No socialist party can serve the “Nation” so long as the nation is divided into two warring classes—one which owns the wealth and one which produces the wealth and does not own it. No socialist party can serve the robbers and the robbed at the same time. To speak of the “Nation” when it is thus divided is camouflage to hide their support of the robbers because the great majority of the nation belongs to the class which is robbed.

 Every plutocrat, every profiteer, every exploiter, every oppressor will tell you that you must be loyal and patriotic to their particular “nation". Are you their ally or is your allegiance to your class, your own “nation”?  Workers must be united and act together. Solidarity must be the watchword. Political unity and industrial unity will give us the power to conquer capitalism and emancipate the workers of the world. As individual wage slaves we are helpless and our condition hopeless. As a class, we are the greatest power on Earth. The individual wage slave must recognise the power of class unity and do all to bring it about. That is what is called class consciousness. Class conscious workers recognise who their “nation” is. They join the union and the party of their class and gives their time and energy to work for the emancipation of their “nation.”  We do battle against the “nation” of the bankers and the bosses who applaud their own "patriotism" and who glory in robbery and plunder.  Patriotism, as generally understood, is an objectionable sentiment since it means the placing of one’s own country, its interests and well-being, above those of the rest of humanity. Patriotism, in its essence, is a readiness to die and to kill for abstraction, for what is largely a figment of the imagination. Nations are in no sense natural communities; they stand in stark opposition to the principles of mutual aid and solidarity upon which our very survival depends. This community of interests and of relationship or neighbourly feeling does not necessarily or exclusively apply to nationality. As a matter of fact, in ancient times it was the city-state rather than the nation-state which was its boundary.

The capitalists are good mystifiers: they want to have us believe that their interests as an oppressing class are the interests of all classes. Since the time of Marx, class conscious workers have combated the capitalists’ chauvinist appeals with appeals for the international solidarity of the working class. They have fought the attempts of the bourgeoisie to enlist the workers in their nationalist strivings with appeals for the joint class struggle of the workers of all countries against world capitalism. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels insisted that ‘the working men have no country’. They argued that the nation-state was alien to the interests of the proletariat and that in order to advance their interests workers must ‘settle matters’ with the bourgeoisie of each state, that workers must challenge the power of their ‘own’ capitalist class directly.  It implied uncompromising opposition to the local state and its dealings with the rulers of other capitalisms – other members of the ‘band of warring brothers’ that constituted the capitalists at a world level. It also implied workers should organise in mutual solidarity across national borders. This was not a mere abstraction. Marx maintained that workers must free themselves of patriotism and national superiority in their own interests, for without discarding these aspects of bourgeois ideology they would never themselves be free. Marx and Engels maintained this approach throughout their political activities. It was also the position taken by Luxemburg.

At the same time as capitalism creates the objective basis for the fusion of nations, it tries desperately to erect artificial barriers between them, so as to maintain itself as a system of control. Thus, by setting nations one against the other, by inflaming national animosity, the bourgeoisie aims at consolidating national barriers in order to protect its part of the spoils of capitalist exploitation, to attack the class consciousness of workers and to sow strife in their camp. The working class faces a powerful and aggressive enemy which is solidly united despite certain contradictions within its ranks. The people’s army is not going to win the class war by dividing themselves according to borders.

Those of us in the Socialist Party are told that our critique of nationalism is resented by many supposed revolutionaries because they think that our criticism casts aspersions upon their sincerity as revolutionaries. The Socialist Party are told that we should accept that nations “exist” (even though we have seen that a common race, implying the same origin and purity of blood is but a fiction) Diseases exist as well. Is it that reason not to try and eliminate them? The real fight is the struggle of the dispossessed against the possessors and it is the only fight that matters. The national prejudices deliberately fostered by the governing class has to be fought by workers united against their common foe. For us, the workers, our weapon is solidarity, it is the awareness that we all form, whatever the language we speak or the colour of our skin, or the land of our birth, one single class exploited by a minority of capitalist parasites who are very much in agreement, despite their national rivalries, to crush us. Our duty as socialists does not permit us to spare the feelings of any particular group which directly or indirectly acts contrary to the interests of the working class. At the end of socialist meetings, it was once customary to sing “The Internationale”.

War Crimes and Punishment

 

 The media and the political mouthpieces of capitalist ideology have done their job well. Ukrainian and Russian workers are being caught up by their respective "patriotism" to fight and die for “their” country.  Socialists work for the day "patriotism" will simply mean being proud to be part of humanity. 

Patriotism is better called national chauvinism. This "patriotism" equates loyalty to the nation with loyalty to the capitalist-controlled government and its policies. It seeks the acquiescence of workers in the crimes, aggressions, depredations and depravities of the ruling class and its agents.  It is intended to trick workers into sanctioning whatever is deemed in the interests of the oligarchy. It's nationalistic baloney asserts that our interests as a “nation” are totally bound up with, if not identical, to those of our exploiters. But as we know, in class societies the state does not serve everyone equally. Instead, its main efforts are directed to helping the class that rules over the economy. In capitalism, that means essentially helping the capitalist class accumulate capital, repress opposition to their exploitative rule, and legitimise all the forms in which this goes on.  But to do this job well, the state has to appear legitimate in the eyes of most of its citizens, which requires above all else that its consistent bias on behalf of the capitalist ruling class be hidden from view. The flag and other patriotic symbolism are crucial to the success of this effort. Throughout, emotions play a much larger role than reason or thinking generally, and the strongest emotion evoked by patriotism is the pleasure of belonging to a cooperative social community where everyone is concerned with the fate of others. Unfortunately, the social community only exists in the shadow of an illusory community dominated by the ruling economic class and its state, where none of this applies.

There is a form of “patriotism” to which workers should adhere; it is loyalty, not to the institutions of the nation, but to the people; more precisely, to the majority of the people -- the working class -- with whom they share a common material interest. For workers today, class consciousness - loyalty to one's class -- is patriotism. International working-class interests are the paramount interests to be served - not those of any capitalist nation state. Without solidarity to one's class and to one's comrades. workers are helpless in the face of the ruling class's monopoly of the means of production. If workers can stick together, they can respond to employers' control of work. Solidarity between workers is therefore an essential prerequisite for success in class struggle. Class consciousness is the key to working-class victory in ending the class struggle.

Dividing our class on national lines and allowing us to be played off against each other can only serve our masters. It can hardly be denied that national borders have repeatedly divided the working class. To confront business-driven austerity, militarism and war requires a united social and political struggle by the worlds working class aimed at the abolition of capitalism. How does the erection of new borders and the formation of new nation-states further the unity of the working class anywhere? The capitalist class makes use of many weapons. One of its most efficient psychological tools is nationalism. Patriotism is the cattle prod that keeps workers apart and weakened. The socialist argument is not to tell people “to fight for independence” but to explain “you are not independent, comrade, and you should not be. You are dependent on the working class of the world and they are dependent on you. We all depend on each other.” A genuine socialist party globalises the agenda and explain that all local issues have global causes that calls for global solutions.

Patriotism works to disguise the real differences which exist amongst people—which are differences of class and which involve irreconcilable differences of interests—and to encourage workers to identify with the institution—the state—which is the primary defender of class society. The slogan “workers of the world unite” is in part a call on proletarians to acknowledge that their home is in the company of other members of their class wherever they are to be found. Working people have only one country—the planet earth. There is only one foe—the bosses. The Socialist Party doesn’t believe in patriotism. Our critics can call us unpatriotic but we will take pride in being unpatriotic.

The world is a “global village”.

 

“Let's not be English, French or German anymore. Let's be European. No not European, let's be men. Let's be Humanity. All we have to do is get rid of one last piece of egocentricity - patriotism." Victor Hugo

 

The Socialist Party is for a class-free society. We are opposed to all ideologies which divide the working class, such as religion, sexism and racism. And we are against nationalism and patriotism. Cultural freedom and diversity should not be confused with nationalism. That specific people should be free to fully develop their own cultural capacities is not merely a right but a requirement. The world would be a drab place without its magnificent mosaic of different customs, traditions and cultures.

The curse of nationalism is not new. There is always a load of myth and romanticism surrounding nationalism. Nationalism is an idea that varies in time and places which has as its central core the belief that a national population group is the most important political category, and political rights are primarily given to individuals as members of nations. Nationalism is a source of war and carnage; death, destruction and divisiveness, rather than international solidarity. The mythical image of nationalism as a movement of pioneering, progressive, pious, peace-loving nation-building has been more than exposed. Every form of nationalism is no less aggressive or bigoted than is ever the case under a system of society where the laws of the jungle are presented as being the rules of civilised conduct. Every nation's flag is dripping with the blood of its enemies; every ruling class pays for its power in other people's lives.

 Why love a country more than any another simply on the basis of the bit of soil you happen to have been born on? The only thing that matters is class, not nationality or any of the other diversions that stop the "have nots" from challenging the "haves". Whilst the "have nots" are busy feuding with each other on behalf of the "haves" they are missing the real battle.  It is the working classes who are sent to war to kill and be killed on behalf of the "haves". They are the true enemy, not the working classes of other nations. Nationalism is a politics of a frustrated local elite who seek to build support for their own class programme by arguing that class alliances and independence are the way to resolve the genuine grievances of the people. Yet the local ruling class is dependent for its economic and political survival on the maintenance of close ties with other capitalists. They accumulate wealth by relying on multi-national corporations, which joins in joint business ventures. We reject the idea that there is a common "national interest" between the different classes within a "nation". Their interests are in direct contradiction. The phrase "national interests" hides the interests of the ruling classes, which are against the interests of the people themselves. Nationalism is not a vehicle for the expression of the will of the majority of the people - the workers - but is instead a tool of the ruling class. It serves to distract the people from their daily misery with a romantic invention, appealing to their emotion over their intellect in order to create a myth of "national interest", in which all classes of a country have more in common than their respective foreign brethren. The realisation of an independent nation means the realisation of the right of the local capitalists to take power and exploit the proletariat. It is capital that will continue to dominate our political institutions in whatever form they take and capital has no country. Separatism offers precisely nothing to the working class.

Nationalists argue that people long to have their very own country. Nationalism, though it is a seemingly noble effort to realise social unity, is the twenty-first century's great plague. Nationalism continues to hypnotise us with unrealistic visions of heaven-on-earth. Nationalism divides human beings territorially, culturally, and economically. National identity is used by the state to legitimise its actions. Nationalism is regressive. There is no place in a free society for nation-states, either as nations or as states. The capitalist class use the old rule of divide and conquer, polished and updated for modern times. Nationalism as a crude control device. Racism and xenophobia and nationalism and patriotism and every other tactic of division have been promoted relentlessly by capitalism. Nationalism is used to propagandise and manipulate the masses of people against their better interests.

 Our unity is this system’s Achilles’ heel. Only a working class with a consciousness of itself and united across all racial and national boundaries is capable of emancipating themselves.

The Socialist Party case against nationalism is straightforward. We do not advocate re-drawing the border. No socialist will ever fight to defend any border — we want to do away with the divisiveness of countries and states. Nationalism can never be a solution to the problems of oppression. The problem is class, not national, racial, or religious origins. As a class, workers have no country.  Workers across the globe share a common exploitation at the hands of an increasingly global capitalist class. Nationalism means lining up with the same people who exploit them. Rather than submitting to the divide-and-rule  policy of the nation state, they should fight alongside other workers who, like them, exist to enrich the people at the top.

 Socialists say that a Ukrainian worker has more in common with a Russian worker than they do with their own boss. Nationalism has served as a convenient weapon of ruling elites to keep “the people” on-side. All sorts of unpleasant dictatorships have stirred up nationalist fervour to prop themselves up. We seek to do away with artificial boundaries and borders. The world will not be divided into countries by lines drawn on a map by capitalists to mark out their property.

 Our vision for a free society is that of a working class revolution which can finally uproot and defeat capitalism which brings not only exploitation but alienation too. Our goal is the humanisation of the economic system. We condemn the capitalist system where it must always be "You or I" and rarely "You and I".

Put your class first, not your country.

 

No matter how utopian the quest for world solidarity may appear in to-days world of conflicts, no other road seems open to escape fratricidal struggles and to attain a rational world society. Socialism will rise again as a global movement and on the basis of past experience, those interested in the rebirth of socialism must stress its internationalism most of all. While it is impossible for a socialists to become a nationalist, we are, nevertheless, anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist. However, the fight against colonialism does not imply adherence to the principle of national self-determination, but expres

Working people are taught  from a very early age that the country they were born in is somehow special. We are taught to be proud of the country where for generations our families have been exploited. We wave flags, sing national anthems and are taught to mistrust workers from other countries. Nations take a great deal of building. There is almost no nation-state that has not had its boundaries drawn in blood, its foundations built upon flesh and bones. Nations are manufactured, not born. People who have a common history or speak the same language do not have a common interest; they are divided into classes, and a worker who speaks a particular language has a common interest with workers speaking other languages but not with a capitalist who speaks the same one. We see the harm that is done by national boundaries, that prevent workers from moving to be with whom they want to be with; prevent them from sharing their skills and their knowledge as they see fit, prevent them from seeing their common cause.

Enormous damage has been done, throughout the world, by the notion that one country and its people are superior to the others. Socialism recognises the essential unity of the human race and the urgent need to celebrate it by building society on that basis. In a socialist society the traditional knowledge and expertise held by small communities will be respected, especially where this relates to local ecology and sustainable systems of land use, and priority will be given to local decision-making over whatever has to be delegated to wider regional or global democratic control.

Home is where the heart is; the place with overtones of permanence, belonging, security, comfort, childhood memories, bonds between people, familiarity with how things are done, habits and customs taken for granted, the familiar streets, smells, sounds, all the things that framed them and in doing so strengthen the impressions of who they are and what they stand for.

In a broader context home may be perceived as a wider geographical area, a country, a homeland standing for something more than a family’s local community. The "one-world" home, in common to all of the human species, has 200 or so artificially created entities called "nations".

What is it a nation offers its individual inhabitants and what is their offering to it? What do they require from their country and it from them? The country is a geographical, physical place; large, small, populous or sparse, barren or lush, mountainous, coastal, frozen, temperate, fertile or harsh, requiring nurture, husbandry, protection. Physically it can offer minerals and crops depending on its situation and in proportion to the care given it. The shared identity of the inhabitants of the nation will be as has developed over generations – history, customs, religion, community relations, occupations, way of thinking – something impossible to enforce as empire builders and nation creators have been reluctant to accept. A shared identity with universal, mutual respect and acceptance cannot be enforced. It is surely the shared identity, that elusive quality, love of one’s birthplace, hopes, dreams, aspirations, that people feel when they talk of "their country", the tangible and intangible connections.

Confusion of the country with its institutions brings the problems of nationalism and patriotism. Nationalism manifests itself like a sophisticated tribalism, with pride, tradition, attitudes of superiority, patriotism and flag-draped buildings. Ill-considered rhetoric needs to be confronted, contested at any and every opportunity. Self-replicating, regurgitated mantras built on lies, fears and hatred need overturning without hesitation. The challenge is to dismantle the barriers which deafen, blindfold, shackle and dehumanise us

 
To promote the notion that the area of our birth (‘our’ country) transcends or neutralises our class status or gives us a common cause with a class that socially deprives and demeans us, that imposes either mere want or grave poverty on our lives and the lives of our families, is to be cruelly deceived by the political machinations of capitalism. We are all part of one globalised exploited mass with more in common with each other than with our supposed fellow-countrymen bosses. Workers do not share a common interest with our masters.

 

 Nationalism, in its essence, is a poison. Nationalism has always been a disease that divided human from human. It produces artificial arbitrary borders between human beings on trivial linguistic and cultural differences, and it conceals hierarchical and class-based conflicts. There is no “benevolent” nationalism. There is no place in a free society for nation-states. So let us create a truly libertarian form of collectivism. When free associations of producers and confederations of communities replace the nation-state, humanity will have rid itself of nationalism.

War-Fever

  

The position of the Socialist Party on the question of war is quite clear. We are opposed to war not on humanitarian grounds, but on the grounds that wars arise out of the struggle between competing sections of the capitalists over the question of the possession of the wealth of the world and matters relating to it. Our attitude on war cannot be toned down because we happen to be in a minority or because any other attitude at any given moment appears to be more consistent with the humanitarian instincts of social beings. The Socialist Party's attitude to war and war preparations is sound because the degree to which it became accepted by the workers would to that extent make war more difficult (if not impossible) for the capitalists to pursue. It does not appear likely that workers are yet in a position to accept the Socialist Party's position on wars in any great numbers. Nor would it be reasonable to expect workers who do not accept the Socialist Party case against capitalism generally, to understand and accept our attitude to war. Nevertheless, that provides no grounds for compromise. To water down our opposition to wars in any of its aspects would be to lessen the possibilities of its more general acceptance should conditions develop favourably for it. Socialists do not give up the task as hopeless but remember that economic forces, as well as human reason, are on our side against the brutal power of the propertied class and their agents.

No socialist could take exception to the struggle of the workers to preserve a democratic platform. On the other hand, we cannot support any movement which encourages workers to sacrifice themselves in defence of capitalist wealth. If working-class history has any meaning for those who wage the struggle today, it is that the association of workers with capitalist movements has led only to their division and confusion. The clearest presentation of the class struggle leads to another conclusion; that every movement of the workers must be waged on the basis of unity with their fellows and of fundamental opposition to the capitalist class. One persistent problem for the capitalist is to ensure the acquiescence of the working-class in the property-owning rights of its masters. But capitalist interests demand much more than that. If any national section of the capitalist class is to survive in its struggles with its competitors it must have a working-class willing to defend its interests. It is the perpetual concern of the capitalist class to arouse that willingness.

What are wars for?  Not national glory, not democracy, not even to safeguard the rights of small nations. No! Those things were, and are, only camouflage of high sounding phrases to hide the sordid reality. That reality behind the false, enticing phrases was—profit. The struggle between sections of wealthy capitalists for freedom to exploit and wring profit from the work of property fewer wage workers in different parts of the earth. No matter how the warmongers try to gloss over the facts, the truth remains that all these wars and prospective wars are fought for capitalist purposes, not to secure the establishment of some ideal of democracy, nationalism or anything else. It is the workers who are asked to make the supreme sacrifice in the name of patriotism.

Statesmen from around the world travel thousands of miles and engage in summits and conferences that delight the hearts of these politicians as it is all being done in a good cause and over and over again they point out that they are determined to secure peace, perpetual peace. All representatives are agreed on peace—in principle. That is why they are engaging in such a terrific prolific arm trade. Building numerous fast and powerful bombing planes. Concluding pacts of mutual support in case of attack. Staging military exercises. No expense is grudged in convincing all and sundry of their peaceful intentions. The capitalists assert they are too poor to pay workers a wage that will ensure a comfortable existence. Now surely this seems strange when wealth is used up providing warships, tanks, planes, missiles and the troops to use them. And more extraordinary still, all this wealth is simply wasted because none of the powers has anything but peaceful intentions—at least, in principle.

Peace is only pursued so ferociously because capitalist private property interests have to be served. If there are no capitalists’ interests there will be nothing to go to war over. The only way to secure this is to make the means of production the common possession of all. Then we will have peace in fact as well as in principle, and many more human arms and brains to lighten the labour of producing enough to enable all to live comfortably.

War and Why. The Cause and the Remedy

 

The ruling class have shown on many occasions that they are past-masters in the art of inducing self-deception among the workers. The art of lying is one of the chief characteristics of capitalism everywhere. The main task is to present the lie in such a manner as to make it appear to be true. This, unfortunately, is easy. The working class, from childhood onwards, are trained in such a manner best calculated to make it difficult for them to separate truth from falsehood. This deception is aided by the reformist movement. Clear evidence of this can be seen today. The capitalist class cleverly conceal their real aims behind lofty phrases, so that today we hear from all quarters the words and slogans, "Peace,” “Democracy,” "Collective Security,” etc. With these slogans, capitalism is stampeding the masses into war hysteria.

There is a clear indication that working people and their families may expect to go through in the next thieves' quarrel between their capitalist masters. Briefly, the Socialist Party’s case is that all wars by capitalist States are undertaken for the purpose of protecting foreign investments, securing markets and of securing fresh sources of raw material. Judge each war by the result, and it will be seen that this is the result of nearly every war during the last century. Workers have nothing to gain as the result of war, whether the State in which they happen to be born is victor or vanquished.

The Marxian analysis of capitalist production lays bare the cause of all wars,. The worker produces commodities of a far greater value than his or her wages enable them to buy back. Out of the struggle for this surplus comes the struggle for markets at home and abroad, and with the capitalist development, trade barriers are erected. The struggle grows keener, finally, the tension reaches breaking point, and war is declared. War is, then, a quarrel between the various sections of the capitalist class over the disposal of the surplus wealth stolen from the workers in the course of their exploitation. It 'is, therefore, a quarrel in which the workers have no concern, and to end it they must remove the cause, i.e., the class ownership of the means of production. This they can do by organising to capture political power from the master class and to establish a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production—in short, socialism. The capitalist is the enemy, and, whether he appears as a democrat or a dictator, he can offer nothing but wage slavery to the working class. 

Socialists everywhere oppose the principles of socialism to the war plans of the ruling class in such a way that the class issue is kept clear and the real aims of the ruling class exposed. Our battle cry is: “ Working men of all countries unite.” The worker replies to the war threat of capitalism by lining up for socialism. Without this fundamentally class-conscious outlook, capitalist wars, and consequently working class slaughter, will always be a riddle to members of our class whose discontent with the present order of things need socialist understanding to give direction and effectiveness to that discontent. We members of the Socialist Party proceed towards our objective, firstly, by educating ourselves, and, secondly, by passing on that education to our fellow workers.

The reason organised peace movements have failed is that they have all consented to the power structure which creates war. War is neither democratically begun nor democratically prosecuted. It is therefore facile to contend for wars to be fought on the terms of moralistic teachings. These pleas, no matter from how many mouths they come, are lame.

Nothing in human history is inevitable. We are not living and organising society according to any pre-ordained schemes. We are masters of our own history, not slaves of it. We can do what we choose. But you know that these are not the sort of ideas that we are encouraged to develop. On the contrary, we are encouraged to think of ourselves as slaves to the present order of things. Although another world war is not inevitable if the present state of society is allowed to continue then it is a distinct possibility. The profit system is an unstable and volatile method of organising society and armed to the back teeth as many states are, the recipe is being mixed for an armed conflict. History is ripe for socialism and there are clear reasons for its vital urgent establishment.

Troops Out - No War in Ukraine