The Socialist Party has been criticised for presenting an “overly” simplified explanation for the cause of war, and in particular, the present one in Ukraine. The Socialist Party has always maintained that capitalism and war are inseparable. Capitalism’s war-drums are never silent. They are always beating in the background. At certain times they become very much louder as now the case of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
With each outbreak of war, politicians and the media look back to this or that turning point and say that if only the diplomats had acted differently, with more foresight, then war would not have happened. Each group of capitalists, ruling in a particular country, does whatever it thinks is best for its own interests. Lots of advice is given, but the decision rests with each country’s ruling class.
There is no such thing as an ideal foreign policy. In international geo-politics there is no policy that will suit all times and all circumstances. The view taken by the “wise-after-the-event” pundits assumes that a government is a free agent, able to follow any policy that the international situation may seem to call for. It ignores the forces behind the government which determine the government’s attitude and limit its freedom of action; the public opinion of voters have to be considered, but more importantly, the commercial, industrial and financial groups whose demands on foreign policy are coloured by their business interests and so regards the deterrent effect of the initial weak economic sanctions imposed on Russian banks and oligarchs, there was no deterrence.
It also assumes too, that if one government gave a certain lead in international affairs other governments would respond in a simple reciprocal way, determined either by fear of opposing a strong group of powers or by the mutual desire to maintain world peace. Summits of statesmen and the counsel of international bodies may control minor disputes and delay the major ones, but they have not succeeded in the past and will not succeed in the future in preventing war.
Lying is the trade of politicians and the military. Workers are lied to from the cradle to the grave with distortions of history and nationalist myths. The entire capitalist edifice depends on the promotion of lies, half-truths and the distortion of facts. So powerful is the distortion machine that it takes all our powers to separate the lies from a resemblance of the truth. Capitalism is a war-prone society in that built-in to it is a perpetual conflict between rival states.
In wars, workers have been persuaded to identify with their masters’ cause in the mistaken belief that they were fighting for a higher “national interest”. In Russia and in Ukraine it is the same message – patriotism and loyalty are what is expected. Working people have nothing to gain from fighting the battles of a class whose interests are opposed to our own. World peace is something only to be achieved through socialism. Only by ending the exploitation of man by man can we strike at the roots of war.
The Socialist Party advocates the slogan “One World” as a concise description of the society we are striving for, united humanity, sharing common interests and also sharing a global administration. This is our alternative to the way that capitalism divides the planet into rival states and sets one people against another. It is the ruling class who decide when and where wars shall be made. The workers pay for them in blood and in suffering. There is no such thing as a “surgical strike” or “precision bombing”. There will always be “collateral” damage on civilians.
Many in the anti-war movement possess a genuine desire for peace and are against war “in general”, but they will find that this or that particular war is justified because it is for “democracy”, “against a dictator”, “ for humanitarian purposes”, “to uphold international law”, or for some other “noble” purpose. The peace advocates change from “anti-war” to propagandists for “pro-war.”
It is important that workers oppose war, however, it is just as equally important that we recognise why armed conflicts between nations arise and in whose interests wars are waged. If you think about it you’ll be hard-pressed to think of a single war that did not have its roots in the desire of a small elite to profit. All wars and the conflict in Ukraine is no exception tend to be fought over spheres of influence.
To end wars and the need to demonstrate against each war as one war succeeds another – capitalism has to be ended and replaced. The choice is to protest endlessly against each and every new war which inevitably arises or campaign for a new world of common ownership, democratic control, peace and human welfare.
We can bomb the world to pieces but we cannot bomb it to peace.