N° 23 avril 2022 Destroying lives, destroying cities, destroying industries, destroying agricultural lands, depriving the working class of a future in order to enrich the multinationals, that's enough! solutions must be imposed. Right now.
Thalès, Safran, Dassault and others in France, Leonardo in Italy, Rheinmetall in Germany and all the other arms dealers are rejoicing, their shares are skyrocketing, regardless of the belligerents targeted profits will explode and again delight the shareholders. Inherent consequence of war: major crises will further impoverish the people. Imperialist wars always bring misery to workers on all sides. The 27 members of the European Union meeting on 10 and 11 March for a summit in Versailles (see Hebdo n° 759) only feigned a unanimous desire to put an end to the conflict; the statements of principle on retaliatory measures hardly mask how everyone has done their best to defend capitalist interests. The sanctions announced against Russia are based on national interests. France, which currently chairs the EU, and in agreement with J. Borrel, head of European diplomacy, is getting enmeshed in increasing financial aid for the armament of Ukraine by proposing yet another aid of 500,000 euros – aid rejected by the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Finland, arguing that the previous aid of the same amount is far from being exhausted. This funding comes from the "European Peace Facility", a fund endowed with 5 billion euros, created in March 2021 and topped up by the Member States outside the Community budget. Poland is trying to negotiate its significant participation in the reception of Ukrainian refugees against the allocation of funds from the European recovery plan which is refused to it as well as to Hungary on the grounds that their internal policy does not meet the standards of the State of law, defined by Germany and France. Same attempt to haggle over a revision of the EU climate agenda which is causing difficulties to the EU. As for Germany, it alone completely dictates the format of the energy sanctions. 50% dependent on Russia for gas and oil (coal too), it fears reprisals that would put its industry at risk by depriving it of half of its energy sources. That is why it wanted to modulate the sanctions on Russian banks by excluding banks linked to the energy market. Final energy decisions are deferred to the March 24-25 summit. For the time being, the leaders have been able to agree on a desire to free themselves from Russian hydrocarbons by investing in renewable energies, which has also triggered a rise in the stock market almost at the same level as for armaments. The Danes Vestas (wind turbines) and Orsted (green electricity) as well as the Portuguese EDP Renovaveis saw their share price jump by 20%. The French McPhy Energy (hydrogen), Neonenn and Albioma gained 18 to 35% in less than three weeks. Germany also demonstrated its domineering will on this summit when, after Olaf Scholz's announcement to devote 100 billion euros to the modernization of the Bundeswehr, it announced its choice to replace its old Tornado fighter planes by the F35 of the United States to the detriment of the European project of combat aircraft of the future FCAS (France-Germany-Spain project) already hampered by the Airbus/Dassault conflict. This choice would concern “only” 35 aircraft and would only be explained by a certain urgency. But above all by the desire to honor Germany's nuclear participation in NATO, reinforcing its image as a pillar of it. Germany was able to take advantage of the situation in Ukraine to accelerate its massive rearmament with the consent of the participants in the Versailles Summit. A future summit in May will deal with European defense issues. Zelinski's pressing demand for Ukraine's urgent membership of the EU and NATO divided the countries gathered in Versailles, who responded with a diplomatic formula emphasizing "Ukraine belongs to our European family".
The European Union deprives Russia, or rather its new bourgeoisie, of luxury goods: cars, champagne, jewelry, perfumes, etc... to "punish" it for supporting Putin. The employees of this industry will also be punished as some are already laid off.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has announced the convening of an extraordinary summit of the leaders of the Alliance countries, on March 24 in Brussels. That same day, a meeting of heads of state and of the European Union will also be held in the presence of Joe Biden. According to Stoltenberg, it will focus on "the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, our strong support for Ukraine and the strengthening of NATO's deterrence and defense in the face of a new reality for our security". Also on the same day, March 24, Biden will participate in the next EU summit which is to focus on the response to the invasion of Ukraine – which portends the direction that the EU will take in complete independence…
It is urgent to cease hostilities, to cease supplying arms, to engage in negotiations. It is the peoples who are suffering and who will suffer for a long time from fighting, deprivation of all kinds, destruction of cities and public structures (schools, hospitals, etc.) from a massive increase in prices which will rapidly plunge them into misery.
The imperialists whoever they are don't care, as war itself and its trail of destruction are always sources of profit; that is why all the struggles to weaken capital are also struggles to get out of this murderous confrontation. We must get out of the permanent ideological hype to see clearly where the only real divide between peoples lies: the fracture of the class struggle. They want to blur the lines, pit peoples against each other, let us react with our class analysis.
Let’s unite workers and build a society free from warmongering capitalism!