N° 24 mai 2022 The war waged by Russian imperialism against Ukraine for over a month has brought in its wake wide ranging destruction and loss of human life.
We have condemned this Russian attack on Ukraine from the outset and we have expressed our solidarity with both the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. We have analysed its fundamental causes : that of confrontations within the imperialist system. Beyond the tragic consequences which require a rapid halt to the hostilities, we can see the outlines of larger conflicts : that of how zones of influence within Europe are organised by the imperialist powers through the reinforcing of military potential and the economic war waged by the transnational companies and the capitalist states, especially in the energy sector and over food production.
In the wars waged between the capitalist countries and their military alliances, the objectives can be of different kinds : territorial conquest, the control of geo-strategic areas, of transport routes, the weakening of a competitor (or competitors), the reinforcing of social control through measures that curb freedoms, the rise in profits from arms dealing and the reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure.
This why there is no war without economic interests at stake, domination and growth of markets. Capitalistic interest is at the heart of well hidden conflicts. While propagandists and war-mongers remain compassionate towards the misfortunes of the populations - and these are very real, be they physical or material - they maintain a « business as usual » stance until they can agree, amongst their capitalist selves, to continue the system of exploiting man by man. For as Clausewitz wrote in his time « War is just a continuation of politics by other means » ; this means there is a continuum between violence, peace and war within inter State relations.
This what we wrote recently concerning Ukraine : « this conflict embraces the whole capitalist system in the permanent war that monopolistic companies wage to control natural resources, transport routes and labour in order to maximise profit. In time this conflict intensifies, as it is marked by different kinds of war : economic, cyber, embargos, terrorism and the disintegration of states like Libya, Irak, Yugoslavia... »
What does the war in Ukraine tell us about this ?
Capitalist Russia is seeking to extend its domination on its western flank, which is rich in resources and through its opening onto the Black Sea via the Azov Sea. These two offer warm waters whilst setting up a buffer zone with the European Union.. The latter is militarily dominated by the USA within the NATO framework and whose aims since the fall of the Soviet Union are the opposite, i.e. an extension eastwards. And to achieve this they are increasing their military means through the strengthening and NATO's extension to the borders with Russia. Since Russia's attack on Ukraine there is no European leader that has not claimed or announced a significant rearmement.
Incidentally, the dominant economic power that is Germany is intent on taking full advantage to increase its leadership in the EU and to discard the constraints that were imposed by the Allies after the Nazi defeat not to combat on foreign soil. This tendency to rearm is not new, the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute) has noted an increase in military budgets of 19% in five years. The US military presence in Europe has increased from 70,000 to 110,000 since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis. Arms sales have never been higher and the stock market values of the arms manufacturers are booming.
The struggle for the control of and access to energy resources is one of the fundamental aspects of the conflict.
Russia possesses enormous potential in terms of fossil fuels (gas, oil and coal). She is a major trader in these sectors and supplies the needs of numerous European countries, especially Germany. The USA and the Gulf States are also major producers and are intent upon having their share in this sector. If the USA have decreed an embargo on Russian oil, this is not handicap for them because they import very little, but constitutes a form of pressure on European countries so they will follow suit. The USA have a vested interest in increasing the price of oil in order to to sell their own and their shale gas. This reorientation of energy ressources will, moreover, make the US energy sector companies richer, increase fuel prices and weaken European industry, France's in particular, for in this country energy costs still constitute a competitive advantage.
`From this standpoint, it is patent that the USA have every interest in seeing the war continue in Europe ; Biden's visit and provocative declarations in Poland serve no other purpose than that. Among the consequences of this energy turnabout, there is the transfer of the Russian energy flows from the West to India and China. This tendency is going to amplify confrontation within the imperialist camp in Asia.
Food supply, like energy, a dangerous weapon in the conflicts between imperialist powers.
A State's capacity to cover its needs in food is quite vital not only for the citizens themselves but also for the stablity of the regimes that govern them. From this stance we can see that numerous countries are highly dependent upon their suppliers and most of the protagonists in the Ukraine conflict, including Russia and Ukraine themselves, are states that possess significant agricultural resources. International bodies, including the UN's FAO, are already sounding the alarm, warning of an upsurge in famine in the world and the possibility of popular revolt, as has been seen recently with the increase in the price of basic necessities. Everything seems to point to the Ukraine war marking the beginning of major upheavals in the world order and increasing the risk of major conflicts.
In the face of this situation, and going beyond the necessary solidarity with the victims of this and other conflicts and the demand for an immediate cessation of the fighting, the only question that counts is the denonciation of capitalism's responsibilty and the pursuance of a meaningful struggle against it.
Real solidarity with the Ukrainian and Russian peoples can be expressed by the struggle in each country against imperialist war
Unequivocal condemnation of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine should be mirrored by the condemnation of the USA, NATO and the EU, that stoke wars, such as those in the Near and Middle East, in Africa ; and the struggle should be aimed at all the imperialist alliances in which the ruling class of our country are implicated.
It is through the struggle, the peoples' combat, that a way out of the war can be found ; a struggle that attacks their real adversary : capitalism.