SYSTEMIC DRIVERS OF THE WAR(S)
AND AN AUTONOMOUS, ANTICAPITALIST ANTI-WAR POSITION
1. PRELIMINARY NOTES
- The Houthis attacks on cargo ships, the USA/UK strikes against Yemen, the USA/EU naval fleet deployed in the Red Sea, the ISIS-K Crocus City Hall attack[1], the Iran/Israel missile attacks[2] constitute new expressions of the emerging global reality: competing groups/blocks of capitalists have chosen the route of war, in order to establish themselves in a better position within the hierarchies of a globalised economy that is in stagnation, and is also dealing with the exhaustion of natural resources. This new multipolar world in formation became obvious after the Russian invasion in Ukraine, but the signs had been there since the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation (February 2014), the proxy war in Syria (September 2015 – …) and the new scramble for Africa (wars in Sudan, C.A.R., Mali).
- As the world economy is steadily sinking deeper and deeper into crisis, war is becoming capitalism’s final solution to clear the way for growth. So, if we understand the atrocities committed by the IDF in Gaza as a mere continuation of the 75 years of occupation, if we understand Hamas’s attacks as a mere continuation of the Palestinian Resistance, we will fail to realise their connection to the current downward spiral of global capitalism towards war.
- In the first weeks of the military campaign in Gaza, people protested massively on the streets demanding a ceasefire, especially when the brutality of IDF attacks became known. Empathy is important, spontaneous opposition to war and militarist horror is crucial. But if people fail to connect this death politics to the conditions of capitalism as a global system (and only speak about “colonialist and murderous Israel”), they cannot understand the necessity to fight against capitalist wars for their own interest. The romanticized representation of Palestinian struggle and the mainstream dehumanisation of Palestinians are two sides of the same coin. And as long as reactions are based on sentimentalism, they can lead to a mass banalisation of death: As people are over-exposed to violence and the ongoing massacre, they get used to it without ever realising causes and function of war. Neither do they see the necessity to fight war, not wars.
- Whoever wins or loses here or there, war is necessary for capitalism as a global system. Besides the benefits for the arms industry, it unblocks profits and allows the creation of surplus value through destruction, it disciplines societies in the capitalist centres, and manages surplus populations that cannot be profitably exploited by capital.
- War is the final solution for the contradictions of capitalism as a global system. But a new society will not emerge from this bundle of contradictions. Only the anti-capitalist social movement can achieve that. As long as we remain passive or take positions in favour of one or the other belligerent side, we are digging our graves with our own hands.
- So, it is more urgent than ever to form some clear positions and work collectively for the creation of a global social movement against the capitalist machine of death and despair.