Capitalism creates war

Why are thousands upon thousands of civilians being massacred by US B52s and cruise missiles in Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world?

What are the real causes of this bloody war, in which the USA drops gigantic ‘daisy cutter’ bombs that have nearly as much destructive power as a tactical nuclear weapon?

If Bush and Blair are to be believed, this is all part of a war on terrorism … the innocent Afghan people are tragic bystanders in a just campaign to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.

But this is not the real reason for the war. This is just a pretext. Already before the attack on the World Trade Centre the USA was just looking for an excuse to launch this conflict.

If the USA and Britain were really making war on terrorism, why do they support repressive regimes all over the world? They back Turkey, which is engaged in a bloody war against Kurdish rebels who only want the right for their language and nationality to be recognised. They back Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive and all dissent is crushed. They support the military dictatorship of General Musharraf in Pakistan. And they support Israel, where prime minister Ariel Sharon is carrying out a campaign of assassinations of Palestinians who dare to stand up to the occupation of their land and the bulldozing of their villages.

The ‘war on terrorism’ is a smokescreen – sheer propaganda. The real reason for the war is to strengthen US world domination and to help the spread of global capitalism into every corner of the planet.

REVOLUTION opposes the US/British war and the capitalist system. We think that these two things are linked together – that the system creates war. We believe we will never be free from killing, destruction and mass murder until we get rid of capitalism and replace it with a system based on equality and co-operation instead of private profit and exploitation.

In the world today, eight companies control more wealth than half the world’s population – 3 billion people. Half the people in the world live on less than £1 a day, while just 300 billionaires live in indescribable luxury.

Over the last 10 years, capitalism has spread around the world at an ever faster rate. Corporations like Nike, Gap, MacDonalds and Starbucks are open for business across the Third World, and their products are often produced in disgusting sweatshops where workers - including children - work long hours for a pittance.

Not content with this, the major Western banks and institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank force Third World countries to pay huge sums in interest and debt repayments. India has to pay more on its debt than it spends on schools and hospitals.

Global capitalism has spread across the world – and the rich capitalists of the USA, Britain and the EU are the main people to benefit. But they meet with resistance. Some of it has been from protestors who have held huge protests against capitalism at places like Seattle and Genoa. Some has been from gigantic trade union actions, like last years general strike in India against the IMF and the mass action in Bolivia that blocked attempts to sell the country’s water to big private corporations.

Some countries, like Argentina, have threatened to stop repaying their debt to the IMF as the costs of doing so become unbearable for the people.

Global capitalism now needs a global police and military force capable of imposing the will of the capitalists anywhere in the world whenever they want. The attack on the World Trade Centre gave the US and British rulers every excuse they needed. They have used it to establish a coalition against terrorism that has started with the cowardly attack on Afghanistan but will be used anywhere, anytime, for any purpose that the global capitalists want.

The Central Asian region around Afghanistan is crucial for the West’s oil supplies. They want to build a big pipeline from the Caspian Sea to supply Pakistan and India and make mega-profits for the oil companies that support George Bush.

They also want to use the pretext of terrorism to clamp down on the rights and liberties of people at home. The State of Emergency declared in Britain on 10 November is an example of this. Now the government can lock people up without a trial.

All these measures, which they bring in claiming they are against foreign terrorists – will be used against people at home if they stand up against racism, exploitation or war.

Working class people and youth in the US and Europe are also ripped off by the massive corporations and their governments. Ordinary people over here has more in common with a worker in Third World factory than we have with Bill Gates or the Chief Executive of Barclays Bank or BP. That’s why we reject nationalism and patriotism as lies that divide the working class and fool us into supporting ‘our’ capitalists, ‘our’ armies’ and ‘our’ wars against people just like us in other parts of the world.

Sometimes big capitalist powers go to war against each other for the control and re-division of the world’s resources. This is what happened in the World Wars of the Twentieth Century. These wars must be opposed. Working class people and youth need to carry on the fight against the capitalists in their own countries and try to use the crisis created by war to bring down the warmongers’ governments and overthrow the system.

Sometimes, like now, the big capitalist powers – the imperialists – wage war against under-developed counties to dominate their resources, regions and markets. When they do this, the imperialists are treating whole countries like colonies. Although Third World countries may be independent in theory, with their own governments and flags, in practice all the main economic and political decisions affecting their future are made in Washington, London and Brussels.

When these semi-colonial countries are attacked, working class people all over the world should defend them. This does not mean supporting the politics of their governments, which are often deeply right-wing and oppressive, like the Taliban in Afghanistan. But it does mean supporting the right of these countries to kick the US and British imperialists out. A defeat for imperialism is a good thing. Like in Vietnam (see page 7), it boosts the struggles against US domination and global capitalism everywhere. It shows these powerful enemies can be beaten.

The bloody wars launched throughout capitalism’s existence show that this is a system based on cruel violence. Any attempt to take away the power and privileges of the capitalist elite would be met with the same brutality. One day the mask of the ‘war on terrorism’ and the ‘foreign threat’ will fall away, and our rulers’ violence will be revealed for what it is – directed against the poor and the dispossessed everywhere, from Kabul to the streets of London, Manchester, and Newcastle.

It will take a mass movement, organised globally and ready to use force against force, to get rid of capitalism and share the world’s wealth equally. If you want an end to militarism, mass murder and the multi-millionaires that create it, get involved with REVOLUTION.

BACK TO THE TOP

Is war inherent to capitalism?

War in Iraq - which side are we on?

War: what is it good for

Capitalism creates war

The truth about Iraq

Puppest, black gold and tyranny

Who is the real terrorist