WAR
What is it good for?

Only 10 years ago political commentators were trying to tell us that wars were a thing of the past. Since they bomded Iraq "back to the stone age" there'd be no more wars. Well that didn't last long. Not only has there being a series of bloody wars in the last 10 years, but there is going to be a war with Iraq again? Why? What is war and what use is it?...

We are living in a world of disorder, bloodshed and misery, where vicious nationalism has lead to wars of ethnic cleansing and genocide. But that is not all. Across the globe, from the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip to Mexico and Kurdistan, workers, peasants and youth are fighting back against exploitation and brutality.

An estimated 100 million people have died in wars last century. But why? Is it because people just can't live together, is it in our nature to fight with each other? Or is it all down to a few power crazy dictators hell bent on military expansion and war?

These explanations are too simplistic. Wars are conflicts over material wealth, territory and resources. They raise the question who will own and control the wealth of society?

At the start of this century the world was divided into, on the one hand a few powerful nations such as Britain, Germany and France and on the other hand colonies such as India, Algeria and Egypt.

The colonies were subjected to military occupation, direct rule and daylight robbery by the major powers. In their quest for profits and markets, and using sheer force of arms, the governments of these rich capitalist nations divided up the world to secure protected markets for their goods and investments, access to resources and cheap labour.

This is what Marxists call Imperialism. It is a worldwide system in which a handful of countries dominate the "Third World" - the majority of the world's population - through military force and economic control. A hundred years ago imperialism was naked and undisguised - India was run by an appointed British dictator, the Viceroy of India. Today, many of the former colonies have been granted "independence", but real political and economic control still rests with the big Western banks and companies: these semi-colonial countries are in desperate poverty while at the same time they have to pay a fortune in debt repayments and interest to the imperialist banks.

The most brutal and barbaric wars this century were the First and Second World Wars when the full might of the imperialists' war machines were let loose.

The First World War was a war between the great powers in Europe about who should control the rich resources of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Germany's economic expansion threatened the empires of Britain and France. So they sent millions of young workers to the killing fields to defend their colonial conquests. The Russian revolutionary Lenin explained the real character of the war

"Picture to yourselves a slave owner who owned 100 slaves warring against a slave owner who owned 200 slaves for a more "just" distribution of slaves."

Historians and present day politicians would like us to believe that the Second World War was a war waged against fascism in Germany. This is a lie. Britain stood by while Hitler rose to power. All the European powers stood by when the Nazis began rounding up Jewish people, socialists and gays and sent them to the death camps. Only when it became clear to Britain and France that Germany's expansion would threaten their economic interests and colonies did they change their tune.

They tricked the masses into believing that the war against Germany was a war for democracy. But while they talked of democracy these very same governments maintained rule over their colonies such as India where there was no democracy at all.

The bosses never defended the rights of ordinary workers and peasants. What they defended was their property, privileges and profit.

The working class across the world were sent to kill each other while the capitalists made fortunes out of the war. In the name of "national unity" workers were expected to declare a truce in the class struggle, while the bosses were free to go on attacking workers wages, conditions and democratic rights.

Socialists did not support these wars. Unlike the Labour and trade union leaders, who at the time rallied to the side of the bosses and called for the "defence of the nation", socialists told the truth. They were wars between robbers who were fighting over who would have the biggest share of the loot, and because of this, workers should not support their governments. Workers in Britain had more in common with their fellow workers in Germany and India than they did with their British bosses.

Revolutionary socialists declared: "The main enemy is at home! Turn your guns on your bosses, not your fellow workers and soldiers. Turn this war of imperialist aggression into a civil war against profit, slavery and oppression!"

Socialists' attitude towards war is fundamentally different to those who consider themselves pacifists. This is because socialists recognise that for as long as class oppression and exploitation exist there will always be wars. So long as the drive for profit continues, the struggle for markets and domination of the world will take on a more and more destructive character.

Unlike pacifists we don't renounce all violence. We understand that war cannot be abolished until imperialism is overthrown and replaced with international socialism. If this could be done by pleading with the capitalists to put down their arms or by lighting joss sticks and singing "Give Peace a Chance", then war would have been abolished a long time ago.

But they won't give up without a fight. To abolish the real cause of wars we will need a violent revolution against the warmongers.

Revolutionary socialists oppose the militarism of the exploiters. But we support wars waged against imperialism and oppression.

The war fought heroically by the Vietnamese workers and peasants against the military might of the USA was a just war.

Millions of workers rallied to the side of the Vietnamese. Thousands of youth across Europe and the USA demonstrated against the war in Vietnam.

Anti-war students in the USA who condemned the role of the USA in Vietnam were repressed and even shot by the US state. The victory of the Vietnamese against the USA proved it was possible to fight back against economic exploitation and military aggression. It showed that the "world policeman" was not invincible.

Today socialists have to oppose the wars of the imperialist powers whenever they take place.

We insist that not a penny and not a person should be sacrificed for wars for profit. But we support just wars against oppression, imperialism and racist genocide. "Turn the other cheek" is not a revolutionary principle. To liken the violence of the slave owner who puts a slave in chains with the violence of the slave who breaks the chains is nothing but pathetic cowardice.

That is why we side with semi-colonial countries like Iraq and Argentina when they come into conflict with imperialism, and with movements for national independence like the Irish, Kurdish and Palestinian freedom fighters.

The road to real peace is the road of class war.

We have to fight to rid society of imperialism and replace it with a world socialist federation, in which the resources of the planet can be democratically planned for the benefit of everyone, and where there will be no rich capitalists to set us against each other on national, "ethnic" or racial lines. Only socialism can stop war.

Our loyalty is not to "our own" exploiters, but to the workers of the world and the future of humanity.

BACK TO THE TOP

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War in Iraq - which side are we on?

War: what is it good for

Capitalism creates war

The truth about Iraq

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