At least 50 wars are raging around the world. These are all, in one way or another, a result of the contradictions of the capitalist system which lead directly to imperialism and to war. The two major wars, those in Ukraine and Gaza, provide a panorama of barbaric butchery and cruelty on a scale our rulers cannot hide. All the talk about human rights, rules-based order and the fight of democracy against dictatorship is shown to be hypocritical nonsense. Every day social media shows us what is really going on. The murder and suffering in Ukraine and Gaza represent the true face of capitalism today, but, horrific though these wars are, there is likely worse to come. Both the Ukraine and Gaza wars could slide us into a new world war. If that happens these wars would appear as skirmishes before the real bloodbath unfolds. The news that tactical nuclear weapons are being readied by both Russia and NATO and that France has proposed sending NATO troops into Ukraine show how the stakes are being raised. Russian roulette is being played with nuclear weapons.

Behind these wars is a much more fundamental and dangerous conflict, that of an existing hegemonic power, the US with its allies, trying to maintain the dominance of the world which the post Second World War settlement gave them — against China, a rising power. Their dominance is both economic and military, and China now threatens to undermine them both. Unless the working class intervenes and overthrows capitalism, this conflict will inevitably lead to war.

US preparations for war are being carried out in broad daylight for all to see. The AUKUS pact — a military partnership between Australia, the UK, and the US — is assisting Australia in the building of nuclear submarines. The US is also spending $500 million to boost the military of the Philippines, and has signed security cooperation agreements with India, Japan and South Korea. The US is trying to surround China with regimes allied to it militarily and opposed to China, while it arms Taiwan and attempts to stir up separatism as a pretext for war. It also is attempting to sabotage China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Meanwhile, the creation of a pro-US regime in Ukraine via the Maidan coup, the construction of a modern Ukrainian army and the prospect of its membership of NATO, has lured the Russian military into the country. The proxy war in Ukraine is drawing Russia and China closer together, in an anti-US alliance of convenience.

US domination of the Middle East, the major oil producing region of the world, has existed since the Second World War. Whereas the US was the major importer of Middle East oil until about 2005, China has now taken its place, resulting in China threatening US domination of the region. It has engineered a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran and brought both countries into the BRICS. The US policy, on the contrary, was to keep the Saudi/Iran conflict on the boil, thereby justifying its military bases and military domination of the area. China has also intervened in the Gaza conflict, brokering a deal between the Palestinian factions for a post conflict Gaza and thereby gaining a foothold in the US patch. In the economic sphere China has opposed the trade of oil exclusively in dollars. This was something which Saudi Arabia agreed to implement for a 50-year period in 1974, but this agreement was not renewed when it expired in June. This could end the dominance of the petrodollar and undermine the international role of the dollar which is a key prop in US economic hegemony. If the global dominance of the dollar is lost the US power to sanction other countries will also be lost, as will their ability to confiscate deposits of their rivals. Sanctions have been applied against Russia, China, Iran and others with the aim of cutting off their ability to trade by excluding them from SWIFT, the inter-bank transfer system, and $330 billion of Russian assets seized and the interest confiscated. All this is possible because of the dollar’s role as the international currency of trade. The result is that Russia and its BRICS partners have started to trade in local currencies and are preparing to launch an alternative transfer system to SWIFT and a BRICS currency. All these military and economic moves are preparation for war.

Class war is the path to prevent and end world war

Only the intervention of the working class, as a political force on an international scale, is able to prevent war and put an end to war if it breaks out. This is because our labour produces all the value which supports capitalist society. Remove that labour and the whole capitalist structure collapses. “No war but the class war” must be our watchword. No concessions to the capitalist war programme; no concessions to the national economy.

Revolutionary class struggle — not support for our bosses’ enemies (China, Russia, Iran, etc.) like many on the so-called “anti-imperialist” left declare — is the answer to the future wars which our rulers are preparing. This requires strikes, not just in the arms industries but mass strikes which the capitalist class will find harder to suppress and which can grow to bring more and more workers into the struggle. It means fraternisation between soldiers with their supposed enemies on the basis of class solidarity. It means pointing out that the real enemies of workers and soldiers are the capitalist class who have mobilised them to fight their class brothers and sisters. It means supporting desertion on a mass scale which turns into mutinies which have real power to end the war.

This was how revolutionaries responded to the First World War. It led first to the revolution in Russia then the revolution in Germany which put an end to the war. In Germany in 1918, the sailors in Wilhelmshaven and later in Kiel refused to sail against the British fleet. Instead, they took over Kiel, set up workers’ and sailors’ councils and within days the German Empire collapsed and the war was ended. But this only happened after 4 years of what was then the most horrific war in human history. Unfortunately, the revolutionary wave which these revolts generated were defeated and no such intervention of the working class ended the Second World War. The result was countless millions dead.

Revolutionary class struggle needs to be the strategy on all sides in the war. This requires an international political organisation which exists on a global scale and fights for this revolutionary strategy amongst the working class. The building of such an international party is the key task for revolutionaries today.

The above article is taken from the current edition (No. 68) of Aurora, bulletin of the Communist Workers’ Organisation.