A horrific illustration of capitalist barbarism - Capitalism’s war against humanity

Communists call on the working class to create a new social order, not simply because a different society could be better, but because the present social system is rapidly sinking in a quagmire of human suffering, where king profit reigns supreme regardless of the multiplication of poverty, unemployment, exploitation and war tormenting the overwhelming majority of humanity not invited to a table reserved for a declining number of billionaires and their lackeys.

If capitalism produces for profit, not for human need, this principle is sickeningly magnified in the production and use of one extremely nasty commodity whose use value of maiming human beings is a vivid reminder of how capitalist profit making necessitates a permanent war against humanity. That commodity is the antipersonnel land mine, so named because its prime target is not tanks or other military vehicles, but people. Some 350 types of antipersonnel land mine have been manufactured, many specifically designed to wound horrifically rather than kill outright. These slow down enemy military operations as a maimed soldier requires assistance that a dead one does not. However, the majority of victims of these antipersonnel land mines are civilians. This is not accidental, the purpose of using these explosives against civilians is to empty territory, destroy food sources, create refugee flows and to spread terror. Consider these examples; the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian conflict placed mines in rice paddies, virtually halting agriculture. In Somalia, 1988, residents fleeing the bombing of Hargeysa returned home to “discover” land mines placed in their abandoned houses. In Afghanistan and Cambodia, 35% more land could be cultivated if farmers did not fear to tread on the land. A child losing a leg will need around 15 artificial limbs during his or her life, costing around $125 each. That is equivalent to what most people in Angola earn in three months. Add the immense psychological suffering, loss of earnings and social exclusion which the victims have to endure.

Demining is an arduous process. A single antipersonnel land mine costs between $3 and $15 but to remove one can cost hundreds of dollars and loss of life. Take Cambodia as an example. It has been estimated that even if the funds were available, removing all land mines there would take a century.

Using current technology to demine the planet would cost $33 billion and take a thousand years. In most places, demining is done in the old fashioned way. A man, or child, crawls on his belly, probing the soil ahead, inch by inch, clearing 200 to 500 square feet per day. to clear 5000 mines costs the life of one deminer, and injures two others. Once again, the insanity of capitalist logic is exposed. The companies manufacturing mines profit from clearing them. For example, a former mine producer from Germany won a $100 000 000 demining contract in Kuwait. In Mozambique a $7 500 000 contract for clearing priority roads went to a consortium of three companies - two of which had developed mines. In Angola, a country with one of the highest concentrations of land mines in the world ⁽¹⁾, de-miners face a new problem, mines aimed specifically a them. They have found mines with two types of switch connected to them. One detonates the mine on exposure to light, the other contains a magnetic loop which detonates when it senses mine sweeping equipment. Angola now has some 70 000 amputees as a result of land mines, the highest in the world. Mines continue to be placed by Angola’s warring parties, farmers abandon land, cities are unable to get food supplies. As a result hundreds of thousands face starvation, severe malnutrition, disease etc.

On a world scale, millions of antipersonnel land mines remain buried in the soil of the planet, and more are being put down. The 1997 “Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and their Destruction” has not yet been signed by almost 60 counties, including some of the greatest land mine manufacturers. ⁽²⁾

In all probability this is yet another problem which will only be resolved by the victorious proletariat, as capitalism’s economic crisis, the driving force behind modern warfare, manipulated and intensified by the great powers seeking to further their imperialist interests, can only deepen. Like many other important environmental issues, it expresses capitalism’s lack of concern for anything but short term accumulation and disregard for our health and livelihood. Any solution to the problems of war, pollution and the proletariat, outside of the revolutionary abolition of capitalism, can only prolong the conditions which aggravate these problems.

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(2) The treaty went into effect on March 1st 1999. As of January 6th 2000 it had been signed by 137 countries and ratified by 90 of them.