The bourgeois rulers are preparing for war, let's prepare for class war !

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Announcements that the USA would soon be imposing high tariffs on European commodities, following those already in place on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese commodities, accompanied by anti-European declarations by Trump and those close to him (such as the claim to annex Greenland, a territory under Danish rule) had caused consternation among European leaders faced with the threat of a trade war. But Trump's decision to force Zelenskyy to stop fighting, including by suspending US arms deliveries and “intelligence” to Ukraine overnight, and to negotiate a peace agreement directly with Russia without involving the Europeans, came as a real shock to them: until now, the position of European leaders, hammered by all medias, had been to support Ukraine with the United States “until the victory” of its armies; any idea of a ceasefire before this objective was reached was denounced almost as a betrayal in favor of the Russians.

In all haste, the leaders of the European bourgeoisie gathered to assure Zelenskyy of their continued unwavering support, while in turn calling for a ceasefire (!), before the Ukrainian president, making amends and apologizing to the Americans, asserted that he was ready to work “under the firm leadership of President Trump” and sign a leonine agreement that would grant the USA a significant share of the country's minerals.

At the time of its independence (1991), around 30% of the former USSR's arms industry was located in Ukraine; there were some 700 Ukrainian companies in this sector, employing over a million people. But severe economic difficulties made it impossible to make the massive investments that would have been needed to reorganize and modernize this industry, suddenly deprived of the Soviet market. After plunging into a deep slump for years, the Ukrainian military industry experienced a revival thanks to major state investments from 2014 onwards (the date of Russia's annexation of Crimea and of the first clashes in the Donbass): on the eve of war with Russia, in 2021, Ukraine's military budget had increased by 1300% compared to 2014! Today, the country boasts some 500 arms industry companies (not counting over a thousand start-ups) employing almost 300,000 people. Before the war restricted arms sales abroad, Ukraine was the world's eleventh-largest arms dealer, just behind Spain. All of which goes to show the reality and power of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, which cannot fail to have an influence on the country's war policy (1).

However, Ukraine is largely dependent on Western military supplies to wage war, and primarily on the United States, which therefore has decisive leverage over Ukraine: despite their declarations, the European states are not in a position to replace American support.

Faced with the impossibility of continuing the war to the last living Ukrainian, European leaders reacted by announcing an unprecedented acceleration of their military spending, which was already rising sharply, and by multiplying their warmongering statements.

In Germany, the Social Democrats of the SPD and the Conservatives of the CDU-CSU agreed on March 5 to pass a law in parliament, without waiting for the new parliament to be installed following the elections, to abolish the constitutional provision restricting the budget deficit; this will enable military spending to rise to almost 100 billion euros a year, double the current amount (as well as increasing investment in the country's infrastructure), while calls are being heard for the reinstatement of compulsory military enlistment; on February 25, the British Prime Minister announced that military spending, already the second highest in Europe, would rise from 2.3% to 2.5% of the budget by 2027, the “biggest increase in the British military budget since the end of the Cold War”, and should reach 3% by 2030; in France, Macron estimated on February 20 that military spending might have to be increased to 5% of the budget (compared with 2.1% at present), and in his televised statement on March 5, he reaffirmed, without giving any figures, that additional military spending was needed “as soon as possible”; on March 6, EU leaders validated an 800 billion euros plan by the European Commission to “rearm Europe”, and so on. To complete the picture, let’s add that the British and French have declared their readiness to send soldiers to guarantee a ceasefire in Ukraine, and the French have proposed extending their “nuclear umbrella” to other European states (2).

The increase in military spending and “support for Ukraine” had been justified yesterday by the need to ensure Kiev's victory and to punish Russia for its violations of international law and war crimes: as everyone has seen, in the case of Israel, violations of international law and war crimes did not result in any “punishment” from European countries, which were in fact complicit in them, as bourgeois states only respect the law if it serves their interests. The huge additional increase in military spending announced with big noise, and the warmongering climate spread by the medias, are justified today by the imminent threat to Europe posed by Russia in the likely event of a halt to the fighting in Ukraine, with the prospect of US disengagement (3).

The absurdity of the arguments used by this bourgeois propaganda cannot disguise the fact that capitalism is heading inexorably, on an international scale, towards military confrontations of “great intensity” – something which all bourgeois states are aware. The prospect of a third world war, the inevitable outcome at some point of capitalist crises, is becoming increasingly tangible, even if not yet immediate. If Trump's America wants to stop the war in Ukraine, it is not for love of “peace”, but, having seen the failure of the ongoing war, because it wants to redirect its forces towards Asia, where a decisive confrontation with China awaits.

The European states, no longer assured of maintaining their alliance with the United States, are preparing at breakneck speed to be able to wage war “on their own”. And this preparation does not only consist of increased military spending; it also, and above all, involves enlisting the population in general, and proletarians in particular, in a national union, i.e., in the defense of the interests of national capitalism: proletarians and the exploited are called upon to accept sacrifices, to renounce defending their class interests in the name of the defense of motherland, before being called upon to shed their blood if necessary. Already, the additional military expenditure will be paid for by the proletarians in the form of reduced social spending, which is not a gift from the bourgeois state but part of the “deferred” wage – the part of the wage not directly paid out which is used to finance this expenditure: the war economy is first and foremost a war on proletarians! If they don't want to be overexploited today and used as cannon fodder tomorrow, proletarians must refuse to submit to bourgeois perspectives. It is possible to oppose sacrifices in peacetime as in wartime for the sole benefit of capitalism, provided we enter the struggle for the intransigent defense of the sole proletarian interests.

The refusal of deadly national union, the opposition to the paralyzing collaboration between classes in the name of defending the motherland, the return to genuine class struggle, based on classist means, methods and organization, can unite proletarians of all nationalities against capitalism and against the bourgeois states, with the final aim of overthrowing this system of misery, exploitation and war, and paving the way for a classless, stateless society – communism.

The bourgeois are preparing for war to defend capitalism, let's prepare for class war to put an end to the bourgeois order!

(1) Data taken from SIPRI, 22/02/25 : https://www.sipri.org/commentary/topical-backgrounder/ 2025/ transformation- ukraines- arms- industry -amid- war- russia. By comparison, France is estimated to have between 2,000 and 4,000 companies working directly or indirectly in the armaments sector, employing a total of 210,000 people.

(2) But Zelenskyy declared on 29/1 that “a minimum” of 200,000 European soldiers would be needed to guarantee peace, which is impossible for European armies...

(3) For example, on February 19, the Danish Prime Minister justified the announcement of massive military spending to exceed 3% of the budget by the end of the year by fearing a rapid ceasefire in Ukraine “because it may give President Putin and Russia a better opportunity [...] to mobilize again and attack Ukraine or another country in Europe”.

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