War in Gaza, War in Ukraine, « War Economy »...
Capitalism is War, War on Capitalism!
(«Proletarian»; Nr. 21; Spring-Summer 2024)
5 months after it began, the war waged by the Israeli army in Gaza has claimed the lives of almost 35,000 Palestinians, mainly unarmed civilians, including, according to UNICEF, 70% women and children (almost 14,000 of them are thought to have been killed, more than in 4 years of war in the rest of the world), while all civilian infrastructures (from schools to hospitals, including the fishing fleet and agricultural facilities) have been damaged or destroyed to render the territory uninhabitable, 85% of the population (nearly two million) have been forced to leave their homes and take refuge in makeshift camps, and the population is being subjected to a veritable policy of starvation (1). Thousands of prisoners are subjected to degrading treatment and torture, and sometimes summary executions, according to the UN. The war in Gaza is also accompanied by deadly army and settler raids in the West Bank, which have left hundreds of Palestinians dead, and by bombing raids in Syria and Lebanon.
Not only has this bestial policy been implicitly approved by Western states in the name of Israel’s so-called « right to defend itself », it has also been made possible by the supply of arms and munitions to the Israeli army by these same states, France included. This does not stop the French government, like its European colleagues, from denouncing Israeli crimes under the charge of « anti-Semitism », and solidarity with the plight of the Palestinian masses under that of « support for terrorism » (1)!
After two years, the war in Ukraine has left tens of thousands of soldiers dead on both sides of the front, and over 10,000 Ukrainian civilians dead; the « war crimes » perpetrated by Russian troops on civilians have been widely documented and denounced by the Western media (unlike those committed by « the only democracy in the Middle East », Israel). Over 10 million Ukrainians (out of a population of 37 million) were forced to leave their homes, with over 6 million taking refuge abroad, mainly in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, while on the Russian side it is estimated that over 800,000 people fled the country to avoid conscription. Russian bombardment of Ukrainian civilian power and energy installations increased, and more than 250,000 residential buildings were destroyed or damaged (8.6% of the housing stock), mainly in the eastern combat zones.
It is thanks to the arms support of the United States and European countries that the Ukrainian army was able to defeat the Russian invasion; but with the conflict bogged down, the only prospect put forward is military escalation with the delivery of ever more lethal weapons, while Macron has repeatedly mentioned sending French soldiers to fight in Ukraine. In fact, it’s an open secret that French, American, British and other « military advisors » are already working alongside Ukrainian troops...
All over Europe, military budgets are rising sharply, and governments are talking about a « war economy ». This is not just a matter of words : governments are openly preparing for the larger-scale wars towards which capitalism is inexorably heading; and war economy inevitably means social war, because it’s always the proletarians who are the victims of wars, either as cannon fodder in the war zones or as exploitation fodder in the rear.
In Gaza, Ukraine, Africa and everywhere else, it’s the capitalist system as a whole that provokes, fuels and exacerbates wars, not just a handful of rulers : until capitalist power is overthrown and the entire system destroyed, starting in the imperialist metropolises, there will always be wars, until a third world war breaks out. That’s what we need to fight capitalism, by returning to the principles and orientations of revolutionary class struggle.
Class solidarity with the proletarians and the Palestinian masses, and with all the victims of imperialist wars!
Down with chauvinism and national union, long live the union of proletarians of all countries against all bourgeois states!
For the reconstitution of the international class party and the world communist revolution!
(1) Israel’s Minister of Social Equality (sic!), May Golan, told the Knesset on 21/02/24 : « I am proud to see Gaza in ruins, and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell its grandchildren what the Jews did ». To denounce such a government would be to support terrorism and anti-Semitism...
April, 28th 2024
International Communist Party
Il comunista - le prolétaire - el proletario - proletarian - programme communiste - el programa comunista - Communist Program
www.pcint.org
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