War Fever

 “The boundaries of states are accidents of history. Ukraine’s certainly are. There never had been a Ukrainian national state until 25 years ago, and the boundaries of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic were never intended to define a nation state...Putin is not acting from a belief in self-determination, but from naked Russian nationalism. That is what is so amusing about the deluded left wingers supporting him against the nationalists of Kiev.” Former-ambassador-turned-activist, Craig Murray, 2014

As socialists, we re-affirm that all peoples should seek their emancipation as human beings. They should unite to abolish the division of the world into so-called nation-states and we call upon the workers to organise consciously and politically to use the power at their disposal to bring the bloodshed to a standstill; and secure the space we need in order to build the co-operative world socialist commonwealth of which we will all be free and equal members - citizens of the world, not subjects of nation-states. It is vitally important today to remember that socialists must be the standard-bearers of civilisation - the defenders of political democracy and peace. Rubble and ruins don't make a good basis for building socialism. Voices raised against war shows that there is hope.

We place on record our horror that capitalism has once again provoked the orgy of death and destruction known as war that is taking place in Ukraine. We extend the hand of friendship to our fellow workers who have been designated as targets for destruction.

We don’t care who began it. We don’t care which nation or leader is to blame nor care what weapons they use. Once again the world is faced with human tragedies. Once more pictures and accounts of victims of a war not of their making confront us across the media. 

In Ukraine, the diplomats of the “international community" were slow to seriously negotiate for fear of jeopardising their political and economic interests. Ordinary people became pawns in a power play. Massive propaganda exercises are employed by the state to stoke people's fears and anxieties that stem from their poverty and insecurity. This is because people have a healthy horror of war. They know war means death and destruction. Death not only of the soldiers on both sides but also of women, children and old people as collateral damage.

To abolish war and build a truly sustainable global peace, we require a plan in which we can all participate. Many people have been tirelessly working for peace but what is their actual plan to accomplish the objective? Many people's gut reaction is simply that war is crazy. Socialists share this anti-war sentiment. It is one of the reasons why we are real socialists and propose a unified world community, without frontiers, based on all the Earth's resources, natural and industrial, becoming the common heritage of all humanity and being used to satisfy people's needs instead of for profit. We concluded that capitalism means war and that therefore to get rid of wars and the threat of wars – and the constant preparation for war represented by maintaining armed forces – you have got to get rid of capitalism.

"Nationalism is an infantile disease...It is the measles of mankind." Albert Einstein once said. Others would say it is more like Alzheimer's, as memories of the past are forgotten.

Like many movements, the 2014 Euromaidan protests were a complex phenomenon. Different tendencies were discernible within it and to a certain extent, they conflicted with one another.

One part was a movement of citizens of all ethnic affiliations against a corrupt, unresponsive, incompetent and oppressive government. As such it had the potential to spread throughout the country and to become a truly nationwide movement. Citizens in Eastern Ukraine often expressed sympathy for this particular aspect of the Euromaidan.

However, there was also an ‘ethno-national’ element with an increasing assertive Banderites declaring Ukraine was not Ukrainian enough – and this was perceived as a threat in the Russian-speaking regions of the Donbas region.

Euromaidan was a popular uprising. True, it was confined to one half of Ukraine, and an equally popular counter-uprising soon followed in the other half. But the popular uprising was cut short and usurped by an attempted power grab on the part of an armed ultra-nationalist minority. Both Russian and American intelligence services were involved in some way or another.

What sort of memories do people have? The real sickness in this world is caused by the rivalries of the ruling class who control all media outlets, the ignorance of the masses who support them and the divisiveness of nationalism. Nationalism, like any disease, can be diagnosed, but there remains no immediate prognosis and past treatments have failed as remedies. Nationalism feeds on fear and insecurity, alienation and ignorance which themselves can lead to irrational passions. These are the factors preventing us from working together to repair our broken planet. 

The only war that need concern us is the class war. We advocate a war on war, to be waged on the battlefield of ideas—for the hearts and minds of the world's people. And once we unite there will be no force that will stop us from taking the Earth into our common possession.