At present, Europe and Russia are on the verge of flying at each other’s throats. The general hope among people is that the present war in Ukraine will soon be over; they look at Russia’s plight in connection with the sanction; they see the increasing armaments to Ukraine from its allies arrive and so people reach an optimistic conclusion—“it won’t be long now.” When one probe deeply, however, there are few signs of a cessation of the conflict, everything points to its extension.
The independence of Ukraine! It is a lie and a myth. For years the meaning of the word has been foreign to Ukrainian oligarchs and workers. For years Ukrainian business interests have been in the pockets of the European Union capitalists. The independence of Austria is not at stake. The Socialist Party will play no part in obscuring the issue in this quarrel or any future quarrel between the capitalists of Europe.
The way to prevent war is not by engaging in antiwar campaigns. These are quite useless because they leave the causes of war untouched. The only preventative is to take away the urge to war: take away the profit motive. While private ownership of the means of existence remains, the making of profit is the object of the private owner. Abolish private ownership and substitute for it common ownership in the means of production and the profit motive disappears, taking with it the seeds of war, both internal and external. Socialism is the only means to defeat the war-mongers.
Threatened by the greed of rival exploiters in foreign countries the capitalist class will drown the world in blood and guts. They will destroy human lives by the millions, rather than give up their property, their right to exploit the workers, to the capitalists of a rival power. As far as the capitalists are concerned, they have something to lose which is of the utmost value. They will go to the utmost limit to keep what they have.
What of the workers? They have almost nothing to lose, except their lives and their health, and these they lose in war: not in the outcome of wars, but in wars itself, whatever the outcome. The working class have no interest at stake which warrants their supporting war. Whatever strength they have to influence the issue of war and peace should be thrown against war, no matter what the circumstances of the particular conflict may be.
The question put by war-makers, “Are you in favour of peace at any price?" has no meaning to a worker who understands his class position. The price of losing a war or of surrendering without waging war is not paid by the working class, but by the capitalist class. What difference does it make to the working class whether the EU or the UK or the American ruling class own the factory you toil in. Working people should throw their weight against war.
What does this mean in practice? As the working class have not yet placed themselves in control of the machinery of government, but continue at each election to place the capitalists in control, the latter is in a position to decide when, where and why the armed forces shall be set in motion, and also the amount and nature of the armed forces. The question the capitalists have to consider when deciding whether or not to wage war over any particular international conflict is the probable consequences to themselves. These include the military probabilities, personal danger and also the effect war will have on the workers. If the working class, or any large body of them, are hostile to the war the capitalists have to consider how to overcome that hostility and what will be the result if they should fail to do so. To the extent that the workers in any country are alive to their interests and opposed to war, the capitalists will be inclined to make some concession to the enemy government, rather than face war. A majority of workers will, however, never be in favour of peace against capitalist wishes while they (the workers) are prepared to support capitalist government because they will always be ready to accept capitalist reasons for waging a particular war.
The Socialist Party has no control over the formation or use of the armed forces now controlled by the capitalist class, cannot affect and has no concern with the purely capitalist question of whether the British capitalists should have more armaments to protect their property against the British workers and the foreign capitalist powers.
The Socialist Party in line with working-class interests is not concerned with the outcome of any war between capitalist groups over the right to appropriate the proceeds of the exploitation of the working class.
The Socialist Party knows that war means death, maiming and disease to the working class and, knowing that wars between capitalist groups do not involve any working-class interest does not support such wars in any circumstances whatever.
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