Understanding War

 That the Russian Government is a menace to the peace of the world, is a fact as much recognised by socialists as by all those who support the war. No socialist will deny that all the Putin regime stands for is repugnant and revolting to every ideal. The suppression of free expression of opinion, the arrests and the persecution of dissenters arbitrarily deemed out of sympathy with Russian nationalism, are things indicative of a form of social life that must befoul the finer feelings of all those worthy to be classed as genuine human. Intellectual development cannot be where such conditions are prevalent. There must be no mistake of the Socialist Party’s hatred for Putin and his elite entourage. It stands out to us calling aloud for destruction. But when we have said all this we have but touched the outer edges of the problem presented by the existence of the present Russian government. That government, like that of any other throughout the world, owes its origin and maintenance to definite historical and social causes, in which we include such mass ideology as that upon which all governments largely depend for their existence.

The basic condition for the rivalry between modern states is the quest for profit on the part of those who own all such resources of the earth. The people who own these vital forces of human life are, in broad outline, represented by those who are in control of the machinery of government. Whether such government be democratic or a dictatorship in form, the above statement applies with equal force. It cannot be too often stated that the method of government in all capitalist countries is a sort of by-product of the same general mode of wealth production and distribution. We leave aside for the moment whether the democratic or dictatorship form of the state in capitalist countries is more favourable for working-class expression and development. One point here is, that in democratic Britain, France and America, as in dictatorship Russia and China, wealth is produced primarily for profit. Therein is to be found the secret of the world situation in modern times. Profit represents–is in fact–the unpaid labour of the workers. Every worker must realise that after he has spent his energy in producing things for the capitalist, and after all materials and other items have been provided for, there is a surplus above the amount he gets in wages. When this surplus fails to materialise, capitalist production normally ceases. We describe the surplus wealth taken by the capitalist as surplus value. The worker labours for the capitalist (when he is permitted to do so) for wages, and the capitalist puts him to work to realise the difference between the wages paid and the value of the worker’s product of labour. “It is this sort of exchange”, says Marx, “between capital and labour upon which capitalistic production, or the wages system, is founded, and which must constantly result in reproducing the working man as working man and the capitalist as capitalist.”

The perpetuation and expansion of the capitalist’s pursuit of surplus-value gave rise to the imperialism underlying modern war. For capital to grow to maturity it must break down national boundaries and seek the world for its sphere of activity and gratification. Hence the conflicts between national groups of capitalists are represented by their respective governments backed by armed force.

The phrase, “the workshop of the world”, at one time so aptly applied to this country, indicates an ideological landmark, not merely in the economic history and development of England, but also in that of the other leading capitalist powers. Those who were once the customers of “the world’s workshop” became, in the very nature of the capitalist process, its competitors for markets, trade routes, spheres of influence, and the occupation of strategic positions, or the acquisition of raw materials. The real issue before the working class of the world is one of ending its exploitation and all that such entails.

If the present war is allowed to run its course until one or other of the combatants is crushed, are we likely to witness, if we are still alive, the downfall of the autocratic form of government in Russia or the restoration of some form of democratic social life in Ukraine?  

The Russian workers must, it seems, be the means of effecting the downfall of the Putin government.

For ourselves, we, as socialists, would render them any service which would assist in their accomplishing the overthrow of their despotic ruling gang if only to gain for them the immediate means of being able to give expression to their social and political aspirations without fear of being murdered or placed in a concentration camp.

Until the working-class movement in Russia or anywhere else can gain the means of emerging from underground into the daylight, their chances of finally freeing themselves from capitalism through socialism are well-nigh hopeless. To assist in the war against Russia is not the way by which this can be accomplished, we should be slaughtering the very people we desire to liberate from the yoke of the oligarch dictatorship. Moreover, our action then would assist Putin and his accomplices to bury still deeper the opposition to his rule. We find no valid reason for the support of this war, as we found none for in previous wars, which left us, of the Socialist Party, more isolated in our opposition than we are today.