The World Socialist Movement is against any war between peoples and has opposed, oppose and always will oppose war. The socialists’ role is to carry on proclaiming that there is but one war of emancipation: the one waged in every country by the oppressed against the oppressor, by the exploited against the exploiter. Our task is to summon wage-slaves to revolt against their masters. To all soldiers from every country convinced that they are fighting for justice and freedom, we explain that their heroism and their valour serves only to perpetuate hatred, tyranny and misery.
The World Socialist Movement reaffirms its allegiance to the principle of internationalism and working-class solidarity the world over, and proclaims its unalterable opposition to all war. Whether they have been wars of aggression or have been represented as wars of “defence,” they have always been made by the ruling classes and fought by working people. We call upon the workers of all nationa to refuse support to their governments in their wars.
Wars bring wealth and power to the capitalist and pain and suffering to the worker. Wars breed nationalist unreason and race hatred. In support of the capitalists we will not willingly sacrifice a single life or shed a drop of blood. Modern wars as a rule have been caused by the commercial and financial rivalry and intrigues of the capitalist interest in the different countries. The death and destruction which is now convulsing unfortunate Ukraine was caused by the conflict of capitalist interests. The acute competition between the Western powers and Russia, their distrust of one another and the fear of the others rising power has led to the madness of war. This war is a war of the capitalist class, worldwide.
It is not a war to advance the cause of democracy. Democracy can never be imposed upon any country by a foreign power by force of arms. War is an inevitable product of the capitalist system. No capitalist power can prosper within its own borders atone; it must expand or suffer paralyzing economic crisis; to survive, it must get new markets abroad, new sources of raw materials, new fields of investment, new spheres of influence. When it is blocked from securing or consolidating these objectives by the economic or political power of another nation, it will eventually resort to military means.
It is not enough to point an accusing finger at the politicians who are running the government or the greedy CEOs. Their individual avarice and lust for power are important factors but not the decisive ones. In the first place, they are not acting on their own; they are the representatives and administrators of their class, the capitalist class. Without the consent of their class they would never dare embark on such a dangerous venture as war. War represents a terrible risk for them yet they are driven to desperate measures for resolving international disputes not merely by some quirk in their individual or collective minds or hearts, but by the very needs of the capitalist system itself.
If we don't say it's a class war, a war of the oppressor against the oppressed, of the exploiters against the exploited, of the capitalists against the workers and oppressed people of the world, then we are not telling the whole truth.
The end of wars will come with the establishment of socialism the world over. In a rational world cooperative there would of course be no war over raw materials, which would be accessible to all and collectively used for the common welfare. But a world dominated by capitalism is not a rational world. It’s a world whose very fate is based on such conflicts as the competition for raw materials. it’s a dog-eat-dog system, where each dog is ready to undergo some suffering himself in order to remain or become the top dog, and where all the dogs are indifferent to the welfare of canines as a whole.
You can’t end war without ending its cause, capitalism. The World Socialist Movement calls upon all workers to join it in its struggle to reach its goal of a new society in which peace, fraternity and harmony will prevail.
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