Turn Imperialist War into Fight for communism here ♦ Comrades Worldwide Call for Communist Response here ♦ Natural Gas Fuels Ukraine War here ♦
Turn Imperialist War Among Bosses into Revolutionary Fight for Communism
March 7—The deadly Russian imperialist assault on Ukraine demands that workers and soldiers around the world fight for communism. Communism will end the profit system that is at the root of this war and the world war it could become.
Articles and letters in these pages show how the International Communist Workers’ Party is explaining to the masses that only communism can guarantee humanity’s full potential. Until then, capitalism/imperialism will continue its relentless assaults on the working class that result in unprecedented death and destruction.
Imperialism inescapably drives the rulers into conflicts to redivide the world to control labor, resources, and markets. Capturing new markets for fossil fuels drives global devastation. Workers and students must flee to get out of harm’s way while Russian and Ukrainian soldiers as well as civilians die.
US imperialism and its European allies knew they were provoking this war when they expanded NATO to Russia’s doorstep.
The bosses’ profit wars intensify racism and embolden fascist forces. In Ukraine, as other articles show, African, Middle Eastern, and Indian students are held hostage or singled out for police attacks at checkpoints. In Russia, thousands have been jailed for joining anti-war protests.
Workers, soldiers, and youth never have anything to gain from supporting the capitalists who rule them. We must fight their pro-war nationalist propaganda everywhere with anti-racist communist internationalism.
In this desperate situation we must seize every opportunity to prepare for communist revolution.
As the Franco-Prussian War ravaged Europe in March 1871, communist-led workers in Paris seized power and established the revolutionary Paris Commune.
Amidst the imperialist butchery of World War I, Russian soldiers and sailors turned their weapons on their own capitalist rulers, joining workers to establish the Soviet Union.
The Chinese Red Army mobilized masses to defeat Japanese imperialist invaders during World War II and the US-backed Chinese capitalists soon after.
Our turn is coming.
We fight not to liberate nations but to liberate the international working class. Not for socialism as 20th-century communists did, which tragically (and inevitably) became today’s Russian and Chinese imperialism.
We fight to mobilize masses for communism in its truest sense: A society where we’ll produce for the needs of the masses, not for wages and profits, and share according to need.
In communism there will be no competition for profits, no nations to go to war, no weapons of mass destruction, no need for standing armies. Ending the wage system will enable us to defeat racism, xenophobia, sexism and all the other ways capitalism has divided and oppressed us.
Please help spread this communist vision, especially in workplaces and barracks! Start building the communist relations now that will become the material base for ending capitalist nightmares like the one unfolding in Ukraine. Join ICWP and mobilize workers and soldiers for communism.
As the Ukraine war intensifies and the bosses become more desperate, workers and soldiers can become more class conscious. Let’s turn these angry, class-conscious masses into a revolutionary army to end deadly, profit-hungry, capitalism.
Read Our Pamphlet: “Mobilize the Masses for Communism” here
Comrades Worldwide Call for Communist Response to Ukraine War
From Pakistan: “The masses here are angry, many feel World War III is coming. We are suffering. We are crushed by Chinese debt and US imperialists want to turn Pakistan into another Yemen. We need a united front of the international working class. Let us rise together for the only thing we have – unity to bring communism. Give me more Red Flags.”
From Egypt: “The racist abuse of foreigners trying to leave Ukraine is just the tip of the iceberg. That racism is going to carry all the way to North Africa, Bangladesh, and South Africa. The poorest of the poor will starve and die when grain prices skyrocket and cooking oil becomes a luxury. Ukraine and Russia supply 30% of the grain to these markets. Now, more than ever, let us overthrow these bloody imperialists. The poor masses are rising, give them communist medicine. “
From Bangladesh: “This reminds us of 1971. In a short war to liberate Bangladesh, 3 million people were brutally murdered and over 20 million were displaced. Horrific crimes were committed, including a million women who were raped and killed. The United States actively supported the butchers and sent a nuclear weapon to the shores of Bengal. Today, all the imperialists were fighting each other. Let the international working class gather its energy because every attack will be counter-attacked by the masses from Russia to Ukraine to Bangladesh. Communism alone can satisfy hungry masses starving for power to destroy the warmakers.”
From Malaysia: “I am a ‘Legal’ UN refugee from Kashmir. They provide us bare minimum to survive, we are not allowed to work. So, we work as illegal refugees to make ends meet. This war in Ukraine has made our life as if we are in the battlefield there. The bosses are abusing us, high petrol prices are snatching food from our mouths. Damn capitalism!”
From India: “Greetings from the communist collective of autoworkers in Chennai. Many autoworker comrades have become casualties of the Ukraine war. High oil prices have shut down several more plants. A storm is coming, a storm of mass unemployment, starvation, and utter misery. We are determined to advance under these horrors because organizing our party and eventually leading to communist revolution is the answer. The working class is waking up.”
Natural Gas Fuels Ukraine Conflagration
The current war has roots in 2019, when the pro-Western media star Zelenskyy took over the Ukrainian government. Aided and abetted by the CIA, he replaced the equally capitalist pro-Russian government. The US and Russia have been on a collision course in Ukraine ever since, from Crimea to the breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine. Zelenskyy’s so-called “democracy” built a strong pro-US fascist force and military presence.
Ukraine, the largest country in Europe, is strategically located for the vast distribution of Siberian gas for sale in Europe. The Russian bosses decided to reduce their reliance on Ukrainian pipelines. German and Russian capitalists funded the multibillion-dollar Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline connecting their two countries. The project would double their capacity, provide 30% of Europe’s gas, and drive a wedge between the US and Europe. As the pipeline neared completion, US imperialists looked for excuses to block it.
Nord Stream 2 is crucial for the Russian rulers’ plans to expand their world empire. German capitalists were torn. The US was trying to restrict Germany’s gas supply to make it dependent on US liquified petroleum gas, which would be four times more expensive. But Germany was still under US military domination from World War II. It reluctantly followed the US imperialists and decertified Nord Stream 2.
That’s what triggered the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine. While US imperialists seemingly pushed Russian bosses into a corner, they also exposed more contradictions in Europe. Germany has since announced an unprecedented $130 billion war budget boost to break out of the US orbit and take a leading role in Europe.
The Ukrainian capitalists rely on military and financial support from the US and its Western allies. Zelenskyy’s plea for a no-fly zone in Ukraine was initially rejected because the Russian S-500 anti-aircraft system can devastate NATO air defenses. However, NATO is being drawn into a direct confrontation. Putin called the financial sanctions on Russia a “declaration of war.” The threat of nuclear war is real.
This conflict could spread. The Chinese imperialists are watching Taiwan carefully. They have increased their war budget to $240 billion. They have indicated their intentions to unify “Greater China.” In response, Japanese rulers approved their biggest increase in military spending in decades. They, too, no longer want to rely on the US.
Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, are reluctant to be seen as US proxies. India, Brazil, and South Africa have mainly been sitting on the sidelines.
Since the Vietnam war, the US imperialists have lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mainly because they fear the consequences of using massive ground troops. They might not be able to avoid this much longer. They, as well as the Russian imperialists, have reason to fear. When working-class soldiers refuse to be their cannon-fodder, the imperialists’ days are numbered.
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