Choose Communist Revolution, Not Imperialist War! here ♦ Greek Workers Block NATO Delivery here ♦
Workers, Soldiers, Youth: Choose Communist Revolution, Not Imperialist War!
April 17—We will know soon enough whether the war in Ukraine will spark World War III. We know already that it is shaking what’s left of the post-World War II order.
The NATO/Russia war in Ukraine is total war. It impacts industrial, agricultural, financial, military, and cultural life. Like the US war in Iraq and the Russian war in Chechnya, it is reducing cities to rubble. For example, Russian bombardment smashed the port of Mariupol and the roads and bridges leading to it. Wheat desperately needed by masses in Egypt and East Africa can no longer come through Mariupol.
Kyiv could be next. After Ukraine sank Russia’s flagship vessel in the Black Sea (with NATO assistance), Russia destroyed a plant that probably produced one of the missiles used in that attack. The next day, Russian rockets hit a Kyiv military hardware plant.
This “border clash” is changing the world. It is currently the front line of a contest between two contradictory plans for world domination. The first is the post-World War II US-led North Atlantic integration (NATO). The second is taking shape through China’s ambitious “Belt and Road Initiative” and the export of Russian energy.
US, Russian, and especially Chinese imperialists don’t want world war. They fear it. They know that the first two World Wars ended in mass workers’ revolutions that seemed improbable beforehand. But fearing war does not mean they can avoid either the war or its consequence, a revolution.
This time, we need worldwide communist revolution, not revolution for socialism. In both Russia and China, socialism followed its inevitable internal logic to become the imperialism there today.
Imperialist Propaganda Aims to Win Loyalty of Soldiers and Workers
Imperialist wars require not only weapons of mass destruction – bombs, tanks, hypersonic missiles – but also weapons of mass deception. We mean the stories and lies the rulers push through official media and the so-called free press.
One aim of this propaganda is to motivate front-line soldiers to kill and die for the bosses’ profits. Imperialist rulers see these young workers as expendable. Russia is sending some soldiers to Ukraine without even food supplies! Some are fighting, but some are already refusing. The US army never fully recovered from its lost war on Vietnam, when soldiers’ and sailors’ rebellions rocked bases, stockades, and Navy ships.
Another propaganda goal is to condition the civilian masses to accept the catastrophic violence, destruction, and costs of the war itself. Today there is the skyrocketing cost of gasoline. Tomorrow, a key service, like a day care center, will close when its government subsidies are diverted to an anti-tank Javelin missile for allies in Ukraine.
The US propaganda buildup started in January. A chorus sang of an innocent Ukraine facing a Russian invasion directed by a mad and isolated dictator. Ever since, among all the war victims and refugees from Ethiopia and Yemen to Haiti and Central America, the media single out only blue-eyed Ukrainians for humanitarian aid.
The lie was mainly one of omission. Unsaid was that the US deliberately provoked a Russian response, fearing Europe’s tilt toward the growing China- Russia alliance. Or that it was the US-led sanctions on Iran and Libya that drove Europe to seek energy resources from Russia. Or that seventeen European countries had signed on to China’s “Belt and Road Initiative.”
The US began dismantling arms agreements with Russia. In 2019, for example, it cancelled the INF Treaty. That meant it would no longer limit the number of intermediate nuclear missiles it would build. It stationed increasing numbers of missiles along Russian borders. The Defense Department downgraded its “War on Terror” to focus its military doctrine on Russia and China.
Eventually the Russians had to respond. That’s how the capitalist system functions and how imperialist war starts. Its consequences include food insecurity, starvation, inflation, and economic recession in addition to the front-lines death and destruction. But these provoke resistance and rebellion. Under these and similar social conditions, the plan of revolution for communism increasingly gains traction.
Nothing is guaranteed. But Red Flag is presenting the working class with a clear choice: imperialist war or communist revolution. We invite all readers to share and discuss it with friends, family, and co-workers. Now is the time to build study-action groups and ICWP collectives!
Greek Workers Block NATO Weapons Delivery
April 10—In the Greek city of Thessaloniki, port workers and others fought police, trying to stop the delivery of NATO weapons to Ukraine. Earlier, Greek railway workers had refused to transport US and NATO military materiel through the port of Alexandroupolis to Romania and Poland, from where it was supposed to go to Ukraine. They ridiculed employers’ statements that “What do you care what the trains carry, it’s your job and you are obliged to go.”
Instead they insisted that “We, the railway workers, work to provide affordable and quality transportation to the people and for the transport of goods which can be used to meet their needs, not to become part of the country’s involvement in plans which are dangerous for the people.”
Under capitalism, workers are forced to serve the bosses’ needs. Only in communism can we all truly serve the masses of people. Class-conscious industrial workers like these will be key to communist revolution in Greece and everywhere.
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