War Situation Update: A War That Changed the World

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Ukraine war is watershed in world history

Danny Byrne International Socialist Road

Thousands of people have been killed in the bloody war waged by Russian imperialism against Ukraine for 10 days. In a wartime situation, where reports and figures inevitably differ and even contradict one another, Reuters estimated the death toll at 10,000 on March 4.

This figure includes many Russian troops who lost their lives as they encountered strong Ukrainian armed resistance throughout Ukraine. Even Russian authorities now admit that more than 600 soldiers were killed, including a general.

According to the United Nations, more than 1.2 million refugees fled Ukraine on March 5, and the number is growing rapidly.

Despite Putin's denials, the war has certainly not gone according to Putin's plans so far. Russia's overwhelming military has taken more than a week to take control of Kherson, a major Ukrainian city, and at the time of writing, the Ukrainian army still controls the capital, Kyiv.

In response, Putin is escalating his atrocities. The Russian onslaught had entered the stage of indiscriminate shelling and siege of towns. Reports say 80 percent of homes in towns have been bombed.

Putin even made nuclear threats and raised the Russian military's nuclear weapons alert level. While this was presumably "just" another insane intimidation of force, it didn't make the situation any less dangerous.

Then, on Friday morning (March 4), people across the globe were awakened by such a momentous event after Russia shelled Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. Before the nuclear power plant was occupied, a large number of workers and local residents mobilized by the Russian army blocked it for several days and was unable to advance.

The global working class and young people responded to the war with intense indignation, solidarity, and anxiety that intensified as the war escalated. These sentiments have begun to translate into another massive international anti-war movement - mainly in Europe at this stage. As socialists, as part of the movement calling for an end to this war and the withdrawal of Russian troops, we point out that this development is our hope and path to a real solution based on working-class internationalism.

In addition to the horrific human suffering in Ukraine, the conflict has plunged the world further into a spiral of intra-imperialist conflict and rivalry. As the war intensifies, there will be more tension between imperialists, and there is a greater risk of broader and even more destructive armed conflict in the future.

In addition to the pandemic, the pre-existing climate crisis, and many other forms of human suffering that capitalism forced humanity to endure in the 2020s, there is now the horror of war. Those who have understood this, must redouble their efforts to build a socialist alternative to put an end to capitalism and imperialism.

watershed in world history

The war has accelerated all major geopolitical and economic trends that have occurred. "Decoupling" has become a more concrete reality as the Russian economy becomes increasingly isolated from Western networks and supply chains.

Inflationary pressures on the world economy are intensifying as already bleak economic growth forecasts are downgraded. Oil prices soared as central banks around the world prepared to raise interest rates, signaling a recession as before.

Regardless of how the war develops now, the world is in the midst of a historic wave of further militarization. Germany, the most important power in Europe, suddenly changed its military approach, tripling its defense spending. The stock market value of "defense" (aka war) companies soars as the market prepares for an accelerated arms race, the profits will be huge, and the working class will pay the price.

War and the military industry are also culprits of environmental damage. EU politicians have tried to reduce their reliance on Russian gas, some citing "environmental protection", but their short-term solution is simply to increase burning of coal, oil and nuclear power.

The war was also an important turning point in the new Cold War. The main axis of today's global geopolitics is the conflict led by Chinese and American imperialism. At least for now, Western imperialism has strengthened its position. Contrary to Putin's expectation of a split between the EU and the US, Russia's invasion has brought Western capitalist powers "together", and the latter's sanctions have increased qualitatively compared to the past - of course, this will hurt innocent people far more than those oligarchs them. The war also led to a major turn of opinion in countries such as Finland and Sweden, which may lead to further expansion of NATO in Europe.

And Chinese imperialists, initially looking to take the opportunity to strengthen Russia's position in the Cold War, are now trying to distance themselves from Putin's war, which they see as a superfluous threat to instability. The Xi regime is also concerned that sanctions against Russia will also affect its own economy.

Do not believe in NATO! Socialists oppose Western military intervention

Western imperialism is using this major historical event in a "shock-ism" manner to win a major "victory" in policy, including the aforementioned content, so as to expand NATO and become a stronger backing for U.S. imperialism .

In addition to the policy victory, the war also allowed Western imperialism to win support in the Cold War among the masses of Western countries to a certain extent.

They try to hide their naked pursuit of profits, power, and prestige, as well as their essence as a group of robbers competing to divide the spoils, and play the role of justice teachers who spread democracy and humanitarianism and resist "hostile" dictatorships. Over the past few decades, especially after the failure of the "war on terror" in Iraq and Afghanistan, among others, there has been widespread distrust of Western imperialism by millions of working-class people around the world.

Right now the world's eyes are rightly focused on Putin's crimes of aggression, but the working class has also seen with their own eyes that Western imperialism is equally bloody, cruel and omnipotent for its own ambitions.

Against this background, socialists must take into account the possibility of further Western military assistance to Ukraine. With the bourgeois media taking the lead, many people around the world, not only in their own regions, feel the horror of war and understandably desperately seek a "realistic" solution, and thus support these Western aid.

Among the options discussed are the possibility of Ukraine quickly joining NATO, increasing the delivery of weapons, and establishing a "no-fly zone". In recent days, Zelensky's Ukrainian government has put strong pressure on the establishment of a no-fly zone. On Saturday, March 5, in response to NATO's rejection of its proposal, he said: "Everyone who will die in the future is because of you (NATO), because of your weakness, because you are not united."

Although U.S. imperialism does not seem to intend to directly intervene in this way, and is temporarily content to launch an economic war against Russia, a group of Western political and military establishment figures are now beating the gongs and drums. Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, chair of the UK Parliament's "Defence Select Committee", is one of the establishment politicians who supports the no-fly zone and said he does not share the "defeatist" fears that it would lead to a third world war. He advocated "more confident management of these high-stakes Cold War situations".

Former NATO Allied Commander-in-Chief in Europe, retired U.S. general Philip Breedlove, also supports such an intervention, even publicly admitting it would constitute an "act of war" against Russia.

Socialists oppose all forms of Western military intervention, not because we don't think we should fight against Putin's aggression, but because we know that NATO and US imperialism are not allies of the Ukrainian people.

NATO is not a "defense alliance", but a war alliance established by U.S. imperialism in 1949 with the goal of "ensuring that the United States remains in (Europe), Russia is kept out, and Germany is suppressed below" - this It was the explanation of Lord Lionel Hastings, the first secretary-general of NATO and the British general.

Western intervention has no democratic or humanitarian purpose. Also, we point to the recent experience of the Kurds in Syria, whose "leaders" welcomed the bombing of the US against ISIS, but when Erdogan's Turkish forces invaded, because helping them did not fit the short-term of US imperialism target, they were ruthlessly abandoned.

Socialists must remind the working class to see the big picture and learn its history. It is never good to believe that the ruling elite of "the country", or either faction of capitalism or imperialism, is good for the working class or the oppressed.

Build an independent working class to defend itself against invasion

In Ukraine, a strong mass force to resolutely resist the Russian invasion has clearly formed, which has made Putin's invasion plan much more complicated and difficult. Socialists support mass resistance to occupation and the right of the masses to armed self-defense.

However, in order to realize the full potential of domestic working-class resistance, self-defense should be organized on a truly mass, democratic basis, independent of the political control and central command of the Kyiv government. Self-defense committees should be linked to working-class organizations — structures such as the trade unions that Zelensky's government suppressed just a few months ago.

People's self-defense and resistance should also be organized across nationalities to reflect the national and cultural diversity of the Ukrainian population and to unite the entire people under the banner of the struggle for the right to self-determination of all nationalities, including minorities within Ukraine.

The working class and the People's Self-Defense Committee should also be linked to the peaceful anti-war resistance of the working class internationally, especially the anti-war protests in Russia and Belarus, because they have a very important strategic task - to be able to build up the masses to end the war as soon as possible sports.

Russian authorities are on trial - supporting protests, fighting for a new Russian revolution

The Putin regime has acted in this crisis not on its own strength, but on its weakness. Since the restoration of capitalism, the decline of Russian imperialism has accelerated for 30 years, and what he has done is to try his best to break this situation, but also out of fear of his own regime being overthrown. In recent years, uprisings against the dictatorship have erupted in the region, and there have also been waves of crises and anti-government protests in Russia.

From the very beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, there has been a strong mass opposition in Russia, with thousands of heroic workers and youth prepared to risk immediate arrest and spontaneously take to the streets to protest. As the war continued, body bags of dead Russian soldiers piled up, the Russian economy was in crisis due to sanctions, and Russian workers were forced to bear more pain. These are just "special operations" committed for Putin; these situations will only make the outbreak The time for a mass popular uprising against Putin is quicker, and Putin and his cronies know that.

As a result, we are seeing greater domestic censorship and repression by the Putin regime. Authorities hastily passed new legislation that imposes harsh prison terms on those who oppose the war or "commit" "crimes" of telling the truth. There are even rumors that the Putin regime is planning to impose martial law — in a sense declaring war on its own people. Many websites have been blocked in Russia, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

It remains to be seen whether such a crackdown will be able to contain the huge backlog of contradictions in Russian society, and how long it will last.

A vital task for all socialists and anti-war activists around the world is to provide all possible support, solidarity and solidarity with the struggle of Russian workers and youth. Launch a new Russian revolution to overthrow the Putin regime, not to replace it with a pro-NATO puppet regime, but a workers' government with a socialist policy - such a development will change the world situation, end the war quickly, and start a new one in East and West A global wave of revolutionary movements against militant governments and ruling classes.

We still have hope - an international working class movement against war and imperialism

The most important task of anti-war workers and youth around the world is to build a mass anti-war movement in their own country. In the process, working-class organizations and social movements must consciously resist two pressures—to take a stance of “national solidarity” with Western governments, or to accept their hollow and hypocritical anti-war rhetoric.

Our movement must be based on the organization and mass mobilization of international working people. Mass street protests, a crucial first step, have already begun to develop, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets of cities in Germany in recent days and thousands more across Europe Resist yo. However, we can most effectively exert real pressure to curb war and militarism by developing a working-class platform and demonstrating the power we have as workers.

We have already seen some actions by workers against the war that could be intensified in the coming period. On March 3, dock workers in Kent, England, refused to dock a Russian oligarch's tanker, forcing the tanker to divert the tanker that had originally decided to dock at the Kent terminal because of loopholes in the implementation of British sanctions. Then in Scotland's Orkney Islands, unionized dockworkers pledged to do the same with a Russian tanker scheduled to dock there next week.

This targeted, working-class anti-war action, independent of the government and its imperialist calculations, should be exported internationally – from Moscow to Mexico – as universal action, thus establishing coordinated workers’ action, with the world Street protests everywhere have escalated the action.

Against the backdrop of many waves of working-class and popular uprisings across the globe over the past few years, a growing anti-war movement could provide the necessary antidote to this imperialist killing amid the desperation and anxiety aroused among the masses. The international working class can be a formidable social force in future times as the decaying capitalist system reveals its involvement in more bloody wars, and countless other types of misery.

The working class has no interest in national, racial divisions, but puts people and the planet first, so the working class can lead the fight to end war and imperialism and usher in a new era of worker solidarity and socialism. As part of a working-class and social movement, the International Socialist Way ISA builds support for such struggles across the globe. join us!

We stand for:

• Against the Ukrainian War! Defend the right of Ukrainians to determine their own future, including the right of minorities to self-determination​​​​​​​!
• Immediately withdraw the Russian troops!
• Say no to US/NATO imperialism and militarism!
• Oppose EU's racist refugee policy! Provide safe and legal escape routes for all refugees. Demand decent housing, health care and jobs or social benefits for all!
• No illusions about the diplomacy of the warmongers. Build a massive anti-war, anti-imperialist movement, linking workers and youth across countries​​​​​​​.
• Replacing the conflict of capitalism leading to war and destruction with an alternative to internationalist working-class socialism.