War against War!
(Council communist collective at Düsseldorf, March 13, 2022)
The war over Ukraine is a result of the imperialist competition of states. It is idle to determine who is the “guilty”, who is the “weaker”. For the calculations of the states such moral questions are irrelevant, but for the propaganda they are extremely important.
The fact check: The USA and its allies have watched with satisfaction as the territorial remnants of the Soviet Union (SU) degraded from highly industrialized regions to suppliers of raw materials. Only the production of military goods retained world standards. As a result, numerous former Eastern Bloc states and SU republics were admitted to the EU and integrated into the NATO military alliance. The threat to Russia was additionally increased by the cancellation of important disarmament agreements on the part of NATO. The world political competitor seemed to be defeated.
A state cannot resign itself to this. Russia wants to assert its world standing, which it still has with its nuclear force, draws “red lines”, threatens war and – even if it risks self-destruction (1) – ultimately carries it out.
Any state that is on a war course needs the consent of large segments of the population. Acceptance of additional hardships or a radical change of policy sign from peace propaganda to war agitation cannot be taken for granted. Thus, a 24-hour indoctrination by the media and state representatives is taking place. Those who cannot be persuaded in this way are excluded from the “national community” with gentle or fierce pressure. This happens in the West as well as in the East.
The victims of the competition between states – in peace times as well as in war times – always are the common population, the wage laborers. Their cheap labor power creates the means for the assertiveness of the states, they have to bear the burdens of war preparation and war, they may let themselves be massacred in the battles.
Thus, there is no identity between the interests of the state and the needs of the population for a good and carefree life. It is a fatal error to conceive of the state as a service provider for the well-being of the people. (2) It is exactly the other way around. The mass of the population has only one task – and this becomes particularly clear in times of crisis – it must, to its detriment, subordinate itself to the welfare of the state and, through its work, ensure that the state is provided with the necessary means for its violent enforcement, both internally and externally.
And the harm that the citizen of the state risks in solidarity with those in power can go as far as his premature demise:
On Thursday, March 3, TV host Til Nassif spoke in an interview with Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kiev [on German television]. Nassif wanted to know if Klitschko was afraid that he might not survive the Ukraine war – who answered dryly, with a shrug of his shoulders: “It’s an honor to die for your country.” (Focus-Online)
The war is not only murderous, but also suicidal. That is why there are never good reasons for war for large parts of the population! On March 10, a desperate Ukrainian woman expressed herself in the Morgenmagazin of the ZDF:
“Pain, I feel pain. These are cities full of heroes: Kharkiv, Kherson, Kiev. But we don’t want to be heroes, we just want to stay alive.”
One should not take sides with the competing world of states. In all respects, such an attitude is to one’s own detriment. The competing states themselves are our opponents.
Rätekommunistisches Kollektiv Düsseldorf, March 13, 2022.
Source: Rätekommunistisches Kollektiv Düsseldorf: Krieg dem Kriege! (Left-Wing Communism blog)
Translation: AFRD.
Notes:
1 The Ukrainian state, conversely, does not calculate differently!
2 The West justifies its steadfastness against Russian claims with the protection of freedom and democracy. Whereby here the freedom of property is understood, which causes the divorce of the society into profit-oriented owners of the means of production and wage-dependent thereof. Democracy enables an unrestricted rule based on the periodic consent of the population.
The title of this statement is drawn from an anti-militaristic writing by Ernst Friedrich from 1924: Krieg dem Kriege!, documenting and denouncing the horrors of the First World War. It originally appeared in German, French, English and Dutch, and was subsequently translated into many other languages.“Called up for the First World War, Ernst Friedrich refused military service on grounds of conscience. Because he refused to put on a uniform, he was assigned to an observation ward for the mentally ill. In 1917, he was sentenced to prison in Potsdam for sabotage at a war-important plant. He was released at the end of 1918 due to the November Revolution.” (From Wikipedia,German)
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