The Machine needs meat | Notes on the war in Ukraine and the plans of capitalists

Peace was but a moment of war

At the end of the 20th century, after “cold war” ended, war spread to every corner of the world through proxies that represented the interests of the winners. However, the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine is a cutting edge to this “tradition” due to the following distinguishable differences-consequences:

  1. This time the aggressor/revisionist is the Russian state instead of a country-member of the western block.
  2. The competition of capitalists takes the form of open war in European ground.
  3. The German state doubled its military budget and changed its defensive strategy entraining other European states towards the same direction.
  4. Capital accumulation is regionalized even more amongst Beijing and Washington as Russia converges to China.

After the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, the globalized capital started a violent transformation. The management of the public-health crisis by the states so far causes a deepening of the competition between capitalists, and the war in Ukraine accelerates the transition towards a new balance among hegemonic powers.

Russia’s invasion in Ukraine might not have been anticipated but it was not “a bolt from the blue”, despite the claims made by cheap and selective western humanitarianism that clouds the true reasons behind the conflict. This war is the continuation of a belligerent situation that has been building up for eight years, during which the following events took place: the Maidan uprising and the overthrow of the Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych in 2014, the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the armed revolt of Russian-speaking population against the government of Kiev and the defection of regions in Donbas. The civil conflict has led to thousands of deaths of unarmed people and in a regime that has incorporated Nazi paramilitary groups to its armed forces while it is openly supported and funded by Washington and NATO in order to sabotage any attempts for ceasefire and diplomatic settlement with Russia.

The hard ground of materialism

The true reasons behind the Russian-Ukrainian conflict are hard to trace but we are confident that it is a war between “full and hungry thugs”. The upscale intensity of the war is due to the increased rivalry between imperialist powers. This is not just a war between two nations but rather a confrontation of inter-state blocks of power where regions of

influence and security zones are at stake as well as control over resources and energy paths (natural gas plays a prominent role to this story). Today, the clash between imperialist powers takes place in Ukraine and the value of Ukrainian territory will be determined by the affinity of its future regime. The form of Ukrainian authority will depend upon which region of influence it will be part of, what alliances will Ukrainian capitalists make after the war. One potential outcome is that Ukraine will become a member of the European Union and an advanced NATO guard post, another is that it will become an active member of a Euro-Asian union, the formal creation of which as a distinct economic block is an ambition of Russian capitalism. It is obvious that the first scenario is considered a “casus belli” by Moscow since

a) a unification of European and Ukrainian markets will impose tariffs to Russian exports towards Ukraine and thus will bleed Russia’s economy and b) Russia will face some – far from negligible – geopolitical consequences as the North Atlantic alliance will advance closer to its borders.

Ukraine is of great geopolitical and strategic value. It provides access to the black sea and contains rich resources such as coal deposits and vast fertile farmlands. At the same time, the country is an energy junction for natural gas, distributed from Russia to Europe, which is an essential resource for European capitalist production. We argue that the Russian- Ukrainian conflict is to a large extent an attempt of Russian capitalism to manage the energy crisis though war, as it was gradually excluded from being Europe’s primary energy provider in the last few years.

The energy question in Europe is quickly rearranged, creating explosive situations that jeopardize global agreements1 such as the “Green Deal”, the new energy model that is being worked on intensively after the public health crisis, and stipulates the detachment of production from hydrocarbons (oil and natural gas).

European economies are currently dependent on Russia’s natural gas and are therefore forced to find alternatives as the cost of maintaining the current energy model is too high and the transition to greener energy forms is expensive and time-consuming.

Several (country) members of the EU debate whether nuclear energy can be characterized as green, while some of them are considering the use of lignite (Greece) or other forms of hydrocarbons such as USA’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which starts playing an important role in Europe’s energy provision, hence strengthening USA’s dominance in the EU especially via the trade agreement between Brussels and Washington that took place in March2. We should not forget that during the last couple of years, USA did everything in its power to disrupt economic agreements between European, Russian and Chinese capitals. The penalties imposed by Washington on Berlin in 2015 regarding the operation of nordstream2 pipeline are indicative of this tendency.

The forest of dead words

Every state needs a narrative to justify war operations to its subjects, a narrative that both captures the consent of the people and fortifies national unity. The building of national unity relies on the demonization of the opponent, particularly in states with strong military power and ambitions to expand outside of their borders. From the need to overemphasize cultural differences to the building of a monstrous representation of the enemy that provokes fear and aversion, these tactics become more and more popular as the prospect of war reaches the doorstep of the “civilized west”. The task of deciphering reality becomes extremely difficult when fear spreads in society and the simple explanations provided by the states are accepted by many people.

To justify the conflict in the eyes of Russian society and to maintain diplomatic ties with other countries, the Russian state explained its invasion in this framework as an effort to combat fascism. The western mainstream narrative on the other hand, focuses on depictions of Putin as the new Hitler who wants to conquer Europe.

In the end, the ideological scheme that prevails is one of binaries, a binary between fascists and democrats, between west and east, between imperialists and defenders, between good and evil. Public discourse is shaped in a way that society is forced to take sides, while historical concepts such as antifascism and democracy are obscured in this process.

The Greek state actively participates in the war

From the first instants of the armed conflict in Ukraine, the Greek state has been involved in the conflict. It immediately sent military equipment and even declared itself ready to provide armed forces to defend Kiev’s regime. The Greek state could not act differently for two reasons:

First, the Greek state already provides its services (military bases, equipment and armed forces) to the western allied block and its wars in the past few decades: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Yemen and Sahel, regardless of which government is on power. The Greek state is always present in the trenches of the 21st century, under the flags of the world peace arsonists, claiming exchanges from the loots. Today, apart from creating new military bases and upgrading existing ones, the Greek state’s national interest requires the construction of two new stations for natural gas condensation in Alexandroupoli and Corinth, in an effort to transform the country into a junction for LNG distribution. The ship- owners have taken over the golden business of transport, as the Greek state/capital tries to benefit from the opportunities that arise from the military conflict in Ukraine. It further aligns with American interests and draws all of us into its interstate conflicts and antagonisms.

Secondly, the Greek state’s foreign policy is anti-Turkish in principle. This expresses the antagonism between Turkish and Greek capitalism that takes place in the Aegean, the

Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. Greek state’s expansionist aspiration to isolate Turkey from the greater area of the eastern Mediterranean is revealed through the constant development of economic and military relations with the racist regime of Israel and the Egyptian junta. Today, the state aims to upgrade the value of its ground as geopolitical balances are re-formed and war disputes could take place to every corner of the world. As long as Athens sees Ancyra gaining more points as a mediator among the belligerents, it will continue to push its involvement in the battlefields. Greekstate’sparticipationinthewarin Ukraine aims to advance its position during the next phase of the Greek-Turkish antagonism.

Their war is everywhere, our enemy is here

Since the war began, local authorities and their mouthpieces are conducting a different type of war through media, constantly dispersing miss-information and cheap humanitarianism. They are developing a common perception of who is considered as “enemy of the state” in order to drain our consent to their criminal businesses. They are preparing the ground to be able to push people into the man-slaughter, and supress anyone who doesn’t comply with their military schemes, if war reaches our part of the world. This echoing the ways the Russian state attacks the anti-war movement (in Russia) with menace.

The warring conflict is becoming more destructive every day. The risk of this situation developing beyond control at the global scale is real and critical, and it is therefore necessary to establish a mass anti-war/anti-military standing that will:

>> identify the true nature of the war and won’t pursue victory of one power-block against the other. The war in Ukraine isn’t conducted for noble reasons on any side. It becomes more and more evident that the working classes of Russia and Ukraine are the ones paying the heaviest price.

>> prioritize the blocking of Greek state’s involvement in the war and oppose any warmongering standings, whether they speak of national interests against Turkey or in favour of NATO’s war machine aiming to transform the country into an endless military base.

In today’s situation it is vital that proletarian internationalism becomes the heartland of movements in every country. This means that bridges of communication with workers across the Aegean, the Balkans and elsewhere must be built in order to organize our struggles at the basis of our common needs3. We need to raise awareness of Europe’s vile and racist war against migrants at the borders, in the detention centres and the hearts of our cities.

On the occasion of war in Ukraine, our wages suffer a new round of assault through massive appreciations in prices of basic commodities. The local capitalists work in collaboration with the state to stress the idea of “necessary sacrifices that need to be made” in order to endure the difficult circumstances that are affected by the Ukrainian battlefields. Their war has already moved to the super-market shelves, gas prices and electric bills.

Our enemy is here, no other than our bosses and their political representatives. It is up to us to fight against them, with struggles that “speak” the language of our basic needs in the workplace, in schools and our neighbourhoods. This is the only way to dismantle the national unity in practice and build our defences against the future of warfare.

April 2022

Movements for Class Autonomy (KTA)

Notes:

  1. At least regarding the future goals of European members. For the moment, natural gas is still distributed from Russia into the European market.
  2. This deal speaks of a 15 billion cubic meters LNG supply by the end of 2022, which corresponds to 2/3 of European imports from Russia. In that way, American LNG becomes the bridge towards Europe’s energy transition.
  3. One important step towards this direction is the coordination of Motorbike Worker’s Base Assembly (ΣΒΕΟΔ) with respective worker’s unions in other countries, for organizing an international strike on May 1st.