World capitalism has definitively entered a new era. While violence and oppression have always been part and parcel of this system, the global power struggle and immense multi-crisis of capitalism has pushed militarism and war back to the heart of imperialist policy.
Global military spending is surpassing historic levels (US$2.7 trillion in 2024). Government after government is making moves to inflate the size of their armed forces. Nationalistic propaganda has intensified. We are in a period in which the elites of the world are sharpening their knives in an increasingly naked struggle for direct control of resources and influence.
There is no region of the world today free of the bloody fingerprints of this ‘new normal’. From the staggering heights of genocidal onslaught in Palestine to the imperialist-stoked carnage of the Sudanese civil war, the Ukrainian meat-grinder to Trump’s war on Venezuela and the brutal on-going reality of neocolonialism, nowhere is safe. Whether the offices of those responsible are in Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Brussels or elsewhere makes little difference to the outcome, which is death, starvation, displacement and immiseration.
Much of this description could have been lifted from over a century ago. Writing at that time in his book Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin described the power-struggle that led to the first great imperialist world war – “a war for the division of the world, for the partition and repartition of colonies and spheres of influence.” Any major conflict today would have to be accounted similarly.
But this does not have to be the case. The agenda of the ruling class cannot be accomplished without the subjugation of billions of workers and youth around the world. Mighty anti-war and anti-imperialist movements have been built in the past, the most powerful of those linked to revolutionary overthrow of capitalism in favor of world socialism. Most notably it was the Russian Revolution of 1917, which had these aims at its heart, that brought an end to the mass slaughter of World War I inspiring a global revolutionary wave that shook the foundations of militarism, war and imperialism.
Build the Anti-War Movement!
The situation today cries out for such a movement. Signs of its potential are already here. From the development of political strikes among the global Palestine solidarity movement to the anti-conscription student strikes in Germany, workers and young people clearly are willing to fight back. That’s why International Socialist Alternative is launching a new international campaign against war and militarism.
The purpose of the campaign is to play a role in the building of a wider movement and crucially to open up a discussion about what strategy, tactics and program it must strive for. An anti-war movement capable of bringing the imperialist war machine to a halt must be based on the self-organisation of the working masses independent of ALL imperialism, and ALL capitalist parties, their politicians and their agendas. It needs to wield the weapons of the working class – mass collective action, strikes and the development of our own political forces. It must not confine itself to national or regional lines in opposition to a few imperialist powers, but instead build an international struggle to strike a blow against all imperialism. Most importantly, any successful anti-imperialist and anti-war movement must be rooted in the struggle for socialist revolution against the source of the problem – capitalism.
ISA sections have already been helping foment the resistance. The entire international has put its weight into the immense global movement of solidarity with Palestine over the past years. We have linked this struggle to the need to oppose all imperialist war and militarism as governments around the world have ramped up nationalist propaganda and warmongering.
In Germany, we have played a role in different cities organizing students against the reintroduction of conscription and emphasized the importance of this struggle within Die Linke. In Sweden, our organization has been active in building the ‘No to NATO’ campaign and now the ‘September Rebellion’ movement against the right-wing government including its militarist policies. In Brazil, our members have been part of recent debates on the Latin American left, calling for a new anti-imperialist and anti-war struggle based on the working class. In Nigeria, we have been active in the trade union movement, advocating for a clear socialist alternative of the working masses to the Tinubu regime, terrorism and imperialist military intervention. In the US, Socialist Alternative has been campaigning drawing the link between Trump’s military misdeeds abroad to his increasingly violent war by ICE against workers and youth at home.
Over the coming months, ISA will be kicking this campaign off with an international speaking tour with revolutionary socialist anti-war activists speaking at meetings around the world. Details will be posted here on our international website – internationalsocialist.net – and Socialist Alternative Canada’s website. Already we have launched an important new issue of our international theoretical journal International Marxism around these themes – subscribe here. We will also be producing a series of additional materials and Marxist analysis further expanding on the themes of anti-war and anti-militarism.
If you’re interested in joining the campaign and the struggle for a world free of war and exploitation, come to our meetings or apply to join Socialist Alternative Canada today.
