HAMILTON ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR
Klasbatalo will have a presence at the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair.
When: Saturday, 30 September 2023
Where: Hamilton Craft Studios, 121 Princess St, Hamilton, ON L8L 8B7, Canada
Leaflet distributed by the CWO in the UK and the IWG in the USA.
Why has the more than 30 year old struggle for control of Ukraine burst into outright war across the whole territory now? For the same reason the cost of living is going through the roof around the world. The stagnation of the capitalist system means its economic crisis is deepening (and this is not just due to the pandemic).
For over 30 years Ukraine has seen a power struggle between the two main linguistic groupings via the 40 or so oligarchs who control most of the country’s declining wealth. And behind the struggling factions stand both Western and Russian imperialism. After the collapse of the USSR, NATO has expanded from 17 to 30 states and has already parked its tanks on Russia’s front door in the Baltic states. Since 2004 both NATO and the EU have been attempting to bring Ukraine into their sphere of influence. After the Maidan protests, supported by the West, overthrew the pro-Russian President in 2014, Putin acted. He helped Russian separatists in the Donbass and “re-took” the Crimea. His intention was to keep Ukraine weak but NATO arms supplies have given new force to its army. Hence the troop build-up which led to the current crisis.
Western demands that Russia remove the troops were matched by Putin’s counter-demand that Ukraine stay out of NATO. The failure of either side to concede resulted in Putin’s decision to invade. The citizens of Ukraine are the “collateral damage” of a capitalist system in crisis. No side has any more room for concessions. We are on the cusp of a new phase in the crisis and in history. This is not a new “Cold War” but the precursor of something far more dangerous. Putin has already reminded the West that Russia is a nuclear power and snarled on the first day of the invasion that any Western attempt to intervene would have consequences “the like of which the world has never seen”.
The crisis in Ukraine also underlines the consolidation of the imperialist line-ups which have been going on rapidly since 2020. In this crisis the US has been able to force Europe to (reluctantly) toe its line. The German announcement that Nord Stream 2 would not be licensed being one triumph for the US. On the other side China and Russia have signed trade agreements and Russia is China’s main fuel supplier. Significantly, Russia-China trade is now 89% in euros and not dollars, a blow to US leverage over them. This economic decoupling paves the way for more rivalry. In 2021 Russia and China engaged in joint military manoeuvres for the first time which took in much of the Western Pacific close to Japan. The stage is being set for a wider imperialist war which threatens the future of humanity even more sharply than climate change.
How can workers stop the plunge into the abyss? Seemingly not by demonstrations alone, despite the bravery of many “No War” demonstrators in Russia. The 2003 demonstration against the war in Iraq was the biggest in UK history but it went ahead all the same. At least they show that millions did not accept the official lies. We have to have a movement which can move millions to take strike action to undermine state power. This will not come any time soon but the continuing capitalist crisis means more misery for workers everywhere. Fighting against this deterioration has to give birth to a movement which recognises that we do not live in the best of all possible worlds but in one which offers penury today and imperialist war tomorrow. Already workers around the world from Iran to the US are beginning to find their own way to struggle and independent forms of coordination. This is a start. What is needed though is an anti-capitalist political compass which unites and organises those workers who can see that capitalism is finished internationally. This will not come about quickly, and faces many obstacles, but the capitalist crisis that has now lasted decades has no solution. Only the working class world wide can pose an alternative society without states, nationalism, exploitation and war.
No war but the class war! We have a world to win!
The Internationalist Communist Tendency consists of (unsurprisingly!) not-for-profit organisations. We have no so-called “professional revolutionaries”, nor paid officials. Our sole funding comes from the subscriptions and donations of members and supporters. Anyone wishing to donate can now do so safely using the Paypal buttons below.
ICT publications are not copyrighted and we only ask that those who reproduce them acknowledge the original source (author and website leftcom.org). Purchasing any of the publications listed (see catalogue) can be done in two ways:
The CWO also offers subscriptions to Revolutionary Perspectives (3 issues) and Aurora (at least 4 issues):
Take out a supporter’s sub by adding £10 (€12) to each sum. This will give you priority mailings of Aurora and other free pamphlets as they are produced.
HAMILTON ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR
Klasbatalo will have a presence at the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair.
When: Saturday, 30 September 2023
Where: Hamilton Craft Studios, 121 Princess St, Hamilton, ON L8L 8B7, Canada
ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR IN LONDON
The CWO will have a stall at the Anarchist Bookfair in London.
When: Saturday, 7 October 2023
Where: four venues in East London (see link below)
READING GROUP
This meeting's text: Theses on the Tasks of International Social-Democracy by Rosa Luxemburg
When: Saturday, 7 October 2023 at 6:00pm
Where: Hamilton, Canada (contact us through our social media for location details: linktr.ee)
Klasbatalo
NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR: WHAT OPPOSITION TO IMPERIALIST WAR REALLY MEANS
PUBLIC MEETING AND DISCUSSION
Topics of discussion:
When: Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 2:00pm
Where: 134 W 29th St, Fl. 2, Conference Room 3-4, New York, NY
Internationalist Workers’ Group
LONDON RADICAL BOOKFAIR
The CWO will have a stall at the London Radical Bookfair.
When: Saturday, 4 November 2023
Where: Great Hall and adjoinging rooms at Goldsmiths University, 8 Lewisham Way, London, SE14 6NW
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.