Leaflet handed out by the IWG at anti-war protests.

Fool me once, shame on- shame on you. Fool me… you can't get fooled again!

George W. Bush

Once again, the United States has bombed the Middle East with the phrase “Weapons of Mass Destruction” being pounded on the heads of the working class- first Iraq, now Iran. Once again, regime change is called for while the only change guaranteed forworkers is slaughter by the thousands. Kidnappings of migrant workers here are paired with the bombings of workers there. Don’t be fooled! There is nothing in this war for us who work all day for someone else’s profits- except misery at home and abroad.

The attacks on Iran and their military facilities by the U.S. and their proxy, Israel, represent nothing less than one more step to global, imperialist war. The global powersare playing a grotesque game of positioning, preparing for the big fight. On one side, the U.S. and NATO. On the other, China and Russia. The more territory either side can control, the more massacres either side can inflict on workers, the better. This is the logic of a system bound for either bloodshed or downfall.

Every government today is run by the interests of capital and profit. And it is capital and profit that is facing an overwhelming crisis. You experience this crisis when your workload is speeding up, your wages stay stagnant, your benefits get cut, groceries become unaffordable, or when you’re evicted from your home. There isn’t enough profit to keep things running as normal. For the capitalist class, war is the only solution. The descent towards war is the logical (and insane) outcome of the capitalist system. There is no escape from it by hoping that the “good capitalist countries” win, or trying to pressure “our” government to completely change its reason for existence.

Our class can’t get fooled again. There is nothing in this world that can stop this war or the one that is to come except ourselves, the working class. We have no interest in this bloody game of the imperialists, the capitalist class. We don’t care about their profits or their “nations.” We create it all and get nothing from it.

The working class will have to struggle before this runaway train runs out of tracks. It will need to fight the capitalists in the workplace and outside of it, waging a political and economic war. It will have to fight using its own strength, never relegating the struggle to the unions or government. And pointing the way forward in this fight will have to be a political party aimed at one objective alone: revolution. When the working class seizes power and transforms society, we will know peace. This is why the ICT will always cryout:

NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR

Notes:

Image: Avash Media (CC BY 4.0), commons.wikimedia.org