Editorial

When anyone asked John Reed, the famous revolutionary journalist, what the foundations of the First World War were, he would invariably answer: "Profits!" Behind the countless massacres that have bloodied the twentieth century, behind the patriotic speeches, religious exhaltation, humanitarian pretensions, anti-colonialist fervor, behind all of these hypocritical pretenses, the cause of the hemmoraging has always been, in the final analysis, a wild quest for profits.

Just as in the recent war in ex-Yugoslavia, the ongoing conflict in Chechnya is imperialist. Despite the web of lies spun by the propaganda mill of the different camps, this war has nothing to do with self determination for Chechnya, the arrest of "terrrorist bandits", the expansion of Islamic fundamentalism, nor even the consolidation of the authority of the clique of gangsters in the Kremlin. This war, at its heart, is over the control of the rich oil and gas production, current and forseen, of the Caucasuses, of the Caspian Sea and nearby territories. In fact, beyond the actual combattants on the terrain, this war invloves Russia, United States and the European Union. It is an integral part of the strategy of rebuilding imperialist blocks that has been going on since the disintegration of the Stalinist USSR.

This war lays bare the immense ideological domination that the bourgeosie maintains over our class, because it is workers enrolled with or against their will, with or without uniforms, who are the canon fodder of the bourgeois armies. We state this without cynicism or defeatism, but out of respect for the truth, because one needs to acknowledge reality if one wants to transform it.

Workers don't have a side in this conflict. They have no interest in supporting nationalism, be it Russian or Caucasian. The only side to defend and promote, is the side of a united, organized, autonomous, and armed working class - to put an end to all wars by overthrowing the capitalist system that give birth to them. We must cut down the beast that devours our humanity every day.

Until then, as long as illusions in democracy, reformism, and social harmony predominate, we will regularly be invited to the banquet table of the rich as the main course. Capitalists will marvel at the wonders of their speculative bubble, and generals will grant themselves honours and medals for their "profession". For them, there will be awards: the Victoria Cross, the Cross of the Legion of Honour, la croix de Guerre, the Military Cross, the Iron Cross. But for the worker submitted to the dictates of capital, there will inevitably only be a simple wooden cross...