Whenever we switch on the TV, listen to the radio, or look at our phones, we see more bleak news from yet another war, yet another atrocity, yet another row between heads of state that brings humanity closer to the precipice. The world appears to be spiralling out of control and the warning signs that a more generalised conflict is on the horizon are now difficult to deny.

A World at War

US and Israeli attempts at regime change in Iran have failed, and instead the war continues. The Strait of Hormuz — one of the world's most important trade routes — remains effectively blocked, impeding the transport of oil and gas, and driving up prices around the world. In Palestine and Lebanon, despite alleged “ceasefires”, Israel continues to kill, targeting children in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, the IDF openly supports the settlers who now dominate the Israeli security cabinet which approved over $430 million to establish 34 new settlements in their attempts to expel or murder Palestinians. Meanwhile in Sudan, Congo and Myanmar, protracted civil wars between ethnic groups, proxy forces and failed states are bringing disease, death and devastation to whole areas of the planet. International institutions like the UN now talk openly of genocides and crimes against humanity already having been committed or in the process of being carried out in places like Gaza, Sudan or Myanmar. Such is the nature of imperialist war. In Ukraine, Russia’s invasion pivots between stalemate and escalation, as guns, tanks, artillery and increasingly drones obliterate conscripts and infrastructure on both sides. And the war fronts are joining up – Ukraine’s recent attacks on Iranian merchant vessels bound for Russia in the Caspian Sea are matched by the revival of the Houthis' war with Saudi Arabia in the Strait of Mandeb in aid of Iran, thus choking another key world trade route.

These are only some of the more prominent of the many ongoing conflicts that bring misery to millions around the world.

Bidding for World Supremacy: US vs. China

At the root of many of these conflicts lies a scramble for world domination between two empires. China sees the US as a declining power and senses an opportunity to overtake it, both economically and militarily. In light of this, the US has been desperately clinging to its spot atop the international pecking order by systematically undermining or attacking Chinese interests and Chinese allies around the world. We see that in Iran, Ukraine, Venezuela, Cuba.

And yet, the prospect of another financial crash is shaping the plans of all the contenders…

Capitalist Crisis: The Elephant in the Room

Why are all these conflicts intensifying now? Since the end of the post-war boom in the 1970s, the capitalist system has gone from expedient to expedient. The collapse of the USSR happened without a world war but it did allow for the rise of China as a cheap manufacturing hub. Millions of workers in the West lost their jobs to outsourcing, deregulation and general globalisation, whilst financialisation, automation and now the AI mania allow capitalism to stagger on. None of these have resolved the central contradictions of a system built on the exploitation of the many by the few, nor have they been able to bring back the kind of profitability that could produce another economic boom. Instead, everywhere we see stagnation and what’s been popularly dubbed “enshittification”. The ruling class is running out of options, increasingly turning on each other to protect their spoils.

At the altar of profit, the capitalist system sacrifices our physical and mental health, the arts and culture, and the natural environment. Instead money and resources are increasingly being squandered on the drive to war. For working class people still lucky enough not to live in open conflict zones, everyday reality means collapsing health services, an overwhelmed education system, dying high streets, fewer jobs on the mockery ‘job market’. No wonder so many are desensitised and depressed. No wonder so many are angry, tragically buying into the divisive lies of the populist right and directing that anger against migrants, especially those “of colour”, instead of against a capitalist system that’s no longer working for humanity.

The Working Class Holds the Key to a New World

As the flashpoints of capitalist crisis come together in one immense conflagration, we are hurtling towards what Marx and Engels once termed the “common ruin of the contending classes”. The chasm that separates the rich and poor has never been so vast. We cannot expect the ruling class to wake up one day, see the error of their ways, and give up their endless pursuit of profit so we can all finally start fixing the world. So it’s up to the working class — the vast majority of the world population on whose labour the whole global system of profit production is based — to take matters into our own hands.

It has never been more obvious that the working class is one global class, coming under attack from one global system that one way or another is destroying the basis for life on earth. We all share the same interest — an end to capitalism and the creation of a new world based on solidarity, cooperation, and production according to need. Uniquely placed at the very heart of commodity production, we the workers hold the power to bring the system to its knees through our resistance in our workplaces and communities. Even today there are signs of such a fightback in the form of strikes (as in Bolivia and Portugal), mass protests (as in Chile and India), and resistance to conscription (as in Ukraine), to name a few. Though these have remained isolated and thus fleeting, exhausted of their energies or channelled back into capitalism’s reformist quagmire, they have hinted at a challenge to the powers-that-be. What is still lacking is more extensive class unity and self-organisation, and a common political goal. We can’t conjure up the sparks of class struggle, but the more of us who are already politically prepared for revolution, the sooner the working class as a whole will be able to get rid of crumbling capitalism. In this sense, the future of humanity everywhere belongs to the working class.

The above article is taken from the current edition (No. 76) of Aurora, bulletin of the Communist Workers’ Organisation.