Globally, there are 32 countries currently in armed conflict. The types of conflict vary widely. While the severity and duration of these conflicts differ, they all have significant impacts on our class and result in a high number of casualties as well as humanitarian crises. The common factor is capitalism and its local state proxies.
Gaza, despite being so small it would disappear in any of the battlefronts currently taking place in Ukraine, has nonetheless pushed that war out of the public mind – for now. What characterizes both is the hypocrisy and double standards of all involved.
Gaza must rank along with Khorramshahr, Vukovar, Sarajevo, Grozny, Aleppo and Mariupol in the great urban annihilations of the last 50 years. Though atrocity it seems remains in the eye of the beholder.
On November 5th, in an act of self-promotion to his West Bank settler constituency, Israel’s now suspended Heritage Minister, Amichai Eliyahu, said on Hebrew language radio station that “…throwing a nuclear bomb on Gaza was one of the possibilities”.
This normalisation of nuclear rhetoric is also characteristic on both the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts. Such threats at the moment underplay the enormity of the ‘conventional’ violence currently deployed. Already, the destruction of Gaza has detonated the explosive equivalent of 2 Hiroshima bombs.
And while Gaza takes the attention, 40 raids a day are taking place in the occupied West Bank leading to thousands of detentions, land grabs and 170 deaths.
The window of opportunity for the Israeli state’s collective punishment of Palestinian workers and destruction of Hamas is however, narrowing. More of its erstwhile allies (France, Canada, it’s Arab ‘friends’) are increasingly forced by popular anger to call for a ceasefire.
The Gaza conflict will likely end sooner rather than later. And, as Israel demands the emptying of hospitals and further mass movements from south to west, more with a bang than a whimper.
The sooner this happens the less likely an escalation that Israel doesn’t choose itself – though the ending of conflict on one front may be a great temptation to open a new one to finish the job long anticipated against Iran’s regional power and nuclear program.
As ethnic cleansing in Azerbaijan and a new genocide unfolding in Darfur slip under the radar, Ukraine can expect a repeat of last year’s winter bombing campaign, aimed at the country’s energy grid.
Since June 4th, the NATO sponsored Ukrainian offensive has progressed only 10km at its deepest point. While the front remains active, the war there has lost any pretense of mobility. Winter has come again as will the literal and metaphorical freeze of the front lines.
On November 1st in an interview in the Economist magazine, this reality was acknowledged by Ukrainian commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi: “Just like in the first world war, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate.”
This will strategically benefit Putin allowing a reconstruction of the defensive lines of the meat grinder, and providing respite from the equally high casualty rate that the Russian army has recklessly suffered in defence.
But the Russian state’s challenge of recruitment has led to increasingly perverse and sinister abuse not just of Russian workers but prisoners of war.
On November 7th Russia announced it was sending Ukrainian captives to the front lines of their country to fight on Moscow’s side in the war
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported the Ukrainians will operate as part of another unit in eastern Ukraine, and the unit’s website said it has about 7,000 fighters.
Video shows the Ukrainian POWs in uniform swearing allegiance to Russia and are expected to be deployed to the front lines in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The ‘Rules of War’ like genocidal atrocity are equally in the eye of the beholder.
If either conflict escalates, it would present a real risk that these wars will cross-pollinate each other and merge their violence. Iran, Turkey, and the West already have their feet firmly planted in both conflicts. The wider Middle East cauldron is ripe for ignition.
The risks to our class, like the scale of our losses and suffering, have not diminished in the two years of conflict. Rather they have escalated and the urgency of resistance increases.
The resistance begins on the home front. Wherever we find ourselves we can oppose the narratives that draw us towards support for one side or the other! We can assert our needs against their war profiteering and austerity in our workplaces and communities.
We can challenge their attempts to divide us on employment status, race, immigration status, gender, identity, sexuality, disability. Our communities are stronger for our diversity.
We must pose our class war against their exploitation and war against our class in all its forms. This is what we mean by the practical manifesto: No War but the Class War!
By Dreyfus
AnarCom Network 