Source in German: https://astendenz.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/der-kapitalistische-frieden-ist-die-quelle-des-imperialistischen-krieges/
In global capitalism, peace can only be an interwar period limited in space and time. There can be no such thing as “world peace” under capitalism. There are always conflicts somewhere. In times of peace, States prepare for war through military rearmament. And in times of war, military action is taken to secure the conditions for the next peace. In capitalist peace, proletarians are exploited — they produce more money for capital and the State than they themselves cost in wages. And in war, they must kill and die for “their” exploitative capitalist States. Capitalist peace is not an alternative to imperialist war, but its source.
Peace and war in the Ukraine
Between States and blocs of States, peace is the non-military form of competition for raw material sources, sales markets, and geopolitical spheres of influence. Above a certain intensity, this competition turns into war. Thus, the blocs of States of Western imperialism, the EU and NATO, continued to expand their influence against imperialist Russia through their expansion to the east. When Ukrainian President Yanukovych refused to sign the Association Agreement with the EU in 2013, partly due to pressure from Moscow, a social-reactionary movement formed on Maidan Square, which was supported by Western imperialism, with a pro-Western democratic wing and another ultra-nationalist neo-fascist. This social-reactionary movement overthrew Yanukovych in February 2014 and established a pro-Western regime, while Russian imperialism annexed Crimea in March 2014. In eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian “People’s Republics” seceded. A civil war has developed. The Ukraine was supported by Western imperialism, the “People’s Republics” by Russian imperialism. Thus, the civil war in the Ukraine was also an imperialist proxy war between Russia and NATO.
In February 2022, Russian imperialism directly attacked the Ukraine. Since then, NATO and the EU have been waging an indirect war against Moscow in the form of an increasingly intense economic war, as well as the financial, military, and intelligence consolidation of the pro-Western Ukrainian regime. The Ukraine and the collective West are using each other in this proxy war against Russia. The West as a whole is harming its imperialist rival Russia through the Ukraine. The Ukrainian regime is trying to stay in this bloody game thanks to military weapons supplied by the West.
Both Russian and Western imperialism are waging this proxy war at the expense of the world proletariat. At the beginning of the imperialist carnage, energy and food prices rose sharply worldwide. This was also a major burden for the proletariat in Germany. The DGB trade unions supported Germany’s economic war against Russia. Western imperialism’s “solidarity with Ukraine” goes against the wage earners of that country. If they work, they are subjected to harsh capitalist exploitation. In addition, they are being recruited massively by the Ukrainian State. They are expected to kill and die — for the interests of the Ukrainian capitalist regime and the geopolitical game of the collective West. For Ukrainian wage earners, their “own” State and NATO/EU are structural class enemies in the same way as Russian imperialism.
Russia is on the verge of winning the war militarily. US imperialism under Trump is very interested in ending this carnage through an imperialist peace negotiated with Moscow. But this would imply the Ukraine ceding territory to Russia. And Moscow is also demanding Ukraine’s military neutrality. Neither the Ukraine nor the EU/European NATO powers are willing to make major concessions to the Kremlin. And Russia does not really want to end the war yet either. And even the power of US imperialism is not enough to force both sides to make peace. Hence Washington is wavering between peace offers to Moscow and the continuation of the war.
For German imperialism, Russia is the number one enemy. It is arming itself against Russia and preparing its citizens for war. Balancing on the brink of nuclear war is the German State’s agenda. This is class war waged from above against the proletariat. The welfare States management of misery produced by capitalism is bound to deteriorate. Guns instead of butter. And perhaps soon it will also mean for German proletarians to kill and die in the interests of German imperialism. Initially in proxy wars, which greatly increase the danger of nuclear overkill.
World revolution instead of national pacifism
Pacifism often comes across as very nationalistic. While Germany’s ruling politicians are arming the State militarily and exporting lethal weapons to war zones (Ukraine, Israel), national pacifists want Germany to be a peaceful nation. In other words, a world where wolves tell sheep a nice bedtime story but don’t tear them apart. Okay, the ruling wolves do tell the ruled sheep wonderful bedtime stories, but they do so to lull them to sleep so they can devour them more easily. National pacifism is also a sleeping pill. It does not disarm the warring and armed States, but rather the class-conscious proletariat.
Pacifism demands that the States finally stop waging war against each other. They should only cooperate with each other. This demand contradicts the imperialist competition between States, which is carried out militarily in wars. Diplomacy, which pacifists hold up as an alleged alternative to war, is nothing but a special weapon of competition between States. It is based on the economic and military strength of States. It is a special way of imperialist interest enforcement. If States can impose their interests diplomatically and peacefully, so much the better. If not, and if the ruling politicians believe that they can and must wage war for these interests, then they will do so. Diplomacy prepares for war in peacetime and for peace in wartime.
Pacifism demands the States to disarm. But they will not do so now, at a time when the capitalist crisis is intensifying and inter-imperialist competition is escalating. There can only be one realistic form of disarmament: the world revolutionary destruction of all States!
World revolution? Is that realistic?! Well, there is still the possibility that the global class struggle will radicalize in extreme exceptional situations and lead to a planetary social revolution. On the other hand, how realistic is it that States will stop waging war against each other and significantly disarm militarily?
Class struggle against rearmament and arms exports
In Germany, too, proletarian class struggle against rearmament, arms exports, and preparations for war is absolutely necessary. The most effective form of class struggle is the strike. However, strikes against rearmament and arms exports are prohibited in Germany. In this country, “political strikes” are considered illegal. Only strikes organized by trade unions with negotiable goals — such as higher wages and shorter working hours — are legal. The vast majority of trade unions support the rearmament and war course of German imperialism. They are deeply integrated into the German State. Strikes against German imperialism can only be wildcat strikes and organized independently from the unions. We would have nothing against such strikes taking place.
English translation: The Friends of the Class War
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