Dear comrades,
The war in Ukraine has meant the destruction of productive forces, the death of thousands of workers and big displacements of population.
The imperialist war in Ukraine followed the Covid-19 pandemic and thus helped worsening a new capitalist crisis that was coming into sight since 2017. The results for the working class were —and still are— tragic: the prices of energy, certain basic goods, and overall, skyrocketed, therefore creating a huge loss of purchase power for our class, which is still paying the profits of capitalists. Just like Covid-19, capitalists attribute inflation and other economic phenomena that we can observe to the war in Ukraine, even though it happened after such phenomena. Thereby, they intend to exonerate the capitalist system from the life and labor conditions of the working-class majority.
Besides, the EU countries, the USA, and other NATO member States met in Versailles (France) in order to commit to the abandonment of the dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Since then, both the USA-EU and the Russia-China blocs have made many efforts for the restructuring of value chains, repositioning of raw materials and energy, and restructuring transport routes, as a means to reduce the dependence on the imperialist bloc they antagonize with. The world is hurrying towards a regrouping of imperialist forces in two main blocs — the scenario of an increasingly more likely global war is being prepared.
The Communist Parties have the responsibility to fight this ideological battle. We must point to the root of the capitalist economic crisis — the anarchy of production, the law on value, the pursuit of the highest profit, and the market. The very essence of capitalism is the cause of the crisis we are enduring. Likewise, it is also the cause of wars. Aiming at new forms to making capital more profitable, capitalists are investing in both the war industry and the rebuilding of devastated countries. This is the way to place the elements for discussion, and we should be adamant on it.
The exponential increase in imperialist wars all over the world goes hand to hand with the worsening of the economic situation — a result of the exhaustion of the capitalist mode of production. As long as capital is increasingly more difficult to be capitalized, tensions between monopolies are sharpening, and the number of armed conflicts increase as a result of it. This is a direct relation, and we must expose it in this way.
As of the war in Ukraine, numerous political forces, on both sides of the trench, have made efforts in the justification of the conflict, using shallow and false arguments. From the defense of the territorial integrity of Ukraine to denazification and human rights, none of them explains the true origin of the war — in Ukraine important transport routes for wheat, valuable minerals, and LNG are at stake. Geostrategic positions for future military conflicts between NATO —with increasingly more presence around Russian borders— and Russia itself —which is multiplying its influence in military conflicts in areas limiting to its country, like Armenia— are at stake.
The bourgeois EU Governments have used the scenario of the war in Ukraine to carry out “emergency measures” with an acute antiworkers’ and antipeoples’ nature. The “measures against the war in Ukraine” adopted in 2022 and 2023 should be added to the “measures against the pandemic” adopted in 2020 and 2021. In Spain, the social democratic Government launched, already in March 2022, the so-called “National Response Plan for the consequences of the war in Ukraine”, which has had many extensions and enlargements, following the dynamics established in the “measures” against the pandemic.
Direct transfers of labor incomes to capital —for both big monopolies and small and middle employers— have been multiplied. The conditions for requesting the rollover of loans for companies endorsed by the State during the pandemic have been eased. The so-called “ecologic transition” —which is nothing but direct assistance for the renewal or acquirement of constant capital in a new market space like renewable energies— has been deepened. At the same time, more than 300 millions of Euros were spent for the maintenance of roads or the construction of new ones, aiming at easing the circulation of commodities.
Partly in order to prevent a social outbreak against the brutal measures taken, partly in order to ensure the stimulation of the demand of commodities, the social democratic Government has allocated billions to stimulate consumption: transport bonuses, tax elimination or decrease in basic goods, limit to the price of butane cylinders, direct assistance to the purchase of fuel for carriers. These subsidies are presented by the social democratic Government and largest trade-union boards as a part of the “social shield”, whose real goal is to ensure the cycle of capital rotation and do not mean a qualitative relief for the working class.
While all of this happens, Spain is doubling its military presence abroad. In 2024, it is participating in 17 international missions, with more than 3,000 soldiers. At least 1,700 out of them are in Europe, in countries close to the Russian borders, like the Baltic countries and Turkey.
The working class is facing the immediate prospect of a drastic worsening of their life conditions. To the results of the war in Ukraine, the effects of the cyclic crisis of overproduction and overaccumulation are to be added —once it finally breaks out. The Communist Parties have the duty of explaining to workers the class nature of all the military conflicts in the world —also in the war in Ukraine—, and the measures of our governments as well, including the measures for the ecological transition and the bonuses for consumption. The workers cannot continue living under capitalism. We are risking our life.
Thank you very much, comrades.