The Paradox of ‘Anti-War’ Capitalism: Peace Movements, Disarmament, and the War in Ukraine (excerpt)
Throughout the duration of the Russia-Ukraine War, the poverty of real Marxist analysis is very apparent in some very confused sections of the left [1] (as well as those who are purportedly left, but are clearly aligned with right-wing forces) who have committed themselves to either being apologists for Russia’s aggression and to championing multipolar capitalism, or cheerleading for the NATO-led alliance with the desire to draw out the conflict for as long as possible. They refuse to see the war as an inter-imperialist conflict, with U.S. imperialism competing with Russian imperialism over who gets to keep Ukraine as a colony, and who gets to have a puppet government that will be friendly to their respective bourgeois interests. But perhaps one of the most curious aspects of these Western “anti-war” movements is how quick they are to call for the United States, Canada, the UK, and other U.S.-aligned countries to disarm [2]; as well as being quick to claim that these particular cou