The 2022 outbreak of an inter-imperialist war in Ukraine represents the inevitable collision of Western and Russian monopoly capital – a war that has no “just” side for the working class as their conditions continue to deteriorate with no gain in the conflict.
While Russia targets infrastructure, the Ukrainian bourgeoisie has seized the moment to attack the workers further. Food prices spiral, blackouts spread, and new labour laws threaten 12-hour workdays and bypass labour protections to fire workers more easily. Unemployment has more than doubled from 2021 to 25% — all while industries lie in ruins.
Ukraine’s increasing debt to the IMF and Western “allies” is paid in austerity cuts slashing pensions, energy subsidies and public services – all while over 12 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian aid. These cuts are a symptom of the parasitic tie to the creditors of Western capital.
Workers don’t just pay for this war with labour – they pay with their lives. The war is in stalemate, more Ukrainians are increasingly recruited by force, men aged 18-60 are banned from fleeing and draft dodgers are systematically hunted. The nationalist propaganda hides the truth – this war is a redivision of capital that is done at the expense of the working class.
Russia’s brutal crackdown on anti-war dissent finds its mirror in Ukrainian state repression of the labour movement by banning workers strikes, soviet iconography and communist organisations. Both sides serve the interests of the dictatorship of capital.
This war is not an exception but the rule: monopoly capital in crisis, it must solve its contradictions with the blood and sweat of the proletariat. With both sides as class enemies, the working class must unite across borders in class struggle against the true enemy – imperialism.