Dialectics is dead, long live dialectics

Dialectics is dead, long live dialectics

The conflict in Ukraine marks the death of anti-militarism.
The last leftist forces in Germany, crawling like vermin into the most hypocritical ideological backyards, seem to be losing even the last spark of anti-imperialism in favor of anti-Americanism or Russophobia, merely to provoke, and completely degenerate into bourgeois agitation.

In nearly all publications of the left hemisphere, positions are represented that differ only in opposition to bourgeois media
especially those aligned with Russia stand out – as long as it’s not the West, which supposedly deserves it – is that anti-imperialism?

»Alternative Imperialists«

Tomasz Konicz names such opportunistic forces within the German left as »alternative imperialists« – the objectively “better” should win, either to grant more living space to the progressive bourgeois democracy of the West, or to finally bring the eternal imperial power of the West to its knees – neither result is one of emancipation.
Both Russia and NATO represent the interests of big capital and regardless of who emerges victorious from this conflict, humanity loses – big capital wins, whether in the East or in the West.
Because we and they, we are enemies in a war that only one side can win.
For Russia, it is necessary to wage this war in violation of international law: Facing the disintegration of its imperial sphere of influence
after and since the fall of the USSR, and the fear of further US-led or affiliated »revolutions« like the one on Maidan in 2014 that could have endangered Russia’s hegemonic position, Russia saw itself forced to the only conclusive action – to overshadow its internal social disintegration and enormous disparity between rich and poor, class and country, and to reignite a bit of national consciousness – war!
NATO has for decades refused neutrality guarantees for Ukraine, the current core element of the post-Soviet space, where most of the rest (i.e., Warsaw Pact states) have already been more or less annexed (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania; i.e., all Warsaw Pact states except Russia).

When in 2014 the Yanukovych government (with American support) was overthrown, the EU was already baring its teeth – no geopolitical alternative or
competition to the Eurozone, certainly not the »Eurasian Union« propagated by Putin – for Washington, it would have been insane not to support it, »to drive a wedge between Berlin and Moscow (…) to strengthen the eroding transatlantic alliance« and to prevent, in the short and medium term, the very reasonable rapprochement of Germany to Russia in order to secure the economic mutual dependence of Germany and the United States.
Additionally, NATO gained two (and a half) more countries; countries that previously carried a certain level of independence and were diplomatically of great value – Scandinavia is ours, the fate of Ukraine remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: the new era of crisis imperialism has begun, with no way back.

Capital at its limits

However, the dawn of this new epoch is not only manifested in the external expansion of hegemonic powers within bipolar world politics, specifically through the current war in Ukraine (but also possibly the impending Taiwan conflict); because capital itself is reaching the limits of its
capabilities, or the limits of what there is left to exploit.
The external barrier of capital, which through hyper- and overproduction as well as the necessity of valorizing and exploiting every last
bit of nature to ensure competitiveness, is depriving many parts of the world of their ecological basis for life, is most directly reflected in the food crisis:

Just as with fossil fuels before, now and in the future, the possession and control of food and especially water will play an increasingly important role.
»Two billion Indians and Chinese will soon have far too little water. And both have long threatened each other and possess nuclear weapons. (…) Hunger is murder, mainly caused by the wealthy industrialized nations because of climate change« : The struggle for territory and resources is not one that this system can resolve; there is no more time before the war, because the limits of capital have been reached.
While the capital rulers fight over dwindling resources and territories, and the world population – the consumers of said consumption – steadily grows, it is only a matter of time before the first wars over water, food, and gas (in the latter we might already be involved) reach us in Germany.
The response of the German bourgeoisie to the food, gas, and resource shortages here, exacerbated by the war, is not a transformation into a sustainable system, but an appeal to the petty bourgeoisie to shower less and freeze a little this winter (More on this in my text »Shivering for Peace«); the war course must not be deviated from, that is the anti-militarism of the bourgeoisie.
The Greens, as the environmental party of the common man, publish an »energy-saving bingo« to help Germans through the sanctions they themselves instated – of course out of moral obligation – clearly (not that any other corner of the parliamentary parties would be better, the Greens just make polemics particularly easy).
That means; war is not only a result of big capital and its contradictions, but also accelerates and exacerbates its consequences.

A certificate of poverty

We expect no better from liberal, conservative and far-right forces in Germany, but the fact that the majority of the left-wing forces in this country are not able to act according to a fundamental, simplest, and most obvious Marxist analysis of the situation and to appeal for system transformation based on these material conclusions is a certificate of poverty for the already insignificant left in Germany.
To seriously believe in the Russian war reason of »denazification« while simultaneously using Red Army rhetoric is as naive as believing the West is involved out of duty to defend »democracy« – the Russian war symbol »Z«, as well as Putin-Hitler comparisons and blue-yellow profile pictures on social networks are not anti-militarism.
To take the side of one imperial power because it is supposedly not as bad as the other is not anti-militarism.
There are just wars and unjust wars; the war of the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation is a just war, as was the war of the Vietcong against American aggression; but any war between two major capitalist powers and their representatives can never be a just one; for just is only that war whose conduct and outcome seeks and/or maintains the right and just conditions in the respective region and system – a capitalist war can never fulfill these prerequisites.
It stands and will stand: no dying for big capital, that is the only opinion that can and may be considered anti-, militarist, imperialist, and capitalist.