Wars in the imperialist epoch are an inevitable product of the natural workings of a system founded on exploitation and oppression. The death, destruction and suffering wars cause are hated by the working class that always bears the consequences.
Nonetheless, just wars fought to end oppression are in all workers’ interests. Ukraine’s war to defeat Moscow’s invasion and occupation is one such war. Moscow’s complete withdrawal from Ukraine — including Crimea — will create better conditions for working-class struggle.
Israel’s war to defeat Tehran-backed Hamas, free the hostages and prevent the reactionary Islamist organization from carrying out more pogroms is a just war that deserves the support of all workers, as well as the unions. It is being fought to defend Israel’s right to exist as a refuge, in the face of Hamas’ insistence it will continue its attacks until all Jews are dead or gone, and in the face of rising Jew-hating violence around the world.
The labor movement needs its own foreign policy, starting from workers’ common interests worldwide. That includes backing Israel’s war against Hamas and joining fights against Jew-hatred everywhere.
Nothing the “democratic” imperialist U.S. rulers are doing in the Middle East is aimed at that goal. Above all else they seek security and stability for their own profit-driven interests as they vie with rivals for markets, resources and political influence. Growing calls by Washington and other powers for Israel to agree to a long-term cease-fire are against the interest of workers of all nationalities and religions.
Fighting Jew-hatred is a decisive question for the labor movement. When the rulers fear that working-class struggles threaten their rule, they turn to fascist forces to crush unions and destroy working-class political parties. Jew-hatred is the banner the Nazis fought under.
The ruling class cannot be persuaded or pressured to disarm, nor to end the wars, pogroms and social catastrophes its system spawns. It falls to the working class to take political power into our own hands, to organize fellow workers to end capitalist exploitation, to defend workers’ power arms in hand and join the worldwide struggle for socialism. Building a working-class party to lead this fight is the road to ending war, Jew-hatred and all oppression once and for all.